Tag Archives: music reviews

Summer is almost here and what a way to herald the sunshine with Gravity, the brand new studio album from Praying Mantis! They have always been on the melodic side of the NWOBHM genre, point proven by the impressive 2015 release of Legacy and their song writing form is just …

American guitarist Paul Gilbert‘s latest studio effort, I Can Destroy, is a fun, uptempo rock album. The record’s 12 core songs (and one bonus track) are a treat to listen to. Jam-packed with good notes, for the legion guitarists anticipating the disc in hopes of busting their chops, it delivers …

With the ten-track Dead Dawn, Sweden’s death metal behemoth Entombed A.D has returned to a scene the members helped to form, offering its second album under this moniker. Two closely related questions in most fan’s minds seem to be ‘where does Dead Dawn hit stride, and does it measure up …

Germany’s Obscura has released Akroasis (which means “hearing” or “listening” in Greek), a modern, technical death metal disc with plenty of progressive overtones. Firmly rooted in darkness, overall, the sound has a distinctly European flair, invoking early Behemoth to mid-period Vader or later Centurian with blasts of speed, precision, and …

Welsh alt rock band Dream State have their debut, 5 song EP out, titled Conssquences. The band states that they draw inspiration from melodic hardcore, and the EP seems to back this up, with melodic arrangements, well-sung female vocals by Charlotte-Jayne Gilpin, and interesting instrumental breaks and tones. The band …

Munster, Germany is the hometown of modern melodic metalcore act Idle Class. The band’s newest album, Of Glass and Paper, contains eleven tracks of melodic, fairly fizzy music. This particular breed of music is oft panned as “the screamo stuff”. Wildly popular for heavy music, metalcore enjoys working with a …

There are some genuinely grinding, aggressive moments tucked away in the 11 tunes that comprise The Crown‘s early 2015 release, Death is Not Dead. These Swedish extreme metal veterans have reconvened to bring their fans some more fairly melodic, high speed death-thrash as only they can. Death is Not Dead …

The musical brainchild of Troy Van Leeuwen (Failure, A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age) and Serrina Sims, California’s alt-rock Sweethead takes it’s name from a vintage “vulgar” David Bowie song, and it’s sound from the various eras of rock music. “Antony”, this first piece, recorded and shelved, not …

Who can forget Goatwhore? From Sammy Duet‘s quip on the Relapse Records message board so long ago “I’m going to start a band and call it Goatwhore” to today’s mayhemic brutal machine, Louisiana’s purveyors of musical insanity have bluntly carved a well-deserved niche for themselves within extreme metal’s upper echelon. …

“Bloody Hammers are a heavy rock band from Transylvania County, North Carolina.” Their latest ten-song disc, Under Satan’s Sun, was released in 2014 on Napalm Records. “Although commonly viewed as gothic rock, the band have incorporated elements of doom metal, stoner metal, and psychedelic rock.” By their name and the …

Bail Out, British punk rock duo Winnebago Deal‘s EP released specifically for Record Store Day 2014, is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it phenomenon. The EP contains four songs, clocking in at under eight minutes total. Best listened to at higher volume, Bail Out is a good listen. It will “pick you up” and …

Another contender in the overcrowded, glutted digital music revolution, Scotland’s Aventus put their spin on rock and roll with their latest disc, called Valley of the Kings. The recording has a warm, analog feel to it, and is nicely balanced and enjoyable. The band mix doomy, sludgy riffs with more …

Downtuned, digital, distorted, and defiant. That’s the first impression of Brazil’s Skinlepsy, who released their debut, Condemning the Empty Souls, on Shinigami Records. Nicely balanced, the recording is listenable even at low volume, but packs more punch “cranked up” a bit. This nine-song (with one intro) full-length album is nothing …

Centurian seem fury incarnate. The band was founded in 1997 by Rob Oorthuis (guitar) and Wim van der Valk (drums). The intent was to create death metal “based on memorable riffs, one-foot blast beats and lyrics that celebrate Choronzon333”. Seth van de Loo (vocals) then joined the band. In 1998, …