Chris Ball

Earthbound - Black Royal Album Cover Artwork

Black Royal – Earthbound

Earthbound is the third album from Finnish death metal mavericks, BLACK ROYAL, and their first since 2020’s excellent Firebride. If you missed it, Firebride was one of the extreme metal albums of that year, not least because of the impressive amount of passion and detail that went into the lyrics. Firebride’s songs were stories chiefly…

Read More

Marcus King – Young Blood

Young Blood is South Carolina’s Southern rock hotshot, MARCUS KING’s second solo LP and his first on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label. It’s no surprise Rubin was drawn to King, whose rootsy, classic rock and soul sound is a type of archetypal heritage music that Rubin tries to recreate with his acts. Of course there’s…

Read More

Starcrawler – She Said

These days if you’re going to pursue a life in a rock ‘n’ roll band you have to be committed, brave, born for it, even. Let’s face it, the chances of stardom and enormous wealth are slim and you’re working in a medium that is almost an anachronism for young people – it’s like considering…

Read More

MWWB – The Harvest

Did you know that no one born in Wales has ever been into space? Hard to believe, isn’t it? They aren’t exactly short of space cadets though, are they? There is definitely something in the water and in the mushrooms in Wales. From the denim-clad transit van fabulists Budgie, through the mystical rave rock of…

Read More

Bloodywood – Rakshak

It’s been a long, strange journey from Bloodywood’s beginnings to the release of their debut album Rakshak. Starting out covering pop songs and Indian traditional music on YouTube then dropping their own material, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a novelty act that have gotten lucky. This couldn’t be further from the truth,…

Read More