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!
Blackened progressive metal is all the rage these days: the metal scene boasts a growing hunger for ever-greater nuance while still craving the destitute abandon…
Sometimes in the convoluted metal world, a band emerges out of nowhere and starts to build something fresh and exciting upon the foundations of an…
We got those Mississippi blues. The rise and fall of musical trends could be likened to the tides of a mighty ocean, with certain ascendant…
Muddying the water between black metal and post metal, French metallers Vous Autres move to further cement their style and entrench place in extreme music…
Metallic vignettes from the dark side. The one downside to an ever-expanding scene is that pushing the envelope and offering up something truly original becomes…
Progressive futurism begets present greatness. While an unconventional take on things and a thoughtful one on lyrical content have always been the rule in progressive…
In 2018, the progressive and post-metal band The Ocean released “Phanerozoic I: Palaeozic”, an impressive album that was received with huge critical acclaim and initiated a paleontology concept…
It’s a dilemma that doesn’t pop up often but when it does, it can be vexing: How to distinguish between a musical “duo”, an ever-changing…
Where losing becomes winning. It seems that wherein any brand of extreme metal is concerned; all roads seem to lead towards the hardcore scene of…
The plague years have not been kind. The rough, post-industrial landscape of Detroit would seem a fertile breeding ground for the sort of ugly death…
Blinding thrash triumphs with an imperial sense of melody. The revival of old school thrash metal that kicked off soon after the turn of the…
How can a piece of music hold such beauty and impending dread at the same time? For nearly 20 years, Norwegian sextet Gazpacho have excelled…
During the height of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus known as Covid-19, governments around the world called lockdowns and distinguished between essential and non-essential…
A more rustic brand of rocking metal emerges. Some music seeks to move forward, while other purveyors of the art form seek wisdom from the…
Insofar as epic double-LP multi-vocalist story-driven progressive rock concept albums are a genre, Arjen Lucassen reigns as the heavyweight champion of the world, at least…
Today’s trials beget tomorrow’s tears. While nostalgia is usually viewed as an avenue of escape for a more jovial world than the real one, it…
Teutonic rage arrives in Copenhagen. Whenever a discussion about the glory days of thrash metal comes up, Denmark is not often one of the countries…
At the taverns of the mythological kingdom Tiberon, there seems to be only one topic of conversation. Everybody is talking about a strange tale of…
Just shy of a decade ago folk metal was enjoying explosive heyday, excitement abound as once-strange instruments such as the jaw harp and hurdy gurdy…
Welcome to a new liturgical horror. Nostalgia has been a formidable force in defining many of metal’s most recent offerings, regardless of the sub-genre under…
Even eight years after their inception, the lineup of Flying Colors still appears too good to be true: Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, Casey…
An old maiden emerges with some classic iron. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but wherein the primeval origins of heavy metal are…
In the pit, impact is always imminent. Whenever a discussion regarding thrash metal’s ascendancy to mainstream fascination in the late 1980s occurs, one of the…
On Valentine’s Day the world was presented with the barren aural landscapes of Ihsahn’s “Telemark,” the first in a promised duo of EPs that would…
There must be some secret hidden in the ocean-washed cliffsides of Iceland which holds the key to making extreme metal, for though the population of…
Former KISS guitarist, Space Ace Frehley has returned from planet Jendell with a new cover tunes CD titled, “Origins Vol 2.” This is a follow-up…
“Nobody gave you the tools to connect the dots to the God inside of you.” If you’re looking for a soundtrack to connect the dots,…
Thrash metal that crosses over. The latter days of thrash metal’s heyday are riddled with bands that could have rose to greater prominence but ultimately…
On July 11th, 2016, the prog community received bitter news regarding the separation of the now-legendary prog band Beardfish. Since its dissolution, the multi-instrumentalist madman known…
The newest offering from Stryper was born into a polarized world of intolerance, division and political vitriol. Not exactly a welcoming environment for a collection…
Since the release of their debut “All Rise” album in 2018, the boys with the Perfect Plan have enjoyed the waves made by their very…
The storyteller revamps his library. Innovation is an essential tool in keeping things fresh, but there is definitely something to be said for the power…
Hidden treasures come to light. Despite falling out of favor in metal circles due to the excesses that came in the mid-80s and the subsequent…
Let’s thrash in black like its 1985. History has taught many things wherein metal is concerned, but the most pivotal lesson ever conveyed is that…
Singer, storyteller, sound tinkerer and 50% of No-Man, Tim Bowness always knows how to give his listeners one LP-length of time away from all the…
The charred remains of paradise cry out. Given a fairly sparse studio output since their inception in 1995, Melbourne-based progressive metal extraordinaire outfit Vanishing Point…
