These days Heavy Metal is seemingly being overtaken by bands that play ‘heavy’ music, yet have the vocals of a well groomed, well mannered, slightly feminine male who’s about as pissed off as a sunbathing millionaire on holiday in Barbados. But, for every 5 bands that play this form of shoddy, piss-poor pop metal, there’s…
When a band selects to take a trip down the melodic side of the death metal genre, they either have to bring masterfully technical musicianship, much like Children of Bodom have down over the years, or bring a sack full of head-sticking choruses like Soilwork did on last years the Sonic Broadcast. Failure to bring…
Before receiving the advanced copy of Enemy Unbound, the latest release from The Absence on Metal Blade records, they were a band I had never heard of and had no idea what to expect. The Metal Blade website suggested that they sounded like Dark Tranquility, which was a definitely good start before a note had been…
It’s fair to say that Social Distortion have been around the blocks a few times, heck, frontman and last remaining original member Mike Ness has had his fair share of war stories over the years. The mere fact that this band are still around is testament to the will of Ness and the fact that…
Given Brooklyn hardcore punk band Gay For Johnny Depp are fairly upfront in their intention to push the boundaries, from the eyebrow raising band or classy song titles such as ‘Sex in your mouth’, ‘Cumpassion’ and ‘Shh, put the shiv to my throat’. Add music stylings akin to The Locust, Plot To Blow Up The…
You know what I like about Legion Of The Damned? Everything. I like the fact (and these are all undeniable facts) that when I put on a LotD album I know exactly what I’m getting; no nasty surprises, no ‘we wanted to experiment as band and try something different’, no namby pamby chords just the…
Anticipation in my ears was high for Wisconsin thrash masters Lazarus A.D follow up to ‘The Onslaught’, an album that has been in heavy rotation since I first heard the re-released version back in 2009. If you had any type of involvement with me back then I would have been force feeding you ‘Last Breath’…
After the departure of long time member and once lead guitarist/lead vocalist Timo Tolkki, it wasn’t an unreasonable thought to question the future of Stratovarius. 2009’s Polaris – the first album of the bands career not to feature Tolkki – was the sound of a rejuvenated band hitting some much needed form. Now, on their 13th…
Only 3 years in the making and ‘The Hotel Ambush’ are already showing signs of things to come. Condemned is a 7 track mini album that displays the bands ability to combine heavy, memorable riffs, balls to the wall aggression, catchy, distinctive choruses and sleek, stylish solos. Echoes (from within) and Cutting the Tie’s become…
If you’re around my age (25) or a little older (or a lot older), you will no doubt remember Killswitch Engage’s mainstream debut release, Alive or Just Breathing back in 2001/2002 (note I said mainstream debut, not debut for the nitpickers out there). Featuring one of the metal anthems of the 00’s, My Last Serenade,…
