Cactus might not have gotten the attention that groups like Led Zeppelin and Cream did, but they were an extremely capable band cut from that same cloth of hard rocking, blues based classic jams.

This live recording definitely lands under metal because most of the music fits.

It’s been a quite a while since Michael Schenker and his band of metal merchants played a support slot here in the Chicago-land area but I guess filling in the “special guest” slot on the Scorpions farewell tour was too good to pass up.  

This set has some killer music. It might not be quite metal, but it might be.

This is a review of the Japanese import version of Heaven & Earth which features a lot of musicians that Stuart Smith assembled for this great band.

This is being billed as "fusion rock," and that's a pretty apt description. We generally put fusion in under "progressive rock" at MSJ, so that's where this lands.

I've landed this one under progressive rock. It's one of those where I almost didn't. 

Vanilla Fudge might be one of the strangest but also coolest bands to come out of the 1960s. Really, progressive rock didn't exist yet, but their sound was such a part of the kind of the thing that would become prog. 

I have to admit that I was shocked when I heard that the Scorpions were going to do a farewell tour. 

This album was actually released early in 2018. It's been reissued with a bonus track that's a preview of the second album.

This hard rocking album really works pretty well. There is nothing here that’s entirely unique or original in terms of songwriting.

This is a reissue of an older Kiss tribute album. It was originally called "Spin the Bottle," and I remember seeing it around that first time out.

Randy Pratt sure seems to get involved in a lot of cool projects. His bands are always quality operations, too.

Stuart Smith put together this band some time ago and made an album, then later put out this amazing DVD that showcases many of the proceedings in the studio while working on the project.

Kelly Keeling is a great rock guitarist who has worked with a lot of great people over the years.

I like The Who quite a bit. I mean, they aren’t one of my favorite bands, but I do really like them.