Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine return here with album number three, FEVER, the follow up to their hugely successful predecessors; 2005's THE POISON and 2008's SCREAM AIM FIRE. Formed in 1998 as a Nirvana and Metallica covers band under the guise Jeff Killed John, a name change and several world tours and chart topping albums later, Bullet For My Valentine are poised on the verge of global super stardom, FEVER their most anticipated and mature record to date. Touring alongside the likes of Slayer, Metallica, Killswitch Engage, Marilyn Manson and Avenged Sevenfold of late, Bullet For My Valentine are certainly ready for the big leagues now, something the new record clearly attests to.

Opening in a typical heavy metal barrage of syncopated down tuned riffage and machine gun drum splatter, YOUR BETRAYAL finds Bullet For My Valentine in none more heavy style; speed metal guitar passages and dark menace at each and every turn. Front man Matthew Tuck spits out grim lines like “As your eyes start to blister/there's no hope for a final embrace” with goth tinged relish, Bullet For My Valentine clearly an outfit given to blustery melodrama and angst ridden anguish. As they bark about “blood shot eyes” and “force fed lies” on the equally metallic THE LAST FIGHT, you realise that this is a band mired in the cliché at times, their schoolyard poetry a little laughable and hard to stomach; the anguished rock star misery angle played out to the extreme throughout FEVER.

Turning to the power ballad formula for A PLACE WHERE YOU BELONG, Bullet For My Valentine continue to mine those hard rock cliches, clean reverb heavy guitars shimmer, a steady drum beat keeps the time and Tuck croons with gravel throated emotion. Clearly aiming for the Nothing Else Matters or November Rain of their canon, this is instead a more forgettable and throwaway affair, Bullet For My Valentine lacking the killer hooks or heart and soul here to transcend the distinctly average.

PLEASURE AND PAIN is a song more grounded in the hook laden melodics, Tuck launching into an infectious chorus whilst the band bash out brutal metal flourishes all around him with aplomb, this four piece clearly an accomplished and talented outfit, fluid guitar solos and mile a minute drum patterns doled out with frightening ease. Its this musicianship that informs ALONE, the kind of speed metal guitar work that usually adorns a Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen record peppered throughout proceedings, Bullet For My Valentine making Muse sound like some three chord and the truth starter punk band. For all the brutal aggression and metallic noise mongering though, there's just something a little too sterile and smoothed out about FEVER, a slick production job ensures that the songs here never feel as threatening or dangerous as they could, a sound akin to Slayer playing through a protective wrapper of bubble wrap, jelly and ice cream.
BITTERSWEET MEMORIES is the bands most blatant stab at a crossover pop rock radio hit, guitars shimmer and shine in emo fashion whilst Tuck adopts a more warmly toned croon, delivering sweet melodies closer to Fall Out Boy than Metallica. Elsewhere the likes of BREAKING OUT, BREAKING DOWN, DIGNITY and MERCY return the band to business as usual, bashing out menacing metal anthems with all the cliches and tricks present and correct.

FEVER is an album that feels far too mired in tradition and cliché to ever really shine, Bullet For My Valentine crafting a record here that seems to tick just about every 'modern heavy metal rock' box in the list without ever really stopping to consider anything fresh or inspired. With slick production values and impressive musicianship throughout though, the Welsh four piece do have an album that sounds big and important; a collection of songs that are sure to continue their inevitable rise to global metal stardom, just the right mix of the brutal, the melodic and the epic to see them succeed. Lacking any real personality or edge though, FEVER is an ultimately blustering but empty achievement, a modern hard rock record with all the right tricks up its sleeves, but also one that scratch beneath the surface and you'll find that there's little there to love.

Named as one of Rolling Stone's Best New Bands Of 2010 and boasting producing from Mark Batson of Dr Dre, Eminem and Jay-Z fame, Grace Potter And The Nocturnals are one of those bands seemingly on the verge of very big things.

Debut single TINY LIGHT is a healthy indication that this outfit have the potential to live up to some of the hype too, the kind of pleasantly infectious middle of the road pop that's previously steamrolled the likes of Jack Johnson and others to mega worldwide stardom. Make no mistake, this is strictly middle of the road and impossibly safe sounding stuff, Grace Potter And The Nocturnals showing no interest in risk taking or left turns here; Potter's bluesy croon delivering radio friendly pop hooks over plodding guitar licks and a none more steady and sturdy rhythm section. The Fleetwood Mac comparisons are just ripe for the picking with TINY LIGHT, not necessarily a bad thing, but just predictable as hell and most definitely nothing new or inspired.

Grace Potter And The Nocturnals aren't going to change the world or shift any musical paradigms with TINY LIGHT, they instead opt to deliver radio friendly middle of the road pop, soothing rather than revolutionary. As pleasantly plodding mainstream pop goes though, TINY LIGHT ticks all the right boxes and proves that Grace Potter And The Nocturnals have all the elements to truly succeed.

OH MY HEART is one of those singles that grabs you from the very get go, from it's Pixies like bass rumble introduction through to the infectious melodic intent and the throbbing, thrusting guitar work; Canadian indie rockers Mother Mother conjure up one of the songs of the year here in gloriously care free style.

On the back of their debut UK live appearances and the release of second LP, OH MY HEART, Mother Mother are a Canadian outfit who've already made sizable waves both in their home country and the US; performing live with the likes of Pearl Jam, The Killers and Spoon and playing SXSW, CMJ, V Fest and Pop Montreal, the five piece look likely to repeat that success over here.

Produced by Tegan and Sara and The New Pornographers mainstay, Howard Redekopp, OH MY HEART is the kind of song to instantly win Mother Mother a slew of dedicated fans, vocalists Ryan and Molly Guldemond delivering sweet male/female melodic interplay over the aforementioned bass rumbles and guitar throbs. Sharing a certain musicality with the alt rocking likes of the Pixies, Broken Social Scene and Stars, Mother Mother are an outfit it's almost impossible not to warm to here, the marriage of pop melodicism and indie-rock scuffle, a winning combination to say the least.

OH MY HEART is already a contender for single of the year, a warm hearted and impossibly infectious slice of indie-rock romanticism up there with the best the genre has to offer.

Right off the bat, the Paramore comparisons are glaringly apparent and obvious when listening to Brighton pop-rockers Mimi Soya. Everything from the crunchy crashing guitar riffs, the feisty female vocals, the upbeat melodies and general aura of exuberant pop rock attitude; heck, even front woman Jorja seems to share the same red headed hair style as Hayley Williams judging by photos adorning the CD packaging.

Saying all that though, Mimi Soya do make an extremely enjoyable and envigorating racket with new EP, I CAN'T STAND POP BANDS, a quartet of songs so jammed packed with pop hooks and grin inducing attitude that it's sure to leave you suitably wide eyed and impressed. From opener MILLIONAIRE to closer DOCTOR! DOCTOR!, Mimi Soya inject each and every moment with an energy and bounding exuberance that's truly infectious, vocalist Jorja seemingly incapable of not infusing everything she utters with winningly melodic intent, catchy hook after catchy hook of cascading pop rock, just the right side of sickly sweet. Title track, I HATE POP BANDS proves the EP's finest moment, Mimi Soya firing on all cylinders and delivering a slice of day-glo pop-rock to die for, the “goodbye to the cynics, we're in it to win it” tag line both a tongue in cheek aside and manifesto waving call to arms all wrapped up in one delicious whole.

Mimi Soya may not be delivering anything you haven't heard before with the I CAN'T STAND POP BANDS EP and those Paramore comparisons are mile high neon letters in Vegas type of obvious, but for exuberant pop thrills and infectious hook laden melodicism, this is a quartet of songs to die for.

There's a quote from Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins describing Rush's brief eighties dalliance with the mainstream during documentary, BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE, where he proclaims, “Rush middle of the road is still somebody else's left field”, and it's perhaps the perfect summation of this bands forty year career trajectory, arguably the world's biggest cult band, a trio able to deftly balance the sublime and the ridiculous.

 Directed by filmmakers Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, the duo behind Iron Maiden: Flight 666, Metal, A Headbangers Journey and Global Metal; BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE takes Rush from their seventies beginnings in Toronto through to present day super stardom, one of rock's most influential bands and one that ranks third for most consecutive gold and platinum albums behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Winning the Heineken Audience Award at the ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City earlier this year, BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE has been critically acclaimed and offers an engaging look at band members Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.

Featuring interviews with musical luminaries and fans such as Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, Gene Simmons, Taylor Hawkins, Sebastian Bach and Jack Black, the documentary proves the influence and ultimate staying power of this Canadian power trio, charting their rise from Led Zeppelin esque beginnings through robe wearing prog rock craziness, eighties synth pop experimentation, anthemic stadium hard rock glory and all manner of weird and wonderful hair and mustache combinations along the way. If BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE illuminates anything, then it's the general down to earth groundedness and lack of cynicism that runs through these three musicians musical veins; Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart offering up unguarded and good humored insights into their forty year career, not afraid to poke fun at their own nerdiness and lack of fashionable sense; Rush's peculiar, unique sounding and at times ridiculously over the top style prog rock awkwardness not something lost on the band members themselves.

Though you don't exactly get a warts and all, no holds barred work of probing documentary here, BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE offers up enough insight into the band to leave most fans satisfied, the band giving great interviews throughout and providing entertaining commentary on each album, time period and musical shift along the way. Early footage of their humble beginnings at tiny venues in Toronto are fantastic looks into Rush's formative years, and watching Alex Lifeson mumbling his way through family dinner as a moody long haired teenager is both hilarious and cringe worthy viewing; his present day self as embarrassed and amused as everybody else judging by the ensuing interview footage.

Interviews with the likes of seventies touring partner Gene Simmons of Kiss, various producers and collaborators also add to the insight; adding context to the Rush story and a bit of tension and dissent amidst some of the more congratulatory moments on offer here; able to poke some playful fun at the bands eighties synth and mullet period. Fans Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Sebastian Bach and Taylor Hawkins are a little more gushing, offering up variations on why they think Rush are so awesome.

For fans of the band, BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE is a real treat, rare archival footage, insightful interviews and backstage looks at the Rush experience are all presented with loving reverence, this a documentary that covers the entire span of the band's career with an attention to detail that is impressive. Coupled with an extra discs worth of out takes, interviews and live footage, BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE is a must have for any real Rush fan out there and for even the most casual or merely curious onlooker, pretty damned essential stuff too.