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…
Album Review
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.…
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…
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 27 July 2020, Boris Records/ Memento Mori Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Annalisa Orlando Staunch and pleasantly straightforward death metal from Chicago veterans. The record kicks off with “Thrive On Fear” with a howling siren. It’s a real headbanger, the best of roaring, aggressive death metal, with screeching…
Sepulchral Curse – Only Ashes Remain
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Transcending Obscurity Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis Bands who fuse black and death metal are among this critic’s favourite genres. Blackened death metal is all well and good but it is nice to come across a band with a very catchy death metal sound but…
Bull Elephant – Created From Death
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Eat Lead and Die Music Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Rossy Maguire UK anonymous collective BULL ELEPHANT will release its second album, Created From Death, in August on Eat Lead and Die Music. The album, part two in the BULL ELEPHANT trilogy mythos, picks up where the debut ended. The eponymous creature,…
Jupiterian – Protosapien
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Transcending Obscurity Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes Sometimes you really need to be in the right mood for certain music. Jupiterian’s Protosapien is one such example, and the mood it wants you to be in, the atmosphere it revels in and drips with, is…
Embr – 1823
Reviewed: July 2020 Released: 2020, New Heavy Sounds Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes 1823 is the debut album of U.S. quartet Embr, and shows us a flavoursome, and often downright stunning take on doom metal and heavy music in general. It’s actually named for the age bracket, “18-23” that Eric…
Greyhawk – Keepers of the Flame
Reviewed: July 2020 Released: 2020, Fighter Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes Greyhawk’s debut album, Keepers of the Flame, out now via Fighter Records, is an absolute treat for any heavy metal fan, and a stalwart reminder of just why we love this genre in the first place. This is…
Torchlight Parade – Torchlight Parade
Reviewed: July 2020 Released: 2020, self-released Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes To say an album rocks is almost always a resounding and succinct form of praise. And Torchlight Parade’s self-titled debut certainly -does- rock. The problem is that’s more or less all it does. The band is certainly very clear…
Vampire – Rex
Reviewed: July 2020 Released: 2020, Century Media Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine With Darkthrone’s Fenriz being one of the fans who helped their eponymous demo sell out in a matter of days back in 2012, Vampire have been an underground favourite in the Swedish metal scene ever since. This…
Devastator – Baptised in Blasphemy
Reviewed: July 2020 Released: 2020, Clobber Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis Metal is a forever evolving phenomenon, and that is not done just by bands taking the old sound and adding new things, but also by the kids who keep the old school alive. By that, I am referring…
Wolftooth – Valhalla
Reviewed: June 2020 Released: 2020, Ripple Music Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes Do you like the classic sound of the early albums of The Sword or Mastodon? Then Wolftooth have got you covered! That sound much more dismissive than it’s intended to, though the score given should help offset that.…
Ravenlight – Project Genesis
Reviewed: June 2020 Released: 2020, Novus Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine Formed only two years ago, Northern Irish symphonic power metallers Ravenlight are set to release their debut Project Genesis at the end of June. It will be the follow up to their four-track EP End Of The World…
Voodus – Open the Otherness
Reviewed: June, 2020 Released: 2020, Shadow Records / Regain Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Jack Merry Swedish black metal outfit VOODUS return with a brand new mini-album entitled “Open the Otherness.” Consisting of two songs clocking in at 25 minutes in length, the four-piece have honed their craft and put out an…