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!
Transatlantic – The Absolute Universe (Album Review)
When the world is turned upside down, caught up in a whirlwind, we have to expect that art will follow in suit. As it turns…
Voodoo Circle – Locked & Loaded (Album Review)
Perhaps you have been fortunate enough to see a tribute band live to see them do a better service to their subject matter than the…
Alta Reign – Mother’s Day (Album Review)
Enter the wrath of Mother Nature. The old adage of better late than never has become something of an understatement of late, as a number…
Steven Wilson – The Future Bites (Album Review)
Welcome to the future of Steven Wilson, departing on Track 21 this January. Are you all aboard the train, or did you already get off…
Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella – Crowdless Sessions (Album Review)
They say that confession is good for the soul. So here’s a confession: I really like the music of Melanie Mau and Martin Schnella. It…
Accept – Too Mean To Die (Album Review)
Some folks are just too mean to die, right? For German heavy metal veterans Accept, the title of their upcoming sixteenth studio album isn’t just…
Pitch Black – Death & Disbelief (Album Review)
Accessible thrash begets modern disbelief. Modernity is something of a vague concept when applied to metal, and can be best understood as an assertion of…
The Lickerish Quartet – Threesome Vol. 2 (Album Review)
When last we heard from our boys, The Lickerish Quartet was basking in the sunshine and applause of their first EP—appropriately entitled “Threesome Vol. 1.” …
Amiensus – Abreaction (Album Review)
Epic torrents arise from an unconscious experience. It’s a difficult task, being an American band attempting to hold a candle to the colossal accomplishments of…
Mörk Gryning – Hinsides Vrede (Album Review)
The dawn of a new darkness rising. The 2nd wave of black metal is commonly regarded as a Norwegian phenomenon given the infamy surrounding certain…
Cursed Blood – Taker of Life (Album Review)
Darkness arises from the thrashing depths. The link between death metal and hardcore is not as tenuous as some might suspect, and while the two…
Johansson & Speckmann – The Germs Of Circumstance (Album Review)
The master of yesterday and today. Rogga Johansson is arguably the busiest man in death metal these days, juggling dozens of currently active projects and…
Glacier – The Passing of Time (Album Review)
An arctic blast from American metal’s past. If the prior decade has taught anything, it is that the ebb and flow of trends has a…
Squealer – Insanity (Album Review)
Squeals of insanity permeate the halls. Of all the bands to come raging out of Germany during the height of the European power metal wave…
Lizzy Borden – Best Of Lizzy Borden, Vol. 2 (Album Review)
A proper chronicle of a killer’s exploits. Summing up the career of any iconic act within the span of a single LP seems a fool’s…
Soilwork – A Whisp Of The Atlantic (EP Review)
An ocean of curiosities emerges. Occasionally considered a latecomer to the 90s melodic death craze that came roaring out of Gothenburg, Soilwork has subsequently taken…
Silent Skies – Satellites (Album Review)
There seems to come a point in every artist’s career where they make the choice to bend or break under the weight of increasing ambition.…
Angel Rising – Angel Rising (Album Review)
A very curious new sound is rising. The quest for originality in the metal world has yielded its fair share of oddities, but 2020 may…
Voivod – Lost Machine – Live (Album Review)
Voivod are back! With a history as dramatic and intense as that of the protagonist of their concept albums, these French Canadians now found time…
Iron Mask – Master of Masters (Album Review)
The young master has returned. Greatness is born through tenacity, and few whom rose out of the European power metal scene of the late 90s…
White Walls – Grandeur (Album Review)
Some crowns are less clearly defined. Abstractness has always been a cherished ally of the progressive metal sub-genre, both in lyrical pursuits as well as…
Majestica – A Christmas Carol (Album Review)
As winter draws near and nights grow longer, music lovers are treated to what is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. December rolls…
Iron Savior – Skycrest (Album Review)
Behold the mighty crest of the empyreal. The prowess of a power metal band is most commonly measured in how memorable of a principle hook…
McStine & Minnemann – II (Album Review)
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented music. In July of this most off-the-rails year of 2020, the fresh but extremely experienced duo of Randy McStine and…
Neal Morse – Jesus Christ The Exorcist: Live At Morsefest 2018 (Album Review)
Legendary prog rocker Neal Morse is set to release “Jesus Christ The Exorcist ( Live At Morsefest 2018)”, a new live record that captures the first and only…
Palace – Rock and Roll Radio (Album Review)
Americans fortunate enough to have reached a certain age are familiar with a cherished and yet nigh-endangered lifestyle known as “cruising.” Arising in harmony with…
Vanden Plas – The Ghost Xperiment: Illumination (Album Review)
About a year ago, I reviewed the initial chapter of Vanden Plas’ “The Ghost Xperiment,” and after revisiting what I wrote then about that recording,…
The Unguided – Father Shadow (Album Review)
Anthems sung to a faltering legacy. The story of The Unguided is, if nothing else, and ongoing one when one considers not only the conceptual…
Diamond Head – Lightning To The Nations 2020 (Album Review)
The bygone era now stands reborn. There are many doubled edged swords lain before veteran artists seeking to continue their ongoing journey, but the most…
Plini – Impulse Voices (Album Review)
With the release of 2016’s “Handmade Cities,” Aussie guitarist, Plini, was considered a rising star in the instrumental guitar ranks. With high praise from legend…
Harlott – Detritus Of The Final Age (Album Review)
What remains after the end? The post-apocalyptic setting is a fitting one for airing one’s discontent about the state of the world; hence it’s frequent…
Clutch – The Weathermaker Vault Series Vol. 1 (Album Review)
Clutch’s mission has always been a tough one to accomplish, since their inception: how can a band keep their sound fresh, inspired and forward looking,…
Sodom – Genesis XIX (Album Review)
Where there’s smoke, there’s Blackfire! When it comes to the most vicious end of the thrash metal spectrum, few can claim to have blazed the…
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band – Straight to You Live (Album Review)
It seems like just yesterday that the critics and fans were calling Kenny Wayne Shepherd a “prodigy.” He was just a kid with a big…
East Temple Avenue – Both Sides of Midnight (Album Review)
Did you hear about the new guys on the melodic block? They call themselves East Temple Avenue and come with a fantastic AOR debut album…
Contrarian – Only Time Will Tell (Album Review)
Once more unto the enigmatic breach. Being the new kid on the scene does not preclude one from being fast-tracked to veteran status, even when…