ALBUM REVIEWS
If you’re looking for aggregated album reviews from our seasoned music specialists, including our own score offering at a glance how the album fared, this is the right destination for you. Album reviews certainly still matter to artists, writers, and publicists, as they are the ones dealing with them every day, but does the average listener still pay attention? Well, we sincerely hope you do… Dive in!
Presumed nearly dead – or maybe just transformed into Godzilla monsters and other pattern-seeking animals – the infamous Spock’s Beard have been gloriously resurrected once…
Some names need no introduction, only respect. In the concrete jungle where hardcore was born, Agnostic Front remains the voice of the dispossessed, those tired…
Four years ago, Jonas Lindberg and his band The Other Side made considerable waves as their second full-length album, Miles From Nowhere, was picked up…
There are a few genres of music that by definition should be described as “intoxicating”, but the rare albums featuring Middle Eastern Rock easily achieve…
By now, most of us have kinda had it with orchestral metal. While the idea of writing music with both an orchestra and a very…
Led by the angelically somber singing of Jan-Henrik Ohme, Norwegian sextet Gazpacho have long been in a class all their own in terms of taking…
KK Fosser’s ultimate mind trip set to metal. There comes a point in every prominent horror franchise where successive sequels will compel a massive left-turn…
Mariusz Duda is best known as the singer/bassist of Polish progressive rock/metal troupe Riverside, yet he’s spent almost as much time (nearly 20 years) delivering…
The war for the future has been declared. Some look to the future with the eyes of optimism, while others see tomorrow through a bleak…
The winds of time blow fervently. There has been a new wind blowing in the U.S. heavy metal underground for the past couple of years,…
Contradictions instigate the downfall. In the wild west of ’80s metal, innovation and adaptation seemed the order of the day as trailblazing upstarts on both…
A noble cause takes on a life all its own. The eventuality of a one-off project becoming a formidable player on the heavy metal stage…
Not since Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson collaborated on their semi-eponymous Alan Parsons Project has there been a more ambitious concept rock project than Arjen…
The Blue Nowhere is a triumphant return that further cements Between the Buried and Me as the masters of this style while also confirming that they’re well-equipped to continue as a quartet if that’s what they’re intending
The Blue Nowhere is a triumphant return that further cements Between the Buried and Me as the masters of this style while also confirming that they’re well-equipped to continue as a quartet if that’s what they’re intending
The Blue Nowhere is a triumphant return that further cements Between the Buried and Me as the masters of this style while also confirming that they’re well-equipped to continue as a quartet if that’s what they’re intending
“The Circle,” the opening track from the Amorphis album Borderland, greets listeners with Tomi Koivusarri’s clean, saturated guitar textures awash with delay to evoke a…
Six times the hex. For a decade, the all-female troupe of old school revivalists with a penchant for modern aggression dubbed Burning Witches have been…
Dragon boats breathe fire upon the lands. Getting the job done can mean several different things in the context of crafting quality death metal, be…
One common complaint I often hear leveled at the progressive rock genre is that there isn’t much originality anymore and that many artists’ releases sound…
Harbinger of the apocalypse. Since its mid-80s rise to prominence, the San Francisco Bay Area has staked its claim as the original masters of thrash…
Fifty years ago, a band came out of Weirton, West Virginia (where?!?!?!?!) with an album that was an instant classic. Crack the Sky’s self-titled debut mixed…
Addicted to the Violence is the third record from the helm of System of a Down guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian in tandem with his…
Norwegian Viking/black metal icons Helheim are back with their 12th studio album — a groundbreaking effort that sees the band venture into uncharted territory by…
One of the most persistent myths tied to progressive metal is the notion that a truly unique expression of the subgenre necessarily comes at the…
With 2023’s conceptual The Approbation, Avkrvst instantly revealed themselves as one of today’s most promising new Norwegian prog rock bands. In fact, we championed it…
A vintage soundtrack fit for a tyrant’s funeral For those not living under a rock, the resurgence of thrash metal as a force in the…
“Music holds the secret, to know it can make you whole. It’s not just a game of notes, it’s the sounds inside your soul.” When…
For all of the misgivings that exist around what black metal is (some of which are perpetuated by members of the genre themselves) it is…
Norway’s Gaahls Wyrd returns just in time to blacken your summer with the heartfelt Braiding the Stories. Picking up with 2019’s Gastir – Ghost’s Invited…
I didn’t expect to enjoy an album that went out of its way to incorporate so many of the traits that made much 80s music…
Charlie Robbins, the virtuoso behind Syncatto, returns with Memento, a bold, intricate, and emotionally resonant instrumental journey. Known for his seamless fusion of progressive metal,…
Pennsylvania’s Rivers of Nihil have only been around for about fifteen years, and they’ve released only a handful of albums; however, they’ve already proven to…
It takes a bold band to start off an album with an 18-minute epic. Make no mistake, Magic Pie is audacious. Its new album, Maestro,…
The beast stomps forth yet again. Behemoth has long been an exemplar of innovation, not only insofar as the Polish extreme metal scene is concerned,…
A golden crown rests above a blackened brow. Stylistic evolution can take many forms and occur at varying paces, but it only ever proves successful…
