Album Reviews

After Chthonic’s astounding 2011 release, Takasago Army, it seems only right that these Taiwanese melodic death metal heroes should hold a huge metal concert in one of Taiwan’s most historic buildings and release it on DVD and CD. This is The Final Battle at the Sing Ling Temple, Chthonic’s 3rd …

Bristol based extreme death metal band, Amputated, have made a name for themselves in the metal world in two very different ways. Firstly from their rather obscene, repulsive and downright sick minded song titles and themes and secondly by their appearance on the cheesy BBC Three, fly on the wall …

If you want a female fronted rock band who aren’t your typical Paramore wanabee band. A band whose lyrics have so much aggression, anarchy and passion jammed into them. Then Lincolnshire based Skarlett Riot are a band you need to have in your life and their new EP entitled Villain …

“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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.  …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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. …