In 25 words or less: There’s no Identity Crisis going on here, Tango Down,will appeal to anyone with a love of 80’s influenced hard rock with a melodic twist. In the 6 or so years of their existence, New York based hard rockers Tango Down are one of those bands that I’ve had awareness of, but for whatever reason I […]

Despite rising to prominence through the US version of The Voice TV show – which if I didn’t watch the Australian version, then obviously I wouldn’t have watched the US version – I first heard the name Beverly McClellan through Steve Vai and her vocal contributions to his latest album The Story Of Light and specifically the track John The […]

The undisputed queen of metal, Doro, marks her arrival on new record label Nuclear Blast with the release of new album, Raise Your Fist, which sees her close in on nearly 20 album releases in around 30 years, whether that be as Warlock or Doro. Title track Raise Your Fist can be best described as a fist-pumping anthem, basically, I […]

In 25 words or less: “You gotta let your hair down, you gotta do it alright, HEY, HEY!! Royal Republic first came to my attention when they hit Australia last year as part of the touring Soundwave juggernaut.  Seeing them live before I’d really heard them in recorded form, the Swedish rockers firmly and squarely came across as a band […]

In 25 words or less: Songs For The End Of The World is about as brilliant as you could hope an album of melodic pop/rock to be! To the vast majority, the mere mention of either Rick Springfield or Richard Marx is usually met with comments referring to anything but their phenomenal musical and importantly song writing talents.  But for […]

In 25 words or less: “You too may find this to be Jimi’s finest moment in what has been a pretty remarkable career to begin with.” Whether it be from his time fronting Survivor across three album releases in the mid to late 80’s  or releasing a bunch of solo albums in more recent years, one of which contained one […]

In 25 words or less:  “This album sees the band at perhaps their most musically accessible.” Coheed and Cambria are one of those bands that I’ve just never gotten into, more so to do with the “concept album” attachment to each of their releases, rather than necessarily not finding anything to like in a musical sense, although in saying that, […]

In 25 words or less: Straight ahead, high octane rock n’ roll with massive hooks, sing-along choruses and blazing guitar solo’s, you know, all the fun, essential stuff, that’s what I’ve come to expect from Torpedohead. At May The Rock Be With You we take great pride in uncovering awesome rock from all corners of the globe to share with you, […]

In summary: “This to me is what an album is about, it takes you back to a time and a feeling, and it was kinda cool.” Here we have a band that have had for far too many years between drinks, ‘King Animal’ is the first album from Soundgarden in get this, sixteen years!  This album sees the Seattle Grunge […]

Originating from parts unknown, we introduce you to Khaos.  So when I say parts unknown, well Khaos represents one of those musical collaborations made possible with the advent of modern technology these days – four people in four cities, come together to make one album, well in this case, a 5 track EP.  Khaos consists of Chandler Mogel, who I […]

Where I liken to where All Time Low are at here in 2012 is very similar to where a couple of my all time favourite three word pop punk bands have recently been at…those being New Found Glory and Bowling For Soup.  You see sometimes these bands are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.  Feel compelled to […]

What I’m about to say, probably makes this review pretty pointless, but I reckon that if Bowling For Soup was to release an album full of farts, spoken word poop jokes, or barks courtesy of the bands unofficial 5th member, Sherman the dog, I would still proclaim it to be the greatest thing ever released.  Thinking about it, BFS have […]

Well f$%k me swinging, if you will pardon my French, where the friggin’ hell did these guys come from?  Ok, matter of factly Hotel Diablo are from Hollywood, but hitting you smack between the eyes with a blazing red album cover, these guys have delivered one hell of a killer hard rock record from seemingly out of nowhere.  But if […]

A band with which I was not previously familiar previously, Two Gallants return after a five year hiatus with their aptly titled fourth album, The Bloom and the Blight.  Friends since they were five (maybe that’s their first meeting on the album cover?), the San Francisco natives Adam Stephens (guitar and vocals) and Tyson Vogel (drums and vocals) have obviously […]

In 25 words or less: I’ve listened to Epicloud now well over 10 times and I’m still completely overwhelmed with each listen, but I keep coming back for more, finding more and enjoying it more. Devin Townsend, when I first heard him on the Steve Vai album Sex & Religion, to me it was a godlike musical pairing and I’ve played that album […]

Calling Impera a “supergroup” may be taking things just a little too far, but for those with their ears and eyes firmly entrenched in the European hard rock scene, that you can rightfully dispute.  Impera is the brainchild of drummer J.K Impera (Bruce Kulick, Graham Bonnet and John Corabi), on vocals there’s Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge, solo), guitarist Tommy Denander […]

In summary: “Well done Anberlin, you’ve made one heck of a record.” Reviewing albums on first listen is always like flirting with disaster, what if it’s no good, but by no good what if it turns out to be a ‘grower’ and I’m not doing it justice by only reviewing it off the first listen?  These are the things to […]

In what seems like, but isn’t really a quick turnaround from 2010 release Chasing The Grail, Fozzy hit us with new album, Sin and Bones.  Whilst technically the bands fifth album, it’s their third of solely original material.  Upon the first spin, I couldn’t help but notice that Sin and Bones was considerably more diverse and less heavier than Chasing […]

In 25 words of less: Praise the lord for people such as Chris Robinson who make albums for those of us who still enjoy the complete listening and visual experience. They say never judge a book by it’s cover right?  Well in this instance, on new album The Magic Door, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood deliver everything you would expect from […]

Muse is one of those bands that are hard to categorise.  Simple as that and you know they are… are they rock?  Are they opera?  Are they electro?  Yeah, I know right?  So I’m calling Muse a new genre of music called Electrockera.  Here was have ‘The 2nd Law’ which is the their sixth as a band, each previous have […]

When it comes to releases on Italian label Frontiers Records, nothing really surprises anymore.  So when I heard the winds blowing news of a live KIX CDC/DVD to be released in 2012 and a brand new studio release in 2013, despite the fact that the band haven’t had any recorded output since essentially 1995, I didn’t even batter an eyelid.  […]

When you are talking hard rock bands of the 80’s, Dokken are right up there in the highest echelon with songs such as Dream Warriors, Lightning Strikes Again, Just Got Lucky, The Hunter, Unchain The Night undeniable classic anthems.  But that was then and 2012 is now with the Don Dokken led version releasing Dokken’s 11th studio album Broken Bones.  […]

The Swedish band with one of the more delightfully named frontmen in rock ‘Hell Hofer’ hit us with their now fourth album and first for monster German label, Nuclear Blast.  If you are familiar with Bullet from past outputs such as previous release Highway Pirates or Bite The Bullet then I’m sure you will have already decided whether you love […]

In 25 words of less: “I think The Dollyrots has just become my favourite “pop” album of 2012!” I always like to give credit, where credit is due and when it comes to The Dollyrots, I have to thank Bowling For Soup for putting me onto The Dollyrots as a result of their mutual association over the years touring together […]

In 25 words – “By Blood, By Heart definitely propels Less Than 4 to be amongst the leaders of the new generation of Swedish sleaze.” So here’s a quick quiz for you, what number is Less Than 4?  Well if you said 3, then you are correct and the relevance of this is that these cocky young whipper snappers from […]

For those of you into your folk, viking, battle, pirate metal, I am sure Finnish five-piece “heroic metallers” Ensiferum are a band in which you are well familiar?  I mean how could you possibly miss them, with their overtly visual image and rousing anthems.  3 years since the release of previous album From Afar the band return with new album […]

CD reviews aren’t necessarily an easy thing to write, some flow immediately, others can be agonised over for what seems like hours.  I guess much like writing a song hey?  The irony of this is that the new release from OFF! whilst having 16 tracks, clocks in at around 17 minutes in total, for the whole CD.  Does that make […]

In 25 words or less: Last Of A Dyin’ Breed stoutly keeps the flag of everything Lynyrd Skynyrd represent, past, present and future flying loud and proud. I’m a 37yo who grew up in Melbourne, Australia on a diet of 80’s hard rock, you know, Poison, Europe, White Lion, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Winger, Tesla, all that kind of awesome stuff […]

In 25 words or less: “will hook in anyone with a love of the Kane Roberts, Chris Laney, Desmond Child and Mutt Lange style of bombastic rock anthems.” Hailing from the UK, Tommy Justice is not a name you are likely to have heard of before, unless you’ve already read our interview with him on the pages of May The […]

Back in 1996, before YouTube, before Facebook, before My Space and come to think of it, before the internet was what it is today, I stayed up for hours to hear a song on the radio, a song that half the time never got back announced, and all I knew was that the lyrics “Reach down your hand in your […]