Tag Archives: debut album

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 …

Dedication.  One of the quintessential ingredients for success.  In any walk of life – but especially so in the music business.  Coupled with commitment, it is quite possibly THE single most important characteristic any artist (be they on their own or in a band environment) can possess if they want …

This debut full-length album from Bristollian noiseniks RIOT|NOISE – the follow up to a successful and well-received EP, released back in 2009 – is as impressive a first release as you are likely to come across this year. ‘Stand For Something’ is a powerful collection of a dozen songs which …

This may be their debut album, but Paris – named after the French capital, in which the band’s central pairing of vocalist/keyboard player Frédéric Dechavanne and guitarist Sébastien Montet were brought up – trace their roots back three decades, to the heady days of AOR supremacy as evinced by the …

Although Reign Of The Architect only fully coalesced as a band last year, this ambitious, Israeli-based progressive metal project has been five years in the making, with this album tracing its roots right back as far as 2008, when guitarist Yuval Kramer initially started work on this concept work, along …

Death Tyrant emerged from the ashes of Swedish underground supremos Lord Belial when the latter broke up in 2010 – although, in one of those typically murky storylines which epitomizes the Scandinavian scene, they’ve apparently been re-activated on at least two occasions – and this debut album has been the …

Planet Mosh reviews the debut album from The Resistance, featuring former members of In Flames, The Haunted and Grave.

Irish duo Chosen – guitarist/vocalist Paul Shields and drummer/percussionist David McCann – have been working together for around eight years now, releasing a few well-received EPs in that period and temporarily relocating to Vancouver before returning to their native sod to record and produce this debut full-lengther. The result is …

It may be 2013, and they may hail from the Gold Coast of Australia, but De La Cruz look and sound just like they’ve stepped out of a strip bar somewhere off LA’s Sunset Boulevard sometime back in the mid- to late-80s. ‘Street Level’ is very much from the Ratt …

Being a rock DJ can be an extremely hazardous job – nearly as dangerous as trying to survive as a music journalist.  Please believe when I say this:  on and off, I’ve been spinning heavy rock and metal discs and writing shit about said same nonsense for more than two …

It’s the last Saturday in March, and just hours before the clocks are turned forward the start of what is supposed to be British Summer Time – what a feckin’ joke!  Outside, the temperature is barely pushing above zero degrees, and inside… well, I swear it’s even colder, with the …

If ever an album title was appropriate, it is this one from this young Dublin hardcore quartet.  Just like the band’s previous EP, ‘Dead Dead Fucking Dead’, the album is somewhat of a cathartic experience, dealing as it does with the band’s recovery after vocalist Aidan Coogan almost died in …

As the world’s economic axis turns in upon itself, switching its power base from the colonialist West to the formerly subjugated and colonialized east, could it be argued that the crux of the metal world is about to shift in the same direction? Over recent years, the encroachment of acts …

This self-released debut album from Manchester-based four piece The Goddamn Electric – or GDE as they like to be abbreviated to – bears all the hallmarks of a band brimming with confidence, not afraid to take a myriad of influences, from classic metal through southern blues to even sleaze rock …

France’s Idols For Dinner actually trace their roots back more than half a decade, forming as Corpse Division back in 2007 but changing their name a few years later as they felt their original monicker did not reflect the style of music they play:   “it sounded like a brutal death …

In 2010, In Flames guitarist Jesper Strömblad quit the band he had formed 20 years earlier, in order to, as he said myself, “fight my demons once and for all” – a reference to his battle with alcohol. Now, two years later, he is back and fighting fit, with a new …

Folk metal, pagan metal, call it what you will, has an unnerving penchant for veering, inexplicably and unexpectedly, from one extreme to the other – and, most notably, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Unfortunately, Munich-based sextet Knaat fall somewhere ‘twixt and between – but, at the same time, manage …

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 …

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental music. Long before bowed my knee at the altar of metal, I used to sneak home from school early – mainly because it was quicker to walk the quarter of a mile in a straight line through the park than take the …