Album Reviews

Chris Kilmecky is an American musician.  He has a classical music background – one of his parents being a professional symphonic violinist, but he has a love of a wide spectrum of rock music, with inspirations including Rush, Foo fighters, Staind, Green day, Van Halen, Steve Vai, and many more. …

  When you hear the name Sleepy Hollow everyUSMetal-maniac will go nuts. The band only released one demo (“A Legend Retold“) in 1989 and the self-titled album in 1991. But unfortunately, after that they got buried and forgotten. Now, 20 years later, they return with their second full length-album “Skull …

  I unashamedly confess to have been a fan of female vocal Rock and Metal for more years than I’m prepared to divulge, and so it gives me a real sense of joy when I discover a band which completely knocks me off my feet. Formed in Russia in 2005 …

English metallers HeKz released their debut album ‘Tabula Rasa’ on 6 April 2012, offering us up 10 tracks in the process.  This is indeed an interesting album and another example of a band allowing its old school metal influences to flow nice and clearly through their music.  Several tracks on …

With an album title like Tales of Doom and a band name that has the word “cult” in it, you would expect Crimson Cult to be a dark, depressive doom metal band. How wrong are you? In fact, Crimson Cult is a straight up heavy metal band from Salzburg, Austria …

This debut demo by this new young Belfast thrash band is an impressive statement of intent from such an inexperienced outfit. Fittingly featuring a militaristic drum beat at the start, opener ‘The Act Of War’ is reminiscent of a faster, looser young Megadeth, especially in the rhythm patterns and vocals, …

Fronted by Russian-born guitarist/vocalist Nil Dilian, this Bergen-based quartet have self-released an eight-track debut album that is fairly standard second wave of Norwegian black metal fare, made up of crunchy groove-laden riffs over mixture of clean and deathbeat drumming. Opener ‘Delirium’ is nothing special – the sort of thing the …

Built around members of various other Belfast combos – most notably the mighty War Iron – this four piece, to paraphrase a well-known TV advert, do exactly what it says on the label… hammer the living fuck out of you. Their no holds barred approach is evinced right from the …

Straight away I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I’d not come across this band before, originating from Romania and now based in Germany they formed in 2008, and prior to this release have had one other album out “Glowing” which showcased their prog tinged Metal for the first …

Chorley based metal band Fire in the Empire have just released their astounding debut EP entitled, To the Thinking Man’s Horror and it will come with a shock to find out that this North Western four piece have only been together for just less than two years. An EP jammed …

There have only been a hand full of UK based power metal bands that have been able to rival/better the bands ever spawning forth from the Euro power metal scene. Now in 2012, Glasgow based melodic metal heads Farseer have released their new EP, Chthonic Visions which is the finest …

Celtic folk music and heavy metal have always been a weird combination, but a band called Waylander from Ireland that really does make the odd coupling it work. It’s odd really how two genres at the opposite end of the musical spectrum fit so well together, but it seems to …

  This album represents the bands full length debut, having formed in 2009 and released two critically acclaimed E.P.’s, the timing was obviously right to unleash “The Human Apheresis” onto a worldwide audience following signing to Massacre Records. Hailing from Finland the band fall firmly into the Black Metal genre …

Emina is a female rock singer who has formed her own band and released this, her debut album.  Her biography on her website is fairly vague – she moved to Europe (from somewhere unspecified, but presumably the USA as her home town was into folk and line dance).  So really …

  Zebedy are one of North Wales’s best kept secrets, building a solid reputation as one of the area’s slickest live acts. Hopefully this will now change with the release of their E.P. “This Is My City”, a collection of first rate Progressive Rock/Metal that really makes you sit up …

  This release heralds the German bands third full length offering and their first since 2004’s “Heimwege”. A long gap it must be said but the wait has definitely been worth it, ten tracks of beautifully dark electro tinged Metal to both stimulate and sooth the soul. Tracks such as …

  The Italian mob return with a storming second album. Produced by none other than Tobias Lindell, who’s credits include Europe, Hardcore Superstar,and Crashdiet amongst others, it’s obvious that the band have gone full tilt this time to launch a worldwide assault on the worlds ears. The vocals of Claudio …

On June 11th 2012, Sanctuary Records via Uniiversal Music  will be releasing Motorhead’s 6 albums originally released via Bronze Records between 1979/1983. They are the original masters in gatefold wallets with the original artwork, housed in a compact box.   1st release of the 6 is Overkill and is easily …

  When you think of Fear Factory your mind automatically conjures images of mechanical, hardcore industrial power fused metal. When the brothers of destruction, Mr Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell were re-united in 2010 for the “Mechanize” album after spending ten long years apart, people wondered how long would …

  If ever an album title could be deemed as apt for a band then this surely is it. Formed in Portugal in early 1991 Disaffected released a few demos whilst tinkering with the line up before releasing the full length album “Vast” in 1995, an album which still stands …