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Out of the ashes of defunct cult heroes Black Bonzo come Gin Lady. And like the band from which they were born, this lot are very much at home in the early 1970s. Their approach owes much to the more progressive elements of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, and they make occasional nods in the direction of Captain Beyond and Blue Oyster Cult.

These Swedes have a way of measuring their step, so that they’re celebrating a heady and creative era for intelligent rock, while also making it clear that the aim is more than merely wallowing in nostalgia.

You can hear all of the influences on songs like Bloodsuckin’ Babies, The Rest and Lend Me A Hand. But the band show a contemporary sharpness, proving they can stand on their own abilities and wits. Gin Lady also move seamlessly from groove-saturated anthems like Get It On (Saturday) to a more thoughtful stoner attitude of Bottom Of The Sea.

As was the case with Black Bonzo, the core of the sound is based around the Hammond organ. But from this core they’ve developed an album that’s alluring and dynamic. This is the sound of progressive music merging seductively with heavy rock.

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.