Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Second Shot (A Rum Bar Records Sampler)

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Over the last decade or so, Rum Bar Records has grown to become one of the great independent labels. For lovers of grubby sounding retro rock, power pop and even melodic punk, it’s become a one-stop shop for some superb underground sounds. They’ve even diversified to bring their audience bits and pieces from the alternative country scene, and via artists like Jittery Jack and Mozzy Dee, some top quality rockabilly, old school rock ‘n’ roll, and a whole different retro vibe.

The label’s 2023 sampler, ‘The Nice Price’ – promoted by Knyvet PR – ranks an essential freebie, but this selection of tracks (yours, again, for absolutely nowt) runs it pretty close. ‘Second Shot’ gives the label’s fans, and those with a more inquisitive ear, a fantastic round up of the Rum Bar wares released over the prior twelve months or so. In short, it’s a very interesting overview of where the label stands at the time of issue.

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BURIAL – Rejoice In Sin

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When most people think of black metal, they think of Scandinavian bands with unreadable logos. They’re also likely to think of harsh sounding albums with particularly trebly production values and material topped with hissed and retching vocals, often with absolutely brutal lyrical content. Manchester’s Burial certainly tick some of those boxes, but their third release ‘Rejoice In Sin’ is, thankfully, blessed with a bigger, more professional sound than many of their Scandinavian forefathers and key influences. This, at least, makes for an album that’s far more listenable on a technical level.

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FRAGMENT SOUL – Galois Paradox

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Although billed as a prog metal band, Greece’s Fragment Soul are a world away from the genre’s typical Dream Theater and Threshold wannabes. On their 2024 EP ‘Galois Paradox’ they share a metal based sound that’s atmospheric and gloomy; a sound that shares parallels with a few of prog metal’s moodier traits, but at the same time, dares to be quite different. Although the release is short at just twenty seven minutes, the material still finds time to focus on various themes that link the tracks together as a whole: hope, love, loss, and “the chaos of thought” – although in this case, the shared concepts do not necessarily make this an obvious “concept” piece with a narrative flow. The songs can be enjoyed individually, and in some ways, are actually better when approached in such a way.

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JOHN DOUGLAS – Still Or Sparkling? EP

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In 2023, Trashcan Sinatras frontman John Douglas released his long awaited solo debut. Rooted in acoustic based material, the eponymously named record allowed fans to experience a much more introspective performer. This follow up EP finds the musician branching out just a little – with the help of friends Boo Hewerdine, Eddi Reader and others – but the material still retains a very sophisticated singer-songwriter approach, which fans mightn’t associate with his better known band work.

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SUNSTORM – Restless Fight

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When Joe Lynn Turner left Sunstorm it was truly the end of an era. The arrival of the always busy Ronnie Romero allowed the band to explore a harder sound on 2021’s ‘Afterlife’ and 2022’s ‘Brothers In Arms’, but they essentially sounded like a different band. They were still capable of enjoyable tunes, but for those who’d enjoyed hearing Joe belt out classic AOR tunes like ‘Gina’ (originally recorded by Michael Bolton before he turned his back on rock music in favour of an easy listening crowd) and ‘You Wouldn’t Know Love’ (a staple from Cher’s rock period), the “new” Sunstorm might not have always hit the mark.

The band’s eighth studio album ‘Restless Fight’ could easily have had its name inspired by Sunstorm’s inner turmoil. The only musician on this record to have appeared on a prior Sunstorm disc is Romero – the golden boy of the Frontiers Records stable – who with three years loyal service can now consider himself a Sunstorm veteran. Everyone else has been a member of this band since 2023. The record label obviously considers the Sunstorm name to be of some bankable value, even if, on paper, this seems a little too close to “Rod Evans’ New Deep Purple” for comfort. Moving on from any quibbles as to how this could possibly be anything more than another Ronnie Romero album, on its own terms, most of ‘Restless Fight’ is actually great. Far better than it had any real right to be.

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