Reviews

One of the key traits that separates great, talented bands from the smaller ones nobody talks about anymore is the ability to turn out several albums in a row, in a short span of time, that earn

Hallelujah. "Prohibicija" (2003) was a long dry spell for our beloved first-rate rock n' roll alkies. Now we've got the first "comeback" album from the rock-solid punk rock n' rollers The Drinkers, with new reinforcements. First up is…

British art rock heroes Magnum, who later became melodic rock heroes too, shaped their sound by the time of their cult debut "Kingdom Of Madness" after the example of most other progressive rock bands, which were

Into Eternity are fresh, young, hungry, highly creative progressive metallers from Canada. That's not exactly breaking news anymore, but the band still never fails to blow us away with their bursts of creative energy! Into Eternity are by…

Seth Lakeman is a British multi-instrumentalist who plays folk rock. The guy comes from a musical family and is already a pretty well-established name in the UK. Poor Man's Heaven is his fourth studio album. Besides s

72-year-old Buddy Guy is a name that blues fans hardly need an introduction to. The elder statesman of blues is one of the gods of the genre, and one of the few still-active musicians who had the honor of working with blues giants Muddy…

The solo album from Danger Danger guitarist Rob Marcello is one of those records you could sum up these days as: "Nothing new, but unbelievably catchy and uplifting". Well, that's how most melodic hard rock purists would put it

Even though the Belgians Univers Zero have always been the peak of chamber rock for me, classical music played (also) on rock instruments, really, the French band Art Zoyd were doing it before them and surely inspired Daniel Denis (Daniel…

Joe Lovano is considered one of the best saxophonists of the nineties, and judging by what we hear on the album Symphonica, it's hard to argue with that. Lovano may well be a consummate saxophonist, but is he also a good enough composer?…

With Bad Company's debut, the curves of Rodgers' evolutionary maneuvers become perfectly clear. By moving away from the "morbid" (to many) blues-rock themes of the Free days, Bad Company throws the doors wide open to simpler, granite-solid…

»A New World Record« is the triumphant album with which the legendary British art rock institution Electric Light Orchestra finally won over the rest of the music-savvy world, which until then had been &scaron

Gary Moore is probably best known as a blues guitarist, and maybe to a few as the jazz-rock guitarist in Colosseum II, but hardly anyone knows him as a purveyor of that ultra-melodic style we call AOR. And that's exactly what he put out on…

"Octoberon" represents one of the most magnificent moments in the story of the legendary British progressive rockers Barclay James Harvest. The album's title is the product of a witty play on words, combining the name Oberon (the fairy king…

The band isn't new on the scene, but despite the internet, news about what musicians close to us are up to doesn't exactly reach our neck of the woods very often. Marco Paganini is a Swiss singer who played in the German band Viva in the…

After splitting from Big Brother, Janis was already hunting for new successes. With Big Brother's guitarist Sam Andrew she formed a new band called The Kozmic Blues Band, which was definitely a step forward in her musical evolution of…

Less than two full years after Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture (2007), Belgian outfit Aborted are already back with a fresh new release, this time called Strychnine.213. If last year's album

Elevener is a project that goes back to 2005, when two seasoned Swedish musicians and multi-instrumentalists, Johan Bergquist and Andreas Brodén, sniffed each other out. Both of their careers reach back to the middle of the golden age of…

Michael Vescera is the man who brought the Japanese hard rock outfit Loudness to a wider audience, in Europe and the US too. Before that he sang in Obsession, and after that he lent his vocals to the work of Yngwie J. Malm

Appearance of Nothing are a Swiss band born from the ruins of No Thanx. The quintet plays music that fits into progressive metal heavily mixed into a power metal template. The band is three years old and what I'm holding in my hands is…

"Sharing Space" is the second album from modern Australian progressive rockers Cog. After the epic concept debut "The New Normal" (2005), which some adventurous music lovers even count as one of the

Warrel Dane is a seriously big name in metal, with one of the best and most unique voices the genre has ever produced. He already proved with the legendary Sanctuary that he's one of the mightiest vocalists metal has to offer

Pleasure Dome is a new band on the scene, but it's made up of seasoned old foxes of melodic hard rock. The name Ted Poley (vocals, Danger Danger) alone gets enough mouths watering that every true-blue rocker has to give this thing a spin

Journey. A band people love to lock horns over, every time it drops an album or a new singer joins the lineup. The material they made in the eighties with Perry on vocals is too perfect, influential and inspiring, and for a

Robin Trower and Jack Bruce are two eminent names from the world of rock, known to most mere mortals mainly from the glory days of the mighty rumble of Procol Harum and Cream. Trower and Bruce are old acquaintances, we can safely even call…

"Wake The Sleeper" is an album with an intriguing mix of big epic melodies, tied to an obscure, darkly accented feel of tight interplay between guitar phrasing and Hammond moments, which brings "Wake The Sleeper" close to the magic of Uriah…

Even though Judas Priest cancelled the »Balkan« leg of this year's tour because of Glenn Tipton's inflamed appendix, we've now finally gotten the release of their first concept album on home turf too. The double dis

After the hugely promising debut Kabare, the youth-relay baton carriers Slon and Sadež were back on the music scene the very next year with the album Komercialne Pizde, which wasn't just a step forward in terms of commercial success, but…

Cole Porter is a legendary American jazzman who wrote his name in capital letters across the history of jazz and is still considered one of the greats. Plenty of people have tried to play his music their own way. Some pulled it off better,…

Dark Sky is a band that goes all the way back to the early eighties. They're hard rockers from southern Germany, from the town of Rotweill, famous for its legendary dog and not far from the notorious Bang Your Head!!! Festival in Balingen.…

Can you imagine Pink Floyd releasing "Dark Side Of The Moon 2", Genesis "Selling England By The Pound 2" or Emerson, Lake & Palmer "Brain Salad Surgery 2"? Most music connoisseurs would probably

In case you didn't know, Willie Nelson is a true American icon, for some even the embodiment of the American way of life, which will surprise plenty of people, especially those of you who are more familiar with the legend's activities and…

In 1970, Jethro Tull helped make rock history as one of the elite bands to play the legendary Isle Of Wight festival, which today is considered the British version of Woodstock. As far as attendan

Nektar, the indestructible legends of space-rock-flavored prog, are back after four years with a new studio album, "Book Of Days", their eleventh overall. A small event for the wheezing modern music industry

Soul Doctor are a German hard rock band from Berlin that leans heavily on blending blues and R&B elements into their music. After putting out their fourth studio album "Blood Runs Cold", the guys decided it was ti

At over 70 minutes, "Sounds Like This," which originally came out as a double album long before CDs showed up, is completely unique and easily the most controversial record in the whole Nektar discography. That goes both for the positives

»The Tides Return Forever« was a big, pleasant surprise for the legendary German space rockers Eloy, coming after the thoroughly mediocre predecessor »Destination« (1992), the revival of their all-but-dead p

With "Face The Music", the fifth album from the legendary British art rockers Electric Light Orchestra, their boss, guitarist, singer, producer and main songwriter Jeff Lynne created yet another masterpiece of refined blending

"Destination" was, just like its synth-laced but better predecessor "Ra" (1988), the fruit of a collaboration between the band's boss, guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann, and keyboardist Michael Gerlach

Before the release of "Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy," keyboard grandmaster Chick Corea decided it was time for a serious stylistic shift, moving away from the (mostly easygoing) jazz latino fusion of the past toward an energetic, often…

Slon in Sadež is the name of a Slovenian duo of comedy rockers who first rose to fame on the show Štafeta mladosti on TV Slovenija. The two weirdos have already left their mark on the small screen with their gags, which in

Beardfish, the hugely talented and versatile Swedish prog rockers, built their first masterpiece for plenty of prog connoisseurs with "Sleeping In The Traffic: Part One" (2007), and with every passing year they're becoming more and more of…

»Holidays In Eden« was the first album by the legendary British (neo) prog heroes Marillion that they recorded from start to finish with their then still relatively fresh-faced singer Steve Hogarth. He had

»Light As a Feather«, the second album from legendary jazz fusion outfit Return To Forever, picked up right where its self-titled debut left off in terms of sound, which is no surprise given it was recorded by the same lineup just eight…

'Drama' is a transitional album and a sort of precursor to what happened three years later.

The story of Return To Forever, one of the most distinguished and influential jazz fusion bands of all time, is a story of one-of-a-kind creative feats under the direction of legendary keyboardist and musical innovator Chick Corea.

Young Austrian duo Good Enough for You (presumably named after a Captain Beefheart song) first popped up on the Slovenian radar (for me, at least) when they played Menza pri koritu in Metelkova, where a short but inventive set showed off…

»Over-Nite Sensation« was yet another in a long line of dramatic stylistic about-faces in Frank's incredibly rich and turbulent career, setting a new milestone in the invention of specific and inimitable

Two Men With The Blues is a title that, under the guise of mixing blues and jazz, brings together two eminent names of the music world: country legend Willie Nelson and jazz trumpet master Wynton Marsalis. A unique collaboration, downright…

What could possibly follow an album like UZED? The perfection they showed there seems almost unbeatable. But Univers Zero didn't even try to repeat what they did on their previous record. With Heatwave they've gone off into yet another…

When Niet held their first rehearsal in November 1983, nobody imagined this would one day become a cult band. In their fairly short but above all very eventful existence, they created dozens of legendary tunes known to every generation –…

Camille is a young French singer who, despite her age, already has quite a bit of experience on the music scene. This time she introduces herself with her new album Music Hole, which shows her love for one of the best instruments there is –

Aggression, pain, destruction and death are the words that best sum up the music and themes of Infiltration, Downfall, Death. It's the latest release from Canadian Black metallers Revenge, who have been successfully stirring up spirits and…

This album is a heavyweight. It falls into the "more demanding" category. You can tell the ideas for it took a long time to ripen. "Slaves For Life" is an album that's not hard to pin down genre-wise as progressive metal. It's a conc

California Guitar Trio took quite a long break between "White Water" (2005) and the new, fresh "Echoes" (2008). The acoustic guitar trio, who lately almost always invite bass wizard Tony Levin to join them on stage, has seen an unexpected…

Cash-Romantic Music Machine is a solo album from violinist (and occasional vocalist) Tylda Ciolkosz of Gargantua. This time around, Tylda went for a more acoustic, folk-leaning approach, which means the music is more accessible and full of…

Most of the music by the legendary prog rock heavyweights Gentle Giant was surely never made for just anybody's taste, let alone a narrow one. There were usually only two ways out for someone who first came face to face&#

Demians is really the name of a band with just one member: French multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Chapel. Chapel put out his first album, titled Building An Empire, on the renowned German label Inside Out. Right from the moment, w

As usual, there were big lineup changes in Magma after Wurdah Itah. Udu Wudu actually features a whole bunch of new musicians. Mostly they're familiar faces from Magma's orbit (people who had already played live with the band), but some are…

M.ill.ion, exponents of the Scandinavian school of melodic hard rock, are Gothenburg, Sweden natives who have been raising hell around the world since 1989. Thrill Of The Chase is already their eighth release (counting one best-of…

Terror, the embodiment of hardcore misanthropy from the City of Angels (Los(t) Angeles), are running wild and untamed. There's not a year without a studio album from them. And not a year without a proper devil's fist of a record, bursting…

Here comes yet another wave of trendy rock invaders from the hallowed progressive galaxy: the Americans Invisigoth. It's wildly ambitious stuff, actually a duo project made up of a multi-instrumentalist who goes by the stage name Cage

KOH are yet another alternative rock surprise coming out of Croatia! The guys from Karlovac cultivate an avant-garde sound that's a fantastic blend of thick groove levers in a tight rhythm line, with a thick, slicing, melody-driven bass in…

Years fly by incredibly fast. The release of the triple-disc Rush live set "Rush In Rio" (2003, RockLine review HERE) still feels like yesterday, and already a new live document of this legendary Canadian art ro

Whenever Laibach put something out, it's a big deal. The guys always come up with something new that maybe nobody else would think of. Not many people would associate Laibach's music with classical, but this time the boys from Zasavje paid…

Tradition lovers, take note! "Broken History" is the big comeback album from legendary Italian heavy metal band Adramelch, back on the metal scene. The reunion happened in 2004, and only &

"Irae Melanox" is still considered one of the best heavy metal albums ever produced by an Italian heavy metal band in the eighties. This album came out at the end of the eighties. That was a time when heavy

The German gangster quartet Dustsucker is a hard, uncompromising, and at the same time very hard-to-swallow outfit. Frankly, I could call them "suckers" without a second thought, in the truest sense of the word, whose rattling is without…

Dokken – Lightning strikes again (2008) »Lightning Strikes Again« is the title of the fifth track on 1985's »Under Lock and Key«, a symbolic nod from Dokken that they're heading back to that »old s

The Slovenian alternative scene is full of surprises and has seriously good music to offer, as long as you switch off the radio or TV, which feeds us garbage anyway, the kind that is more than satisfied with a chord or two, an accordion and…

"Catharsis is a record that took the best from guitar giants like Petrucci, Vai, Satriani, Hendrix and the like, then piled a heaping helping of uniqueness and individuality on top of the masters' lessons. With this release, Grega Habič has…

Avant-garde is one of those progressive rock subgenres (if you can even file it there) that never had any big commercial boom (apart from a few people like Frank Zappa), but it flourished in a different sense

Moby, a big name in American electro pop, has already racked up some incredible chart success over his long career. This is the guy who, for hordes of female ravers and clubgoers who specialize in elec

Label: EMI RecordsRelease date: October 31, 1971Produced by: Pink FloydAlbum length: 46.48 minGenre: Progressive Rock/Art RockRating: 9.0/10 Steeped in esoteric atmosphere, "Meddle" may well be the most important album in the…

Steeped in an esoteric atmosphere, "Meddle" may well be the most important album in the history of the legendary progressive rock innovators Pink Floyd, because it's where they nailed down the final definition of their specific

Jaded Heart are back with a new album, "Sinister Mind" (2007), their second since Michael Bormann left. The brilliant "Helluva Time" (2005) proved the guys can easily shred without that great singer. At the same time, the band's musical…

"Break Away" is Steve Overland through and through. It's a completely personal solo studio achievement. On it, Steve shows remarkable musical maturity. The debut of the FM vocalist,

Who could have guessed that Charlie Dominici would make such a glorious return to the music map after his long absence? Hardly anyone, since after leaving Dream Theater following their first album When Dream and Day Unite, Charlie…

Releasing Christmas albums is apparently turning into a trend among legendary bands who've run out of creative steam in their golden years and are increasingly being eaten away by the rust of missing imagination. How else do you explain

Vincent Vincent and the Villains are less a fun band than a goofy one: four electrified gents from London who try hard to be special but, sadly for them, don't quite pull it off. Vincent Vincent and the Villai

After a good four years together and three demos, Norwegian outfit Sjodogg have finally put out a studio album with eleven mostly atmospheric tracks that conjure up feelings of dread and transience. &

What happens when multi-instrumentalist and mostly-bassist Jani Mujič teams up with poet Tone Škrjanec? You get a project and an album, Lovljenje ritma, released on KUD France Prešeren. After the release, the duo played the rec&scar

In the liner notes, Dave Rubin, editor of Guitar One, wrote: “If the blues police wrote tickets for playing too fast, Melvin Taylor would have a glove compartment full of fines

Duels are a young English band that earned a reputation very early in their career. They never exactly topped the charts, but they earned that much more respect from the critics. The album The Bright Lights And What I Should Ha

Scottish neo prog rock greats Pallas are back in the thick of it via Polish label Metal Mind Productions with a new live DVD, their third so far. "Moment To Moment" captures their entire show in Katowice, Poland, recorded during the band's…

Eldorado, that conquistador legend of the lost golden city of an ancient Mesoamerican civilization, remained the eternal unfulfilled dream of generations of all sorts of reckless adventurers. For the legendary British art rock adv

Morningwood is a young American band, technically a duo, that dropped its self-titled debut. Then again, it'd be kind of weird to call them a duo, since the heart of the band is a bassist and a singer. How would an album sound

Neisha is one of those singers on the Slovenian scene who seems to have popped up out of nowhere and become a full-blown media attraction overnight. I'll admit this over-the-top media obsession put me off a bit from the basic goal

"Global Warning" is yet another in the long line of modern-day comebacks by melodic hard rock bands. This time it's the return of Burn. The band put out their second album, "Spark Of The Flame", in 1995, and then sank into the sea of…

The legendary American melodic hard rockers are living through a definite new spring. "World Upside Down" (2006) made all their fans happy by marking a return to the famous classic House Of Lords groove that made them practically "immortal"…

Siti Hlapci are a reggae outfit, and with Si ti hlapec they've put out their second album, the follow-up to their debut Tukaj in zdaj. Reggae has quite a following in Slovenia, especially since the festival on the So

According to the Bible, God shaped the earth's surface on the third day, and in the third year of British art rock institution Electric Light Orchestra, their "god", meaning singer, guitarist and occasional keyboardist Jeff Lynne,

John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoffrey Downes and Carl Palmer. Where on earth have these four poor souls been hiding?!?! This was one of the bigger reunions of classic lineups that shaped the rock map of the eighties, and the hype around it has…

When an innovative band hungry for a bigger mainstream breakthrough ends up rushing an album under brutal pressure, there are only two possible outcomes: a total trainwreck or a flat-out masterpiece. The legendary American prog rockers…

Aranis from Belgium are a band of seven young musicians who have only just started out on their musical journey, yet have already made a name for themselves in a short time. The credit for that goes mostly to their tireless live shows in…

»Gods Of Light« is yet another official live album from the legendary symphonic prog rock champions Camel, released on their independent label Camel Productions. The band's leader, guitarist, flutist and singer Andy L

Before putting this thing out, Mr. Hackett must have taken a serious knock to the head, or else this album was the result of post-traumatic stress from watching way too many Brazilian soaps at the request of his lovely companion. "Cured"…

Rage. The new album »Carved In Stone«. Drummer Andre Hilgers (Axxis) is the band's newest member, stepping in for his excellency Mike Terrana. Sounds like a tall order at first glance. But only at first glance, because Rage aren't exactly…

Three years after their self-titled debut, Boss Tweed still hold onto their signature form. Carolyn Sills is once again charging in full throttle, and with the genius of the Egan/Reed duo around her, she delivers in grand style. And…

Eric Clapton's career, after the breakup of Cream and later Blind Faith, swung steadily between triumph and shipwreck all through the seventies, starting with the baptism by fire of the guitarist's self-titled debut. In 1977, with the…

Right before their second album, plainly titled "ELO 2", Electric Light Orchestra made the pivotal move of their entire career. After their splendid debut showed off a singular, avant-garde blend of layered symphonic arrangements and…