What’s not to like about a sequined jacket, snazzy hat and a Rolling Stones-esque sound to your first solo effort?  Well, not much I say.  Dave Hill, from that little known band to have survived since the 70’s, has recorded his first solo record after founding Slade all those Christmas’s ago.  

Of an age for sure, but with literal decades of experience, this new rock n roll number is a great rock n chill track.  With a mug of tea in the garden, or with a beer in hand as the party gets started, this cross-scenario recording is a joy to listen to.  

Opening with a classic guitar riff, not unlike The Stones, but, with its own party vide, Hill is clearly writing about how he’s rev’d up and ready to go.  With his own band, own freedom (it would appear) it sounds as if this work was a long time coming.  Get ya mates together, get the gear tuned up, and start hitting the road in order to show your work to the crowd.  

With a child like excitement in his lyrics, and a vintage style sound in his fingertips, this is easy listening enjoyable rock at its finest.  Developed with John Berry and produced by Rob Childs, the sound is that kind of classic, crowd enjoyment anthem.  Open to everyone, enjoyed by everyone.  As a gig goer, the track captures that anticipation of the night out, from getting your shoes on to waiting for the curtain to fall after the 3 flashes of the stage torch to the sound desk.    

‘Dirty Foot Lane’ will be Hill’s debut album, released later in the year in October I believe.  I’m excited to listen to the 10 tracks, with John on vocals for some, and Hill taking the lead on the majority.  I think it’ll be a pretty ‘happy go gritty’ storey, formed in the past but uplifting the future. 

It’s only rock n roll, but you’ll like it.    

“Play It To The Crowd” is available now: https://JCPL.lnk.to/PlayItToTheCrowd

Dave Hill’s debut solo album Dirty Foot Lane is released on October 30th.

Pre-order/pre-save: https://linktr.ee/dirtyfootlane

The rock music world is moving at such a pace right now, I can barely keep up!  Just a few weeks ago, Airbourne were absolutely smashing it on the main stage at Eddfest. 

In the blazing sun, the ‘beer can opened on head’ was a cool additive to the ‘riding the shoulders of security through the crowd’.  It’s what you expect from an Airbourne show.  Raucaus, outrageous, aussie rock fun.  You simply can’t not like an Airbourne show.  Classic loud Marhsall driven riffs, with a stage presence you feel even if at the back of a 50,000 strong crowd. 

And here they are again, riding the wave and keeping up the momentum.  At just over 4 mins long, Airbourne have released another single from their nearly released new record.  ‘Here She Comes’ opens with a warm riff, akin to nearly ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’, and then backed up with some supporting whoah whoah whoah’s.  An absolute must for a crowd sing along party. 

Elements of Angus Young are always present, and this track is no different.   Politely singing about, I assume, a very steady and sensible girl, learning her guitar licks, whilst dancing on a bar.  Multitasking is something they’re particularly good at down under I’ve been told.  With proper chunky overdriven riffs, and a full-on band contributing chorus, the boys have done it again.  It’s another song you can ‘see’ as well as hear.  Come the second chorus, the break with the steady kick drum has got ‘crowd clap along’ written all over it.    

Along with ‘Gutsy’ and ‘Alive After Death’ this new album, set for release in the UK on Sept 4^th, is set up to be a 12-track blast of classic Airbourne noise.  

Airbourne’. Made with passion. Made in Australia. The Great Barrier Riff.

 ‘Airbourne’ album track-listing:- 

1. Gutsy 
2. Alive After Death (Last Plane Out) 
3. Here She Comes 
4. Kid In A Candy Store 
5. Sky High 
6. Who Put The Rhythm In You? 
7. Christmas Bonus 
8. Last Man Standing 

9. Rock ‘N’ Roll Ya 
10. Bogotá 
11. Hells Got No Vacancy 
12. Send Me To Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven 

 Airbourne live dates 2026:- 

July 30 – Rockstadt Extreme Fest, Romania 

August 1 – Wacken Open Air, Germany 

August 4 – Tipos Arena, Slovakia 

August 7 – Wasserschloss Klaffenbach, Germany 

August 8 – Rockowizna Festival, Poland 

August 10 – Forum Karlin, Czech Republic 

August 12 – Summer Breeze, Germany 

August 14 – Reload Festival, Germany 

August 16 – Motocultor Festival, France 

August 18 – Navarra Arena, Spain 

August 20 – Roig Arena, Spain 

August 22 – V And B Festival, France 

August 26 – Klub Studio, Poland 

August 29 – Helitehas, Estonia 

August 31 – Allas Sea Pool, Finland 

September 3 – Tivoli Grona Lund, Sweden 

September 5 – High Voltage Live, Norway  

Airbourne Online 

Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify 

The Lord of the Riff is back. Unleashing the first track of his forthcoming new solo album ‘From The Dark’, Tony Iommi brings all the magic that he’s built his legendary career on and ‘World Alone’ is a thrilling and heavy slice of crushing, premium class metal.

Thick with atmosphere, ‘World Alone’ is an epic bit of storytelling that promises much, much more to come, the guitarist bringing the extraordinary vocals of Norway’s very own Jørn Lande, along with powerhouse rhythm section Becky Baldwin on bass and drummer Karl Brazil, along with keys player Mike Exeter. 

Kicking off with a riff that could flatten city blocks, Lande’s distinctive voice starts to weave the spellbound tale, full of power and threat, the whole a mix so heady as to make it impossible but to just be drawn into their world. Echoes of Heaven & Hell era Sabbath but with a dirtier, harder modern edge, this is all you could have hoped for and more.

His first solo release for twenty-one years, ‘World Alone’ is an untouchable testament to the power of Heavy Metal and the man who invented it. Turn it up loud.

 For further information visit Iommi.com

Pre-order here: https://imusic.co/exposure/25028/tony-iommi-from-the-dark

Follow Tony Iommi :

Website : https://www.iommi.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/tonyiomm/

X : https://x.com/tonyiommi

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/tonyiommi/

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@tonyiommioff…

Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/7iA7u…

Apple Music : https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ton…

Front Toward Enemy is the phrase stamped across the face of the M18A1 Claymore, printed there so nobody deploying it under fire gets it backwards. As song titles go it is the most Manson thing imaginable: theatre and real threat fused into one object, with a wink. 

The track has a strange history. It first appeared in 2024, capitalised throughout, as a CD-exclusive extra on the Raise The Red Flag single, a three-thousand-copy curio for the faithful. Two years on it has been revisited, retitled, and pushed onto streaming on 17th July as the second advance cut from One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, the thirteenth Marilyn Manson album, due 14th August on Nuclear Blast. Salvage, then. It does not sound like salvage.

There is no ceremony. The riff lands within seconds, squat, mechanical, mid-paced in the way industrial metal is mid-paced when it aims at your ribs rather than your feet, and Manson arrives over the top of it barking a rally cry that works less as a chorus than as an order. Tyler Bates, co-writer and co-producer, keeps the arrangement deliberately starved: a couple of guitars, a drum sound like a fire door slamming, and just enough electronic grime round the edges to remind you which decade built this man. Bates walked away from the touring band in January, though he stayed for the record, his fourth with Manson.

What Chapter 1 occasionally lacked was momentum, and this has it in abundance. The verses are all sneer and swagger, jabbing at rule-breakers and phonies in a vocabulary that has not shifted much since 1998 but arrives in a drier, nastier rasp. Later he promises to keep swinging until the bruising blacks over and his face stops working properly, which is self-mythologising of the most transparent sort and, irritatingly, effective.

Inventive? Not remotely. Third on the album and plainly built as a battering ram, it exists to move forward and hit things, with the same grim economy as the ordnance it is named after.

Henri Alexander Levy’s video, out on 21st July, is where things turn properly odd. Everything is staged in a flat white void. No gothic clutter, no candelabra, nothing to hide behind. Into that emptiness Levy drops two miniature Mansons, child doppelgangers in full regalia, one on guitar, one behind the kit. They are horrible. They are also the sharpest visual idea he has had in a decade, because the image reads instantly: a man propped up by younger, smaller, more marketable copies of himself.

The rest is a sequence of tableaux. Manson hauling himself upward on a mirrored crucifix. Manson stalking the white space in a long cape. Manson laid out on a hospital trolley while one of the small ones prepares for surgery. Subtlety is not on the invoice. What holds attention is the lighting, which strips away every fog machine and shadow he has ever hidden behind and leaves the performance exposed. Very brave or very careless, and I still cannot decide which.

Front Toward Enemy is lean and mean and free of pretension: the sound of a man who has stopped assembling concept records and started throwing punches, wrapped in the most self-aware imagery he has committed to film in years. Whether you want to stand in front of it is another question. The label is right there on the casing.

One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, will be released August 14th. Pre-order available now.

https://mm.bfan.link/oaug-ch-2

“Front Toward Enemy” music video out now.

In the autumn of 2024, ‘One Assassination Under God – Chapter One’ was released.  Check out the review on Metal Planet Music.  It felt like a turning of the tide, or the musical populus, and how they considered Marilyn Manson at the time, and how the new generations of edgy rock fans would take to the rock icons status amongst society. 

Even by referring to Marilyn Manson as a rock icon is probably upsetting for some.  And yet, the term icon is simply ‘a recognisable character associated to a particular genre or culture’.  In which case, Marilyn Manson is one of the most famous icons of all.

And at the time, despite the clue being in the title, I didn’t expect a Chapter 2 whilst reviewing Chapter 1.

But here we are, nearly 2 years later, and on Friday just gone, the tinterweb community was made aware that ‘One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2’ will be released in August this year, and as a teaser, a brand new single ‘Exit Wound’ was released.    

A slow opener, with the usual eerie build up reminds us of who we’re listening to, and, why.  I say why, because if you are listening to ‘Exit Wound’ on release day, its probably because you’re wanting to.  You know what you’re looking for, and you’re knowing what to expect.

And as the 30 second mark approaches, the clear and prominent bass rolls up the volume and drives the verse.  Comfortingly familiar, and equally as compelling, you’re just waiting for the overdrive of the guitar to crack through the speaker cone and deliver that darkness that all MM fans crave.  Predictable or not, there it is.  The raucous riff that gets your head banging, and neck aching (especially at my age).  As it drops away, it’s back into the more melodic bass driven verse again.  Creating visuals of dry ice filled auditoriums and illuminated upside down Christian crosses (go see them, you’ll get what I mean!), ‘Exit Wound’ feels as if it’s it a true continuation of the previous album, not a supplementary recording. 

Eerie at times, loud, aggressive, softer in parts, it’s pretty much classic Marilyn Manson.  I assume a world tour will follow in late 2026 going into 2027.  Let’s just hope the local councils in the UK don’t prohibit the entertainer from performing like they did on the previous tour.  I think the world has bigger fish to fry than preventing an evening of dark entertainment that so many rock fans crave. 

One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, will be released August 14th. Pre-order available now.

https://mm.bfan.link/oaug-ch-2

“Exit Wound” music video out now.

https://mm.bfan.link/exit-wound

Leeds based quintet Catchfly arrived on the scene swinging like a heavyweight, debut single ‘Eve’ an intoxicating blend of big riffs and gothic atmosphere.

Following that up was a huge hill to climb but new number ‘Sleepless’ shows that they’re ready to take on all comers and the accompanying video captures the otherworldly and unsettling feel of one of the most haunting and heartstopping songs you’ll hear all year.

Seen through a twisted kaleidoscope of dark corners and even darker actions, the song captures the gutwrenching spirit of abuse at the hand of a loved one.

This may sound incredibly heavy fare but the gentle instrumentation and Saira Asteria’s almost ethereal vocals give it a light touch that takes the listener by surprise, the whole building to a guttural and fiery climax that’s blessed with a beautifully formed solo and some shattering closing moments.

Like a dream torn asunder with a butchers hook, there’s more drama and passion here than most bands can manage in a decade, the whole grounded in a chilling and confessional reality that scorches the soul. ‘Sleepless’ isn’t just good, it’s phenomenal. 

Listen on : Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/track/6dwxyY… Apple Music –   / sleepless   Amazon Music – https://music.amazon.com/tracks/B0GY4… Other platforms – https://kycker.ffm.to/sleepless Follow CATCHFLY on : instagram   / catchflymusic   tiktok   / catchflyofficial   facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?… linktree: https://linktr.ee/Catchfly_Music

Aries Aperture Photography

Five Finger Death Punch really are an incredible band.  The more you listen to them, the more you hear the emotion behind the aggression.  Their music is often anger fuelled, fire breathing, massively powerful and an assault on the senses.  

Listen to the new single “Eye Of The Storm” HERE and watch the lyric video HERE.  

Today’s release, ‘Eye Of the Storm’ is more of what we’d come to expect.  Don’t get me wrong, on occasion, 5FDP have produced some tear jerkers.  Their softer covers of ‘Gone Away’ and their super emotive classic ‘A Little Bit Off’ bring even the hardiest of rockers to their knees.  But, their latest release is a punch to the face of a track.  Starting with a vocal of guilt, admission and acceptance, it doesn’t last long before the aggressive power of 5FDP dominates the 3 minute wonder. 

‘Aggression, it’s the only thing you’ll hear.  It’s just like music to your ears.  And that’s why I blame you’

Lyrics that to me, can’t be ‘thought up’, they come from experience.  

Similarly, ‘It’s a pain that burns inside, it only hurst when its applied.  And that’s why I blame you for feeling the way that I do’  

The meaning of the lyrics, their roots or intentions, is secondary. The real story is the atmosphere they conjure.  Emotion smouldering under fire, power disguised as spectacle, feeling woven through smoke and light. Five Finger Death Punch are a rare breed.  Distinctive, unmistakable, and built for the biggest stages.

Crushing riffs, gut shaking bass, and thunderous drums all work harmoniously to deliver a powerhouse of a track, that will no doubt be another arena anthem. 

Which reminds me, their UK show dates have been announced and tickets are on sale.  If you’ve not seen 5FDP before now, treat yourself and marvel at one of the best beards in the business.  And fire.  Lots of fire.  

Connect with 5FDP

Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube | Spotify

Another typical Friday morning in May.  Yawn.  The sky is bright after a pretty biblical storm yesterday.  Slowly plodding about, maybe a coffee.

Hang on!  What am I doing!?  Fuck the coffee, I’ve got a more effective wake me up to try!  On this delightfully bright morning, a little thrash band from over the pond have delivered us all a spring gift!  ‘It’s For the Kids’ is the first single to be released from their new up and coming 12^th studio record. 

Anthrax stated 3 days ago ‘we’re back!’.  And they are just that.  The new single opens with crazy whammy of the guitar mixed with perhaps some keys, and within seconds of the just over 4-minute track, that signature thrash snare drum is back!  Scott Ian’s riffs are as always.  Loud, clear and fast.  I can nearly hear his beard head banging as the short wearing, shaved headed legend that he is, belts out another thrash classic.  

Accompanied by the thunder of the bass, it lays the perfect back drop for Belladonna’s voice to shine.  And shine it continues to do.  Lyrically, it’s pretty brief.  With only 2 verses and I think 2 choruses, the track is well proportioned and spaced out with joyful thrash riffs, classic squealing solos and more big hair from the thrash titans that helped invent the genre.   

The metal veterans, part of the Big Four, have wowed audiences worldwide, hundreds of times over, and this new track is just another belter from the excitedly expanding repertoire.  With the new album, ‘Cursum Perficio’ due out later this year, let’s hope the literal Latin translation of ‘I finish the journey’ isn’t an indication of any boots being hung up just yet.  This new single sounds as fresh as they ever did.  Let’s hope the kids of today realise how lucky they are having a thrash metal giant with over 40 years of history make a song just for them.   

 Pre-save: https://orcd.co/itsforthekids

 Pre-save: https://anthrax.bfan.link/iftksg

Official Facebook of Anthrax – Hardest ever!
https://anthrax.com

Some music can be pretty divisive.  Really heavy, as in, death metal heavy for instance, when only the keen vinyl inner sleeve reader can decipher the words, could be described as ‘unpleasant’ or ‘not for me’.  Equally, some music, that started as good old fashioned hard rock, then evolves into being very parent friendly rock n roll.  This could be described as ‘selling out’ or ‘too soft’.  And our friends of the pop rock persuasion also can get put in a corner.  Just like so many accepted modern lifestyles, things love a label.  Music is no different, and a label allows for objective opinions to be targeted.

But, in all that, and in all my 46 years, I’ve never once heard anyone say a bad word about the The Rolling Stones.  Nor have they ever been pigeonholed into a genre, label, or category.  They have survived longer than most people, and the evolution of state, status, labels, landscapes and climate, does not stop them from still belting out great music. 

And on this peaceful Tuesday evening, I totally welcome the absolute gift of music, and the fortunate position I’ve been allowed to have; listening to the newly released tracks, ‘Rough and Twisted’ and ‘In The Stars’ written and recorded by The Rolling Stones. 

I don’t think I need to be over detailed in my approach.  The first track from the newly announced album, ‘Foreign Tongues’, released later in July, is just a wonderful blues inspired thumping little ditty.  I say blues inspired, I should probably just say ‘it’s a blues track’.  It’s probably more blues than most blues tracks are.  Without even meaning to be.  It sounds like its just music the boys wanted to play.  It has everything from steady beats, thumping drums, Keith’s classical blues riffage on the guitar, a mouth organ kicks in, and Ronnie is just steady keeping it rolling along.

Oh, and here comes the slide guitar, the keys, and the thumping resumes.  Light me a cigarette and dim the lights.  The overdrive increases as does the pace.  What a ‘freeing’ track.  You just put it on, play it, listen to it, and enjoy it.  That’s it.  It doesn’t require anything else.

‘In The Stars’ follows as track 2 from the new record.  Kicking in at a similar length, somewhere over 4 minutes, the track starts slower but doesn’t take long to kick in giving that recognisable Stones vibe.  You don’t need to be told it’s a Stones track, its immediately recognisable.  Jaggers tones, remarkably unchanged in over 60 years, allow that instant comfort you’re in safe hands.  The chord structure sounds like it looks. Played somewhere around the 10^th fret I’d say, and probably in classic open G tuning.  I’ve got no idea whether that’s right, and I’d happily stand corrected if I’ve ballsed up my assumption.  I can see Keith swaggering on stage, his fretting hand fighting for board space with his loosely draped scarf and open jacket. 

I last saw The Stones in Hyde Park, and this track instantly takes me back to the setting sun, dusky sky, and reflective sequin jacket that Jagger wore, reflecting light into the crowd like a human glitter ball.  Both these new tracks create a feeling.  They create images in your mind of what life should be like.  Relaxed, enjoyed, and free.  Without any real reason to be, as long as you are just comfortable in being. That’s enough. 

This unlabelled group of rock n roll veterans continue to inspire music and culture around the world, some 64 yrs after they were created.   In the time the Rolling Stones have been together, entire empires have collapsed, technologies have been invented and abandoned, and whole musical genres have risen and died.  The Stones, and their music, has practically outlasted history.  And you’re lucky enough to have experienced them.     

LISTEN TO ‘IN THE STARS’ HERE

PRE-ORDER FOREIGN TONGUES HERE

Korn. Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, they weren’t just part of the Nu Metal wave, they were the wave. Tracksuits, dreadlocks, kilts, down tuned guitars and a bass so low the strings practically flapped like washing on a line… it shouldn’t have worked, but somehow it absolutely did. They fused hip hop swagger with metal aggression and created a sound that rewired an entire generation.

And I’ll admit it now, they were my guilty pleasure.  Back then, I was a “proper” rocker: Guns N’ Roses, denim, and a packet of Marlboros permanently in the jacket pocket. Anyone daring to stray into the realms of Korn, Limp Bizkit or Slipknot was considered a musical heretic.  But when no one was looking?  Yeah… I was blasting Life Is Peachy and Follow the Leader like everyone else.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and more than 20 record releases later, Jonathan Davis and his dreadlocked battalion are still unleashing their unmistakable cocktail of aggression, atmosphere and emotional chaos. This week, they drop their 48th single, ‘Reward the Scars’.

And here’s how it hits…

There it is! That classic tight snare, that subterranean bass tone that sounds like it’s tuned somewhere between B and earthquake. Within seconds, you know exactly who you’re listening to. Then Davis barks “Go!” and the whole thing detonates.

It’s heavy. It’s distorted. It’s sludgy, swampy, stoner rock on acid heaviness with that unmistakable Korn twist.  The track lurches between moods like a musical mood swing: crushing riffs, eerie calm, twinkling keys, whispered tension, explosive release. It’s manic in the best possible way.  A three and a half minute rollercoaster that throws you off, picks you up, and hurls you back down again.

What keeps it gripping is the unpredictability. This isn’t a track that politely telegraphs what’s coming next. It’s a snarling, shape shifting beast that grabs you from the first note and doesn’t let go until Davis screams the final “reward the scars.”

When it ends, you need a moment. It’s like stumbling off the dodgy Waltzer at your local fair; dizzy, buzzing, slightly confused, and absolutely ready to go again.

Korn are still Korn. And thank God for that.

“Reward the Scars” music video out now

Diablo | lnk.kornofficial.com/rtsvideo

TICKETS: . General on-sale tickets via livenation.co.uk.
 
MASTERCARD: Preferred ticket access to some of the best tickets are available to Mastercard cardholders. Check out priceless.com/music for details.