Say Or Do - Single Review: Awake
19 Mar 2023 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
If you’ve been following the Kiwi Rock scene for a while
now, you’ll be familiar with the names Silence The City, Quarter 2 and Broken
Avenue. One of the main drivers behind these epic bands has been by
groove-master Sam French.
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Pieces Of Molly - Album Review: Pieces Of Molly
09 Nov 2022 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Have you ever heard a tune for the very first time, and within
10 seconds been like "holy crap this is insane, where did this come from???" Very
few bands that I listen to ever give me that massive burst in energy like i got
when opening the very first track Atomic Fuzz on Pieces Of Molly’s brand new
self-titled album.
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The Mechanism - Single Review: Living in Colour
08 Apr 2022 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
People who follow the NZ music scene will have probably noticed by now that musicians tend to move in circles dabbling in different types of music, and often work on each other's projects or play in multiple bands throughout their careers. One of those awesome names to have hit the scene in recent times with 3 of his own EP’s is Geoff Ong.
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Unknown - Single Review: I Am
17 Mar 2022 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Sins of Eve have just released their wickedly evil new
single I Am. I’ve not heard of Sins of
Eve before personally, but a little bit of a back story tells me that they have been around for
quite some time on the rock scene in Christchurch but have recently rejigged
their line-up with the inclusion of Lexie Mia Le Cocq on vocals.
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Viices - Single Review: Coffee
20 Feb 2022 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Something a little different landed on my desk this morning, a new release from a Wellington rock trio Viices featuring Jake, Geordie, and Will. I’ve not heard Viices before, so I thought I’d read a few of their previous reviews and see if I could form a picture of what they might sound like.
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Head Like A Hole - Single Review: Goliath
03 Nov 2021 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Head Like A Hole, arguably one of the greatest and
most influential kiwi rock bands of our time. These guys have been around since
longer than I’ve been listening to Rock!
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Mat Gat - Single Review: Magnetic
08 Oct 2020 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
With some pretty famous initials you might confuse MJK with Maynard James Keenan from Tool, but in fact, residing in NZ is our own professional muso MJK ‘Mathew King’ born in the ‘Naki. Performing under MJK, Mathew has just released a brand new single Magnetic, and it’s a pretty slick tune!
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Khemikal - Single Review: Unity
18 Sep 2020 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Back in the early to mid-2000’s I was a huge fan of POD, Alterbridge, Incubus and Disturbed, and to some extent I still am. The beginning of the DJ era within rock music.
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Bad Jones - EP Review: You Are All Animals
12 May 2020 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
During these uncertain and unique times, all the self-isolation days at home trawling old music videos and posting my favourite
album every day on Facebook has had me reminiscing about better times when rock was still king, and people who played live instruments were admired.
By better times, I mean the days when we all used to be
allowed out, get dieseled up on JD’s and coke, and watch an epic live band rip
life a new one, so Bad Jones brand new EP You Are All Animals was the antidote
I’ve been looking for.
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Sycophant - EP Review: Pop Frog
28 Mar 2020 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Today I'm on Covid-19 lockdown, which has given me the opportunity to give you my spin on Sycophant's brand new EP Pop Frog. I've been listening to this EP on and off for a week to find the accurate words to describe, and here's my thoughts.
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DarkWater - Single Review: Presence Of Fear
19 Feb 2020 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Ever heard of Dark Water? I’ve been lucky enough to play on the bill with these guys in their home town of The 'Naki and they sure know how to put a massive amount of energy into their set.
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The Lost Boys - Single Review: Hook, Line And Sinker
08 Oct 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
I was absolutely gutted this morning to see two of my favourite bands are coming to NZ this December while I'm out of the country; Bad Religion and Frenzal Rhomb. I started hunting through playlists on Spotify and ended up listening to some of my favourite Kiwi punk/pop/rock acts from years gone by.
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Glow Becky - Single Review: Fade Back
10 Sep 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
For the last couple of years, a previous bandmate and good friend Nate has been telling me about this awesome rock band called Glow Becky that I have to hear. The team at Muzic.
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Lakius - Single Review: Student Of Fools
24 May 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
I haven’t reviewed anything heavy for a while, so I was pretty lucky to get handed the brand new single by Lakius. Broken Season has been one of my favourite Kiwi heavy (very heavy) rock/metal acts for ages, and Lakius is the sequel born from what Broken Season used to be.
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Jason McIver Collective - Single Review: We Change
23 May 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
I’ve been following The Jason McIver Collective for a few years now; I met Jason a few years ago at one
of my own gigs, and then had the privilege of reviewing another project of his If He Dies He Dies, then got finally got to see him play solo at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge last year.
This latest release from The JMC is titled We Change and it’s a bloody solid tune.
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Lee Martin - EP Review: Lost Girl
06 May 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
This morning I had the privilege of being one of the first to hear Lee Martin’s brand new EP Lost Girl.For those of you who know my tastes in music, this is a little bit removed from my normal mixtape of rock, pop, and classics, and to do a review on something more folk influenced is quite a pleasure.
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Hault - EP Review: Brother
19 Feb 2019 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
The new EP from Hault, Brother, kicks off with a massive amount of energy! Track one Red Dress is all about distorted gats, over a fast, thick drum line at something like 180BPM which just oozes that thrashy feel that all of us rock fans love.
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Empire To Ashes - Album Review: Beneath
15 Nov 2018 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
A few of you may have heard the name Jamie Denton from
some of NZ’s most powerful underground rock bands from the last 15 to 20 years.
Jamie has always laid down the heavy hitting basslines for rock bands ranging
in genre from dark moody metal-based bands, to straight up radio rock, to
borderline punk.
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If He Dies He Dies - The Medusa
11 Sep 2018 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
A while back, I had the privilege of reviewing The Jason McIver Collective, and having watched Jason McIver’s movements with music ever since, I jumped at the chance of getting to review his new band If He Dies He Dies single The Medusa. Now first things first, make sure your speakers are set as loud as they will go without distorting.
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LA Thompson - Single Review: It's Raining
27 Aug 2018 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
LA Thompson is a very accomplished musician having performed all
around the country in various capacities, and this is her latest single release It’s
Raining.
I’ve never heard LA play before as it’s a completely different
genre to what I would normally listen to, but what a pleasant surprise for me - I feel quite honoured to get the opportunity to listen to this brand-new single before the general public do.
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Michael Signal - EP Review: Direct Injection
21 Aug 2018 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Take the members of Motley Crue, slide an IV Drip into their
veins, fill the bag with pure full caffeinated coffee, then let them write an
album. That’s probably the best description I can come up with for this EP.
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Hive Mind - Album Review: Hive Mind
07 Aug 2018 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Hive Mind the five-piece rock act based out of Wellington have just dropped
their brand new self-titled 12 track album, and it is quite simply superb.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting when I opened the
first track War Story.
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Chazz Valentine - Album Review: Generation Y
28 Dec 2016 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Remember when bands such as Blink 182, Sum 41, Frenzal
Rhomb, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish were the epitome of summer? Throwing
the surfboards in the back of the wagon, cranking the tunes, and heading to the
beach for an epic day in the sun with the boys and even the occasional girl?
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Bic Runga - Album Review: Close Your Eyes
05 Dec 2016 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
There isn’t many people in New Zealand that have had have
stood out as solo artists with such finesse or success as our very own Bic
Runga.
After many years of waiting and reminiscing
about her earlier singles such as Sway and Good Morning Baby from her
massively successful debut album Drive Bic has finally delivered an exceptional
new album on the year of her 40th birthday titled Close Your Eyes.
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DarkWater - Album Review: You're Only As Addicted As You're Willing To Be
21 Nov 2016 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Only a few days ago, my band Poison Skies shared a stage in
New Plymouth with a band that I have never heard of before called Dark Water.
The next night, I heard that they have a brand new album out titled You’re
Only As Addicted As You’re Willing To Be so I promptly stuck up my hand and
asked if I could be the guy to write a review it.
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Armed In Advance - Single Review: Stay
04 Oct 2015 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
In the last few years I've been seeing a remarkable decrease in the number of new Rock releases from New Zealand on mainstream TV and Radio. It's certainly not because of a decrease in the number of good bands, in fact if I'm honest, there is probably more rock bands floating around in NZ right now than there ever has been, they just don't seem to be as easy to find due to a big push from the electronic and roots scenes.
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Album Review: Radioglo - In Between Time
27 May 2015 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Back when I was a young muso play drums in the Jazz combo
and Big Band at Glenfield College, there was always a few of the older lads
that I always looked up to. I followed them a bit when we left school, a few of
them went onto form a band called Rubicon, who’s name got around very quickly
due to the simple fact that the lead singer had a starring role on NZ’s own
Shortland Street.
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Jason McIver Collective - EP Review: The Big Blue
18 Dec 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
It's been ages since I last reviewed an acoustic EP - and to be fair, usually I cringe when someone asks me to have a listen, as the recording quality is sub-standard, and the production value is less than average.
The Big Blue from The Jason McIver Collective is far from this to tell you the truth.
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Kitsch - Album Review: Plastic Lives
05 Dec 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
About 4 months ago, I was listening through my playlist on my phone and I threw on what has previously been my favourite release ever from a Kiwi band The Burning Ground from veteran Kiwi punk rockers Kitsch. This got me thinking about whatever happened to Kitsch?
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Decades - Cracked And Torn: Interview with Emma Cameron
30 Jul 2014 // interview by Epitomised_Drummer
Carl recently had the pleasure of catching up with Emma Cameron, lead singer for Ashei and managed to squeeze in a few questions to follow up their National tour of New Zealand including some Australian tour dates. This is what Emma had to say ..........
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Like A Storm - Nothing Remains Single Review
07 Jul 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Dirty heavy guitar riffs, angry dirty driving drums, gravelly scathing vocals, haunting samples, this all adds to the amazing new single from Kiwi rockers Like A Storm who are now based between Vancouver and Los Angeles, California. I remember way back in the day when two schoolboy bands Fluid and Inertia joined forces and announced that they were calling themselves Like A Storm because that's how they sounded.
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Decades - Music Is Boring EP Review
07 Jul 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Ever since my initial review of their debut single Bright Eyes I have developed an ear for Ashei, and have been actively following their movements on radio and TV having caught their awesome NZ On Air funded video on YouTube and on C4. I have been waiting eagerly to catch their well marketed EP titled Music Is Boring which I feel is such a cool title for an EP as it is the exact opposite of what Ashei's music really is.
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Junelle - Just This Sky EP Review
27 Jun 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Junelle recently celebrated her new EP titled Just This Sky.
Off to a bit of a rough start the first CD I put in didn't have anything recorded.
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Sora Shima - You Are Surrounded Album Review
27 Apr 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Sora Shima have recently dropped their brand new album You Are Surrounded and I stuck my hand up to review this album as it's not very often you get the opportunity to listen to a purely instrumental album. Still a touch jaded, and quite hungover after a big night out, I decided that with a very clear mind it was probably a good opportunity to listen to some of Sora Shima's music having not ever heard them before.
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Decades - Bright Eyes Single Review
08 Apr 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
What's the first thing you think of when I mention a kiwi rock band with a female singer? Probably the most memorable would be Tadpole, followed by the likes of maybe Ivy Lies or Foamy Ed.
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I Am Giant - I Am Giant @ Kings Arms, Auckland 31/01/14
12 Mar 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Two long serving Kiwi rock icons, one of NZ’s best session guitarists, and one of the most unmistakable voices in the English rock scene that you could compile together onto one stage at any one time – this is I Am Giant.
With a string of amazing rock numbers such as Purple Heart, Neon Sunrise and their latest single Razor Wire Reality how could I deny the opportunity to see I Am Giant play live at the Kings Arms with support from two of my other favourite bands, Flirting With Disaster and Fire At Will.
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Armed In Advance - Harder Times EP Review
06 Feb 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
It's already February 2014 and I'm on the hunt for some new music. Sick of listening to the same old bands I've been listening to for the last 10 years give or take a few exceptions, a close friend suggested to me the fresh sound from Auckland band Stitches.
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Blackleaf Gardens - @ Backbeat Bar, Auckland 13/12/13
07 Jan 2014 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
As someone who had never really heard of Blackleaf Gardens before, I was really not sure what to expect when I got invited to their latest album release party. I decided not to do any research on them as an artist before heading along to the gig and to let their album release party give me the very first impression of the band.
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Stylus - Stylus - Gain Control
21 Aug 2006 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
On June 10th Stylus released their 2nd album Gain Control through Wildside Records. With new guitarist Aja Timu taking the reigns from previous guitarist Kenneth Holt, Stylus have a brighter new sound, which is a lot more upbeat and rock orientated from their first album Painkillers, but still retains hints of the hip hop style that made Painkillers very unique.
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Blindspott - Blindspott Interview
31 May 2006 // interview by Epitomised_Drummer
Picture this, sitting at a table in a boardroom with 4 members of Blindspott, in the EMI head office in Auckland.
Brandon grabbing a few dozen beers, Dave sitting texting on his phone, Shelton making toast and Damian cruising in a few minutes late.
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The D4 - The D4: Out Of My Head
20 Dec 2005 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
There is only really one word that describes the new album recently released by NZ’s own “The D4” – WICKED.
Completely Phat is another way I choose to describe it.
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Equus - Equus
16 Mar 2005 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
I opened my door this morning to find a little package outside, two CD's from Equus. I was feeling a little lazy - and pretty lathargic about doing anything as I slid the first of the two CD's into the CD tray, and got back into bed.
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Mr Sterile Assembly - Hulagu
29 Jan 2005 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Well, fancy being assigned a task to write a review about Mr Sterile Assembly. This is definitely one of the most challenging tasks I have had at hand.
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Tempo 38 - Tempo 38 Interview
09 Oct 2004 // interview by Epitomised_Drummer
Carl: What are your influences?
Tempo 38: Rise against, Faith No More, Rancid, Transplants, OMC, Good Riddance
Carl: What would you be doing now if you weren’t in Tempo 38?
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Foamy Ed - Foamy Ed - Kings Arms - 20 August
23 Aug 2004 // review by Epitomised_Drummer
Friday night, Foamy Ed, Redline, and Los Muertos kicked off one of the largest gigs I have seen at The Kings Arms in recent weeks. I pitched up about 10pm, and the place was already packed enough I had to fight to get to the bar.
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