ALBUM REVIEW: Chris Shiflett – Lost At Sea


 

Much-admired, rightly and properly-acclaimed Foo Fighters guitarist/songwriter Chris Shiflett delivers his latest solo album, Lost At Sea (Snakefarm Records), and proves yet again, experience can count for so, so much.

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ALBUM REVIEW: The Menzingers – Some Of It Was True


 

When a band captures a perfect creative moment like The Menzingers did with their sixth album 2019’s Hello Exile, they find themselves in a position of having to measure up to it. While Hello Exile was a creative high mark met with deserved praise from music critics such as myself, its success in terms of dollars and cents was relative as it hit 89 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts.

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INTERVIEW: Dave Bruzza of Greensky Bluegrass Talks “Stress Dreams”


 

Catch up on our interview with Dave Bruzza of Greensky Bluegrass! We chatted with them at BottleRock Napa this year and discussed the return of touring, their 2022 release “Stress Dreams,” the crossover appeal of the band, and much more.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Marcus King – Young Blood


 

A rich and rewarding exercise in traditional blues, Young Blood’s (American / Republic / Snakefarm) vital ingredients also include southern rock, soul and even country. As produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, this is one to wallow and luxuriate in – but don’t get too comfortable as angst and agony are never far away in the songs of a relative kid who seems to have lived something of a life already.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Yelawolf and Shooter Jennings – Sometimes Y


The worlds of Country and Hip Hop don’t often meet, but Country Rocker and producer Shooter Jennings and acclaimed rapper Yelawolf have teamed up to create their eponymous debut as a duo Sometimes Y (Slumerican). As you would expect from such divergent backgrounds, Sometimes Y is an eclectic record that is largely rock but takes many a wide and varied detour.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Jerry Cantrell – Brighten


The albums that Grunge legend Jerry Cantrell has released across his solo career and his mothership Alice In Chains always seemed to have an intertwined relationship. 1998’s Boggy Depot and 2002’s Degradation Trip seemingly attempted to fill the void left in the wake of Alice’s hiatus and Layne Staley’s passing while Alice’s comeback albums with William DuVall on board essentially felt like Cantrell albums with extra riffs. This symbiosis turned cyclical with 2018’s Rainier Fog, which shared quite a bit of noticeable commonality with Boggy Depot . So where does Brighten, his first proper solo album in nineteen years, fit into this dichotomy?

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ALBUM REVIEW: Pain Of Salvation – Panther


 

The eleventh full-length studio release from Swedish power/prog innovators Pain of Salvation, Panther (InsideOut Music) is a concept album which presents a futuristic city in which people are separated into dogs and panthers. The dogs being “normal” people while the panthers represent “spectrum” outsiders. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Wailin’ Storms – Rattle


Having originally formed in Texas, Doom/Punk quartet Wailin’ Storms relocated to North Carolina and it’s possible that both areas may be contributing to the band’s thick soup of rebellion and a life in the darkness. Third album Rattle (Gilead Media) sees the band incorporate a Grungey, swamp-drenched edge to that sound, further uniting related yet disparate genres.Continue reading


Conny Ochs – Doom Folk


If ever an album title was created with the subconscious aim of getting my attention it’s Doom Folk (Exile On Mainstream Records), the fourth solo album from multi-faceted German troubadour Conny Ochs. More famed in Metal circles for his collaborations with Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich, Ochs’ own output is equally as relevant – perhaps more so.Continue reading


Trees – Trees


Search online for bands named Trees and the only entries you’ll find are references to the glorious British Folk outfit of the late sixties and early seventies. Deep in the recesses of Finland, however, comes another such incarnation: one that joins the gathering of acts that have revitalised the genre this year.Continue reading