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!
Helloween – Helloween (Album Review)
What pumpkins have united, let none tear asunder. For those with any degree of familiarity with power metal, whether it is the European variant alone…
One Desire – One Night Only: Live in Helsinki (Album Review)
Andre’ Linman is sorry. Sorry for the lack of rehearsal. Sorry that the crowd size is limited by the pandemic quarantine. Sorry they played two…
Mr. Bungle – The Night They Came Home (Album Review)
No bungling to be found here. If Conan the Cimmerian’s life quest was to solve the riddle of steel, then the equivalent endeavor of the…
Mammoth WVH – Mammoth WVH (Album Review)
June 11 sees the release of the much anticipated debut of Mammoth WVH. The band is obviously comprised of one single element, Wolfgang Van Halen…
Evership – The Uncrowned King – Act 1 (Album Review)
Over fifty years after the British Invasion, American progressive rock bands are still relatively few and far between compared to those hailing from other shores.…
Evile – Hell Unleashed (Album Review)
Hell has officially boiled over. If there was one criticism of the thrash metal revival of the 2000s that continues to recur in both polite…
Styx – Crash Of The Crown (Album Review)
Any review of new music from Styx must first deal with the inevitable reality that Dennis DeYoung is gone. He’s left the building. And he’s…
Desaster – Churches Without Saints (Album Review)
Thrash permeates the unrelenting blackness. There is something to be said for subtlety when it comes to extreme metal and the sense of horror it…
Rise Against – Nowhere Generation (Album Review)
Rise Against been at the forefront of the mainstream punk rock scene for the better part of two decades, rocketing to fame following breakout album…
Rhapsody of Fire – I’ll Be Your Hero (EP Review)
A thunder clap before the mighty storm arrives. It is difficult to carry on even the shortest of conversations regarding power metal’s symphonic sub-style without…
Hellryder – The Devil Is A Gambler (Album Review)
The infernal casino is a heavy place. Sometimes old dogs like to revert back to old tricks, though in the case of Grave Digger front…
Atreyu – Baptize (Album Review)
In the great mixing pot of early-2000s heavy music emerged Atreyu, borrowing from metal, punk, and even pop for a sound that was both unyieldingly…
Bloodbound – Creatures Of The Dark Realm (Album Review)
Orcs arise from the decrepit depths. Popular fascination tends to follow bands that match a consistent yet novel style with a common lyrical trope. However,…
Red Fang – Arrows (Album Review)
The American stoner rock and metal scene has grown from an amorphous mist to something of a prolific beast, roping in influences from doom and…
Burning Witches – The Witch Of The North (Album Review)
The coven summons a formidable frost. One could view the past year as lost time, as a bleak era where live music was few and…
Stormruler – Under The Burning Eclipse (Album Review)
Blackened flames scorch the sky. The U.S. black metal scene has long been the Rodney Dangerfield of its adopted sub-genre; it gets virtually no respect…
Karmamoi – Room 101 (Album Review)
After delivering the critically acclaimed “The Day is Done” in 2018, the Italian prog rock trio Karmamoi is set to release its fifth album entitled “Room 101” on May 28th, 2021.…
Cirith Ungol – Half Past Human (EP Review)
Lost treasures come to light. Over the past decade the metal scene has been fairly preoccupied with getting back to the good old days, which…
Flotsam and Jetsam – Blood In The Water (Album Review)
The sea runs red amidst the debris. Few shadows cast as wide as that of a former member of the fold exiting and going on…
Perturbator – Lustful Sacraments (Album Review)
Synthwave artist James “Perturbator” Kent has been making waves in the electronic music scene for the better part of a decade, the momentum from his…
Various Artists – Metal Massacre XV (Album Review)
A grand metal traditional continues on. Though it may seem like a relic from a bygone era, the practice of putting out various artist compilations…
White Moth Black Butterfly – The Cost of Dreaming (Album Review)
White Moth Black Butterfly (WMBB) classify themselves as a “contemporary pop project with progressive and experimental music at its heart”. A very appropriate categorization of…
Silver Lake by Esa Holopainen (Album Review)
A year of lockdowns and isolation is bound to lead towards innovation, especially for artists who are used to playing live gigs and traveling the…
Vulture – Dealin’ Death (Album Review)
Horror tropes delivered with kinetic precision. The thrash metal revival often dubbed the NWOTM has been chugging along for almost 20 years now, and is…
Jeff Kollman – East of Heaven (Album Review)
When it comes to impressive resumes in the world of guitar, Jeff Kollman is right up there with the best of them. Logging time alongside…
VOLA – Witness (Album Review)
The progressive Danish-Sweden quartet known as Vola has deservedly made a name for itself within the progressive scene with the help of its first two albums. In…
Myles Kennedy – The Ides Of March (Album Review)
The horizons continue to broaden. While the jury is out on whether or not Myles Kennedy is the busiest man in rock at present, he…
Signum Regis – Flag Of Hope (EP Review)
The banner continues to fly. Few subjects define the power metal sub-genre as completely as a grand crusade waged by a legion of plate-armor toting…
Kardashev – The Baring Of Shadows (Album Review)
Innovation is the lifeblood of any art form, without it we wither and die, but there are times when one wonders just how far originality…
Todd Michael Hall – Sonic Healing (Album Review)
With so many naysayers out there declaring that rock is dead and in need of a proper eulogy, one might rightly assume that the world…
Pop Evil – Versatile (Album Review)
The titanic Michigan-based hard rockers Pop Evil have remained active and ambitious, both on tour and with studio albums, since their 2008 debut “Lipstick on…
Artillery – X (Album Review)
Thrash reaches 10 on the intricacy scale. Of all the consequential acts to come raging out of the mid-80s thrash metal scene, Artillery was among…
Jordsjø – Pastoralia (Album Review)
The Norway Invasion of prog just keeps on delivering its relentless onslaught of high-quality material. Among the ever-growing number of talented bands releasing new albums,…
Motörhead – Louder Than Noise…Live In Berlin (Album Review)
The Teutonic roof has officially been raised. Letting go of the past can be a difficult thing in and of itself, but when it is…
Frost* – Day and Age (Album Review)
Maybe it’s global warming at play but things seem to be heating up for Frost*. Over fifteen years, three albums and one EP into their…
Subterranean Masquerade – Mountain Fever (Album Review)
Count Subterranean Masquerade as one of the many bands who’d been on my radar for years who, despite having very strong ties to Green Carnation…