Album Reviews

Sybreed return with an album that has more grooves than a Bridgestone!   It’s been three long years since Sybreed released “The Pulse Of Awakening” but the wait for the follow up full length release has been well worth it.   The band continue with their quite unique blend of …

Electric River were a band that caught my eye just by the name, so I thought I would check out what they had to offer. It also turned out that they were bringing out a brand new EP called ‘In Your Name’. When I was reading up about them, you …

Japanese band Tri Mebius come from Osaka and are a four piece band, having changed from having 5 members after their debut album was released. “Promised sense” is the bands latest single (their second), released earlier this year, with “Blind materials” being their debut album released in September 2011. Having …

The quality of bands coming out of Rock and Growl just now, to my ears anyway, is something to behold. Having recently reviewed the awesome debut from French maniacs Dead Cowboy’s Sluts, I find myself opening my lugholes to another great metal band from the land of fine wine, croissants …

With the tentacles of heavy metal now reaching into almost every corner of the known world, one scene which has been growing in both strength and profile over recent years is that in India.  Among those leading the charge of acts from the sub continent are this four piece from …

Hamburg based techno metal band Dad Maria have been around since 2001 and their latest release, the 5 track e.p Sequences sees them assaulting the senses with a frantic mixture of System Of A Down, The Prodigy and Moby. Sequences was released on 27th July 2012 and  is available on …

    So what do you get if you merge the spirit of nwobhm with the likes of AC/DC, Motley Crue, Wasp, Van Halen  and Y&T? The answer is Cure For Your Disease by Black Rose! It’s the sort of album to play before going to a gig to put …

Italian Thrash Metal kings rework past classics for a storming, riotous new album. Formed in 2004, from the ashes of Animalator, the band have been around for some time now, scoring really good reviews for their live shows and their album releases. And indeed it is to two of those …

    Formed in 1980 Grave Digger have released fifteen studio albums. Their newest edition Clash of the Gods will take the total to sixteen and I am quite excited to be reviewing it. The albums theme is Ancient Greece and mention Greek gods and legends. The album was released …

Looking like a cross between Mushroomhead and Mutter era Rammstein, Ost+Front (Eastern Front) are a Germen industrial metal band formed in Berlin in 2009.  Having released their first single Fleisch (Meat) in 2011, their debut album Ave Maria is being released on Sept 10th this year (2012) through Out Of …

The latest gothic rock band to emerge from the depths of Scandinavia, Finland to be precise, are The 69 Eyes, a band that adds another name to a long legacy of rock and metal bands from the snowy country. Their latest release, a full length studio album imaginatively entitled X …

Following their dalliance in the unplugged arena, with the highly imaginatively named ‘The Acoustic’ project earlier this year, Hungarian neo-thrashers Ektomorf have plugged their funny shaped geetars back into their Marshall stacks and turned the volume back up to 11 for this, their ninth studio album. Having built a reputation …

Hailing from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, MOTH have built a decent following on the local live scene. Unfortunately they have not been able to transfer this energy and theatricality to tape. There are very obvious My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Cradle of Filth influences from the image down to …

Daughtry are hoping to finally crack the UK market by reissuing their Top 10 US album, ‘Break The Spell’ as a special tour edition to coincide with their support slot on the upcoming Nickelback tour. Fronted by former American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry, the US stars scored back-to-back US Billboard …

Hailing from Norway the mighty Enslaved will release their twelfth studio album RIITIIR is set to be released in Europe on the 28th of September via Nuclear Blast Records. I saw Enslaved annihilate at Bloodstock 2009 so I am quite excited to hear this. Track one is called Thoughts Like …

Bullet return with all guns blazing for their fourth album. The Swedish Hard Rockers are most definitely back, and back on top form as well, following what many consider the ‘treading water’ release in 2011 of ‘Highway Pirates’ , which although very good, failed to kick on from the brilliant …

  In the late 1970’s a new breed of British metal bands were coming to the fore and the term nwobhm was born. That is New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. The best place for information was in a weekly music magazine called Sounds. The editor Geoff Barton was a …

Peacemaker is the third album from Texas Hippie Coalition.  Formed in 2008 in Texas (where else with a name like that), they have released two albums – “The pride of Texas” and “Rollin”.  The band describe their music as “Red dirt metal” and to quote the press release “Take Outlaw …

Formed in France in 2009 by brothers Anthony and Julien Agnello, this represents the bands full length debut. Stylistically I guess we can put the band under the pretty wide umbrella of Symphonic Power Metal, and indeed the band seems most adept at covering all base points within that particular …

“Doom with a difference” was my first impression after playing the 2nd full length studio album, White Hoarhound  by Birmingham based Pagan doom metal band Alunah. The reason for this is the haunting vocals of  female Soph Day. I have not come across a female fronted doom metal band before …