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Gradually carving out a direction for herself again after several years working on various collaborative projects, Australian guitar slinger Orianthi’s second album in two years (the simply titled O was released in 2020) is a bit of an odd move.

With songwriter/producer multi-instrumentalist Jacob Bunton as her chief collaborator, the 30 minutes of rock’n’roll here feels uneven and unfinished.

Bookended by two instrumentals – Illuminate (Part I) and Illuminate (Part II) – there are some solidly rocking tracks such as first single Light It Up, Fire Together and the industrial-flavoured Void, but the most fully realised track is the rather vanilla acoustic number Living Is Like Dying Without You, while potentially the most interesting idea is the super-heavy Witches & The Devil, which doesn’t quite touch two-minutes.

Greater focus on some killer tunes seems like the most obvious goal to aim for.

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.