It’s weird hearing Yngwie Malmsteen not doing the Yngwie Malmsteen million mile per hour guitar run thing 100% of the time. Blue Lightning (Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group) is Yngwie’s bluesy take on classic Rock n’ Roll cover songs, hand-picked, played and sung by the guitar virtuoso. It’s a mindbender to hear. It’s like, Blue Lightning consists of classic tunes but Malmsteen and his eccentric guitar playing makes them seem space-age science fiction futuristic sounding.Continue reading
Danish quartet VOLA are an impossible band to pigeonhole as their 2016 debut Inmazes gleefully hopped genres encompassing Heavy Metal, Prog Rock, Industrial and Electro elements amongst others. Their new album Applause of a Distant Crowd (both Mascot) continues this broad outlook, but this time the keys of Martin Werner play a more prominent role.Continue reading
San Diego rockers P.O.D. have streamed the title track from their upcoming new album Circles, their first for their new label Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group. Dropping on November 16th, ‘Circles’ brings the lyrics, grooves and fire P.O.D. fans are used to. Check it out! Continue reading
If, as world-renowned loud mouth Gene Simmons has more than once mused, rock is dead then someone forgot to pass the message on to Monster Truck. The Canadian four-piece have been churning out no-nonsense Rock since 2009, with their third album True Rockers (Mascot) carrying on their energetic mix of Southern and Classic Rock but, this time, with a few modern touches.Continue reading
Heavy metal and shred guitar icon Adrian Vandenberg (Vandenberg, Whitesnake) and his band Vandenberg’s Moonkings have shared a new lyric video for their track ‘Reputation’. The song comes from their late 2017 release MK II which was released via Mascot Records.Continue reading
Classic rock supergroup Black Country Communion have released a new video from their album BCCIV, released last fall via Mascot Records. You can watch the video for ‘The Cove’ below. The band is made up of legendary rock artists such as Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze), Drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Alice Cooper, Billy Idol) and bluesman guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa. Continue reading
Like Gov’t Mule’s latest album, Shaman’s Harvest new record Red Hands Black Deeds (Mascot) was worked on during the American presidential campaign of 2016 – as such there are underlying socio-political themes coursing through the record. On this, their sixth album, the Missouri rockers have taken a vintage, more organic approach to their Shinedown-esque Hard Rock resulting in a fresher, more attention grabbing sound.Continue reading
With the likes of Dream Theater’s John Myung and Ty Tabor of King’s X in their ranks (alongside Winger’s Rod Morgenstien), one would expect The Jelly Jam to be an ambitious and challenging progressive band, with a wide range of influences in their arsenal. In contrast, over their lifespan, their sound has been a much more direct, song based affair; and latest album Profit (Mascot).
With a plethora of ambitious works and journeys under their belt, Profit still shows them flexing their impressive creative muscles and offering virtuoso performances, but in a more refined and concise manner. This is more straight-forward grunge infused rock with some shades of AOR and the like, for a more gritty but no less immediate hard rock sound. Album opener ‘Care’ is a particularly heavier moment to kick of proceedings and provides an immediately anthemic chorus, preceding the softer, acoustic ‘Stain On The Sun’, before picking pace again.
Herein lies the album’s problem, of an undefined sound which seems to try and encompass too many tones and paces without flowing all too well. Immediately following one of the album’s heavier points with a complete contrast proves somewhat jarring in a manner such rock shouldn’t do. Fortunately the strength of the songs alone, whilst not groundbreaking by any stretch, do hold up strong enough to return to on numerous occasions.
Those unfamiliar with the band before hand may have expected wildly different when noting the personnel involved, but The Jelly Jam are a chance to prove that these guys are not just one trick ponies and can do short, sharp and catchy just as well as sprawling, complex epics. It does still need some refining in their sound to feel truly wholesome; but they have certainly succeeded in making a straight forward, fun album; and that is most definitely the mission.
6.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL
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Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, Monster Truck returns with Sittin’ Heavy out on Mascot Records and give me my first taste of the band as a whole.
The band continues the rock and roll tradition of telling everyone who gets in their way to suck it with ‘Don’t Tell Me how To Live’. This track an anthem for anyone who has ever had their passion and very reason for being questioned by other parties that just don’t get it. As someone who is constantly uttering these same words, this is a song that I can behind.
‘She’s a Witch’ is great. It’s a groovy warning regarding the fairer sex and a lover mistreated. It’s a nice change from your typical, depressing break up song. The song gets a bit repetitive with the constant chanting of the chorus but is still enjoyable. We all have a little demon in our souls, some just have more than others.
‘For the People’ is cheesier than I would have liked. It’s a cookie cutter rock “anthem” that just doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere and thus feels disingenuous. We already took care of the rock call to power with the opening track, ‘Why Are You Not Rocking’, this album could have survived without a second one just fine.
We’re treated to a welcome change of pace with ‘Black Forest’ and, honestly, I wish the rest of album sounded more like this. Groovy, a little slower, with more depth to it than just trying to flex their “rock muscles” for lack of a better term. This mellow sound just seems to come more naturally to the band and makes it my favorite track on the album.
A mostly typical modern rock album, Sittin’ Heavy has its fuzzy moments that makes those instances stand out above the rest of the record. I’m sure their sound will continue to improve and they keep refining it.
6.5/10
ALEIDA LA LLAVE
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Well, the album title may be a bit naff but it’s that kind of ambitious, self-indulgent pretentiousness that such a title connotes that makes Enochian Theory’s latest album a compelling listen. As with their previous releases, Encohian Theory’s success lies in their confident approach to exploration and creation of music that gives little authority to the bounds of genre or style. Always multi-faceted and multi-layered, the song structures are of elaborate design and intricately intertwined lines whose nuances are as refined as each track is moving. An intelligent and emotive album, Enochian Theory, with their lush orchestration, a broad palette of synth sounds, and a curious fragility permeating the ornate compositions, have proved themselves, again, masters of finesse. With the tempos barely shifting into the high gears, Enochian Theory’s dynamic control comes to the fore with the intensity levels instead being utilised to convey the band’s musical and conceptual diversity.Continue reading