01. Igorrr – Spirituality and Distortion (SAMPLE) Spirituality and Distortion is a truly strange album, and it plays into that as its strength just perfectly. It’s one of those avant-garde metal albums that throws in a ton of different sounds, either one after another or at the same time. You’ll…
Thrash Metal
ALITOR – II
Reviewed: Jan 2021 Released: 2020, Ragnaröck Records Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Dennis I reviewed an awful lot of music this year only to almost miss one of the best Thrash Metal outputs of the year. The record of the Serbian Thrash band Alitor is simply named II. Alitor was formed in…
Bloodletter – Funeral Hymns
Reviewed: January 2021 Released: 2020, Napalm Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Rossy Maguire Bloodletter hails from Chicago, Illinois. A city that has a turbulent past and that has been home to a booming rock and metal-scene ever since the 60’s up to now. A shared love for metal brought these four…
Quick Jabs for January 2021
This is a new monthly section where we will post an assortment of shorter reviews for albums that we have checked out or may have missed out on previously. The reviews are short and to the point, thus the tile “Quick Jabs”. Trident – North October 2nd, 2020 – Non…
Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos
Reviewed: [January 2021] Released [2021 Napalm Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson After the Brazilian thrash trio Nervosa imploded last spring when bassist/vocalist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto quit, founding guitarist and lone remaining member Prika Amaral didn’t waste any time getting the band regrouped and rearmed. Eight months…
Finnish thrashers Prestige inks deal with Massacre Rec
The Finnish thrash metallers PRESTIGE, feat vocalist/bassist Aku Kytölä, guitarists Jan “Örkki” Yrlund(Imperia, Satyrian, ex-Ancient Rites and ex-Lacrimosa) & Ari Karppinen and drummer Matti “Matson” Johansson (ex- Korpiklaani ), will release a new digital single entitled “Exit” on the 15th of December. The single can be pre-ordered and -saved from…
Speedkiller – Midnight Vampire
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020, Helldprod Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Rossy Maguire SPEEDKILLER’s first and highly anticipated EP “Midnight Vampire”; hailing from the Minas Gerais axis the band itself has two years of existence and until almost now they only released two singles on YouTube. Pretty rad, right? But this…
Quick Jabs for December 2020
This is a new monthly section where we will post an assortment of shorter reviews for albums that we have checked out or may have missed out on previously. The reviews are short and to the point, thus the tile “Quick Jabs”. Salem’s Childe – The Sin That Saves You…
Escarion – Pillars of the Faith
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020, Independent/Self Release Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog “Even long after your death, people can go back and hear your voice, feel the weight behind your music and dive deep into the ideas that once drove you, tortured and filled you with purpose.” These are the words…
N.N.S (National Napalm Syndicate) – the old school thrash metal from Finland
INTERVIEW WITH THE FINNISH THRASH METAL N.N.S (National Napalm Syndicate) / NIKO KARPPINEN & JUKKA KYRÖ N.N.S known as National Napalm Syndicate being is the first generation band of the Finnish thrash metal scene from the ’80s. The band has undergone up and down hills and been on hiatus. In…
Sodom announces new album GENESIS XIX
Altenessen, a social melting-pot deep in the heart of the Ruhr Area. From the mid-19th century, the region supplied Europe’s industrialization with the required raw materials, mined under back-breaking conditions below ground in coal pits named Carl, Anna, Fritz-Heinrich, Helene, and the like. Altenessen is also the musical domicile of…
Transcendence – Interview with Miguel Perez and Kris Gonzalez AKA “Phantasm” and “Curse”
In celebration of Transcendence’s brand new album – Towards Obscurities Beyond – Metal Rules sat down with guitarist, Phantom (Miguel Perez) and bass player, Curse (Kris Gonzalez) to talk about how the new music all came together. Eager to talk about their music and keen to give credit where it…
Protokult – Transcending The Ruins
Reviewed: November 2020 Released: 2020 Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter It’s not often that you come across a band that neatly encapsulates the more po-faced nature of supposedly “traditional” or straight-forward metal with the boozy fun times of a party band, but here we are with PROTOKULT. It’s a bit…
Amongst the Ashes – Agonizing Awakening
Reviewed: [November 2020] Released [2020 Self-released] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson It’s not every day some Iranian metal music comes my way. Indeed, the debut EP from Amongst The Ashes, essentially a one-man band of Mohammad “Aelian” Hallaji, may be the first – the closest I can recall being Acrassicauda…
RAGEHAMMER – Into Certain Death
Reviewed: September 2020 Released: 2020, Pagan Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Rossy Maguire Ragehammer formed in 2011 in Kraków, inspired by the Gods from Venom, Sodom, Bathory, and Impaled Nazarene, aimed at everyone and everything holy and correct. From their first demo “War Hawks” (Mythrone Promotion, 2012), through the full-length debut…