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!
Twenty years. It’s been twenty goddamn years since I’ve anticipated an album as much as I’ve anticipated “Exul.” And like “Exul,” that last one was…
How can an artist create a transformative experience of the highest order with three songs alone? If anyone were capable of this feat, it would…
When a band who makes a comeback after being on ice for decades is actually called Ice Age, well, there’s a mammoth temptation to unearth…
T-minus three… two… one… Whispers of spring fill the air as new life unfurls its leaves. The grey clouds of winter begin their hesitant retreat,…
Tribe of Pazuzu is an aural beast almost as mystifying as the ancient demon of its name. This is an act that fits seamlessly within…
Considering that they began as a Pink Floyd cover band, it’s truly impressive how consistent and distinctive German quartet RPWL have remained over the last…
Hailing from Hungary’s Budapest, the duo Deposed King aren’t likely to be on your radar. How could they be? Armed with only a sparse Bandcamp…
Imagination and falsehood converge. Few stories are as undisputedly American as that of the driven dreamer turned immigrant crossing an ocean to try his hand…
The new Steel Panther album, “On the Prowl”, was released a few days ago, but just to paraphrase the title of its first track, “It’s…
Hailing from the birthplace of black metal, Norwegian black metal project Mork continues to spread winter’s unforgiving chill more than a decade into its active…
Founded nearly 20 years ago, American progressive metal quintet Periphery have always stood out amongst their peers and influences. That’s as true of their self-titled…
As the world slowly emerges from the weirdness of the last three years, one can recognize that many, if not most, artists found creative ways…
As winter fell over Norway in 1991, teenagers Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson (13 and 17, respectively) embarked on a journey that would forever shape…
Galaxies are born, and galaxies die. Indifferent to the life that has sparked deep within the Milky Way’s arms, yawning black holes consume stars and…
Ambitious, innovative, and genre-bending British progressive metalists Haken return to the scene with “Fauna”, the highly-anticipated followup to the 1-2 punch of “Vector” (2018) and…
What mysteries and miracles await where indomitable darkness meets the unrelenting fury of galloping guitars? The answer may be found in the dark hymns offered…
The zany and ambitious metal quintet AVATAR is back with its 9th album, appropriately called “Dance Devil Dance”. This time, the AVATAR lore stops around a…
Simon Collins and Kelly Nordstrom have worked together for nearly two decades but it wasn’t until 2020 that they decided to form a new band…
What a wonderful surprise to discover this new album from Solstice, lighting up like a summer’s breeze even in the thick of winter. Before we…
Shining in the Void: Katatonia returns with new album Katatonia, Sweden’s masters of melancholic metal return with their latest album, “Sky Void of Stars.” Never…
Occasionally, it feels like in black metal’s quest to evolve and incorporate new elements, some of the original rawness has been lost, the days of…
Progressive rock can be a serious place. For every whimsical prankster prog band out there, there’s at least five others who take their craft probably…
Just over seven years since their previous album – in other words, a dog’s year – the wait is over and we have a new…
Into a world of magic, we fly. Ever since metal music’s conception amid a sea of heavy rocking and mystical pursuits courtesy of the late…
Setting sails with a new captain at the helm. Originally conceived by four former members of Sabaton as a proper continuation of said band’s musical…
Death metal has in its just under 40 years as a genre, given birth to some of the most diverse and genre-bending expressions of rage…
Primed and polished to a lustrous shine. Despite the explosion of female-fronted symphonic metal acts that coincided with the mid-2010s being a major topic in…
To blend active, engaging music with a sense of space and isolation is a task so seemingly oxymoronic that many bands never attempt to do…
For whatever reason, the first two records by Damanek more or less flew under the radar. And that’s a shame, for they are well-worth the…
It was almost one year ago that we had the opportunity to have a listen with Ronnie Romero and his covers album called “Raised on…
Welcome back, Riverside. You have been through the wringer this past decade with the loss of cornerstone Piotr Grudziński on guitar in 2016, yet you…
A new laboratory of lethal germs has been opened. Opinions may vary as to which subset of American death metal is the sickest, with a…
Northern European thrash served up extra nasty. Thrash metal can work a few different ways, but it is generally stipulated that subtlety is its antithesis,…
German gothic metallers Lord of the Lost topped charts and wowed audiences across the world in 2021 upon release of the stunning double-album “Judas.” Here…
Terror strikes at the dawn of the 80s. Former King Diamond/Mercyful Fate tribute band turned spinoff homage band Them has been a fairly steady presence…
In the minds of the deranged and twisted lies a medley of sickness. Narcissism, paranoia, sadism and rage. In “Somewhere Within the Pines” these dastardly…
