Tag Archives: album review

Looking from the outside in, or from west to east if you want to be geographic, it would appear that the Indian death metal scene is very much dominated by one person:  we could be (and probably are) very much mistaken in this assumption, but given that a certain Demonstealer …

This third album from Australia’s Claim The Throne is very much in the blackened, melodic death metal meets folk vein of Amon Amarth, and most definitely will appeal to fans of the Swedish overlords. While Australia itself may not have a long folk tradition of its own – drawing as …

This fourth album from French blackened death metallers Aosoth is suitably dark, punishingly brutal and apocalyptically nihilistic. Built on barbaric rhythms and crushing riffs, topped with the sort of evil vocal that the Lord of Hades himself would struggle to imitate, it’s by turns depressively dirge-like and neck-snappingly fast, but …

The word emotional has been denigrated in recent years by it’s association with the dreaded ‘core scene, and its attribution to a raft of bands who have used the pretence of caring what goes on in the world about them to worm their way into the hearts, and souls, of …

This Barcelona mob get off to a less than masterly start by failing the first test of any band, never mind one from an overseas country submitting their material to an English language website:  not only do they provide very little supporting material – no biog, no background information, not …

Oxford trio Headcount’s sound has previously been described, elsewhere I hasten to add, as “Adam And The Ants being sodomized by Therapy?”. Certainly, on the basis of this new album, I can see the former comparison, as well as to the likes of Teardrop Explodes and maybe early, commercialized, stoner, …

Die No More are a British Metal band from Penrith, Cumbria. Formed in 2011 they started out playing under the name of Dynamo but changed their name to Die No More earlier this year, due to foreseeable issues with magician Dynamo, before announcing the release of their début album Blueprint. …

Following on from two self-released EPs, Swedish wannabe power metallers Majestic Dimension released this, their debut album earlier this year.  Unfortunately, both the band and the album are mis-named, and in numerous ways. There is nothing which even warrants the descriptive ‘majestic’ and the everything is strictly one dimensional, with …

Having earned 8/10 from PM with their debut ‘False Idols and Pyrite Thrones’ album at the beginning of 2012, Falmouth nu-thrash crossover mob KaiDekA return with this impressive sophomore, which cements their Slipknot-meets-MachineHead style with aplomb and panache. Right from the opening bars of ‘Pre-Requisite’, the south coasters hit the …

Proving that first impressions can indeed be deceptive, Vattnet Viskar, despite their Swedish monicker do not, in fact, hail from the northern wastelands of Scandinavia but rather from the shores of the eastern United States… their name (which translates as ‘The Water Whispers’), however, is a definite homage to the …

Think of Barcelona and you think of sun-kissed beaches, curvaceous ladies and cold sangria – and that is exactly the feeling that this debut album from Spanish AOR mob Hardreams evokes. This is bright and breezy hard pop-rock, filled with catchy hooks and pleasing melodies – but, not a lot …

While many of their fellow countrymen have sought to adapt traditional Irish mythologies to a more blackened style of metal, Mael Mórdha have deliberately crafted a sound which is very much rooted in the Celtic folk ethic, which gives their approach to the doomier end of the spectrum a more …

Female fronted alternative rock band White Clouds & Gunfire formed in Peterborough in 2009. Following their debut EP ‘Zero to Hero’ their album ‘For All the Non Believers’ was released on 2nd September 2013. A keyboard intoduction led into the opening song ‘Bruised not Broken’ a soft rock track with …

Swedish Metal Band Sister Sin’s first album Dance of the Wicked was originally released in 2013. Ten years later it has been re-released by Victory Records. Now with, not only all 8 original tracks but, 3 previously unreleased demo tracks, and a bonus track featuring German Rock Goddess Doro Pesch. …

Reckless Love are a Finnish Glam Rock band who these days do their own music and songs, after initially starting out as Reckless Life, a Guns N’ Roses tribute. Olli Herman, their very good-looking (he’s like the male equivalent of Pamela Anderson) frontman joined Crashdiet for a time before concentrating …

Mordecai, a band from London, bring listeners 11 tunes showcased on their debut Undaunted. The band mixes two styles of rock in to their signature: a slower, melodic balladry and a fairly modern rock swagger. They sound vaguely American, but not so ‘in-your-face’. The songs follow, for the most part, …

Ashes Of Ares‘ credentials are just about as impeccable as they come,  with the the band being made up of former Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow and bassist Freddie Vidales, and ex-Nevermore drummer Van Williams. With the meeting of two such strong forces of nature, you would expect something special to …

Faroe Islanders Týr may find themselves, by the fate of geography, isolated on the northern outskirts of Scandinavia but this, their seventh album, proves once again that they are very much at the centre of the particularly geocentric folkloric mythos which has helped this particular sub genre very much re-establish itself …

Otargos are a French black metal band, and their latest offering, Apex Terror, contains 9 tracks of intense and well-produced extremity. Aggressive, clear, fast, bleak, and highly negative, it’s vaguely reminiscent of fellow Frenchmen Antaeus. “For Terra” slows down enough to really groove; “Remnant From A Long-Dead Star” continues that …

Whole is 2013’s release by Chicago modern metallers Soil. The nicely-produced disc is well balanced, with the full band audible and appreciable. A natural progression from (and successor to) 2001’s Scars, the disc stays true to the band’s downtuned, crunchy, catchy form. I hear two cross-disc highlights: the emotive, powerful, …