One of the most personally rewarding aspects of May The Rock Be With You, at least for me personally is typified by unearthing a band such as young Italian sleaze rockers, Sandness. Having first heard about them through the number 1 sleaze authority here in Australia, Glam Junkie’s Sleaze Ball (make sure you join up the Facebook page), Sandness are […]

Whilst having grown up as a teenager in the late 80’s on a staple of traditional hard rock and heavy metal, I am by no means a one-trick pony when it comes to music, with my musical listening, likes and knowledge being incredibly eclectic.  So what then does that statement have to do with Death Dealers, the second album from […]

A very very balmy night in Sydney tonight sees a moderate number of fans of Canadian band These Kids Wear Crowns happily fill the fan cooled Lair at the Metro theatre for a night of what can only be described as fun pop punk music. Opening band Wake The Giants involved lots of jumping, spinning and a mix of screamo […]

Friday night in Sydney and The Oxford Art Factory was ready to rock and if it wasn’t ready it was very soon going to have to be ready as this onslaught of great Australian rock was about to engulf it. The Strums kicked of the night to a slowly filling room and got the crowd going with their catchy rock […]

In 25 words or less: A prog, jazz, blues, psychedelic, metal vibe delivered in a great slab called Heritage From the opening piano intro I truly didn’t know what to expect with this new release from Opeth but as that faded out and directly in to the next track I could finally get a gist for what I was in […]

In 25 words or less: A great album that is not too heavy, not too light, it’s just right. The new album from mastodon is pretty damn good. There, I said it. This is an album full of chunky riffs and catchy heavy songs. This album is their first since 2009’s ‘Crack The Skye’ and continues to show the growth […]

Having existed for well over a decade now, when it comes to the Swedish “sleaze” scene, few bands are bigger than Gothenburg natives, Hardcore Superstar, who have blazed the trail since the year 2000 for the cavalcade of bands that have since followed.  With the prospect of a new studio album not likely to be released until April 2013, Hardcore […]

In 25 words or less: Insert disc, press play and prepare yourself for about 45 minutes of the best damn feel good hard rock anthems heard this side of the 80’s… Finnish rockers Reckless Love return with their second album Animal Attraction that is bound to get the hard rock world talking, just as did their debut album. The dance […]

In 25 words or less:  Catchy as hell shout out choruses and tongue in cheek lyrics, horror inspired song titles against a backdrop of infectious hard rock riffs are the order of the day throughout the albums 11 songs… Wednesday 13 must surely be one of the most prolific music artists on the planet, having released an album (eg. Wednesday […]

In 25 words or less:  “A highly enjoyable album, featuring a collection of timeless songs that are no doubt as intrinsic to many of our own musical upbringings, as they are the members of Puddle of Mudd.”  Cover albums, tribute albums, whatever you may want to refer to them as, are always an interesting proposition and there never usually seems […]

In 25 words or less: It’s a real honest, moody and raw brand of rock that Brand New Sin deliver and the key to enjoy the album is to pick your own mood when you are likely to best enjoy… United State sees American based Brand New Sin deliver their fifth album.  If you are reading this and are from […]

In 25 words or less:  “Only your own ears can determine whether they like a concoction of reggae, nu-metal, dub step, metal, hard rock, beats and rhymes” Since 1998, the Welsh based Skindred have been bringing it with their genre defining, well actually, let’s say genre creating, blend of reggae and metal that they themselves refer to as “ragga metal”.  […]

In 25 words or less: The band name check Aquanet, Motley Crue, Dokken, Slaughter, Stryper, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Iron Sheik, L.A Guns and Bon Jovi in “She Don’t Wanna Rock”…instant winner! With a history thus far spanning fifteen years and now nine albums, Zebrahead have certainly been one of the mainstays of pop punk and in 2011 with an uprising of […]

Hyro Da Hero, now here is an interesting musical proposition to match an equally intriguing name.  Fusing rap and hip hop with rock isn’t exactly something new, but as the Houston native, but now L.A based Hyro Da Hero will tell you “no one has done it like this. It’s raw, and it’s real.”  Adding some real rock credibility and […]

In 25 words or less: Amazing playing, amazing songs, something to get lost in… Ok. Now forgive me for saying this but I know of Dream Theater but I can honestly say I’ve never listened to any Dream Theater before. I know, stop mocking me, it’s not nice, so forgive me if I can’t compare to previous releases.  This being […]

In 25 words or less: “Pop punks not dead”…this album proves it! With a history thus far spanning fourteen years and now seven albums, New Found Glory have certainly been one of the mainstays of pop punk and in 2011 with an uprising of young challengers to the pop punk throne, New Found Glory have hit back with 12 songs and […]

Back in 2010, Acey Slade, formerly of Murderdolls, Dope & Trashlight Vision fame and now current Joan Jett bass player, unleashed upon the world The Dark Party.  Cleverly bringing together and stretching the boundaries between both the rock and electronic genres, Acey himself described the release as ‘a non-hard rock album, for hard rock people’.  For me personally, The Dark […]

In 25 words or less: I couldn’t help but be mentally transported into some form of violent assault, where every guitar riff is just another slow and powerful bash to the head with a baseball bat. Lo! (yes there is a ! after the name, it’s not a typing error) originate from Sydney, Australia.  Just as does their music, Lo! have […]

Today was the day that Shannon Noll releases his fourth album ‘A Million Suns’ and to celebrate this he is doing a run of what he’s calling preview shows in support of it.  He couldn’t have picked a better venue than that of The Basement in Sydney which tonight was packed to see Mr Noll.  More on him shortly… Supporting […]

In 25 words or less: ” If you like heavy, I mean really heavy music then you need to already have Dead Throne in your collection.” Wow. Not really knowing what to expect going in to this new album by The Devil Wears Prada I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a nice soothing dose of the fucking heaviest […]

In 25 words or less: “These guys need to get this heard, everywhere.” I love hearing about new bands that aren’t so new. In this case New Empire, see their name even tells me they’re new. But I digress. Symmetry is the bands newly released second album and wow! These guys need to get this heard, everywhere. This album has […]

To sum it up.  When The City Calls, you answer… The Power Pop Punk Rock genre or however you want to categorize it is one that is and always has been based on fun catchy music, look at bands like Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, Boys Like Girls and Paramore just to name a few.  Obviously it works and […]

In 25 words or less: This was not the Staind album I was expecting at all.  This is heavy, and a welcome to return to the Staind of old! I guess the first song ‘Eyes Wide Open’ is exactly that, it opened mine, I love this.  If that’s anything to go by then we’re in for a treat.  Aaron Lewis […]

For Machine Head to follow up what has previously been referred to as a masterpiece in ‘The Blackening’ was going to be a tough call, turns out it really wasn’t that much of a tough call as I’d be happy to proclaim that ‘Unto The Locust’ is up there if not on par with The Blackening, yeah, I said it.  […]

Canadian pop punk rockers Simple Plan always put on a fun show, and tonight’s SOLD OUT gig at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney was no exception but more on them later… The first of two supports, Sydney’s ‘New Empire’ got the crowd warmed up with their amazingly friendly rock music and within seconds of opening with hopefully the next single  […]

It was a cool Tuesday evening when Panic! At The Disco and couple of hundred of their closest friends filled the Take 40 Live Lounge in Sydney to warm everyone up and give us a special night of acoustic spins on some of their biggest hits which was a complete turn around from two days earlier at their full blown […]

In 25 words or less: For me, there is no singer I love to hear sing a “ballad” more than Steve Lee Gotthard may not exactly be a massively well known entity outside of their native Switzerland, but that sure isn’t a reflection of their exceptional musical quality.  When it comes to delivering classic hard rock, very few have done […]

In 25 words or less: Being the “Sabaton Cruise”, it was a night purely about the magic between the band and a 2,000 strong crowd.  OK, so I may not have been at this particular performance that is the primary feature on World War Live – Battle Of The Baltic Sea…but I have seen Sabaton perform live in the flesh in […]

Now I’ve never seen Eskimo Joe before so I was hoping from everything I’d ever heard about them being a great live band was true, guess there was only one way for me to find out and that was to head to The Enmore on a rainy Saturday night in Sydney and check out these boys from WA… Opening band […]

In 25 words or less: “My ears have been listening to music for around 30 years and know what they like and they tell me that this is pretty damn close to musical perfection…” Here’s a thought to ponder that really has no relevance to the CD I am about to review….but then again, maybe it does?  Should the length […]