Eric Gales: The Bookends (Provogue Records)
Also known as Raw Dawg, Eric Gales is an American Blues-Rock guitarist who plays some of the most smolderingly good blues I’ve heard in many a year. A child prodigy, Gales has released copious amounts of material during his career starting with 1991’s The Eric Gales Band. The Bookends his latest offering. Perhaps the standout track on this fabulous album is Southpaw Serenade, an eight minute meander through the multiple offerings that Gales draws together his heritage of rock and blues formed from his influences of Hendrix and Carlos Santana amongst many others. This is his 19th album, as well as being featured on numerous other albums. Sublime musicianship throughout the album, variations in pace and a storming cover of With A Little Help From My Friends all contribute to a real feel good relaxed vibe from a guitarist who makes the simple things sound so easy. Penultimate track, the instrumental Resolution shows a harder edge to his playing, all delivered against a calm and mellow backing track. This is an album that was a real joy to listen to from start to finish and if you like your blues guitarists with a harder edge then it’s really worth checking this out. 8/10
Asphodelus: Stygian Dreams (Terror From Hell Records)
This is the debut release from Finnish band Asphodelus, a young three piece who have been kicking around demos and an EP since 2016. Vocalist, bassist and guitarist J. Fippu possesses a roar that would surely echo around the bowels of hell itself and that will tell you that the band follow the black doom metal path. Promo shots find the band in black leather and corpse paint, although their music isn’t necessarily as intense in focus as other black metal outfits. This isn’t to say it’s not good, far from it. With a production that is pleasing raw and echoes the first wave of Scandinavian black metal of the early 1990s, the band crash and sprawl their way through the album with impressive confidence. Echoing atmospherics haunt the music, with the routine bass and drums allowing some effective guitar work on tracks like Scent Of Venus, whilst they are not afraid to introduce synth effects on other tracks, such as the epic The Hourglass Infernal. Old school sound from a band that weren’t even born when the early legends were at their peak. It’s strange how the world turns. 6/10
Nil Desperandum: Dark Tides (Self Released)
This is an interesting release. Nil Desperandum hail from Nottingham. A four-piece whose influences include Coheed And Cambria, Rush and RATM, Dark Tides is their first release, and although it was released late in 2018 it has only just come to our attention. It is a fine debut. Cohesive, intelligent and with a sweet indie edge to their music, it’s a breath of fresh air amongst much of the standard fare we hear too often. Front-woman Melissa has a crystal clear voice, her vocals adding quality. After the self-titled intro, it’s opening track Walk This World Alone which immediately grabs the attention. At just over seven minutes, it’s a bold statement but it works well. Slipping Away continues the alt-rock feel, layered guitar work enhance the solid central engine of drummer Kiefer and bassist Phil. The atmospheric Absence paves the way for the final two tracks, The Void and the nine-minute Vertigo, a really quality song, which builds superbly, allowing guitarist Fee to let loose towards the end of the track. It is certainly an album worth a listen. 7/10
Ceremony Of Silence: Outis (Willowtip Records)
This is the debut album from the Slovakian duo known as Ceremony Of Silence. Full of downtuned dissonance and a frenzy of blistering songs that sever arteries through the airwaves, Outis is a blisteringly ferocious debut. With the lyrical content following the mystical path of a man who is confronting his innermost self and his direct experience of the ultimate perennial wisdom, it’s got some heft behind it in terms of content. Immerse yourself into the album and it will pay dividends. Opener Invocation Of The Silent Eye introduces you to the intense direction, blistering blast beats, growling sinister vocals and lacerating guitar work that is at times about as disharmonious as an angry bear woken early from hibernation.
Trance Of Void simmers with resentment, the rapid fire drumming and screaming riffs bursting the inner ear canal. Relentless in assault, the machine gun attack is one thing, but this album simply crawls with evil like an infected maggot ridden wound. By the time you get to track five, the malevolent Black Sea Of Drought there is simply jagged holes in the chest where the outer rib cage and covering skin should be. It is brutal, it is intimidating and simply impossible to resist. A veritable battery of death metal, there is only one way to avoid the impact, and that is to join the ride. 8/10
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