Let's clear this up: UFO were a band before Michael Schenker joined and they were a band after Michael Schenker left. It just so happens that their most popular period was when Schenker was in the group, so with UFO no longer a band, The Mad Axe Man looks to capitalise on his legacy with this star studded tribute album.
Entitled My Years With UFO it's exactly that, the best songs from the period Schenker was in the band (1972-1978). Joining him in this band are Derek Sherinian on keys, Brian Tichy on drums, and Barry Sparks on bass, while there's a cavalcade of guests who come to join. The most high profile being Axl Rose and Slash, the former singing Love To Love and the latter joining in on the bluesy Mother Mary featuring vocals from Erik Grönwall (who'll be behind the mic when this record goes out on the road). Rose's involvement is strange as he doesn't sound himself, while Stephen Pearcy of Ratt sounds more Axl than Axl on Shoot Shoot.
Elsewhere there's some odd choices and some inspired ones. For the odd Dee Snider turns Natural Thing creepy, Biff Byford makes This Kids into a Saxon track, but on the inspired side Joe Lynn Turner taking Doctor, Doctor and Too Hot To Handle, Jeff Scott Soto getting Lights Out and Joey Tempest on Only You Can Rock Me all sound like they belong singing these tracks.
It's not just singers though as Schenker has some extra instrumental fire power from Roger Glover, John Norum, Joel Hoekstra, Camine Appice, Adrian Vandenberg and Kai Hansen who sneers and shreds through Rock Bottom. The unsung hero though is Michael Voss who's sings Let It Roll and co produces the album with Schenker. Ah yes the production, it's a bit all over the place, some songs a very definitely studio ventures but others almost sound live.
Still My Years In UFO is an album of the legendary rock bands best songs, with some extremely talented people playing on them. If you can get of the whiff of this being a cash in then there's lots to enjoy. 8/10
Blighted Eye - Agony's Bespoke (Beyond The Top Records)
Inspired by the tragic 2018 Australian film Nightingale, Agony's Bespoke is similarly devoid of laughs. It's a concept surrounding trauma about the power of violence and revenge in a person's psyche.
The town of Seattle is known for creating bands who dwell in introspection, it was the root of the grunge scene but Blighted Eye don't wear baggy jumpers and play fuzzy riffs, no they weave a more intricate, esoteric and progressive sound like Swallow The Sun, Opeth and modern day Rotting Christ.
It's somewhat of a sad (in a good way) supergroup featuring current and former members of Aethereus, Mesmur, and Pantheist it's an hour of mesmeric extreme music that transitions from beautiful atmospheres to cataclysmic blasts of black/death metal. Tragoedia is the first introduction to the Opeth similarities, lead guitars that take the song between melodic and malevolent moments.
The Wounding just relies on it's heaviness, the gloomy keys coming behind a repeating riff while In Enmity adds the Rotting Christ comparison with the pace and the snarling vocals. Agony's Bespoke captures an epic sound, layered and progressive but with focus on getting the metallic heaviness at the core it really does remind me of the bands mentioned.
However it does feel that they either need more variation in the songs they have or fewer songs than run longer to get a broader soundscape. That being said tracks such as Howls From Beyond The Mist, Paillid and the title track show exactly what Blighted Eye do very well. Agony's Bespoke is a record that you'd want from who is involved, atmospheric doom driven black/death metal bleakness. 8/10
Bragging Rights - Small Gods (Self Released)
Sludge-infused progressive death, ok let's check that out then. Bragging Rights is a solo project that has been evolving for a while now. Coming out of the sludge/hardcore sound, there's now a much wider style of death metal abound. Because it's from a solo artist and can't be performed in a live setting, it means that the records can be more experimental.
The rage begins with Feet Of Clay and Loves Coffin both having the technical battery of Gojira while Breaking In Kings and Call Me When You Get There both go very abrasive. Musically it's good the guitar playing and vocals especially show the skill on display here. It seems that track seven A Voice is a deliberate shift in the soundscape as we move to the more melodic structures on Cosmonaut which brings Tool and Deftones influences to the record that continue through the middle section of the album.
So yeah at 14 tracks is pretty hefty but Small Gods is a good heavy album from this one man project. Though it's got the most unnerving album cover you'll see all year. 7/10
Soulride - Murder Act (Self Released)
Soulride was formed in November 2008 but three Poles who began to record together playing thrash metal. Based in Coventry they have played gigs all over and released music too, in 2022 they rejigged the line up and set about recording Murder Act, their debut album, it's at the heavier end of the thrashsphere, adding death metal muscle and trad metal melody.
Going as far as their own mascot ala Megadeath's Vic Rattlehead but it's about the songs ultimately so let's get to it. Aleksander "Shopen" Sadowski and Adam "Vrona" Wroniak trade off guitars from the off with blistering leads and thrash rhythms, the engine room of Dariusz "Darion" Klapucki (bass) and Marcin "Ozzy" Komorniczak (drums) pounding away on tracks such as Three Witches, but there's lots of straightforward thrashers and classic metal on this ten track record.
Featuring by guest performances by Kristian Harvard (Xentrix), Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens and former vocalist Kamila Schmidt, Murder Act is an accomplished debut album if you like a bit of variation to standard thrash. 7/10
It's somewhat of a sad (in a good way) supergroup featuring current and former members of Aethereus, Mesmur, and Pantheist it's an hour of mesmeric extreme music that transitions from beautiful atmospheres to cataclysmic blasts of black/death metal. Tragoedia is the first introduction to the Opeth similarities, lead guitars that take the song between melodic and malevolent moments.
The Wounding just relies on it's heaviness, the gloomy keys coming behind a repeating riff while In Enmity adds the Rotting Christ comparison with the pace and the snarling vocals. Agony's Bespoke captures an epic sound, layered and progressive but with focus on getting the metallic heaviness at the core it really does remind me of the bands mentioned.
However it does feel that they either need more variation in the songs they have or fewer songs than run longer to get a broader soundscape. That being said tracks such as Howls From Beyond The Mist, Paillid and the title track show exactly what Blighted Eye do very well. Agony's Bespoke is a record that you'd want from who is involved, atmospheric doom driven black/death metal bleakness. 8/10
Bragging Rights - Small Gods (Self Released)
Sludge-infused progressive death, ok let's check that out then. Bragging Rights is a solo project that has been evolving for a while now. Coming out of the sludge/hardcore sound, there's now a much wider style of death metal abound. Because it's from a solo artist and can't be performed in a live setting, it means that the records can be more experimental.
The rage begins with Feet Of Clay and Loves Coffin both having the technical battery of Gojira while Breaking In Kings and Call Me When You Get There both go very abrasive. Musically it's good the guitar playing and vocals especially show the skill on display here. It seems that track seven A Voice is a deliberate shift in the soundscape as we move to the more melodic structures on Cosmonaut which brings Tool and Deftones influences to the record that continue through the middle section of the album.
So yeah at 14 tracks is pretty hefty but Small Gods is a good heavy album from this one man project. Though it's got the most unnerving album cover you'll see all year. 7/10
Soulride - Murder Act (Self Released)
Soulride was formed in November 2008 but three Poles who began to record together playing thrash metal. Based in Coventry they have played gigs all over and released music too, in 2022 they rejigged the line up and set about recording Murder Act, their debut album, it's at the heavier end of the thrashsphere, adding death metal muscle and trad metal melody.
Going as far as their own mascot ala Megadeath's Vic Rattlehead but it's about the songs ultimately so let's get to it. Aleksander "Shopen" Sadowski and Adam "Vrona" Wroniak trade off guitars from the off with blistering leads and thrash rhythms, the engine room of Dariusz "Darion" Klapucki (bass) and Marcin "Ozzy" Komorniczak (drums) pounding away on tracks such as Three Witches, but there's lots of straightforward thrashers and classic metal on this ten track record.
Featuring by guest performances by Kristian Harvard (Xentrix), Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens and former vocalist Kamila Schmidt, Murder Act is an accomplished debut album if you like a bit of variation to standard thrash. 7/10
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