Mick Birchall Reviews

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...

One of the things I love about running this blog is that I get to discover new bands and catch them at their early stages. You know, that point where the band hasn’t really gone forward in one direction, they just coming up with ideas that they think are cool and putting them into practice. This could be said for the up-and-coming metal band Coldwards . It also helps when your dad is the drummer in a very successful metal band. Yeah, I didn’t think to bury the lead here. This project is the product of second-generation musicians Zac and Sean Crosby; sons of Paul Crosby, the drummer from Saliva . However, don’t let that colour your judgment of the band themselves. Having now listened to the full debut album, Bloodwork a few times over I can comfortably recommend their music. The album is quite an enjoyable listening experience. There are quite a lot of harsh riffs, wonderfully crafted melodies and engaging moments to keep you listening throughout. There are just some brilliant writing...

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...

Credit: allabouttherock.co.uk There’s a saying. Never meet your heroes. Well, I’m breaking that rule here. I’ve been listening to Soil since was young. I don’t think I’m alone in saying their album, Scars was such an impactful record of the early 2000s. The band have been around since the mid-90s and has made a lot of great music in that time. On August 26th, Soil release their new album, Play It Forward . A collection of covers that the band have mixed together to create a really great playlist to help cheer us up after the horror of the COVID-19 pandemic (amongst all the other shit in the world right now). I reviewed the album on Valkyrian Music ( click here for the review ). I was very grateful to have the opportunity to talk to frontman, Ryan McCombs . A voice that I heard a lot while developing my music taste. As he was also the vocalist for a spell in, Drowning Pool . In this interview, we talk about the new covers album, writing during the pandemic, the love of live music an...