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

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

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

Sakis Dovolis Trio – Cross The Line (CD)

Man, it seems the blues has really hit Greece! They have produced the fantastic talent of Stavros Papadopolous (who has also co-produced this album), with his Universal Hippies, Freerock Saints and Super Vintage. Here, his fellow country man Sakis proves he too can deliver the goods! It does say “trio”, so of course he’s got two fellows taking care of the bass (Fotis Dovolis) and drums (Nick Kalivas), and they do it with power, groove and assertiveness indeed! The album kicks off with the riff rockin’ “All Over You” in same same territory as Robin Trower, Craig Erickson, Philip Sayce. Lance Lopez and with a touch of Stevie Ray in his leads. Sakis is a phenomenal guitarist and also a great singer! If someone had played it to me without saying the band name, I would have said 100 % American. Well, Sakis also knows how to deliver crunchy and groovy riffs. “Everything” is as groovy as they come with Sakis letting that Strat rip the air a new one! Damn, this guy does rip!! He also manages to keep the momentum up delivering one number after another. There’s some heavy, detuned riffing going on in the title track giving it a different vibe, some more mellow, funky and almost jazzy playing in “Show Me Your Love” and he does it a really cool version of ZZ Top’s “Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings”. The album closes with Sakis’ tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a fine one it is. A cool, bluesy ballad with outstanding guitar playing. A killer of an album, indeed!

Janne Stark

Year: 2018

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

Link: www.sakisdovolis.com

2018 Top 10!

Ok, so I've finally come around to compile my top 10 of 2018!
I may (of course) have forgotten some album I later remember and go - daaaamned! Also, I still have a bunch of albums I haven't even had the time to listen to, so some may have gone under the radar.

1. Prins Svart
This is truly a masterpiece delivered by four Swedish musicians that had a band back in the 90s called Four Sticks. They only released a promo album, but it was a kick-ass piece of plastic (now quite a rarity in its original press - it was quite recently re-issued by Grooveyard Records). Anyway, singer Stefan Berggren has also appeared fronting bands like Company of Snakes, Snakes In Paradise (I see a pattern here...), Berggren Kerslake Band as well as released solo stuff, guitarist Henrik Bergqvist was in The Poodles, bass player Thomas Thorberg in Plankton, Snakes In Paradise and drummer Sebastian Sippola has been beating the skins in Grand Magus, Fortune, Southfork, Plankton etc. In Prins Svart (Prince Black) they get to revisit the good old 70s riff arena, surprisingly (but I love it) singing in Swedish! An outstanding album, which really left me craving for more!!

2. Revolution Highway - Revolution Highway (Grooveyard)
Man, this was on the verge! I received this outstanding CD in December, but damn! It really gave me a musical knock-out! Singer David Fefolt (FireWölf, Hawk, Masi, Valhalla) has the perfect bluesy, ripping voice to match the outstanding guitar licks of Greek riff phenomenon Stavros Papdopoulos (Universal Hippies, Super Vintage). I totally love Stavros other bands (and he's a great singer), but this combination just brings the level up exponentially! This is like hearing some of your favorite albums from the 70s for the first time, mixing classic hard rock with a southern groove and a phat bluesy vibe. Outstanding!

3. Lucifer - II
This one came as a total surprise. I had not even heard the band's first album when this gem just dropped down in my lap (well, it wasn't that simple - saw a link on FaceBook, listened, loved it, Googled the band, found the album and ordered it). Another outstanding slab of 70s oriented riff based hard rock with a touch of doom. Fronted by excellent singer Johanna Sadonis and also featuring former Entombed/Hellacopters bender Nicke Andersson. Riffs prevail! 

4. Clutch - Book Of Bad Decisions
I'm a huge fan of Clutch! The early stuff, not so much, but when I heard Blast Tyrant, I was hooked! The last couple of album have all be EPIC! "Earth Rocker" and "Psychic Warfare" - OUSTANDING! Well, I will admit "Bad Decisions" didn't reach their flawless status, but it's still so much better than so many other albums! A song like "In Walks Barbarella" alone beats 80 % of the releases of 2018.

5. Ty Tabor - Alien Beans
I've always been a huge King's X fan! I've also always been a huge Ty Tybor fan! His solos, his sense for melodic solos, his vocals, his outstanding rhythm guitar playing! A top notch musician in my book! On "Alien Beans" Ty returned to some heavier songs which was right up my alley!

6. Bernie Tormé - Shadowland
Here's another guitar hero of mine that just keeps on delivering! I've been a pledger on his latest bunch of albums, and I've never been disappointed (which has happened with several others). "Shadowland" is not a good album, it's TWO great albums - in one! A double CD! He just keeps on delivering and he sounds better than ever!

7. Earthless - Black Heaven
To be honest I so wanted to like the first two albums by Earthless. The riffs were great, the musicians kicked ass. But... instrumental music rarely does it for me these days. I just wished they would find a good singer to complete the band. Well, now they did! "Black Heaven" is a killer album, indeed! Heavy, stonery/doomy riffing without going over the edge. Actually, more retro than stoner. There are still some instrumental passages, but it works!

8. Judas Priest - Firepower
Man, I grew up on Judas Priest! I heard "Rocka Rolla" on the radio back in 1974 and was hooked! My cousin introduced me to "Sad Wings Of Destiny" and the line and sinker were in as well! I kinda lost them in the 90s and even though "Angel Of Retribution" and "Redeemer of Souls" were quite decent albums, they never really hit home with me. Now, "Firepower" is a different story! It doesn't beat the early stuff, but damn it's a powerful and outstanding effort indeed!

9. Billy Gibbons - Big Bad Blues
I bought Billy's first solo album "Perfectamundo", listened to it, hated it and immediately sold it. I read about the new album being more of a blues album. This time I listened to a couple of songs before buying it. Damn great album! Could have been a ZZ Top album, for sure! And a good one at that!

10. Black Debbath - Norsk Barsk Metal
I just love these Norwegian funny-guys! Musically this is top notch riff-oriented stonerish heavy rock with killer riffs and kick ass songs! The vocals may be the thing that will put some people off. The band sings in Norwegian and the vocals may not be to everyone's liking. The lyrics are funny as shit (which is another factor those who don't understand Norwegian will miss)! "Norsk Barsk Metal" means Norwegian Hard/Heavy Metal. Other song titles include: "Følelsesmessig Inkontinent" (Emotionally incontinent), " Etiske Retningslinjer For Tryllekunstnere" (Ethical guidelines for magicians) and "Pappa lukter tusj" (Daddy smells like ink). Gotta love 'em!

Dirty Dave Osti - Rare Tracks (CD)

Dirty Dave has previously released a couple of really great blues rock albums, so what good would actually a "rare tracks" compilation do? Well, quite a lot it seems. Rare Tracks proves to be a damn fine "could easily have been a legit" album. Consistent in both sound and style. It kicks off with the instrumental blues rocker Grooveyard Ride followed by the southern rock sounding Louisiana Outlaw with a bunch of cool slide licks and fitting raspy vocals. Blur The Lines kicks it into riff mode, with some cool bluesy sections. In The Wind kicks it up a notch in tempo, but both the riffs and the blues are still there. A cool instrumental tune, where my only critique would be that it actually does lack some vocals in the empty spots. Bastard is a cool acoustic number leading into another cool bluesy melodic semi-ballad. Up next is a kick-ass cover of ZZ Top's El Diablo, from the sadly overlooked Tejas album. Without going into each track, let me just say, even though this is "just" a compilation of leftover tracks, it's a damn good one!
Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records
Country: USA
Year: 2017