Reviews archive

April 2025

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33 articles

April 28
- “It would be unfair to describe the message as cliché, but might there be a more inventive way of conveying it?” Neal Morse’s supergroup Cosmic Cathedral reassert their beliefs on debut album Deep Water
- "Dumb done well is lots of fun": Twisted Sister start their own party on You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll
April 25
- Machine Head's Unatoned has so many crushing riffs that it should come with a health and safety certificate. This is a band back in peak condition
- "Stereophonics are clearly past their best now": Kelly Jones & Co. fail to strike a chord quite like the early days on Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait
- “The unreleased material is every bit the equal of what made the final cut, confirming its brilliance”: Tangerine Dream’s 50th anniversary edition of Phaedra
- Leather lungs? Swishing hair? A one-band fight against modern trends? H.E.A.T tighten their grip on the modern melodic rock crown on Welcome To The Future
- "Drenched in glue-sniffing, safety-pinned punk nostalgia": Billy Idol reflects on the good, the bad and the ugly sides of his life on Dream Into It
April 24
- I've never seen a catwalk open up in the middle of a moshpit before - but then I've never seen a band quite like Alt Blk Era
April 22
- "This is their best album yet and a major contender for album of the year." Employed To Serve are officially taking their seat at UK metal's big table with the brilliant Fallen Star
- "In a word, Viagr Aboys is chaos." Swedish post-punks Viagra Boys get weirder, looser and messier than ever on their fourth album
April 21
- "It sounds like Dream Theater doing a pastiche of Bon Jovi songs": Did Extreme over-egg the funk-rock pudding on III Sides To Every Story?
- After six albums of Beelzebub-bothering, Ghost's melodic metal is more tempting than ever
April 20
- "Metal's messiah has officially returned - and his name is Tobias Forge": Stand aside Jesus - Ghost’s devilish Skeletour show is the perfect Easter resurrection
April 18
- In the age of dystopian catastrophe Hawkwind are still looking to space
- “Power and momentum allied to a vivid, panoramic sound”: Hawkwind’s late-career purple patch continues with There Is No Space For Us
- The big hits are nowhere to be heard as Neil Young digs deep on the unusually atmospheric Coastal
April 16
- How Lollapalooza helped lay the foundations for a cultural revolution, via alternative rock, heroin, pierced penises, stomach bile cocktails and a shotgun
- Heilung are the most captivating live act in the world – here’s why
April 14
- "So determinedly understated it's almost soporific": Eric Clapton fails to wake up the neighbours on the cathartic but glum Pilgrim
April 12
- “Rather than surrender to despondency, it builds into an exultant declaration… Darkness and bleakness still lurks – but the album offers light and hope”: IQ’s Dominion
April 11
- Killing Joke, Ministry, The Mission supergroup Sevendials deliver a deliciously warped mix of camp thrills and tense gothic drama on kaleidoscopic debut album A Crash Course In Catastrophe
- "Skeletá is Ghost at their most confident, flamboyant and defiant." Tobias Forge's Satanic Swedes have made the biggest, most joyous and sweetest album of their career
- A 16-year gestation can result in corpulent blowout, but Masters Of Reality's seventh album The Archer is lean, graceful and magnificent
- "Huge songs from a band with the potential to be huge": Those Damn Crows prepare to go international on God Shaped Hole
April 10
- Marshall Emberton III review
- "Is this the ultimate Epica record?" Simone Simons et al show they can do grandiose metal with their eyes closed on Aspiral
April 8
- Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs hone their dream to be as potent a live band as Download festival favourites Vengaboys
- "Siouxsie Sioux gone Black Sabbath." Messa mix jazz, doom, goth and so much more - and are the coolest band you'll hear this week
April 7
- "Their music is as aggressively and pretentiously dull as their choice of band name": The Band's second album is an acknowledged classic, but there are some dissenters
April 4
- “Despite having settled into an MOR-leaning sound, highlights cut through of-their-time instrumental traits”: Camel’s Nude and Pressure Points remixed
- "Classic late-period sleaze rock, all chugging guitar and tomcat howl": L.A. Guns appear impervious to age on Leopard Skin
April 3
- “Many names are familiar; a lot of material isn’t. An evening in with the lava lamp beckons”: Middle Earth: The Soundtrack Of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967–1969
April 1
- Mixing Sepultura groove with Gojira stomp, Alien Weaponry step up into the metal A-league with Te Rā