Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Chaos Rocks, the fourth album from Alan Davey's Hawkestrel project, continues the forward-looking trajectory initiated by The Future Is Us five years ago. The record maintains the project's tradition of star-studded collaborations. Notably, former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor joins in, lending his guitar prowess to tracks alongside legends like Bob Calvert and Nik Turner. While 'Evil Rock' features Calvert's classic vocal from his Hype LP, the numbers with Turner and Huw Huw Lloyd-Langton offer fresh material. Davey sheds light on the inclusion of unreleased recordings, explaining that Turner's contributions were recorded six years ago, while Cleopatra Records secured the rights to Lloyd-Langton's guitar playing. Despite the passing of Mick Slattery, whose contributions are acknowledged, Chaos Rocks stands as a testament to Hawkestrel's commitment to preserving and evolving the legacy of these iconic musicians.

Review: Second time around for Cosmic Assault, Californian guitar god and sometime Chrome member Barry Johnson's ninth album as Helios Creed. Something of a hard-to-pigeonhole classic, the album combines his ravaged and acid-fried hard rock and psychedelic metal sound with elements of industrial music, horror soundtrack style synths, and all manner of decidedly cosmic and intergalactic sounds. As a result, the set attractively veers from intense, mind-man gling workouts rich in heavy riffs and elongated guitar solos ('Cosmic Assault', 'Rise'), exotic excursions ('The Master'), and more immersive explorations of the outer reaches of the aural universe.