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It takes a few listens to get what Zodiac N’ Black are about but these Londoners have an effective grip on the rudiments of grunge, filtered through a traditional rock gauze. However, don’t get the idea they’re in any way a throwback, as the songs and musicianship here have a restive, 21st-century pulse.

From the opening uptempo stride of Bastadino, through the dark mystique of A Necessary Evil to the anthemic march of Better Off Dead and the purposeful alt-rock of Bad Pills, this lot deliver with character, charm and no little aptitude.

Zodiac N’ Black have much in common with Warrior Soul, plus Stone Temple Pilots and Therapy?. This is intelligently crafted music, and yet it never sacrificies emotion in the search for a quick melodic fix. There’s enough to suggest Zodiac N’ Black have a real shot at future fame. Another addition to the growing list of British potential worldbeaters.

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.