Alice Cooper - A Fistful of Alice Review by Gary Hill It has been said that this release is redundant because hard-core Alice Cooper fans already have a solid live album in The Alice Cooper Show. However, I find that this release is a a considerably better recording, and that the performance presented herein is superior to that one.
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Come for the performances, stay for the documentary type stuff. A big chunk of this is all about some incredible live performances with musicians ranging from Joe Satriani to Buddy Guy to Slash, Neal Schon and Steve Lukather and more.
Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider Review by Gary Hill Alice Cooper is a performer who has (in the opinion of this reviewer) always had a problem with consistency. Sometimes it’s represented with an album that has some awesome music, but a few songs that leave you scratching your head.
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Derek Sherinian - Blood of the Snake Review by Gary Hill Derek Sherinian always seems to be looking for new ways to stretch out musically and this time around he's brought a lot of friends on board to help him in that process. The end result is Blood of the Snake, a disc that is arguably his most diverse. It also might well be his strongest album ever.
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Doro - Calling the Wild Review by Gary Hill In the 1980’s Doro Pesch fronted the German metal band Warlock. That band is no more, but Doro has kept her career and love of metal alive through the years. This new disc is her first release in the US in many years, but she has continued releasing albums in Europe the entire time.
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This new set from the ever-changing group of musicians recording under the name "The Prog Collective" does feel a little darker than some of the rest of their music.
Graham Bonnet - Flying...Not Falling 1991-1999 Review by Gary Hill This new three-disc set from Graham Bonnet is pretty darned good. I've included it under metal because two of the three discs here fit there.
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LA Guns - Greatest Hits and Black Beauties Review by Brian Angotti With a brief and dissatisfying run with Jizzy Pearl of Love/Hate fame on lead and a revolving door of band members, L.A. Guns return with Greatest Hits and Black Beauties. The disc is a compilation of new tracks and re-recorded classic hits from the original band. More...
Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid Review by Gary Hill This album showcases a metal perpective on the classic Cooper sound and also shows prog tendencies in several places. Alice is joined on this album by many musicians, including several very notables guests (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ozzy Osbourne and others).
Various Artists - Les Paul and Friends: Tribute to a Legend Review by Michael Bader When you hear “tribute album” you usually think of a disc that features a number of artists playing songs by the artist to whom the disc is being dedicated. Well, this one has a bit of a twist.
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Chic - Live at the Budokan DVD Review by Gary Hill Remembering the days when rock music was seemingly fighting with disco for its very survival – or at least it seemed like it. Disco really felt like some evil monster.
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It is still pretty early in the year, but I'll be surprised if this release doesn't make my "best of 2020" list. The mix of sounds here includes metal, good solid hard rock and plenty of progressive rock.
Perhaps it’s metal, perhaps it’s not, but either way, this disc is cool. LA Guns is forever tied musically to Guns N Roses through Tracii Guns, but you really don’t hear a lot of the GNR sound on this set.
Various Artists - Steinway To Heaven Review by Gary Hill It seems like a rather novel, but still somewhat obvious concept. Take various keyboardists, mostly from the world of progressive rock and have them record various classical piano pieces.
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Carmine Appice - Ultimate Guitar Zeus Review by Gary Hill An album like this could be a tricky venture. Essentially the concept is a series of songs with the same basic core band.
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