Each and every day I exist on this planet, my musical scepticism is being slowly whittled away by bands who I have never heard of showing me that there is reason to have faith in newly released music; Stone Gods are one of those bands. There I was, slipping the CD into my stereo ready for another Guns N’ Roses disappointment, and before I know it my socks are clear across the other side of the room and my brain is leaking out of my right ear.

The single “Start Of Something” off their latest album “Silver Spoons and Broken Bones” consists of one truly inspiring classic rock and roll track (“Start Of Something”) and three classic rock and roll tracks with an acoustic tang oozing out of every strum (“Don’t Drink The Water”, “Things Could Be Worse”, and “Where You Comin’ From?”); this four track CD alone has already out played 90 percent of albums currently topping the charts for me. My favourite was definitely “Don’t Drink the Water”, plenty of sweet, meaty acoustic goodness, and even better was totally unrelated to The Dave Matthews Band. Read more

WARNING: Audioslave and Soundgarden fans should head for the door as soon as possible, because this is not going to be what you’re expecting. ‘Part Of Me’ is a dream pop/R&B single off Chris Cornell’s new album ‘SCREAM’’, co-recorded with record producer turned clothing designer Timothy ‘Timbaland’ Mosley. I’ll just wait a moment for the aforementioned fans to leave…

What I am not so subtly saying here is that Chris has taken a huge leap of faith on this single, and indeed the album as a whole. Let’s get one thing straight though, first of all the vocals in this single are absolutely terrific, harmonic yet powerful – true Chris calibre stuff. The lyrics however… not so much, in fact make that everything else, not so much. Some of the world’s greatest artists have jumped ship from one genre to another and been welcomed with open arms, but few have ever had the fan base and respect that Chris Cornell had prior to this single. Read more

With the album ‘Chinese Democracy’ welcomed to a chorus of hype-filled fans muttering to each other: “This is it?” – there’s already a black cloud looming over the single.

The question is, will this negative preconception turn out to be true or false? The answer – both. The opinion of ‘Chinese Democracy’ has been very openly announced by the country-sized fan base of Guns N’ Roses – it simply isn’t good enough for them. For every step ‘Chinese Democracy’ takes towards the Guns N’ Roses we all know and love, it takes another gigantic leap backwards toward mediocrity. Read more

With the temptation to label the San Diego quartet as a country western tribute band firmly locked in the back of my cynical brain, I took ‘My American Heart’ with open ears into the highly exclusive list that is my iTunes library. It has earned it’s place there ever since.

Taken off their second studio album ‘Hiding Inside the Horrible Weather’, ‘There Are More Frightening Things…’ for me has time warped itself all the way back from 2007, and it escapes me how a band so addictive was able to slip past me. The cocaine level addiction of the riffs, singing that’ll strain your vocal chords from just hearing it, AND the talent to sound nothing like any other band cluttering up my previous music catalogue? I lap this kind of stuff up to the point that KISS would be envious. Read more