STORMBORN – Zenith

RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://stormbornmetal.com/ Far too many power metal albums just flash the, admittedly fantastic if not virtuosic, guitar leads atop big choruses without paying much attention to writing quality songs, most just sounding like copies of Helloween or Gamma Ray. There are exceptions, for instance, the Italians Temperance whose third album The…

HYPERIA – The Serpent’s Cycle

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://hyperiametal.bandcamp.com/ Hyperia is a Canadian technical heavy thrash metal band founded in 2018 and they have just released their 3rd (after Insanitarium²⁰²⁰ and Silhouettes Of Horror²⁰²²) full length The Serpent’s Cycle²⁰²³ on November 17th, independently but courtesy of two promotors Jon Asher & Asher Media Relations and Sonja Schlicht &…

SHORES OF NULL – The Loss Of Beauty

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.shoresofnull.com/ In my review of the Italian melodic death/doom metallers Shores Of Null’s one track third full length Beyond The Shores (On Death And Dying)²⁰²⁰ (5/6) I necessarily compared it to both Edge Of Sanity’s Crimson¹⁹⁹⁴ and Insomnium’s Wintergate²⁰¹⁶ the former had inspired, but I concluded that it was inferior…

MEDEVIL – Mirror In The Darkness

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://medevil.bandcamp.com/ The Canadian progressive power thrash metaller’s debut Conductor Of Storms²⁰¹⁶ was already a fiercely original record although the influences were also quite easy to point out. I thought what made Medevil original was their approach to metal: they clearly loved it and were inspired by it but it wasn’t…

ANNIKEN – Climb Out Of Hell

RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/profile.phpid=100063610741197 I wish there was a God, I’d pray for salvation…If somehow, I could believe, that there was a saviour then maybe this life I lead would be less filled with sin. If there’s no god, no light at the end…then tell me what’s the meaning of it all (Save…