Sony 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Originally released in 2003 as the companion piece to the preceding year's equally acclaimed Deliverance, the seventh full-length from renowned Swedish progressive death metal auteurs, Opeth, would mark their first unashamed wade into the waters of retro prog-rock, whilst opting to eschew essentially all metallic machinations. Embracing primary songwriter Mikael Akerfeldt's lush clean vocals, while sonically delving into delicate atmospherics elevated by the prominent use of a mellotron, Damnation has grown in the two decades since its initial release to become a much lauded fan favourite, with many being able to appreciate the sharp turn the group took while noting the reflective balance contrasted against its much more macabre sister album. From the opening notes of essential cut 'Windowpane' onwards, you're pulled into a frosted world of depressive romanticism where the only way out is through. Celebrating its 20 year anniversary with a long overdue reissue, this is a work designed to be spun and absorbed in all its haunting majesty.

Review: Metallic Spheres In Colour is a newly reimagined and remixed version of David Gilmour and The Orb's 2010 collaboration Metallic Spheres. It arrives via Sony Music and is a brilliantly trippy work that stems from an idea by The Orb's founder Alex Paterson who always thought that, in the wake of the original version of the album, he could have done more to it. What stopped him was their original concept of "making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here." As such, they decided to revisit it, remix it, and make it like an Orb classic that has resulted in a completely different but equally great work.

Review: Metallic Spheres In Colour is the remixed and reimagined version of the 2010 album Metallic Spheres, a collaboration between historic electronic duo The Orb and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Though the original LP was a psychdelic meeting of minds in ambience - resulting in the conjuration of an advanced, extrasensory life-form in sound known as the 'metallic spheres' - this remix version reflects Alex Paterson's latent desire to flesh out the original's more Orby contours, producing an "almost enitrely different album".

Review: Fear Inoculum brought a 13-year Tool hiatus to an end in typically dramatic, knock-your-socks-off and blow wind through your hair style. A fine example of what the group have always done so well - running with wolves like Mogwai, only with far more metal sensibilities, and a damn-sight bigger helping of experimentalism, when this bad boy arrived in 2019 it shot straight to the top of the US Billboard 200, the third consecutive record from the group to do so.

Of course, those charts don't necessarily mean as much in this age as they did when the preceding Tool LP dropped, but 270,000 album-equivalent units within the first week do not lie. Nor does the quality of work here. From the avant-garde percussion and awkward synths of 'Chocolate Chip Trip', to the almost-ethereal ambience of 'Legion Inoculant' and the riff and crescendo heavy 'Pneuma', it's a wild thing of beauty.

Review: Just in time for the latest leg of Roger Waters' contested and controversial world tour, the grumpy former Pink Floyd front man has released a CD edition of The Lockdown Sessions, a mini-album of performances recorded at home (with the aid of many members of his live backing band) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It features Waters and company delivering gravel-voiced interpretations of The Wall favourites 'Mother' and 'Vera' (the latter segueing into 'Bring The Boys Back Home'), two tracks from Floyd's 1983 set The Final Cut, and Waters solo favourite 'The Bravery of Being Out of Range'. Most significantly, it also includes his re-imagining of 'Comfortably Numb', which Waters has re-framed as a slow, droning, trippy and ultra-atmospheric treat. As you'd expect, there are no Dave Gilmour style guitar solos in sight!

Review: Pink Floyd's Roger Waters recorded The Lockdown Sessions at home during the COVID lockdowns between 2020 and 2021. Of course, intrigue was bound to spark up as to what Waters would be doing in this time, so we're not surprised supply has matched demand. What ensues is a mixture of exclusive live originals (mastered for this EP of course), and a handful of new versions of old Floyd classics. The 2022 version of 'Comfortably Numb' falls into the latter category, appearing on the B-side. Meanwhile, brand new cuts like 'Mother' and 'Two Suns In The Sunset' appear on the A, acting as Waters' new reflections on a world driven mad; the songs were first streamed live to fans during the incipient, isolated phase of Zoom-calling and make-do music performances from inside musicians' homes.