Album Reviews

The problem with this EP is epitomized at the very beginning of the closing track, ‘Drowning In Atlantis’, when vocalist Stephen ‘Fire Breather’ Caffrey screams out the title as if introducing it on stage… said scream says volumes about the lack of imagination which has plagued metalcore in the recent …

Bristol born Glass Wing Pilot have released their debut mini-album ‘Diamonds For Stones’  and this young and vibrant group have a strong power that feeds from the epic nature of metal with a combination of pop hooks. Starter song ‘Vultures’ is a pop-punk/operatic number with chunky axe licks alongside rampaging …

Five years on from their last outing, 2007’s ‘Liberation=Termination’, Finnish-based melodic death metallers Mors Principium Est have returned with their new, international line up – featuring the twin guitar attack of the UK’s Andy Gillion and Andhe Chandler, all the way from New Zealand – and their eagerly anticipated fourth …

Generation.On.Dope, or G.o.D, trace their roots back a decade, to the Italian sleaze rock outfit Razzle Dazzle, who were starting to make a bit of a name for themselves outside their homeland until the untimely death of bassist Mario Gilardengo forced the band to re-evaluate themselves and start all over …

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental music. Long before bowed my knee at the altar of metal, I used to sneak home from school early – mainly because it was quicker to walk the quarter of a mile in a straight line through the park than take the …

It would be very easy to dismiss Crashdïet as yet another Swedish sleaze metal outfit, and indeed they have been very much at the forefront of the revival in that regard. However, personally, I’ve always found them to be more appealing than, certainly, the awful Reckless Love or their poppier …

It’s times like these I realise I should have learned German instead of French at school. 9MM, like Rammstein, shove their music in your face in without any English language alternative and, just like Rammstein, you wouldn’t really want the tracks to sound any other way because the language sits …

Manchester based Melodic death metal band Incassum have just released their debut album – Rite of Passage.  The band have previously released two demos and a mini-album (In Vain), and have built on this to create their album. As a female fronted melodic death metal band then comparisons with bands …

Having had the privilege of watching Michael Schenker on the ‘Temple of Rock’ tour earlier this year, I knew exactly what to expect, and this live dvd coving the tour doesn’t disappoint. The concert footage was recorded in Tilberg, The Netherlands in May of this year, and also at the …

Saxon: Heavy Metal Thunder – the Movie gets its release on the 10th December and charts the bands rise from their home town of Barnsley through to the rock icon status they hold today This is one of the best rock documentaries I have seen. Band members, past and present, …

I suppose it could be argued that the timing of the release of Geoff Tate’s second solo album is somewhat fateful. What with him being publicly (and embarrassingly so) fired from Queensrӱche earlier this year and the subsequent high profile squabbling which has ensued between the singer and the former …

  Formed in 2009 this four piece are set to turn a few heads with this amazingly catchy and well crafted three track E.P. Described as Alternative/Prog Rock, the sound leans towards a mix of Queens Of The Stone Age meets Funeral For A Friend who then hook up with …

This oddly name quartet hail from San Francisco take their name from a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong; known for its brothels, casinos and opium dens, which was torn down in the early 90’s. With that in mind you can be assured that the music produced …

Sweden’s Aeon (one of eight bands with the same name list in that essential resource for any serious metal journalist, or fan for that matter, the Encyclopaedia Metallum) count no less than the mighty Alex ‘Corpsegrinder’ Webster among their legion fans. And it’s not hard to see why on ‘Aeons …

Black Waltz,  is the 4th album by Swedish melodic death metal band Avatar. “Black Waltz” was released in Europe on November 19th via Gain/Sony Music. The album itself really shows off the different sides of how the bands’ musical talents. 3 specific songs really caught my attention; title track Black …

Kerion are a French symphonic metal band formed in 2002 from the band Kerlian who were an instrumental Prog metal band.  When singer Flora joined they decided to create a new group rather than just continue under the old name with a very different sound. They released two demos (“Conspiracy …

Sonja Perenda is a classically trained singer from Austria.  As well as being a singer she’s a qualified lawyer and has played charity concerts to the homeless and in prisons across Austria and Germany.  She’s also performed to UN soldiers in Kosovo and Syria, toured Europe and the middle East, …

Heavenward are a band that cleverly blur different metal genres together. They were founded in 1986, with deep roots of progressive rock/metal elements with a lashing of 80’s thrash and a burst of the power metal movement. They released their first demo in 1989 “At first nature …” . In 1991 their first CD …

German heavy metal singer Udo Dirkschneider was born on April 6, 1952. He  is best known as the vocalist in German heavy metal band Accept before he left in 1987  to form U.D.O. He as not lost his roots as on occasion he still performs with Accept as well as doing …

How much further can metal really go? It’s an internal dialogue we must’ve had with ourselves a thousand times. It’s been fascinating to watch our beloved genre develop over the years, hasn’t it? No matter how unreasonably heavy, inexplicably technical or utterly deranged it gets, just when we think metal …