"This is the end...."

After 7 years this is post 137 and the last. With the imminent demise of Google+ I have no idea what happens with these blogs - Do they survive as archives, fade from view, I don't know....

To be honest I never thought I would publish 2 end of year best of list but to reach 7 was a definite surprise!

It's been fun and it's always great to look back at early reviews and wonder how wrong I got some

But it seems appropriate at the end of the year to bring Steve H Reviews to a close... Thanks to anyone who ever read one of these pages and I will bid you farewell

Drum roll and welcome to my seventh (and probably final) end of year list....

In alphabetical order, the top ten are:

• Author & Punisher - Beastland
• Bryde - Like an Island
• Crippled Black Phoenix - Great Escape
• Fish - A Parley with Angels (EP)
• Gwenno - Le Kov
• Happy Axe - Dream Punching
• Midas Fall - Evaporate
• A Perfect Circle - Eat the Elephant
• Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Soundtrack
• Ann Wilson - Immortal

Also there were a few great stand alone singles including Marilyn Manson's take on the Lost Boys classic, Cry Little Sister, Juniper by Myrkur and finally On the Subject of Breathing by the brilliant Bryde.

There is a new Doro album out - It's a double album.

There are tracks called All for Metal, Metal is my Alcohol and Soldier of Metal.

There is a track dedicated to Lemmy.

There is a Whitesnake cover and a Motorhead cover.

You don't need any more information than this to tell you how fantastic it is...… Except perhaps this image:

Did a bit of dabbling on Pledge music and bought the new album from Dogs D'Amour...I think it's only Tyla left from the original Dogs but it was worth investigating In Vino Veritas

First thing you notice on opener 111 is this is a much more focussed and muscular version of the Dogs. Guitars to the fore throughout. It's not till the 4th track Bottle of Red and its sax and alcohol references that it feels nostalgic.

Tyla is sounding deeper of voice but still has a way with words and a good tune

There is also a covers album featuring the obvious (Stones and Small Faces) plus a few interesting cuts - The Cars, Best Friends Girl anyone? There is also a joyous romp through Summertime Blues but as with most cover albums it's fun but inconsequential

I really didn't need the whole Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack album but it was necessary to hear the greatest live set there is...  Let's examine the evidence of that Live Aid gig:

You start with the first two and a half minutes of one of the greatest songs ever (Bohemian Rhapsody) and then just as you reach the operatic section you segue into the fairlight keyboards of Radio Ga Ga and indulge in the most momentous synchronised hand clapping of all time

Then you get a bit of a singalong with Freddie before Hammer to Fall rocks out

(The album misses out Crazy Little Thing Called Love and the short burst of We Will Rock You for some reason....)

Finally you top off the set with the ultimate triumphant closing number -We Are Champions

That is how you do a gig and that is why Queen were and are the greatest band ever

You should never really drunkenly order vinyl just because it looks cool but sometimes you get lucky.

I had never heard of Author & Punisher but the new album was on blue and silver limited edition splatter vinyl and on Relapse Records so it had to be alright...





This guy builds his own drone machines to create music and it's a cross between the Downward Spiral and Demanufacture by Fear Factory.

This may just be one of the great pieces of art masquerading as music.....

In Death It Ends have released a 'live' album from Pendleshire Polytechnic in 1979 - As the band didn't exist then , have never played lived and I'm fairly sure the Polytechnic is not real this is fascinating idea.

The whole album is one continuous track, sort of like a bootleg, the first 4 minutes are the sound of a band tuning up, then the crowd cheers as the band walk on and away we go.

The setlist is a sort of greatest hits (assuming the band had hits) and are slightly different arrangements to the studio versions

There are between track introductions and background crowd noises in the quiet parts but all of it is fake... The CD comes with ticket stub, flyer and poster to complete the package.

The whole concept is utterly brilliant and as such is actually one of the great albums of all time

Alright, I'm probably forty years too late to the party but I've finally bought a Status Quo album!

There are actually two releases out - One is an acoustic set from the Royal Albert Hall and the other is a full electric set from the Wacken Festival... No prizes for guessing which I chose

With a set picked to please a crowd of boozed up metalheads there are no Burning Bridges or Marguerita Time on view here. Opening with Caroline is always a good idea and the whole concert is very muscular for a band considered past their prime

In the Army now is a great singalong for a open air festival (even daring to change the lyrics from damn to shit...) and the instrumental part of Roll Over Lay Down is particularly heavy.

Add in Rocking All Over the World, Paper Plane and Down, Down and I'm not sure you really need to awn another Quo album

A couple of months after hearing her first single, I've now got a copy of the album Dream Punching by Happy Axe... The name is just a pseudonym for a young Australian multi instrumentalist

The sound is all disconcerting soundscapes punctuated by the ghostlike whine of a saw and strident violin. A dreamy vocal then envelops the whole venture

The single Seven Sounds is extended to over 7 minutes while Prayers & Mantras with it's clattering beats is the closest thing to a commercial song

What this album really should be is a soundtrack to Picnic at Hanging Rock which brings me to my first TV review....

Simply the best show on TV this year the six part adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was pure art house, delicious Victorian gothic, virginal lesbianism and wonderful indulgence. Like the earlier film there were no answers, plenty of questions and some stunning imagery.

Natalie Dormer as the aloof Miss Appleyard was one of the best TV acting performance I've seen in a long time - I so need to re-watch when the DVD is released

Some more weird and wonderful things from the frozen north... The latest album, No Need to Reason, from Icelandic band Kontinuum is an odd mix

Firstly I really don't like the opening track, Shivers. I don't really know why but it reeks of a hackneyed attempt at latter day Katatonia (which I'm not a fan of). However by persevering to tracks 3 and 4 the album really gets going. Warm Blood turns the guitars up to a crunchier level and Neuron then slows it all done to a stately pace.....

It's a bit of a shame that the mix of vocals in both Icelandic and English has been dropped but the ballad like Two Moons is still worth checking out

There are bits of 'Goth', a splash of Echo and the Bunnymen and modern Scandinavian morose metal to be found in varying degrees - even the occasional death growl to shake things up. It's not as an immediate album as the earlier Kyrr but it could be a grower

A quick run through some recently released stand alone singles.....

First up Shovels & Rope with America, Great. It's the most lyrically toothless anti Trump song since Roger Waters dared to call him a nincompoop. However it's still good to hear a stompin' track from this duo

Next up are Peter Yates (Nephilim) and Evi Vine (Eden House) with two minutes of basically nothing. All the People consist of a couple of guitar strums and a plaintive vocal and that's it. Rather inconsequential

Happy Axe is a young woman from Australia and the single Seven Sounds is weird but in a good way. Strident violin and I think a saw (!) give way to skittish electronic beats. Worth keeping an eye on

Finally kudos to AWS who decided to try and win the Eurovision contest for Hungary with a full on metal track. Viszlát nyár comes complete with half shouted/ half screamed chorus and a hard riffing instrumental section. Turn up to 11.....

Went to see a gig very recently and it was quite depressing... Not the music or the band but rather the fact that only 13 people turned up to see it

Midas Fall play a very listenable form of post rock but with the added stardust of some soaring female vocals. Evaporate is their debut album as a duo and it's fantastic piece of work

The song has elements of Blueneck and possibly Russians Circles but the vocals give it an identity of its own. My favourite tracks are Glue (with some delicious guitar lines as the song gathers pace) and Soveraine (most affecting vocal on the album)

Special mention also to the vinyl version of the album - The artwork is beautiful and the clear blue vinyl with the encroaching blackness is inspired

I think there is a more aggressive album in them but for now this is just perfect

It's been 14 years since their last album but finally A Perfect Circle return...

It's difficult to say musically what Eat The Elephant sounds like but the sound does seem very in tune with the Emotive album from all those years ago. I suppose an more airy, less dense version of Tool is the best I can do

First single, The Doomed, was a bold, funereal-like march in which we are told that all there is to look forward to is being screwed over by the rich and powerful. Disillusioned is a melancholy lament about the world's technological obsession.

So far all very APC and then they slap you out of your complacency with the wonderfully off kilter So Long and Thanks for all the Fish. From namechecking the Douglas Adams book and including references to dolphins this track practically bounces along like a playful Cure (Think Friday I'm in Love). The line about the death of childhood heroes - "Willy Wonka, Major Tom, Ali and Leia have all moved on" is genius. Never has a song about the impending apocalypse sounded so fun

The amazing artwork is also some of the best this year so far

May have found the best album of the year so far....

Over a couple of EP's and singles Bryde has built up to her debut album, Like an Island

Nowadays singer-songwriter means the trite, over polished likes of Ed Sheeran but this is raw guitar led rock. The opener Brave is my favourite track of the year - A study in being told to keep smiling after heartbreak. The ending where the spoken monologue overlays the chorus is very reminiscent of Under the Gun from the Sisters of Mercy

Less is full of squalling guitar which given airplay would have students pogoing in every Uni Bar across the country.

A couple of tracks are taken from the earlier EP's including the beautiful Transparent which should have closed the album. The ballad like Steady Heart is one track too far (album's should always be 10 tracks long...)

Desire does what it says in the title and is the soundtrack to (not so young) lust and if you get to see the video, it's amazing

Considering Sarah plays everything apart from the drums this is a phenomenal effort from a very talented artist

April is turning out to be a very busy month for new releases....

Winterfylleth have taken one of those left turns that can completely alienate a metal fan base (Think Paradise Lost with their Host album)

The Hallowing of Heirdom is an totally acoustic collection of English folk. Slightly choral in places with strings and not a black metal grunt in sight. The songs are based on poems by Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh and various Anglo Saxon myths.

This should appeal to anyone who liked the seminal Liege & Lief. The only difference is Fairport Convention approached traditional folk by adding electric guitars and Winterfylleth  have approached the same goal by removing all their electric guitars

The albums lacks a bit variation but it's a bloody good folk album from an unexpected source

Bands of a certain vintage always have a few tricks up their sleeves to prolong a career....

• First is tour a classic album in full, record the tour and release a live album
• Second record a covers album, usually of "songs that inspired us.."
• Finally record an acoustic album of your hits

The Levellers have finally succumbed to the third option and bring us We The Collective. This seems a bit odd as the band are fairly acoustic anyway and this sounds like their Drunk in Public persona that they occasionally take out live

As with all these type of albums it's rather hit and miss....Subvert sounds like a muscular version of Kitty Jay (by Seth Lakeman) but with lyrics advocating direct action protest. Exodus works remarkably well with an orchestra and the spoon playing percussion in One Way is rather inspired

Dance Before the Storm doesn't work as it's no different to the original and Liberty Song lacks the urgency that makes it a live favourite

There are a couple of new tracks of which Drugs Bust McGhee is the best - a tale of undercover policing which begins with "I stole my name from a dead baby"

Still a band that works best in the live arena

So the NME has finally given up and will no longer be printed..... Can't say that I'm in any way upset by that. The snobbish indie ink rags had no appeal to me even as a student and derided most of what I enjoyed (metal, goth, etc.).

The Levellers summed up how I felt in the lyrics to 100 years of solitude:

"The NME was nothing to you,
And the Maker well the maker of who?"

I can fairly well guarantee you won't hear another album like this all year.... The first album from Gwenno was sung all in Welsh and now for the follow up, Le Kov, it's all sung in Cornish

The strangeness of lyrics makes it all a bit other worldly and the woozy psychedelic atmosphere of the music heightens that feeling

The vocals on the opener are all breathless and seductive, almost dragging you in. Track 4, Eus Keus?  is what would have happened if Kraftwerk had grown up in Truro

It all gets weirder as it goes along - Daromes y'n Howl is a sort of kosmiche rag time

It's a very hard album to review and will probably be one you love or hate but early indications are it will be the former

Time to consider what may be on it's way in 2018....

Firstly the definite releases: Gwenno has a new album out in March and this time it's all sung in Cornish(!), Blueneck are confirming a new album this year and the live album from Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas is due in April

Next are the possibles: A debut album from Bryde is very probable, A Perfect Circle have teased with a few singles so a full album may be imminent and a new Amorphis album is mooted

Finally the serial offenders:

• Julianne Regan - Demo's were uploaded to Bandcamp 18 months ago and nothing more
• Eldritch promised an album if Trump was elected 15 months ago
• Fish has been promising Weltschmerz for over 2 years (but at least he has a title !)
• It's now been 13 years since Mourning Sun so that new Nephilim album should be out soon