Mastodon returns with their keenly anticipated ninth full-length album, Hushed & Grim, released on Reprise Records. Mastodon recorded the album in their hometown, collaborating with producer David Bottrill (Tool, Rush, Muse, Peter Gabriel), and Hushed & Grim is their most ambitious body of work. The album has a hefty 15 tracks styled in rock, psychedelia, punk, metal, alternative, and prog threaded together by these four musicians’ naturally expressive musical interplay. However, the album also has an atmosphere of loss, loneliness, and longing that permeates through the trio of cathartic vocals as they musically say goodbye to an old [...]
Guitarist Billy F. Gibbons returns with his third solo album, Hardware. were readily available. The frontman from ZZ Top presents twelve growling blues-rock selections with an outstanding cast of musicians and a diverse set of songs. Drummer Matt Sorum, of Guns’ N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, and guitarist Austin Hanks shine on Hardware, which was produced by Gibbons, Sorum, and Mike Fiorentino and engineered by Chad Shlosser. The album brings the heat with plenty of Texas attitude.
“My Lucky Card” is built around a fuzzy Texas blues riff with Gibbons’ gravelly singing. The band is steady and deep with feeling as the [...]
Samantha Fish is back with a new blues-rock album filled with edgy vocal delivery and in-your-face guitar. For her seventh album, Faster, she wanted to develop her sound outside of her normal trad blues-rock and capture the feeling and energy of her live performances. The result is a robust set of songs with producer Martin Kierszenbaum that takes her blues-rock music and encompasses hard rock, electro-pop, and retro soul. Fish is featured throughout, dealing up her searing lead guitar and sultry vocals with a punkish nuance. Also on the album is Hannah Brier, guitar; Martin Kierszenbaum, guitar, keyboards, drums; Diego Navaira, bass, and Josh Freese, [...]
Inhaler is a rock band from Dublin releasing their debut album, It Won’t Always Be Like This. Elijah Hewson (vocals, guitar), Josh Jenkinson (guitar), Robert Keating (bass), and Ryan McMahon (drums) reveal an album packed with indie-rock grooves and soaring anthems, including the single “Cheer Up Baby,” an epic singalong alongside newly recorded versions of early fan favorites “My Honest Face” and the title track, “It Won’t Always Be Like This.” “No-one was listening to the music we were listening to,” says singer and guitarist Hewson. “It drew us together even though [...]
