Album Reviews

The internet is really a double-edged sword. There is more entertainment than you could ever imagine all in the palm of your hand. Unfortunately with that, there is a lot of stuff that is derivative and  lacking any talent. On the other hand to get gems sometimes you have to go …

About 10-15 years ago power metal was the genre that enevitably went from popular to over-saturated. Bands like Edguy, Dragonforce and Blind Guardian had massive amounts of coverage and all the while Hammerfall were there to see it all happen.Not only were they there they came out of hype that spawned so …

The hardscrabble, oft-bloodied bastard child of blues-based rock and roll and youthful angst, punk music has found a ready and willing audience with the disillusioned and disaffected for decades. A near-antithesis to virtuosity, punk’s raw edge favors instant consumption: quick composition, hard-hitting rhythms, and raucous riffing guitars. It’s common-man folk music for …

Overdrive, from Grantham in Lincolnshire, are a band I seemed to have overlooked when listening to some of the old eighties rock and metal bands from my heyday. They first came onto the NWOBHM scene way back in 1981 releasing a 3 track EP “On The Run”, and another 4 …

Ascended Dead hail from San Diego and present a four track 7” ep full of death metal violence. This is not your ultra modern produced and tweaked to within an inch of its life death metal, this is raw chaos. This is the second release by the band and first …

Even from their humble beginnings in Stockholm  in 1990, Opeth have always pushed the boundaries in metal and none more so with their last studio album Heritage, released in 2011. The word prog rock was bandied around here, there and everywhere but those who cry out for their death metal …

Two and a half years ago Chainfist were one of my first reviews on Planetmosh and they came as a wonderful surprise. No nonsense metal. A great debut. It’s great to see them back with that always tricky second album. Scarred, thankfully, delivers on all accounts and greatly raises the …

The Osiris Club launched on 1st January 2010 in London and have spent four years on this recently released album, ‘Blazing World’. This band has a psychedelic/ prog rock mix with a bit of a difference.  Yes, it is a concept album, and, yes, the songs have an underlying story …

I wasn’t familiar with Incite until I was handed this review; and that was my fault. I wish I knew of these guys before. The Arizona based groove metal band Incite will smash your face in with their third offering, “Up In Hell”. This is pure groove metal: a nice …

Crucified Barbara formed in 2003 and released their debut album.  The Swedish all-female band got their name after attending the Roskilde festival in Denmark and in a nearby forest found a blow-up doll (generically called “Barbara” throughout Sweden) attached to a crucifix.  They’ve got a traditional heavy metal style which …

Magnolia is the tenth album from The Pineapple Thief.  For a band that started 15 years ago that’s a pretty consistent and impressive rate of work – after all so many bands take two or three years between albums whereas The Pineapple Thief average a new album every 18 months.  …

Hardcore Punk band Shaved Women released their nine track album Just Death via Ektrorecords on 8th August 2014. This four piece from St Louis, Missouri have already released three EPs. This full length offering is around 23 minutes of pure naked aggression. I don’t know how they chose the name, …

Belphegor are a band who – in common with many of their black metal counterparts – have often gone out of their way to court controversy in order to build their profile, even going so far as to have their early albums banned in their native Austria (as well as …

This second album from Oklahomans Rainbows Are Free immediately wins the PlanetMosh award for THE best song title of the year (if not possibly ever?), in the form of opening track ‘Speed God And The Rise Of The Motherfuckers From A Place Beyond Hell’.  It’s a title, and indeed a …

The story of this debut album by Norwich old school thrashers Killer Hurts is a long and convoluted one… but one which also deserves to be told, as it is pretty much indicative of how the grassroots metal scene works and how those involved within its deepest machinations manage to …

If festival slots were awarded on the basis of commitment to the cause, Darkest Hour would have been headliners for years. As it is, they’re fast approaching 20 years as a band having slipped under a lot of people’s radars. That might be about to change, however. Released at the …

Blues Guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor will be releasing her fourth studio album in late September, before following it up with a UK tour in November (see dates at the bottom of this review). The album was recorded in Memphis and was produced by Jim Gaines, the man who produced her …

Sweden’s Freak Kitchen, featuring guitar virtuoso Mattias “IA” Eklundh, have returned with a ripping slab of musical whimsy, titled Cooking With Pagans. This 12-track, progressive rock album simultaneously “roasts” contemporary culture and explores new, quirky ways of musical self-expression. Neither pure “djent” nor pure progressive metal, this heavy music is …

Former Guns’n’Roses guitarist Slash releases his latest album next month.  For the new album, “World on fire”, he’s once again teamed up with Miles Kennedy and the conspirators, with whom he recorded his last album, Apocalyptic love.  It’s a great pairing – Slash’s great guitar work with Miles Kennedy’s superb …

      Sometimes, an album falls into your lap, that restores your faith in all that is Heavy Metal. Whilst it is always beneficial, and indeed, essential , for the music we love and worship to evolve and explore different avenues, sometimes, it is just great to get back …