Rock like this still exists? To get an idea of how traditional this sounds, just think of those ridiculously funny infomercials with Brett Michaels holding an acoustic guitar while he attempts to sell audiences on some ‘80’s-‘90’s hard rock. However, this isn’t a Brett Michaels album, and it is actually…

Elton John deserves a hit. Reportedly, he was irked that his most excellent Captain & The Kid (2006) stiffed after seeing one of his best friends/competitors Rod Stewart sell millions with his tepid and almost unlistenable standards collections. Maybe justice will prevail now as Elton has teamed up with his…

It’s always impressive when bands can accurately evoke emotions in their music. A number of veteran bands can’t conjure the same rage on an entire album that Methodical do on each track of this eponymous release, full of songs specifically crafted to crush skulls.

It’s obvious that Methodical wanted to…

There was a time when all my music-crazed friends and I thought Irakere was the next Santana. We spent hours grooving to their 1980 self-titled masterpiece, keying in on the hot piano player.

Pianist Chucho Valdes, 69, is the son of legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes (91 and still going…

If an album doesn’t grab the listener within the first three minutes (intro excluded) then it probably won’t last long term. Anthony D’Amato, doesn’t have this problem. He understands how to kick off a record.

The first track on this one, “Ballad of the Undecided,” is a complete zinger of…

Nothing could have really prepared me for what was contained within Victims Of The Modern Age. It’s an absolute journey of an album. From ridiculous keyboards, spacey riffing, astonishing singing to more aural drama than you can count on both hands, this isn’t a record that anyone can prepare for.…

The hypnotic, infectious chorus of “Keep moving, don’t look back” from “Don’t Look Back,” might as well be a mantra for Savannah, Georgia’s Kylesa, who, on their fifth full-length, have come so far since their beginning that they can hardly be recognized as the same band. Spiral Shadow continues the…

Lost in all the hoopla about how these songs were recorded is just how good they actually are. Mellencamp went on a wild writing spree and wrote 13 songs in 13 days then, during a break from last summer’s minor league ballpark tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, took…

Wow, who knew that digressions could be so good? In case you didn’t, Tagents is the project of Unearth’s Drummer, Derek Kerswill and his partner Dave Whitman. What might one expect from an Unearth side-project, perhaps something more brutal and crushing? This album however, is the complete opposite of Unearth.…

David Bowie has been strangely mute since 2003’s Reality, so the release of one of his best (from 1976), complete with a previously-unreleased two-disc ‘76 Nassau Coliseum concert, is more than welcome. (There’s also a “Deluxe” box with the same material stretched out over five discs.)

Bowie was still in…