Album Reviews

I first heard Arthemis when they played the 2nd Hammerfest festival in deepest darkest wales back in March of 2010, and for me they were one of the bands of the weekend, they then played Hammerfest number 4 and 5 before finally playing Hammerfest’s sister festival, HardRockHell at the back …

    Now before we start, I realise that a good percentage of the Metal fraternity, may not necessarily be huge fans or followers of the Blackened Death Metal sub genre, I myself , sort of fell into it via the Depressive Suicidal Black Metal and Doom route but as …

One of a reviewer’s favourite dreams – and, in equal measure, worst nightmares – is to occasionally stumble across a band who are difficult, if not downright impossible, to categorize. Such an outfit are Parisien quartet Dot Legacy, and this eclectic self-titled debut, which veers between post-rock synchopation, stoner, ambient …

.@Planetmosh @AnybodyBC review ‘Nemesis’ by @Protafield out via @carolinemusic Some bands tend to appear just out of nowhere. The last time I have got this feeling, it was with the British band called Protafield. Not much information on the Internet, the official website currently is not working and only some …

This debut album from upstart Italians Black Gremlin certainly lives up to its name, in that it’s raw – not surprising, since the quartet recorded its seven songs live in one day, and using a traditional 8-track reel-to-reel tape deck. The result is a heady little collection of songs that …

One of the hardest working bands on the Northern Ireland scene, this debut full-length album from Baleful Creed is actually an amalgamation of the quartet’s three previous EPs bound together in one package. BC’s stoner-edged doom sound is very much rooted in the foundation of Black Sabbath – something for …

This is the first album from the Kings of New Orleans Sludge in fourteen years. In that time the band has been through the ringer and still managed to keep a profile alive throughout the underground. EHG is an incestuous outfit with members playing for other high profile bands such …

It’s two years since Unisonic emerged, with a debut EP and album.  The band hit the headlines for reuniting two legends of German rock/metal – Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske, reunited 23 years after they formed part of Helloween.  Now the band are back with a new EP ahead of …

London based Alexa de Strange have released their EP “Tits of death”.  Definitely a title designed to get attention and it does make a nice change from all those bands releasing self titled EPs and albums (are they really that short of imagination that they can’t think of a decent …

Sometimes not knowing a lot about a band can be an asset. Your views and opinions of what music you’re about to listen to aren’t coloured by others. Darkest Era are one of those bands for me. I knew the name and that was it, a little assumption on my …

Reunions are a fickle beast. Sometimes they work, sometimes they are a callous attempt to make some money and sometimes they are initially a response to a rose tinted view of the past but turn out to be better than before. Europe, Journey and Accept are three names that have …

When Swedish metallers Arch Enemy not so long ago announced changes inside the band, nobody besides them had an actual clue how they would sound and look after that. So now, 3 years since their previous full-length album, they return with War Eternal. The new blue-haired front woman Alissa White-Gluz seems to be getting on …

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 …

It’s an unwritten rule that reviewers are not supposed to talk personally or write in the same mien, but I am sure our dear PM readers will indulge this writer in a touch of reminisence… I remember well the first time I heard Tesla:  I was just over a hear …

Dublin’s Coldwar are a band who are not easy to like.  But, that’s the point:  they don’t want to be the sort of band that people ‘like’:  they want to be reviled, repulsed, exorcised.  They are confrontational and uncompromising.  They are in your face.  And they ram their (anti-)message down …

This is one band with a real sense of humor! From a Monty Python esk Napoleonic cartoon video to Swash Buckling Cavaliers! I’m beginning to think their more like a love child of the Alex Harvey Band, who played a blinder of a cover of  Tom Jones’s Delilah on the old grey …

‘V’ represents the bands (yes, you guessed it) fifth studio album, and contains some of the best melodic and progressive Rock you will have the pleasure of listening to during the present calender year. Based in Australia, the band have been steadily progressing in terms of popularity, having become the …

I think I’ve just found that something special to fill the gap in my CD collection that’s been empty for far to long. Old style, nostalgic! ain’t the words to use, but if I have to describe them, only three will fit here, “Retro-Rocket-Rock” !!  This is just one magnificent …

Armagh-based ten-legged groove machine Astralnaut have been kicking up dust – sometimes quite literally – on the Irish scene, both north and south of the border, for around about two and a half years now, particularly with their fiery and intense live shows, which have been consistently levelling venues with …

My first reaction to hearing that U.D.O had a new live release coming out was one of surprise – after all they released “Live in Sofia” just two years ago, and since then they’ve only released one album.  OK the 2012 release was a live CD whereas this is a …