On their studio first outing in three years, Germany's seemingly eternal Scorpions keep the sound a perfect balance between nu metal guitar crunch and '80s heavy metal melodies. Humanity Hour, Vol. 1 is a worthy if not utterly successful musical follow-up to 2004's Unbreakable – a record that saw the band coming back to its strengths after a long bout of wandering about in the creative desert. Humanity Hour, Vol. 1 is a collaboration between the band and co-producers James Michael and Desmond Child…

Things start to improve for Ozzy on No Rest for the Wicked, as Zakk Wylde replaces Jake E. Lee on guitar and Osbourne comes up with his best set since 1983. Again, it's not quite up to the level of excellence his Blizzard of Ozz band achieved, but Osbourne sounds somewhat rejuvenated, and Wylde is a more consistently interesting guitarist than Lee…

Y&T (originally known as Yesterday & Today) is an American hard rock/heavy metal band formed in 1974 in Hayward, California. The band released two studio albums on London Records as Yesterday & Today in the 1970s, before shortening their name to Y&T and releasing several albums on A&M Records beginning in 1981, as well as albums on Geffen Records, Avex Records, and others…

Pure Instinct is the thirteenth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 1996. Reviewers criticized the album for having too many ballads and not enough hard rock or even rock…

From the ashes of Swedish hard rockers The Gypsy Sons Of Magic, Black Bonzo rose again as an art prog band by adding depth to their sound through the use of mellotron, piano and Hammond organ. The intense drumming, the intricate guitar work, the firm but steady bass lines, the complex song structures, the overall pomp and their vocalist (who sounds like David Byron resurrected) all spell Uriah Heep, big time. From the very first moment Black Bonzo takes you on a trip to the wonderful sound of the late Sixties and early Seventies with strong hints from early Uriah Heep (Hammond, vocal harmonies) but also echoes from The Moody Blues (Mellotron) and Argent ('heavy progressive' with Hammond organ and harder-edged guitar). The ten compositions sound warm, harmonic and varied featuring pleasant vocals and lots of majestic Mellotron waves and powerful Hammond organ runs along some fiery electric guitar. A great album in its own right that will grab your attention from start to finish. Powerful stuff and excellent production.

Have Some Moore: The Best Of is a compilation album by Gary Moore. Released in 2002, the 2CD album contains a total of 32 tracks. The first disc is a selection of the best blues rock, and the second is a collection of the best hard rock songs by Gary Moore.

On the heels of Metallica's similarly conceived S&M comes the Scorpions' Moment of Glory, a presentation of past favorites (plus three new songs) with full orchestral backing courtesy of the Berlin Philharmonic…

Due to the underachievement of their exceptional 1982 comeback album, Creatures of the Night, Kiss knew the time was right to drop the makeup, so in September 1983 the band shocked their fans by unmasking on MTV. Their first non-makeup album, Lick It Up, followed soon after and successfully re-established the band among the heavy metal masses worldwide. Kiss also reconnected with their stateside fans – Lick It Up was the band's first record to achieve gold status since 1980's Kiss Unmasked. The album's success was spurred by MTV's repeated airing of the imaginative video for the album's strong title track, and songs such as "Exciter," "Not for the Innocent," "A Million to One," and the rap-rocker "All Hell's Breaking Loose" confirmed that the band was back on the right track.

Ballads? What ballads? They don't need no stinkin' ballads. Actually, most of these aren't true ballads, which are defined as either romantic/sentimental songs ("Rainbow Demon" darlin'?) or songs that repeat the same melody from stanza to stanza (think of that guy playing the acoustic guitar in Animal House). Uriah Heep did eventually write honest-to-goodness ballads, some of which are featured here: "Your Turn to Remember," "Free Me," and "Come Back to Me."…

The "difficult second album" is one of the perennial rock & roll clichés, but few second albums ever were as difficult as Use Your Illusion. Not really conceived as a double album but impossible to separate as individual works, Use Your Illusion is a shining example of a suddenly successful band getting it all wrong and letting its ambitions run wild…

Limited 11CD box set from Dutch rock legends Golden Earring. Together with Red Bullet, the band collected seven live albums, plus some unique recordings previously only available as B-sides. Also included are several recordings from the Five Zero Show from 2015, which were only available on DVD before…

God knows why Bon Jovi felt the need to recut its best songs in an adult alternative style with Patrick Leonard as the producer. In the thorough liner notes – presented as an interview between Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora – by the suddenly ubiquitous David Wild, Jon claims that the roots of the album derive from a Japanese show he recorded where the intent was to release live, acoustic versions of the band's standards…