SKELETON – Skeleton

The Austin, Texan black-thrashing quartet’s debut eponymous album "Skeleton" (after "Flexi 1"-2016 and "Pyramid Of Skull"-2018 EPs) is a good example of originality over quality in songwriting. While the sound produced by David "Skeleton" Ziolkowski (guitar), Victor "Skeleton" Ziolkowski (drums, vocals), Alex Guzman (guitar) and Cody Combs (bass) is a powerful blend of old and…

ENUFF Z’NUFF – Brainwashed Generation

This sparkling new ten-track record by the renowned Enuff Z’Nuff turned out to be a most pleasant surprise and what we have here is a vigorous and fresh-sounding piece of work with the band’s charismatic and characteristic brand of uplifting The Beatles/Cheap Trick-inspired hard rock coming across as more powerful than ever before.    Not…

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT – Cult Classic (2020 re-release)

Earlier on this year the Italian purveyors of classic and melodic/AOR rock that are Frontiers Records re-issued this rather interesting album by the legendary Blue Öyster Cult (which was originally released back in 1994), and “Cult Classic” contains fourteen re-recorded tunes by the great band including some of its most well-known compositions such as “Godzilla”…

UPRISING – II

While the one-man band’s first full-length assault from 2016 was musically impressive and melodically gorgeous (not to mention soaked in a wonderfully thick, blackened atmosphere and majestic as hell), this sophomore effort is even more accomplished and remarkable than the aforementioned debut album. Why is that? Well, the production is more potent and hard-hitting this…

ANAXAGOR – Anaxagor

The French death thrashing scumbags collectively known as Anaxagor recently unleashed a self-titled torrent of dark, rumbling metal that is relatively old-school in its approach yet tightly executed and to the point. There is something concise and refreshingly straightforward about this punishing self-titled offering but at the same time it is riddled with clever twists…

SOMBRE HÉRITAGE – Alpha Ursae Minori

Sometimes black metal can sound heavy and powerful yet highly predictable to the point of giving off a mistaken impression of minimalism. Such is the case with the French debutants Sombre Héritage and their album "Alpha Ursae Minori" which is neither terrible nor particularly engaging with "Lord" Molag-Venn (vocals), Maxime "Exu" Michaud (vocals, guitars, bass)…

HOUSE OF SHAKIRA – Radiocarbon

Even though this record is hardly brand new anymore (it is from December 2019), it turned up in my mailbox for me to review about a week ago and so I figured that we should give these melodic hard rockers from Sweden a handful of spins and write a short piece on this meticulously crafted…

BRUNHILDE – Choir Boy

This 4-track EP by the German duo Brunhilde is pretty damn cool and conjures up a fiery blend of heavy metal, crossover, and punk rock, and the result is satisfying one in the sense that all the tunes are dynamic and memorable. The musicianship is great, the sound packs punch and is suitably raw, and…

ROFFE HUNTER – Roffe Hunter

Roffe Hunter is a Swedish combo and I find it really fucking cool that there is hardly any information out there on the band as such. What we are dealing with here is their demo, which was released this year, so let us see what is in store for us, shall we?  The ominous, horror-filled…

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