Tag Archives: album review

This fifth studio album from Polish progressive rockers Riverside – their first since 2009’s ‘Anno Domini High Definition’, which charted at number one in their native Poland – is an interesting beast, drawing as it does on a myriad of influences, from underground central European jazz through English folk music …

Since their formation in 2001, Welsh ‘post-hardcore’ crew Funeral For A Friend have literally “been there, done that, sold a million T-shirts”. However, over the past decade or so, their popularity has undeniably waned: following the gold status of their debut ‘Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation’ in 2003, and …

Folk metal, pagan metal, call it what you will, has an unnerving penchant for veering, inexplicably and unexpectedly, from one extreme to the other – and, most notably, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Unfortunately, Munich-based sextet Knaat fall somewhere ‘twixt and between – but, at the same time, manage …

I may not be (quite) old enough to remember them the first time around, but the names Skid Row and Taste hold a seminal place in Irish music-lore: the former as the ultimate forerunner of the mighty Thin Lizzy, and the latter as the trio who propelled the late, great …

New Model Army recently bought back the rights to all their pre EMI music and have now embarked on a campaign to re-release their music, re-mastered and with additional tracks, from the same period as the original albums.  The first release in this series is their debut album Vengeance which …

Belgian black metal mob Enthroned have been slowly carving out a reputation for themselves as one of the continent’s more accomplished, if hardly innovative, black metal outfits, and this ninth album is as solid as anything the genre has produced in the last couple of decades. There’s nothing hugely original …

This second album from France’s Abinaya – their name is Sanskrit for ‘passing on’ – definitely lives up to its conjunctive title, for it most definitely is a ‘Corps’ of work that should be passed on. The problems start early on, with the apologetic Algerian drum line on the opening, …

This apocalyptic themed debut album by Berlin (self-described) melodic thrashers Declamatory has been some 12 years in the making, and apparently is the first of a triptych of similarly conceptualized offerings… The concept in question revolves around “the post-apocalyptic war between the Raiders and the Crystal Gods, fought in the …

“The boys are back – and they’re looking for a fight”.  Thus starts this latest album (the eighth) from Boston’s Dropkick Murphys.. one of a handful of bands – alongside the likes of Flogging Molly – who have successfully moulded their Irish heritage onto a hardcore/punk sound. While 2011’s ‘Going …

This unusually named German AOR band trace their roots back a quarter of a century, to 1987, and this is their 11th album – their first in 11 years and also their first with new drummer (formerly the band’s drum tech) Chris Schmidt, who replaced founder member Kosta Zafiriou, who …

It’s probably a bit pat to say – but, then, the band do allude to it in their own press collateral – but a German band playing industrial-tinged metal and singing in their native language are inevitably going to draw comparisons with Rammstein. And, yes, there are other references with …

Five years on from their last outing, 2007’s ‘Liberation=Termination’, Finnish-based melodic death metallers Mors Principium Est have returned with their new, international line up – featuring the twin guitar attack of the UK’s Andy Gillion and Andhe Chandler, all the way from New Zealand – and their eagerly anticipated fourth …

Generation.On.Dope, or G.o.D, trace their roots back a decade, to the Italian sleaze rock outfit Razzle Dazzle, who were starting to make a bit of a name for themselves outside their homeland until the untimely death of bassist Mario Gilardengo forced the band to re-evaluate themselves and start all over …

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental music. Long before bowed my knee at the altar of metal, I used to sneak home from school early – mainly because it was quicker to walk the quarter of a mile in a straight line through the park than take the …

It would be very easy to dismiss Crashdïet as yet another Swedish sleaze metal outfit, and indeed they have been very much at the forefront of the revival in that regard. However, personally, I’ve always found them to be more appealing than, certainly, the awful Reckless Love or their poppier …

I suppose it could be argued that the timing of the release of Geoff Tate’s second solo album is somewhat fateful. What with him being publicly (and embarrassingly so) fired from Queensrӱche earlier this year and the subsequent high profile squabbling which has ensued between the singer and the former …

Sweden’s Aeon (one of eight bands with the same name list in that essential resource for any serious metal journalist, or fan for that matter, the Encyclopaedia Metallum) count no less than the mighty Alex ‘Corpsegrinder’ Webster among their legion fans. And it’s not hard to see why on ‘Aeons …

We’re going to play a little game here folks. 1. What does your Dad do for a living? 2. Now imagine that he’s one of the most highly respected people in his field. 3. OK, now think what it would be like if you got in to that business too. …

It was probably inevitable that, almost 30 years down the line, some members of the ‘Big Four’ would start collaborating at one level or another – but the teaming of Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine and original Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz may not seem to be the most obvious couple to …

The UK doesn’t really have a reputation for producing great sleaze rock bands – well, certainly, not ones who could challenge the supremacy of the likes of the Crüe, LA Guns, GNR or Cinderella in their prime. The likes of The Quireboys, Wildhearts and Dogs D’Amour always have been more …