There’s something slightly disturbing about this project to me. First, I see the video for the first single and one of the guitar players in this band looks and moves eerily like drummer Vinnie Paul’s late brother Dimebag. Then, there’s the singer from Mudvayne doing his best Phil Anselmo impression on some of the tunes, […]

This is about as close as you get as a reviewer to a “gimme” review. I mean, it’s classic Black Sabbath. Most of the folks reading this already know these songs and have a long-standing opinion of them, so really this hinges on the three new songs and how well the package is put together. […]

Is it too late to change my best of list for 2006?Due to the holiday shuffle, the latest CD from Sweden’s Wolf has been languishing on my desk for a little more than a month. When I finally popped it in the CD player earlier this week, I knew I’d missed a record for the […]

It always leaves me scratching my head when I get a record from an unsigned band that’s better than about 80 percent of the stuff I get from the labels. That’s the case with this EP from Finnish melodic metal outfit Helion. According to their Web site, Helion has been around in one form or […]

Ah, the tribute album. It seems like everyone’s got one these days, from the most deserving legendary performers to one-hit wonders that have been around for less than five years. Usually, the performances are all over the place, from the occasional interesting interpretation to straight up karaoke versions to someone royally fucking up a great […]

This is a really good record ‘ for 1985. I have to admit that I struggled a little with this review because there was a time in my life when I would have hailed this as some of the best stuff I’ve ever heard. But that was a long time ago, and Mystica, while very […]

Don’t you hate it when a band makes a slight tweak to a well-established style and claims to be revolutionizing a genre? Urkraft claims that their “thoughtful addition of keyboards” modernizes the death-flavored thrash style that they play. In all honesty, that and the matching outfits on the promo photo gave this record a couple […]

Finally, we have a winner. I’ve been mowing through the latest batch of Locomotive releases and each has been more uninteresting than the last when finally I hit the debut solo release from former Praying Mantis singer Tony O’Hora. The record came about when O’Hora started exchanging musical ideas via the Internet with guitarist and […]

If you miss the days of big hair and spandex, I’d suggest picking this record up as soon as possible. Otherwise, take a pass. Not to be confused with the Christian death metal band which later changed its name to Vengeance Rising (perhaps because this band had already claimed the name), this version of Vengeance […]

Wastefall may be the strangest combination of musical styles that I’ve heard this year. There’s Dream Theater-style prog, there’s Meshuggah-like angular riffing, there’s Korn-like nu metal influence and there’s some straight up 1980s hard rock. It’s an interesting mix to say the least, and when it works, as on the rocking second track “Willow Man,” […]

The glut of reunion and comeback efforts continues with Celtic Frost’s attempt to get back in the ring with their first album since 1992. Though no introduction should be necessary to readers of this site, I’ll give the brief one. Celtic Frost formed from the ashes of Hellhammer and released a couple of fine black/death/thrash […]

I always thought it was a little silly when I saw people crying their eyes out over a celebrity that they’d never even met. I’d never mourned a celebrity, even ones I really liked and respected. But that changed on Dec. 8, 2004. It was my birthday, of all days, in one of the shittiest […]

Let’s put aside for the moment the overly complicated concept about DNA mapping and molecular regeneration on Vision Divine’s fourth album and just focus on the music. Timo Tolkki of Stratovarius fame steps into the producer’s chair here and takes the band in more of a prog direction than their previous power metal outings, and […]

Though this is the fifth outing from the Swedish power metal act Steel Attack, it’s my introduction to them, and my first impression is pretty good. Diabolic Symphony features some nice, cutting power/traditional metal that’s not overburdened with keyboard flourishes or overbearing vocal harmonies. Singer Ronny Hemlin reminds me a little of Tim Owens (in […]

Once upon a time, I valued technical proficiency above all other musical attributes. It probably had something to do with the musician crowd that I was hanging around with. Then one day, I was sitting in my room and the sad truth struck me. I’m a lousy guitar player, and even though I love playing, […]

I’ve found myself listening to a lot of 1970s Aerosmith lately, so it’s really probably not fair to review this album at this point. It’s hard to judge a blues-based hard rock band with the echoes of the best still rattling around in your head. But Sweden’s The Quill manage to stand up to the […]

What if a Swedish death metal band decided to give in to its Sabbath influences and admit to even liking the Grateful dead a little bit? Probably something a lot like this. Nar Morkret Valler Over is the third album from The Jam Session, who refer to themselves as “Swedish gods” on their Web site. […]

To be honest, I really haven’t had a whole lot of interest in Sepultura since they split with guitarist/vocalist Max Cavalera in the mid-1990s. I boughtAgainst just to see what the “new” Sepultura was like and wasn’t really that interested in keeping up with them after that. They’ve done a few things here and there I’ve […]

The evolution of Amorphis, for me, has been one of the most disappointing musical turns in recent memory. I was a latecomer to the band, only discovering them with Elegy, an album that completely blew me away. It was exactly the kind of music I was searching for at the time, melodic and moody, yet […]

Sometimes it amazes me how the music industry has kept itself alive this long. Think about it for a minute. Think about all the great bands you know that have been left to languish in obscurity, and then think about all the crap that gets pushed on listeners by the record companies. I pondered this often […]

Torture’s indie debut Storm Alert was never released in the U.S. That’s a shame, too. If this album had hit me in the late 1980s or early 1990s, it would have blown me away. In 2006, the re-issue from Escapi sounds pretty dated, but for an old thrasher like me, it’s still a quite enjoyable […]

If you’ve got a longing to return to the hard rock scene of the 1970s, London band Tokyo Dragons gives you the opportunity on their latest effort Give Me the Fear. The 11 songs are heavily laced with the sounds of classic Kiss and Thin Lizzy. In fact, I think Gene and Paul are probably […]

The liner notes on this record promise crossover appeal to prog, goth and metal fans. I hear the prog, I hear the goth, but I don’t hear the metal. In truth, I don’t really hear much interesting, either. The band formed as a folk rock band in the mid-1990s and evolved into a progressive rock […]

It seems to be a week for female-fronted bands for me. First the Missbehaviour compilation, then Arch Enemy, now Widow. Though I’m not familiar with their previous album, On Fire is the band’s second album, following up 2004’s Midnight Strikes. The band came together over their love of horror, and that love is evident just […]

A while back I wrote a review for a pretty bad album by Hellfire that said listeners might find some 1980s nostalgia in it, but here’s a much better way to get your fix of ’80s style melodic metal. This is the third album for Finland’s Thunderstone, and it will certainly conjure comparisons to fellow […]