Album review overview: Paris Paloma, Airbourne and more

Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are way too many to listen to them all, let alone review them. This ensures that too many albums are left behind. And that’s a shame. That is why today we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors in short reviews.

Slug Comparison – Cold In Cold Out

Slug Comparison is the solo project of Doug Harrison, singer of Fen. His solo music focuses on the grunge and alternative rock that emerged in the nineties, with a clear acoustic slant. Harrison’s voice can sound clean and soothing, but also has a raw, Cobain-esque edge. With ‘Cold In Cold Out’ he serves an appetiser in the form of an EP with six new tracks. Opener ‘Tongue of the Hollow’ exudes a wistful atmosphere that seems to come straight out of the early nineties. The typical stroke on the acoustic guitar brings you back to the teenage years, including pimples and problems of a young adult. How different is ‘To Whom Would You Answer’, which gets a threatening, suffocating undertone with wah-wah guitar. An expected outburst fails to materialise, however. ‘Back to the Word’ brings a dark Counting Crows vibe and showcases Harrison’s versatile vocals. The song therefore stands out. The restrained instrumentation is continued in ‘Burden of Life’, after which the title track sounds somewhat more layered and less acoustic. ‘No Healer’ closes the EP. Comparisons with alternative bands from the nineties are legion, but precisely therein lies the charm. Harrison proves that he still has plenty to offer outside Fen. Bring on that album! (Bart van de Sande) (8/10) (Self-released)

Severoth – Waves

Severoth is a Ukrainian one-man project by multi-instrumentalist Illia Rafalskyi. The project was originally founded in Dnipro in 2012, but now operates from Wrocław, Poland. ‘Waves’ is the seventh album and contains long tracks. Five of the six tracks last around ten minutes or longer. Only the closing ‘Glacial Dreams’ has a “normal” length and clocks in at 3:41. The concept of ‘Waves’ dates from 2023, when Severoth sat on one of the many black beaches in Grettislaug, Iceland. The sound of a rushing sea forms the transition between the tracks and acts as a red thread through the album. The music is a mix of atmospheric black metal and ambient. ‘Waves’ contains a fairly large dose of pure ambient, which might make it feel a bit tedious for black metal fans. ‘Waves’ is not (yet) Severoth’s masterpiece, but with every album he comes a step closer. A very solid 7 for this beautiful album. (Ad Keepers) (7/10) (Avantgarde Music)

Peter Gall – Drum Seeds

Drummer Peter Gall won the German Jazz Prize Best Album last year with ‘Love Avatar’. But instead of a successor in the same style, Gall delivers with ‘Drum Seeds’ an album that resembles its predecessor in nothing. Even more: Gall chooses a radically different approach by drawing from electronica, hip-hop, ambient and even kraut. In the compositions, the drums are central, and that is exactly as Michael Reinboth intended it. Because this album was actually conceived by the big man behind the label Compost Records: Reinboth convinced Gall that there had to be a real drum album. Drums and a colourful collection of all kinds of vintage synthesisers. On the opener ‘Groove Receiver’ we hear two drum kits over which Gall drapes a mind-expanding psychedelic carpet, originating from a Mellotron. The titles often already reveal a lot about the instrumentation used. ‘Prophet Juno’ is, for example, built around sounds from a Roland Juno-60 from 1983. Jazz? For that, you need to have patience with ‘Drum Seeds’; ‘Zombie Satellite’ is one of the few tracks that betray Gall’s jazz past. After the trip-hop in the closing ‘Love Lost Bits’, we are still left with the question of what on earth we have been listening to. A drum album. But from another universe. (Jeroen Mulder) (7/10) (Compost Records)

Paris Paloma – The Fatal Flaw

With ‘The Fatal Flaw ‘, Paris Paloma presents her second studio album, the successor to the successful ‘Cacophony’ from 2024. Where that debut was mainly socially charged, the British singer-songwriter shifts the focus here to the versatility of love, from artistic inspiration to political act. Opener ‘I Cry in Front of Paintings’ immediately sets the tone with the line ‘I have something to say’, a statement that colours the entire album. In ‘Rothko ‘, Paloma compares herself to a painting whose layers become visible, while ‘Good Boy ‘, with sharp production, casts a critical eye on patriarchal expectations. The western atmosphere of ‘Silhouette on the Hill’ and the restrained vulnerability of ‘get her the fucking flowers’ show the bandwidth of the album, which relies on references to art, mythology and literature without being forced. Closing piece ‘Beautiful Birds’ offers a resting point after ten intense songs. Musically and lyrically, Paloma manages to build further on her earlier work, with a voice that effortlessly alternates between falsetto and a lower, rawer sound. ‘The Fatal Flaw’ confirms her position as one of the striking voices within the contemporary singer-songwriter genre. (William Brown) (9/10) (Nettwerk)

Airbourne – Airbourne

With their sixth and self-titled album ‘Airbourne ‘, the Australian rockers kick the door open right away. Opener ‘Gutsy’ blasts out of the speakers without preamble, a tribute to Lemmy Kilmister and Bon Scott that immediately shows what this band stands for. No detours, no studio perfection, just rock-hard riffs and a rhythm section that goes full throttle. ‘Kid In A Candy Store’ is pure sultry rock and roll, cheeky and without any shame, while ‘Sky High’ turns the volume up even further towards stadium size. On ‘Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)’, Joel O’Keeffe sounds more vulnerable for the first time, a track that honours the memory of Lemmy without becoming solemn. Further on, ‘Christmas Bonus’ and ‘Here She Comes’ effortlessly maintain the energy, and ‘Rock N Roll Ya’ closes the record as it should, hard, sweaty and without excuses. Airbourne does on this album exactly what it always did, only louder and with more conviction. Whoever has AC/DC and Motörhead at home hears a worthy successor here. No surprises, but a hell of a party. (Anton Dupont) (8/10) (Spinefarm)