LIGHT DAMAGE – LIGHT DAMAGE – PROGRESSIVE PROMOTION

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Uncategorized

This 2015 album was the debut release from Luxembourg-based neo progressive band Light Damage. That isn’t a country I have ever thought of as a hotbed of the scene, but these guys all know what they are doing, having previously performed as a Pink Floyd tribute called Brain Damage before moving onto their own material. They actually started back in 2005 when  Seb (drums) and Stephane (guitars) met at a festival, and then started putting the band together soon afterwards. Seb left after the release of their first demo, ‘Acronym’, and the line-up settled down to  Frédérik Hardy (bass, bass pedals, backing vocals), Nicholas-John (lead vocals, guitars, e-bow), Sébastien Pérignon (keyboards, percussion and tubular bells), Stéphane Lecocq (lead guitars) and Thibaut Grappin (drums, percussion). They took a year off from gigs to work on new material and re-arranging old songs and self-released this album before it was picked up by PPR. 

Musically they have been paying close attention to Guy Manning, and have then taken this with more neo influences to create something which feels very rooted in the Nineties, and to someone like me who was very involved with the scene back then, it is a very welcome sound indeed. It is a very British sound, and they play with a broad palette, and ‘Meddle’-era Floyd touches here and there. One of the delights is there are many layers, so there is more to discover with each unpeeling of the onion as the listener gets more inside the music and what the band are trying to achieve. The album tells the story of a person who loses a loved one, while the cover itself is a representation of the story as it is an old piece of fabric which has been torn apart by years and damaged by different manipulations it ugly and belongs in the garbage, or is it beautiful?

Powerful and gripping, this is a superb debut album which any fans of the sub-genre would do well to investigate.   8/10

LACUNA COIL – THE 119 SHOW – LIVE IN LONDON – CENTURY MEDIA

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Reviews

To celebrate twenty years, Lacuna Coil played a special sold-out show at O2 Forum Kentish Town in London on 19th January 2018, which has now been made available in multiple formats. After the release of their 2014 album ‘Broken Crown Halo’ the band went through some major line-up changes with the departure of drummer Cristiano Mozzati and guitarists Cristiano Migliore and Marco Biazzi. But they returned with a new line-up and ‘Delirium’ in 2016, and there is certainly nothing here that shows that the band have been through any significant change.

Although bassist/guitarist/keyboard player Marco Coti-Zelati has been providing music since the very first album, he is happy to hide behind a mask, as does new drummer Ryan Blake Folden and guitarist Diego Cavallotti, as their role is to provide the music for Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro who control the stage. There are times when the three musicians all stay at the rear to allow all the spotlights to be on the singers, and it is their harmonies and different styles working together with the dark melancholic Goithic metal that really makes this band stand out. For fans who have been there since the beginning there is plenty here to enjoy, as they really do run through their whole career in a set that is nearly three hours long. To hear songs such as “My Wings” from their debut ‘In A Reverie’ is wonderful, while “Comalies” of course gets a huge reaction. Theatrical, over the top, this is an amazing set, which of course finishes with the mighty “Nothing Stands In Our Ways”.

This is a superb record of the first twenty years, and they are showing no sign at all of slowing down. If you have yet to hear Lacuna Coil then this is essential, and if you are a fan they you must already have it. Exciting, dynamic and powerful, this is Lacuna Coil at their very best. 10/10

LACUNA COIL – BROKEN CROWN HALO – CENTURY MEDIA

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Reviews

I still remember hearing ‘In A Reverie’, ‘Unleashed Memories’ and ‘Comalies’ when they were released – three albums that made a huge impact and certainly launched this Italian dual vocal Gothic inspired act straight into the big time. I hadn’t heard any of their material for a while until I came across this 2014 album, which immediately got me wondering why on earth I hadn’t stayed current with their career, as Cristina Scabbia has an amazing voice, singing sweetly or with venom as the need arises, and in Andrea Ferro she has the perfect foil and when they combine they lift each other, and then there is the driving bottom end of the music which is punchy, hard and bombastic with symphonic elements that lift it way out of the norm. 

There are times when it somehow feels commercial, with buzzsaw riffs, but is that just because the scene has moved so much since they first came on the scene, as there is still an honesty and passion shining through what they are delivering. Ferro is a great singer in his own right, able to provide multiple styles, and with these two at the front it is no surprise the guys behind them have to keep mixing it up and punching hard. The more I played this album the more I wanted to play it, as there is a groove and life behind this which is simply superb. Hard, smooth, heavy, silky and raw, this is well worth investigating. 8/10

KEN WILEY – CUERNO EXOTICA – KRUGPARK MUSIC

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Reviews

I have only come across one other of Ken’s albums, 2014’s ‘Jazz Horn Redux’ and this is a totally different beast both in terms of personnel and style. Much of this album feels incredibly Latin and Cuban, and Wiley shares the lead voices with Mark Leggett (acoustic guitar) and Dan Higgins (flute), although a special mention must be made of Bernie Dresel (drums) and Luis Conte (percussion) for the incredible feeling they pour into the music. There are very few bands of any style which are led by a French Horn player (Wiley also provides piano), and it does take the ear a little while to realise exactly what is going on. But what makes this album works so well is that Ken realises that often he is better placed to provide a supporting role and lets one of the others take the lead. It is certainly the arrangements and switching between different leads, combined with the superb percussion, which provides the album with a real life and vitality. It is often very bass and woodwind oriented, but the acoustic guitar also has a major part to play within the sound as a whole.

Balanced, sophisticated, this Latin jazz album is inviting, warm and full of exotic delights.  7/10

KARMAMOI – THE DAY IS DONE – SONICBOND

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Featured Artist, Reviews

At the time of their last album, 2016’s ‘Silence Between Sounds’, the band had been reduced to a trio with guests, but now they are down to just the duo of Daniele Giovannoni (drums, keyboards and backing vocals) and Alex Massari (guitars and backing vocals) as bassist Alessandro Cefalì is also now listed as a guest and only plays on four songs. Strangely, all vocals are by Sara Rinaldi who also provides the lyrics, but she is not listed as being a member of the band. It is safe to say that I haven’t been the biggest fan of this band in the past, viewing their last two albums as solid and okay but not incredibly interesting, but that is no longer the case as I have found myself playing this a great deal indeed. Interestingly, this a concept album, but not the normal subject matter one may expect. When the tragedy which was the Grenfell Tower fire took place on 14thJune 2017 the writing of the album was already well advanced. 89 people died in the burning of that London skyscraper and among the many stories, we were deeply struck by that of two Syrian boys, Omar and Mohammed, who fled from Syria in the war, finding refuge and a new life in Britain. Mohammed died in the fire and his brother was unable to help him.

 Daniele Giovannioni continues: “This typified my feeling of discomfort with the world. Many of us humans are on the run and living in fear of not being accepted. The two Syrian boys typified this feeling of unease. The terror in the eyes of the survivors of the fire was the same as that of the survivors of a bombing or an attack. Certainly, those who suffer a such a bombing know that it is possible there will be another, while those who are victims of a fires can hope that such a thing will never to be repeated, but the desire to escape is the same for everyone.”

Again, there are plenty of guests involved, most notably Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree) and Geoff Leigh (Steven Wilson, Ex-Wise Heads), but this album works best when it is at its most simple, gentle atmospheric piano combined with ethereal vocals. The production is superb, while the use fretless bass adds additional dynamics. This definitely feels like a band as opposed to a few musicians being thrown together for the occasion. At times incredibly Floydian, others more like Camel, what makes this album work so well is the sense of drama and the way the music moves and flows from one style to another. I wasn’t a fan of Sara’s vocals on the last album, but here she is a perfect fit with the music, and in many ways, this feels to me like a totally different band to what I had reviewed in the past.

There has been major step change in all directions, and the result is an album that is full of passion, thought, hooks and drive which keeps the listener involved engaged. That they can change from simplicity to complexity, quiet solitude to rock band, totally confident in throwing out rock guitar shapes and solos or keeping it tied down, shows just how far they have come in such a short time. Well worth investigating.
8/10