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!
Kino – Radio Voltaire (Album Review)
There must be a band out there that holds the record of coming back together after the longest hiatus. Fans of the classic Genesis lineup…
TesseracT – Sonder (Album Review)
TesseracT’s new album, Sonder, intentionally gives no hints about its contents through its name. Though musically unrelated in any way, it merits a comparison to…
Rikard Sjöblom’s Gungfly – Rumbling Box (Box-Set Review)
Rumbling Box, a brand new 5-disc box set by Rikard Sjöblom’s Gungfly, is scheduled to release March 23, 2018, complete with early catalog works, bonus…
John Holden – Capture Light (Album review)
I’m not someone who has signed up for the vinyl resurgence. I’m happy enough with my CDs and downloads, but will often grab the super…
Borealis – The Offering (Album Review)
What would happen if you were to take the melodic keyboard and atmospheric sounds of NIGHTWISH, the forceful guitar riffs of KAMELOT, and the expressive…
Angra – Ømni (Album Review)
“I am Brazilian, and I never give up” was a slogan in a TV ad in Brazil a while ago. It seems that Angra took…
Xavier Boscher – Embryogenesis (Album Review)
When writing a review for a mostly instrumental album, it seems almost bizarre in a way to use words, when so much of the album…
Peter Banks – “Be Well, Be Safe, Be Lucky – The Anthology” & “The Self-Contained Trilogy” (Album Reviews)
When it comes to the history of YES, one could say Peter Banks is the overlooked bloke. A founding member and the gent who came…
Judas Priest – Firepower (Album Review)
Every time I am sent a new album to review, it takes me one first, casual listen to figure out how I’ll be familiarized enough to…
The Temperance Movement – A Deeper Cut (Album Review)
Scottish blues rockers The Temperance Movement are back with “A Deeper Cut”. After a turbulent period which saw two lineup changes, a less-than-stellar reception to…
Long Distance Calling – Boundless (Album Review)
Long Distance Calling’s 2016 album “Trips” was a bit of an odd period for the band from Münster, Germany. A band that had been traditionally…
Mike LePond’s Silent Assassins – Pawn and Prophecy (Album Review)
SILENT ASSASSINS is a side project that SYMPHONY X’s illustrious bass player Mike LePond put together in 2014, joining forces with his SYMPHONY X bandmate…
Gleb Kolyadin – Gleb Kolyadin (Album Review)
Solo albums are a tricky thing. Balance is important. Too much of one thing, too little of another, and the recipe can fall flat. A…
Lione/Conti – Lione/Conti (Album Review)
LIONE/CONTI is a collaborative vocal driven power-metal album born under the auspicious of Frontiers Music, one that needs a bit of family tree untangling due…
Orphaned Land – Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs (Album Review)
Prior to September of 2017 – when they appeared at the mighty ProgPower USA XVIII Festival – I had never paid attention to Orphaned Land’s music,…
Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons – The Age Of Absurdity (Album Review)
The birth of PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS – featuring MOTÖRHEAD guitarist Phil Campbell alongside his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla (also a member of the criminally underrated THE PEOPLE THE POET), plus vocalist Neil…
Perfect Beings – Vier (Album Review)
Imagine your friend telling you, “Hey, I got this progressive rock double-album and there’s only 4 songs on it, each one about 18 minutes long…
Labyrinth – Return To Live (CD/DVD/Blu Ray Review)
LABYRINTH’s second full-length, “Return to Heaven Denied” was a breakthrough for the band, both musically and commercially. Released at the time when symphonic metal reached…
KAYAK – Seventeen (Album Review)
The sensation of discovering a new music has always a fulfilling one for me. Whether it was THE BEATLES, THE EAGLES, IRON MAIDEN, OASIS, PRINCE…
Joe Satriani – What Happens Next (Album Review)
More than 30 years have passed since JOE SATRIANI made rock history with his 1987 megahit Surfing with the Alien. Joe hasn’t slowed down since,…
Corrosion Of Conformity – No Cross, No Crown (Album Review)
Whenever CORROSION OF CONFORMITY releases a new album, people take notice. It’s been a dozen years since CORROSION OF CONFORMITY recorded new material with vocalist/guitarist…
Voodoo Circle – Raised On Rock (Album Review)
Put iron into fire and the result will be steel. In the 1970’s, a new form of steel was forged in the hottest of fires…
Neal Morse – Life and Times (Album Review)
Reflection is a strange thing. It can bring massive sadness, huge joy, and every emotion in between, coupled with philosophical speculation. I am a “progger”…
Galactic Cowboys – Long Way Back To The Moon (Album Review)
Galactic Cowboys has always been a musical enigma. Hailing from Houston, Texas, the band combined melodic thrash, progressive metal, and Beatlesque harmonies into a genre…
Agusa – Agusa (Album review)
Love at first listening. That would be a perfectly accurate sentence to describe what I felt when I landed my ears on the first Agusa…
Daydream XI – The Circus of The Tattered and Torn (Album review)
I’ve said numerous times that am very far from being the pro-metal advocate I once was. There’s nothing essentially wrong with the sub-genre, other than…
Souldrinker – War is Coming (Album review)
SOULDRINKER, is German-Austrian band, active already since 2012 and formed around singer Iris Boanta and guitarist Markus Pohl (Mystic Prophecy). They have released a couple…
Mystery – Second Home (2 CD/DVD review)
I must confess I’m a sucker for live albums. Although accustomed to mostly listening to studio efforts, I absolutely love to collect great live recordings.…
Virgil and Steve Howe – Nexus (Album review)
The Yes family was rocked several months ago by the sudden death of Steve Howe’s son, Virgil, who had played keyboards on the majority of…
Downes Braide Association – Skyscraper Souls (Album review)
Of all of the bands that form and then fall apart, there are probably very few who achieve three full album releases. When you consider…
Yes – Topographic Drama – Live Across America (Album review)
I’ll say it at the start: I am a diehard Yes fan. I’ve never seen myself as a Trooper or a Generator. I’ve never thought:…
Paradise Lost – Medusa (Album review)
British band Paradise Lost, is considered by many (myself included) the Godfathers of gothic-doom metal. With almost 30 years of hard work and a back…
Wobbler – From Silence to Somewhere (Album review)
Norwegian band WOBBLER are veterans of the Norwegian progressive rock scene, as well as a renowned and established name in progressive rock circles, with a…
Threshold – Legend of the Shires (Album review)
I must start this review by saying I consider myself a huge Threshold follower. When I tripped upon “Clone” for the first time, it was…
Dave Kerzner – Static (Album review)
Two years and a half ago I hadn’t heard neither of Dave Kerzner’s name nor about his music. When I jumped onboard Cruise to the…
Edguy – Monuments (Album Review)
25 years ago in the small Germany town of Fulda four teenagers friends, Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dirk Sauer, and Dominik Storch, decided to unite…