Album Reviews

Fivefold formed in St Louis, and as the name gives away, are a five piece band.  They formed in 2007 and since then have built a strong fanbase in the St Louis area, and have supported bands including Buckcherry, The Offspring and Redlight King. A few brief comments on some …

Dallas are a melodic hard rock band from the San Francisco bay area in the US.  The band was formed in 2010 and “Over their edge” is their debut EP.  Since recording the EP they’ve been playing plenty of gigs to perfect their live sound, and their gigs include opening …

Dianoya are a Polish band from Warsaw who formed in 2008.  Their debut album “Obscurity divine” was released in Poland in 2010.  Two years later they have released their second album, “Lidocaine” which has been given a wider release, across Europe and the US. In recent years there has been …

Captain Zorx were formed from the ashes of an underground Ska band in Berlin in 2009, and describe themselves as playing “Disco metal from outer space”.  “Maps of the ancient sea kings” is the band’s third album. The album opens with “Roter Alarm (red alert)”. It’s quite a strange track …

Band of frequencies describe themselves as “progressive surf roots rockers”.  Coming from Australia’s sunshine coast, the surf link is obvious, and the band have also toured California supporting the non-profit organisation Surfers for Cetaceans and played surfing events in Hawaii. The music is rock, but with lots of other musical …

The Illusions Of Grandeur, the 4th full length studio album from Gothenburg based melodic death metallers Evocation features a drum sound i’ve not heard since John Boecklin’s performance on Devildriver’s  album The Last Kind Words! As good as the rest of the band are, Evocation’s drummer Janne K.Boden puts in …

The stars pay homage to 87-year-old Blues guitar legend Riley B.King in this thought provoking biographical documentary, which features Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Bobby Bland and Buddy Guy among others. Mr Cool himself Morgan Freeman, does the voiceover as we’re we are taken on an extraordinary journey beginning …

For anybody growing up in the early 80’s, there were certain ‘video nasty’s’ that people had claimed to have seen, yet never had, owing to the outright ban by the British Board Of Film Censorship. These included such films as ‘I Spit On Your Grave’, Driller Killer’ and ‘The Texas …

The German six piece show how to combine classic Death Metal with cutting edge riffs.   From the land formerly known as East Germany and now known as….Eastern Germany come Led Astray with their second full length release and their first since signing with Massacre Records. ’Decades Of Addiction’ will …

Asylum Pyre serve up an excellent album of Melodic / Symphonic Metal.   Formed in France in 2006 ‘Fifty Years Later’ represents Asylum Pyre’s second full length album following on from their debut ‘Natural Instinct’. Sitting very comfortably in the Melodic Symphonic camp the band have produced a thoroughly engaging …

I must admit, it came as somewhat of a surprise:  flicking through the PM archive, yours truly discovered that, despite the amount of coverage we have given to Plymouth groove metallers Huron over the past 12 months or so, we’ve actually been somewhat remiss in failing to cast our critical …

Belgian black metal mob Enthroned have been slowly carving out a reputation for themselves as one of the continent’s more accomplished, if hardly innovative, black metal outfits, and this ninth album is as solid as anything the genre has produced in the last couple of decades. There’s nothing hugely original …

From start to finish Saratan deliver a masterpiece of Death/Thrash Metal.   The band formed in their native Poland back in 2003 and have since been honing their craft and developing into what we see today. ‘Martya Xwar’ represents Saratan’s third full length release and is without doubt their strongest …

This second album from France’s Abinaya – their name is Sanskrit for ‘passing on’ – definitely lives up to its conjunctive title, for it most definitely is a ‘Corps’ of work that should be passed on. The problems start early on, with the apologetic Algerian drum line on the opening, …

This apocalyptic themed debut album by Berlin (self-described) melodic thrashers Declamatory has been some 12 years in the making, and apparently is the first of a triptych of similarly conceptualized offerings… The concept in question revolves around “the post-apocalyptic war between the Raiders and the Crystal Gods, fought in the …

“The boys are back – and they’re looking for a fight”.  Thus starts this latest album (the eighth) from Boston’s Dropkick Murphys.. one of a handful of bands – alongside the likes of Flogging Molly – who have successfully moulded their Irish heritage onto a hardcore/punk sound. While 2011’s ‘Going …

This unusually named German AOR band trace their roots back a quarter of a century, to 1987, and this is their 11th album – their first in 11 years and also their first with new drummer (formerly the band’s drum tech) Chris Schmidt, who replaced founder member Kosta Zafiriou, who …

Well this is an interesting concept. A 5 piece death metal band called Grand Supreme Blood Court by vocalist Martin Von Drunen whereupon each member takes on a name to match their court position and function within the court. So we have Magistrate, Judge, Prosecutor, Registrar and Executioner so with …

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 …