ELLEFSON the eponymous solo band of Grammy-Winning Megadeth bassist/co-founder David Ellefson has announced the tentative tracklisting for NO COVER, out 10/2 on Combat Records, featuring 17+ cover songs including classic tracks from Motorhead, WASP, Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, Queen, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Fastway, Fight, Dead Kennedys, and more, with…
Evilcult – At The Darkest Night
August 2020 June 6th, 2020 / Awakening Records Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 Reviewer: John Haseltine Evilcult metal! With a name like this and a cover like that, only one thing comes to mind. Pure thrash metal, right? For the most part, yes. But of course, these days, we must…
ALCATRAZZ-Born Innocent
Review Date: August 2020 Released: 2020 Label: Silver Lining Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: JP Man, I did not see this coming. A few years ago when ‘they’ (the record label, publicists and whoever) announced that Alcatrazz was reforming, I was blown away. I suppose in hindsight I could have seen it…
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Memento Mori Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Chicago’s Cardiac Arrest are like that mosquito from Jurassic Park – stuck in amber, frozen in time while the world evolved around it. And you remember how much crap that…
MESSIAH – Fatal Grotesque Symbols – Darken Universe
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, High Roller Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Jack Merry 26 years after their last studio album, extreme metallers Messiah are about to unleash the successor to their “Underground” record from 1994, entitled “Fracmont” on High Roller Records later this year. For now, however, the band are sweetening…
Guardian Of Lightning – Cosmos Tree
August 2020 July 17th, 2020 / Eclipse Records Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 Reviewer: John Haseltine Guardian Of Lightning has unleashed their powerful debut, COSMOS TREE, to the masses. These guys are an upstart out of Sao Paolo, Brazil, forming in late 2017. Their mission? To create a sound that…
Deadlight Sanctuary – Thaumaturgical Rites of the Damned
Deadlight Sanctuary – Thaumaturgical Rites of the Damned Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Sentient Ruin Laboratories Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz In an age when we’ve been desensitized to basically all of the horrors that the world has to offer, Deadlight Sanctuary drops an album that’s legitimately unnerving and at…
The Acacia Strain – Slow Decay
Reviewed: [August 2020] Released [2020 Rise Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Massachusetts brutes The Acacia Strain seem to be full of surprises these days. First, there was the unannounced Christmas time release of the epic EP It Comes In Waves, a single 30-minute song split into seven individually named…
Curl, James -Into The Fire (Book Review)
Reviewed: August, 2020 Published: 2020, Indie Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: JP It’s about time someone wrote a book about Dokken! James Curl steps up to the plate again following his excellent and well-received Dio biography. I reviewed that one here in August of 2018 as well in case you are interested.…
Texas Murder Crew – Everyone’s Last Breath
Texas Murder Crew – Everyone’s Last Breath Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Comatose Music Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz EVERYONE’S LAST BREATH is the debut EP from Texas Murder Crew, and these cowboys know how to lasso a breakdown. Jokes aside, it’s a pretty remarkable first offering that handily blends…
Popoff, Martin-Empire Of The Clouds (Book Review)
Reviewed: August, 2020 Published: 2020, PowerChord Press Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: JP Most Iron Maiden observers will recognize the bands career has had roughly four distinct phases. These are the Di’ Anno years, the classic ‘height of power’ era, the dark Blaze years and the reformation. We can argue about deeper sub-phases…
Kryptamok – Verisaarna
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Purity Through Fire Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis It would be quite a cliché to say a veteran of a certain scene will produce some of the best new music, but the reason that’s a cliché is that it normally turns out to be true.…
Assignment – Reflections
Reviewed: August, 2020 Released: 2020, Massacre Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Erich Germany’s Assignment is a band that I have always intended to explore, but never got around to doing. That has finally changed for the band’s fifth full-length album REFLECTIONS, which will be released August 21 on Massacre Records. The…
Temple Nightside – Pillars Of Damnation
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Iron Bonehead Productions Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine Hailing from Australia and founded just a decade ago, Temple Nightside will be releasing their fourth full-length Pillars Of Damnation on August 7th, via Iron Bonehead Productions. Their label states: “By now, Temple Nightside require little to…
Entartung – Maleficae Artes
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: August 7th 2020, Dunkelheit Produktionen Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Annalisa Orlando This German black metal trio deliver a classic record. The combination of high-pitched vocals and extraordinarily long tracks all hark back to the 90’s heyday of black metal. Having said that, the clean and tidy production…