Music For Nations Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Steven Wilson, Richard Barbieri and Gavin Harrison are better known as the hugely influential and ever innovative British rock outfit Porcupine Tree. Wilson formed the band as an outlet for his experimental side outside the work he did with his other band N-Man, who had a more synth pop styled sound. Porcupine Tree evolved into a live act and expanded their sound to go from psychedelic rock and ambient soundscapes to experimental pop and then a big, powerful metal sound. All of those different niches came together on their later records making the band real cult favourites.

Review: 12 years. Twelve years. T-WELVE YEARS! It's been a decade plus two since Porcupine Tree bowed out with a spectacular One Last Job at London's Royal Albert Hall. There are few venues as fitting as that statesman of a concert hall for a band that sound like this. The English troupe have always been about these huge sounds, chords soaring above your head, riffs blazing, while tracks always threatening - and often following through - to veer off the straight and narrow into more experimental prog moods.

Now they're back with a much-anticipated, and long-delayed, comeback record. The question is, then, does it live up to expectations? The answer, thankfully, is yes, and then some. Closure/Continuation brings the crew's sound bang up to date, without forgetting who they are and always have been. It's a thing of beauty, but also thunderous power when it wants to unleash it.

Review: Manchester based, all girl, self-proclaimed doom-grunge outfit, Witch Fever, are set to finally drop their debut full-length, 'Congregation', this October (right in time for Halloween). Built around thundering riffs, sultry, twisted atmospherics and an incomparable wall of sound style trudge, evoking the ethereal post-punk of Warpaint by way of Soundgarden, the project is already hotly tipped to be one of the breakout releases of 2022. Frontwoman Amy Walpole's cavernous, shrill vocals are as haunting as they are lush, while the cryptic, horror-inspired lyrics and utterly massive production promise one of the most vital, dynamic, and unaccommodating debuts from the grunge, punk, or alternative rock spectrums, this decade has proverbed thus far.