Album Reviews

We all know the deal, Black Sabbath, the pioneers of heavy metal have returned with their first album featuring the inimitable Ozzy Osbourne since 1978’s Never Say Die! We know that Bill Ward has sadly dropped out of the reunion and that Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk has taken …

Elupia deliver a masterpiece.     Elupia, a four piece band from Japan are possibly one that have slipped under your musical radars before now, so it’s my pleasure to bring them to your attention. As with a lot of contemporary Japanese rock bands the level of technical ability is …

Last year, Prog Rock champions, Katatonia and The Pineapple Thief gave us two astounding collections with “Dead End Kings” and “All the Wars”. This year their respective frontmen have banged their creative heads together in a quest for the musical equivalent of the Higgs-Boson Particle and “Wisdom of Crowds” is …

June 2011 saw the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight and to help celebrate this event one of the most intriguing musical collaborations happened in Tenerife at the Starmus festival with Brian May of Queen fame performing live with electronic masters Tangerine Dream. Kicking of the CD in style …

First of all, Famous Underground can pull it off live, and that’s something to admire about them. What you’re hearing on the album is what you’re going to hear live in concert. It’s not a manufactured ‘Autotune’ band. This is a monster group of heavyweights to watch. Plus, how can …

Eva Plays Dead are a group of four, made up of one lady and three guys from Derby. First starting out as Bury The Ladybird, they have, after making several band member changes and revised their musical direction, settled in late 2012 to what we see and hear today

I first found out about Stormzone in Glasgow, June 2009 while they were supporting the mighty Tesla on a UK tour. As luck might have it, it was great finding out about a band coming from my neck of the woods in Northern Ireland and with a similar background. Since …

Deceiver of the Gods is the new great album of the – I think the most know them- melodic death metal band Amon Amarth from Sweden.  In my opinion Deceiver of the gods is maybe the best death metal album which will be released this year. It’s a typical Amon Amarth …

London’s GraViL are brutal and technically efficient purveyors of melodic death metal, showcased in fine form with their first full length album Thoughts of a Rising Sun. These guys remind me a lot of hearing Dead Cowboy’s Sluts last year, in such that they’ve opened my ears to a ferocity …

I have been a fan of Queensryche ever since a friend of mine got me into them when I was a teenager at school way back when the Empire album was released in 1990. Ever since the fall-out and split with this line-up of Queensryche and former vocalist Geoff Tate …

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.. To say I’ve been chomping at the bit to get hold of this album to listen to is an understatement, one of Gothic Metals best loved bands are finally back on the scene with their sixth album …

East Midlands band Line of Fire are back with their second EP, Nowhere to go.  Playing some down and dirty Southern metal they are a band that are definitely worth a listen.  The more observant of you may notice that one of the band members (Paddy O’Malley) is a member …

This is the debut E.P. from four guy’s who formed up in 2012 and come from Newcastle Upon Tyne. So now we find out that the North-East is indeed full of Easton promise. The only thing wrong here is there’s not enough tracks on it! Trust me, once you hear this …

Excellent debut from a band that show great promise. Formed in the North Wales town of Wrexham, Defy All Reason bring you this incredibly catchy four track E.P., which manages to cover a pretty wide spectrum of musical styles and content in a relatively short format. Opening track ‘Shake It’ …

Like good food at any restaurant if you don’t try it out first how can you judge it? This new release from former Savatage frontman Jon Oliva was something very different for me having never heard his work before. What followed was, I must admit, a bit of a surprise. …

Ordo Ab Pax, released in 2013, is the debut album from Gauteng, South African progressive thrash metal outfit, Arx. The band has an engaging, melodic extreme metal sound, a bit reminiscent (but not derivative) of Dark Tranquillity or later In Flames. The album ranges from instrumental, to thrash, to ‘hatecore’ …

Dark Tranquillity prove why the’re the best in the buisness.   The now well known tag of  ‘Gothenburg sound’ exists primarily because of the groundbreaking music produced on a consistent basis by Dark Tranquillity, sometimes complex, sometimes alarming but always meaningful and thought provoking. In  ‘Construct’, the band have produced …

Scotland’s Hardcore exponents raise the bar with a cracking album of real class. This is definitely one of those albums that picks you up and shakes you about a bit. Final Silence have been around for some seven years or so now but seem to have raised the levels of …

Blackmore’s night is the band led by former Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and his singer wife, Candice Night. The band has now been going for 20 years, and play a folk and rennaisance music with some rock mixed in – a combination that works extremely well. As …

Norway’s Jorn Lande returns with his new album “Traveller”. For those who are unaware of Jorn, this man releases top quality albums as regularly as Iron Maiden release special edition picture discs. Excluding involvement and appearances with Avantasia, Masterplan and Allen/Lande, “Traveller” is studio album number ten since 2000 and …