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 ...

It’s been a hot minute since I have been to a gig in Wigan. Despite being only a ten-minute train journey away from where I live it’s just never a destination that crosses my mind. Sorry, Wigan. However, since it’s been well over five years since I ventured to the town for a gig night, I got myself over to The Boulevard. A staple of the Wigan live music scene. You know it’s going to be a good rock show when you have to descend a staircase to get to the venue. This is truly underground music. The night saw three bands take to the stage, local hotshots Mundane Act , the enigmatic insanity of Enuma Elish and capping it off with the powerhouses that are Bad Heritage . Now, I had never heard of any of these bands before the night but reliable sources told me that this was going to be a kick-ass night of music. So, I thought, what the hell?!   Opening up the night was the alt-rock four-piece, Mundane Act . I have to admit they were pretty freaking good. Their set was fairly consistent a...

Exit Eden are back with a new album, Femmes Fatales . Recently I published my review of the record on the blog .  A few nights before the release of the album, I got thew opportunity to sit down with two of the talented trio; Anna Brunner and Marina La Torraca to talk about the new album, their favourite music and other things. This was one of my favourite interviews, so much laughter and joy in this one! The pair were so great as we talk about an assortment of topics, leading up to the release of the new album.  MB: As the new album, Femmes Fatales drops this week, I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed it. I know you were down a singer with Amanda Somerville not returning for this record. What do you feel were some of the bigger differences between making the first album, Rhapsodies in Black and this new album? Anna: Yeah, there were quite a lot of things that were different on this album. The first thing massive difference is that we actually knew each other goin...

Well, here we go 2024 and already this year has lay a golden egg right out of the gates. Exit Eden are heading into a brand new chapter with all new music and a new album, Femmes Fatales . Filled with six original songs and additionally they’ve taken six beloved classic tunes and given them an Exit Eden style makeover. This album was a treat to listen to. It’s amazing to hear the joint talent of Clémentine Delauney (from Visions of Atlantis ), Anna Brunner (from League of Distortion ) and Marina La Torraca (from Phantom Elite ). Their voices blend so well together and their combined might hit you, the listener so hard. Also, if you the production ability of Anna Brunner and Hannes Braun  ( Kissin’ Dynamite ) and the mastering from Jacob Hansen (who has worked with Delain , Amaranthe , Volbeat , Destruction and many more) you can tell, this was a bit of a dream team to create this record. I’ll start with the cover songs. I think they were fairly well chosen covers. Big dr...