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!
Steel Panther – Heavy Metal Rules (Album Review)
Love them or hate them, Steel Panther are hard to miss. Formed as Metal Shop (soon changed into Metal Skool), these Californians seem determined to…
Elvenking – Reader of the Runes – Divination (Album Review)
Where the runes of power metal speak While most of the early adherents of the folk metal craze were either obsessed with the exploits of…
Freedom Call – M.E.T.A.L. (Album Review)
Metal never dies: the musical. It’s impossible to have a conversation about the power metal revival of the early millennial era without Freedom Call receiving…
Tool – Fear Inoculum (Album Review)
Tool fans have earned the ultimate award of patience: 13 years separate 10,000 Days from the band newest album Fear Inoculum which drops tomorrow. But…
KLONE – Le Grand Voyage (Album Review)
Welcome to Le Grand Voyage, the 8th album from the French atmospheric outfit called Klone. While the metal world may be somewhat familiar with Klone…
Killswitch Engage – Atonement (Album Review)
Forgiveness favors the ambitious. The U.S. metalcore scene has seen some rough times since the end of the previous decade. Whether it was due to…
Inferi – The End Of A Era: Rebirth (Album Review)
Revamped and often revitalized. Though generally regarded as an afterthought when compared to the pioneering figures of the Gothenburg scene, the American melodic death metal…
Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion – Parallel Life (Album Review)
When Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion released their debut album Future Past in 2010, it was an unexpected revelation as one of the year’s top…
Visions Of Atlantis – Wanderers (Album Review)
Austrian coed-metal act Visions of Atlantis has been through a lot. With six studio albums since 2002, several lineup changes (including the sad death of…
Bryan Beller – Scenes From The Flood (Album Review)
Fortunate is the artist who is able to realize a vision successfully into finished form. All the more-so when that vision contains a diverse and…
Moron Police – A Boat on the Sea (Album Review)
How weird is this? Two of the best progressive-rock albums of 2019 come out of Norway. Both bands have the initials “MP.” Both are powerful,…
Sacred Reich – Awakening (Album Review)
Thrash Van Winkle. Though now considered a bygone era to a generation that has seen the resurgence of denim vested madmen riffing out at breakneck…
Tarja – In The Raw (Album Review)
This month marks a historic milestone in metal; Tarja Turunen, the Flower of Finland, the Siren of Suomi, will have five solo rock albums to…
Sons of Apollo – Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony (Album Review)
Sons Of Apollo are one of the biggest success stories of the past two years in the progressive rock world. The combination of vocalist Jeff…
Twilight Force – Dawn Of The Dragonstar (Album Review)
A dragon’s light burns the brightest. If there was a single band that could pointed out as taking the fantasy-based side of power metal to…
Soleil Moon – Warrior (Album Review)
In twenty years, adult contemporary artist Soleil Moon has only had two album releases, so it is a momentous occasion for the band when a…
Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind (Album Review)
I can vividly remember when I discovered Slipknot. Growing up on classic 80’s rock n’ roll, then eventually transitioning into more hard rock cuts like…
The Contortionist – Our Bones (Album Review)
One common complaint about the djent sound is that many of the singers borrow too heavily from the emo resurgence of the mid 2000s. In…
Savage Messiah – Demons (Album Review)
Melodic savagery reigns supreme. Despite the rumors in the online “critical world” of the 2000s retro-thrash revival being D.O.A. for the better part of a…
Hatriot – From Days Unto Darkness (Album Review)
Like father, like sons. Though not counted among the so-called Big 4, Exodus is a name that is synonymous with thrash metal, going all the…
iamthemorning – The Bell (Album Review)
It’s incredibly difficult as a music fan, much less a critic, to not judge a book by its cover, so to speak. The good news,…
John 5 And The Creatures – Invasion (Album Review)
To paraphrase the Honorable Judge Alvin “J.P.” Valkenheiser, this album is one hopped-up wh**e of a good time, much like a ride on “Mister Bonestripper”…
Hammerfall – Dominion (Album Review)
Another storm rages from the blacksmith’s forge. For those who remember the resurrection that heavy metal experienced in the late 1990s in Europe, the name…
Destruction – Born To Perish (Album Review)
2019 has been a great year for thrash metal fans, with a multitude of releases hitting the virtual and physical shelves recently: Death Angel, Overkill, …
Richard Henshall – The Cocoon (Album Review)
When the principal mastermind behind progressive metal juggernaut Haken announced a solo venture, the news made big waves in the music world. Haken guitarist and…
Magic Pie – Fragments of the 5th Element (Album Review)
So I’m writing a review of the new album by Magic Pie, and I figure I should be clever. The Pie is tasty, a confection,…
Carnifex – World War X (Album Review)
Formed in 2005 in San Diego County, California, metallers Carnifex has undergone several lineup changes and slight shifts in musical direction. Through the years, they…
Dying Gorgeous Lies – The Hunter And The Prey (Album Review)
The slow talon grasps the deepest. Despite the still ongoing trend in thrash metal circles to attempt and recapture that vintage 80s Bay Area, New…
Mind Key – MK III – Aliens In Wonderland (Album Review)
While it would be ideal to pretend like the music industry is a nonstop party of the fresh and vivacious, the naked reality is that…
Sabaton – The Great War (Album Review)
Trench warfare with a melody. One can scarcely utter a word concerning European power metal outside of its most rigorously schooled core audience without Sabaton…
Majesty – Legends (Album Review)
Heroes can often wear two uniforms. Though a great many of the younger guard of the power metal revolution of the millennial transition saw their…
Iron Savior – Kill Or Get Killed (Album Review)
Let the cosmic bombardment commence! Piet Sielck’s flagship project and Sci-Fi infused power/speed metal powerhouse has seen its fair share of trials and tribulations over…
Lord Dying – Mysterium Tremendum (Album Review)
A darker twist on an epic tale. Although sludge has typically made its home in the sweltering swamps of Louisiana, there is a certain character…
The Aristocrats – You Know What? (Album Review)
Anyone reading this review has likely been following one or any combination of the members of The Aristocrats for a number of years, and likely…
Brighteye Brison – V (Album Review)
If the fifth album from Brighteye Brison seemed like it was a long time coming, well, that’s because it was. Fortunately, the band was recently…
The Gift – Antenna (Album Review)
“We Are Connected.” That’s the kick-off track from Antenna, the new album by Brit proggers The Gift. But it’s also something of a status update;…