In February 2020, Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out released their debut EP and the sometime Fleshtones man treated fans to a brilliant but short collection of tunes that celebrated many of his power pop and garage rock influences.
Among the self-penned material was a great cover of The Pink Fairies’ cult classic ‘Do It’ (a track also recorded by The Rollins Band and others). As far as covers go, it fit among the unfamiliar material seamlessly, while also showing the band’s slightly angrier chops.
American metalcore titans August Burns Red released their ninth studio album ‘Guardians’ on April 3rd. A disc that’s been very well received by fans, it’s a record that presents the band in a very heavy mood, but also one that’s packed with great songs.
A new video for the current single ‘Bones’ appeared on YouTube on April 7th. It provides a perfect snapshot of what to expect from the rest of the new album. You can stream the whole clip below.
Lindsay Schoolcraft released her solo album ‘Martyr’ in October 2019. Nominated for a Juno award, the album presents a world of melodic goth metal that should very much appeal to fans of Evanessence, Nightwish and other bands within that musical sphere.
Multi-instrumentalist Vincent Carr released one of the best DIY albums with ‘New Paeans’. Credited to Vincent Carr’s SUMIC, its lengthy multi-layered instrumentals gathered favourable comparisons to Mike Oldfield, while underscoring complex prog rock sounds with a love of pastoral British folk.
For this edition of the Real Gone Sessions, Vincent performs a previously unreleased piece entitled ‘Bamburgh Sands’, inspired by the village of Bamburgh in Northumberland. A simple tune, it carries the traces of Freddie Phillips musical scores that subconsciously influenced work on his earlier record ‘Rekindled’.
When the Kurt Baker Combo recorded their ‘Let’s Go Wild!’ album in 2018, they found themselves with material that didn’t make the final cut. One of the unused songs, ‘Turn It Around’ is a brilliant power pop number, pretty much as good as anything the KBC have ever recorded. It’s so good, it’s actually better than a few of the tracks that ended up on the LP.