Hard Rock Reviews
As much as I like to call myself and this site Kevy Metal, my journey into music actually began with hard rock. Seventies and nineties hardrock – plus contemporary bands inspired by these styles – are still a significant part of what I listen to, and therefore, Album of the Week reviews on hard rock bands are published frequently. You can find all of them right here. Overlaps with my heavy metal reviews inevitably exist.
Looking for something specific, but can’t find it by browsing the reviews? Searching by artist name or release title using the search bar might bring up some Album of the Week reviews I have written before I started tagging my reviews properly.
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Album of the Week 22-2024: Slash – Orgy of the Damned
While I consider Slash to be one of the least bluesy guitarists to come out of the Los Angeles rock ‘n’ roll scene of the late eighties, the influence was undeniably there. Releasing a blues tribute in the shape of ‘Orgy of the Damned’ isn’t without precedent either. He toured…
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Album of the Week 17-2024: Navarone – Coda
While I don’t want to make a habit out of reviewing live albums here, sometimes a release pops up that is notable enough to warrant it. ‘Coda’, after all, is the registration of the final concert Navarone, arguably my favorite Dutch rock band, ever played. And a mammoth set it…
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Album of the Week 13-2024: Blaze Bayley – Circle of Stone
Blaze Bayley’s post-Iron Maiden career has been one of ups and downs, though artistically certainly more ups than downs. He has consistently been able to find musicians who provide him with music that appears to be tailor-made for his deep voice, the last decade or so finding those partners in…
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Album of the Week 11-2024: The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards
For a while, it seemed like tensions between the Robinson brothers had risen to a point where there would never be another Black Crowes album. Despite being a big fan of the band, I was fine with that personally, especially because guitarist Rich Robinson’s The Magpie Salute was far more…
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Album of the Week 09-2024: Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project
It has gotten to the point where I am looking forward to a Bruce Dickinson solo album more than a new Iron Maiden album. ‘The Mandrake Project’ is his first in nearly twenty years, although he reportedly started working on it fourteen years ago. While Dickinson probably never will be…
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Album of the Week 03-2024: Mauser – Más Fuerte que la Muerte
Mainstream metal doesn’t really seem to be a thing anymore. Even as late as the early 2000’s, there was always a band with somewhat heavy guitars on fairly frequent rotation even on the most metal-averse radio and music tv stations. A band like Mauser, however, proves that an accessible hard…
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Album of the Week 01-2024: Masacre – Sin Piedad
Recorded in 1987 and 1988, but not released in their native Peru until deep into the nineties – though it was released on cassette in Venezuela in 1991 – it is safe to say that Masacre’s debut album ‘Sin Piedad’ had a bit of a troubled birth. Given the economic…
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Album of the Week 49-2023: Black Sabbath – Seventh Star
‘Seventh Star’ is an album with a bit of a strange reputation, not in the least part because it was originally conceived as a solo album for guitarist Tony Iommi rather than a Black Sabbath album. However, I do think the album laid the groundwork for the way Black Sabbath…
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Album of the Week 47-2023: The Tea Party – Splendor Solis
If there is one thing The Tea Party deserves all the respect they can get for, it would be how immensely ambitious the Canadian trio have been pretty much from the beginning. ‘Splendor Solis’ can be seen as their debut album, since the self-titled album released two years prior was…
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