Birmingham based blues/rock band Big Wolf Band have pulled a rabbit out of the hat with LIVE & HOWLIN' - a live album released earlier this year.

Most bands would be happy to produce one outstanding album in a year but Rival Sons have just released a second in Lightbringer and what a one two punch these albums produce.

Cardiff’s Holding Absence complete their album trilogy with newest release “The Noble Art of Self Destruction”.

Los Angeles Neo-Classical extreme metal mavericks Exmortus return with album no6 “Necrophony”.

It’s four years since Jax Chambers (Girlschool) and the gang of Syteria have released an album. It that time, they have gigged extensively and made the name more well known, plus if this new release is anything to go by, they have honed their writing skills and homed in on a sound that is consistent with their edgy, slightly punky image.

The Welsh bastards of clan Campbell release studio album number three and it as good as the very high expectations I had.

Where has the time gone, album number 15 for the Canadian outfit, let's get stuck in and see what we are dealing with!

It's been a shattering time for Sydney Metalcore outfit Polaris. With the recent, sudden passing of lead guitarist Ryan Siew in June, their world has been turned upside down and just having finished recording their third album everything was suddenly thrown into unexpected territory.

Bright and fierce, Seraina Telli's new album rips up a storm and continues the straight forward, hard rocking 'Simple Talk' of her previous album with some additional light and shade.

Grace and Aaron Bond are two wonderfully talented human beings. When they come together as one as the band WHEN RIVERS MEET the energy and passion for music and life in general floods out in abundance and overwhelms the listener like a tsunami equivalent to the meeting of the world's greatest rivers.

After what seems like an eternity, with lineup changes, Guitarist Craig Joiner suffering a heart attack and the pandemic getting in the way, Romeos Daughter return with their follow up to 2015’s `Spin’.

Nothing Left To Lose is AOR vocalist Kent Hilli’s second solo album following on from 2021’s The Rumble and his work with Perfect Plan and the latest incarnation of AOR supergroup Giant.

Rian is a new band to me although Wings is apparently their third album, released on Frontiers Music s.r.l. Musically, they inhabit the Melodic Hard Rock world, although keyboard player extraordinaire Eric Ragno joins them for this album to add a rather lovely AOR sheen to their tunes.

Coinciding with the 15th anniversary of All Hope is Gone, Slipknot make available for the first time their 2009 performance which has become the stuff of legend with “Live at MSG”.

It may have taken seven years to get album number four but I can assure you it is worth the wait. It has been a long time for a few things with Albany Down, 2016 since last album “The Outer Reach” and 2017 since the last live gig in Glasgow...a gig that was a highlight of that year.

10 new tracks by one of my favourites? Go on then! What a way to spend a few days in the sunshine. I love Lowdrive and am constantly trying to get people to have a listen to their debut album. This is band which blends hard rock, alt, grunge, 60s, 70s, psychedelic, stoner and metal into their own distinctive and quite addictive sound.