Album Reviews

The greatest selection of albums, reviewed and rated

Hooded Menace – Effigies of Evil

Hooded Menace hail from Finland the home of other Doom stalwarts such as Reverend Bizarre, Lord Vicar, Shape of Despair and Unholy. The line up consists of two people but for live appearances there are a series of live musicians.  The band released their first demo in 2007 and since …

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SCORNAGE – ‘ReaFEARance’

Formed way back in the shadowy depths of 1998, a full 12 months before Prince started partying like it was.. well you know, Scornage surfaced with their full blooded razor sharp brand of killer Thrash ,that up until now has spawned three deservedly well received albums, the latest of which, …

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The Killers-Battle Born cd

Indie-rock giants, The Killers are back with a new album after a four year exile, “Battle Born” shows The Killers take on life through the eyes of their hometown, Sin city, Las Vegas. Even the title is a reference to the state of Nevada, so if you don’t quite get …

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Neal Schon – The Calling CD

Neal Schon, the guitarist and ringleader in Journey, is set to release his second solo album, Neal has at some time or another worked with everybody from John Waite and Jeff Scott Soto, Paul Rodgers and Carlos Santana, and Sammy Hagar. It has been seven years since his last solo …

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Jon Lord – Concerto For Group And Orchestra

Concerto For Group And Orchestra, a groundbreaking meeting of rock and classical music was first recorded by Deep Purple back in 1969, and some say paved the way for other groups to push their own experimental music , I.E Pink Floyd. This new version, the definitive, was performed by the …

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Ill Niño – Epidemia

The undisputed kings of Latin metal are back.  Ill Niño are set to release their 6th full length album Epidemia through AFM Records on October 22nd  and I’m here to tell you it is a stormer!! Founded in the late 90’s by drummer Dave Chavarri, Ill Niño have carved out a …

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Neural FX – Abreaction

Mexican band Neural FX formed in 2007 and after undergoing various lineup changes settled on the current lineup in 2010.  In 2011 the band started recording their debut album – Abreaction, which has now been released in 2012. Musically, Neural FX are a Prog metal band. Brief comments on a …

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Boyjazz – Unlimited nights & weekends

Boyjazz were founded in California in 2002.  They released their debut album “In the city tonight” in 2004.  In 2006 they entered the studio to record their second album – “Unlimited nights & weekends”, but due to problems with record labels the album got shelved and has only received a …

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Angband – Saved from the Truth

Angband are a PowerProg Metal band, formed in 2004 in Tehran by Mahyar Dean a classically trained musician and author who is well known in the metal world for writing two books about Death and Testament. Saved from the Truth is Angband’s third album in a relatively short space of …

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Hellbringer – Dominion of Darkness

Hellbringer is a new Australian thrash metal band formed in Canberra in 2007. Formerly known as Forgery, they changed their name to Hellbringer in 2010 because of a then popular Norwegian band by the same name. The guys certainly wear their influences unashamedly with aspects of Venom and early Slayer …

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Dokken – ‘Broken Bones’

I have to admit it – I’m a child of the Eighties. I mean that in that is when I got into metal: it was the formative years of that historic decade in rock history that, as a lanky-haired rebellious private school-attending teenager that I first discovered bands such as …

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Adrian Weiss – Big Time

Adrian Weiss is an American guitarist who lives in Germany.  He’s released 7 albums over the years either as a solo artist or with bands including his band Forces at work. What is it about guitarists that makes them so predictable?  A guitarist releases a solo album – at which …

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Viva la venus – Bleeding on the edge of happiness

Viva La Venus are a female fronted rock band from North Carolina.  The band was founded by Vocalists/Guitarists Wendy Brancaccio and Susan Darney.  Their debut album, “The never ending mending story” was released in 2001 , and in 2005 they released their second album, “Forget the fairy tale”.  Now in …

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Viva la venus – Bleeding on the edge of happiness

Viva La Venus are a female fronted rock band from North Carolina.  The band was founded by Vocalists/Guitarists Wendy Brancaccio and Susan Darney.  Their debut album, “The never ending mending story” was released in 2001 , and in 2005 they released their second album, “Forget the fairy tale”.  Now in …

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The Serpentine Ritual

Formed by former band mates Steven Rice (lead guitar) and Wayne DeVecchi (drums) in late 2010 Kill Ritualreflect all of the bands influences from thrash and power metal to prog and just straight classic metal.  The line up is completed by Roberto Proietti (rhythm guitar), Danyael Williams (bass) and Josh …

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Papa Roach – The Connection

Late nineties, early noughties nu-metal giants Papa Roach have been quiet for the last few years. It’s a shame, too, because they had a real flair for writing instantly recognisable, catchy music. In fact, almost everyone into metal has heard their anthem Last Resort, so it’s great for music fans …

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Krisiun – Arise From Blackness

Heavy metal from countries other than our own, and to a certain extent the other side of the Atlantic, has always largely been treated as something of an anomaly in the press. Generally, you’ll find that acts hailing from Europe, South America and beyond often appear to be a little …

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Adimiron – K2

Adimiron hail from Italy and have been in existence since 1999. This is their third full length release and their first on Bakerteam Records. The bands 2004 debut release in the bands own words was “ a good death metal release”, since then they have moved in a very different …

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October Tree – The Fairys wing

Formed by married couple Greg and Tammy Lounsberry, October Tree was initially envisaged as a project to record an album with Tammy doing lead vocals.  Tammy wanted to do a concept album about fairies, and from this October Tree was formed.  The lyrics were written by Greg, who has also …

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