Maybe it’s unmetal, but I love Christmas. When the end of November rolls around, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra records and a few others will hit my CD player, I’ll be putting up lights around the house and looking for a tree. Heck, I’ve got my TSO tickets in hand already. But when it’s sunny, 85 degrees [...]

I go through phases where I’ve had just about all the power and prog that I can stand, and I’m in one of those right now. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I’m feeling kind of uninspired to write about a lot of the CDs sitting on my desk now. That [...]

If it were 1988, these guys would probably be in luck. I’m sure some major label would snap them up, throw a little makeup and hairspray on them and give them a big push. Unfortunately, 20 years later, this brand of hard rock is a little bit tougher sell.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t hair [...]

I always thought Trivium was a decent band, but I just couldn’t get past Matt Heafy’s monotonous screams. It’s no surprise then that their last record, The Crusade was one of my favorite releases of 2006. The screams were pretty much gone, there were better hooks, and despite being complete Metallica worship, I thought it [...]

Metal Church delivers their 10th record and, aside from the lineup, not much has changed since they released their self-titled debut back in 1984. That’s both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they’ve stuck to their guns and continue to deliver what fans expect. On the other hand, the music here is not [...]

I know there are people out there who will hold a grudge against Metallica until the day they die. Over the past couple of decades fans of the band, as the song on Death Magnetic says, have been broken, beat and scarred, and a lot of them still have a lot of anger. To be [...]

Let’s say you’ve got a car. It’s a nice car. It looks good, it’s dependable, it’s comfortable, it gets good gas mileage. You really like it. Then, let’s say, you get your hands on a sleek sports car that’s loaded with options. It’s faster, more powerful, has a little something extra. Then gas hits $4 [...]

In the past few years, it seems that everyone and his brother has cranked out a covers record. They’re an easy way to make a quick buck or get out an album as an excuse to go on tour. Most of them are absolutely awful, but every now and then, a band will take a [...]

I’m assuming that my desert island would allow me to have 10 CDs in every genre I like. A big assumption perhaps, but then, I don’t intend to be in a boat at sea any time soon, and if I am, I’ll take a wider selection of CDs with me - either that or an [...]

Usually, no one likes a major shift in the lineup of their favorite band. Even though a changing guitarist or drummer can make just as much difference in sound, a change in singer seems to be the most visible and often the hardest for fans to accept. Occasionally, though, there’s a replacement singer that actually [...]

One of the easiest ways to get me to listen to an album is to record a song with Jorn Lande on vocals. While he’s not my favorite singer - not even in the top five, really - he seldom disappoints. Lande has one of those timeless rock voices, just enough smoothness and just enough [...]

One of the most anticipated records of the year for me was Cavalera Conspiracy, reuniting Sepultura vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera and drummer Igor Cavalera. Though it’s been eclipsed in my mind by records released since, it was an outstanding effort, and I thought it would be tough for Max’s other band, Soulfly, to compete. So I [...]

For the past few years, Alice Cooper has been trying, with limited success, to recapture the sound and feel of his 1970s heyday. Those records, The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds,  had a little problem, though. While some of the tunes hit the right note, both albums had several songs that sounded like [...]

If you heard Pharaoh’s last effort, The Longest Night, you probably won’t be very surprised by what you hear on this record.
Be Gone is a continuation of what the band has always done, an Americanized power metal that pays heavy tribute to both Iron Maiden and Iced Earth. The record opens with a slight surprise [...]

This sophomore release from Swedish outfit Machinery shows a great deal of promise, even if it’s a bit bipolar. There are really two bands at work here. One is a dark, progressive and interesting sounding act. The other is a blazing thrash/melodic death band. Fortunately, both show a good deal of talent and are quite [...]

Female-fronted bands, especially the soprano-style, haven’t fared very well in my reviews recently. By and large, I’m a little tired of that style, but just as I’m ready to write it off completely, along will come a record that really connects with me. That’s the case with the latest from Todesbonden.
This is how the style [...]

This might be one of the most unique releases that’s landed on my desk this year. It opens with the funk-thrash mouthful of a song, “When You’ll Realize that the Sun Will Rise Up Being a Black Hole.” Imagine Max Cavalera providing vocals for Primus, and you might have a rough idea of what this [...]

It may not be fair, but when I see song titles like “Nymphonomicon” and “Kockstruck,” I tend to develop an opinion on the band before I even hear the music. Unfortunately, what Midnight Idols deliver isn’t all that far from the idea that I had.This is pure, adolescent garage metal. The band rips off the [...]

I have to admit to a weakness for swords, dragons and battle metal. Unfortunately, quite a bit of that style also happens to be pretty cheesy, so I always enjoy finding a release that has no more than the required amount of cheese and some pretty solid songs. That’s just what I get with this [...]

I love offbeat stuff, and when this record was pitched to me as “Elvis metal ‘n’ roll,” I just couldn’t resist taking a listen to it.
I’ll start with what could very possibly be my favorite song of the year so far, “Sad Man’s Tongue,” the band’s tribute to Johnny Cash. It opens with a country [...]

We often throw around the word “operatic” loosely when discussing certain genres of metal. But every now and then, you get something that truly earns that description.Musically, Dantesco plays some pretty solid, if fairly standard doom. They offer up some nice, plodding riffs, often influenced by traditional metal. What makes the band stand out from [...]

The thrash reunions continue. This time German band Headhunter, featuring vocalist/bassist Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer of Destruction, guitarist Uwe “Schmuddel” Hoffmann from Talon and drummer Jorg Michael, who has played with Saxon, Stratovarius and Grave Digger, among a long string of others.While I missed this band’s work in the early 1990s, I’m intrigued by what I [...]

It’s a shame that, in one of his prophecies, Nostradamus didn’t foresee that Judas Priest would one day record a two-disc concept album about him. Maybe he could have warned them that it may not be the best idea.
The idea of a concept record about Nostradamus had me scratching my head to begin with. I [...]

It’s about time that Motley Crue remembered what they do best.
Since their first breakup in the early 1990s, they’ve struggled to find their identity. For those who haven’t been keeping score, it started with the heavier sound of 1994’s self-titled record with vocalist John Corabi. It was a solid record, arguably one of the best [...]

I’m a big enough man to admit when I’m wrong, but in this case, I’m not. Tim Owens owns Matt Barlow in Iced Earth, and this EP is the absolute proof.
Those of you who have read my blog and talked to me on the forums won’t find any surprises in this review. It’s no secret [...]