Reviews roundup – Nightwish vs. Palace of the King vs. Johnny Fink vs. Overclock

Reviews roundup – Nightwish vs. Palace of the King vs. Johnny Fink vs. Overclock

 

NIGHTWISH
Decades
Nuclear Blast

What’s this then? The sixth Nightwish compilation? From a band who’ve put out eight studio albums in twenty years. A bit cheeky.

Now, I love Nightwish. Not as much as I did as I reckon they peaked musically with “Imaginaerum” and I’m not a big fan of Floors voice. But can I think of a reason to buy this? I’m struggling. If it hadn’t have come out on vinyl I wouldn’t have bothered but I’m attracted to shiny objects so a three LP gold disc version was enough to pull me in.

Musically, it’s fantastic. The remastering seems to be fairly low key so old timers aren’t going to have a henner when they hear it. But there’s nothing unfamiliar here so it’s hard to warm to it. And they’ve really missed a trick with the booklet. Now I’m sure any lanyard fetishists out there will take it to their hearts but that apart it’s a disgrace. It’s like someone got a hold of some freeware photo collage software and chucked a pile of pictures at it.

Hopefully, it will allow Tuomas Holopainen to recharge his batteries and get his Auri project out of his system. Roll on 2019.

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PALACE OF THE KING
Get Right With Your Maker
Golden Robot

What the? How the? Where the? Wow!

No seriously, this is brilliant. See,s as though this is the band’s third full length album and fifth release overall but they’re new to me and this record is one of my new best friends. Now they may be named after a Donald “Duck” Dunn, Don Nix, Leon Russell song (recorded by the legendary Freddie King) and they do have a touch of the blues about them. But they’re much, much more. They’ve gone for the Big Rock sound that harks back to the seventies but with a 21st century vibe. You know. Wolfmother before Andrew Stockdale went doolally.

Palace of the King happen to be fellow Antipodeans and maybe there is something in the water over there. (Contact me privately for my essay on the non-existence of Australia, alien prison camps and the lost continent of Agharta). Whatever, they’re road hardened, well drilled and have put together an amazing set of songs. Normally I’d take umbrage at any non progsters chucking in a seven minute opening song and an eight minute closer but, damn it, they’re not long enough! Seriously. That’s ‘I Am The Storm’ and ‘Back On My Feet Again’, by the way. And they rawk like bastards.

Elsewhere they calm doon slightly and go more classic rawk on the likes of ‘Sold Me Down the River’ and get their Stones on with ‘Said the Spider to the Bird’. But whatever they tip their hats at comes off in spades.

And I’m tippin my titfer at Tim Henwood – Vocals/Guitar / Sean Johnston – Keys/Guitar / Travis Dragani – Drums / Anthony Licciardi – Bass who have come up with one of the best records of the year.

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JOHNNY FINK and the Intrusion
JFI
independent

To the blues now with Johnny Fink and the Intrusion. And they’re rather good at it even if the mainman should really be a Wacky Races villain with a name like that.

They’re on the rock side of blues with some chugging boogie licks in there. Which is fine by me. There are plenty of great guitar solos but Mr Fink and his band never forget to make sure there is a decent song underpinning the whole thing.

With Johnny Fink on lead guitar and vocal the rest of the band sets about filling out his sound with Matt Newman on bass, Doug Moore on drums and Jimmy Rogers on keys putting in a really good shift. At times they hark back to early seventies Brit blues/rock with numbers like ‘Knew She Was Looking’ really setting a standard. They’re also partial to some slow blues and they can pull tat off as well with ‘The Fall’ probably the best of the bunch. Their magnum opus, though, is ‘Pain’, which unwinds over seven minutes with the whole band really hitting the heights.

A good singer, some great songs and a smoking hot band. Just how I like it.

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OVERCLOCK
Self titled
RecordJet

To Germania! For some modern alternative metal.

Which basically means some down tuned guitars and some angst filled vocals. You know, where everything sounds like a complaint.

But hey, the kids still like this sort of thing and far be it for an old codger like me to mess with their youthful pain. Just come back in 30 years and tell me how they were the good old days and you how you really wished you’d enjoyed them more because, fuck knows, it’s terrible now. Course I’ll be lang deid and couldnae care less.

Anyway, Overclock have been on the go since 2016, although the members can trace their rock roots back to the nineties which helps explain their sound. And if you do have a yen for This Sort Of Thing then tunes like ‘Restless Delusionist’, ‘Medicated’ and ‘Bleeding Out’ will keep your loathing of life levels well topped up. There are a couple of numbers where they stretch out a bit and give off a hint of prog. But not enough to scare off the alt-metal fans who will definitely take this to heart.

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