Nozomu Wakai – Destinia Japanese guitar sensation Nozomu Wakai isn’t reinventing the heavy metal wheel so much as re-imagining it. Enlisting current Rainbow vocalist, Ronnie Romero, was more than just a shrewd move by Wakai. Romero is...

Well into a sixth decade of enduring life’s many travails, one could understand if Dee Snider elected to take a permanent seat in the grandstand of the music business as many younger, assumedly hungrier-for-success musicians and artists...

Sven De Caluwe – Aborted Sven De Caluwe is the fella at the centre of long running Belgian gore/ grind/ death outfit Aborted. Setting his sights on a landmark Australian tour taking in most capital cities with...

Sólstafir- Aðalbjörn Tryggvason Sólstafir vocalist and guitarist, Aðalbjörn ‘Addi’ Tryggvason visited Australia as a tourist in 1999, recalling fond memories of a country that might just be as far away as one can possibly travel from Iceland’s...

Scott Ian Few in heavy metal are immediately identifiable to the casual fan and listener as Scott Ian, the long-time guitarist in Anthrax and S.O.D. Then again, very few have managed to forge a career as a thrash...

Sinsaenum – Frederic Leclercq It’s often tempting to overlook the quality of an album and focus on the personnel that feature on a recording when given less than 20 minutes to talk to a band spokesman. That...

Few would predict that in 2006, Deicide would recruit ex-Death and Iced Earth guitarist Ralph Santolla (RIP) for a trio of albums following the split with founding guitarists Eric and Brian Hoffman. The first album in the...

Archspire- Spencer Prewett In the world of extreme metal, there is nothing remarkable about tendon snapping, light speed drumming and percussion. It’s almost the universal yardstick by which every band is measured on the scale of brutality. What...

Steven Wilson Steven Wilson has come close to perfecting the art of memorable pop/ prog fare à la a post millennial Peter Gabriel. In many ways, his closest contemporary is the brilliant, Cavanagh brother’s vehicle, Anathema. That...

Plini Joe Pass and New Yorker Steve Khan aren’t names the average household would be familiar with, however, both are noted for their extraordinary take on popularising electric jazz guitar performance. Sydney’s Plini seems to be running...