Album Reviews

Sweden’s Aeon (one of eight bands with the same name list in that essential resource for any serious metal journalist, or fan for that matter, the Encyclopaedia Metallum) count no less than the mighty Alex ‘Corpsegrinder’ Webster among their legion fans. And it’s not hard to see why on ‘Aeons …

Black Waltz,  is the 4th album by Swedish melodic death metal band Avatar. “Black Waltz” was released in Europe on November 19th via Gain/Sony Music. The album itself really shows off the different sides of how the bands’ musical talents. 3 specific songs really caught my attention; title track Black …

Kerion are a French symphonic metal band formed in 2002 from the band Kerlian who were an instrumental Prog metal band.  When singer Flora joined they decided to create a new group rather than just continue under the old name with a very different sound. They released two demos (“Conspiracy …

Sonja Perenda is a classically trained singer from Austria.  As well as being a singer she’s a qualified lawyer and has played charity concerts to the homeless and in prisons across Austria and Germany.  She’s also performed to UN soldiers in Kosovo and Syria, toured Europe and the middle East, …

Heavenward are a band that cleverly blur different metal genres together. They were founded in 1986, with deep roots of progressive rock/metal elements with a lashing of 80’s thrash and a burst of the power metal movement. They released their first demo in 1989 “At first nature …” . In 1991 their first CD …

German heavy metal singer Udo Dirkschneider was born on April 6, 1952. He  is best known as the vocalist in German heavy metal band Accept before he left in 1987  to form U.D.O. He as not lost his roots as on occasion he still performs with Accept as well as doing …

How much further can metal really go? It’s an internal dialogue we must’ve had with ourselves a thousand times. It’s been fascinating to watch our beloved genre develop over the years, hasn’t it? No matter how unreasonably heavy, inexplicably technical or utterly deranged it gets, just when we think metal …

Kerstin Bischof has been the singer for bands including Axxis, Lakonia, and Xandria.  Recently she has focussed on her own solo work and has just released her solo album, “Project Ava”.  It’s an interesting mix of metal, rock and more classical sounds. Brief comments on a few of the songs. …

Finnish metal giants Nightwish have released the musical score to the film ‘Imaginaerum’, the final part of the overall experience that keyboard player Tumoas Holopainen wanted fans to hear. This is also the final album to feature former vocalist Anette Olzon, before she was controversially let go by the band …

“Old School” is a 4 disc collection that spans the ten years of the Alice Cooper Group and includes a whole host of goodies spread over the four discs. This Special Edition is in its self a cut down version of the original sold-out Old School: 1964–1974 super deluxe box …

  Barely a year old and already this band are planning an E.P. and a tour for next year but in the meantime they release this rather catchy little ditty accompanied by a video as well. Based in the London Boroughs All She Wrote deliver a great mix of Post-Hardcore …

Deathcore comes of age with this brutal debut album release. Germanys Bust A Move have been around for a few years now, releasing an E.P. and touring hard to both develop their style and build a strong fan base. With all that accomplished they are now able to infest the …

San Francisco’s Doom masters Orchid released their latest EP “Heretic” back in September via Nuclear Blast, as a follow up to the successful album “Capricorn” that came out in 2011. Orchid’s next full length is set to be released next year. “Heretic” starts with a spoken chant before seething into …

“Shake your skull” is the third album from Swedish rock band Chillihounds.  The album is darker and heavier than their earlier albums – as lead singer and rythm guitarist Gabriel Aadland says “Even though we’re very pleased with our previous albums, we knew we wanted to do something different this …

Norwegian band The Boogiemen inc. started their careers in the early nineties as a purist Blues and Rhythm and Blues band, but ove the years they have evolved to more of a rock band in the vein of Rolling Stones or The Faces.  They take influences from a range of …

The Southern Experience Band released their debut EP (Beginnings) in 2011 and are back with their debut album. Brief comments on a few of the songs The album kicks off with a short intro before the first proper song, “Where I’m from”.  It’s got a real Southern feel to it …

Violet Gibson are an Italian band that formed in 2007 under the name “Last vegas”.  After a lineup change the band changed their name to Violet Gibson.  They spent the next year writing and recording their album “American Circus” and it was released in Italy in April 2012, before they …

Livin’ Garden is a four piece band from Curitiba, Brazil which was formed in 2006.  According to the band the name ’Livin Garden’ is a metaphor that means the connection between human beings and nature. Despite being an unsigned band, they’ve managed to play some big gigs supporting bands including …

Sicktrust were formed in 2010 in Philadelphia by four veterans of the local heavy metal community..  In August 2011 they released their self titled debut album. Listening to the album, my first thought is that whoever did the mixing really didnt do a very good job – the sound is …

Moore street band was founded by Tony Chiarchiaro, Ken Tsuchiyama and Norman Mezey after their band Heritage broke up.  They brought in guitarist Ed Krzyzaniak to complete the lineup. They have a sound that stresses three and four part harmonies, and as the various members have considerable experience working with …