Joshua Ketchmark was a new on me this morning when I logged on to start my day, but I can safely say that, even though country rock isn’t my top genre of rock music, I thoroughly enjoyed this latest track from him.
Based in Nashville in Tennessee, Joshua was born in a small town near Chicago, and soaked up anything he could hear from the airwaves, before heading off on his own musical journey.
Tazewell County Line is the last, and concluding track on his new album Blood, his tenth by the way and featuring Black Star Riders Zak St John plus various other guest musicians and kicks off with the typical twang of a country rock guitar.
His beautiful yet fragile and fragmented voice is perfect for this country rock ballad and the acoustic guitars backing up the electric lead give the track feeling and emotion.
With reflective vocals, a steady drum beat and the mix of acoustic and electric guitars, this song paints a picture that draws you in right from the start.
Country rock tracks are story tellers, and this is a beautifully poignant track that leaves the listener wondering about its story.
I really did like this track. A great offering from a glaringly talented musician.
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
If you have not heard of Stone Portal before, and I hadn’t before doing this review, then I seriously urge you to go and check them out!
A “rock collaboration from across the British Isles” these guys (how many guys, however, I am not sure!) are the absolute epitome of the 90’s/2000’s post-grunge mixed with a classic and hard rock vibe sound.
Catchy and bouncy from the outset, this track is fast-paced with blood-flowing intensity, wild guitar riffs and fantastically awesome vocals! A classic rock voice with a hint of grittiness to give the track an edginess to it, using multi-layered vocals and amazing melodies and harmonies with the backing vocals add so much depth to the track
This track is so full of energy and electricity that you will be rocking your socks off all day to it and these guys certainly are here to rock with a huge, one-of-a-kind, unique sound.
Powerful drumming, heavy riffs and a fantastic guitar solo part way through the song, this track really is an assault on your ear drums (and not in a bad way!)
This is high energy rock music at its finest and if you are a fan of the 2000’s post-grunge sound by bands such as Foo Fighters, Alterbridge and Audioslave then you are going to love, love, love this song.
I want to hear the rest of the album, also called Stealing Airwaves, because if this song is anything to go by, then the album is going to be a stonker!
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
I love my job as a reviewer because every now and then a real gem of a track appears and Never Said by Everything But The Everything is one such gem!
As soon as the song started it smacked of a Gary Numan mixed with The Sisters Of Mercy and The Smiths vibe, and being a lover of gothic music anyway, I knew this one was going to be a winner.
With huge nods to the new wave, gothic, and dark wave genres all spurting forward right from the outset, this is a fast-paced track that does not let up from start to finish.
With very 80’s inspired female vocals, very reminiscent to those of Hazel O’Connor and Toyah, this track with have you bouncing around the living room. I was bopping away in my chair trying to write this review, and that was no mean feat I can tell you 😊
The innovation of Izzy the Gent, the project has grown from a one-man band to a collaboration with guest vocalists keeping the music fresh and contribution from Moog synthesizer specialist Andrew Gomez and drummer Landon Gisneros elevating the band’s sound.
Drums, synths, and guitars, all the hallmarks of the new-wave genre, are all evident here and I love the sound that all of them combined make. The multi-layered vocals and instrumentation give the track dimension and feeling, and the emotion portrayed is just phenomenal.
If you like the whole 80’s new-wave, goth sound then I think you are going to love this song. No, correction…. I KNOW you are going to love this song!
Absolutely outstanding track! I definitely need to hear more!
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
Having previously reviewed the last offering from Jane N The Jungle, it was an honour and a privilege to be able to give my thoughts on their latest single Raw As A Jewel
Keeping in the same vein as the previous single, Raw As A Jewel is a heavy-hitting hard rock song and is released on 17th November 2022.
Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, the band is fronted by singer Jordan White, and she said of the track:ailign H
“As an artist, I am always striving to write, sing and perform in my most raw, authentic self. It was a fight within myself, a feeling that felt as if I wanted to crawl outside my body and I wanted to portray that emotion in Raw As A Jewel”, something that I think she has done effortlessly and perfectly.
The track is about “giving in to your desires and baring it all with reckless abandon”, something we all need to do every now and then, and the rawness and edginess of this theme is very evident in the track.
It has strong vocals, heavy riffs, fierce drums, and gritty bass and this mixed with the big, catchy chorus, will have you dancing around and headbanging to it in no time.
This truly is an epic track, brilliant right down to the last note, full of explosive energy and total rock-out-ability, and there is even a great video to boot!
Now, I need to go and find some more music from this great band and add it to my collection!
Jane N The Jungle…. You Rock!!
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
Well, its Monday morning, its cold and grey outside and as I sat down at my desk ready to take on the day, the first music I had to review was the new mini album/EP by Combinator title Re//combinator!
Combinator is the brainchild of foreign born and raised, singing, song writing, multi-instrumentalist bassist, Sean Fairchild. Born in Malaysia, Sean spent years living abroad and developed a keen interest in the shapes and tones of music from Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. He studied music and ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and bass teaching bass guitar at high school.
Re//combinator is the musicians third album and is a compilation of four original tracks and three remixes of well-known tracks from the 90’s alternative Seattle scene and was released on 17th June 2022.
Fusing electronic beats, industrial percussion and design and groovy synths with funky slap bass, heavy guitars, and catchy melodies, Combinator has managed to create a sound that it unusual, innovative, and totally unique.
With a fuzzy guitar sound and distorted vocals, the album has a very industrial, futuristic vibe to it, showing his great musical and technological knowledge.
One of the things I loved about this album was the use of the bass guitar (I do love a bass guitar!) It is fresh and original to hear the bass being the main instrument and all other sounds and instruments fitting in around it but done in such an effortless manner, the flow of the music being maintained at all times.
“The spirit and ethos of Combinator has always been about oneness, singularity and fusing diverse musical styles into ‘allsomes’!” and this album really has achieved that objective. With jungle, hip-hop, and trance influences, along with rock and electronic dance, shining through, this album not only mixes genres, but it also totally bends them and blurs all lines between them, resulting in a very experimental, psychedelic in places, and progressive bunch of songs.
Multi layers in the music and the vocals means that with each play through the listener is presented with something different and something new. No one could ever get bored listening to this album, and it certainly brightened up my morning!
This album is alternative rock, but something that is more than alternative rock! This album really will reach out to you and pull you in and you haver no choice but to love it!
But don’t take my word for it, go and check it out for yourself 😊
Track Listing:
1 Guest In Your Own Skin
2 Things That Should Be
3 Hide And Seek
4 Cartoon Character Child
5 Respira (Jesse Holt Club Mix)
6 Respira (Jesse Holt Chill Mix)
7 Through The Fog (Chi:Child Mix) (Bonus)
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Taking the world by storm since 2021, Metrophobia is the Swiss/Spanish pairing of Markus Gmür on vocals and acoustic guitar and José Garrido on guitar, bass, and drums programming. They are an indie / alternative rock band who have taken their influences from the independent 90’s scene, combining the likes of alternative rock, noisy pop, indie rock, grunge and punk rock from bands such as Pixies, Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr and Pavement.
Words Unseen is their latest release and is a well-rounded track with good melodies and a slightly darker production. The mix of dark pop, emotional lyrics, distorted guitars, intense drum rhythms and melodic bass (all from just the two of them!) has given the combination of genres a modern touch to create a great original track.
This is a hauntingly beautiful track, and the feelings of sadness and melancholy are stunningly portrayed. The guitar work is awesome and energetic, the bass line is polished and tidy, the percussion is bombastic, and the vocals are poignant.
This is a great track! Well done!
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
Oh, how I love how music can transport you to another time and dimension, free you from the stresses of life and take you away from it all, even if its just for an hour!
Cellophane Radio is an album that can do just that. Doomy and grungy, this album is seven tracks worth of distorted fuzziness!
Murnau was first formed over a decade ago in Morrison, Illinois but had to take a multi-year hiatus, reforming in 2019 and Cellophane Radio is their third album.
A two-piece drums and guitar band with Alec Riggen on vocals, guitar and mellotron and Nick Pompou on percussion, this pair really do have a big sound, playing stripped down, loud and atmospheric music.
With its doomy intro, influenced by a mixture of 90’s goth and grunge, the album builds up with its heavy yet catchy choruses and doom-laden riffs. Distortion of both the guitars and the vocals give it a raw yet dark vibe, and the multi-layered vocals give it dimension and feeling.
The band chose to cover PJ Harvey’s Dear Darkness, taking it to a darker and heavier level with lots of gloomy, well-mixed vocals and I think this shows just the sheer talent of these two guys.
This album has lots of highly emotional lyrics and beautiful orchestrations and mixed with the distortion, this also creates a very proggy and psychedelic vibe.
I really did like listening to this album and if you are a fan of anything goth / grunge / alternative / prog / psychedelic then I think you will too. Blurring the lines between genres is one of the things I love about bands, and Murnau do it beautifully.
I will certainly be keeping an ear out for anything new these guys release and will go check out the previous two releases. I urge you to do the same!
TRACK LISTING:
1) Baltic Sea
2) Primroses
3) Un Chien Andalou Pt 3: About Three in The Morning
4) Silhouette
5) Witness
6) Secrets
7) Is He The Man?
8) Veneer
9) Overhead
10) Dear Darkness
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
“New wave is forgotten, grunge is gone – Metal is back and it’s here to stay – FOR GOOD!” This is not my opinion, although I must admit I do tend to agree, but rather a tag line from German band Cherry Bomb’s very own website! And these one-time kings of hard rock are back!
With their typical 80’s hard rock / AOR / glam sound these guys know how to send you on a trip down memory lane to a time of hair metal, spandex and near the mark lyrics!!
And with members called Ben Dover (drums), Chris P Nuttz (vocals, guitars), Vince Vixxen (vocals, guitars) Neil N Blomee (vocals, keys) and York Hunt (bass) this is a band plucked straight from 1984!
This album has thirteen anthemic tracks, all as catchy and infectious as each other. With its big choruses and melodic vocals this album is bound to have you singing along into your hairbrush.
It has pop-influenced hooks and banging guitar riffs that will make you jump around the living room like you did nearly forty (crikey!) years ago and its shred guitar solos will make you dust off those air guitars!
This album is 55 minutes and thirty-six seconds of pure upbeat rock anthems, and it was an absolute joy to listen to it. I have been a fan of glam metal for years (although am too young to remember it the first-time round!) and this is just as good, if not better, than some of the offerings from the original glam bands.
Interspersed with the all the rockiness are a few power ballads, bringing the tempo of the album down a notch or two for a short time before launching you face first back into a glam rock frenzy.
I absolutely loved this album and if I were to give it a score out of ten, it would definitely be a ten!
The original glam bands such as Poison, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Ratt (to name but a few) might not be able to cut the mustard anymore, but with bands like Cherry Bomb, the glam metal genre should never die out!
Hopefully, this will appeal to some of the younger metalheads of today, but if not, there are a fair few “older” glam fans who are absolutely going to love this!
Track Listing:
1) No Beer In The Fridge
2) Boobie Wonderland
3) Pandora’s Box
4) I’m Your Man
5) Metalheadz 4 Ever
6) Oh Rosie!!
7) First Choice
8) Just Go
9) Don’t Forget Your Shoes
10) Don’t Stop
11) Just A Stripper Girl
12) 2 Fuckin’ Wasted
13) Always On My Mind
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
What better way to wake up a Wednesday morning than with some death/black metal from North Virginia based metal band, Harvest the Lost?
Citing themselves as a deathcore band (too many genres!!) these guys could easily fit into any of the death metal, black metal or metalcore fields, as this track blurs the lines between them all (who needs definition anyway?)
Using soft piano sounds to start the track, the pounding drums, heavy riffs, and guttural growls soon kick in transforming this into a brutal and raw offering.
Chugging riffs, double kick drums and low, throaty growls, providing the classic death metal sound, are at the forefront of the early part of the song, but this is soon mixed with black metal vocals as the tempo of the track changes from sluggish and heavy to almost speed metal.
The band switch from one tempo to the other easily and effortlessly throughout the track, leaving the listener no option of becoming bored or disinterested, the track always having something going on.
This band have such a great, immense sound that it is almost impossible to believe that is comes from just two guys!!
If you like your death metal, or indeed your black metal, metalcore or deathcore, then please go and check this amazing band out.
You will not be disappointed!
This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum
Koala Bar are a Swedish indie/alternative band and Pas de Bourrée is their new single, released on 28/10/2022.
Originally starting in 2015 as a duo, the band have now welcomed two more members, making them a quartet and they released their debut album Di Sorte in 2018.
The soft guitar work and wonderful use of the snare drum give this track a mellow and relaxing vibe, something you could unwind to at the end of the day.
The beautiful melodies and harmonious vocals really do emit peacefulness and tranquillity although the track is also quite atmospheric and reflective.
There is a certain groove about the track that makes it super catchy, and I know that when you have heard this song once, it will be your ear worm for the rest of the day. The song also has an edginess to it which makes it more than just an appealing pop song, and I think this track will attract a lot of listeners.
Excellent job!
This review is purely them property of The Metal Asylum
Metal Planet Media 