RECENT ALBUM REVIEWS
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STARKILL – Shadow Sleep
The third album from Starkill represents a little bit more of a stylistic shift beyond their noted melodic power/death metal propensities. Only natural it seems, as "Shadow Sleep" should be a record that takes the quartet from being more of a buzzworthy band into a flag bearer for where the genre is going. Keeping the…
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MÖTLEY CRÜE – The End – Live in Los Angeles
The legendary vortex of crazy rock ‘n’ roll that was and is Mötley Crüe played its final show ever at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve 2015, and there is no doubt that what the audience witnessed that night was something historical and highly emotional. After all, we are talking about…
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PESTILENCE – Presence of the Pest
A live album from the Dynamo Open Air performance in 1992, Pestilence reaches back into the archives for "Presence of the Pest". No one can deny the band’s impact on the scene, moving from a more thrash oriented sound to being very progressive and death/jazz fusion oriented and back to a more controlled thrash/death sound…
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ASTRAL WINTER – Forest of Silence
The Australian black metal outfit Astral Winter is back with yet another epic album filled to the brim with grandiose melodies and sweeping atmospheres. This third full-length assault is even more symphonic and grand in scope than its two predecessors, but such is musical evolution, I suppose. After all, the two previous outputs kind of…
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KHAOSPATH – …For the Devil Speaks the Truth
The Swedish black horde named Khaospath has struck again! This 2016 opus of theirs entitled "…For the Devil Speaks the Truth", which is the follow-up to the 2014 debut album, consists of nine raw, aggressive, and melodic tunes that hearken back to the early waves of Norwegian and Swedish black metal. While the sound is…
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HAIL SPIRIT NOIR – Mayhem in Blue
Mayhem in Blue is the third album from Greek prog black metallers Hail Spirit Noir, and their first for Dark Essence Records. For those who have not heard this act before, expect a fairly even but schitzophrenic split between occult psychedelic rock and a kind of Mortuary Drape meets Greek BM sound. While you may…
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THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM – Never Machine (EP)
The Doomfather (aka Leif Edling) is at it again, putting together another attractive four-piece band in The Doomsday Kingdom for this debut EP "Never Machine". Featuring Wolf guitarist/ vocalist Niklas Stålvind just handling the singing for this group, the lineup also contains Avantarium guitarist Marcus Jidell and Narnia drummer Andreas Johansson. Not surprising that the…
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DEATHSPELL OMEGA – Synarchy of Molten Bones
The fifth full-length installment from the French avantgarde black death powerhouse Deathspell Omega (DO), largely brings no surprises. While they do not progress from their established trademark sound, the lateral linear approach to songwriting reveals a tendency to experiment with all they already had on their plate on their past 4 endeavors plus the few…
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SYMPHONITY – King of Persia
Containing two of the premiere vocalists in the melodic metal business with Olaf Meyer (ex-Luca Turilli, ex-Dionysus) and Herbie Langhans (Avantasia, Sinbreed), Symphonity return after an eight-year absence for this second album "King of Persia". Perfectly understandable, especially given the sudden death of bassist Tomas Celechovsky in June of 2012 which took some time to…
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NABERUS – The Lost Reveries
Riding that fine line between modern aggressive groove metal and melodic death metal, Australia’s Naberus sign to Eclipse Records and release their second full-length "The Lost Reveries". What this means to the listener is you will feel like you are taking in a current version of In Flames one moment for the choruses, and then…
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SAXON – Let Me Feel Your Power
"Let Me Feel Your Power" is another double disc of live shows from the veteran traditional metal band Saxon. Capturing shows from Germany and the USA, you get the energy resonating through your speakers from the stage – a solid mixture of older and newer cuts spanning their five decades as recording artists. Only privy…
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AZAGHAL – Helvetin Yhdeksän Piiriä (re-release)
Seventeen years after it originally crawled from the abyss, Moribund serves up a reissue of the famous sophomore album from this Finnish juggernaut. As far as I can tell the mixing and engineering are the same and only the artwork and liner notes are any different. No bonus tracks or anything of the sort are…
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ULCERATE – Shrines of Paralysis
I admit that as excellent as Ulcerate’s last album, "Vermis", was I had serious doubts they would be able to match it, let alone surpass it. "Vermis" was a perfect death metal masterpiece. And that is why I can’t believe how easily "Shrines of Paralysis" outclasses it in complexity, yes, but in catchiness. Whereas every…
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HANSEN & FRIENDS – XXX: Three Decades in Metal
The first solo album from guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen, "XXX: Three Decades in Metal" is a labor of love. Featuring a core band of Heaven Shall Burn bassist Alex Dietz, Carcass drummer Daniel Wilding and second guitarist Eike Freese, plus of course some of his friends in the metal scene as special guests, this is a…
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SHAMAN ELEPHANT – Crystals
The prog rock scene in and around Bergen is thriving these days, and thanks to Karisma Records I have had the pleasure of acquainting myself with quite a few interesting bands that may be said to either belong to or move along the periphery of the aforementioned genre and scene. Shaman Elephant is no exception…
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SKYLINER – Condition Black
Florida power/progressive metal trio Skyliner return for a second full-length "Condition Black", another hour-long odyssey into terrain that combines Maiden/ Running Wild gallops and cultural musical hooks with occasional extreme nuances to flesh out the ideas. Guitarist Jake Becker has a baritone range that vocally gives "Too Many Voices" and the Iron Savior-ish closer "Your…
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METALLICA – Hardwired…to Self-Destruct
Truth be told, I approached this brand new 78-minute opus by Metallica rather carefully and with some trepidation. After all, the last few decades have not exactly been kind to the band, if you ask me, and my expectations to this double album of theirs were pretty low. "St. Anger" was a catastrophe. "Death Magnetic"…
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SISTER – Stand Up, Forward, March!
The 1980’s… a period of shaping my music tastes, adolescence and teen years coming together at a point in time when we didn’t have instant communication, the internet, or even access to our record collections at the click of a button. As such, my first experiences in ‘heavy’ music per se were with the burgeoning…
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NIVA – Atmospherical
The fifth studio album for Swedish AOR/melodic rock act Niva "Atmospherical" digs a little deeper into a heavier stance to diversify things a bit from previous discography. Perfectly understandable, given drummer/ guitarist Lars Chriss work with Lion’s Share – which is where vocalist Tony Niva teamed up with Lars for 2001’s "Entrance" effort. Fear not…
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OCTOBER 31 – Metal Massacre 31
To those who grew up in the 80’s wishing to learn more about the metal underground, the Metal Blade compilation series Metal Massacre would be our sonic soundtrack to discover new artists, especially in the burgeoning traditional, power, speed, doom, and thrash genres. October 31 feels the time is right to put their spin on…
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AIRBOURNE – Breakin’ Outta Hell
One of the success stories of the modern age of hard rock pertains to Australia’s Airbourne. Taking high energy, quick hitting material cut from the AC/DC mold, they’ve sold hundreds of thousands of albums and moved tickets live globally as people clamor for more, more, more. "Breakin’ Outta Hell" is the fourth studio album, and…
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BLACK HOLE GENERATOR – A Requiem for Terra
I find it hard to believe that it has been ten years since the release of the excellent Black Hole Generator MCD entitled "Black Karma". Times truly flies. Anyway, this strange and delightfully morbid musical brainchild of Vulture Industries vocalist B. E. Nilsen has returned from beyond the grave to curse us with this first…
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ALAN PERRY – AC/DC in Full Flight
«AC/DC in Full Flight» is a thing of beauty. The ever-awesome Wymer Publishing in the UK released this fully independent publication a little while ago, and I must say that I am quite blown away by this one. In a way, it is not really a book in the traditional sense of the word, but…