Smoke Fairies really have brought the darkness and the wonders.

Clutch’s drummer, genial Jean-Paul Gaster, raps about the blues, Ramblin’ Man Fair, the genius of Neil Fallon and much more besides. . .

It may be the holidays  and we may have been lulled into a beery bonhomie,  but this bunch of unassuming nice guys can still pack one hell of a punch.

I do miss the more sinister Mk1 and 2 iterations of Ghost, but they are not my band: they are the people’s band, and their number grows ever larger!

Considering its rather singular, not to say peculiar charms, it is an album I keep returning to – eager for it’s dirty sugar rush.

I is a fascinating album, if at times hard work…It is never Pimms o’clock for PETBRICK.

Although the band are mainly remembered for their Super Yob style and beery, working-man anthems there is a lot more to their music in a catalogue ripe for rediscovery.

I do hope their new direction can bring them wider success as there can never be too much soul in the world and Seratones have it in excelsis.

Infest the Rats’ Nest is a surprise contender for metal album of the year. How did that happen? Who cares, just turn it up!

Technical glitches aside this was a triumph for Gojira, playing a packed Academy to a rapturous reception.

The atmosphere of the album is so gleefully narcotic and villainous, it’s like a demon on your shoulder, urging you to submit, fuck the straight world, join a cult and smoke crack for Satan.

It’s taken me a long time to come to a point where I can review this album as it pushes buttons I’m not used to. A Gaze Among Them requires your full attention. It really is worthy of your time.

The Sunday finale featuring Witches past and present, the Devil’s whiskey-soaked blues, and not-of-this-world riffage cement why we love this festival!

Chris Ball and Andy Little Zig-Zagged their way between Blackwater and spilled beer to capture their thoughts on Desertfest Friday with a Wovenhand…

Yes, this album may be aimed at serious Mos Generator fans, but it’s worthy of its place in any rocker’s record collection.

Desertfest’s first day brings a brain-frazzling, mind-melting selection box of rockers, seers, psychos and musical explorers.

About half of this album is great, and it is the half of the album that moves away from psychedelic rock and into dancier and poppier songs. It’s time to live up to their names and liberate themselves. If they do I think a sparkling future awaits.

A sort of Bela Lugosi’s Deadwood…Ritual Howls will scratch a very particular itch.

The Lazys are surely deserving of bigger, wilder, drunker audiences and I recommend you make it so at Bloodstock or anywhere else you happen to find them. 

Chock full of ideas, The Claypool Lennon Delirium sharpen their focus on sophomore album South of Reality, for a considerably more palatable and fuller enjoyable listening experience.

I wouldn’t exactly say it’s instrumental rock for people who don’t like that sort of thing, but there is certainly enough great music here to make them stand out from the crowd