Album Reviews

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 …

Rising from the Leeds underground scene Black Moth have already made quite an impression in the doom/sludge metal genre they currently occupy. Condemned To Hope is their second album following the well received 2012 debut album The Killing Jar. Not being someone who would normally pick up an album from …

Following on from debut album ‘The Brink’, Duncan Patterson and Alternative 4 return with not merely a follow up album but an engaging and thought provoking work of musical art. Forever associated with Anathema/Antimatter, Duncan Patterson truly nails it with ‘The Obscurants‘, a fine collection of emotional and yet quite …

If you’ve attended Bloodstock at all in the last few years, the chances are that you’ve seen and enjoyed Evil Scarecrow – they’ve packed out the Sophie Lancaster stage in previous years, and this year opened the main stage on the Saturday drawing a record crowd of around 11,000 – …

The long awaited new Virgil and the Accelerators album “Army of three” finally landed on my doormat earlier this week, and I couldn’t wait to review it, but first I had a date in London with a certain Kate Bush. Army of Three is the band’s second studio album and …

  Bavarian Black Metal band Dark Fortress have released their seventh full length album under Century Media Records. After four years of their last release, Ylem, Dark Fortress have unleashed Venereal Dawn after what sounds like a tough chapter in the band’s life. It will be interesting to see how …

.@Planetmosh @AnybodyBC reviews “Believe In No Coming Shore” by Falls of Rauros via @NordvisOfficial The first thing comes to one’s mind when listening to Falls of Rauros is the epic “Lord of the Rings” saga. Obviously, it was the source of their  inspiration but this time it is also atmospheric …

I am a huge fan of The Haunted; I have been since I first heard them. They are everything you could want in a modern metal band. The Swedish lads have carried the torch of the “Gothenburg style” of death metal for years now, not to mention the seminal “Made …

Toronto’s metallers, Crimson Shadows, seem to be a band on the “up and up”. One almost has to take a deep breath before running off their list of achievements, for example; an album release, an EP, performing countless shows with some of metal’s biggest names, a successful signing with Napalm …

Skid Row have released the second of three EPs that make up United World Rebellion. The first part was released last year, and the third part is still to come.  It’s an interesting idea, releasing three EPs instead of one album, and does mean that while each release is shorter …

Lovelorn Dolls are a band from Belgium – home of great beer, great chocolate – and some great bands.  The band was formed by Ladyhell and Corpus Christi, and was initially called Lovelorn before becoming Lovelorn Dolls.  Ladyhell was formerly singer of Skeptical Minds from 2002 to 2007 and then …

White Empress may be a new band, but the various members are all experienced musicians.  The lineup consists of Paul Allender (ex Cradle of Filth), Mary Zimmer (Luna Mortis), Will Graney (Damnation Angels), Chela Harper (Coal Chamber), Jeremy Kohnmann (The Awakening), and Zac Morris (many bands including Ugly Kid Joe). …

The Wans, from Nashville Tennessee, are a three piece rock and roll band formed only a few years ago. I have been following them for over a year now after stumbling across them through social media. In such a short space of time The Wans have already supported bands such …

Swedish metallers In Flames are back with 11 cracking new songs on their 11th studio album ‘Siren Charms’, which is out now on Sony Music. After a brief electronic intro, album opener ‘In Plain View’ kicks the record to life with a nice little tapped riff. As always the twin …

Come with me now on a journey into the dark side of the blues! Self described by the band as “Doom/Metal/Blues”, ‘Witch Mountain‘ go to the places other bands tremble to set a foot. With a mix of genres they really have this style of music not just pinned down, …

I had never heard of anything from four piece Blues based Rock band Zodiac prior to reviewing this album. Zodiac hail from Munster, Germany and this will be their third album release, with their previous album “A Hiding Place” having only been released last year. I was looking forward to …

      Sometimes, it can be quite a tedious chore, trawling through mountainous seas of music that falls under the vague umbrella of Female Fronted Metal but occasionally, a little gem appears, shining from the gloom, and demanding of a closer inspection. Such a gem fell into my lap …

When I reviewed Audrey Horne’s Youngblood at the start of 2013, it turned out to be one of my favourite albums of the last 5 years and when the opportunity arose to review their latest offering ‘Pure Heavy’, I leapt head first at the recording with high expectations. This has …

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 …