Bertus

The original release of these two albums, was in 1994 respectively in 1995, so it’s a good initiative by SteamHammer to reissue them together, including not only the original songs in the original running order, but also adding two live tracks and an alternative version of ‘The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell’. Nothing has to be said about the albums themselves, they were very good when they were originally released, and of course still are very good.  That is if you like Virgin Steele, of course.

Seven is a band that has it’s roots in the late eighties, and who got signed by Polydor, releasing two singles on that label. Not having a contract for a full album, and being dropped by the label, the band finally broke up. 

Since their last full length Mind control, Uncle acid have released number of singles, the last one is called “Runaway girls”  It’s not a coincidence that it’s  released only a couple of weeks away from th start of the band’s first proper US tour.  “Runaway girls” is yet another slab of 70’s psychedelic heaviness,  served in the recognizable sound of Uncle acid & the deadbeats.  The “b” side of this single is an acoustic version of “devil’s work” of which the original can be found on 2013 full length Mind Control

If I have to go by what certain English “specialized “ press had to say about this album then the THE HELL are the future of hardcore…….well  I don’t think so. What is on display here is a bunch of second rate hardcore mixed with blunt English humor. Now personally I am a fan of English humor of all kinds, but in this format spread over 13 tracks and a secret track… and pretty one dimensional (how many times can we say fuck shit dick kill on one album) than it becomes very quickly very boring…..

Third full length release by this eclectic duo,  who mix up some heavy riffs backed up by a lot of prorgamming , clean vocals (by the bunny) and screams by surprise surprise ‘the bear”.  Musically The bunny the bear present us bubblegum pop spiced up with some heavy guitars, on some of the songs thisworks rater well like on the title track “ food chain” or “ so smooth so appealing” but just as often it goes teeibly wrong like on “Pale green eyes”…..

Sludge, heavy, doom ,stoner, you can’t review an Ocean Chief album without using  minimum 2 of these 4 words.

Gosh...the weird stuff we sometimes get to review at ConcreteWeb! Hailing from Turku (a city some 160 km removed from Finland's capitol Helsinki in the western direction) comes the synthesizer trio of Wolf Rami (synths), Mazathoth (additional synths) and Inhalator 2 (electronic drum pads)...better known as Nightsatan.

Inside The Hole is a band hailing form Montemaggiore Belsito, a small town located in the hinterland of Palermo in Sicily.  Being only a trio sadly means their sound is a bit on the thin side if you ask me. Being formed in 2009, they released their first album ‘Beer ! Sex !

It had been rumoured for a while , Gaz Jennings of Cathedral fame, hooked up with some members of Belgium’  doom cult heroes Serpentcult (singer Michelle Nocon and drummer Fredrik Cosemans) and an album was in the works….. A single released earlier this year already gave us an insight in things to come….

Formed in 2000 by guitarist/Keyboardist Frédéric Slama, AOR has since constantly been releasing record upon record, always featuring some of the greatest names in the rock industry,  and almost always with L.A; somewhere in the title of the album. This new album, number 13 so far,   is no exception to that rule.  I’ll only name a few of the contributors : Bill Champlin (Chicago), Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Alice Cooper) and the list goes on.