Album Reviews

With 25 years passing miraculously and the band drifting away from their death metal roots, this doesn’t stop Amorphis excelling in their craft. The Finnish metallers carry something special; the ability to produce variation and to apply all of it into their music. And they have done that especially on …

Stone Angels is an unsigned four piece hard rock band from Brighton who release their debut album Give in to Temptation on September 4th.  They are Niall Kersey on vocals and rhythm guitar, James Innes on lead guitar, Chris Wilson on bass and Ben Taylor on drums.  The band was formed in …

They’re back… Backyard Babies – Peder Carlsson, Johan Blomquist, Dregen and Nicke Borg, born same year, same town, Nässjö, southern Sweden – have returned to action after a five-year hiatus. Formed in 1989, and with half a dozen studio albums to their name, the line-up of the band has never …

City of Thieves made their live début at Camden Rocks earlier this year. Cutting your rock teeth at a big event is fairly momentous and with their début EP Incinerator being produced by Toby Jepson former Little Angels and Gun front man, mixed by Mike Fraser and mastered by Simon Francis I …

Now, while I am not a Nile fanboy I do enjoy the technical death metal fused with near Eastern topics. It’s a mix of things that shouldn’t work but does. And if nothing else; the drummer on the record is superb. It is scarily good, inhuman, at points; kudos, George …

“Hardrada” marks Ossiyan’s first release. And off the bat, the artwork is great and hooked me straight away. I love a good concept album so I was excited to give this one a good listen. This is a strange one with its lofty concept and fun use of samples, it …

Who are Disfago? You may ask because I can’t find much information about the band members. What I have managed to surmise is that they are a three piece thrash/punk band based in London who have all served time, in other bands, not literally! They released a five track double …

When people think of heavy music from the continent of Oceania, the first three names on their lips will (more often than not) be AC/DC, Airbourne and Parkway Drive. It’s actually a shame, because New Zealand’s Shihad should be in with a shout every single time. Formed almost thirty years ago in …

After being lucky enough to catch this band live twice this year, firstly tearing up the HMS Hammer cramming so much intensity and energy in a 15 minute slot it was crazy.  Secondly witnessing them whipping the main stage crowd at Graspop into a metal frenzy, I could not wait …

Neal Morse is without doubt one of the maestros of the Progressive Rock genre, and with his latest release, Morsefest 2014, he delivers an astonishingly produced live dvd/cd boxset. This 2 dvd/4 cd release, filmed over the 14th and 15th of November 2014 in Nashville, fully captures the majesty off …

When news broke earlier this year of the return of Chicago metallers Disturbed, it was greeted with excitement and anticipation. Having gone on hiatus in 2011 amid rumours of internal conflicts and after a series of less-than-acclaimed live performances, the band secretly reformed in the January of 2014 and began …

Formed in 1995 when Josh Todd and Keith Nelson met via their tattooist and a shared love of AC/DC, a few line up changes, a few name changes, a brief hiatus and with six studio albums behind them Los Angeles based Rockers Buckcherry, will release their 7th studio album, Rock ‘n’ Roll, …

Possession have been battling away for only three years and already picked up an almighty buzz about them in underground circles. During 2014 they released the well received “Anneliese” 7” which was the story of Anneliese Michel who was considered possessed and died of malnutrition and dehydration brought on as …

Iron Maiden’s new song ‘Speed of Light’ from the upcoming album ‘The Book Of Souls’ was released this morning, and Planet Mosh’s Elliot Leaver gives us his views on the track via his freelance page The Food of Love. He apologises for the quiet audio, however he was trying to ensure …

Los Angeles based blues rock band Vintage Trouble have just been out on tour as special guests to AC/DC see our review of the Dublin, Belfast and London shows here. They have also opened for other big names such as The Who and Paloma Faith. Their second album 1 Hopeful Rd. is due to be …

California’s Bl’ast, one of the “founding father” primal hardcore punk bands, has returned with its first new music in two decades. A five-minutes-and-change listening trek, this two song EP, titled For Those Who’ve Graced the Fire! quickly whets fans’ appetites for more. As before, the band’s core members remain Clifford …

Name me a Russian hard rock band.  Go on.  Gorky Park.  OK, there’s one.  Try another.  Try counting them off on the fingers of one hand.  Tough, isn’t it?  While evil western rock ‘n’ roll music was banned under the communist regime, even in the post-Glasnost era very few bands …

German Speed Rockers Nitrovolt released their third album Dirty Wings via Mausoleum Records earlier this year. Formed in 2004 by vocalist Tom “Voltage” Krämer and bass player Luciano “Louis” Vanini, they started out as a three piece called ‘Hi Octane Rockers’ with Micha on drums completing the threesome. In 2009 long …

Described as ‘Dirty Speed/Thrash Metal with Rock & Roll and NWOBHM influences’ Demolition Train formed in Athens Greece in 2009, making their first live appearance in 2010. They released their first EP ‘Kill Your Boss’ in 2011. When Vasilis and Michalis had to leave the band for a while, Witchkiller …

Everything about this debut full-length album from South Carolina’s Prowler – not to be confused with the now defunct NWOBHMers or the nascent German thrashers or the half a dozen or so US bands of the same name – points to an Eighties B-list thrash re-issue, from the horror movie-inspired …