Mick Birchall Reviews

2023 has been a crazy year for me. My life has not been the most exciting but this is a music blog and the music has been amazing this year! I’ve got myself to a bunch of gigs, even getting to do a whopping three gigs in other countries. I know that’s not a lot for some people, but for me it was huge! I’ll get to those later in the blog. It was a year of new discoveries, rediscovered favourites and all new experiences. Whether it be my brain melting when I found out about Villagers of Ioannina City , the maddening catchiness of Kontrust or infectious charisma that Project Renegade exude. It’s been a wild year. Also, it’s been a decent year for the blog. Though I haven’t cranked out as many posts as I would have liked, I think I’ve still put out some good content for you, my fantastic readers. Plenty of reviews and interviews for the year. It’s also been a year where I have made a bunch of new contacts that I hope will allow me to give you more interesting content. It’s been 12 years...

A few years back I was looking for a concert to go to while on my vacation in Canada. When I found a gig that looked promising. I took one listen to the single, from that band called “Distance” and I knew that I wanted to go. That band being Evergrey . I clicked purchase tickets so quickly that I thought my hands would fall off. I also bought their most recent albums of the time; Hymns For The Broken and The Storm Within , which I instantaneously fell in love with. Getting to see them live in Canada was such a treat as well. They put on an absolute clinic of a show. Ever since that holiday, I have been in love with the band and their music. I've seen them live on several occasions and purchased every new album since. Their music has been a special part of my life for quite a while now. As it turns out in 2023 they are marking 30 years in metal! To commemorate this huge milestone and to celebrate their momentous career up to now, they have released a new collection of recordings on...

The Manchester based prog-metal quartet, Prognosis has been on the come up for a while now. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had much of a chance to listen to them over the years. The last time I checked them out live, the project was still in it’s relative infancy. Since then they have expanded and I always hear news of their exploits. Now, their new EP, Esigen is out and the band is armed with a brand new line up. Prognosis are marching full steam ahead into 2024 with an all new attitude. For this new EP, the band worked with heroes of the metal world. Including sound engineers; George Lever ( Sleep Token , Monuments , Loathe ) and Grant Macfarland ( August Burns Red , Rivers of Nihil , Polaris ). This EP is a whole different beast from what I had heard from them in the past. I’ve really been enjoying this new music and if it’s a sign of things to come, then sign me up. I think my first thoughts on listening to this EP were something along the lines of “this is one beefy boy of a record!”...

In December of 2023 we will be getting the long awaited fourth full length album from Skeptical Minds , Kharon . This will also be part two of their Omega Thanatos Trilogy concept album. This project has see the band work inside of an original concept that is accompanied by a comic book series. The album series acts as a soundtrack to the comic book series, providing a tone, a expansion on the lore and a soul to the story. In this new interview, I speak with vocalist, Karolina and guitarist Michel Stiakakis about their time making this new album, their core ideas for the series and working in both the musical and comic book worlds.  The new album, Kharon will be released in December. Could you elaborate on the mindset going into this record as this is the second album in the Omega Thanatos Trilogy? Michel: So yeah, the first part of the trilogy, Omega Thanatos was released in 2015. The purpose of the trilogy was to have an album that was also released with a comic book. So, we hav...

  There’s only so many iconic voices I would recognise instantaneously from my teen years. Then, there would only be so many in that group of people that I would still be following to this day. Well, Lacey Sturm is one of those singers. From emo-royalty to hard-rock powerhouse, she has run the gambit of the rock world for over twenty years now. Sturm released her debut solo album,  Life Screams in 2016 and has mostly been occupying her time with other projects and endeavors in the meantime. Now, a whole seven years later we get her follow up, Kenotic Metanoia . This is an album she’s been building up to for a while now. The first single “The Decree '' came out in 2020. Over the course of the last few years she’s been bleeding out singles here and there, eventually announcing a new full-length album earlier this year. Now that the album has dropped and I’ve had the chance to listen to it. I thought I would share some thoughts. Firstly, I just want to bring up the title. The t...

You guys know I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. It’s been nine years since the last album from Austrian metal legends, Kontrust . For me, this was my most hyped album of 2023. I have adored this band for a long time. Their last album “Explosive” in 2014, had interesting elements and a couple of my favourite tracks. Including “Why”, “Play!” and “Just Propaganda”. The band mostly spent a lot of their time touring and then the world decided to suspend itself for a while through the COVID pandemic and now we’re on the other side, I think we all needed a record like this one. Or at least, I did. In June 2022 the band announced a change in their line-up, as the new singer Julia Ivanova and drummer Joey Sebald joined the band. With that, the band geared up for a new record, Madworld . I discussed this with them in my interview on the blog . I loved all of the singles leading up to the album and I think they were the right way to introduce people to this album as a concept. The lead ...

  So, this has been a year where one band has dominated my playlists, my shuffle remixes and my general listening experiences. That would be, Villagers of Ioannina City . Ever since I discovered them via their new live record, Through Space And Time , I have been mesmerised by their sound. I even wrote an entire blog about it back in April about how much their music just blew my mind. It was like a musical awakening and let me tell you, there haven’t been many bands that have gotten me this excited in a long time. For a little while, I thought that unless I packed my bags for a gig abroad, I would never get to see them live. So, imagine my surprise when a little over a month later they announced that they would be doing some UK dates, and Manchester was on the tour schedule. Oh, how my little heart sang in delight. I bought tickets as quickly as my internet would allow. All that there was left to do was wait. November soon came around and it was time to head out to Manchester and...

  What do you think of when you hear the band name, Kontrust ? Fun, heavy… lederhosen? Well, I always think of incredibly inventive music with a twist of insanity. So, it’s been nine years since we last had new music from the Austrian cross-over metal heavyweights. So far this year we have been exposed to new music from Kontrust with two new singles, thus far, and the announcement of their long-awaited fifth studio album Madworld (scheduled for release on 3rd November 2023). I was so happy to have the opportunity to sit down with Manuel Haglmüller and Julia Ivanova to discuss the upcoming album and the latest singles!  Mick: Well, it’s been nine years since the last album ( Explosive , 2014). I think we’re all looking forward to the new album. I just wanted to ask what the catalyst was for coming out with new material after a break from writing. Manuel: I think there’s a misconception that this is a “comeback” of sorts. But the reality is that we’ve never been gone. We have...

Photo Credit: Mark Powell It's been a hot minute since I set foot in the hallowed grounds of the Academy in Liverpool. The home of many good nights out. I knew going into this that this was going to be a great night of music from simply standing in the queue waiting to be let in. The patrons were so ready for the gig that excitement filled the atmosphere. I grew up on country music and southern rock. So I was looking forward to this one. I've recently had a crash course in the music of Robert Jon and The Wreck . Their music is something that I would have adored as a kid, which colours them in a positive light. Their most recent album, Ride In To the Light is a brilliant album, filled with passion and emotion. All-encompassed with that hard rock edge that puts it over the top! So, going into this show I had high hopes for sure. As the venue filled the anticipation was apparent. I always love this moment before a gig starts. People are fresh and the excitement is about ready for...

I seem to have a hot and cold relationship with Skindred . Whereby, I’ll completely forget about them for a while only to be suddenly reminded of their existence as they put out another banger of a record. Well, their new album Smile , it seems to be that time again. A fiery, intensive album that hits the mark right on the bullseye. In fact, in the time it's taken for me to do this review, this album has already skyrocketed up the charts and won the hearts of many rock fans out there. I, personally, found out about them with their 2011 album, Union Black I have tried to keep up to date with their music. However, I always seem to need to catch up to the fandom. So, will this album keep me around, well only time will tell at this point. For now, I can only tell you how I feel about this album after two weeks of playing it on and off. I think Smile is a solid record bearing all of Skindred’s usual hallmarks. Funky reggae, check; hard-hitting riffs, check; ridiculously catchy chorus’ ...

Sometimes an album comes out into the world and it takes you on a ride! For me this year that would be the latest record from Greek headbangers, Project Renegade . Their latest album, Ultra Terra is a whirlwind of heavy riffs and bombastic hook lines that just captivate the listener. With the release of this album, I got to sit down with vocalist Marianna to discuss the new album, the challenges of producing an album during the COVID pandemic, memories of touring and a few other fun stories. With the new album released, what's your personal favourite song on the album? That is a very difficult question because there are a lot of songs that are very dear to my heart. I love the latest single “Token” because it’s the most recent single. The album closer “No Country For White Flags” is special as it’s the first ballad we’ve done as a band and the first time I was so exposed, vocally. It was a totally different approach from all of our other songs. I also really love the composition ...