Haerken are a new European band, and their ten-song debut album, …Of Warriors and Kings, released in 2014, is a fresh face on the monolith that is extreme music. (At least for Latin, the ‘ae’ is pronounced “i”.) Modern, technical, crunchy, and fairly dry, the band’s sound could be described …

Osian is an alternative metal band from southern Italy, formed during the birth of the genre in the mid 90s. The band’s latest offering, Rhizome, is a six song disc that pays obvious homage to popular alternative music of that era: bands like Depeche Mode, Type O Negative, Ministry, The …

Appropriately titled, Livin’ In The Past by Poland’s Scream Maker is the band’s war cry and answer to the genre of power metal. With the help of star producer Alessandro Del Vecchio, they’ve nailed it: versatile, nicely ranged, fairly operatic, and genre-appropriate vocals matched to staccato archetypal guitar riffs, supported …

Industrial music influenced Italian metallers Avelion released a three-song EP, titled Liquid Breathing, in November 2013. Highly focused on electronic or digital sounding instrumentation, the band incorporates a lot of different keyboard sounds, mixed with digital “djenty” guitar. Avelion, who revamped their lineup in 2013, describes themselves as melodic progressive …

Another contender in the overcrowded, glutted digital music revolution, Scotland’s Aventus put their spin on rock and roll with their latest disc, called Valley of the Kings. The recording has a warm, analog feel to it, and is nicely balanced and enjoyable. The band mix doomy, sludgy riffs with more …

Edinburgh’s Colma Wolves have released a three-song EP, Orphaned. Songs begin slowly with distorted bass guitar, almost drone-like. The quality of Orphaned is best described as “basement practice room on an old four-track”, demo or hardcore-collector quality “only”. The recording is fairly muddy, and lacks the depth that would benefit …

Formed in 1988, Babylon A.D. hail from San Francisco, California. Former Arista recording artists, they dredged up at EP’s worth of previously-unreleased material. Titled The Lost Sessions, Fresno CA 93, and released on Perris Records, this EP serves as the band’s ‘appearance at the final UK Firefest’ teaser. The material …

With Moloch, a true and grim underground black metal band has emerged, with most of their releases available as strictly limited editions! Hailing from dark, frozen Ukraine, Nocebo Records released an eight-song picture disc of Moloch’s material, titled Verwüstung. All lyrics are in Ukranian, but the song titles are in …

Staten Island, New York’s Four Nights Gone recently released Resilience, a 5-song EP. This is the band’s second studio effort, professionally recorded at Vudu Studios with producer Mike Watts. Nicely mixed, clear and crisp, Resilience seems to be fairly straightforward, vanilla modern melodic rock: like fellow bands you’d hear on …

Downtuned, digital, distorted, and defiant. That’s the first impression of Brazil’s Skinlepsy, who released their debut, Condemning the Empty Souls, on Shinigami Records. Nicely balanced, the recording is listenable even at low volume, but packs more punch “cranked up” a bit. This nine-song (with one intro) full-length album is nothing …

Most fans of rock and roll have heard of arena-rock sensation Journey, and this is where they’ll realize they’re familiar with guitarist Neal Schon already. What they may not be aware of is that Schon has a vibrant career as a solo artist as well. So U is Schon’s latest …

I found out about Monty Colvin, his Rockcast podcast, and his Galactic Cowboys through a friend, Kyle Sweet. Sweet’s KrankIt! Radio was playing an entire set of Galactic Cowboys material one night. I missed most of the set, but wanted to be able to discuss the band, so I checked …

Following successful North American back-to-back tours with Dark Tranquillity and Lich King, California’s young “powershred” foursome Exmortus decided to have a wee chat with PlanetMosh. Summarizing Slave to the Sword, these ten tracks have a thrash metal backbone, abrasive or ‘harsh’ vocals, and every song is packed to the hilt …

Vampire is a dark, heavy metal band from Sweden. Formed in 2011, the band released their sole demo in 2012. On the strength of that demo, and about 12 live shows, the band signed to Century Media Records. Currently waiting for just the right tour deal to come along, Vampire …

American guitar virtuoso PAUL GILBERT (Mr. Big, Racer X, solo) has announced the title and some details for his 13th solo studio album. Cleverly titled Stone Pushing Uphill Man, the record features several original tracks alongside a rich assortment of cover songs. WHD (Victor) Entertainment released Gilbert’s latest opus on June 25, 2014 …

Tom G. Warrior (of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost fame) and his newer incarnation, Triptykon, will be performing at select festival dates in 2014 and will be embarking on a full European tour with reunited extreme metallers At The Gates in December 2014. The band has a new platter on offer: 2014’s Melana …

Hampshire, UK rockers Western Sand released a four-song, eponymous EP in 2013. Well-written and well-mixed, the EP is surprisingly polished for a debut. Songs have a nice, smooth idea flow. Tunes are mid-tempo, with chunky rock licks and a big backbeat; just the right amount of dirt for the grab …

British “roots” rockers Wille and the Bandits released their full-length album, Grow, in 2013. This is an 11 track opus, consisting of varied tunes, with a sound fairly far from singer-songwriter folk and Americana that’s conjured up with usual thoughts of ‘roots’. The band has two secrets to their punchy …

Here’s the interview portion of March’s Featured Band series in-depth reports, an interview with vocalist Nick Walsh of Canadian hard rockers Famous Underground. This was conducted in March 2014, by Iris North. Excerpts of the 69 minute chitchat follow: First off, I’d like to thank you for granting this interview, …

Famous Underground‘s vocalist, Nick Walsh, has seen a lot of music come and go during the past 30-odd years. Traditional heavy metal and punk rock gave way to everything from glam to death metal. Right in the middle of heavy metal’s evolution, there were the industrial, power-pop, and grunge trends. …