Album Reviews

People adore them, people despise them and some people don’t want to know about them because they’re still as confusing as ever. Whatever your opinion though, the bottom line is that Babymetal have been the most talked about band for the past 18 months and have surpassed everything we thought …

@planetmosh reviews Black River by .@DoomsdayOutlaw Doomsday Outlaw are a five piece from Derby who went into the studio to produce this, their debut album after reaching the East Midlands finals of Metal to the Masses but narrowly missing out on a spot at Bloodstock Open Air in 2014.  Fast forward …

The second full length album from Birmingham based Captain Horizon sees them stretching their musical boundaries even more. Released on May 11th 2015 via Rocksector Records and a well attended album launch/gig in Birmingham on May 22nd shows the leaps and bounds they are making since they were formed by …

It is rare that an album comes along that sits outside the defined genres and makes you really sit up and listen. Tribulation formed in 2004 and this is their third full length release and it defies all laws of pigeon holing into one genre or another. Sweden after all …

  Sometimes, just sometimes, when the celestial bodies align , on a clear moonlit night I’ll find myself drawn to the coast. To sit on rocky cliff tops and gaze out onto the ocean, to ponder humanity’s foibles and achievements, as the white Lunar rays dance and skip on the …

Fans of the original wave of Swedish death metal are in for a treat, from Entrails‘s latest release, Obliteration. As the band says, it’s ten tracks of “death metal and nothing else.” Entrails formed around the same time that bands like Entombed and Grave were just beginning to garner some …

There is something morbidly fascinating about goregrind.  It’s a musical sub-genre which often inhabits the darker, more taboo elements of the human psyche, addressing lyrical issues which many, more mainstream, artists only dare to skirt around with the comparative finesse of a housewife cleaning her most precious porcelain compared to …

Formed in 1974 in Newcastle Upon Tyne by brothers John and Mark Gallagher, Raven have stuck to their guns through thick and thin resulting in their 13th studio album release ExtermiNation currently available via SPV/Steamhammer Records. Fan friendly formats include a CD Digipack with bonus track ‘Malice In Geordieland’ and …

After selling upwards of 80 million albums as a part of rock titan Journey, guitarist Neal Schon has released his latest solo offering, Vortex. For Vortex, a two disc set, Schon was joined in the studio by keyboardist Igor Len, and fellow Journeyman, drummer Steve Smith. Schon has the freedom and the space to explore …

The Dynamic Aussie Duo strikes again! Right from the word go The Graveltones second album ‘Love Lies Dying‘ hits you like a rampaging rhino that tramples all over you, backs up, and for good measure, tramples all over you again and again to make sure the job is done! That …

Soulsteal are a Doom/Death Metal band from Cyprus that formed over ten years ago.  They released their debut EP in 2009, then in 2012 followed this with their debut album.  Now three years on, they are releasing their second album, Tenebris. The songs are fairly short with almost half clocking …

Melbourne, Australia’s Deez Nuts brought forth their fourth studio album, Word Is Bond, in the spring of 2015. Word Is Bond is a 14 track disc filled with monolithic, aggressive hardcore crossover thrash metal that will sear your feet to the floor and melt your face simultaneously. The overall sonic …

SixStringNoise, from Greece, has independently released Snake Side Brotherhood, a ten song album. This offering, the band’s third, shows a natural progression in musicianship, songwriting, and technical mastery. As a duo, Markos and Alex have come up with a cohesive batch of songs which run a gamut from grunge or …

Iron Kobra from Germany appeared in 2008 and have released a series of singles and one full length before this current offering. They introduce themselves on this album with an intro about playing on 10 – it sets the scene perfectly for what can only be described as a wild …

Welcome back Nuclear Assault! Even though it will be short lived (they are calling this the ‘Final Assault’ tour), the New York based thrash metal legends have reformed for their 30 year anniversary and released Pounder. This blistering 4 track E.P and 2015 tour dates including a main stage slot …

Mixing the blackest of extreme metal with thrash breaks/parts is the thing that made me review “The Endless Winter” by Frosthelm. It was too odd to not give it a good listen to and tell you what I thought. I love this band; Frosthelm have cracked the code and managed …

The solemn and eloquent darkness with the few spots of light. The drums rises up from the under floor in the side of the massive stage. Perfect lighting setting hits the stage and then Frost starts hitting the drums and Satyr comes up from the floor too and so begins …

I must admit to not knowing an awful lot about Erja Lyytinen, until her latest cd dropped on my doormat, it is called ‘Live In London’, which had me thinking that I must be missing out on something special, and I was right. On October 7th 2014, Erja Lyytinen rolled …

This is Magnums 9th live album and is a fitting reminder of just how good last year’s studio release ‘Escape from the Shadow Garden’ is. If you missed the supporting tour then this is as faithful a reproduction as you are going to get, my venue on that tour was …

Few bands have a reputation for making music as consistently honest, organic, and daring as Gov’t Mule. But in curveball mode, and for the first time in its 20-year career, Gov’t Mule has delved into its vaults for Stoned Side Of The Mule (Vol 1 & 2). After last December’s …