Top 19 of 2022

 

      

1. King’s X - Three Sides Of One
2. The Dead Daisies – Radiance
3. Clutch – Sunrise On Slaughter Beach
4. Slowtorch – The Machine Has Failed
5. Deadeye Navigator – Lunar Hippies/The Great Binge
6. ZZ Top – Raw
7. Alter Bridge – Pawns & King
8. Wolfnaut – III
9. Mephistofeles - Violent Theatre
10. Sahg – Born Demon
11. Avatarium – Death, Where Is Your Sting
12. Sahara – III: Hell On Earth
13. Shinedown – Planet Zero
14. Crobot – Feel This
15. Mano De Mono – Chameleon Tongue
16. Riot Act - Closer To The Flame
17. Threshold – Dividing Lines
18. Ghost – Impera
19. Jethro Tull - The Zealot Gene

Some other albums not from 2022, but I've listened a LOT to:

• Master Massive - Time Out Of Mind
• Mount Carmel - Get Pure
• Hippie Death Cult - Hippie death Cult
• Mephistofeles - (((I*m Heroin)))
• The Cold Stares - Heavy Shoes
• Twenty Two Hundred - Carnaval de Venus
• Dirty Honey - Dirty Honey
• Chronus - Idols
• Dunsmuir - Dunsmuir
• Cloud Catcher - Trails Of Kozmic Dust
• Bone Church - Acid Communion
• Patriarch - First Hand: Second Verse
• Prins Svart - Inte här för att stanna
• Toehider - To Hide Her
• Beastmaker - Inside The Skull

The Jolly Company – 10 Acts To Astound And Amaze (CD)

There has come quite a bunch of high-class progressive acts from the little country of ours such as ACT, Jono, Kharma, Add The Jolly Company to the list. “Hear The News” kicks off in the true pomp/prog mode with hints of bands like Klatuu, Queen, ACT, City Boy. “Paris Summer Love” certainly has some severe Queen overtones with multilayered harmony vocals from the extremely talented Göran Edman (Madison, Malmsteen, Kharma etc). The project was initiated (and written) by former Crossroad Jam/Backwood Spirit keyboardist Peter Emilsson. The line-up also features Peter’s former Crossroad Jam colleague Joje Lindskoog on drums, Jonathan Lindskoog also on drums, Stefan Jonsson on guitar, Niclas Boson on bass and Anneli Axelsson on backing vocals. If you’re into intricate, orchestrated, theatrical, melodic proggy pomp rock, this album is a MUST. The songs are top notch, the musicians brilliant and Göran’s vocals are really the icing on the cake. My only disappointment is in myself and that it took me so long to really listen to and review this masterpiece!

Janne Stark

Country: Sweden

Year: 2021

Label: Self-released

Tony Spinner – Official Live Bootleg (CD)

Tony Spinner goes live, and he kicks it off with an excellent version of The Nightcaps’ old “Thunderbird”, which I first heard by ZZ Top, and Tony does it in true ZZ Top mode. This album, featuring 14 songs, was recorded at the Blues In Rhede festival in Germany. Listening to this I really wish I was there! This is really a powerful, energetic set featuring a bunch of Tony’s originals mixed with covers of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After etc. Especially the explosive version of Ten Years After’s “I May Be Wrong” would be worth the admission fee by itself. The mix is dynamic, yet powerful with flawless playing and vocals. A live album where you really feel the live energy through the speakers! A must!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2022

Country: USA

Bryce Janey – Blue Moon Rising (CD)

This is Bryce’s thirteenth album (if I counted correctly) and it’s a cool, guitar-heavy blues rock affair. Bryce has a cool, raspy blues rock voice that fits the style perfectly. At times he reminds me a bit of mix between Michael Katon and Danny Joe Brown. His guitar playing is cool, bluesy, not overblown, but it does feel a little bit restrained at times, like he doesn’t want to wake up the neighbors. That’s actually my only (small) complaint about this album. The intensity of the lead guitar isn’t at par with the intensity of the rhythm guitars. Even if the songs sometimes are kinda slow and laid back, they are always gritty and (positively) nasty. There are also some really low down and dirty rockers, like the excellent “Blue Moon Rising”. There’s also a funky vibe that sneaks into songs like “Pain In My Heart” and “Lonesome Train”. If you’re into guitar-based blues rock with a southern touch “Blue Moon Rising” is well worth checking out!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2022

Country: USA

Super Vintage – Guardians Of Tradition (CD)

Greece’s most prolific rocker is at it again! Stavros delivers album after album with various projects and bands. Super Vintage hears him rock out in riff rock land. “Guardians Of Tradition” is his sixth album with Super Vintage. The album kicks off with the groovy sleazy blues rocker “Southern Ride”, which leaves off to the Blackfoot sounding “Indian Soul” with some nice classic southern rock guitar solos. “Hero” starts out soft and nice, but kicks in some heavy guitars and turns into a nice southern rock style semi-power-ballad. “Rolling Thunder” kicks it into gear and also features some cool slide guitar. A really nice and very dynamic song with lots of different layers. “Down Down” starts of kinda familiar with a slide guitar but moves into a different direction with some cool finger picking, to again move it up a notch and transform into a cool bluesy southern rock number, with some cool dirty slide and solo work from Stavros. “T For Tennessee” brings it into up-tempo mode and do get a vibe of vintage Blackfoot here as well. Think “Marauder” or “Tomcattin”. “Naked Truth” continues the hard and heavy rocker mode and this one really hits home with me. Powerful and sleazy! Without going into each of the remaining tracks continue in the same vein, except for “Rise And Fall” which is a bit too “country” for my taste. All in all, a kick ass album!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2022

Country: Greece

Gerfast – Legendary Grooves (CD)

Swedish blues rock guitarist Jan Gerfast has been around for quite a few years now. He released his first album “Rollin’ With The Blues” in 1992 and this is his 9th album (counting the “Electric Power Blues” compilation on Grooveyard Records). The new CD starts out kinda lazy with the track “Love” and picks it up a notch with the lyrically current funky song “No More”. “Shame On You” takes it down a bit again and “in “Running Out Of Time” we’re leaving the electric land and it’s all acoustic. Comparing “Legendary Grooves” to Gerfast’s early albums I notice two things which I’m not a huge fan of. The amount of distortion on the guitar has decreased and the vocal vibrato has increased. To be honest it has been a while since I heard a Gerfast album, and this is actually a little bit too lightweight for my taste. It’s by no means a bad album, just a bit too clean and slick for my taste. However, it does really pick up in the album closer “Psychedelic Blue” and I wish the rest of the material would’ve been more in this vein. 

Janne Stark

Label: Magic Music

Year: 2021

Country: Sweden

Journey – Freedom (CD/LP)

 

Already in the opening track “Together We Run” I start looking through the promo material to see if Journey have changed lead singer. Arnel doesn’t really sound like he used to! A bit raspier, a bit scarred, which I’ve never heard before. To be honest, I have no complaints about it at all! It gives a nice edge to his otherwise quite polished voice. The song itself is quite classic melodic hard rock. “Don’t Give Up On Us” (we haven’t!) sounds like they’ve borrowed a bit from themselves, but not too obvious and not too much. It however feels like his struggling a bit to get the vocals to cut through, and I’m missing the edge. “Still Believe In Love” is a different type of ballad, almost with a 10CC:ish vibe to it, while in “You Got The Best Of Me” they again put the pedal to the metal and Neal lets his guitar rip. A really nice one. The however take the tempo down again already in the next song, the bombastic and more traditional style Journey ballad, “Live To Love Again”. The power returns again in “The Way We Used To Be”, a really good rocker with a cool bluesy solo from Schon. Here Arnels voice is more in its right element. ”Come With Me” continues the rock streak and there are some pretty brutal riffs going on with a bit more attitude in the vocal department as well. Another kicker! Then we’re back in ballad land again. I wish they would maybe not go full on go-stop-go but throw in some more mid-tempo songs in-between to ease the ride a bit. “Let It Rain” starts with some almost Steve Vai style riffs from Schon and they again take it down into the heavy rock ditch (I like being there, I should add). “Holding On” keeps the tempo up and here I get a vibe of the first three (pre-Perry) albums. Another killer! I’m not 100 % into the production, though, which I feel is a bit messy at times. “All Day And All Night” is a prime example of the mid-tempo segment I mentioned before. “Don’t Go” is the first song yet where I feel – yeah, this is pure classic AOR. “United We Stand” takes us back to the “Trial By Fire” era while “Life Rolls On” starts off as a soft typical Journey balld but 1:40 into the song, Schon breaks loose and rocks out and the song changes style, which is cool! The 7+ minutes “Beautiful As You Are” offers many surprises. It starts off as a sensitive soft balld with acoustic guitar and strings and with Arnel singing softly, but an minute and a half into the song all Hell breaks loose and the tempo rises. New drummer Narada Michael Walden is busy as a bee in the last part of the song and almost turns it into a drum solo while Neal throws in some heavy guitar chords. It ends in the same soft manner as it started. 15 songs. To be honest, I feel it’s a little too much. 11-12 songs would have been a solid killer album. The production may be a matter of taste and doesn’t get top scores from me, but it’s not bad, just not to my full liking. The playing and the performances are definitely there, and yeah, the songs are, too!

Janne Stark

Yeah: 2022
Label: Frontiers
Country: USA

Cirkus Prütz - Blues Revolution (CD/LP)

 

Swedish quartet Cirkus Prütz (named after something as unusual as the bass player! Well, there’s gotta be a first, nudge nudge wink wink) now releases their second album and already the opening numbers makes you happy. Highly addictive boogie rock with the diesel tank filled to the brim. The band is fronted by The Quill guitarist Christian Karlsson, here also on lead vocals which he handles more than well. He has a cool bluesy voice that fits that band’s style perfectly. The band is also equipped with a second guitarist who knows his stuff, Franco Santunione formerly of Electric Boys. The band’s front bassist Jerry Prütz has earlier released a bunch of albums with hard rockers W.E.T (not to be confused with the current unit featuring Mårtensson and Soto). ”Boogie Woogie Man” has a bit of ZZ Top vibes in the intro riff, but definitely stands on its own legs. Also the subsequent “Modern Day Gentle man” flirts with the beards with a fitting “every girl wants…” thrown in. A nice rocker! ”Let’s Join Hands” takes it all in a totally different direction with its country vibe making me think of a mix between the theme songs for “True Blood” and “True Detective” with vocals reaching down to Christian’s cojones. Next up is the highly Muddy Waters influenced “The Devil In Me” with a classic riff and some other feathers borrowed from Willie Dixon. ”Howl Like A Wolf” takes the tempo up and struts along with some cool licks. “Headache” is a heavier and also really cool number, also one whose riff teases the memory, while “Gotta Quit Drinking” is a classic slow blues with piano as an extra ingredient. ”Death Knock Blues” is a classic Molly Hatchet style southern rocker, and it actually now dawns on me that Christian does remind me a bit of Hatchet’s original (late) singer Danny Joe Brown, which is a good thing in my book! The album finishes off with what could’ve been a cover of Chuck Berry, classic 50s style rock & roll. It does take guts to play something as simple and straight ahead today. Kudos for that. This is car music, top down, a party rocker and a really nice energy injection if you need it!

/Janne Stark

Year: 2022

Label: Metalville

Country: Sweden

Last Chance – Last Chance (digital)

 

Last Chance is a new US based hard rock band featuring singer Frankie Rage, guitarist Dave Baron, bass player Rob Phillips and drummer Jordan Cannata. 

“Light The Fire” kicks off the album in an 80-oozing sleaze-oriented vein, with an almost punky vibe to it, a bit like MC5 meets early Skid Row (the US band that is). Cannata is really driving the song with Frankie’s practically spitting out the words. “Sick Of It All” takes it in a totally different direction with a heavy funky, sort of Last Crack type vein, with a chorus that throws it all in a totally different direction almost going into Cheap Trick’s pop-melodic territory.  “Breakin’” continues even further into the funk territory. A strange and quirky song that made me think of Fishbone, with yet another Cheap Trick style pop chorus. Great funky slap bass playing from Rob. “Gotcha Back” offers yet another variation in style, more of a shuffle style mid-tempo rocker with a garage rock vibe to it. For some reason, the letters OMFUG appears before me (well, if you know you know). Cool shreddy solo from Dave, too! The musical schizophrenia continues when “Human Eyes” suddenly takes us into southern style pop/rock territory with singer Frankie adding his almost punkish vocal attitude to the mix. “Tattoo” takes us back to CBGBs garage rock vein and it reminds me a bit of a modern Tuff Darts (a band I really like). “Don’t Wanna Be Your Man” starts out a bit heavy but turns into an acoustic number which reminds med quite a lot of Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and here Frankie does sound a bit like Brett Michaels. “Tough Titty” is another piece of sleaze-oriented rock in the vein of heavier Poison or Faster Pussycat, while “Anything But That” is a semi-ballad, leaning more into the reign of southern rock but they do lose me in the chorus with the vocals following the guitar chords too closely. The album ends with another funk-oriented quirky thing entitled “Kamikaze” with a straight ahead almost punky chorus, and a shredding solo from Dave. In conclusion, I will admit this is not really up my alley and I do have a bit of a problem with the vocals which have a bit too much punk attitude for my taste, but the album does have some highlights.

/Janne Stark 

Year: 2022
Country: USA
Label: self-released

King’s X - Three Sides Of One (CD/LP)

 

King’s X has been one of my absolute favorite bands ever since I first heard “Gretchen Goes To Nebraska”. I shall however admit that there are a few albums I still haven’t fully taken to heart, “Please Come Home... Mr Bulbous” and “Manic Moonlight”, but I haven’t written them off. There have happened way more on the members’ side/solo projects than with this band who haven’t released a studio album since “XV” in 2008. They signed with the highly odd label Golden Robot a few years ago, but fortunately they switched over to the way more solid Inside Out. “Three Sides Of One” opens with “Let It Rain” which really kicks off the album with some heavy rock and even some hints of Led Zeppelin, plus a really cool backwards guitar solo from Ty. It kinda leans more towards Dug’s solo material, and it doesn’t have the big vocal harmonies, but a really good start! “Flood Pt 1” starts kinda strange, but soon kicks into gear with some really heavy riffs and staccato rhythms, but soon jumps into a soft verse with strings and really nice harmony vocals. I can’t say this reminds me of anything they have done before, but I must say I really like it. They are taking it down a few notches with “Nothing But The Truth”, which starts off with soft plucking guitars and this definitely reminds me of old school King’s X, especially the harmony vocals in the chorus, while the verse is almost a bit bluesy. Dug still has a voice that gives me goosebumps! After a fake ending, Ty rolls in with a classic, long, and fantastic solo. “Give It Up” pushes the tempo up and this is definitely King’s X in their prime. The first time I heard it I was totally thrown by the key change in the chorus and had to go back and check what they did. A really cool thing, indeed! They’ve also thrown in a bit of Wally Farkas Yoko imitation for good measure. A killer track indeed! “All God’s Children” starts off soft and nice with a twelve string guitar. A brutally heavy guitar riff rips it all up, but it returns to the soft verse with Ty on vocals. The chorus is based on the heavy riff, fat and simple but great. Harmony vocals – check! Interesting ending as well, where I had expected a long guitar solo there was just plucking guitars and bass runs. I do miss that solo, but I won’t complain. “Take The Time” is an acoustic ballad with a Beatlesque feel to it, sung by jerry. Next up is the rocker of the album, “Festival”. It almost touches on new wave with tongue in cheek lyrics about wanting to arrange a festival, but someone else must do the work. “Swipe Up” is another staccato riffster, a bit different and not the traditional King’s X format, but a really cool song. It sure does have some classic King’s X elements woven into the web. Next up is “Holidays”, also sung by jerry. A cool semi-heavy number, again with some Beatles vibes in the chorus and really nice harmony vocals. “Watcher” definitely has a “Dogman” vibe to it with the cool heavy groove and Ty’s vocal. The guitar sound has Ty’s classic Strat-type touch and he again delivers an outstanding solo. One of my favorites off the album! “She Called Me Home” does also sound like classic King’s X with drop-D tuning, Strat-style plucking and a big dose of nice harmonies. The album finishes with “Every Everywhere”, which sounds like a typical Dug tune. Kinda odd, but nice harmonies and a big chunk of nice melodies in the chorus. I really like the production of the album, which feels very analogue and dynamic. It does sound like real drums and tube amps. All in all, a great return I’ve been waiting a long time to hear! The X is back!

/Janne Stark

Year: 2022

Label: Inside Out

Between Spaces – Between Spaces (MLP 6tr)

I’m not 100 % in what genre to place this Gothenburg based band. Opening track “Lies” has a bit of garage rock attitude, almost a new wave vibe and then suddenly a heavy rock break and in comes… a saxophone!? (Sorry, sax is my absolute pet hate). Singer Mikael Lilja sounds like he’s been influenced by anything from Johnny Rotten and Iggy Pop. “A Silent Room” has a different kind of approach with a slightly proggier touch. I honestly don’t really know where to place this band musically. It is quite intriguing and it’s honestly nothing a listen to on a regular basis. The song has quite a lot of different moods and vibes and definitely falls under the progressive banner. Melodic, garagy and progressive. Side A finisher “In Memoriam” takes quite a different turn and starts out leaning more on soft folky piano music. Maybe a reference to Jan Johansson? The vocals are fine, but the Swenglish pronunciation and crammed in sentences is a slight bit annoying to my ears. The song itself is really interesting and the build-up is very dramatic and thought-through. When the crescendo solo part kicks in it’s really really good, with some really cool unexpected chords popped in. Loved that! Side two opens with “At The End” which starts out in an interesting proggy vein, to move into a more straight ahead avant-gardist, almost gothy verse. Quite hard to pin-point where the band has picked their influences. “Fear Of Being Inadequate” kicks off in an almost hard rocking up-tempo style and continues as a really good proggy rocker, clocking in at 8:45. The production is very analogue sounding and works really well with the music. The record finishes with the track “Tempus Fugit” which also starts out with some mellow Jan Johansson:ish piano. An intriguing composition, I must say, with nice strings blending in with the piano. I’m afraid I’m not a huge fan of the vocals, but musically the song is an interesting, well-composed and well-arranged piece, going from the soft folky intro into quite heavy guitar and bass chugging with some interesting keyboard and violin melodies and soloing. It made me think a bit of Swedish proggsters Anekdoten, which is really good in my book.

/Janne Stark

Year: 2021

Label: private

Heavy Roller – Heavy Roller (LP)

I’ve always had a soft spot for Australian hard rock ever since I heard Stevie Wright’s “Evie” back in 1974. Soon enough AC/DC popped up and on it went with bands like Rabbitt, Taste and later on excellent bands like Tracer, Electric Mary, Wolfmother and Twenty Two Hundred. Add Heavy Roller to this lot. A new four-piece from downunder that rocks big time! The band’s self-released debut kicks off with “Heavy Roller” in a powerful mid-tempo vein, followed by no frills up-tempo heavy rock ‘n roller “Jug”, that will give fellow-Aussies Airbourne a run for their money. The band consists of Luke Earthling on guitar, Cam Roach behind the drums, Dwain du Plessis on vocals and guitar and Gater Springate on bass and backing vocals. “Barfly” kicks the album into AC/DC style gear and you can almost feel the beer start flowing. “Getting’ By” is a super groovy, bluesy rocker with cool funky guitar work and Dwain’s gritty vocals on top. Love it! Side A closes with the stomping bluesy rocker “The Raven” with harmonica on top. On to side B and we head straight into the heavy rocking “Undead World”. A cool guitar chugging number at a medium pace (as Adam Sandler so eloquently put it). “Scavengers Delight” continues in a mid-tempo, but still pretty intense vibe and in the chorus, they do rock it out. It made me think of what The Hellacopters would’ve sounded like if they were an Australian band. “Deceiver” again gets the riff machine moving, with an almost punkish intensity. “Demon In Me” brings it back down quite a bit to a very smooth, but still kinda Iggy Pop-style number, which of course breaks out into full mayhem in the chorus. A great driving rocker! Side B finishes at full throttle with up-tempo party rocker “Burning Dollars”. All in all, a really solid debut from these Aussie rockers. Already looking forward to their next release!

Year: 2021

Country: Australia

Label: Thong Knife

Link: https://heavyrollerrock.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-roller

Jesse Jay Johnson – Man On A Mission (CD)

It’s been a few years since Jesse set the blues on fire. To show he is still on fire, he opens the new album with the smoking hot “Got To Burn”. “You got to burn if you want to shine” – and shines it does. A cool stomping blues rocker, indeed! “Livin’ On Rock ‘N Roll” kicks it into backbeat and lets out a classic blues rocker, while “Man On A Mission” starts off almost like Robin Trower’s “Day of The Eagle”, but only the intro riff. Powerful classic blues rock. In “Good As Gone” Jesse takes it down into a groove funky vibe, while “No Disguise” is a smooth blues ballad with Jesse’s outstanding guitar playing and soulful vocals. “Whatever You Want” kicks it back into gear with that perfect neck pick-up Strat grind and a funky touch. “One Day At A Time” brings out the guitar and slide and places the vibe on the porch, at least in the intro, while the verse brings us into full blues-rocking mode. “Tearin’ Down The Walls” adds a bit of organ to the mix, but the funky vibe is still the same. “Rock The Blues” is a cool, driving, shuffle rocker, while album closing track “Beyond The Horizon” kicks off with a smooth keyboard and a searing Strat solo and goes into a sound track for the open fields. A very good album, I must say!

Year: 2021

Country: USA

Label: Grooveyard Records

Link: www.grooveyardrecords.com

Jimmy Ryan - Astral Café (CD)

 

Guitarist extraordinaire, Jimmy Ryan, is finally following up his excellent “21st Century Riffology” CD of 2017. Jimmy is an outstanding player, mixing his blues oriented with classic rock in the vein of Wishbone Ash, which was the first thing I came to think of when listening to opening track “Starlord”. Killer melodic, instrumental, melodic guitar rock. “Shatterbrain” goes into a melodic, almost slightly fusion-oriented mode, with some brutal fuzz+UniVibe soloing. The cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” is a groovy heavy riff rocker, quite different from any other version I’ve heard. Jimmy’s rough-edged vocals fit this track like a glove. “Earthrise” is a smooth instrumental melodic number that takes us on to “Skydance”, which continues the melodic instrumental path, but with some cool almost progressive passages which gives the song a nice touch. “Black Ice” is a quirky riff piece, still melodic, but adding another new flavor to the album. Jimmy rips it open with a nice wah solo. “I’m Ready” brings in the heavy artillery and this one also has some fierce vocals from Jimmy. A kick ass heavy rocker, indeed! “Dulcinea” again brings us back into melodic guitar territory, while “Beserker” sure does what it says. That track has a raw, almost King’s X:ish vibe, but Jimmy’s smooth lead guitar lays in top like a smooth blanket. “Plectrumelectrum” kicks it into riff gear again and it does have a certain Zeppelin vibe to it. A cool track, indeed, with some pretty wild guitar harmonies. The short, but effective “Dreadhulk” takes us back into the detuned regions again, but soon picks up the pace and delivers some really cool harmony guitars. Drummer Dan Van Schindel makes good use of his toms in this one, as well as in the energetic vocal “Celestial Voice”, which made me think of Asia meets Wishbone Ash, with a pretty intense proggy mid-section and more kick ass soling from Jimmy. The album closes with “Quiet Flight”, which again is a quite descriptive title for a song. A smooth melodic guitar solo opens this more than 8 minute long number, which also takes a short walk into fusion-land. In all a brilliant guitar album for fans of bands like vintage Wishbone Ash. 

Year: 2021

Label: Ryanetics

Country: USA

Link: www.ryanetics.com

Almost forgot to publish - but here it is! Top 20 of 2021!

1. The Dead Daisies – Holy Ground – I did like this band before, but Glenn Hughes kicks it up quite a few notches! Super solid release!
2. The Cold Stares – Heavy Shoes – Kick-ass solid band! Not a bad release, always deliver, also live!
3. Timechild – And Yet It Moves – Late entry, but damn, this one rocks big time!!
4. Dirty Honey – Dirty Honey – Killer modern retro band!
5. The Dust Coda – Mojo Skyline – Yeah! Riff rock heaven!
6. The Age Of Truth – Resolute – 2nd album, and they again deliver 100 %!
7. A.C.T – Heatwave – This band NEVER disappoints! Melodic prog of the highest order!
8. Neromega – Neromega – Italian 70s influenced outstanding band!
9. Grinder Blues – El Dos – Dug and the Bihlman bros deliver another solid album! Killer stuff indeed!
10. Hangar Nord – Hangar Nord – I’m not a huge fan of Pink Floyd, but this I like. It does have a nice flair of Alan Parson as well, which I do like. Soft and dreamy, but what an album!
11. Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc – Daym!! Zakk did really surprise me this time!! His best BLS album EVER, period!
12. Prins Svart – Sanning/Makt – This Swedish combo, now with Mats Leven fronting always deliver, and what a solid live band!
13. Tania Kikidi – Rock & Roll Paradise – Another debut that kicked my ass this year! Tania rocks big time!
14. Wolftooth – Blood & Iron – A band I recently discovered, and yet another strong release from these heavies!
15. The Vintage Caravan – Monuments – The Icelandic retro rockers once again deliver!
16. Nestor – Kids In A Ghost Town – Yes, this is 80s melodic metal/hard rock, and yes, this has all the gimmicks of that era written in capital letters – and I like it!
17. Green Lung – Black Harvest – Another nice surprise. Liked their previous album a lot, but this one really rocks! Outstanding heavy 70s Purple/Heep:ish hard rockers!
18. Indifferent – Nocturnal Thoughts – Another outstanding Swedish combo with melodies, great vocals and solid riffs!
19. Khemmis – Deceiver – Another new surprise! Great heavy rock!
20. The Sonic Overlords – The Last Days Of Babylon – New Swedish heavy combo who delivers a phenomenal debut album!