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!
U.D.O. – We Are One (Album Review)
Ride with the symphonic unity. While the question of which party is truly the heir of the Accept legacy, there has been a growing consensus…
Lonely Robot – Feelings Are Good (Album Review)
“Feelings are good,” a vocoder-soaked John Mitchell tells us at the beginning of Lonely Robot’s fourth album. The sentiment of this album’s title, and its…
Destruction – Born To Thrash: Live In Germany (Album Review)
Thrash till death and rebirth. While there is much to be said for a band getting the job done in the studio, wherein thrash metal…
Fellahin Fall – Tar a-Kan (Album Review)
Do we take for granted our place in time and space when we long for the nostalgic embrace of the past, or stretch our arms…
Tokyo Motor Fist – Lions (Album Review)
With the inevitable heat of summer already making itself at home, there’s few options so tempting as to roll down the windows and embrace the…
Aversions Crown – Hell Will Come For Us All (Album Review)
Technicality and brutality are universal, proven by the consistent brilliance of Australian technical death-core band Aversions Crown. Three full-length albums already to their name, the…
Static-X – Project: Regeneration Vol. 1 (Album Review)
From the ashes of a tragedy arises a modern form of rebirth, and a band is brought back to its feet after an unexpected loss…
Somniate – The Meyrinkian Slumber (Album Review)
The muses which give birth to metal are not confined to the realm of fantasy or science fiction, though the conceptual array of recent releases…
Fatal Fusion – Dissonant Minds (Album Review)
Looking for a coherent mix of classic prog with a modern approach and sound? Look no further, because Fatal Fusion is ready to take care…
Ten Foot Wizard – Out Of Your Mind (Album Review)
“Namaste Dickhead”. Well, Ten Foot Wizard certainly did it. With the opening track (and first single) called that way, and the flamboyant cover of their…
MaelstroM – Of Gods and Men (Album Review)
It’s never too late to pursue one’s dreams, with few better demonstrations than the debut album “Of Gods and Men” from thrash-rooted metal band MaelstroM.…
Dead Tree Seeds – Push The Button (Album Review)
Rediscovering the missing link. Despite the revival of old school thrash metal that was subsequently dubbed the New Wave of Thrash Metal (NWOTM) being the…
Poltergeist – Feather Of Truth (Album Review)
Truth that’s as heavy as a giant, lead feather. Perhaps the greatest pitfall of the ascendency of any art form is that eventually the saturation…
Bloody Heels – Ignite the Sky (Album Review)
The heat of summer has arrived, and with it the eager anticipation for long nights out on the town filled with laughter, drinks, and driving…
Thecodontion – Supercontinent (Album Review)
Who is so bold as to paint the unseen history of the very earth we stand on, or to use the tremendous potential of music…
Powerwolf – Best of the Blessed (Album Review)
Reviewing a compilation album is always tricky business. At first sight, it is not still clear what a particular band is trying to achieve. On…
Magenta – Masters of Illusion (Album Review)
Twenty years into their career finds Magenta returning to their roots. Not that they’ve ever strayed that far beyond prog’s traditional borders to begin with…mastermind…
Goblins Blade – Of Angels And Snakes (Album Review)
More than just falsettos and fantasy quests, the grit from power metal’s origins fearlessly persists into the present day with darker strains peering through shining…
McStine & Minnemann – McStine & Minnemann (Album Review)
When chemistry and inspiration strike, run with it. That was the case for Randy McStine and Marco Minnemann, who had previously met while recording on…
Mike LePond’s Silent Assassins – wh**e Of Babylon (Album Review)
The mother of harlots cometh. It has been widely stipulated that the past two decades have seen the power metal tag is of an all…
Falconer – From A Dying Ember (Album Review)
The bard’s flame never flickers. Few would question the consequential role that Sweden has played in metal music’s ascendancy, but it is often taken for…
Long Distance Calling – How Do We Want to Live? (Album Review)
“Curiosity is a real bastard…bastard…bastard…bastard.” So begins the latest installment from Germany’s Long Distance Calling, and if that’s got you a little confused on what…
Grey Daze – Amends (Album Review)
Subjecting oneself to the bittersweet immersion of nostalgia is not without its pain or its euphoria, particularly when a voice from the past is both…
Nick D’Virgilio – Invisible (Album Review)
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be invisible? Let me tell you man, it ain’t as great as it sounds.” So…
Michael Angelo Batio – More Machine Than Man (Album Review)
The soul of a mighty playing machine. The 80s could rightly be regarded as the decade of the guitar god, and amongst the many heroic…
Kansas – The Absence of Presence (Album Review)
When Kansas returned in 2016 with “The Prelude Implicit”, their first new studio album in 16 years, there likely were a number of dubious members…
Airbag – A Day At The Beach (Album Review)
Cinematic ambient rock might be the most apropos way to describe the soundscapes produced by Norway’s Airbag. Spacious meditations – often focused around dreary themes…
Veio – Vitruvian (Album Review)
Straddling the fine line between alternative rock and progressive metal is Veio, a trio from Portland that has a knack for making anthemic rhythms while…
Smackbound – 20/20 (Album Review)
I’m still an iPod guy. I like having a device fully dedicated to dialing up access to a massive music library without worrying about whether…
Sweet Invention – Streaming Out The Day (EP Review)
Somewhere in the 70s, lodged between Renaissance and Steely Dan, America and Fleetwood Mac, this little nugget from Sweet Invention lay buried. The fact that…
Clint Lowery – Grief & Distance (EP Review)
The result of trapping artists indoors for months at a time was always going to be art in one form or another. Whether the opportunity…
Magnus Karlsson’s Free Fall – We Are The Night (Album Review)
One of the most-anticipated melodic power metal releases of 2020 is finally upon us: Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Allen-Lande, The Ferrymen) brings another Free Fall…
Lamb Of God – Lamb Of God (Album Review)
Introducing the grand eponymous non-debut. There’s a peculiar practice that has been becoming popular of late where veteran metal acts opt to release an eponymous…
Arabs in Aspic – Madness And Magic (Album Review)
The seventh full-length release from Norwegian band Arabs in Aspic, “Madness and Magic” offers songwriting that is both mature and whimsical at the same time,…
Mushroomhead – A Wonderful Life (Album Review)
With a theatrical reputation that often precedes their musical accomplishments, Mushroomhead has consistently balanced an impressive cast of eight or more musicians while pursuing a…
Khemmis – Doomed Heavy Metal (EP Review)
The cool thing about discovering a band through an EP is that the listener gets a sneak peek into what really moves them. And with…