Bernie Tormé: Flowers & Dirt

Blues with a punk edge.

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It’s easily forgotten it was Bernie Tormé to whom Ozzy originally turned to fill the gap when Randy Rhoads died. He was also a member of Gillan in their halcyon days. But in recent years? He’s almost been forgotten.

This album, though, starts to redress the balance. It’s full of elegantly crafted music based around the man’s electrifying blues playing, with a kick. There are some real winners, the sort that show the Irishman nodding to Rory Gallagher, Climax Blues Band and even ZZ Top.

Maybe the album is overlong, but Mr Fixit, Your Voodoo and No Lip (Tsunami Blues) spark from the eternal flame of blues greatness, and the entire album is an unfussy burst of joy./o:p

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.