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!
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…
My Dying Bride – Macabre Cabaret (EP Review)
Dinner theater held for the moribund. Adversity can often bring out the best in any artist, but this truism would be seem to apply even…
Tombs – Under Sullen Skies (Album Review)
Having first emerged from Brooklyn’s underbelly in the midst of 2007, Tombs has since blossomed beyond the shadows of the underground for a place at…
Communic – Hiding From The World (Album Review)
A sequestered treasure now revealed. Like a fine wine, some projects just take time to reach their ultimate potential, and the case of one of…
Dream Theater – Distant Memories: Live in London (Album Review)
We all knew this wasn’t going to be just another live release by Dream Theater. Fans of the progressive metal giants have been eagerly waiting…
Dark Tranquillity – Moment (Album Review)
In this moment, coldness prevails. Often viewed as a contradiction by many in the broader death metal fan base, melodic death metal has proven a…
LUNA13 – God.Dis (Album Review)
Reinvention is the essence of evolution, leading to a seemingly endless array of subgenres that continue to shift in spirit and grow in scope as…
iamthemorning – Counting the Ghosts (EP Review)
When an artist mentions “Special thanks to 2020 for being finally over” in the album credit acknowledgements, you know it’s been a tough year. Obviously…
Blood Of Angels – Failure Of Faith (Album Review)
Faithlessness begets cynicism. The Latvian-based Sliptrick Records has been fairly active in scooping up unconventional acts from both sides of the Atlantic of late, and…
Death Dealer – Conquered Lands (Album Review)
The undead pharaoh lays his worldwide claim. Despite his auspicious tenure with Manowar having ended more than 30 years ago, metal veteran and shred-machine Ross…
Phil Campbell And The Bastards Sons – We Are The Bastards (Album Review)
Keep your eyes and ears opened, and you will find a million ways to transform your life. In the case of Phil Campbell, that saying…
The Cyberiam – Forging Nations LIVE! (Album Review)
New band discoveries are always a welcome treat for any dedicated music fan. In recent years there have been no shortage of fresh sounds emanating…
Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron (Album Review)
We live in times where we can discover new music and artists on a daily (or even hourly) basis, with new bands coming up every…
Pyramaze – Epitaph (Album Review)
A memorial statement begets a legacy. The willow tree is a fascinating specimen that is arguably analogous to the very concept of death and rebirth.…
Them – Return To Hemmersmoor (Album Review)
The riffs belong to them. It is said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but some of the growing crop of recently formed…
Reb Beach – A View From The Inside (Album Review)
Richard Earl Beach, better known as “REB” to friends and fans alike, continues to be one of the scariest and most underrated talents in the…
Jeff Scott Soto – Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) (Album Review)
Now entering the final phase of the strangest, most difficult, and different year humanity has lived in a very long time, it is consoling to…
Scardust – Strangers (Album Review)
Estranged from all binding limitations. Progression does not necessarily consist in discovering something wholly unknown, and more often than not great feats in progressive metal…
Evildead – United $tate$ Of Anarchy (Album Review)
Unrest begets high-grade thrash. Though considered something of a fringe player in the later part of thrash metal’s heyday, Evildead made an impressive showing in…
Draconian – Under A Godless Veil (Album Review)
The veil obscures a sorrowful estate. Perhaps the only way to truly market the ugliness of death metal to a wider audience without robbing it…
Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night (Album Review)
I got into Fates Warning a little late in the day, but considering that I’m a child of the alternative era, I think I can…
Mors Principium Est – Seven (Album Review)
Death’s draining grasp upon the world endures. If there was one distinctive feature of Finland’s millennial answer to the Gothenburg question, apart from a greater…
Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (Album Review)
Having first emerged in the jaws of thrash and steeped in death, Mr. Bungle fell silent in 1999 after three full-length albums. Their debut was…
Black Stone Cherry – The Human Condition (Album Review)
It is overwhelming the number of interesting concepts that human beings can get attracted to in order to learn about them. From the infinity of…
Intervals – Circadian (Album Review)
November is a great month for new releases if you enjoy progressive guitar instrumentals. Two of the brightest stars in the genre are releasing new…
The Troops Of Doom – The Rise Of Heresy (EP Review)
The troops return to their morbid past. With the Cavalera brothers continuing to conspire for a modernized take on their craft and the remnant of…
Carcass – Despicable (EP Review)
This is how you cut it in the metal industry. It is said that a tiger never changes its stripes, but in extreme metal circles…
Pallbearer – Forgotten Days (Album Review)
A procession graced by impressionism. Doom metal has come a long way since the early 70s when Black Sabbath first translated the atmosphere and aesthetic…
Lords of Black – Alchemy of Souls, Part I (Album Review)
In May 2018, when we reviewed the previous Lords of Black album, “Icons of the New Days,” we were rather stunned by the impressive showing…
Leaves’ Eyes – The Last Viking (Album Review)
Twilight falls upon the Viking age. Conceptual storytelling has always been one of metal’s many fortes, and while this art of merging an album’s worth…
Jon Gomm – The Faintest Idea (Album Review)
The tunings and technique of Michael Hedges. The percussive attack of Preston Reed. And a voice approaching Eric Johnson. If you haven’t got The Faintest…
Lord Almighty – Wither (Album Review)
Nature is the ultimate killer. Contemplating the natural world, including in its most fearsome manifestations, is not a new thing within black metal circles, but…
Sevendust – Blood & Stone (Album Review)
Long popular for their consistency and quality approach to heavy music, Grammy-nominated Sevendust have steadily persisted for the better part of 25 years, accumulating twelve…
The Flower Kings – Islands (Album Review)
No band is an island. Especially when it comes to modern progressive rock, influences from the 60s and 70s are ubiquitous. In the case of…
Yatra – All Is Lost (Album Review)
Vikings rise from the sludgy depths. When musing over the happenings of the Viking Age or the broader realm of the fantastical, if images of…
Benediction – Scriptures (Album Review)
Returning to the olden creeds. Perhaps best known for its pioneering work in the grindcore field, the British extreme metal scene nevertheless fielded a small…