Album Reviews

Gates Of Dalhalla is a live DVD and CD package that was recorded to commemorate Swedish heavy metallers Hammerfall’s 15 year-anniversary. The open-air concert was held in Dalhalla in Sweden on the 28th July 2012. With two hours and twenty minutes of HammerFall history featuring songs from every album as well as …

My introduction to rock/metal came through buying live albums as they represent a band at their peak with their best songs on them so classics  like Double Live Gonzo by Ted Nugent, Live And Dangerous by Thin Lizzy, All The World’s A Stage by Rush, Alive II by Kiss, Loud …

  The South Coast quintet deliver a debut E.P. brimming with energy and enough youthful exuberance, coupled with an amazing level of maturity to make me believe that I’ve just found the perfect mix of old school Metal riffs and modern Hardcore.     I must admit it took a …

Red Sun Revival are an alternative/Gothic rock band from London.  Formed in 2011, this is their debut album.  The album was mixed and produced by Steve Carey from The Eden House, and mastered by Andy Jackson (who produced the Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell). Within a very short time …

Red Sun Revival are an alternative/Gothic rock band from London.  Formed in 2011, this is their debut album.  The album was mixed and produced by Steve Carey from The Eden House, and mastered by Andy Jackson (who produced the Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell). Within a very short time …

Thief in the night are a hard rock band from Los Angeles.  When I say “band” that’s a fairly loose term as there are only actually two members – Johnny Rossa on vocals and Chris Van Duyn on guitar, with the other two musicians appearing to be drafted in on …

Messenger are a four piece Christian metal band who formed in 2009 in Virginia, USA.  They released their first album (I’m talking to you) in 2010, and have also released a live album.  Now they’re back with their second studio album, “You choose”. A quick glance at the track listing …

“And the meek shall inherit the earth…” the first prophetic words of Rush’s breakthrough 1976 album 2112  little did they know that those Neil Peart written lyrics would almost come true and Rush would be sitting third after the Beatles and Rolling Stones with the most gold and platinum albums …

You take one look at Melbourne Rockers Mammoth Mammoth and you think stoner rock, chilled 70s influence psychedelia. Then you listen to them and it’s a very, very different picture indeed. They channel aggressive pumping riffs and attitude together into a hard-ass rock monster, especially with latest release and album …

Classic Metal riffs aplenty as the French headbangers return with their seventh opus. The origins of Mystery Blue can be traced way back to the early 80’s, although the current line up bears no similarity whatsoever to those early days, only founding member Frenzy Philippon remaining from the bands original …

It’s probably a bit pat to say – but, then, the band do allude to it in their own press collateral – but a German band playing industrial-tinged metal and singing in their native language are inevitably going to draw comparisons with Rammstein. And, yes, there are other references with …

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 …