ALBUM REVIEW: Bad Touch – Bittersweet Satisfaction


Rock ‘n Roll quintet Bad Touch, hailing from Norfolk, England, are back with their fifth album, Bittersweet Satisfaction (Marshall Records). This time round they spent half a year making the record, tempering their balls-to-the-wall rock with polished hooks and a healthy portion of soul, the end result being a more rounded, earthy Classic Rock that still has plenty of bite. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Gallus – We Don’t Like the People We’ve Become


 

The pop-punk genre will never die. It’s fresh, fun, sometimes a bit silly, and wholly needed in a world full of stress and hate. People need music that makes them happy. People need music that will put a smile on their faces. People need music that will invoke a fresh breeze, wind in their hair, and a joyful being. Thank Gallus for the new album We Don’t Like the People We’ve Become (Marshall Records).

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ALBUM REVIEW: Therapy? – Hard Cold Fire


 

While resilience and, well, pure obstinance (so much for the ten-year plan, hey?) have been foundation stones to the story of Irish alternative noise rock stalwarts Therapy?, there are also certain relationships that have been integral throughout their journey. The three-decade (plus) partnership of singer/guitarist Andy Cairns and bass-pounder Michael McKeegan is one, the teaming up with Marshall Records on phoenix album and Marshall’s first release, Cleave (2018) feels important, too particularly as it was a release that also saw them reunited with producer Chris Sheldon, the man behind the mixing desk of the seminal and still majestic Troublegum album that catapulted Therapy? to mainstream success in the mid-nineties.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Nova Twins – Supernova


Over the years, the rock community has become more and more divisive with gatekeepers and elitists shunning whoever challenges the boundaries of the genre. The UK’s Nova Twins turn a blind eye to this part of the scene, unapologetically embracing all of their quirks with no regard for the haters. With their adamant no-rules approach and contagiously iron-willed personalities, vocalist and guitarist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South break the musical mold with their second album Supernova (Marshall Records).

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Thousand Thoughts – Thousand Thoughts EP


Making it in Hollywood hardly seems realistic but if you were to look closely the story of a Thousand Thoughts, is a Hollywood story. In just a year Ethan Smith, Jack Botterill, Matt Morrell, and Jed Johnson have made their mark the music scene in North London. And now, the quartet is ready to conquer the emo/Alternative world with their self-titled four-song EP on Marshall Records.Continue reading


King Creature – To The Bone EP


Full disclosure here, when I saw the words “acoustic EP”, my toes curled up so far they nestled in my intestines and set off a chain reaction of cringing and shuddering. While King Creature may have established as a sturdy, powerful, energetic Blues Rocking act of growing repute, the acoustic EP is a difficult beast to digest (even without toes clogging up the tracts), with very few examples coming close to Alice In Chains Sap / Jar of Flies (Columbia) levels, and many more being indistinguishable filler littering the bargain bin of many a record store.Continue reading


Therapy? – Cleave


Of all the bands that came to prominence in the 1990s, not many were as cantankerous or wilfully stubborn as Northern Ireland three-piece Therapy? Their extant determination and refusal to bend to the various vagaries and winds of fashion was part of the reason why fans took them to their hearts so passionately and may also explain why, nearly three decades later, they have endured.Continue reading


Reigning Days – Eclipse


After their self-titled, four-track EP back in 2016 comes the release of Eclipse (Marshall), the debut album from Devonshire three piece Reigning Days. Brooding riffs and big centerpiece choruses their style of rock is deeply rooted in Royal Blood, Biffy Clyro, and Queens of the Stone Age, and as such, they have been getting some love from the UK mainstream press.Continue reading