Tag Archives: album reviews

Something heavy this way comes from ROAR Rock Of Ages Records that goes under the name of Hellhound, the third studio album from metallers Monument! No cliche is left out as they hammer out nine songs of pure heavy metal with joyous vigour. Lead by the powerful vocal pipes of …

First caught this captivating band a few months ago opening a Cancer fundraising gig in Nantwich; proving my point to watch the opening bands as you never know what you might miss! The Surrey based The Asif Outlaws, fronted by Asif Ali were a joy to behold as they veered …

Few bands are as revered in extreme music today as Behemoth. The black metal titans had been at the forefront of the genre for years anyway, but 2014’s titanic The Satanist pushed them head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and when they toured the record in full recently …

They may never have reached the heady heights of some of the other bands that formed in the eighties, but Corrosion of Conformity have always enjoyed continued success and love in what is now a career spanning over 35 years. Members have come and gone over the years but three …

The year is 2014. The new £1 coins were announced in the March budget, England crashed out of the World Cup in the opening round and the Church of England allowed women to be ordained as bishops. It also marked the first time that power metal titans Dragonforce recorded an …

In an ever-increasing digital age, the simple notion of being sent a physical copy of an album to review is a rather heart-warming move. So when Are You Listening?, the debut album by Swedish/British outfit The Franklys arrived with a handwritten note that hoped yours truly would enjoy the record, …

Here are an evil Lucky 13 metal bands, representing a variety of genres, for you to listen to, plus learn the Wikipedia versions of their name origins. The rules: Only metal is included; no rock, blues, or punk feature in this round. No origin stories from anywhere but Wikipedia are …

Heavy Psych Sounds recently compiled and released a first for America’s desertified hard rock act Mondo Generator – a two vinyl record or CD set, titled Best Of. While Mondo Generator was formed in 1997, it’s debut didn’t see the light of day until 2000, when a break in band …

California’s power shred act Exmortus would have fit right in on Mike Varney‘s Shrapnel Records in the late 1980s, if not for the band’s double bass drum and extreme metal vocal styling. On 2016’s Ride Forth, the band proves there is beauty in all sorts of precision: the hyper-realist creates …

Baltimore’s long-disbanded Pessimist reunited in 2014. As a celebration of the re-grouping, the band has decided to re-release three albums. The first reissue, Slaughtering The Faithful, was re-mastered, then released on Halloween, 2015, by Obscure Records. Pessimist was a premier blackened death metal band on the East Coast late last …

Exploding out of a relatively small Central American country better known perhaps for its awesome coffee than its death metal exports, this second album from Costa Rica’s Corpse Garden is as intense and dark as both the aforementioned should be.  It’s also fucking fast! Corpse Garden very obviously pay tribute …

Hailing from a decidedly unfrostbitten San Francisco, the blackgaze Deafheaven has released its latest five song album, titled New Bermuda. Ranging from a drain cleaner caustic to a gentle caress, the five long-playing tunes on New Bermuda weave experimental, varied, smooth tapestries of sound. Deafheaven is one of a select …

For Arlington, Virginia band Deceased‘s devotees and collectors, the new 2 CD set, Cadaver Traditions, is a treasure trove of uncommonly-heard cover songs. Featuring 53, yes 53! full length songs, this set incorporates 2 albums of Deceased’s which were out of print, plus a collection of 17 previously-unreleased tunes. The …

Slovenian melodic black-death metal act Dalkhu has released its latest opus, Descend… Into Nothingness. The album contains seven songs, which are an intense mixture of death, black, and even folk metal elements. Guttural, brutal death metal vocals permeate “Pitch Black Cave”, and the other tunes. Like Jeff Walker‘s famed vocal …

Rough, raw, and reckless, Playfastordie by America’s Bandit is a crazy run through basement-ethic punk, powerviolence, grindcore, and hardcore. The entire presentation is ‘underground’, with a B level mix coupled to new-level punk musicianship. They’ve got the basic beats, chords, and screams down, but need a lot of work on …

Emerging from the shadows to release a full-length record for the first time in five years, America’s The Dead Weather has returned. The group’s third album, Dodge and Burn, finds a reinvigorated band which has embraced its scruffy rocker identity and strength. The quartet maintains a stellar connection, which is …

2015 is fun. Here are some ‘Twitter’ Reviews by Iris North The gist: Very freely associate words and phrases with whatever comes to mind first, based on the prompts. Adrenaline Mob – Dearly Departed EP: They’re cursed. Aptly named! Karyn Crisis’ Gospel Of The Witches – Salem’s Wounds: Gospel?! *gasp* Metal …

For extreme metal, anno 2015 is off to a good start, with Johansson & Speckmann‘s second studio effort, Mask of the Treacherous, being released through Vic Records. This nine-song album features Ribspreader‘s Rogga Johansson, teamed up with Master‘s Paul Speckmann. The studio-only collaboration showcases the musical and songwriting acumen of …

Sweden’s Freak Kitchen, featuring guitar virtuoso Mattias “IA” Eklundh, have returned with a ripping slab of musical whimsy, titled Cooking With Pagans. This 12-track, progressive rock album simultaneously “roasts” contemporary culture and explores new, quirky ways of musical self-expression. Neither pure “djent” nor pure progressive metal, this heavy music is …

German melodic-thrash-death-doom… (or however you want to call them!) metaller’s, Burden of Grief have been doing well over the last few years with positive reviews global-wide, European festival appearances and headlining tours.  This year also sees the band celebrating their 20th anniversary, and what better way is there to celebrate …