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!
Wolfheart – Skull Soldiers (EP Review)
The Winter War’s skull-clad addendum strikes. Tuomas Saukkonen has been a busy man since his tenure with early 2000s Gothic-tinged melodeath stalwarts Before The Dawn…
Dio – Holy Diver Live (Album Review)
Let all reminisce upon a colossal legacy. Fully quantifying the legacy of any artist is a daunting task, let alone one that was a party…
Saxon – Inspirations (Album Review)
If there’s one positive thing to draw from this pandemic, it’s the fact that bands were driven to be even more creative to keep fans…
Heart Healer – The Metal Opera by Magnus Karlsson (Album Review)
The prodigious and productive powerhouse Magnus Karlsson remains as busy as ever. Perhaps best known as one of the two ferocious axe-slingers in power metal…
Lifesigns – Altitude (Album Review)
Lifesigns is one of those fortunate bands who seem to effortlessly make fans for life. The challenge before the group is not so much about…
Dio – Evil Or Divine: Live In New York City (Album Review)
The epic battle of Murray and Evil revisited. More than a decade since one of the founding fathers of heavy metal departed this world to…
Sirenia – Riddles, Ruins & Revelations (Album Review)
Enter the revitalized Gothic Vikings! The lovelorn laments of Scandinavia’s Gothic metal scene were all the rage by the closing days of the 1990s when…
Downes Braide Association – Halcyon Hymns (Album Review)
Nostalgic reveries can offer a life-line after a year such as we’ve endured. If you’re needing a little pick-me-up to inspire better times, be they…
Joseph Williams – Denizen Tenant (Album Review)
As referenced in my recent review of Steve Lukather’s “I Found the Sun Again,” the long battered but not-sunk-yet ship of Toto has seen rough…
Human Fortress – Epic Tales & Untold Stories (Album Review)
Open the chronicles of a bygone past. Heroism is a concept that has been associated with power metal for about as long as the sub-genre…
Evergrey – Escape Of The Phoenix (Album Review)
Evergrey have long shifted between the shadows and the spotlight of progressive metal, a near mythical sensation with a steadily growing discography. Their appeal is…
Steve Lukather – I Found The Sun Again (Album Review)
In the fall of 2019, Toto completed the run of its “40 Trips Around the Sun” tour, which was a victory lap celebrating the “All…
Epica – Omega (Album Review)
A tremendous feeling of joy and relief. That’s what I went through upon listening “Omega” for the first time. Epica were always a huge part…
Arc of Life – Arc of Life (Album Review)
Arc Of Life is the new band from current Yes members Billy Sherwood and Jon Davison, with Jay Schellen (Yes’ unofficial touring drummer), Jimmy Haun…
Inglorious – We Will Ride (Album Review)
Inglorious continues with their impressive productive streak by releasing “We Will Ride” on February 12th, the fourth studio album in their discography after forming back in…
Everdawn – Cleopatra (Album Review)
The Queen of Egypt embraces a new dawn. Following what could be best described as a less than amicable split between the majority membership of…
MEER – Playing House (Album Review)
When you discover a new favorite band, you want to shout their name from the rooftops. One of the perks of being a music journalist…
Tragedy In Hope – Sleep Paralysis (Album Review)
Plunge into the chaotic and disparate depths of a waking nightmare with “Sleep Paralysis,” the debut album from Russian black metal project Tragedy In Hope.…
Fernando Perdomo – TRGTR (Album Review)
Wait a minute – you say Todd Rundgren has been cranking out great music for some 53 years?!?!?! How can that be? It seems like…
Foo Fighters – Medicine At Midnight (Album Review)
Legendary rock band Foo Fighters decided to no longer postpone the release of “Medicine At Midnight”, their upcoming tenth studio album, choosing February 5th to finally unveil…
Trial – Sisters Of The Moon (EP Review)
The moon makes for a pale and lighter sound. While some have been wont to dismiss the revival of old school heavy metal that has…
Todd La Torre – Rejoice In The Suffering (Album Review)
A cause to rejoice, and then some. Though best known for being the current vocalist of Seattle heavy metal icons Queensryche, and to a lesser…
Hell-Born – Natas Liah (Album Review)
Backwards titles beget primordial blackness. If the Scandinavian interpretation of the black metal aesthetic can be understood as the pinnacle of coldness, then its Polish…
Harakiri For The Sky – Mӕre (Album Review)
With four full-length albums now behind them, the fifth studio outing from Harakiri For The Sky makes obvious that the duo have honed their creative…
Bloodletter – Funeral Hymns (Album Review)
Too fast for the typical macabre dirge. Generally when one associates metal music with the funeral setting, slow-paced and sorrowful odes within the doom aesthetic…
Labÿrinth – Welcome To The Absurd Circus (Album Review)
As much as I value experimentation, I must also recognize that some outfits are simply better off focusing on what they do well. Italy’s Labÿrinth…
Soen – Imperial (Album Review)
Just two years after the release of “Lotus”, the remarkable album which elevated Soen to greater heights within the modern prog-metal world, the Swedish metal group…
Asphyx – Necroceros (Album Review)
Even necrosis can take on a traditional character. When it comes to good old fashioned death metal in all its gory goodness, the name Asphyx…
Need – Norchestrion: A Song for the End (Album Review)
Need didn’t exactly burst onto the scene with 2017’s “Hegaiamas: A Song for Freedom,” but they sure as shit turned a lot of heads. It…
Steve Hackett – Under A Mediterranean Sky (Album Review)
In order to provide a thorough overview of Steve Hackett’s new album – the all-acoustic “Under A Mediterranean Sky” – we spoke with Steve himself…
Therion – Leviathan (Album Review)
The Great Beast known as Therion has been around for a very long time, leaving a solid mark within the metal world. Commanded by leader and…
W.E.T. – Retransmission (Album Review)
Let’s just cut to the chase; the fourth release from W.E.T. will be one of the most important rock records of 2021. While the first…
Dread Sovereign – Alchemical Warfare (Album Review)
Medieval pursuits of virology commence. Being original doesn’t necessitate reinventing the wheel. In fact, bringing some freshness into the equation could consist in simply doing…
Ominous Glory – The Elven Dream (Album Review)
It seems that power metal acts will forever chase the halcyon days first ushered in by European bands in the late 90s, dipping deep into…
The Dead Daisies – Holy Ground (Album Review)
The year is 2015. Glenn Hughes is doing a string of solo dates as a trio, with Doug Aldrich on guitars and Pontus Engborg on…
Winterage – The Inheritance of Beauty (Album Review)
When contemplating Italian bands in the power and symphonic metal sphere, there are a number with claims to fame, not least of all the legendary…