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"From out of the dark"

From Out Of The Dark

From out of the dark is a collection of 6 songs finished during the infamous Covid lockdown of 2020, drawing musical influences from many different genres and based on different themes close to my heart.

Some with a narrative, others about how I felt a particular junction in life, playing music, writing and recording songs has been a great outlet for me and helped me deal with and express myself in a productive fashion.

With no single genre over the six songs I decided to put them out as From out of the dark, to show how something good can come from the darkness. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making them.

I appreciate so much all the friends and family who have helped critique these tracks ready for public consumption. Thanks also to my younger sister, Hannah, for providing her vocal talents and lyric writing on two of the songs.

Please listen below and follow me on all of my social networks using the links above.

Matt x

#BurningAshes by #JamesBennett mini spoiler free book review

Burning Ashes (Ben Garston, #3)Burning Ashes by James Bennett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Ben Garston books are enjoyable. Pop, fantasy, steeped in cool from cover to cover. The third one is no exception.

Following up on the previous two books, the world is in the process of going to shit; the lore that kept all the remnants (magical creatures) in an endless sleep to achieve peace until the world is ready for them, has been broken prematurely, and a King Arthur plucked straight of the Walking Dead is coming back to the Earth on a major recruiting drive, to gang up with as many wicked creatures as possible and take the world as his own.

Ben Garston, as before, accepts the mantle and does what he can to try and thwart the fay, teaming up with unexpected enemies and acquaintances from previous books, and events taking an extra turn for the worse when Ben realises the truth...

Sounds quite promising, wo why the 3 stars? This third entry from James Bennett is extremely well written - a vast swathe of similes and metaphors punctuate what is actually a fairly mundane story, where most of the book seems to recount the events of the previous two books, with our brooding lead character continuing to mope about how he let everyone down. This season would make an epic TV show with the range of characters and the great imagery Bennett deploys, but I didn't really want to spend half the book rereading the first two.

So, what I hope then is that this third entry is good enough to inspire a fourth, as I have no doubt that this is an excellent series, but can be so much better than this one.

View all my reviews

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