Generally I’ll only publish an album recommendation for new releases that have been sent to us for potential airplay. I don’t write “reviews” and the album recommendations are my way of highlighting those releases that I think others with similar musical tastes should check out. Sometimes we’ll purchase a new album that isn’t from one of the “mainstream” recognised bands, which hasn’t been sent to the station, that I like so much that I feel the urge to publish a recommendation for it. The new album from Devil’s Train, simply entitled “II”, is one of those. The album was released through Ear Music in the UK on 26th January and you’ll already have heard a few tracks from it if you’ve tuned into the Friday NI Rocks Show over the past few weeks or checked out the videos on Facebook.


Devil’s Train released their self-titled debut album in 2012 and have featured on the station on many occasions. The follow-up album “II” is a further step up in my opinion and will most certainly feature in any list of top albums of 2015 that we publish at the end of the year. So far the band has released videos for “Hollywood Girl”, “Down On You” and possibly my favourite track “Mr Jones”. There are 13 tracks on the album, including covers of “Born To Be Wild” and “Immigrant Song”.

Any band that lists Badlands, Tesla and Cinderella amongst their influences is always worth checking out! The band consists of R.D. Liapakis on vocals, Lakis Ragazas on guitar, Jari Kainulainen on bass and Jorg Michael on drums. Both Liapakis and Ragazas are also members of German power metal band Mystic Prophecy.

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About “NI Rocks Recommends”

The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album. What it isn’t is a “review”!

My musical tastes cover most things rock; from the not too melodic to the not too heavy. The albums that I’ll be recommending are merely those that I would buy myself and which you’ll be hearing played on my shows on Rock Radio NI.

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