RedLizzard 8/10
In Your Face Record Label: Self Release
Released: 17 November 2012
Highlight of the album: Push It Babe Website: http://www.redlizzard.com/ Reviewer: Jason M. Davies
Winners of May's ‘Band of the Month’ and hailing all the way from sunny Portugal are RedLizzard. Their EP In Your Face was released on the 17th of November last year and is pretty damn good. Although the members of the band are native Portuguese and speak the tongue fluently, the songs are sung in English and possess a kind of strength that is seldom heard in more well renowned bands. You can tell that RedLizzard play like they've got something to prove, with a yes we can attitude. RedLizzard are young and they are hungry!
Catchy chorus after chorus possess you with an urge to want to sing along and I predict this band to do well live as each song's chorus is easy to learn and so damn catchy you have to sing with the songs. Within the first couple of tracks, you should have a liking for RedLizzard and you can see how they earned that coveted ‘Band of the Month’ position. Each song has something special to it. Praise is all I have for RedLizzard on this one; this is a band well worth checking out.
Ok, what you can expect from RedLizzard: a classic rock sound brought into the 21st century by driving guitars, melodic vocals, thunderous percussion, a smooth, deep bass and synthesiser mimicking a wurlitzer that conjures sound-a-like images in my head of Deep Purple once-upon-a-time.
Ape Machine 8/10
Mangled By The Machine Record Label: Ripple Music
Released: 14 May 2013
Highlight of the album: Every Body Bleeds Website: http://www.apemachine.com/ Reviewer: Lee Walker
With a name like Ape Machine I was somewhat curious as to what they would sound like and if this was where Galen and co ended up.
Sabbath style vocals to effortlessly capture your attention and draw you into their progressive sounds as the album rapidly sucks you in.
Described as ‘blending equal parts Rock n’ Roll, Blues, Stoner Rock and Psychedelia, Ape Machine is out to melt faces and pound the apathy out of otherwise jaded listeners with a wall of heavy rock n’ roll tones unheard since the days of bell bottoms, long hair and blaring tube amplifiers’ which to be honest sums the album up perfectly.
Despite their strange name ‘Ape Machine’ have put out a very good album but as with all stoner/ progressive acts you will either love or hate their breed of music.
Coming across as a more upbeat version of Cathedral or early Black Sabbath, this Portland quartet waste no time in bashing out their unique blend of stoner rock, with deep throbbing bass lines powering the machine and being the main driving point to the band, while allowing Caleb Heinze’s early
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Firebrand Magazine