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!
Death Angel – Humanicide (Album Review)
Old wolves know the best tricks. Apocalyptic imagery and thrash metal have been common bedfellows for about as long as the latter has been in…
Pattern-Seeking Animals – Pattern-Seeking Animals (Album Review)
“Once swept away then pulled back to the fight, just a pattern seeking animal caught up in some grand parade.” These lyrics, sung by Ted…
Carthagods – The Monster In Me (Album Review)
Hannibal Barca’s triumphant rebirth. The ever-expanding world of metal expression has time and again proven that it knows no borders, all the while being among…
Neal Morse – Jesus Christ The Exorcist (Album Review)
“What do you think? Who do you say I am?” Ted Leonard may never have imagined that one day he would be portraying Jesus in…
D-A-D – A Prayer For The Loud (Album Review)
When the grunge hurricane hit the music business in the early 90’s, this meant the nemesis for many hard rock bands – some already established,…
Sweet Oblivion – Sweet Oblivion Featuring Geoff Tate (Album Review)
In the last year, we have done quite a bit of coverage of Tony Hernando, and his metal projects Lords of Black and Restless Spirits.…
Thank You Scientist – Terraformer (Album Review)
People will be approaching Terraformer, the third album from Thank You Scientist from a lot of different angles. Of course there will be those who…
Tronos – Celestial Mechanics (Album Review)
Trudging through the metaphysical ether. Shane Embury, best known as the bassist of iconic death/grind pioneers Napalm Death, has been a busy man of late.…
Diamond Head – The Coffin Train (Album Review)
About 40 years ago the NWOBHM was the premier avenue of expression for the British rocker who was either down on his economic luck or…
Possessed – Revelations Of Oblivion (Album Review)
A new classic wrapped in modernized traditionalism. Modern trustees of death metal based brutality may not be familiar the early exploits of its forerunner, San…
SOTO – Origami (Album Review)
The unstoppable Jeff Scott Soto is back with yet another offering of his extremely prolific career. The man has recorded close to 150 albums, and…
Amon Amarth – Berserker (Album Review)
Charging forth in a maddened rage. For the better part of 30 years, Amon Amarth has not only been a pinnacle of consistency within the…
Jordsjø – Nattfiolen (Album Review)
If symphonic folk prog sounds like your cup of tea, Jordsjø are a band to check out. After releasing their debut digital recording, which was…
Big Big Train – Grand Tour (Album Review)
For the past decade, English ensemble Big Big Train has been at the forefront of culturally resonant progressive rock. Sure, their earlier material was certainly…
Allegaeon – Apoptosis (Album Review)
Few bands have earned the respect of their elders while garnering fanatical appeal amongst the younguns like Allegaeon has. Some two-and-a-half years following their breakthrough…
Arch / Matheos – Winter Ethereal (Album Review)
One of the first albums I remember becoming a fan of, was Fates Warning’s A Pleasant Shade of Gray. That record would be an early…
Restless Spirits – Restless Spirits (Album Review)
There are few guitarists who have had more impact on the Euro metal scene in recent years than six-string Spaniard Tony Hernando, most notably for…
Myrath – Shehili (Album Review)
One of the great pleasures of jumping on the Myrath wagon early in their career (I started following them with their 2007 debut) is watching…
Månegarm – Fornaldarsagor (Album Review)
Few can forget the Power Metal resurgence that truly great records like Visions, Return to Heaven Denied, and Glory to the Brave sparked in the…
Lonely Robot – Under Stars (Album Review)
First, the good news: John Mitchell is incredibly prolific, and right on schedule (every other year since 2015,) we are due for another Lonely Robot…
Zonder / Wehrkamp – If It’s Real (Album Review)
If ZW was in grade school, they’d be at the end of the line, based on initials. Or sitting in the back of the classroom. …
Whitesnake – Flesh And Blood (Album Review)
“Ooh my my, you look so fine…I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, c’mon baby shimmer and shake.” So goes another daintily veiled…
Avandra – Descender (Album Review)
Often in life, the greatest works of art are born out of tragedy. The loss of love, the loss of a loved one, acts of…
Archaic Decapitator – The Apothecary (EP Review)
I’ve long maintained that certain genres of popular music exclude bad musicianship by their very nature. These include jazz, country, classical, and metal. There are…
Cosmograf – Mind Over Depth (Album Review)
What turns a prog band to go to the dark side? Sooner or later most of them succumb for at least one album. They may…
Ceremony Of Silence – Oútis (Album Review)
Contemplating the unsilent blackness. One does not normally associate a meditative state with the dissonant rage normally tied to the violent fury of central European…
United Progressive Fraternity – Planetary Overload Part 1: Loss (Album Review)
In rock music, rare are the occasions when a band offers thoughtful lyrics or a message to go along with their music. In the case…
Eluveitie – Ategnatos (Album Review)
Celtic lore and mighty mountain heights. Over the past couple decades there has been a fair degree of tribute paid to Celtic culture among various…
Shallow Side – Saints & Sinners (Album Review)
If you were born no later than 1985, you might remember a time when there was still intelligent life in rock-pop music. Bands like The…
Mägo De Oz – Ira Dei (Album Review)
Once more down the yellow brick road. There is a fine line between genius and insanity, or so the old adage goes, and few names…
Jordan Rudess – Wired For Madness (Album Review)
To anyone in the progressive music community, Jordan Rudess needs no introduction. Having joined Dream Theater as a full-time keyboard player in 1999, he’s spent…
Jon Anderson – 1000 Hands: Chapter One (Album Review)
Jon Anderson’s solo career has been reborn and reborn again throughout his career. From mystic prog to folk to rock to pop to new age…
Musket Hawk – Upside Of Sick (Album Review)
Nola comes to Maryland. The outer fringes of metal’s extremities are noted for their pungent aroma of mental and physical decay, like a marshy moat…
West Of Hell – Blood Of The Infidel (Album Review)
Holy war for the modern age. Though the metal world has been an ever-expanding one since the year of its inception, in recent years it…
Battle Beast – No More Hollywood Endings (Album Review)
From rivalry, improvement is born. Music is not something that you can just quit, according to the 1992 Beethoven Lives Upstairs depiction of said legendary…
Lance King – ReProgram (Album Review)
When a musician likens their spiritual beliefs and world outlook to “Jedi,” they are welcome to my attention straightaway. Prog and power metal vocalist extraordinaire…