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Compassionizer – An Ambassador in Bonds

In late 2020, I reviewed the debut album from Compassionizer. Anyone who read that review will know that the files I reviewed from were not fully titled, so I was perhaps coming to the music from a different angle than…

Sky Cries Mary – Wandering in the Vastness

I wasn’t previously familiar with Sky Cries Mary, a psychedelic outfit from Seattle, but they’ve been going for over 30 years (with a short hiatus in the early 2000s) and this is their thirteenth album, and fourth for Trail Records.…

Gert van Engelenburg – Leap Day

“Every melody I come up with automatically pops up while cycling/walking.” – Gert van Engelenburg Treehouse is the sixth studio album by Dutch symphonic rock band Leap Day, a band that seems to improve time and again with each new…

Dead Space Chamber Music – The Black Hours

The power of music is a curious thing. Sometimes it takes just one album to open up my mind and ears to something that then consumes me. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it hits hard. Though I’m…

Gasparotti – Ciullini – Stancati – Portraits

Portraits, as per its Bandcamp page, is the first in a new series from Unexplained Sounds Group, with each release creating a ‘portrait’ of three musicians by showcasing representative pieces of their recent musical journeys, and hopefully serving as an…

Sonata Arctica – Acoustic Adventures: Volume One

Sonata Arctica are well established in the classic tradition of Finnish power metal bands, but have so much more to offer than out-and-out metal thrash, and their latest album should endear them to a much broader audience, particularly of a…

A Different Aspect #75

Featured artists: Band of Rain | Marco Mattei | The Kite Experiment | Sugar Horse | Moron Police | Oxygene8 ||: As we sail further and further into 2022, a chance to check the manifest, clear the decks and pick…

Stephen Lambe with David Watkinson – Yes in the 1980s

It’s a well known truth that the history of Yes is littered with strife and controversy. In fact, it’s probably the trauma that’s actually held the band together all this time, in some weird way, binding it all up like…

Dec Burke – Life in Two Dimensions

I was – and fervently remain – a huge admirer of Dec Burke’s third studio album, Book of Secrets (released in 2016). From the outset there is a wonderful, infectious energy which drives pulsating rhythms carrying songs bristling with power,…

Hedvig Mollestad – Tempest Revisited

Hedvig Mollestsad is a well respected and very talented guitarist who hails from Norway. She fronts the Hedvig Mollestad Trio, a band that you must hear, if you haven’t done so, as it will help you understand the breadth of…