LICH KING: ‘Because thrash metal needed a Manowar’ Massachusetts thrashers Lich King are set to release a new EP entitled Do-Over which comprises 5 re-recorded songs from the Necomantic Maelstrom and Toxic Zombie Onslaught albums. Do-Over also features a cover version of Van Halen’s track “Hot For Teacher” and a …

The UK’s Vallenfyre are an ‘extreme metal’ offshoot of Paradise Lost‘s Gregor Mackintosh. “What started in late 2010 as a project by Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh became a real band. The 2011 debut album A Fragile King was hailed as one of the best death metal albums of the …

What can be said of Cannibal Corpse, Metal Blade Records and Brian Slagel‘s “biggest-selling death metal band of all time”? (pp. 149) This five-piece American extreme metal band has accumulated career highs usually only available to rock bands: full-production music videos, boxed set sales, even a cameo in a blockbuster …

And now for something different, and decidedly non-metal, in metal-land! Guitarist Carl Verheyen, of Supertramp fame, released his fantastic solo album, Mustang Run, on August 1. Verheyen has a short tour of the UK lined up to support the release. The 11 tracks (ten instrumental) presented here are a wonderful …

Dissonant, fast, unsettling, and brutal, Austrian veteran black metal band Abigor‘s 2014 disc, Leytmotif Luzifer, is everything a purist black metal fan should want. Leytmotif Luzifer contains seven original songs, with no excesses, no poor recording or bad sound, just pure Satanic splendor and bleakness. Focusing on the seven “temptations …

The hardscrabble, oft-bloodied bastard child of blues-based rock and roll and youthful angst, punk music has found a ready and willing audience with the disillusioned and disaffected for decades. A near-antithesis to virtuosity, punk’s raw edge favors instant consumption: quick composition, hard-hitting rhythms, and raucous riffing guitars. It’s common-man folk music for …

Sweden’s Freak Kitchen, featuring guitar virtuoso Mattias “IA” Eklundh, have returned with a ripping slab of musical whimsy, titled Cooking With Pagans. This 12-track, progressive rock album simultaneously “roasts” contemporary culture and explores new, quirky ways of musical self-expression. Neither pure “djent” nor pure progressive metal, this heavy music is …

Los Angeles-based guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert released his 13th and latest studio album, Stone Pushing Uphill Man, on August 5th, 2014. The 11-track disc features instrumental adaptations of eight famous “oldies” tunes, along with three of Gilbert’s original songs. The result is something like being at the mercy of his …

Barcelona’s Kilmara have released their third full-length disc, Love Songs And Other Nightmares, an 11-song sojourn into melodic metal. Very nicely recorded, mixed and mastered, the album doesn’t have a raw “demo” sound that many acts seem to foster lately. Pleasant and paced well, the disc’s tunes don’t seem to …

One thing the USA does very well is export high quality heavy metal to all corners of the globe. Louisiana’s masters of extreme metal, Goatwhore, just released their sixth studio album, entitled Constricting Rage of the Merciless. The band then went on tour in the USA with the Summer Slaughter …

The land with the most heavy metal bands per capita, Sweden, is at it again – unleashing new band The Dagger, comprised of former Grave and Dismember death metal inmates, on an eager listening public. The Dagger’s ten-track eponymous debut has a warm, inviting tone and a pleasing, “retro” or …

Current Vista Chino vocalist, former Kyuss member and desert rocker John Garcia has finally released his eponymous debut solo disc. This 11-track romp has plenty to offer the fan of good ol’ American rock and roll, particularly flavored with a “stoner” edge. He’s enlisted fellow partner in crime (and Queens …

Swedish metallers Falconer have returned with 2014’s full-length disc, Black Moon Rising. This is the band’s eighth studio effort, a nice blend of melodic, power, and folk metal elements. This 11-track disc is packed with classic heavy metal, power metal, and folk metal in spades. Top-tier musicianship only helps to …

Young Bavarian eighties thrash ‘revival’ band Dust Bolt have dialed in some classic tones, with their new, 12+ track full-length Awake The Riot ready for enjoyment by anyone who appreciates solid, well-played thrash metal. The band wear their influences as players and as a band on their sleeves, harnessing the …

Who can forget Goatwhore? From Sammy Duet‘s quip on the Relapse Records message board so long ago “I’m going to start a band and call it Goatwhore” to today’s mayhemic brutal machine, Louisiana’s purveyors of musical insanity have bluntly carved a well-deserved niche for themselves within extreme metal’s upper echelon. …

“Bloody Hammers are a heavy rock band from Transylvania County, North Carolina.” Their latest ten-song disc, Under Satan’s Sun, was released in 2014 on Napalm Records. “Although commonly viewed as gothic rock, the band have incorporated elements of doom metal, stoner metal, and psychedelic rock.” By their name and the …

Dayton, Ohio’s The Devil Wears Prada released their fifth studio album, 8:18, on Roadrunner Records. Featuring 43 minutes of modern melodic metalcore, the 13 song disc is titled after a passage from The Bible, Romans 8:18. Fear not, the album won’t alienate a secular audience: it’s too heavy to be lumped …

UK death-mongers Vallenfyre have returned with 2014’s Splinters. Have you yearned for old-school death metal done right? This 11-song disc, released on Century Media Records, is a full-length album of pummeling buzzsaw riffy goodness. It has been tailor-made just for you. Try convincing someone that this didn’t come out of …

Bail Out, British punk rock duo Winnebago Deal‘s EP released specifically for Record Store Day 2014, is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it phenomenon. The EP contains four songs, clocking in at under eight minutes total. Best listened to at higher volume, Bail Out is a good listen. It will “pick you up” and …

If there’s one band that conjures up the image of “folk metal”, it’s Helsinki, Finland natives and genre pillars Finntroll. Finntroll has a new release out: Natten Med De Levande Finntroll, a toothy 19-tune live album showcasing the band in full glory, performing at Amsterdam’s prestigious Melkweg Concert Hall on …