Bloodbound – Stormborn
Residing in the same power metal sweet spot as Sabaton, between Stratovarius, Accept, and Iron Maiden, Bloodbound recently crossed the threshold of their first full decade as a band. As is typical,...
View ArticleU.D.O. – Decadent
In 2013, Udo Dirkschneider and his unit gave us Steelhammer, a record I held in fairly high regard for its relative diversity and wealth of strong tracks. I felt that it was the strongest entry in to...
View ArticleBlack Star Riders – Killer Instinct
Black Star Riders released one of my favourite albums of 2013 when they dropped their debut record, All Hell Breaks Loose. While it wasn’t flawless, it succeeded in both carrying the Thin Lizzy spirit...
View ArticleThe Answer – Raise a Little Hell
My first contact with The Answer, Northern Ireland’s entry in to the classic rock revival sweepstakes, was when I saw them open for AC/DC in Toronto, 2009. At the time I threw them in with Wolfmother...
View ArticleEvil Invaders – Pulses of Pleasure
To me, and I’m definitely showing my biases here, the best metal never forgets its roots in the gleaming circuitry of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. This is especially true of thrash metal, where I feel...
View ArticleZodiac – Road Tapes Vol. 1
Prior to picking up this album for review, I had only heard of Zodiac in passing. I’d seen a few of their album covers, smokey, psychedelia-drenched things they were, and had always been intrigued. I...
View ArticlePerzonal War – The Last Sunset
I know that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but purposely misspelling your band name is, to me, as cringe inducing as a lead singer with a fringe haircut and neck tattoos. Maybe it’s...
View ArticleHouse of Lords – Indestructible
House of Lords is probably one of the most under appreciated bands in the realm of melodic hard rock. This is a band that, after the splash made by their 1988 debut, fairly quickly fell of the radar...
View ArticleBeauvoir Free – American Trash
Undoubtedly the first thing you’ll notice about American Trash is the cover art: two African-American guys who look like they were members of Nitro in some alternate dimension, posing in front of an...
View ArticleDeath Angel – The Bay Calls for Blood: Live in San Francisco
Death Angel are a great band. As someone who’s seen them live twice, I can also attest to the fact that they are a great LIVE band… and yet, for some reason, they just cannot come up with a live album...
View ArticleNile – What Should Not Be Unearthed
Death metal can, at times, be the most stale and boring thing in the universe. Don’t get me wrong; the good parts of the genre are REALLY good, and there are certainly bands/albums/etc. that I adore,...
View ArticlePraying Mantis – Legacy
Praying Mantis have always had the misfortune of being sort of the odd band out. Though technically part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they were always a bit less metal-inclined than most of...
View ArticleAmorphis – Under the Red Cloud
When you think about a well-respected, oft-cited yet under-selling acts in modern metal, Amorphis are usually right there at the top. In their 25 years of history, they have morphed from a compelling...
View ArticleChildren of Bodom – I Worship Chaos
What a legendary institution this band has become. Love ’em or hate ’em, Children of Bodom have exerted a MASSIVE influence on the modern metal scene since their debut dropped in 1997. But over the...
View ArticleQueensrÿche – Condition Hüman
When Todd La Torre joined the beleaguered battleship Queensrÿche in 2012, helping them to create their most squarely metallic album in well over a decade the following year, it was almost universally...
View ArticleStryper – Fallen
I just can’t get over how heavy Stryper have gotten over the course of their last handful of albums. While their 80s output had a habit of being far too fluffy and ballad-heavy, they’ve slowly come in...
View ArticleRAM – Svbversvm
Those who’ve read my my previous work know I am one of the biggest cheerleaders for this whole international New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal movement. I feel that, by recalling the roots of the...
View ArticleLost Society – Braindead
At this point I feel it needs to be said: the whole “neo-thrash” thing has kind of run its course. It was a lot of fun for a few years, a lot of great albums came out, and it has definitely made its...
View ArticleVoivod – Post Society EP
Voivod‘s Target Earth was an astounding album. Despite being their first album without the from late guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, it was able to stand toe-to-toe with the best albums from their...
View ArticleLast In Line – Heavy Crown
And so, the project of the original Dio band members, minus Dio himself, has finally come to fruition. I was very skeptical about how Last in Line was going to turn out when I first heard about it. I...
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