After 10 years and millions of views, i’ve decided to put Wicked Rock on hiatus…one that may last forever.

This site always put passion first, mine especially, but that’s hard to maintain considering how apathetic the world has become. We live in the zeitgeist of the instant fix. Social media took over the past 3 years but even that is dying in lieu of instant messaging. There is less reading and interaction, comments and sharing in this modern world…and how quickly that tsunami arrived. Sure, there’ll be the odd internet success but it’s not as free as it used to be. The corporations are taking over.

Nevertheless, and thankfully, no one can kill music! Every year, i’m amazed at the quality out there. Enjoy it, love it! One day it will return as real culture. But i, for now, shall leave this place. I have many other sites and they, as passions, also take up time that i battle to find. The world is in trouble and we need to fight the good fight. Passions have to come second. Social causes first!

Visit me at my my personal blog – www.WickedMike.com. Subscribe to my whacky world of opinions, jokes, politics, women, poetry and, of course, music…i may even transfer all of this there…and undoubtedly i’d write the occasional review. When music’s throbs this hard in my blood, it’s a part of me.

Below, i leave reviews of 2 of my favourite bands from Durban, South Africa (my old, home town). Enjoy GRYND RODD MUSE and HABIT TO.  The featured video is one of the greatest songs of all time in one of the greatest movies of all time. Watch it. Feel something!

And always keep rocking!

South Africa’s GRYND RODD MUSE reaches out to all with their sophomore release, from the quick-fix Playstation generation to true metallers. Even cavemen would be unable to resist headbanging. Accessibility, pounding and manly, is the beauty of the Bloodline CD.

‘Blood & Scars’, the blasting first single, is a strong representative of what’s to come. It’s crammed with attitude; violent and self-assertive. Like other groove metallists (Pantera, Coal Chamber) before them, the songs are in-your-face, an honesty that always let’s you know where you stand…and with it is a better place to be.

Good musicianship is the foundation. Allan’s guitaring is consummately appreciative of the genre, fill of riffs but with excursions into thrash and the delightful rarity of short, melodic soling. Chris is the rock, his drumming rhythmic and well directional, possessing more excitement than ever presented before. (more…)

What a relief! Fours years of amazing live performances finally compounded into HABIT TO’s much anticipated, and mysteriously entitled, Secrets to a Triangle.

HABIT TO are sensational with their step-to-the-side delivery of alternate, prog enthused, rock ‘n roll. Jazz and classical training combines with a love for heavy to steer clear of the mainstream whilst remaining extremely accessible. That a 3-piece can deliver such a bullish sound means that each band member gives 100%. Andrew Stent thrums the bass passionately whilst Dale Wardell’s drum sticks have mastered whispers and thunders. Chillie Stent (yes, there are good genes here) eats the air and breathes it out beautifully onto her electrifying guitar.

All tracks are devotions to the heart of music but my favourite secrets are the pounding ‘Eden’, the many-layered ‘Before You Go’, the sing-a-long ‘Cast In Stone’, the psychological ‘House Without Knives’ and the multi-vocalled ‘May Night Sky’. (more…)