Reviews

Death Angel aren't reinventing themselves on the new record, much less reinventing thrash, but let the radio play Nickelback for me until the end of the year if The Dream Calls For Blood isn't one of the strongest contenders for album of…

"Resilient" keeps up the level of its predecessor "Shadowmaker". It's an even louder and faster record, but the best it can boast is that it counts as the best Runnig Wild release since "Brotherhood" (2002). So, the last 10 years, which…

A giant of recent rock history delivers an organically intimate album.

This Littoral crew of musically seasoned Users is definitely on the right track toward their winning formula: a solid rhythmic foundation, catchy melodies, dialect relevance in the Slovenian songwriting, and creative development in the…

With the EP, Armaroth have captured the pulse of a modern world that's turning into nothing less than the full-blown dystopia of Brave New World and 1984, and the guys from Kranj have delivered a fitting soundtrack to the collapse.

After decades in cryo-sleep, some things just never wither. Kuga is infectious and still relevant, and that new wave punkish malt goes down even smoother than it did years ago!

The eighth record from the industrial master per excellence sounds like a recap of what we've already heard, and after a copy of a copy, there's not much new, coherent meat left on the bone for the world to chew on.

Just the title of the new album from this Ljubljana-based symphonic black metal outfit points to the direction the band has taken: one rooted deep in film music.

New Zealand shoegaze hits for the second time with the precision of a destroyer, the lightness of pop that's only weighed down by itself, and a polished aesthetic form.

"The quality of the recording differs from the first release by the Ajdovščina band mainly in its dynamics and in the development of their own sound. The consistency of the sound across the record (roomy, present drums, a fat bass guitar,…

Technical punk with a healthy dose of modern social critique!

This is a album of true (!!!) Dream Theater art aesthetics. Properly weighted between complexity and melodic accessibility. Finally! The brilliance that's been getting harder and harder to find in Dream Theater since 1999 is back.

The sixth record from the Hawaiian surfer soft rocker offers a dozen mellow tracks that go in one ear fast and out of your memory even faster ...

Label: Roadrunner RecordsRelease date: 09/23/2013Produced by: John PetrucciAlbum length: 69:05 minGenre: Progressive Metal Dream Theater, the prog titans whose shockingly original sound at the turn of the '80s into the '90s threw…

»Memoirs« was originally meant to be a solo album from Kick's driving force, Mickey Jones. Instead, we got a comeback AOR gem from Kick, carved out in the best British songwriting tradition.

»The Theory of Everything« may well be the most mature achievement in Ayreon's discography so far. This isn't an album that every listener (and that includes the longtime faithful) can crack after just a couple of spins.

With “What the Hell!” Vega have delivered an album that proves “Kiss Of Life” was no fluke, and we can now say that, with their new record, Vega stand right at the core of the best AOR and melodic rock revival bands in the world at the…

Pearl Jam have gone from grunge gods to a gorgeous pick for aging rockers and middle-aged dreamers, with the anger swapped out for a touch of timeless classicism.

Once again, this album has, oddly enough, more in common with the sound of seventies Uriah Heep than today's Uriah Heep do. It's simply more proof of what a powerhouse Ken Hensley is, as both arranger and songwriter.

Bottom line? If you love the old Uriah Heep and Ken Hensley's classic solo studio work, you have to check this one out. You won't regret a minute you put into it.

Canada's "hyperblasters" Kataklysm are back with a new record after three years, which is a year longer than usual, and that could be seen as a good sign: it raised hopes that the band took more time over this album and thought it all…

With their new record, the Monsters have set off on a psychedelic trip back to their roots.

Considering that two years passed between its predecessor »Final Warnig« and the new »Magnitude«, it's fascinating how Tony Niva managed to hang on to that huge creative spark and carry it over, untarnished, to the new studio album.

If this has to be the last Motörhead album, it'll go down as the band's superb requiem! It's done in true style, all rock-solid, chest-puffed masculinity! Motörhead haven't put together anything this varied yet this tight in the last 20…

On »Masters of the Rings«, an unexpectedly successful and witty return to the victorious power metal battlefield, Helloween rose from the ashes like the mythical phoenix and made happy everyone who had already given up on them in the early…

When it comes to Volbeat, comparing them to the biological term biodiversity wouldn't be far from the truth. That goes double for their latest album, Outlaw Gangsters and Shady Ladies.

Jukič's eighth album, »Life«, is an absolute coming-of-age leap beyond the musical artistry of his earlier work, from a prolific artist whose musical vision never stops thrilling and surprising.

»Chameleon«, a short detour into 'prog/pop metal', is the most eclectic album in Helloween's entire history, and in pumping in fresh ideas it took a lot of guts and a willingness to walk away from the usual, expected, demanded…

Two years after the rising optimism of Sun Sun, Moveknowledgement decide to steer boldly into jazz funk waters, with less catchy but punchy tracks.

This is power metal that knows nothing of sappiness or sugarcoating. No dragons fly here, and there's nothing fairy-tale about it that would call for waving swords around and kissing frogs. Occult and superstition live here, with a lead…

The Stroj aren't sitting still anymore, and this time they hum along to the gears of the recession, with metalized resonant echoes of reality.

After The Stroj's digitalization plan, the lion's share of the old lineup breaks off and proudly sticks to an analog sound with no digital gear.

It's not Kansas from the seventies or eighties. It's not Mastedon. But it's a gorgeous, layered blend that brings both Kansas and Mastedon to mind. No surprise, since the man behind the art rock gem "On My Way To The Sun" is John Elefante.

After jazzy surfing along the edge of listenable sweetness, the time has come for total punk simplicity and deep penetration.

A recommended guide to the person and work of Oliver Hartmann, a musician of exceptional talent who can boast a remarkable bunch of beautiful, melodic rock-minded compositions.

Paragoria's mind-melting debut is yet another proof of the incredible fertility and top-notch harvest of the local metal scene in 2013!

Starship with Mickey Thomas! A new album after 24 years! A worthy heir to the evergreen legacy of songs like Jane (Jefferson Starship), Layin' It On The Line (Jefferson Starship), No Way Out (Jefferson Starship), We Built this City…

With top-notch execution, Nugent stays a thoroughly credible musical hellion in his trademark theatrical stage excess.

Amid the mighty atmosphere of the Muffathalle, Saga proved once again on »Spin It Again« that with Michael Sadler back in the lineup they're a rock-solid monolith of live perfection, and with an ideal setlist they thrill even the most…

A passionate overture from a full ten years ago, and in the time since, the band has pulled off a nearly impossible leap into the thirteenth dimension.

Jaded Heart, the excellent German melodic hard rockers, are putting out a "double" live document of seven songs, recorded on October 18, 2013, in Cologne, Germany. The DVD also includes snippets from their Japan tour. Fans will definitely…

Believe it! Being an all-female band is no walk in the park. Anywhere. Not even in Slovenia! And for a Slovenian lineup of all women to drop a debut that has real expressive quality on top of its historical significance, you need serious…

The Novo mesto heavyweights' best and most unbeaten musical peak so far serves up heaps of darkness and an obsessively danceable, multi-genre blend of rhythms and rich sound.

Born a little past the seventies - we jumped off a raging train ... Hopeless, no future, but used to constant shock ... And here is where our voice comes in ...

The marathoners are running a grueling stampede across the Slovenian club scene again this year. Hats off to them!

Every Helloween fan who expected another epic masterpiece after the "Keeper" era got a cold shower with "Pink Bubbles Go Ape", which also turned out to be a major commercial flop.

»Live In The U.K.« is far from perfect, mostly because of its short running time, which means plenty of beloved Helloween favorites are missing. Still, it remains the only official live document to date from the most successful and popular…

After 27 years, the band's new studio album has finally crawled into the world. Simply titled "Four". It's like time stood still. Spin it and you're instantly dropped into the middle of the eighties. Adrenaline-fueled rock 'n' roll that…

This album serves up a bottomless bag of fun, and it's basically the "bitter" ID card of Hagar's untamed character. And of course, of his musical outlook. This time with a "little help" from his musical friends.

Harem Scarem's reactivation, built on a return to their creative roots, has paid off in full!

»Keeper Of The Seven Keys – Part II« is the ultimate power metal album and one of the most influential achievements in the history of Teutonic metal, still inspiring legions of more or less successful music enthusiasts today.

The first part of the »Keeper Of The Seven Keys« saga may be a bit less appealing than its more famous and more fun conceptual follow-up, released a year later, but it still stands today as one of the best and most important albums in the…

With Sound Of Contact's debut, Simon Collins proves beyond doubt that he's diligently following in his father's footsteps: with "Dimensionaut" his band has made a modern concept album packed with all the finest elements of the golden age of…

The freshly released self-titled album from Norwegian black metal giants Satyricon is bound to divide listeners, especially fans of the genre.

The speed metal masterpiece "Walls of Jericho" was quite possibly the best debut by any Teutonic metal band of the eighties. It earned Helloween a well-deserved cult status among the metal crowd of the time, and among those music fans who…

Helloween signaled their charge to the very top of Teutonic metal already on their first EP, which had little in common with their later power metal triumphs, and it made for one hell of a warm-up before the cult debut "Walls Of Jericho"…

Orange County hardcore's standout melodic torchbearers carry their light through our darkest days, and they do it in style.

»Archiva 1« is the first chapter in a fascinating mosaic of 'forgotten' songs that were 'secretly' created in the middle of Asia's Payne era, and it's a real stroke of luck that, flood in the studio or not, they finally saw the…

This is an album where the singer takes her traditional rocker stance, undeniably grounded in the fundamentals of the AOR tradition, and successfully fuses it with the fashionable, modern studio sound-processing tricks of today.

The debut »Ethnotrip« is a very pretty piece of work, but first and foremost a cautious, predictable batch of reinterpreted folk standards. A bit more authorial insight when serving up a teasing experiment wouldn't hurt the band down the…

Label: Self-released Release year: 2013 Production: Peter Ošlaj & Ethnotrip Album length: 46.32 Ethnotrip is a quartet that plays folk standards. They only formed in 2009 and they're young going by the birth years on their ID cards,…

The sounds of Istria without borders: an Istrian republic, an independent autonomous zone of multicultural freedom from borders, states, and cultures, told in thirteen traditional tunes.

On their second outing, the Obsotelje tango brings even more passion and songwriting leaps into the realms of love poetry, and Brencli are even harder to pin down than they were a few years ago.

This is one of the best melodic hard rock releases of the year! An album without a single weak moment. An album of magic and flawless compositional brilliance. Classic Scandinavian pedigree.

All in all, a thoroughly likable album that proves the band hasn't lost an ounce of creative drive in a year, though the awkwardly produced and colored vocal lines in the choruses get in the way.

If any Slovenian band knows how to sharpen its tongue properly, it's Ana Pupedan from Pivka, these days probably the only Slovenian group that can credibly stand next to the sarcasm of the legendary Buldožer thanks to its sheer originality.

Early recordings from the forerunner of Rijeka's avant-garde music provocateurs Let 3 prove that the new wave shook the shores of the Kvarner's biggest city with real quality!

»II.« is the album that puts Houston among the acts you now have to take dead seriously, because they're stepping into the league of masters who are currently setting the very peak of quality in the modern AOR/melodic rock revival!

A visibly weary Fish, with only the occasional flash of brilliance, wades through the full range of emotions his longtime fans have always taken for granted on "A Feast Of Consequences", and does it rather listlessly this time. It's far…

Amon Amarth have racked up enough mileage that they simply can't make a bad record anymore, but with their new album, which once again leans on the tried-and-true formula of melodic death metal with Viking lyrics, they stay stuck at the…

The second full-length shell from the proactive revolutionaries and fighters for a better world from Ribnica outdoes all of Slovenia's melodic punk competition in more ways than one ...

»The Winery Dogs« is an album of superlatives. An album of unique charisma and concise, authentic expression that never stops thrilling. A top-shelf record that only the world's best musicians can pull off. No less, no more.

»Contagium«, just like »Contagious«, is a must-have for all Arena devotees who want to round out the »Contagion« concept with the 'missing' tracks.

Every Arena fan who has had a post-apocalyptic revelation of nightmares from the depths of their subconscious while listening to the masterpiece »Contagion« should round out their listening experience with »Contagious«.

»The Visitor (Revisited)« isn't what you'd think of right away when you read its title, but it's such an interesting mix of acoustic versions of a few classics and selected live tracks that it earns its spot in the collection of every loyal…

»Welcome Back! To The Stage«, the missing live material from »Welcome To The Stage«, is a tasty treat for all loyal Arena fans and collectors of rare releases.

On their live debut, Arena stare down Medusa's gaze with flying colors, resist the seductive call of the sirens, bring down the walls of Jericho, laugh in the face of Midas's vision and listen closely to the wisdom of Solomon.

Therapeutic stripping bare offers the world a new refuge from the cruelty of a kleptofascist age, while the music's total sensual eroticism builds on the concept and thematic postulates of what Aphra Tesla actually is.

»Deliver Us From Evil« packed a heaping gallon of excellent, melodically tinged hard rock, so it's a real shame that Budgie shut down all studio activity for a long time after its release.

When it comes to lavish orchestral arrangements and the sheer effectiveness of skewering English society, »Grand Hotel« is still one of Procol Harum's finest achievements, and also one of their last where you can still talk about creative…

With »Messin'«, Manfred Mann's Earth Band announced that they meant to become serious competition for the leading progressive rock bands of the day.

»Live Tapes« is, right behind »BJH Live«, the second-best official live document in the entire BJH catalog, catching the legendary collective at the peak of their concert powers, when they briefly found themselves in the unfamiliar role of…

With »Edge of the Century«, Styx told the world at the end of the nineties that they were still alive and still capable of making good music.

»Manifesto«, the first Roxy Music record from their later, 'new wave' era, could also be called a transitional album. Mr. Ferry and the gang are still caught between the old and new sonic directions in places, yet they managed…

»The Spirit« is one of the best live documents in Magnum's history so far, even though it was recorded during a rough patch, when it was already clear that the band's biggest commercial successes were gone for good.

»Caught In the Crossfire« was Wetton's first up-close, open flirtation with AOR, not counting a few 'hybrid' experiments from the UK era, and it will still thrill every fan of his solo career today.

Since the new Blackfield album pares back the progressive elements even further, »IV« moves closer, unlike the first two records, to the style and atmosphere of Aviv Geffen's solo work.

»Cuts Like A Diamond« effectively catches up with the band's famous past catalog. It sounds mature and has a clearly defined authorial character!

A quiet comeback from a stylish provocateur serves up recycled leftovers this time, and instead of a sharp-tongued reckoning with the system, RecycleMan would rather stay in safer waters.

Apparently Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie has found an effective musical formula with what his second studio album »Static Impulse« served up. The new album is sonically ravenous to the extreme, even less progressive, and carries a…

"Siren" delivers with a polished batch of invasively effective songs, one of the high points in the discography of its creator, Steve Newman. The guy invited several guest musicians into the studio, and that was a very smart move that…

After eight years, the legendary power trio of the "derailed" is back. Niacin haven't lost one iota of their crushing power or the signature musical traits their past studio albums left behind.

»Radiance« is a lovely treat for all the loyal fans who were hungry for new Arena releases after »Contagion«, even if it's 'only' a fully acoustic live album that answers the question of how some of their most…

Let's hope Fergie wriggles out of the claws of this stubborn illness, and that he didn't rush the new, very high-quality studio release just to tell us: "My time is running out and my goodbye is near."

»Harlequins Of Light« is a fantastic record that strikes the perfect middle ground between tastefully varied arrangements and the melodic polish of its lead motifs. A masterpiece from seasoned AOR veteran and studio-perfection mastermind…

The album "Wings Of Love" won't cause any earthquakes, but it'll make plenty of die-hard AOR fanatics happy, the kind who can't wait to download it from iTunes or Amazon.

The last days of humanity have never echoed through such a violently epic atmosphere of everything coming to an end as on the ominous masterpiece "Contagion." After "The Visitor" and "Immortal?", Arena have created yet another neo-prog rock…

This one is aimed first and foremost at everyone who can't come to terms with King Crimson going a decade without a new studio release. Peak avant-garde seduction in a full-throttle instrumental experiment.

With a remastered deluxe edition of Above, an all-star lineup of grunge icons conjures the memory of fallen legends and the Seattle legacy in its noblest form.

It's fair to say that with "Across the Seventh Sea", Maiden uniteD have delivered another hefty bundle of brilliant covers of some of Iron Maiden's most prominent and recognizable originals, and they've done it with even more confidence and…