Quick Takes – July 2025: Album Reviews

The new album from the three piece Brummie Doom Metallers with a rhythm section of George Casual and Jim Thing simply has to be reviewed if only to use the term ‘Casual/Thing powerhouse’.

There’s an unfiltered and undeniable debt to the classic sounds of classic Sabbath and the classic themes of ominous, dark horror. File under ‘Hard not to like’. With a dip into Sci Fi exploration in Mars Rover and a touch of local (folk)lore a la Green Lung, Strung Out In Hell arrives at a time when we need a shot of inspiration from the home of good old school Heavy Metal.

The Fool is a fun chunk of dark boogie with an incessant/annoying/earworm of a bassline. Not afraid to whip up a varied pace, they transform Billy Idol’s White Wedding into a fuzz drenched monolith and take the quick route with the rabid blast on Witches Candle. The key to MWC are the intoxicating concoction of dense riffs and a deep bass rumble, paying tribute and keeping alive the days when British Metal scene thrived.

A number of the reissues from Renaissance’s back catalogue have been reviewed by At The Barrier. They have been superbly presented packages, highlighting the bands unsurpassed  blending of classical and progressive rock music. This release brings together in one 4 CD package, a run of three pivotal releases covering the period 1974 to 1976. 

Turn Of The Cards, from 1974, includes a number of the band’s most recognised songs, that went on to figure in their live performances for many years, such as Running Hard and the sweeping musical epic, Mother Russia. Scheherazade And Other Stories, from 1975, includes their crowning achievement, the twenty four minutes plus ambitious musical suite, Song Of Scheherazade.

Finally you have Renaissance playing with the New York Philharmonic on the 1976 release Live At Carnegie Hall. This is an excellent introduction to the work of a band, that continues to influence the progressive rock world. 

Gwenno Saunders has previously had little truck with English in her solo career, her last two albums being in either Welsh or Cornish, each bringing a Celtic fringe of ethereality into her layered synths and electronica. Here she moves back into English, bar a few key tracks, and it feels also a move back in time, evoking headier days of electro-pop. How that takes you depends on your need, but the ambience here is very Dubstar or tight sweater era Moloko, with a bit of Goldfrapp for good measure.

An overall band feel is cemented by the presence of Llŷr Pari and Tad Davies on drums and often very dubby bass, with Rhys Edwards picking up near all else, leaving Saunders mainly to sing. Her voice seems younger, almost childlike even, especially on the Gallic tinged title track, which, like one of the Welsh language songs, Y Gath, comes out like Francoise Hardy fronting the Pet Shop Boys. Dancing On Volcanos is the catchiest thing here, intelligent pop disco that lingers. Elsewhere there are tiuches of a jazzier hue; The Devil has you near expecting Van Morrison to start singing Moondance!

Personal highlight is Hireth, the closer. Here the singer takes and makes all the instrumentation hers, including guitars, flute and, predominantly, harp, for a glissade of exotica to end the set on a high.

“Science fiction turned horrid reality,” says Grace Hayhurst on the themes of her new album. Cloaked in what might intitailly and loosely be termed Prog Metal (check out her forthcoming Why I Love feature on our pages, she dips willfully and ambitiously into  lounge jazz, piano flourishes, medieval balladry and a finale that lulls and soothes our fevered brows after her outpouring of anger and frustration with a dash of pastoral acoustic.

She pulls no punches in declaring her intent and influences, namechecking Haken’s Ray Hearne and Rick Wakeman’s harp player alongside “solos that go on a bit too long.” Even before a note is played, we’re on board.

The album is Grace totally solo and going for it with a barrage of volatile and grandiose passages that give musical vent to the intensity and passion of her visions. The venomous swathes of guitar are an obvious reference point to the progressive influences. Adding bursts of wild synth and a rollercoaster ride of time changes and dynamics gives the overall feel of being caught in an apocalyptic whirlwind.  A cathartic outpouring that surely offers some sanctity.

Whatever else they may do, Massachusetts Celtic-Punk veterans, the Dropkick Murphys, aren’t going to be looking for any new direction soon. Why would they, with their shouty (Irish) bar band swagger setting them such a successful template, with a rabid worldwide following to boot. Crunching guitars are now almost the de rigeur accompaniment to the fiddles, boxes and pipes of the Irish diaspora, allied to a rhythm section that could drive you through the floor, but they continue to impart such fare with a cocksure confidence earnt by dessert.

There are slow songs and faster songs, as well as some still faster, and several guests are drawn into the cabal, notably Billy Bragg for a rousing cover of Ewan MacColl’s School Days Over. Elsewhere the Hendy brothers, from the Mary Wallopers, pop up, but they actually don’t need guests, as the ragged vocal of Ken Casey does just fine. And, beneath the buzzsaw guitars, Tim Brennan’s accordion and Jeff DaRosa’s banjo and mandolin add green dyed credibility. Touchingly, the set ends with a tribute to Shane MacGowan, the Pogues having invented the genre. One Last Goodbye, it’s called, and it ends with Mo Ghile Mear, the tune playes as MacGowan’s coffin left the church in Tipperary.

Here’s a single to wrap things up from Glasto ’25 artiste E.M.Kane.

A tune dreamed up in a southeast London bedroom with producer Jack Blakey and co-written with Mary Leay, Don’t You Miss Fun? is a gentle nudge to never forget our inner child. Fair sentiment indeed. The song was written as a love letter to growing up in Glasgow in the best of company – a fusion bright country pop weaving tales of forgotten parties, high school reunions and old flames to be reignited. 

Checking in with a gentle acoustic chug, the tempo and bounce soon kicks in with a sequenced keyboard line that dances in and around the increasingly passionate vibe as E.M. conjures up images of memories long gone.

A heartfelt nostalgia fest with a lyric and sentiment with which many of us old timers will empathise.