Hello, My Dear Friends! If summarising Novalis’s career in Schmetterlinge was a daunting task, Grobschnitt’s 79:10 has proven to be a herculean one. Not only was Grobschnitt’s career longer and more varied with some arguably better results, but the depths…
The end of the year has been a real stunner for me recently. Last year I was surprised by the release of The Mission’s Another Fall From Grace at the end of September. I had already written my top ten…
The Gresham Centre, St. Anne & St. Agnes, Gresham Street, London Sunday, 26th November 2017 I was in a church the other day, St. Anne and St. Agnes, Gresham Street, in the City of London, near The Barbican. I was…
This is the new live release from U.S. pomp rockers Kansas, celebrating 40 years of their breakthrough album, Leftoverture, which is featured in its entirety alongside some old classics, little performed number and three tracks from their 2016 release, The…
Imagine that Lady Gaga and Alice Cooper collaborated with the creative minds behind American Horror Story on a musical retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. You’ve just imagined The Rabbit Hole — the sophomore album by Swedish “progressive death…
There is a curious bitter sweetness in the Melancholy in which we clothe ourselves at times. Paradoxically, it is the great intensity of Love which inspires great creativity when that Love is lost. Loss affects us all in different ways…
Another release from rock’s lesser known back pages by Esoteric Recordings, and another raid on my Vertigo spiral collection gives me a chance to wax lyrical over the self-titled album by Clear Blue Sky, which was another of those cut…
Perhaps I should always read sleeve notes and promotional materials that frequently accompany releases. Sometimes I wonder if I’m missing the point of any album because of this. Then I usually conclude that the album should stand up or fall…
When I heard the Isaac Vacuum debut EP I knew that the next thing they did would be interesting. I liked it a lot. Whereas the EP was at once dissonant, melodic, metallic, quirky and progressive, I found this album…
This new remaster of Illusions Dimension, Matheus Manente’s first solo release from 2014, has the dramatic feel of a film soundtrack. Some songs clearly stand on their own, while others seem to be intended as auditory backgrounds to theatrical developments.…