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!
Tombs – Monarchy of Shadows (EP Review)
There’s much to be appreciated in an EP that is both concise and satisfying, a concentrated form of expression that doesn’t bother to stuff itself…
The Night Flight Orchestra – Aeromantic (Album Review)
Normally, the first few lines of an album review are fertile soil for some rock-and-roll philosophy, or irony, or witticisms, or some old-fashioned rock history.…
Lorna Shore – Immortal (Album Review)
Even those beings made of darkness can seek out the light, and even shadows can steal glimpses of sun. A temperance of light among the…
The Neal Morse Band – The Great Adventour – Live in Brno 2019 (Album Review)
Mike Portnoy recently commented that although he had widely proclaimed “The Similitude of A Dream” to be the crowning achievement of Neal Morse’s discography, he…
Orphans Of Doom – II (Album Review)
Two times the power, half the waiting. The dank and mud-ridden world that is the American sludge scene has welcomed a fair number of up…
Nili Brosh – Spectrum (Album Review)
It may be physically impossible for one to travel from the smooth, white-sand beaches of Spain to the dark, neon-accented warmth of a New York…
Biff Byford – School Of Hard Knocks (Album Review)
When one resides outside a given nation or region of the world, it can sometimes be difficult to properly appreciate the cultural divides found within.…
Izthmi – The Arrows of Our Ways (Album Review)
There are few ways so apt to express disillusionment with the state of the world than poetry steeped in the darkness of doom, made all…
Demons & Wizards – III (Album Review)
Long sabbaticals beget stronger sorcery. Though often referred to affectionately as “Iced Guardian” by their fans, no doubt in acknowledgement to the iconic bands from…
Polaris – The Death of Me (Album Review)
There is a certain magic in watching bands that had thrived in the underground for years rocket to stardom practically overnight. This effect is particularly…
Isle of the Cross – Excelsis (Album Review)
Some of the best attempts at genre-bending metal occur when artists balance the strengths of wildly different sub-genres to create a sound that draws evenly…
Pendragon – Love Over Fear (Album Review)
Having recently celebrated their 40th Anniversary, Pendragon are one of the few bands of progressive rock’s second wave to have persevered and weathered the changes…
Kreator – London Apocalypticon: Live At The Roundhouse (Album Review)
The Teutonic apocalypse comes to London. Perhaps the only subject more interesting than headlining act making major waves while on tour is the history of…
Seven Spires – Emerald Seas (Album Review)
In a genre where breaking conventions is the status quo, there is a refreshing light in storytellers that embrace musical conventions as their core, and…
Archon Angel – Fallen (Album Review)
Marley was dead, to begin with. So too, sadly, was Paul O’Neill, and Savatage with him. While Savatage may survive the loss of one or…
Mariana Semkina – Sleepwalking (Album Review)
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. So it seemed to be for iamthemorning’s Marjana Semkina (henceforth spelled as Mariana, to be in-line…
Ihsahn – Telemark (EP Review)
He sits poised, stiff posture imposing within the commanding might of a pitch black throne. His face rests impassive, the cold, sharp features even more…
Richie Kotzen – 50 For 50 (Album Review)
It’s his birthday and he can release a triple-album if he wants to. Richie Kotzen knows how to celebrate a 50th birthday and gift his…
Black Swan – Shake The World (Album Review)
The concept of the super-group, while not new, has evolved a bit since it was dabbled with in the 60s and 70s. From Cream to…
Thoren – Gwarth II (Album Review)
Progressive death metal can take many forms, and Thoren proves that there is no need to stifle extremity in the pursuit of the progressive. In…
Moon Reverie – Moon Reverie (Album Review)
“Reverie” is defined as “a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing.” Neoclassical hard rock band Moon Reverie is lined up to release their self-titled…
RavenWord – Transcendence (Album Review)
In a world rich with the indulgent majesty of symphonic power metal, the fight for a sliver of an already crowded spotlight is one wrought…
Sylosis – Cycle of Suffering (Album Review)
Anger comes in many forms. There’s the beastly and primitive blind rage, an all-consuming anger that desires to leave nothing but devastation in its wake.…
Sepultura – Quadra (Album Review)
Invisible borders bind us all. Not unlike the bulk of iconic bands associated with the original thrash metal explosion of the 80s, Brazil’s own Sepultura…
Godsticks – Inescapable (Album Review)
Hailing from South Wales, U.K., Godsticks are a three-piece progressive heavy rock band whose music has frequently been described as imaginative and original. Their musical…
Mark Morton – Ether (EP Review)
Apparently Lamb of God’s Mark Morton doesn’t want us to think his incredibly poignant and well-received 2019 debut solo album “Anesthetic” was a one-off affair.…
Blue Oyster Cult – Cult Classic / Hard Rock Live Cleveland 2014 (Albums Review)
I have a history with Blue Oyster Cult. I bought their first album when it came out in ’72. The lyrics were quirky, the riffs…
Passion – Passion (Album Review)
While some of our favorite glam and metal acts unfortunately did not survive the heavy metal holocaust of the 1990s, many others did either hang…
Midnight – Rebirth by Blasphemy (Album Review)
Once relegated to the underground, blackened speed metal band Midnight are unafraid to introduce themselves in both style and spirit on just released album “Rebirth…
Lordi – Killection (Album Review)
Hell is live on rock radio. Though they are often compared to the original American prognosticators of all things theatrical and over-the-top Gwar, Finland’s costumed…
Hazzerd – Delirium (Album Review)
There are rarely bands so full of youthful energy as Calgary-based thrash act Hazzerd, who are bursting at the seams with the newest wave of…
Defiled – Infinite Regress (Album Review)
Though they may come from the land of the rising sun, the death metal masters of Defiled bring nothing but darkness and technically adept brutality…
Jorn – Heavy Rock Radio II: Executing the Classics (Album Review)
His voice is one that conjures up visions of soaring majesty and indomitable strength, iconic in its all-encompassing presence throughout rock and metal over the…
Dirty Shirley – Dirty Shirley (Album Review)
If you are under the impression that Mister Scary himself peaked sometime around “Beast From The East” in 1988, we have two things to say…
Nektar – The Other Side (Album Review)
The first wave of prog-rock sometimes proves surprisingly tenacious. When a band reaches the 50 year mark, any remaining original members are inevitably reaching their…
Wormhole – The Weakest Among Us (Album Review)
Samus crushes the Mother Brain again. While the previous decade saw a fair number of older stylistic expressions of metal continue to bask in the…