As I was around six years old when Baby Chaos were first on the scene, it is probably not surprising that they passed me by. However, I did catch these Glasgow rockers supporting Ginger Wildheart last year and they have just today been announced as support for The Wildhearts P.H.U.Q tour in September. Such an obvious seal of approval from Ginger himself, was always going to insure I picked up their comeback album.
Halestorm – Into the Wild Life
If history suggests anything, it should suggest that Halestorm are not the band for me. Actually, it suggests a lot more than that, but for the sake of this review that’s stick with it. On the surface its middle of the road radio rock and the first time I heard them that’s exactly what I thought. However, a couple of years after that first listen, I still find myself going back. Because as much as Halestorm haven’t reinvented the wheel, the wheels they are making are full of the kind of big choruses that it’s hard to reject.
Gallows
Losing key members of a band is always tricky. In the case of Gallows, it arguably knocked their career back several years. To the NME crowd who had embraced them, Frank Carter was the band, without him they may as well not exist. However, that didn’t stop them releasing an awesome slab of hardcore punk in 2012. For their fourth album, Desolation Sounds, they have trimmed down even further, losing their second Carter, but that doesn’t mean they are not in the mood for kicking some serious arse.
All Time Low
If you were to ask me what I thought about pop punk, I’d probably instinctively tell you that it wasn’t for me. If you were to find me in a slightly harsher mood, I’d probably tell you it was pish. However, the truth is that doesn’t make much sense. In the real world I am a pop music fan, someone who has Taylor Swift sitting next to TesseracT on their Ipod. So in an attempt to show a bit of fairness, I thought I would give the new All Time Low album, Future Hearts, a listen.
While She Sleeps – Brainwashed
While She Sleeps have been consistently pinpointed as the next big band in UK heavy metal. Magazines like Metal Hammer have pinned their flags to the Sleeps mast and the excitement surrounding them only seems to grow. That momentum looked set to sweep to the top, but then disaster struck. While calling it a tragedy would be diminishing a word that is used to describe things like a member of One Direction pissing off, it’s fair to say the vocal problems that hit lead singer Loz and his subsequent throat surgery, threw the first big spanner in the While She Sleeps express.
Beyond The Final Countdown
We’ve all heard it a million times. It has an intro that wheedles its way into your brain and never leaves. ‘The Final Countdown’ is Europe and no matter what that band do, it will always be that way. But should it be like that? These Swedish rockers have just released their 11th album. Surely there has to be something beyond that keyboard?
Where have all the rock stars gone?
Recent years has seen people begin to question where the rock stars have gone. Those big personalities, who explode into your brain and make you sure you never forget them. Thirty years ago, they seemed to grow on trees. Axl Rose, Ozzy Osbourne, John Bonham and co meant that if you wanted a hellraiser, there was never one too far away. Sadly, they have either gotten old, got fat or died and there is some truth in the idea that they were never replaced. There are still hard partying musicians out there, but none of them grab the headlines in the way these legends did.
The Curious World of Marilyn Manson
Being Marilyn Manson must be weird. I mean you only have to look at a picture of the bloke to figure that out. Throw in the countless rumours, which have swirled around him since he burst onto the music scene (I’m pretty sure he still has all his ribs), a love of absinthe and an image that is part Voldemort and you end up with a musician whose world probably resembles The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yet that is not even the half of it, because this is also a man who has given us one hell of a collection of music since the release of his debut, Portrait of an American Family, in 1994.
The Last Ten Seconds of Life – Soulless Hymns
After the usual quiet start to the year, the music is starting to flow out again. Big hitters like Marilyn Manson and Fall Out Boy have already dropped new albums and as usual there is a whole new world of music to find out there. One of these new bands, at least for myself, is The Last Ten Seconds of Life who hail from Mansfield, Pennsylvania.
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Nickelback – No Fixed Address
As we approach the end of the year, (you can expect my end of year lists to start appearing over the next few weeks) I have a tradition of making a list of albums I have somehow missed, so I can go back and check them out. While looking for some that might grab my attention, I stumbled on the fact that apparently everyone’s least favourite twats, Nickelback, released a new album. Now, I was kind of surprised I’d missed this. As much as I despise their bland, soulless radio rock, I was of the opinion that Nickelback were still a rather big deal and therefore, I would have heard when they were releasing a new album. All of this led, out of some masochistic need to hurt myself, to me sitting down and listening to it this morning.
Ramblings About Wrestling 