Reviews roundup – Los Lobos vs. Stormhold vs. Joe Strummer
LOS LOBOS
Gates of Gold
Proper
Album number 24 from Los Lobos, five years on from their last one. They’re probably still best known in the UK for ‘La Bamba’, but there is a lot more to them, as this records attests.
As always, it’s a mix of rock, Tex-Mex, country, blues and any other damn thing they want to. And some of the songs are as strong as anything in their back catalogue. ‘Poquito Para Aqui’, ‘I Believed You So’, ‘Magdalena’ and ‘When We Were Free’ are vital and engaging.
There aren’t many bands of their vintage who can still sound as fresh and exciting as they did four decades ago. But Los Lobos can and do. Definitely worth checking out.
STORMHOLD
Battle Of The Royal Halls
Art Gates
Off to Sweden now for some heavy metal. And, as you may have gathered from the name, title and cover art, Stormhold are a power metal band. Hurrah!
The Canadian colonials may not get it, but European power metal has kept the trad metal flag flying during some long, dark years, and it’s good to see that younger bands are still coming through. Especially when they are as good as this lot.
As befits a Scandinavian band, there is also some folk and symphonic metal influences, and with a singer who can shatter glass, fans of bands like Hammerfall will take to this like a duck to water. It’s not perfect by any means, but they have the talent and the enthusiasm to take songs like ‘Godric Hammerfist’ to a wider audience.
JOE STRUMMER
I Need A Dodge! DVD
Tindog
God, I hated the Clash. Middle class wideboys who wouldn’t recognise a good tune if it slapped them upside the head, but knew a good bandwagon when they spotted one, just as pubrock died a death. But I’m a big man, and thought this DVD might cure me of some of my distaste.
It didn’t. Joe Strummer comes across as even a bigger arse than I thought possible. It tells the tale of Strummer running away to Spain in 1985, just as the even crapper version of the Clash had fallen apart. The documentary makers have tracked down members of the assorted Spanish bands he fooled around with.
With no redeeming features whatsoever, this is a story without a plot, hero or reason to exist.
The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
Leave a comment