Album Reviews

@planetmosh reviews Heavy Head by .@elderbrother_ on .@purenoiserecs Elder Brother is the new side project from Dan Rose of Daybreaker (vocals) and Kevin Geyer of The Story So Far (guitars).  The two got to know each other while touring together and decided to collaborate.  Most people might have thought they’d …

Gothenburg, Sweden’s Vampire have presented listeners with an eponymous, ten track tour-de-force of intense, dark metal. Combining elements of traditional heavy metal with more extreme subgenres like death and black metal, this foursome has found a time-tested, battle-ready, winning formula. Vampire seems to take some of the best elements from …

Montreal, Canada’s Your Last Wish is a melodic extreme metal outfit featuring founding member Dave Gagne alongside a fresh crop of talented metalhead musicians. The band released 2013’s Desolation through Maple Metal Records. Desolation features 11 tracks of fairly intricately produced “melodeath”, showcasing the vocals of Roxana Bouchard. Tunes feature …

@AnybodyBC reviews Drift by .@JENXNOISE out February 8 on M-Tronic for @Planetmosh It’s not the first time a metal band has attempted the electro deconstruction of their music. Usually these experiments are like marmite too, receiving opinions from ‘why did they do that? They ruined everything’ to the ‘masterpiece’. Experimenting is …

You would have thought that bringing in a young gun like Sam Coulson – a guitar whiz first spotted on YouTube and that has shared stages alongside legends such as Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan, and Tony MacAlpine would really give Asia a shot in the arm, and make this new …

@planetmosh reviews Extremist by .@demonhunterband out on .@solidstate Two years since their last release Seattle 5 piece Demon Hunter have released ‘Extremist’, the well-publicized follow-on to 2012’s ‘True Defiance’. Not as well known of this side of the Atlantic as they probably should be for a band with sales in …

London Punk-Blues trio The Bermondsey Joyriders are releasing a double A side single in April.  The single pays tribute to two rock icons, Johnny Thunder (New York Dolls) and Brian Jones (Rolling Stones).  The band will be following the single with the release of their third album, “Flamboyant thugs” at …

New York rock band The Cringe are currently on tour in the UK supporting Steel Panther so will be hoping to impress fans with their live show before they release their new album in April.  The band formed in 2004 and consists of John Cusimano (vocals/guitar/keyboards), ex Air/Mr Bungle guitarist …

@planetmosh reviews Let The World Know .@dbaswe out on .@SpinefarmINT After some recent personnel changes Swedish 5-piece Dead By April return with their third full length studio album ‘Let The World Know’ which is available now on Spinefarm Records. From the very outset the listener is subjected to what can …

@AnybodyBC reviews We Love You by .@combichristarmy out March 21 on @outofline for @Planetmosh The first time I heard that Combichrist was going to release a new album with the quite interesting title ‘We Love You‘, was in the end of 2013, when Andy LaPlegua and Joe Letz had their …

The musical brainchild between Troy van Leeuwen (Failure, A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age) and Serrina Sims, California’s alt-rock Sweethead takes it’s name from a vintage “vulgar” David Bowie song, and it’s sound from the various eras of rock music. Premiered quietly in November 2013, the band’s catchy …

Check this out. The new American band, Conquering Dystopia, has their eponymous instrumental debut album on sale for about $10. Fans and listeners can legally stream the album from the band’s official website for the huge price of FREE though. Yes, in our time of “no free lunch”, this professionally …

Ginger Wildheart, one of the UK’s cult heroes of rock and roll, has completed yet another album, his seventh in just two years. This platter is titled Albion, and is released through Round Records. The number of songs on the disc varies: if you contributed to his PledgeMusic campaign for …

Chicago based High Spirits are Chris (vocals), Scott (guitar), Mike (guitar), Bob (bass) and Ian (drums).  Their new album You Are Here is due for release in May by Hells Headbangers.  One of their earliest and most popular tracks, High Spirits has only ever been available as a home-demo from their …

The Joy of Motion is the third album by instrumental progressive metal group Animals As Leaders, released through Sumerian Records. This 12-song release seems like a quirky collection of hundreds of freely associated aural ideas, abruptly or tangentially assembled. First the ideas congeal in to riffs, then verses, then “heads” …

@louelladeville_ @planetmosh review of Spunk Volcano and the Eruptions self-titled EP released via @stprecords on 1st February 2014. Fans of Dirt Box Disco (DBD) will know and love Spunk Volcano as their one-eyed balaclava (complete with knitted mohican) clad guitarist. Spunk has been working on a side project Spunk Volcano …

    Delivering their first album in a good six years has been a true labour of love for the band, having gone through the almost obligatory line up changes, the French Avantgarde Metal band are finally back. In essence, this is a concept album, dealing with a couples tumultuous …

It’s almost four years since one of the true legends of rock and metal died from cancer.  Ronnie James Dio had a career that spanned several decades and included singing for Rainbow, Black Sabbath, his own band Dio, and Heaven and Hell. Now a tribute album is being released with …

In between touring and writing for Nightwish, Tuomas Holopainen hasn’t been taking things easy.  Instead he’s been working on his solo album, Music inspired by The life and times of Scrooge.  Your first thought would usually be of the famous literary character created by Charles Dickens, but if you’ve seen …

It’s been less than 2 years since MAGNUM’s last album, “On The 13th Day” was released and already we have another one, “Escape From The Shadow Garden”. Track one, “Live ‘Till You Die” opens with a dramatic string section, before Tony Clarkin lets rip with an instantly recognizable Magnum riff, …