Mick Birchall Reviews

It’s 2007 and I was enveloped by a music-sharing and news site; PureVolume.com . It was my paradise. As a teenager, this website made me feel like I had the whole music industry at my fingertips. I would spend hours of my days scrolling through artists. I would discover so many artists on that site. Hell, this very blog has its foundations in that website. I would go on to set up a listener account and the site used to have a section where you could make posts to discuss the music world. It was a cosy little section of the internet, where I first learned to express my thoughts and feelings about music. In this blissful little world, I would discover some of my favourite artists. Honestly, it was my first real go at attempting to form my own music taste. I was the youngest of three children, so for the longest time, if my older siblings said that a band or artist was cool, I would too. If they disliked them, I would equally follow suit. I will say for the purposes of this article. That

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

It’s pretty fair to say that, at one point in time, I was a colossal fan of the modern blues-rock legend, Joe Bonamassa . I fell in love with his seventh studio record The Ballad of John Henry and became enthralled with his music. I’ll never forget going to the Sheperd’s Bush Empire in London for my 21st birthday to see him live. That show was recorded for a concert DVD, so I have that day forever immortalised on film. Not a bad memory to have I must say! However, over the years I became distant from Joe’s music. For no real reason, I just seemed to lose touch with my passion for his records and stopped waiting for the releases. It’s just one of those weird things in life. Well, circumstance has returned me to the joy of listening to Mr Bonamassa. I have had a chance to catch up on his recent discography, particularly his 2021 record, Time Clocks . This record is an absolute marvel my jaw was on the floor. Everything just fits together; each riff, each solo, the tight rhythm and the b

Sometimes you hear a band and they immediately grab your attention. It’s a feeling of ecstasy like no other. Music that interacts with your soul on a level incomparable to anything else on this plane of existence. I recently had that feeling hit me. The Greek band Villagers of Ioannina City have captured my imagination. There’s just something magical about their music. It’s bold, it blends subgenres and the overall tone just encompassed my mind on the first listen. I’ve been introduced to them thanks to Napalm Records releasing their live album Through Space and Time (Alive in Athens 2020) this year. As soon as I watched the first video, I was immediately filled with joy. I instantly wanted to share it with my friends and I started writing this blog.  Firstly, who are they? The band consists of Alex Karametis on guitar and lead vocals, Akis Zois on bass guitar, Aris Giannopoulos on the drums, Konstantis Pistiolis playing the clarinet and other wind instruments and Konstantinos Lazos

  Oh, 2022. What can I say about you? The year I turned 30. The year I went to my perfect holiday destination (don’t worry we’ll get to that). However, the most important to me that was the year I returned to going to gigs. Being a part of a live crowd again has meant the world to me and I have seen some pretty epic gigs this year. There’s also been a tonne of albums to boot. Like, I think there has been a little something for everyone this year. There’s been a tonne of great rock, metal, and country music this year to get my ears to. I didn’t know how to approach this year. Usually, I make a top-something album of the year list. Last year I shook things up with an album award blog. However, in all honesty, I didn’t like how that turned out. How about we reinvent the wheel again for 2022? Let’s summarise some of my favourite moments in music this year: my favourite albums, my favourite gig memories and other things. I was getting a bit bored of these blogs going amiss. Sometimes, artis

There are very few artists in this world that I admire more than, KT Tunstall . I don’t think I’ve ever honestly talked about her the same way I have gushed about other artists, yet her music speaks to me in a way I don’t think many others do. I would easily put her third albumTiger Suit in my top five albums of all time. So, when KT announced a new trilogy of albums that would tie together thematically, it piqued my interest. I could only really imagine what KT could do with such an endeavour. However, to discuss this I think it’s somewhat important to discuss my thoughts on KT’s work before this. As it does colour my opinion of the trilogy. I won’t go into them as much as the subject of the blog though. I’ve always appreciated the artistry of KT’s songwriting. Her first two albums, Eye to the Telescope and Drastic Fantastic are what I would describe as the pop sound of the early 2000s. I just remember an influx of singer-songwriter or troubadour-style musicians that congested the m

There’s something so magical about behind-the-scenes documentaries about your favourite artists. Sometimes it can give you a new perspective on their music, sometimes it can make you see the world in a different way. The best ones can do both. For the record, this documentary is the latter. I have loved the music of LiSA for over eight years, I discovered her through her song “Crossing Field” which was the theme song to the first season arch of the anime, Sword Art Online. However, after hearing that song I just started listening to her music purely for the joy of it. I’m sure her other songs have been theme songs to other anime films and shows, but I couldn’t tell you, I just love her music. In fact, her music was the impetus for me to start learning Japanese. Just so I could understand the lyrics. Her music just fills me with so much joy and anytime I have her music on I just start smiling. When it was announced that, to coincide with her new live show featurette, there would be a f

I’ve had some difficulty writing this one. I think the only way I can really explain why I like this record is by taking a time machine back to 2011. Let’s go back to before I turned 20 years old and to the first album by Craig Owens’ project Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.). In all honesty back to the early days of my writing. I was a young blogger and would spend my days looking up new bands. I would spend hours on end listening to bands, then I would check out their record label, find all of their label mates and listen to those. Hours upon hours were spent on YouTube, PureVolume, Last FM, ReverbNation, SoundCloud etc. I remember first hearing Craig Owens in the band Chiodos and being engaged with his vocals. The album Bone Palace Ballet stands out in my memory really clearly. Also, Craig's vocal work on "You Can't Spell Crap Without 'C'" by The Devil Wears Prada . As I said, I spend a lot of time looking up bands and artists within the sam