The Stranglers – Dark Matters (2021)

The Stranglers - Dark Matters - 2021

It was the second half of the eighties when somebody wanted to sell me two The Stranglers records. It was a friend but also a vinyl collector and black market dealer. The two albums were “The Raven” (1979) and “The Gospel According to the Meninblack” (1981).
When I heard the opening Read more The Stranglers – Dark Matters (2021)

King Crimson – Radical Action (2016)

King Crimson - Radical Action (2016)

King Crimson - Radical Action (2016) Actually the full title is “Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind” and features a comprehensive account of the 2015 live performance in Japan of the ever evolving creative entity that is commonly known as King Crimson.
It has been stated that King Crimson is not so much a band as it is “a way of doing things”. Different incarnations had quite different “ways of doing things” and this recordings are a very expressive audio and visual statement from the current band. The current line-up of King Crimson consist of Robert Fripp – Guitar & keyboards, Tony Levin – Basses & stick, Mel Collins – Saxes & flute, Jakko Jakszyk – Guitar & voice, Gavin Harrison – Drums, Pat Mastelotto – drums and Bill Rieflin – Drums & keyboards. Never saw or heard before three drummers in a rock band playing together! Talking drum get another sense here!
Robert Fripp commented about this 3 CD/1 Blu-ray set that “this is King Crimson….re-imagined”. Some of the material has not been performed live since the 1970s, although the songs were rearranged to suit the current line-up. Read more King Crimson – Radical Action (2016)

Skid Row – Slave to the Grind (1991)

Skid Row - Slave To The Grind (1991)

Skid Row - Slave To The Grind (1991) Skid Row made their entrance on the rock scene with a bang back in 1989. Their self-titled debut album contains a couple of Top 10 singles, “18 and Life” and “I Remember You”, and memorable anthems like “Youth Gone Wild”. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1995 for shipping five million copies in the United States.
But as it says in the high circles of the industry, the second album is the one which separate the men from the boys. And Skid Row deliver it.
“Slave to the Grind” it’s flawless. A metal masterpiece. Read more Skid Row – Slave to the Grind (1991)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered 2015)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered) (2015)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered) (2015) “Women and Children First” was the third studio album by the American rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Generally speaking, the third album of a band it’s crucial, while the first might be an accident and the second a sequel of that, the third generally proves if that band have something to say or they never really had. In the particular case of Van Halen, “Women and Children First” was really a turning point of their career and the moment when the boys grown up and became men. “Women and Children First” rocks your s*it off. Literally. And their both previous albums were hard as a rock!
Kerrang! magazine listed the album at #30 among the “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time”. If you never heard the duo of “Tora! Tora!”/”Loss Of Control” you have definitively wasted your life or you’re in the wrong place! Or if you never had partying on “Could This Be Magic?”. “Tora! Tora!” it’s blacker then Black Sabbath and “Take Your Whiskey Home” bring the blues to a brand new level of… aggression. Not to mention “And The Cradle Will Rock…” which is an absolutely rock classic!
My mom had this one on vinyl, “Loss Of Control” and “Everybody Wants Some!!” were among my favorite songs beside “Rapid Fire” (by Judas Priest) and “Ace of Spades” (by Motorhead) – all of them songs of 1980!! Afterward I bought “Fair Warning” as well. The rest is history! Read more Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered 2015)

From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)

Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2

Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 This is a quite ambitious and interesting project I had stumbled into a few years back and yes, I saw the opportunity in it and gave the link to my American guitarist friend Rich Prewett. If I recall it correctly, the first song he made was “Egoista”, then he did “Sonhar” and it was followed soon by another one. Rich did an awesome job mixing those African vocals with good old tasty blues flavors. I told him that it would be great if he put together a whole album out of it and that’s what he did!
And this is really good. Feel good, sound good. Rich Prewett is a quite experience and versatile musician and producer, he made miracles with those vocal stems. The music he created and performed around those vocal tracks it’s a vivid mixture of blues, rock, reggae and Latin vibes and sounds, but maintaining throughout a “world”, an universal flavor of it. This is extremely universal, but still, very particularly Rich.
I love it throughout!! Read more From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)

Snurfu – Play This Game (2014)

Snurfu 2014

Snurfu 2014 It’s not brain surgery, but only rock’n’roll and it feels good as it is. And probably it’s not much left to say because it’s that type of rock you love it or hate, but if you love it, you will have to play it loud and grab a beer!
While I have wrote about their debut EP “Bag of Bones” back in 2009, recently I wrote about Massive and their ass-kicker world-wide re-released debut album “Full Throttle” and it seems that the good old rock’n’roll it’s back in trends again. Well, probably it’s still not fancy as the electronic layers and bass drops, but I still can’t think of something better if you gonna have a party!
Fans of AC/DC and Massive will enjoy it, but it also have a nice glam/sleaze touch here and there. Sometimes feels like Poison and Motorhead are jamming together. Songs like “Boo”, “Stepto-Cock” or the title track will ringing in your ears for days. More like this, please! Read more Snurfu – Play This Game (2014)

Godsmack – 1000hp (2014)

Godsmack - 1000hp (2014)

Godsmack - 1000hp (2014) Rock is dead? I heard that in the 80’s, the 90’s and generally, at least once in a while somebody took that imaginary shovel and start digging that imaginary hole for this genre. And – surprise! – the genre it’s alive, kicking and evolving since the late 40’s.
You say “Godsmack”, you think of Alice In Chains and you start singing “Voodoo”. That self-titled 1998 album which contain that song entered the Billboard 200 at number twenty-two, and was certified 4x platinum by the RIAA in 2001 after being initially certified gold in 1999.
The next album, “Awake” debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, and has been certified 2x platinum by the RIAA. “Vampires”, a song on the album, also earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2002. Two of the songs – “Sick of Life” and “Awake” – on the album were used in United States Navy commercials as background music.
They wrote a song, “I Stand Alone” for the soundtrack Read more Godsmack – 1000hp (2014)

John 5 – Careful With That Axe (2014)

John 5 - Careful With That Axe (2014)

John 5 - Careful With That Axe (2014) Little wicked John is back and although he’s not playing with the matches, he’s guitar it’s on fire! I thought it’s his guitar, but just like that it might be an axe or a rifle as well – after all we’re living some strange and violent times!
Definitively John 5 is one of the most virtuoso and versatile guitarist of the modern rock/metal scene and he had a major contribution to the body of work of some influential artists such as Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie. “Careful With That Axe” it’s a guitar album, he’s sixth solo album following “The Art of Malice” released 4 years ago, but it’s a quality and enjoyable throughout album consist of 9 songs plus intro. Complex and technical guitar solos and chain-saw riffs are both deadly weapons in the arsenal of John 5. The music it’s a vivid mixture of neo-classical virtuoso moments with Malmsteen and Satriani resonances and wicked, heavy guitar riffs.
While “Flight Of The Vulcan Kelly” reminded me of “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov, the very next “Jerry’s Breakdown” it’s a bluegrass/country flavored acoustic rundown. You never know with John 5 what’s coming up next and that it’s truly wonderful! Read more John 5 – Careful With That Axe (2014)

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Democracy, Live at the Hard Rock Casino, Las Vegas (2014)

Appetite for Democracy

Appetite for Democracy This was a series of concerts started on October 31, 2012 by Guns N’ Roses celebrating 25 years from the release of their 28 million copies worldwide selling album “Appetite for Destruction” (1987), album which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, including the super-hit “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, their only single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; and four years since the release of their latest album “Chinese Democracy” (2008). The last of this shows was on June 7, 2014 in The Joint at Las Vegas, also part of their second residency at The Joint titled “No Trickery! An Evening of Destruction” consisted in 9 shows.
Produced by Barry Summers from Rock Fuel Media was filmed live at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas on November 21, 2012, and it was filmed entirely in Full HD/3D. The recording includes 25 songs, all the classic Guns N’ Roses hits, but also a few surprises as the guitar solo and track by guitarist Tommy Stinson or the Pink Floyd cover “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”. 2 hours and 43 minutes of wild, irresistible Guns N’ Roses. Read more Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Democracy, Live at the Hard Rock Casino, Las Vegas (2014)