The boys are back in town and are still following the same routine of plugging in, getting the recording completed as quickly as possible (three days) and getting back out on the road. It is the same trio of Jeff […]

No prizes for guessing for what we have here, it is a live album recorded at Wacken in 2018 (also available as a DVD and as a combined set). Unlike the other live album I have heard from them, recorded at the same […]

Originally released in their home country of Japan towards the end of 2018, Crystal Lake have signed a worldwide deal with Sharptone to assist in bringing their style of metalcore to the world. They may be […]

This Minneapolis-based duo of Andy Schoengrund (vocals, guitars, bass) and Andrew Reesen (drums) are back with their second full-length album, which has been released on vinyl, a medium well suited to their take […]

One man thrash/death machine Tom Reynolds is back with a three-track EP, and unless he is very careful he is going to keep proving that music from these crossover genres have space within the mainstream as all […]

Amazingly enough this 1974 recording was shelved by the record label at the time, and it has only now been released for the first time, so it truly is a lost album. The title was given to the project early on to […]

This is the second album from Bay Area tech-metallers Aenimus, but from what I can see, they have had some real issues with personnel and there is only person left in the band who actually played on the […]

OK, I admit it, I’m a sucker for Tobias Sammet and his side-project Avantasia. I’m not the only one either, as he always manages to bring in loads of other names to help him out. Given he is a singer of some rep […]

2019 saw Sammet return with the next album from Avantasia. Again, there are plenty of guests, including past collaborators ex-Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate, Pretty Maids frontman Ronnie Atkins, Michael Kiske of […]

Roope Latvala of Finnish thrash metal band Stone joined Children of Bodom in 2003, after guitarist Alexander Kuoppala decided to leave. This was the only line-up change since the band changed their name from […]

The band couldn’t stay as a quartet outside the studio as their sound needs that double hit of guitars, so in 2016 they brought in Daniel Freyberg (ex-Naildown and ex-Norther). It must be a hard job settling in w […]

For those unaware of their history, Death Angel were formed back in 1982 in San Francisco, and at one time every member of the band was a blood relative. Lead guitarist Rob Cavestany is the only person still […]

When the title track kicks off the album one starts to wonder if they are in the right place, as it is incredibly Maidenesque, but soon the interplay stops and the guitars are being riffed and again we are exactly […]

Right after the departure from his former band Battle Beast, Beast In Black’s founder Anton Kabanen recruited new companions in the way of high-pitched vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos (Wardrum), bassist Mate Molnar ( […]

It took me ages to work out how I was going to describe this album, as this alternative style really isn’t me at all. But, it is fresh and young (so the opposite of yours truly), and in the end I decided on Muse m […]

Soilwork must be consistently one of the finest bands to come out of the melodic death scene, and this 2015 album saw them somehow managing to provide a worthy successor to 2013’s awesome double album release ‘ […]

This 2016 album is a compilation of material stretching back as 2005, so in many ways is a bookend for drummer Dirk Verbeuren as he joined just prior to the beginning of this material and left afterwards as this […]

Since the previous album, 2015’s ‘The Ride Majestic’, the band have not only released a collection of rarities in 2016’s ‘Death Resonance’ but have also managed to misplace their rhythm section. Given just how im […]

Looking at the album cover one would think this was an album from the mid Sixties, and in many ways you would be totally correct, it’s just that it is a brand new album from someone who is obviously stuck in a t […]

I really don’t know how to read these guys. Are they serious or is it is just one almighty pisstake which has now been going on for well over a decade? Personally, I think it’s the latter, and having been onto the […]