Reviews

So Maiden UniteD were born: a kind of cabaret-style, "unplugged" take on Iron Maiden that dresses the Maiden originals in purely acoustic clothes and brings the Celtic pastoral right up close. For starters, they covered the Maiden album…

"In the Bush" is without a doubt a standout for the Slovenian music scene and one of the best records the Slovenian market received in 2013."

Honey and Teran, then! It's the spot where, bathed in total freedom, the many forms of traditional Mediterranean melos selflessly join hands with the sharp genius of improvisational acrobatics. All of it charmingly subordinated to the vocal…

This is an album that came out about 43 years later than it should have. El Kachon are a true progressive psychedelic blues rock outfit, hitting fresh, creative, captivating and above all organic in their songwriting honesty!

Jamie Cullum's musical character has matured another notch with this album, and with a ripe, polished record the guy holds down a great middle lane that brings together the tastes of younger, middle-aged and older listeners alike.

Full of authentic minimalism and sharp ideas from the young duo Disclosure, this album points to a possible future for electronic music from the British Isles, successfully carrying the gains of the "UK garage" sound into the present.

On »Time Machine«, their fourth studio album of original material since their 'return from the dead' in 2000, Nektar don't reinvent the wheel, and in places they sound pretty tired, as if they'd run out of fresh songwriting ideas. Still,…

"Evolution" is a true return to the quality level of the 'golden days.' For Nektar fans before 2000, when it seemed the legendary band would forever belong to the 'distant past,' back when most music was still made with soul and heart, that…

Nova Jazz Quintet's debut is sharp and lucid enough, and provocatively inventive enough for a planned experiment. It also shows the band has a feel for compact arranging, which can win over the less demanding part of the audience too.

"Škare krede najlon" is the album where Morso, on their musical evolution, sharpen the core coordinates of their artistry even further. It's the album where they came of age. A superb indie pop record in which the spirit of eighties new…

By deciding to record an album in English, the man sacrificed that important virtue and trademark of his music, what we might call his Mediterranean trump card: authenticity. Gibonni always knew how to so subtly "slip" it to the masses and…

With the farewell record »Night After Night«, bursting with astonishing live energy, UK showed one last time why they were the last relevant prog rock supergroup of the seventies, and made sure they went out unforgettably.

The Bee Gees' debut from their Australian period is a far cry from the songwriting and atmospheric scope of their masterpieces from the late sixties and early seventies, never mind the later, disco-era peaks of their career. Still, right…

Besides a prehistoric layer of prog, Mastodon's Brent Hinds also has a soft side of patio-party vibes and pop grafted right into him ...

Unlike a good chunk of legendary rock bands, who started out small, Queen knew exactly what they wanted from the very beginning of their studio career. The result was a very strong debut that threw the doors wide open for their later…

Label: Century Media RecordsRelease date: 24.06.2013Production: James "Jimbo" Barton Album length: 35.15 minGenre: Art Metal Queensrÿche without Geoff Tate. Queensrÿche with Geoff Tate. I just mentioned two bands. Two Queensrÿche…

Anyone who's spent years missing the classic Queensrÿche will love this album. They're back. Geoff Tate got sacrificed, but after all the hell they've been through, Queensrÿche badly needed a "survival" album right now.

Even though you can feel that the chemistry within the band didn't click a hundred percent at every turn and never unleashed all the massive potential packed into this colorful bunch of musical talents, »Strange New Flesh« is still one of…

"Passion" is a solid effort where some unusual, risky stylistic experiments pay off really well, though Pendragon's new, modern sonic formula, with which they once again made a pretty radical break with their symphonic prog rock past,…

A completely reshuffled Martin Krpan lineup, with Vlado Kreslin's authorial stamp all over it, records its exceptional studio epilogue.

A true classic of the genre, proving that the Slovenian language can sound sweet and melodic, and that homegrown music can be a lot more than just listenable.

Strawbs went on to release quite a few much better albums than the still fairly naive, almost entirely acoustic, beginner-level "Dragonfly", but it's still an important record when it comes to its influence on the development of the British…

»Believe« isn't without its appealing moments, when Pendragon's traditional ambient magic shines through, but the change of style unfortunately didn't deliver the results they were after, which makes the album as a whole one of the less…

The second record from an ever-stronger Krpan unveils the first aces of the band's future frontman, Vlado Kreslin.

»The Wedge« is still one of the finest moments in the story of these Scottish neo-prog heavyweights, even if it felt like a near-letdown after the masterpiece that was »The Sentinel«, since Palllas went with a somewhat more cautious…

»Pilgrimage« was the next step forward in developing Wishbone Ash's distinctive sonic vision and ambient magic. Only one small step remained before the next phase, the one that earned them a well-deserved breakthrough among rock's giants.

»Not Of This World« was the logical follow-up to the stylistic blueprint of »The Masquerade Overture«, which it even tops in places and in sheer sonic depth, though innovation and variety in the individual motifs aren't exactly its strong…

The eighth album from the 21st-century pioneers of sevdah subtly chases away the oblivion that has settled over the cultural capital on the Neretva.

With »The Masquerade Overture«, Pendragon created one of the highlights of their career. It's their best effort of the three nineties studio albums.

"The Wake of Magellan" is, in every respect, the artistic peak of one of the most unique metal bands of all time.

Stellar sixth album proves the Ljubljana trio with the grunge helmsman can do way more than many gave them credit for!

»Recital of the Script«, one of their best live documents, has long been part of every Fish-era Marillion fan's collection, while all those prog rock fans who aren't exactly die-hard collectors of live releases simply have to get this…

The progressive debut from Slovenian outfit Martin Krpan hints at the extreme potential and power the band has carried inside from the very first chord.

»Live & Life« is the best official live document yet from the longest-running incarnation of the cult British neo-prog outfit, so it's a must for the collection of every Arena devotee, and for any music fan who has kept an eye on the…

»Wings Over America« is one of the best live albums of the seventies and one of the most magnificent moments in the career of the 'romantic Beatle', who, after the end of Beatlemania, briefly set off a fresh wave of euphoria on the other…

»Ring of Roses« is a very solid historical document that today will appeal mainly to devotees of everything Mr. Nolan has done, and especially to fans of Shadowland's next evolutionary stage, namely Arena.

“Here is the song for ya!!!”, the famous “scream” of the ultimate, legendary frontman of the most popular musical reptile on planet Earth, hits us with yet another live release in the same year!

Album »II« namreč poglablja izrazne smernice predhodnika. Na »II« se King Kobra še odločneje pomikajo skozi čas v preteklost kjer brez sramu kolobarijo po dognanjih mnogih rock pionirjev.

The poet from the Prekmurje plains marries old with new, and alongside treasures from dusty, nearly forgotten archives, Čarobnice also serves up a pile of more recent gems.

Given the production style and the more upbeat character of the songs, this solo studio effort from James Christian may hit House Of Lords fans harder than the latest House Of Lords album did.

Let's hope master Travers brings his new album "Can Do" to European stages as soon as possible, so we can experience his huge expressive charisma in a full-blooded dose of onstage excess.

Another anthology reissue from On Parole delivers the ultimate package for every thrash metal fan who simply has to have this album in their collection!

"Stereo" is an untamed herald of the rock sound trends of the new millennium's first decade, and with its confessional freshness and gripping art brilliance it sits right at the very top of the greatest records in the history of Slovenian…

The veterans of the local hardcore scene prove with their new record that they're nowhere near ready for the retirement home. If anything, their angry, critical crossover sounds even more relevant and even more convincing today than it did…

"On '13', Black Sabbath sound like they just crawled out of the grave, invented a time machine and rode it back to the seventies, when their final resting place had only just been dug."

On »13«, Black Sabbath sound like they just climbed out of the grave, invented a time machine, and zipped back to the seventies, when their final resting place was still freshly dug. Anyone who wrote off the 'metal granddads' long ago will…

Few bands have truly earned their return from the dead, with a miracle "come-back" that wasn't just a lousy nostalgia trip to the eighties or nineties. Alice In Chains are one of them, and their new album proves it!

"Ever Worldless" is a new creative high-water mark for the Slovenian music scene. It's a record completely unbothered by chasing musical trends, and that makes it a one-of-a-kind genre fusion.

Greg Rekus is a singer-songwriter freelancer from Winnipeg, Canada, who needs nothing but a voice and an acoustic guitar to make his artistic statement. In half an hour of acoustic "fusion of punk and folk," he distills the charisma of a…

After the superb Let Them Talk, a man of many refined talents is back with a solid follow-up that leaves room for tipping the hat to a lot more than just the blues ...

»A Spoonful Of Time« is an album aimed first and foremost at longtime fans of these English space rock greats. They'll find quite a few fun, interesting covers of some of the most beloved rock classics of past decades, even if none of them…

Vol. 1 is a killer record. It sounds fresh, it sounds bold, and it's packed with so many surprises and themes that totally grab you – but only until the band deliberately hits the brakes and throws us out of our comfort zone. In that sense,…

The eighth studio album from Blackmore's Night, and the eighth installment in the one-of-a-kind collision of two great, fatefully linked musical talents, woven into a unique musical macramé of Renaissance and medieval ornament and emotion.

With "Traveller", a raven in a flying Fokker triplane delivers exactly what Jorn have long since trained us to expect! It's a hard rock album that, in a burst of creative inspiration, once again draws its ideas from the pioneering "Dio era"…

"Free Fall" from one of Scandinavia's most accomplished multi-instrumentalists walks a perfect tightrope along the thin, almost invisible line between ultra-melodic pomp as developed by power metal on one side and melodic rock on the other!…

Without Prekmurje, Slovenia would lose the lion's share of its heart and soul, and a slice of that is perfectly in tune with the GBTM label's creative imperative, sounding above-standard, ominous and fully loaded!

An anniversary! 25 years! 25 bands! Each with its own dedication to the band. Each with its own take on how it understands and embraces the musical message of Pridigarji.

Even though "Olympian" Aleksander Mežek has "spiced up" the album "Fair Play" this time with revamped classics (Fair Play, Vremenska napoved, Ljubljanske ulice), the new songs prove that Mežek the composer hasn't run out of inspiration yet.

Voodoo Mule's music is a genuine oath of allegiance to psychotic doom droning, where the riffs often howl from wailing semitones into sludgy saltiness! An authentic album that burns like hell in an igniting blaze of instinctive, honest…

"Fact And Fiction" is, historically speaking, the first masterpiece of the British new wave of progressive rock, having come out a year before the cult Marillion debut "Script For a Jester's Tear" (1983). It's also the best album in Twelfth…

»Mars je prodan« is a full-blooded step up from »Preproste rešitve«, both in sound and production and in how much more mature it is at landing arrangements that catch fire. A really nice, mid-wave-leaning…

On Super Collider, Megadeth aren't a supersonic particle collider but a rusty, squeaky wheel that an aging, chubby hamster is struggling to get moving.

Burning Rain is the story of a thrilling creative partnership between two talented artists: guitarist Doug Aldrich and singer Keith St. John. "Epic Obsession" is the quartet's comeback album, and it keeps up the hard-hitting blues hard rock…

The album is an attempt to catch an unstoppable moment in time, conceptualize it, and conjure it up through the eternal substance that is music. To immortalize it in a very special way. Whether it succeeds is something each listener can…

Eat your hearts out, conservative pseudo-connoisseurs and music anti-modernists. Music as an art form, viewed apart from social currents (i.e. the rot of the music industry), is stronger and more innovative than ever (maybe because it has…

The ambitious debut of an original-material quintet from Ajdovščina, proving that Climax are a band with real potential. Since they chose to record some songs in English, though, not every track reaches the same level of quality.

The first proper studio record from the duo New Wave Syria proves that the sensational EP they dropped four years ago was no fluke. "Summer" digs deeper into a trail of homegrown originality, a provocative fusion of electronic music and…

»3,4,5 – Dej pel« is a superb comeback album from Sausages. It deepens and widens the expressive power of the band's embodied rock n' roll culture and redefines their charisma with maturity

»The Land Of New Hope« is a gorgeous album from Timo Tolkki and his new project Avalon. He stays true to his greatest love: writing metal operas!

»Unstoppable Momentum« is a brilliant new manifesto of the symbiosis between Satriani's instinct and his schoolbook! With this new studio outing, the master only confirms the extraordinary artistic maturity of his songwriting character.

Label: Epic RecordsRelease date: 07.05.2013Production: Mike Fraser & Joe SatrianiAlbum length: 45.03 minGenre: Instrumental Rock / Art RockRating: 9.0 / 10 In the new millennium, Joe Satriani has found remarkable consistency in his…

Rattling rock n' roll revivalists Deck Janiels have birthed a proper "badass" document with their debut "On The Rocks", one that, with its heartfelt, sincere faith in the rock religion, delivers concise, tangible substance and serious…

Now what? Nothing, onward to fresh studio and live triumphs! »Now What?!« is by every measure the best Deep Purple album since »Purpendicular«, which is genuinely great news for everyone who had quietly written off the legendary old guard…

Proof that BFM life goes on after a cataclysm, the farewell of a founding member and the sky-high expectations of old-school purists, the fifth album 5ing is a lot more than just sugary foreplay.

So what is Excellent Italian Greyhound? Everything that's essential, elemental and, ultimately, good in art? Or, as Albini often modestly puts it, just ordinary music made by an ordinary band? We can answer both with yes and no. So before…

Ahhh...

An album that elegantly blends traditional folk elements from Prekmurje with rock and catchy melodic pop. And the engine behind its homegrown, original songwriting? Samo Budna's charismatic vocals!

The album »Speak The Same Language« is living proof that the story of rock n' roll, in all its elemental glory, can be vividly diverse and fiery on modest Slovenian soil, true to its honest creed.

»At The End Of The Sand« is yet another definitive manifesto of maturity from this eclectic band, who never stop impressing with their unique musical paradigm of homegrown artistic engraving.

Harrison's life was a colorful musical and philosophical journey, and so is Scorsese's biographical film »Living in the Material World«.

Another top-shelf release joins this year's run of Slovenian metal: Vigilance from Postojna, who, after their autumn 2011 EP Steeds of Time, now announce the end of the world like four horsemen of the apocalypse with their full-length…

Jake Bugg is a natural talent. A sculpted artist. Cast in the role of singer-songwriter. For a nineteen-year-old that's remarkable, and his self-made debut shines differently in how confessional it is. One of a kind!

Theme Park are three young lads putting out a seriously solid debut studio album. The British indie rock trio sits right up against pop, and here and there it slips in cushions of traditional melody and calypso rhythms.

This album would surely have been laughed off the stage if it hadn't come out in 2013. Decades are spinning by at the speed of light, the memory of Chubby Checker had almost faded, and then somebody pulls it out of mothballs and...

The nineteenth studio album from Serbia's biggest rock band will no doubt be warmly received by their fans, but it's pretty much guaranteed not to deliver any sonic revelations for the rest of the listening public.

'Many who wanted to climb to greatness will end up like a pig in a sea of filth if they leave behind the name of a criminal,' Dante once mused, providing the inspiration for the central message of "Death Or Glory," probably the best album…

It's not often that the transformation from prog rock champion to pop rock icon goes as smoothly and successfully as it did for Mr. Collins with "Face Value."

A concrete cross-section of a rich career.

»Long Live Rock 'n' Roll« was the last masterpiece from the unforgettable Rainbow and a one-of-a-kind moment when the magic between Blackmore and Dio shone in all its glory one final time, before the pursuit of the 'American dream' snuffed…

"Out Run" is a tribute to the 1986 arcade racing game of the same name, in which you speed along in a Ferrari Testarossa. With a full-blooded dose of eighties synth pop rhetoric, it's a lovely, nostalgia-soaked record.

"Twisted Delight" is Katja Šulc's first true solo album, where her jazz vocal character emotes with tried-and-tested effectiveness, melting elements of dub, reggae, R&B and soul from urban culture into a one-of-a-kind musical…

With a new Burning Rain studio album on the way, the folks at Frontiers Records have also reissued the band's first two studio albums! The second of the pair is the excellent »Pleasure To Burn« (2000).

With a new Burning Rain studio album on the way, the folks at Frontiers Records have also reissued the band's first two studio albums! First up is the excellent debut »Burninig Rain« (1999).

Coverdale has some serious nerve putting out a live album in 2013, because adapting to the diminished reach of one of the most famous voices of the rock era inevitably caps the quality of the release in more ways than one.

Another damn good The Poodles album that doesn't surprise on substance but keeps the band's musical focus and determination razor sharp!

Depeche Mode's thirteenth studio album, "Delta Machine", is also the lowest creative point of their entire career. No real ideas, an album of recycling, an album that just doesn't "grab" you.

Chelsea Light Moving isn't some Thurston Moore side project trying to swap out Sonic Youth fans' favorite band and make them tear the Sonic Youth posters off their walls. It's not some pathetic Sonic Youth stand-in either, even though…

Nu metal is a spent form, one in which many lost all their essence, but a few bright exceptions remain. Even after more than two decades of recycled patterns, Deftones still hold their status as standard-bearers of melancholy-tinged metal,…

With »Hell in a Handbasket«, Meat Loaf keeps inching toward a more modern sound, in both style and songwriting. The only question is: who's it for?

The all-round talent of White Zombie's former frontman clearly has its limits. His fifth solo album brings nothing new musically, and beyond the mindless cookie-cutter stuff there's precious little here that's truly shocking.