EXIT EDEN – Femmes Fatales

In 2017, Phantom Elite’s Marina La Torraca, League of Distortion’s Anna Brunner, Trillium’s Amanda Somerville and Clémentine Delauney pooled their collective vocal talents to create Exit Eden, a symphonic metal supergroup which aimed to bring a very theatrical slant to several rock and pop classics. Their ‘Rhapsodies In Black’ album – released that same year – showed how brilliantly 80s tunes like Visage’s ‘Fade To Grey’ and ‘Heaven’ by Bryan Adams would work when reworked in a Nightwish-esque mould. The project’s real magic came through, however, when the performers and their assembled session band put a heavier slant on (then) more contemporary pop material like Katy Perry’s brilliant ‘Firework’ and Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’.

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KAMI VAN HALST – My Alice / Jack & Sarah’s Song

Van Halst’s 2016 album ‘World of Make Believe’ is a reasonable slab of rock. It’s by no means an essential record, but its ten songs combine a semi old fashioned metal style with occasional gothy elements to create something that isn’t always a million miles away from the likes of The Pretty Reckless, often with half-enjoyable results. What seems pretty obvious, though, is that the album’s material wasn’t always given the best send off. On the title track, in particular, she’s presented quite low in the end mix, which results in some of her bigger notes not having the desired impact – especially compared with something similar from Nightwish and their ilk – and on the moodier ‘Questions’, her lower registers really don’t have much of a presence at all.

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ALICE COOPER – DaDa

At the tail end of the 1970s, Alice Cooper found himself battling some dark demons. Not just those from his own imagination, paraded nightly  from the stage for the entertainment of a paying audience, but some much darker, very personal demons. Following the release of 1977’s ‘Lace & Whiskey’, an overworked Vincent Furnier had been all but consumed by his much-loved alter ego and had descended into a world of addiction that ended with him being hospitalised.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – We’re An American Band: A Journey Through The USA Hard Rock Scene 1967-1973

Throughout the late 60s and early 70s, the landscape of rock music shifted. Over the course of five or six years, psychedelia gave way to hard rock, and a heavier approach to both blues and rock gave birth to a sound that would eventually be considered the birth of heavy metal. ‘We’re An American Band’, a 3CD set from Cherry Red’s retro subsidiary Grapefruit Records, charts these musical changes on the US rock scene, bringing together various key tracks and fantastic album cuts. In doing so, it ventures far deeper than your average compilation, despite presenting several very familiar names.

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HELL IN THE CLUB – Kamikaze (10 Years In The Slums) EP

Since their arrival on the hard rock scene in the early ’10s, Hell In The Club have demonstrated an obvious knack for sleazy, old fashioned “hair metal”. Formed by a couple of musicians with links to European prog metal bands, it began as a way to have fun, but quickly became far more than a side project. Even at the point where you’d think HITC’s retro schtick would have run out of steam, on their 2020 release ‘Hell of Fame’, they sounded as good as ever, showing that they were still capable of delivering fantastic riffs and massive, cheesy chorus hooks. In some ways, their carefree, non-political approach, and willingness to convey a party spirit was exactly what was called for to distract everyone from those early Covid ridden times.

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