Tag Archives: album review

Mael Mórdha – ‘Damned When Dead’

Mael Mordha - Damned When Dead Artwork

While many of their fellow countrymen have sought to adapt traditional Irish mythologies to a more blackened style of metal, Mael Mórdha have deliberately crafted a sound which is very much rooted in the Celtic folk ethic, which gives their approach to the doomier end of the spectrum a more …

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White Clouds & Gunfire – For All the Non Believers

Female fronted alternative rock band White Clouds & Gunfire formed in Peterborough in 2009. Following their debut EP ‘Zero to Hero’ their album ‘For All the Non Believers’ was released on 2nd September 2013. A keyboard intoduction led into the opening song ‘Bruised not Broken’ a soft rock track with …

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Sister Sin – Dance of the Wicked

Swedish Metal Band Sister Sin’s first album Dance of the Wicked was originally released in 2013. Ten years later it has been re-released by Victory Records. Now with, not only all 8 original tracks but, 3 previously unreleased demo tracks, and a bonus track featuring German Rock Goddess Doro Pesch. …

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Reckless Love – Spirit

Reckless Love are a Finnish Glam Rock band who these days do their own music and songs, after initially starting out as Reckless Life, a Guns N’ Roses tribute. Olli Herman, their very good-looking (he’s like the male equivalent of Pamela Anderson) frontman joined Crashdiet for a time before concentrating …

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Mordecai – Undaunted

Mordecai, a band from London, bring listeners 11 tunes showcased on their debut Undaunted. The band mixes two styles of rock in to their signature: a slower, melodic balladry and a fairly modern rock swagger. They sound vaguely American, but not so ‘in-your-face’. The songs follow, for the most part, …

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Ashes Of Ares – ‘Ashes Of Ares’

Artwork for Ashes For Ares' self-titled debut album

Ashes Of Ares‘ credentials are just about as impeccable as they come,  with the the band being made up of former Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow and bassist Freddie Vidales, and ex-Nevermore drummer Van Williams. With the meeting of two such strong forces of nature, you would expect something special to …

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Týr – ‘Valkyrja’

Faroe Islanders Týr may find themselves, by the fate of geography, isolated on the northern outskirts of Scandinavia but this, their seventh album, proves once again that they are very much at the centre of the particularly geocentric folkloric mythos which has helped this particular sub genre very much re-establish itself …

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Otargos – Apex Terror

Otargos are a French black metal band, and their latest offering, Apex Terror, contains 9 tracks of intense and well-produced extremity. Aggressive, clear, fast, bleak, and highly negative, it’s vaguely reminiscent of fellow Frenchmen Antaeus. “For Terra” slows down enough to really groove; “Remnant From A Long-Dead Star” continues that …

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Soil – Whole

Whole is 2013’s release by Chicago modern metallers Soil. The nicely-produced disc is well balanced, with the full band audible and appreciable. A natural progression from (and successor to) 2001’s Scars, the disc stays true to the band’s downtuned, crunchy, catchy form. I hear two cross-disc highlights: the emotive, powerful, …

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Badmotorfinger – It’s Not The End

Badmotorfinger, an Italian hard rock band, released It’s Not The End, a brazen 13-track disc. It’s straight-ahead, catchy, anthemic, guitar-driven hard rock. Modern, confident, and in-your-face music. With no frills, keyboards, or ‘studio effects’, it’s loud, crisp, flashy music for the guitar-friendly audience. With gruff, gritty, lower-register vocals strongly reminiscent …

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Battlecross – War Of Will

Battlecross is an American modern death metal band showing European flar. With War Of Will, they offer a bit more melody and atmosphere then most. There’s a crisp, punchy sound with a triple vocal tone attack – from a hatecore screech to a brutal low growl. Battlecross offers unusually inspiring …

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Protector – Reanimated Homonculus

Veteran German thrash mongers Protector scorch a blazing trail of old-school death-thrash through Swedish woods, taking no prisoners. They channel all that is good from thrash metal into tunes like “Reanimated Homonculus” and “Antiman”, snapping necks furiously and without remorse. The competent, tight band delivers blood-curdling goods on this disc, …

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Eternal Torture – Lacerate The Global Hate

Eternal Torture is a young death metal band from Munich (Bavaria), Germany. This band is part of the “we are faster and more extreme then anyone else” movement, with hyperspeed double-bass drumming, low guttural (and unintelligible) vocals, and downtuned guitars. Their twist on this pun intended, done-to-death schtick is that …

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Bad Pollyanna – Monstrous Child

What would happen if you repackaged trendy pop music with a little bit of emo, and some of burlesque subculture’s image? You’d end up with something like Bad Pollyanna. Sugary sweet, digitally perfect female vocals merged with a litany of electronica sounds and effects comprise 2013’s release, Monstrous Child. The …

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Karnivool – Asymmetry

A bizarre, mellow blend of alternative rock mixed with electronica and industrial elements make up 2013’s Asymmetry, by Australia’s Karnivool. Moods range from a free-floating ambient to an ‘industrial meets emo-pop’ tangent. The oddly sequenced record of longer-length songs seems to take pride in dissonance. There are many quirks and …

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Equilibrium – Waldschrein

Equilibrium‘s Waldschrein is an interesting twist on the folk or pagan metal subgenre. This five-song EP, released in 2013, runs the gamut from entertaining folk metal, to an epic movie soundtrack type tune. This Bavarian band’s rapid ‘riff factory’ idea shifts tend to be jarring or choppy – in the …

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Inhale The Fall – ‘Inhale The Fall’ EP

Inhale The Fall Artwork

Cork may be Ireland’s second city but it easily rivals capital Dublin as a hotbed of talent. The latest outfit to emerge from the south-west of the island, Inhale The Fall are a complete contrast to the more well known offerings at the darker, denser end of the spectrum which …

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Bonafide – Bombo

Bonafide, hailing from Malmo Sweden, were a band I heard some of my friends talk about at times but for one reason or another I never did go check them out. Stumbling across a list of possible albums to review I spotted their soon to be released 4th album “Bombo” …

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Parhelia – ‘The Precipice Of Change’

Parhelia - The Precipice Of Change Artwork

This sophomore offering from Dublin instrumentalists Parhelia has been four years in the making, being as it is the follow up to their 2009 full-lengther debut, ‘Shifting Sands’ (they previously had released two EPs, ‘First Light’ in 2006 and 2007’s ‘Oceans Apart’). ‘The Precipice Of Change’ is a hypnotic album, …

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Fergie Frederiksen – Any Given Moment

Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen (Toto, Frederiksen/Philips, Mecca, LeRoux) is an inspiration. His long and storied music career continues strongly, despite advancing age and failing health. Frontiers Records brings listeners his newest material, 2013’s Any Given Moment. Produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio, this record has 11 tracks of melodic, smooth rock and …

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