Reviewed: May 2020 Released: 2020, High Roller Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Pete Mutant Commando have been about for a few years now, having previously released their first demo back in 2018 titled ‘Demo 2018’. Fast forward to now and the young Swedish group that hails from Arvika have produced their…
Album Review
Old Corpse Road – On Ghastly Shores lays the Wreckage of our Lore
Reviewed: May 2020 Released: 2020, Trollzorn Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis British black metal institution Old Corpse Road have unleashed their third studio album, “On Ghastly Shores lays the Wreckage of our Lore,” which, as the title suggests, has a theme of coastal folklore and legends. OCR are not a…
Mustasch – Killing it for Life
Reviewed: May 2020 Released: 2020, Tritonus Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes The more album reviews I write, the more I see just how big Sweden’s hard rock movement is these days. It seems like every hard rock album that makes it to me is another Swedish band. This movement…
Sölicitör – Spectral Devastation
Reviewed: May 2020 Released: 2020, Gates of Hell Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes “If it ain’t broke…” Oftentimes, the classics are classics for a reason, and that goes for styles as much as specific bands or albums. Traditional, classic heavy metal worked and captured so many people’s imaginations for…
Agarwaen – Dottore I
Review Date: March, 2020 Released: 2020 Rating: 3.5/5 Review by: Pete Mutant Agarwaen is a project spearheaded by Pauli “Vryko” Hodju which was born from an older band which was joined by Janne Suhonen called Shathanas back in 2005. This Shathanas band had one focus which was ‘Christmas Black Metal’ …
Lordi – Killection
Reviewed: March 2020 Released: 2019, AFM Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter You know LORDI, right? Finland’s monstrous masked metallers and winners of Eurovision in 2006? The band may not quite have the collective mainstream’s consciousness to the extent that it did back when they shocked Europe’s annual musical cheese-fest,…
Lacuna Coil – Black Anima
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 2019, Century Media Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter To many readers, and the many bitter artists whose work has been ripped apart by a cold-hearted, dead-inside cynic, a music critic is a bitter, twisted husk of something once-human that feeds on the maniacal pleasure of…
Uncommon Evolution – Algid
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 17-01-20, Argonauta Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Ernie B Uncommon Evolution is a verily loud & heavy, heavy being the operative word, band from Flathead Valley Montana, formed in 2013. This is their first full length release, ‘Algid’, following on from their 5-track EP, and well worth…
Kilter – Axiom
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 2020, Alter-Nativ Rating: 2/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis When you keep asking yourself ‘Why am I reviewing this for a metal website?’ while listening to an album, you know this isn’t going to bode well, and I am afraid that is the case for the confusing mashup…
Bütcher – 666 Goats Carry My Chariot
Reviewed: February, 2020 Released: 2020, Osmose Productions Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Jack Merry BÜTCHER is quite an apt name for this Belgian four-piece. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, they have created a satanic speed metal monster on sophomore album “666 Goats Carry My Chariot“, as they rip and tear riffs, solos…
Bonded – Rest in Violence
Reviewed: February, 2020 Released: 2020, Century Media Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Jack Merry You’d be forgiven for thinking Bonded are a brand-new up-and-coming metal band upon first glance, having just released their debut album; a band with members out to prove themselves. This is not the case, however. Formed in 2018,…
Brothers of Metal – Emblas Saga
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: January 2020, AFM Records Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Ernie B Sweden’s Viking metallers Brothers of Metal’s second album is ‘Emblas Saga’; rough translation, First Woman Saga. A follow up to their 2017 album ‘Prophecy Of Ragnarok’, a soundtrack album to all the Marvel Thor movies (not really,…
Lonescar – Lust for the End
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 2020, independent Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes “Lust for the End” is Texas-based Lonescar’s third major release and first full-length album. These guys play a pretty typically American style of thrash/groove metal, perhaps leaning a little more towards the latter. You know the kind: just as…
Märvel – Märvelous
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 24-01-2020, The Sign Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Ernie B Märvel, a three piece from Sweden, have taken it upon themselves to re-record their first E.P., due to suspicious circumstances concerning the master tapes of the original. Taking it for what it is, re-recordings of tracks from…
Serious Black – Suite 226
Reviewed: February 2020 Released: 31-01-2020, AFM Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Ernie B ‘Suite 226’ tells a complete narrative of a mentally confused man who is torn between his own dreamworld, reality and evil. The protagonist has been held captive for many years in the dismal, cold padded cell number 226,…