Album Reviews

There's no argument that In This Moment are one of those bands that tend to be something like Marmite - people seem to either love them or hate them. Butcher Babies are another one of those type of bands. Thing is, I LIKE Butcher Babies and think they are unfairly maligned. I've got the same kind of feeling about In This Moment. What I've heard, I've certainly not been turned off by and I am interested in hearing more. Blood was pretty good. How will Black Widow, the band's latest effort (which arrived in my letterbox this morning) fare?

Dirt Box Disco, the Midlands answer to St Winifred’s School Choir, release their Christmas single I Don’t Want Anything For Christmas via STP RECORDS/Deadfly Recordings on 17th November 2014 and available to order here. It’s like some strange (S)punk cross between Grandma by the aforementioned St Winifred’s, All I Want For …

Ragnarok Juletide is a Christmas album – but please read on before running off as this is actually a good album.  It’s a project that has been a success for many years in Finland under the ‘Raskasta Joulua’ (‘Heavy Christmas’) banner, and is a symphonic metal project featuring an impressive …

London based Neonfly, are Willy Norton on vocals, Frederick Thunder on guitars, Patrick Harrington on guitars, Paul Miller on bass and Boris Le Gal on drums. They have managed to get onto some pretty cool and important supports slots lately, including Power Quest, Magnum, Sonata Arctica and Dragonforce. They lit …

The primary intention of this Italian black metal crew is to resurrect the darkened spirit of the Nineties Norwegian scene, and particularly the energy brought at that time by the likes of Ulver, Darkthrone, Borknagar and Burzum. To a degree they succeed, as this self-titled debut is a very raw, …

At first glance this latest offering from Foreigner does seem to be a compilation album released just in time for Christmas, however it is not, it is a live album featuring the best of their defining album and many more hits. The band recorded these live at the Borgata Hotel’s …

The latest in a new generation of blackened metal acts to emerge from the previously very un-metal (apart from the likes of Aborted and Enthroned) domain of Belgium, Saille (pronounced sahl-yeh) plough the sort of dark gothicism meets extreme brutality route previously explored by acts such as Akercocke. A concept …

It takes a brave decision by any band to continue following the death of not only a founder member but also one regarded as the cornerstone of the act concerned.  Some – such as Led Zeppelin – have decided not to attempt to replace such a key element, while others, …

You know the old saying “Don’t judge a book by the cover ” right! Well if you judge the cover art of this new album by Electric Mary, it really is as good inside as the eye catching and risque’ outside which definitely draws you in. That said, when you eventually …

For many bands, the difference between their first and second albums can be a jump of almost cosmic immensity:  how to capture the energy and enthusiasm of your debut opus while at the same time applying the lessons learned from the earlier process and using them to adapt/moderate/progress your sound …

@planetmosh reviews Milking the Stars – A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol by .@monstermagnetnj on .@NapalmRecords. So, somehow I’ve managed to be completely unaware of Monster Magnet for the majority of their twenty five year career.  Which probably makes me the ideal person to review this album.  It is, as the …

‘Thrill of the Night’, is the third album from Swedish Hard Rockers Grand Design. The album takes up where the 2011 opus ‘Idolizer’ left off, again led from the front by vocalist Pelle Saether and the guitars of Dennis Vestman, they are joined by Janne Stark on lead guitar, Mats …

The Quireboys are currently celebrating their 30th Anniversary year which in wedding terms would be their Pearl Anniversary. Life on the road may well be like a marriage, they broke up for a time tried different ventures then got back together and made the marriage work, despite some line-up changes, the …

It is almost 30 years since King Diamond left Mercyful Fate in 1985 to form his solo band and is miraculously still touring following a triple heart bypass operation 4 years ago and has just completed a 2 month tour of North America . His trademark banshee vocals are still …

London Alternative Rock four piece Fur Cough released their self-titled debut EP, Fur Cough, via Baby Baboon Records on 29th October 2014. Formed in April 2013 by brothers Aaron and Hayd Brown and joined by Karen Jones on drums and Debbie Ahakpo on bass. The brothers share lead vocals and …

Foul Body Autopsy is one-man extreme metal maverick Tom Reynolds, who describes himself as being “armed with an iPod, guitar and a desire to crush skulls” and to date has producedroughly an EP per annum during his four-year career.  Now, he has followed that tradition with this brain-shredding two-track EP, …

The story goes something like this… Back in 2009, in the small Lithuanian town of Seredzius, two local drunks – lets call them Gytis and Simonas (just because that’s their names!) – decided that just spending their days working and their nights drinking was not enough fulfilment:  so, they decided …

There’s an old – and very much overused (as these things tend to be) – saying about how you should never judge a book by it’s cover… in terms of reviewing heavy metal albums, it is perhaps fair to adapt this ancient adage to CDs and their artwork… On first …

This is the third album release from the “Cavalera Conspiracy” boys, with new bassist ‘Nate Newton’ from “Converge”. Bearing in mind the vast catalogue and releases from Max and Iggor since 1985; they certainly have not mellowed with age! “Max Cavalera” usually has an easy distinguishable vocal, but this time …

Growing up a “Thrash Kid”, I had two goals to see the Big Four live and to see Avenged Sevenfold be exposed as posers and the terrible songwriters that they are. Luckily in 2012, I achieved both when I saw Anthrax dominate the Academy in Dublin (and I caught Frank …