The French black metal entity known as Noctem.Cursis unleashed its debut album containing 9 songs a few months ago. Musically speaking, the album, which is entitled "Nocturnal Frost", draws pretty heavily on some of the old Norwegian black metal titans and releases dating from the blackened 90s. Noctem.Cursis performs symphonic, epic, and melancholic black metal…
Pumping out power metal since 1998, Italian act Kaledon are fans of the concept record – developing a six part "Legend of the Forgotten Reign" series that took up all of the 2000’s for their discography. Their eighth studio album is "Antillius- The King of the Light", a leader from the year 1301 so expect…
Looking like Gwar, performing in a commercial-oriented 80’s hard rock style, "Scare Force One" from Finland’s Lordi gives the listener another 13 tracks of moderately fun, easy on the ears material. If you desire pure entertainment value, simpler grooves, and Mr. Lordi’s throaty voice, there will be a few cuts that work – the Accept-ish…
Active since 1999, Escapetor is a Norwegian quintet who fuse together elements of thrash, speed, and heavy metal on their second album "Fear". Their first full length "Moments…" came out in 2005, and since then they’ve released a couple of EP’s and gone through some member changes. Vocalist Claudius Bormuth joined in 2012, and their…
Certain genres promote stereotypes, clichés, and general elements that can easily be made fun of. Power metal, and epic heavy metal, fall firmly into these generalizations. Songs regarding fighting, warriors, fire, swords, knights, and the love of heavy metal aside lyrically – you often have over dramatized presentations on the musical and vocal front –…
Classic heavy metal intertwining dark, melodic twists is the modus operandi for UK’s Neverworld on their debut album "Visions of Another World". Guitarist Ben Colton has a glass shattering vocal range, in line with Rob Halford and Midnight from Crimson Glory, while musically the band favors a sonic synthesis of Savatage, King Diamond, and Judas…
A 6 song EP from UK’s Mutagenocide, this is aggressive modern thrash with a load of Lamb of God influence in the mix. Songs like "Remeron Nightmares" and "Hysteria" have the razor sharp crunch, up beat charge, and caustic vocals that bleed for the cause – steamrolling anything pretty in its path. Being their second…
The third album from Germany’s self-proclaimed ‘thrash death party action metal’ band The Prophecy 23, "Untrue Like A Boss" is all about having fun, not taking themselves too seriously, and occasionally injecting outside metal/ hardcore influences into the mix. Be it congas, acoustic guitars, clean vocals, you can’t help but chuckle at titles like "Video…
Active for 18 years, Sweden’s Sparzanza on their seventh album "Circle" bristle in stoner rock confidence, adding a touch of heavy metal nuance to the proceedings through these 11 hard hitting tracks. Stonesour, Godsmack, Audioslave, and Mustasch are four bands that come to mind the most here- the snare has an open slap/ Stone Temple…
Germany’s Victory may not have been a huge hit in North America, but they have made a decent European impact through their melodic brand of heavy metal. Featuring vocalist Charlie Huhn, Accept guitarist Herman Frank, and infamous producer / guitarist Tommy Newton, along with bassist Peter Knorn and drummer Fritz Randow, the second album "Don’t…
After 3 self-released EP’s and a single, we finally get the debut album from Danish death/thrash metal act Aphyxion with "Earth Entangled". I don’t know if I would really consider this classic death metal, as the vocals of Michael Vahl along with some of the down tuned riffing and similar grooves could be more so…
A Belgian female-fronted hard rock band, Scarved started in the fall of 2012 and now release their debut album "Dynamite" – an 11 song affair that has the quartet dipping one toe in the classic template while the other crosses modern rock lines. Luc Van Dessel can certainly rip out a great energetic lead break,…
There is something so amazingly frustrating about heavy metal. It can deliver majestic, generation defining material just as easily as it can deliver contrived, uninspired cliché after cliché. It is a genre that can be painstakingly serious one moment, then childishly playful the next. Not to mention that within this one genre you can have…
The Italian contingent has this airy nature when adding symphonic/ electronic keyboards to their power metal styles. I don’t know if its related to their love for the 80’s scene, dance music, or classical strains – but for some reason, keyboard virtuosity is held in as high regard as axe shredding. Together since 2005, "Dispelling…
Origin, the technical death metal outfit from Kansas is known for delivering some of the most complex extreme metal around and their 2008 release "Antithesis" stands today as a landmark in this exhausting genre. Personally I´ve given the mentioned album and "Echoes of Decimation" (2005) quite some running time during the years but I always…
Four musicians coming from various parts of the United States decide to record some classic old school heavy metal on this debut album "Day of Reckoning". Ichabod Krane consists of two musicians from Detroit’s Halloween in guitarist Rick Craig and bassist George Neal, ex-Sleepy Hollow drummer Tom Wassman of New Jersey, and current Wulfhook vocalist…
If I had to describe the music spawned by the Polish black metal filth entitled Odraza, I would probably go with something akin to raw and unpolished sound toppled with a lot of somewhat simple and groovy riffs. For some reason Odraza reminds me of the mighty Marduk in places. The vocals are well-done and…
The second album from Greece’s Chronosphere is a thrashing affair with death nuances, and a boatload of gang-oriented choruses bringing all the hooks home. It sounds very obvious to these ears that the quartet have studied the work of Exodus, Testament, and a boatload of Forbidden to create material like "One Hand Red Per Saint",…
Terminal Death er nok et ukjent band for mange. Tidlig amerikansk death metal. De var aktive mellom 1984 og 86 og ga ut kun en rehearsal tape og en demo. Musikalsk var de på sluttet et sted mellom Possessed og S.O.D.. Før det var de et litt mer pønka band. Jeg vil si at de…
An Irish doom metal trio that features Primoridal’s Alan Averill on bass/ vocals and Simon O’Laoghaire on drums, along with Wizards of Firetop Mountain’s Bones on guitar, "All Hell’s Martyrs" is their debut album. 7 full length songs, 2 instrumentals, and a newspeak "Drink the Wine" opener means prepare for a long record, as three…
