Reviews

Street metal from the attractive, beautiful, sexy, intelligent rock n' roll miners 9mm, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better stand-in for the German take on fusing rock n' roll, metal and punk. Pure poison!

With a record whose standout traits are its remarkably live-sounding production and its consistency, the two old foxes have proven once again that even in the 21st century they're still the undisputed masters of jazz rock subtlety

An inventive combination of metal riffs and jazz woodwinds. Fans of Zappa, Henry Cow and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum will most likely dig this one.

Keep The Faith brings a number of bold departures from the established formula of earlier Bon Jovi triumphs, while opening a new chapter in the band's story.

If you're after quality electro pop with plenty of dark elements, make a stop at this album too. You definitely won't be disappointed.

The third album since Swedish hard rockers Europe reunited brings nothing new. The songs rehash an old-school songwriting template, with a punk-production accent that doesn't befit a name as big as Europe!

Whatever Singularity doesn't bring anything groundbreaking from Vuneny. All the old tricks are in play, but none of them feel worn out. These two guys know how to squeeze every last drop out of their potential.

Meh! Even the third guitar-comeback album from the new rock millennium's main cash cow proves that what saves U2 is, above all, fantastic production that's miles ahead of the band's creative inspiration.

Despite the dramatic shake-up caused by the (temporary) departure of a key founding member, "Magic Is a Child" is a very good album, eclectic enough to still win over even the snobbiest prog rock purists today.

Long Player is the second album from British rock royalty The Faces, and it swears by a simple rock & roll formula packed with tantalizing vocal flights and acrobatics.

Kendall has a few interesting musical ideas, but his best asset is solid guitar lines and easygoing melodies.

Personally, OK Computer is their most likable album. They found the right balance of catchy parts, hypnotic instrumental moments and experimentation.

Moonstone Project's latest expedition, aptly titled Rebel On The Run, further cements Matt Filippini as a fanatical worshipper of the legacy of the Deep Purple family's inner circle.

"On the Threshold Of a Dream" cemented The Moody Blues' place among the key innovators in bridging symphonic music and psychedelic rock.

Robert Cray is finally back, this time with a fairly exploratory record that mostly banks on the intoxicating power of a tried-and-true recipe of blues, soul and, at moments, even jazz.

With the fantastic »Recycled«, Nektar reached for the prog rock stars one last time and hit their artistic peak in every respect, a record that can stand shoulder to shoulder with »Remember The Future«.

The songs themselves aren't earth-shattering, but it's her voice that "makes" them, and without her contribution they'd be worth at least half as much. Josipa always sings straight from the heart, and you can still feel it after all these…

I hope Spaltklang finally get the recognition they deserve one day, but for now their biggest reward is probably knowing they've created yet another timeless masterpiece.

For me, Fat Again is one of the best albums to come out in the last few years. Sure, it borrows a lot from Univers Zero, but I've heard far more blatant rip-offs.

Live In Europe is a collection of live recordings by Irish blues rock stalwart Rory Gallagher, captured during his European tour in February and March 1972.

When Beck stepped onto the stage of London's legendary Ronnie Scott's jazz club in late November 2007 to kick off the first of five shows there, it was clear something special was coming.

Willie Nelson, music legend, actor, poet, activist and American icon, just won't leave the stage! Following the model of the famous Stardust, the old-timer is dusting off the classics of American popular music once again.

A rebirth of prog rock greats couldn't have gone any better than "Godbluff", another masterpiece that belongs among the very best achievements in the history of modern experimental music.

Unspoiled By Progress is without a doubt a praiseworthy release, proof that blues rock as a genre won't need to bury its head in the sand any time soon.

No Time To Bleed isn't as aggressive, deadly, and uncompromisingly brutal as the debut. A touch more polish in the songwriting and more guitar melodies make for a different album, but it's still 100% Suicide Silence.

Rock Shock are Slovenian rockers with potential, talent, and real skill at playing and songwriting. On the album, the band is still scrambling to find a clear direction. The priority is a decision: pop or rock? ASAP.

With their eighth studio album, Germany's Disbelief aren't reinventing the wheel, but they keep marching down their path of gloomy death/sludge metal with plenty of success.

A year on, we've had the honor of listening to the new creation from Greek one-man band Dodsferd, who sail into the uncharted waters of so-called Suicidal Black metal with their new album (part two of a trilogy).

On "Down to Earth," Nektar followed their long-awaited commercial breakthrough with a bold leap into the unknown: an offbeat circus concept and some innovative sonic experiments, which paid off surprisingly well.

Deathchain's new album doesn't evolve death/thrash metal one bit, but it proves the Finns can still write good, proper metal!

"The Turn of a Friendly Card", a conceptual masterpiece about gambling, kicked off the most creatively and commercially successful era in the story of the legendary project and handed TAPP's two commanders a pair of big radio hits.

Heron is an album I keep coming back to. Lvmen have a great sense of drama and a knack for building dark atmospheres. Only the best pull that off.

"Joe's Garage" is a concept album and a work of art that still riles up every conservative bigwig obsessed with the idea that censorship is the best fix for anyone who refuses to speak the same language.

Album length: 1:55:14Production: Frank ZappaRelease date: 1979Label: Rykodisc RecordsRating: 5/5 "Joe's Garage", a progressive rock opera in three acts built around the concept of what could happen if music became illegal, ranks among…

"Eve" is a very good, varied pop rock album with a string of potential radio hits and a few shorter moments where the legendary project's symphonic prog rock roots come alive.

"Pyramid" successfully carries on the classic TAPP recipe in every respect, blending pop-rock accessibility with prog-rock experimental touches, the formula that made them a success story.

Just when you think you've opened every door of Stauss's musical mansion, this record shows up and proves there are hidden chambers in there too. Sure, you might hear a scream of terror or two, but the fun easily outweighs it.

After three years, Gothic pop/rockers Lacuna Coil are back on the scene with a new album. They're currently one of the strongest and best-known Gothic acts anywhere in the world.

Money and Cigarettes is an album of middling artistic merit, and measured against the high standards of Clapton's past achievements, it actually lands well below par.

We've got the first part of a trilogy from Greek Black metal band Dodsferd, which has just one permanent member. The album comes out through the well-known label Moribund Records, famous for releasing truly Underground artists.

"Momentum" is the natural successor to "Bay Of Kings" and a romantic treat for anyone who loves Hackett's classical guitar vocabulary.

On "Master Piece," every track is a self-contained story that gives the listener fresh excitement, a reason to explore, and an adventure into the expressive musical core of a band built on a powerful rhythmic voice.

After the excellent album "Iconoclast pt. I (The Final Restistance)", the German melodic "metalcore" crew couldn't have picked a better moment to drop a live album. This document is a must for every fan!

A Chilean thrash/death assault!

We've got the debut from To Hate, a homegrown Melodic/Death metal outfit who decided to run their local ideas through the Swedish production lens of so-called Gothenburg metal, which is still going strong thanks to bands like In Flames and…

"Kratka zgodovina tega trenutka", the debut from Maribor's sterile crew Division, is a dull stew of instant musical "fillers" that feels dead, like a product with no soul.

We've got the first recordings from Slovenian black metallers Nephrolith right in front of us. In less than a year of existence, they've already wowed plenty of people with excellent live shows, and now they've served up their first demo,…

"Astra" is a vivid reflection of the artistic and emotional state of the members of a famous band that, by then, was already past its expiration date.

"Thin Air" is another gem in the collection of Hammill's solo masterpieces. Over the years, the charismatic musical visionary hasn't let up for a second when it comes to conjuring gut-wrenching emotional states and probing the dark corners…

Kaos v rdeči is a great melodic record that will mostly click with fans of Siddharta and maybe Bohem.

With its limited and offbeat selection of performances, "Live At Hammersmith '84" is hardly the best snapshot of what a typical Tull show looked like, so nobody but the die-hard faithful will miss it in their collection.

Let me say it again: we're lucky these albums were made in our country, but sadly they never got the recognition they deserved.

"McDonald And Giles" is a superb document of two legendary musicians who proved they're perfectly at home going it alone.

Demis is Demis Roussos's latest studio offering. By building on the tradition of blues, and above all of vocal soul, it brings both genres a fresh coat of paint and a spark of life.

In recent decades, the so-called quiet Beatle, George Harrison, has earned a reputation as one of the most creative and enigmatic figures in rock.

After the tough test of Wakeman's departure, Strawbs came out even stronger and marched into their most fruitful creative stretch with this classic.

Maybe it's even his last great album. I don't know, maybe he'll surprise us again down the road.

"The Wall" is one of those monumental albums that wrote itself into rock history in letters of gold and helped make sure the legend of Pink Floyd lives forever.

With The Bends, Radiohead show their true strengths and give us a taste of what they're capable of, even if they're not fully there yet. The best was still to come, but here they already took a big step up in quality.

"Imaginations From The Other Side" is a power metal classic and one of the best achievements of 90s European heavy metal, an album you can still only talk about in superlatives today.

"Walk Tall" is the phrase that captures Zawinul's musical legacy in the best possible way. JazzXChange have proven they understand the essence of his musical philosophy very well, paying fitting tribute to the jazz giant

When it came out, thanks to its extensive experimentation with electronic keyboards and electronic percussion, this was undoubtedly a revolutionary album, while today it enjoys "just" the status of a forgotten classic.

The legendary guitarist's solo debut, predictably titled simply Eric Clapton, sprouted during two short breaks in the Delaney & Bonnie and Friends tour.

About the only thing you could hold against Kržišnik is that sonically he doesn't do anything new this time around, but the music is structurally quite different from its predecessor, and that's exactly why his take on avant-garde classical…

A chaotically noisy blend of industrial doom metal with a horrifying atmosphere. Whether the chaos and confusion are just a curtain hiding musical bluffing, or whether a genius of uncompromising experimentation lurks behind it, only time…

The one and only live document from Croatia's mainstream pop rock icon. Two discs with very different characters, even though they're close kin. A record that will delight above all folks in our southern neighbor.

"I Robot" is a top-notch outing from a legendary art rock project, one that still charms all the eternal music romantics who swear by musical variety and exciting concepts.

Possessed is a stunner of a record: the first half of the album is given over to covers, while the second features the band's own material. It's a classical album, but one that carries plenty of rock DNA.

Chickenfoot is a faithful snapshot of a moment when four gifted musicians pulled off a very solid passion project. Given how full their bank accounts are, this one clearly wasn't made for the money.

Even though the third album is made up entirely of covers, it feels fully on par with Nick Cave's other studio albums, because Cave's own artistic stamp is front and center all over it.

Generic? Recycled ideas? Not this time. What we have here is a seriously high-quality record with a charm all its own, just like the title says: reggae with detours through many musical faces.

Mestni postopači's debut is in many ways a textbook Slovenian product, one that ironically tries to make a name for itself by refusing to fit in with the groupthink of the local music scene.

You can read how the life of the hapless Frank Ferran, better known as Nikki Sixx, got battered to pieces in his book The heroin diaries – A year in the life of a shattered rock star.

Live From The Madison Square Garden symbolically closes the final chapter in the story of one of the first supergroups in the history of rock music.

The seventh studio album from Rijeka's En Face. It's a rocker with an easygoing, light-footed character that stays true, as tradition demands, to the band's musical idiom. A mature, inspired, tightly condensed album with a lot of creativity…

"Deincubation" is a big step up from the debut "Shaded", both in production and in songwriting and performance. Proof that it's still possible to make an interesting, inspired melodic death metal album.

A cult classic of the alternative rock underground, it conjures deadly serious feelings out of bizarre darkness and shocks and shakes with ease, while also serving up a hefty helping of self-ironic mischief and goofing around.

The singer's Morissette-style vocals, dressed up in stoner riff clothing or rasping grunge dissonance, feel like a bid for a commercial gimmick, and it looks like the band's whole future direction is built on it. Tedium

Bold experimenters from Zagreb, devoted to a stoner/noise/hardcore fusion whose racket isn't for every ear, have shown off their one-of-a-kind sound with an excellent debut. Breaking abroad is a must.

Given Emir Bukovica's track record, you'd expect an album with at least a pinch of the artist's creative art streak. Instead, "No Pasaran" is just one more yu-pop-rock record that only wants to please the peoples of the Balkans.

A "cross over" album of sorts that brings nothing new to the table. Post-grunge elements crossed with European thrash, mostly rooted in German soil, with the occasional flirt with nu-metal. Pretty uninteresting stuff.

"Tales Of Mystery And Imagination", as the opening chapter of a rich and successful career, stays the best act in the saga of this dynamic duo, just like so often happens with movie franchises, and it's one of the classics of progressive…

Punk really can't die, even if it wanted to. Bands like Diskurz keep reminding us of that, this time with the album "U protivnom". They're the authentic voice of the street, the kind of thing the "alternative" MTV-style stench can only…

"The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage" has all the key ingredients that still have prog rock connoisseurs bowing down to Hammill's genius.

With Wrong, Depeche Mode have nailed the same schizophrenic moment they've been using to rope in listeners for nearly a decade. The track is a slow burner, since it isn't cut from the cloth of a direct Enjoy the Silence-style hit.

A special concert document of the metal giants' airborne adventure, cruising through the best of their golden eighties repertoire. The refreshed sound and playing only truly come alive, though, once you've watched the whole thing on the…

Live at the Moonlight Club is a document that deserves special attention. Loaded with simple emotions and primitively stripped-down musical minimalism, it captures the raw edge of The Specials' stage presence in their early days.

Black/death metal from Bela krajina lays its debut, Agnvs Dei, on the altar.

Course Over Ground aren't discovering new worlds, but they've got a principle of their own that stands out for its recognizable edge, a great mix of punk mockery, noise amateurism and a pinch of melodic seasoning.

Echoes is a totally different beast from Stauss's other work, but that doesn't make it any less important. At times the music gets very classical, but Stauss never lets you forget his jazz roots.

"Graffiti Soul" is a great new studio album from Simple Minds, one that sits comfortably alongside their best studio work. It has everything a listenable, lively art rock album needs.

With fourteen tracks, Dan D have tied their fourth studio album, "Ure letenja za ekstravagantne ptice", into one flowing conceptual whole.

Magnum have pulled it off in the end, delivering with "Into the Valley of the Moon King" a cracking album that will satisfy every wish and need of their longtime followers.

Pablo Honey is a product of its time, one where Radiohead can only count the success in financial terms, because the album adds nothing musically important.

With White Lies for Dark Times, Ben Harper has once again sailed the treacherous waters of serving up apparent genre clashes, always a double-edged sword, and of course he survived!

The former Genesis frontman remains a devoted propagandist of his own brand of ambient romanticism on his latest release, touching the listener's deepest emotions with almost unbelievable ease.

Grega Habič, Slovenia's "kitarero" and a guitar hero who doesn't want to be one, has dropped yet another absolute standout for the Slovenian music scene with his third studio album, a record for guitar gourmets.

"Stik" is the debut from Mit, built on simple but plentiful riff curtains, the vocal intrigue of Uroš Petrovski, and a drive to create a high-drama atmosphere. A "less is more" formula that works

"If the whole thing carries real expressive depth, a hefty essence of the very spirit of the form it creates, serving up a unique, hard-to-replicate stamp of the moment captured by the developmental step that is the album "Self Destruct…

"Orchestral Favorites" is stuffed with gorgeous orchestral compositions that buckle under the weight of that unmistakable Zappa humor, the kind only a brilliant composer who lived to keep making art non-stop could conjure up.