“Fire Make Thunder” marks the fourth undertaking for the collaborative duo known as OSI. Formed in 2002 by Jim Matheos (Fates Warning, Arch/Matheos) and Kevin Moore (Chroma Key, former Dream Theater keyboardist), OSI is a long distance partnership, both musicians typically writing and recording alone and sending song ideas back …
Read More »HellXhere – HellXhere
The French heavy metal scene isn’t known for its international impact – personally, and without the aid of Google or Wikipedia, I can count less than a handful bands who have made any sort of significant impact outside their homeland: Trust, of course, who in turn give us the living …
Read More »Nightqueen – ‘For Queen And Metal’ cd review.
Born from a vision by guitarist and songwriter Rex Zeco, Belgium’s Nightqueen have been in existence since 2004 but by their own admission the early years were tough, with personnel changes a plenty hampering any proper development musically. Once stability had been found the band forged ahead with writing material …
Read More »Arrayan Path – Ira Imperium
In times of desperation and trouble, people often look to their history and heritage for inspiration, recalling past glories to give them a positive outlook on the travails currently facing them, drawing upon that which has gone before to drive them forward to face up to the challenges before them. …
Read More »Furyon – Gravitas
Hailing from Brighton, Furyon have been gaining much critical acclaim since 2009 throughout the UK and beyond and we’re finally about to see why with the release of their debut album, Gravitas, at the tail end of March. I love albums that start with a bang and right from the …
Read More »DYS – ‘(We Are) The Roadcrew’ (single)
Cover versions are awkward beasts. Often they take a well-loved favourite tune, mangle and distort it beyond all recognition, to the point where you want to vomit just at the thought of hearing it again. Often, they add a fresh new twist that has you looking at that old song …
Read More »Elmsfire – ‘Thieves Of The Sun’, cd review.
Hailing from Dusseldorf Germany, Elmsfire’s nucleus started back in 1999 with guitarists Germano and Doro deciding to forge ahead and create a band that would feed their passion for all things Metal. It took a while but following a few line up changes and a couple of demos (Horizons in’05 …
Read More »Cold Rush – Disclosing The Vicious Seeds
Though no release date has been published, Cold Rush, an electro-industrial metal band from Germany will soon to release their second album ‘AmoKKoma’. Their first album, ‘The Illness’ was release in 2009 and since then the band has undergone a change in line up with the addition of a new …
Read More »Battle Beast – Steel
The phrase “heavy metal as it should be” is one of those throwaway expressions that seems to be pretty de rigeur at c’est moment du temps. Which beggars the question: just how should heavy metal be played? Except loud? And heavy. Fortunately, this Finnish six piece have veered away from …
Read More »Beehler – Messages To The Dead
Dan Beehler was, of course, both the muscle behind and the voice in front of Exciter – a band who, at least as far as this reviewer is concerned, never have truly got the credit they deserve for the role they played in the development of thrash metal. Their ‘World …
Read More »Blood Ceremony – Blood Ceremony (re-issue)
Re-issues are an unusual beast – usually there is an overt reason for a band ploughing their back catalogue, such as an anniversary or whatever: occasionally, they come out of the blue (or the black, in this case), without seeming to have any particular explanation for their presence… as appears …
Read More »Hanging Doll – The Sacred and profane
At last the long wait for fans of Hanging Doll is almost over – the new album, “The Sacred & Profane” is due to be released on 30th April. It’s been a long wait for fans of the band – their previous album, “Reason and madness” was released in 2008. …
Read More »Impaled Existence – These Lifeless Plains CD review
There are many bands on the scene at the moment who sound very similar to North Wales’s Impaled Existence, but the fact is, Impaled Existence have the songs to back up the extreme brutality present in their musical assault on the ear. Similar to the likes of Whitechapel, Veil of …
Read More »Running Wild – Shadowmaker CD review
Running Wild is a band that brought the metal world classic metal anthems such as ‘Bad to Bone’, ‘Port Royal’ and ‘Pirate Song’, and it is such a shame to say that their latest effort entitled Shadowmaker is a huge disappointment compared to the rest of their rather epic back …
Read More »Wykked Wytch – The Ultimate Deception CD review
Wykked Wytch is a female fronted, gothic tinged death metal band from Miami, Florida. A band who have been on the scene for a fair few years now, Wykked Wytch have got better and better with each of their albums, progressing their talent as both musicians and song writers. The …
Read More »Opera Diabolicus – 1614 CD review
How can you have symphonic doom metal? Surely both these sub genres of metal cancel each other out; one being slow and heavy and one being fast and more melodic. This is 1614, the new album by Gothenburg based metal super group Opera Diabolicus. Made up of members of Therion, …
Read More »Daylight Robbery/Cross Your Heart And Hope To Die cd
Ive been looking forward to reviewing this, but Christmas got in the way, and then a few rush jobs turned up, and this got knocked back down the list, however as time moved on, I knew I had to pull my finger out and write this up, so here goes. …
Read More »M-Pire Of Evil – Hell To The Holy.
On playing this album i recalled a quote from Geoff Barton when he reviewed Hell Awaits by Slayer for Kerrang (when it was worth reading) back in the 80’s. He said, “albums that make you throw back your head and shout woooooargh are few and far between”. Well,the debut …
Read More »Veil of Maya – Eclipse CD review
After Veil of Maya’s crushingly brilliant 2010 release entitled, [ID], the world though it was impossible for the band to better this astounding piece of musical aggression. Now in 2012, Veil of Maya is back with their 4th full length album, Eclipse – and yes; you guessed it, they have …
Read More »Nordheim – Lost In the North CD review
Similar to the likes of Turisas and Finntroll who have slightly gone down the path of Alestorm in terms of lyrical topics, Nordheim are your typical alcoholic folk metal band from Québec, Canada; playing fast paced, giddy, party like metal anthems that will get you moving the moment the first …
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