Bastions are a four-piece band who play unmerciless, in-your-face, hardcore which pulls very few punches and has even less pretensions in its ambition – which is to drive a hole straight through your chest, up through your neck (with the objective of getting this particular part of your anatomy snapping …

Even given the huge amount of releases which a website such as ours gets sent on a daily, never mind weekly or even monthly, basis, it’s hard to imagine that this fifth album by US power metal innovators Attacker fell through our net when it first surfaced earlier this year.  …

What is it with fucking metalcore bands and references to water in their name?  It seems to be that one band picks a theme and every other mutha on the scene tries to come up with the least imaginative variation thereupon… While this German five piece may wish their name …

Apparently brought together by their mutual love of “tattoos and low slung guitars”, Leeds trio Beretta Suicide play good old-fashioned street punk mixed with rock ‘n’ roll and a not inconsiderable dose of backstreet glam, combining the carefree spirit of the likes of The Babysitters and Last Of The Teenage …

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, …

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 …

Given that they’ve been around in one form for eight years, it is understandable that this debut offering from south Wales trio Kamasupazundown should be an accomplished and mature offering, especially in the songwriting and musical ability stakes. And that is certainly true:  but, the problem is that it seems …

Northern Ireland’s Kashis originally planned to call this EP ‘The Monarchy Is Set To Kill’.  Now the lead off track, the former titular it is a pleasant blend of post-grunge, stoner and nu-metal which sets up the rest of the release nicely. ‘We Are The Blend’ has some beautiful, poppy …

All ages gigs, when you get to a certain ‘vintage’, can be weird affairs at best and uncomfortable ones at worst.  It’s OK if you’ve got your own sprog to keep an eye on, but when you’re there on your ownsome merely to observe the proceedings on stage, it can …

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 …