This was a piece written for a Metal Hammer presents… Foo Fighters special. It postulates an alternative world where the history of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Nirvana took a very different turn indeed.
THERE was a palpable sense of nervous excitement at the Seahawks stadium: although the Dave Grohl Band were billed as the main [...]
Nirvana and Dave Grohl, a counterfactual history
Patti Smith – Horses (reissue) review for Classic Rock
Patti Smith
Horses
Arista/Columbia/Legacy
Repackaged reactivated classic punk
Although hailed as the first punk rock album – Horses was originally released in 1975 – Patti Smith’s debut has little in common, musically, with the Sex Pistols or even with New York contemporaries like Television. Richard Sohl’s icy piano intro to her appropriation – you could hardly describe it [...]
Machine Head at Wacken, 2005
This was written as a sort of extended live review of Machine Head at Wacken four years ago. They had yet to start work on The Blackening. It was a fucking amazing show. They play perfect hard rock that loosens the fillings and causes occasional nosebleeds.
This is what it must be like to be Jesus…or [...]
All hail fucking Mastodon II!
This is the review of Blood Mountain written for Metal Hammer in 2006.
Mastodon
Blood Mountain
Reprise
Strong contender for album of the decade
IT’S always hard to see where history is going when you are in the midst of it. When ‘Leviathan’ came out in 2004, it was universally recognised as a great album but right there [...]
All hail fucking Mastodon!
This is a piece that I wrote after the Metal Hammer end of year poll in 2006. I still stand by every word. They more than topped Blood Mountain with Crack The Skye. They are also probably the best live band I’ve seen and that list includes the Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Slayer, Oasis, Led Zeppelin, [...]
