Reviews roundup – Malady vs. Ghost Town Blues Band vs. Flying Guillotines vs. Laura Meade vs. Jack 13s Panzercrow

Reviews roundup – Malady vs. Ghost Town Blues Band vs. Flying Guillotines vs. Laura Meade vs. Jack 13s Panzercrow

 

MALADY
Toinen toista
Svart

To Finlandia! But not for some out there metal. Oh, no. See, the ones who aren’t raising their horns are usually to be found inhabiting a chilly landscape of seventies prog.

And that’s what Malady are doing on this, their second album. Add in a few art rock nods hither and thither, drench it all with some adventurous keyboards including Hammond and Mellotron, chuck in a few Genesis and Caravan Canterbury styled moments and you end up with something that is going to please a lot of progsters.

It’s mainly instrumental so don’t be worried about the vocals of Babak Issabeigloo being in Finnish. Instead marvel at that name! There are plenty of nice guitar moments as well and the whole thing sits together splendidly as a piece of symphonic prog It’s only five tracks long but factor in the closing “Nurja puoli” clocking in at 23 minutes worth and the quantity matches the quality.

 

 

GHOST TOWN BLUES BAND
Backstage Pass
Ghost Town Blues Band

A few years back I was rather taken with ‘Hard Road To Hoe’, my introduction to the blues meets Southern rock of the Ghost Town Blues Band. They’ve kept themselves busy since then, hitting the road and playing shows with the likes of John Mayall, Keb’ Mo’, Jonny Lang, John Lee Hooker Jr, Booker T. Jones and others. So it seemed like time for a live album.

And a mighty fine idea it was too as this is definitely where they shine. The studio set was good but this is jaw dropping in places. They mix up blues, jam band and Southern rock to great effect on a set split between covers and originals Even opening with a cover of a Beatles tune didn’t scare me off as their version of “Come Together” is more akin to Aerosmith meets Zeppelin than the original. Chucking in a bit of “Whole Lotta Love” was a giveaway, mind.

The whole thing sounds great and has been recorded well. They rattle through a few originals before their jam band moment when they take on the might of the Allman Brothers “Whipping Post” and come out 15 minutes later with their reputation intact. Of the originals I was most taken with “One More Whiskey” but then I would be. The whole band are firing on all cylinders as they sound as though they’re having the time of their lives, a feel that comes out the speakers. The best live album of the year? Absolutely. Buy it now.

 

 

FLYING GUILLOTINES
Holy Mountain
Independent

Germania now and to the Berlin based four man, self proclaimed “Stoner/ Metal/ Heavy Rock Train”. Fair enough. Can’t really argue with that.

Because this EP shows them offering up a mix of – wait for it – stoner, metal and hard rock. And there are four of them! Amazing. And the music is pretty good to. They’re influenced by the likes of Mastodon, The Sword and Baroness, and first came to light when they were featured on a Metal Hammer “Sons of Sabbath” compilation. They’re not really though as they don’t really go down the dirge, doom route. Nope, the likes of the title track and ‘The Witch’ (the best of the songs here) have a danker, sludgier sound that will appeal to stoners who like their music to be on the raw side.

They’re certainly good at what they do and for a self produced effort this sounds just fine. A few quid from a record label for a decent producer and studio, and Flying Guillotines could easily be appearing on a festival stage near you.

https://flyingguillotines.bandcamp.com

 

 

LAURA MEADE
Remedium
Doone Records

Back to the world of prog now with the debut solo album from Laura Meade, who has plied her trade with New York proggers Izz.

She’s one of two female vocalists in the band so this gives her the chance to shine in the company of some of her Izz bandmates plus Randy McStine (The Fringe, Lo-Fi Resistance) and Jason Hart (I and Thou, Renaissance, Camel) on a couple of tracks.

First up, a lot of the music isn’t that proggy. Don’t get me wrong, “Sunflowers At Chernobyl” and “Dragons” are as prog as they come. And mighty fine modern prog tracks they are too. But elsewhere Ms Meade looks back to her days in musical theatre and around at the world of modern rock, which makes songs such as “Home Movies” and “‘Conquer The World” completely different beasts. Mind you, I suppose that is kind of the point of a solo album. Doing something a wee bit different.

Musically, her colleagues are uniformly excellent and the production from Izz bandmate / husband John Galgano is empathetic. It would be a shame were it to fall between two stools but it’s definitely worth a listen.

 

JACK 13s PANZERCROW
Nightmare Returns
Inverse

Back to Finlandia now for some horror punk. At least that’s what they tell me.

Jack 13 has served time fronting Scarecrow who’ve made a name for themselves in horror punk circles but now he’s stepped out with his own band, Panzercrow.

So I was expecting some Misfits soundalikes but it’s actually a wee bit more metal than that. Which works for me. Hailing from Hyvinkää, a town I only know two things about (lifts and Adam Lamberts ex-boyfriend), Mr 13 covers a fairly wide range of darkness but with strong melodies helping the goth like “Burning Angels” and the none more metal “Another Song of Vincent Price” welcome visitors round my way.

Not just for horror punks, this is an album that metalheads should be checking out. A good (bad) one.

 

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