Why after three albums they haven’t got the alligators some pyjamas I don’t know but it seems that Cold Night For Alligators are back with a fourth album. They’ve been riding a wave of popularity that has been climbing ever higher since their 2016 debut, taking slots at Tech Fest, Euroblast and others, showcasing their emotional, avant-garde, technically savvy metal on stages across Europe. They’ve played with some of the biggest names in the business and I’m sure they will impress when they join MØL on tour next month.
They will be armed with the songs from With All That’s Left, a record built through “loss, fatherhood, and burnout”, it’s Johan Jack Pedersen and Nikolaj Sloth Lauszus writing and creating their most experimental and personal music yet, flexing their virtuoso muscles with some start stop modern metal riff and plenty of polyrhythms, but adding soaring choruses that course through you and instrumentation that catches you off guard, with the use of sax and even some whistling particularly effective.
Cold Night For Aliigators have always been hard to properly define and distinctive with their style and while bands like Sleep Token get the plaudits for their poignant, pop infused metal, I’d wager Cold Night For Alligators do it much better. Their music is cinematic, but rooted by their own shared history and experience, there’s an urgency and understanding that we are all mortal so taking time to create something real will always pay off, even if it isn’t perhaps what people expect.
With All That’s Left maybe loses some of the heavier elements but that’s ok as they have replaced that with honesty and sentimentality that is never mawkish but driven by technically assured writing and excellent production from the duo alongside Mirza Radonjica (Siamese, Afterlove) with Jacob Hansen himself doing the mix. Melancholic yet hopefully, the Alligators are still freezing but the music is warm and inviting. 8/10
The Hara - The Fallout (Mascot Records)
The Fallout sees Manchester trio The Hara trying to figure out the world with their music. Josh Taylor (vocals), Jack Kennedy (drums) and Zack Breen (guitar) have always been a band who strive for authenticity. Never writing music for labels or business, but for them, forming a sound that combines alt rock, metalcore and emo, into big riffs and emotional choruses.
There's something to be said for their genre mashing as it has seen them take to the stage at Download, Slam Dunk and Reading/Leeds, gaining a bigger following with every show. The Fallout is "probably the purest, rawest version of us" states Josh, it's their most personal album yet recorded with co-producers Brad Mair and Pete Hutchings (Nothing But Thieves/Royal Blood), The Hara are playing for them and them alone here.
Guided by the subconscious and the struggle that is evident all around us, they have made a record that is a lot bolder and yet more introspective than anything they have done before, it's the 'true' sound of The Hara if you will. Equally increasing how heavy they can be and how introspective they can too, with songs about mental health, toxic relationships. The breakbeat drums, EDM and electronic pulses are constantly a part of the songs (The System) but they blend seamlessly with the angsty emotional vocals and the heavy riffs.
The Fallout is as modern as metal these days gets, finger on the pulse stuff, the band technically levelling up as The Hara prove they are more than just another corporate rock act, though this will be immensely popular, but also speak from a place of truth and authenticity on The Fallout. 7/10
Stormzone – Immortal Beloved (Escape Music)
Immortal Beloved is the eighth studio album from Belfast heavy metal crew Stormzone. We’ve been following the band for well over ten years and while we haven’t covered every album they have released when we do, it’s always a pleasure as Stormzone know how to deliver classic heavy metal with a modern flourish.
Immortal Beloved is their first album since before the pandemic and it opens with a mid-paced heavy rocker based upon Belfast’s most famous export the Titanic. It’s Stormzone 101 and brings you back into the fist pumping riffs of these veterans, keeping their NWOBHM credentials in check (despite forming 20-odd years after).
In recent years they have moved away from their NWOBHM beginnings to heavier realms and on the title track they pick up the pace letting loose with some frantic double kicks, while Stand In Line and The Hammer Has To Fall brings forward their power metal bluster via some Iron Maiden influence on the former and keyboard melodies on the latter.
The performances all round are rock solid, considering it’s a brand new line up with only vocalist John “Harv” Harbinson left from the founding line up, guitarist David Sheilds has been in the band before while co-guitarist Shaun Nelson-Frame, drummer Peto Uhrin and bassist Jan Uhrin are the new blood. Nelson-Frame also gives this record the production and mix, keeping it in the 21st Century even though the music straddles the traditional/power/classic metal genres, while retaining that authenticity.
Immortal Beloved doesn’t reinvent anything however if your ears are excited by bands like Maiden, Hammerfall, Magnum or Saracen (labelmates), then Stormzone have some Norn Iron melodic heavy metal for you. 8/10
Fireborn – Dreamcatcher (El Puerto Records)
Some American sounding hard rock from Germany now as Fireborn ignite again with their new record Dreamcatcher, despite only releasing their debut album in 2023 the band can be traced back their previous name Dislike Silence, where they landed 3rd place in the rock category at the German Rock and Pop Awards. This led them to the studio of Destruction’s Schmier and engineer V.O. Pulver to record their debut album under their new name of Fireborn.
It’s moniker much more like the sound of the band as while they dislike silence there is an incendiary quality about the band coming from the raspy vocals of Jenny who belts out these tracks with the power and finesse of Lzzy Hale while the band comprised of Dennis and Rick on guitar, Raphael on drums and bassist Chris dole out catchy hard rock with a metallic edge.
Immortal Beloved is the eighth studio album from Belfast heavy metal crew Stormzone. We’ve been following the band for well over ten years and while we haven’t covered every album they have released when we do, it’s always a pleasure as Stormzone know how to deliver classic heavy metal with a modern flourish.
Immortal Beloved is their first album since before the pandemic and it opens with a mid-paced heavy rocker based upon Belfast’s most famous export the Titanic. It’s Stormzone 101 and brings you back into the fist pumping riffs of these veterans, keeping their NWOBHM credentials in check (despite forming 20-odd years after).
In recent years they have moved away from their NWOBHM beginnings to heavier realms and on the title track they pick up the pace letting loose with some frantic double kicks, while Stand In Line and The Hammer Has To Fall brings forward their power metal bluster via some Iron Maiden influence on the former and keyboard melodies on the latter.
The performances all round are rock solid, considering it’s a brand new line up with only vocalist John “Harv” Harbinson left from the founding line up, guitarist David Sheilds has been in the band before while co-guitarist Shaun Nelson-Frame, drummer Peto Uhrin and bassist Jan Uhrin are the new blood. Nelson-Frame also gives this record the production and mix, keeping it in the 21st Century even though the music straddles the traditional/power/classic metal genres, while retaining that authenticity.
Immortal Beloved doesn’t reinvent anything however if your ears are excited by bands like Maiden, Hammerfall, Magnum or Saracen (labelmates), then Stormzone have some Norn Iron melodic heavy metal for you. 8/10
Fireborn – Dreamcatcher (El Puerto Records)
Some American sounding hard rock from Germany now as Fireborn ignite again with their new record Dreamcatcher, despite only releasing their debut album in 2023 the band can be traced back their previous name Dislike Silence, where they landed 3rd place in the rock category at the German Rock and Pop Awards. This led them to the studio of Destruction’s Schmier and engineer V.O. Pulver to record their debut album under their new name of Fireborn.
It’s moniker much more like the sound of the band as while they dislike silence there is an incendiary quality about the band coming from the raspy vocals of Jenny who belts out these tracks with the power and finesse of Lzzy Hale while the band comprised of Dennis and Rick on guitar, Raphael on drums and bassist Chris dole out catchy hard rock with a metallic edge.
It gives them a distinct American sound that will get them plenty of radio play, which is the goal for this style of music as that means bigger audience and bigger stages. Though I wonder if Dreamcatcher perhaps doesn’t have the variation it could as at 43 minutes it feels quite long and sags a little.
Still it’s their second album and there is enough here to get them on say Planet Rock and on some of the more classic rock leaning festivals in the UK. Dreamcatcher then sets up Fireborn nicely for bigger things to come. 7/10
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