Solomon Hicks is a throwback, deliberately so this New Yorker, is an old soul in a young body. Born in Harlem in 1995, he was already playing stages in his teens, his 2020 debut album got people talking about his passion for the blues and his blending of this with soul, jazz and funk.
A knowing and deliberate nod to those groundbreaking artists 50's/60's/70's from a guitarist who wants to bring what they did into the now. With his second record How Did I Ever Get This Blue, he mixes things up again a collection of originals and covers, infusing classic sounds with newer influences. Much like a certain hotshot young blues player named Bonamassa who came out of the of New York scene, did 30 odd years ago.
Unlike the classic rock elements Mr Bonamassa, who invited Hicks on his 2017 cruise, had on those early albums, Hicks doesn't lean as much on the classic rock side of things. Preferring the punch of punk and adding electronics to modernize some older material such as a relatively faithful Further On Up The Road from Bobby 'Blue' Bland and Feels Like Rain by Buddy Guy.
In the covers stakes there's also some more contemporary ones as he turn his axe to a shreddy version of Rumour Has It by Adele and Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man which gets a little bit French, but his own tracks are just as impressive, sprawling classic boogie on Flying High (Yesterday), the harmonica driven title track or strutting Dimples.
Recorded in Austin Texas alongside producer Kirk Yano with a huge band of musicians, How Did I Ever Get This Blue is a great modern throwback from this young blues superstar. 8/10
Laurence Jones - On My Own (Ron Records)
On My Own is the first ever solo acoustic album from Laurence Jones, it's a record about resilience as it was written after a a battle with the debilitating Crohn’s disease. This left him isolated and in pain, fat away from the trailblazing blues rocker he has become over the last few years. With so much emotion and fear in his mind he picked up an acoustic guitar and started to write.
On My Own is a record about life, at home and on the road, about pain and ultimately about him wanting beat this disease and being thankful that he came out the other side of it. So this debut solo album is a musical reflection played on the instrument Jones first started aged 8 years old, the classical guitar. Crafted with just his voice and a classical guitar, he's stripped his music back to just the two core elements, capturing the beginnings of the blues where the artists used them as a way of working through life struggles, their escape being music. It's this authenticity that makes On My Own a special record.
It makes this set of songs his most personal ever, a track such as Middle Of The Night highlighting the process of writing this record, drawing inspiration from his inability to sleep due to his condition. Life I Made about looking for forgiveness and changing how you try to approach life as a whole while Beautiful is a tribute to his fiancé who supported him all the way his illness and recovery.
The soul of the blues is strong on this record, it's an album that showcases Jones' toughness and inability to give up. Released on Ron Records, named for his grandfather, it's a personal, powerful, proper blues record. 8/10
Meteora - Dissonance EP (H-Music)
So here we are, the final EP in the conceptual trilogy from Hungarian symphonic metal band Meteora. Beginning in August 2025 they began with In This Silence (reviewed by Cherie), while then in autumn it was Broken Mind and now comes their 'winter' release Dissonance.
Whether you've heard the other two is really immaterial unless you're keenly following the storyline, and they have collected all three into a full album (Darkest Light) just in case, but this is about the music and Meteora are band who aren't afraid to take risks with their music. The themes are about dissociation and alienation, making this the darkest entry into their collection.
They have three vocalists in similar positions to Amaranthe as there's a female classic vocal, male harsh vocals and male clean vocals against some metallic riffage and creative orchestrations with a full choir to add a gothic, theatrical sound to the record, they even throw in some classical influence as New World Symphony by Dvorak is a core part of Witch Hunt: Tragedy Of Delusion PT. III.
Guitarist Dániel Baranya and keyboard player/vocalist Atilla Király have both joined the writing team here and it makes Dissonance the most musically intense of the three EP's. The epic final chapter of these conceptual releases, you may want to check out Darkest Light to get the full story but Dissonance is definitely the heaviest in the trio. 7/10
OmegaThrone - Predators Make Empires (Self Released)
We’ve made a noise about OmegaThrone before (it’s even on their website) so when they sent over their new full length it was straight on the stereo to see if they’re still crushing ear drums. Turns out yes, this Liverpool band draw significant influences from the UK death scene for eight tracks of politically motivated, war obsessed death where the blast beats are just a potent as the mid-pace chugs.
A Cockroach In Mammal Kingdom perfectly sets the tone with plenty of shifting pace, from fast to slow to even faster, you can hear when the pits will go crazy and that’s exactly what OmegaThrone want. Omega P’s drumming is unrestrained, with Charlotte Rogers bass playing a lead instrument in its own right (check out the fingerstyle on Bad Sleep Better and Marketing Messiah) bringing muscle to the aggressive rhythms as Omega M shreds up a storm with his chainsaw guitar sound, blending in a bit of classic metal to the Morbid Angel beginnings of the title track.
With all this instrumental fury you need a singer who can vocalize the horrors envisioned by these tracks and J.J Moffat does that really well, snarls, growls, gutturals and some black metal shrieks too, he’s got a broad delivery that brings extra dimensions to the record, as does the soprano vocals of Biljana Ivanovska at the end of the title track.
Preadors Make Empires takes a brutal swipe at the political elite, it’s a brutal and bloodthirsty, British death metal album from OmegaThrone. 7/10
Unlike the classic rock elements Mr Bonamassa, who invited Hicks on his 2017 cruise, had on those early albums, Hicks doesn't lean as much on the classic rock side of things. Preferring the punch of punk and adding electronics to modernize some older material such as a relatively faithful Further On Up The Road from Bobby 'Blue' Bland and Feels Like Rain by Buddy Guy.
In the covers stakes there's also some more contemporary ones as he turn his axe to a shreddy version of Rumour Has It by Adele and Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man which gets a little bit French, but his own tracks are just as impressive, sprawling classic boogie on Flying High (Yesterday), the harmonica driven title track or strutting Dimples.
Recorded in Austin Texas alongside producer Kirk Yano with a huge band of musicians, How Did I Ever Get This Blue is a great modern throwback from this young blues superstar. 8/10
Laurence Jones - On My Own (Ron Records)
On My Own is the first ever solo acoustic album from Laurence Jones, it's a record about resilience as it was written after a a battle with the debilitating Crohn’s disease. This left him isolated and in pain, fat away from the trailblazing blues rocker he has become over the last few years. With so much emotion and fear in his mind he picked up an acoustic guitar and started to write.
On My Own is a record about life, at home and on the road, about pain and ultimately about him wanting beat this disease and being thankful that he came out the other side of it. So this debut solo album is a musical reflection played on the instrument Jones first started aged 8 years old, the classical guitar. Crafted with just his voice and a classical guitar, he's stripped his music back to just the two core elements, capturing the beginnings of the blues where the artists used them as a way of working through life struggles, their escape being music. It's this authenticity that makes On My Own a special record.
It makes this set of songs his most personal ever, a track such as Middle Of The Night highlighting the process of writing this record, drawing inspiration from his inability to sleep due to his condition. Life I Made about looking for forgiveness and changing how you try to approach life as a whole while Beautiful is a tribute to his fiancé who supported him all the way his illness and recovery.
The soul of the blues is strong on this record, it's an album that showcases Jones' toughness and inability to give up. Released on Ron Records, named for his grandfather, it's a personal, powerful, proper blues record. 8/10
Meteora - Dissonance EP (H-Music)
So here we are, the final EP in the conceptual trilogy from Hungarian symphonic metal band Meteora. Beginning in August 2025 they began with In This Silence (reviewed by Cherie), while then in autumn it was Broken Mind and now comes their 'winter' release Dissonance.
Whether you've heard the other two is really immaterial unless you're keenly following the storyline, and they have collected all three into a full album (Darkest Light) just in case, but this is about the music and Meteora are band who aren't afraid to take risks with their music. The themes are about dissociation and alienation, making this the darkest entry into their collection.
They have three vocalists in similar positions to Amaranthe as there's a female classic vocal, male harsh vocals and male clean vocals against some metallic riffage and creative orchestrations with a full choir to add a gothic, theatrical sound to the record, they even throw in some classical influence as New World Symphony by Dvorak is a core part of Witch Hunt: Tragedy Of Delusion PT. III.
Guitarist Dániel Baranya and keyboard player/vocalist Atilla Király have both joined the writing team here and it makes Dissonance the most musically intense of the three EP's. The epic final chapter of these conceptual releases, you may want to check out Darkest Light to get the full story but Dissonance is definitely the heaviest in the trio. 7/10
OmegaThrone - Predators Make Empires (Self Released)
We’ve made a noise about OmegaThrone before (it’s even on their website) so when they sent over their new full length it was straight on the stereo to see if they’re still crushing ear drums. Turns out yes, this Liverpool band draw significant influences from the UK death scene for eight tracks of politically motivated, war obsessed death where the blast beats are just a potent as the mid-pace chugs.
A Cockroach In Mammal Kingdom perfectly sets the tone with plenty of shifting pace, from fast to slow to even faster, you can hear when the pits will go crazy and that’s exactly what OmegaThrone want. Omega P’s drumming is unrestrained, with Charlotte Rogers bass playing a lead instrument in its own right (check out the fingerstyle on Bad Sleep Better and Marketing Messiah) bringing muscle to the aggressive rhythms as Omega M shreds up a storm with his chainsaw guitar sound, blending in a bit of classic metal to the Morbid Angel beginnings of the title track.
With all this instrumental fury you need a singer who can vocalize the horrors envisioned by these tracks and J.J Moffat does that really well, snarls, growls, gutturals and some black metal shrieks too, he’s got a broad delivery that brings extra dimensions to the record, as does the soprano vocals of Biljana Ivanovska at the end of the title track.
Preadors Make Empires takes a brutal swipe at the political elite, it’s a brutal and bloodthirsty, British death metal album from OmegaThrone. 7/10
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