Happy belated non-denominational winter holiday of your choice, everyone! We’re back with another tombola filled with musical endeavours of our choosing. Round and round it goes, where it stops, no-one knows. Except we do, and here are what we thought were the best albums of 2015. Enjoy.
Although it’s always difficult to pin down a musical year in a few words a lot of critics do it anyway. Thus, we can’t stay behind on that, can we? However, before we end 2014 in style, let us loosely say we enjoyed working in the dark to serve you the reviews of the music we like and that nothing is true and yes, … everything is permitted.
Some bands have a hard time doing things wrong. While most artists will alternate great albums with mediocre to dire ones on occasion, there are a few bands who manage to keep a certain momentum. Ireland’s Primordial is such a band, and Where Greater Man Have Fallen is another great album in a truly impressive and ever-expanding catalogue.
He looks kind of scary, just sitting there in a white suit with a skull painted face holding a guitar, smoking a pipe. C.W. Stoneking, is the self proclaimed ‘King of Hokum’ and with that title comes a bit of myth making. There no harm in that of course, however, what if lines between fake and real fade? For in Stoneking’s music this was always the case and it gets a new chapter with the recently released Gon’ Boogaloo. Continue reading
Ah, 1988, it was the year the first internet virus showed up on our screens, the first exoplanet was discovered, the United Nations stated it would wipe out polio and a lot of forgettable Hollywood stars were born. Indeed, it was a very good year. Sadly 1988 was also the year leadsinger Fish, left the progressive rock band Marillion due to managerial issues. At the time Fish was a larger-than-life icon and the hole he left seemed difficult to fill up. However Steve Hogarth, who was appointed to be his successor, managed to start a new successful era with Marillion. On Monday, the band visited the sold out TivoliVredenburg as part of their 2014 Christmas Tour, Sounds from the Darkside mingled with a merry crowd and reports. Continue reading
If you leave out the May Day editions, tonight its the eighth time Le Guess Who? will kick off in Utrecht (NL) again. The festival always offers a mixture of unknown and renowned indie acts during the last weeks of November and this year there is no exception on that. Personally, I’m always looking forward to Le Guess Who? because it brings a bunch of interesting artists to my doorstep. Luckily the festival organizers can’t complain about the attention from the Dutch media they’re getting these days and Sounds from the Darkside can’t be left behind on that, so during the coming days we will keep you posted about the festival’s proceedings.
When Pink Floyd, or rather David Gilmour and Nick Mason, announced to the world that they were going to release a new album, made up of what was left behind on the cutting room floor back in 1994, my response was lukewarm at best. Fast forward a few months and The Endless River has finally been released, shattering sales records everywhere. But is Pink Floyd’s swansong worth the hype? Let’s find out. Continue reading
The future belongs to the young. Especially if you’re able to keep together a bunch of friends who happen to have the same hobby of making music. Many great and famous bands we know to today saw the day of light in the early formative years of its members. Though they’re not famous in the way Pink Floyd is, Iceage is a band who are deemed by some to reach great heights. A month ago, ‘the saviors of punk music’ released their third full album on the prestigious Matador label. And just for a tease: the boys have been growing up very fast. Continue reading
Back in 2011 when it was announced that Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen would reunite to form a band, expectations were high from the get-go. Ultimately, Unisonic‘s self-titled debut album fell a little short of greatness, but showed a lot of promise all the same. 2014’s Light of Dawn finally makes good on that promise.
What would you do if you were a singer-songwriter and your first album under your own name was marked by the media as one of the worst album’s of the year? Well, I know what I would do: I would flee my home town and get a job as a carpenter somewhere far away and maybe, just maybe I’d go back after while, hoping everyone forgot about my failure. I sure as hell wouldn’t dare the pick up my guitar in the years following. But hey, that’s me and my story is fictional. Continue reading
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