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!
Starbreaker – Dysphoria (Album Review)
Tony Harnell (ex-TNT) has a signature voice and stratospheric range that is both distinctive and dominating on the material he appears on. A case could…
Malevolent Creation – The 13th Beast (Album Review)
Unlucky are they whom challenge this beast. Death metal is an art form that is undaunted by incidents of the former half of its name…
Fernando Perdomo – Out to Sea 2 (Album Review)
If ever there was an artist whose ship you can actually see coming in, it’s Fernando Perdomo. A man of innumerable musical lives, Perdomo came…
Rotting Christ – The Heretics (Album Review)
I have a love/hate relationship with concept albums. One one hand, a set of thematically unified songs appeals to my love of storytelling, particularly when…
Avantasia – Moonglow (Album Review)
Avantasia – the all-star rock opera spaceship piloted by Edguy singer, songwriter and producer Tobias Sammet – began as a side project by Tobias, who…
Voices From The Fuselage – Odyssey II: The Founder of Dreams (Album Review)
We’re living in an unprecedented era in music. There is more to be found than ever before, and more to be heard, and more new…
King Diamond – Songs For the Dead Live (Album Review)
King Diamond, one of the most controversial and divisive metal singers to appear since the term “heavy metal” was coined in the 60’s, is back…
Flotsam and Jetsam – The End of Chaos (Album Review)
Penning your newest album as ‘self-titled’ over 30 years into your musical career is undoubtedly interpreted as a statement, one that is arguably unavoidable in…
Steve Hackett – At the Edge of Light (Album Review)
Like Peter Gabriel before him, Steve Hackett has become a World Music Ambassador. While the guitar maestro has confidently released an unabashedly strong rock album…
Altitudes & Attitude – Get it Out (Album Review)
In the thrash world, and across the metal community at large, there exists a square of pillars known as the Big Four. The comprising entities…
In Continuum – Acceleration Theory, Part I: AlienA (Album Review)
The past half decade has been quite an adventure for keyboardist, vocalist, composer, producer, and all-around you-name-it Dave Kerzner. Though he has been jamming with…
The Neal Morse Band – The Great Adventure (Album Review)
Considered by many to be one of the most skilled composers and performers in today’s progressive rock scene, despite being unfairly bashed by critics in…
Gama Bomb – Speed Between The Lines (Album Review)
Mosh like you mean it, bitches! Thrash metal has never been big on the concept of subtlety, and if Gama Bomb’s latest studio offering is…
Evergrey – The Atlantic (Album Review)
In 2001, I wrote the following about Evergrey: “… This band may very well save Progressive Metal from dwindling into mediocrity. This band has taken…
Arion – Life Is Not Beautiful (Album Review)
Link has grown cynical these days. Though likely a complete coincidence, one can’t help but notice the striking similarity in appearance that the lone protagonist…
Skull Pit – Skull Pit (Album Review)
Old skeletons with a shiny new casket. For all the implicit imagery of skeletons and the common idiom of them dwelling in a person’s closet…
Brainstorm – Midnight Ghost (Album Review)
The terrors of midnight play it safe. When any band reaches veteran status, a certain degree of reflection becomes inevitable both among themselves and their…
Sacrosanct – Necropolis (Album Review)
Suppose, if you will, that you awaken to some Spock’s Beard version of the musical universe. No, not the stuff of Neal Morse and Nick…
Eden’s Curse – Testament: The Best of Eden’s Curse (Album Review)
Greatest hits albums, or as I call them, “Best 0fs”, have served many a purpose in the music business: fulfilling a contract obligation with the…
Devil’s Hand – Devil’s Hand (Featuring Slamer – Freeman) (Album Review)
Mike Slamer remains one of the unsung and criminally underestimated guitar heroes of rock. Much like fellow peers Michael Lee Firkins and Reb Beach, he…
Unleashed – The Hunt For White Christ (Album Review)
The old ways are still the strongest. Too often a band’s present merits are judged by how much progression their sound has made, which is…
Vasil Hadžimanov Band – Lines in Sand (Album Review)
Being a reviewer here at Sonic Perspectives is sort of a dream come true for a music fan. Though much of the music I, personally,…
The Windmill – Tribus (Album Review)
We all love the experience of playing an unknown band for the first time and having our ears perk up as we think, “WHO is…
Jason Becker – Triumphant Hearts (Album Review)
When writing for popular periodicals such as Sonic Perspectives, I make an effort to write in a detached third-person narrative, attempting to blend academic objectivity…
Accept – Symphonic Terror: Live at Wacken (Album Review)
In these fleeting moments before my fellow Americans celebrate the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving, I would like to pause and give thanks for metal bands…
Ghost Ship Octavius – Delirium (Album Review)
The undead set sail for even darker seas. Few subjects can hope to be as poignant and dark as that of one’s demise, be it…
All Traps On Earth – A Drop Of Light (Album Review)
One of the greatest things about this great big wide genre of music known as “progressive” is there are nearly as many sub-genres as there…
Holter – Vlad The Impaler (Album Review)
In 2015, the power metal world was treated to an interesting concept album: Dracula – Swing of Death. It was the progeny of Euro metal…
Artillery – The Face Of Fear (Album Review)
Artillery. If the name doesn’t sound familiar to you, maybe their logo will help jog your memory. I remember stumbling upon By Inheritance, one of…
Dilemma – Random Acts of Liberation (Album Review)
When bands reinvent themselves mid-career, hopefully it leads to greener pastures. For Dilemma, it surely has pointed to a promising future with new album Random…
Samskaras – Lithification (EP Review)
Every now and then, you come across a band whose inspirations are immediately evident, but somehow manage to maintain their own identity. Sometimes, you can…
Nordic Union – Second Coming (Album Review)
Frontiers Records is at it again. For those unfamiliar, the Italian label has a long history of not only signing and releasing many American rock…
Thoren – Gwarth I (Album Review)
Blotted Science proved with their debut album, “The Machinations of Dementia,” that the single most distinctive element of death metal, the obligatory death growl, was…
Soulfly – Ritual (Album Review)
A new ritual sets forth a grand tribal revolt. With there now being more than two decades of distance since Max Cavalera’s departure from Sepultura,…
Henry Derek Elis – The Devil is My Friend (Album Review)
It seems Henry Derek Elis has as many pseudonyms as he does musical directions. His twenty-year long career has seen him use such variants as…
Various Artists – Yesterday and Today: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to YES (Album Review)
Celebrating a 50th Anniversary isn’t an option for most rock ’n roll bands. Not to mention being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of…