Reviews

Youth isn't always a sign of inexperience or a naive grasp of quality. The proof: the excellent debut from Shraphead, a Norwegian band of progressive neo-thrashers soaked in alternative.

After a near-death experience and an out-of-body flight, it's time for total nihilistic world destruction, and the fanfares of the cataclysm are hellishly melodic and sweet! At times even saccharine …

The tenth album from the Swedish standard-bearers of Gothenburg's baroque, over-decorated death metal is the first without Jesper Strömblad. Is it a step forward, or another leap into an ocean of generic pointlessness?

From Fear to Eternity leaves a bitter aftertaste. Just like the last compilation, the last live album, the last compilation, the last live album, ...

Transformation is hard to swallow at times, but it's saved by a deep, monstrous atmosphere, Lovecraftian-sounding solos and the diabolical whiff of old-school death/doom metal.

"Live or Nothing" is the new, mature and polished studio album from the Italian rock icon. Vasco once again deftly balances rock edge with melodic moments, folding them into dreamy minor-key passages.

Doing without sometimes pays off.

Wolf's Legions of Bastards delivers 80s heavy metal retro aesthetics in the best way possible!

"Last Autumn's Dream" is the peak of early Jade Warrior, when their sound rested equally on rock and ambient, and the ambient side hadn't yet taken over.

Beardifish have made another great album, proving once again that when it comes to the quality of their studio work, they're one of the most consistent bands in modern progressive rock.

Fans of the classic German school of melodic hard rock and "Skandi" revival, take note. The third studio album from Human Zoo is a nice, compact, melodically polished piece of work that's bound to crawl under your skin

Fusk is one of those bands trying to make jazz in a modern, innovative way, through new forms fit for the 21st century.

Arch Enemy don't march proudly and energetically under the black flags of Khaos Legions, but tired and with their heads hanging low.

"A Scarcity of Miracles" is a gorgeous, ballad-leaning symphonic jazz-rock album packed with Fripp's trademark soundscapes and guitar phrases. It's perfect for summer meditation while watching the sun go down.

"Fly From Here", the first Yes album in almost ten years, which is how long it's been since its predecessor "Magnification" (2001), could easily walk away with the grand prize for the most controversial prog rock album of the past decade,…

"King Kobra" is a very good album from a revived band. It sounds bluesy, like no King Kobra album before it, and classically built, which makes Paul Shortino's integration all the more logical. There's a pinch of AOR in there too.

The musical side of the album Ni lepo... tries to be pretty varied. Decent punk in the first half. The rest is a pile of filler, long-winded, empty ballads, and forced ska/reggae insertions.

FINALLY... the long-awaited live album from one of the best live bands on the planet has seen the light of day.

Eclecticism at the highest musical level. Germany's rising hopes in progressively restless instrumental music will carry you off into the interstellar reaches of the wide world and pour the pure extract of beauty into your palms and ears.

"»Mysterious Sleeping Flyer« transcends the limits of "genre-ism" and is simply - excellent."

"Harder" is the second album from Portland's rock n' roll perverts, whose songwriting voice fuses the creative peaks of Ramones and New York Dolls. Every now and then a whiff of stoner rock blows through

This young German sleaze rock n' roll crew from Rosenheim goes at its studio debut with real guts, though the record still has some energy in reserve for building up to full-octane fire.

"Attack" is party-hearty rock n' roll with a dirty accent, spiked with the MTV-style romping of punk-pop pretty boys like Green Day or Blink 182, while a glam streak straight out of Kiss or Motley Crue lurks just underneath.

An exotic take on metal dressed up with thrash and groove from faraway Cyprus proves that Blynd can reach higher and hit louder than ever before.

Brežice's Sagaris are coming back from the dead with their second demo. From the Depths shows them as a more mature band with a clearer and, above all, more distinctive musical vision.

"»Rdeči« is a truly impressive piece of work. When it comes to this kind of music-making, Štefan Kovač Marko banda have no equal in Slovenia."

Southern sludge metal with unmistakable doom trimmings. If Down, Clutch and good old dirty stoner are your thing, you'll pounce on Earthride without a second thought!

Sabbath-style bliss in a modern guise: the stellar album Capricorn proves that doom-tinged stoner crew Orchid are the next big name in the musical sky.

"Tit" is an album of superlatives and definitely a landmark for Slovenia. A project this experimental, in both concept and execution, deserves its place as a tile in the mosaic that makes up our musical consciousness.

The killer second record from Teutonic thrashers Godslave proves Europe has a damn good answer to the top-notch ranks of bands like Lazarus A.D. Tradition and fresh form go together like hell!

A musical missile of the bushido code, written the way brutality-loving, California-sun-baked Americans would write it. Generic knows no borders, but every now and then that's not necessarily a bad thing ...

"Aqua" may not rank among the very best of Asia's achievements, but after a long six-year break it was still a surprisingly successful and inspired album, with plenty of songs that earned classic status long ago.

Fun, humor, metal and everyday life join hands in the best possible way!

Brand X's debut was a masterpiece, which came as no surprise, since these instrumental grandmasters could effortlessly turn their enviable grasp of jazz fusion theory into practice.

The superb "XII" was the last album by the original BJH lineup, masters of symphonic-pastoral melody who made one of the most overlooked progressive rock bands of all time a defining presence of the seventies.

After "Drastic Measures" came out, Kansas found themselves in a stalemate: nobody was happy with their new direction anymore, which was kind of ironic, since the whole point had been to win over the widest possible audience.

"Vinyl Confessions" is a good, mostly melodic rock album and the better of the two from the John Elefante era, since it still leaves some prog-rock elbow room for adventure and sensitivity.

Picture walking into the studio brimming with energy and a burning need to prove yourself, ready to record your debut album. That's exactly the energy the new Mr. Big album, "What If…", embodies.

»A Momentary Lapse of Reason« was a very welcome breath of fresh air after two straight rounds of Waters' dark confessionals, and it blew away the depressive gloom that had started to choke this legendary band.

"Despite Waters' grumbling and contempt for the album, it deservedly got a warmer reception and more enthusiasm than "The Final Cut" from both fans and critics at the time, so Gilmour and Mason came out of this battle of egos as the winners…

The tenth studio album from American singer, musician, songwriter and arranger Ben Harper is a record of extraordinary intensity, a raw, personal confession from the most intimate corners of the artist's forever restless soul.

"Somewhere In California" is the new Night Ranger album, and it slots in between "Midnight Madness" and "Seven Wishes" without a second thought. It's a freshly inspired record of that unmistakable AOR sound, the same as ever but built for a…

Castle, a trio from San Francisco, won't end male dominance in doom, but Elisabeth Blackwell proves that doom coming out of a woman's throat can be at least as good as from a man's, if not better!

The debut studio album Sunshine Makes Me High is the manifesto of a talented band riding a cunning trend wave. They mix post-grunge foundations, punk arrogance, and clichéd melodic detours toward pop.

A musical gem that takes you into a wild world where metal melts passionately into the ambient elements of post-apocalyptic psychedelia, and it does it across two flawless discs!

"Sunshine Trip are a relatively young band from the Gorica area, riding the MTV-track wave of the new-age flood of cliché-sounding post-grunge / indie pop rock acts."

A pretty average live album, and anything but stuffed with the big hits, catches Placebo in fairly solid form, but there are no standout moments on the record. Instead of Viagra, we get plain old aspirin …

Are Gorillaz, with their flawless leap into the virtual world, finally saying goodbye to physical reality? They've swapped bodies for animations, and the records are up for free (ab)use by modern consumers …

Year of the Goat lead us down a path through the nine circles of hell, while the debut Lucem Ferre spins, packed with instrumental brilliance, sensual vocals and an atmosphere as dark and deep as an abyss.

A chaotic epic that chokes you right to the end, as Tumido mark a decade of underground elemental mayhem with thunder of obscure proportions. Will they break into the mainstream? Not yet ...

A complete unknown from next door, but if you're even a little open to musical experiments, their debut won't leave you cold and indifferent!

They're not the best band in the whole world, but their debut is more than a good invitation to dance and to start fixing this rotten world!

A quality studio debut from a promising young band out of Radovljica, with great modern "groove" production, a nice dose of technical spice, and a blend of basic thrash forms and harmonized melodies.

A provocative collection of covers that's excellent in every way, and a welcome stopgap while we wait impatiently for the band's new studio album, due out later this year.

The nocturnal "Destroyed" isn't the peak of Moby's career, nor does it crack the top tier of his most striking records, but it still successfully unveils some of the musician's visions that have so far gone unrealized.

Hans Zimmer has long been a byword for quality when it comes to scoring Hollywood blockbusters, so it's no surprise that "On Stranger Tides" is yet another gem for all film music fans.

What we've got here is a sonically marginal, dreamy electro indie rock album. That's a surprise, since you'd have expected a step up from the sound and style Dredg defined on "Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion".

"Testimony 2" is a terrific follow-up to Neal's self-titled debut from 2003, and taken as a whole it even comes out better than the key album of his solo career.

»Live Rails« is a real live-album treat for all the longtime fans of this legendary guitarist, who, despite having hit the big six-oh, is still bursting with youthful energy.

Sound Of Sunshine is an album that stays squarely within the range of Michael Franti and his band Spearhead. It takes no creative step forward and instead sails along in the tried-and-true forms of expression his fans widely accept.

A new manifesto of sonic-collage sophistication. It keeps nodding to the retro sound of the early nineties, while showing that the band keeps relentlessly stretching the individuality of its own sonic vision.

The second round of remixes of the legendary Depeche Mode's music is a hugely successful follow-up in experimenting with the sound of one of the most influential bands of all time! Different, but still "Depeche Mode" enough.

The musical phenomenon of movement and metamorphosis rolls on with a new sonic experiment. Time for the commandment of sex, drugs and UFOs!

Kriza identitete is a manifesto of exceptional intelligence of spirit and independent artistic individuality, and a creative musical high point of alternative rock culture in Slovenia. Welcome home, boys

A stripped-down, proper hard rock album with a recognizably American sound that doesn't hide its flirtation with blues elements. But in character it's a true John Waite record, and the dazzling vocal delivery is still very much there.

»Them Or Us« is a great cross-section of Frank's creative output from the period before his interest in electric guitar duels slowly began to fade and he started favoring jazz fusion, classical and even computer music.

Ten years after Bič, Luči and Upanje, the time has come to keep pushing back against the world and to lyrically tell stories of love and suffering. The outstanding Planet starcev sings juicily about a world of fallen ideals.

The debut from Finland's hard-grinding crew sets a high bar for the road ahead, one paved with hard graft, self-denial and the pursuit of perfection.

Honest, bursting with ideas and an ever more recognizable part of the Slovenian alternative scene, Nikki Louder deliver their noisy vision of a world that died yesterday. A record you could spread on bread!

A welcome shake-up of the "rut" of the last three albums! The album will especially please those of you who glorify the band's nineties legacy. More daring and more directness in classic metal rhetoric!

"Excavations of the Mind" is one of the most defining modern progressive rock albums. | "Excavations of the Mind" is one of the most defining modern progressive rock albums.

With their new album, Mit have proven they're a band with real room to grow. "Asertiv" builds on their debut "Stik", and tops it above all with a great new production and polished, mature arrangements.

With the new album "Pot do sonca", BHC keep evolving tirelessly and growing as artists. The new record deepens the mix of sharp-edged rocking funk grooves and tight melodic appeal.

"Diksilend" is the point where Jinx's musical voice comes of age. It gives the "retro pop" label even more meaning and weight for the band, and with this album they carve out a clear, recognizable spot in the Croatian mainstream.

The AOR wizards from San Francisco return with a new pearl of melodic brilliance, banishing the spell of Perry's irreplaceability for good. A dynamic, red-hot rocker of an album that sets new milestones in the band's evolution.

From Pet Shop Boys dance music to music for a ballet. This is boldly followed by the evolution of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's artistic personas and their refined score for Andersen's "happily ever after" fairy tale

The first DVD from our country's first beer-soaked rock debauchers, with which the band planted its flag in the Tivoli toilets and, without meaning to, gave it historic value by closing out the Maki era

"Nichelodeon are yet another bunch of eccentric oddballs on today's music scene who are actually doing really well, which is a big surprise given their (over)bold moves."

With their tenth studio album, Deicide keep marching along sharply drawn lines they refuse to stray from, not even far enough for Benton to carry his Easter basket off to be blessed.

Reviving the revived revival. New retro heavy rock hopefuls with a whiff of traditional N.W.O.B.H.M. sounds, straight out of the Netherlands. Potent, alive, a touch naive at times, but full of heart!

Azil 5 is a Serbian quintet from Novi Sad. "Strastan, go i bos" is a special album, a statement of arrival from a band with sharp intellect and artistic flexibility who never stop thrilling in their musical fulfillment.

The recording of the Belgrade Arena show is a document proving that even in the autumn of its career, Riblja Čorba is a credible holder of the title of one of the biggest bands of the former shared homeland.

Sarcasm, reborn and revitalized on their fifth studio album, have hit the peak of their "post-reunion" output! Something To Believe In is truly something that's easy to believe in.

Of everything Frank ever put out, "Francesco Zappa" is by far the safest bet for the ears of your average 'Sunday lunch' Slovenian family, including grandma and grandpa, who would have called the cops years ago if you'd blasted literally…

With their debut Puzzles of Flesh, Kreation Kodex hugely enrich the Slovenian metal scene and leave their mark on it!

"Live At Nassau Coliseum '78" is a great investment for every ELP fanatic, and even for the slightly less hardcore fans, since it catches the legendary trio at the peak of their live powers.

"Welcome To My DNA" keeps up the tradition of musical artistry and ethics from the previous two albums. A new release that's quality all the way through, from the English-Israeli duo of Porcupine Tree boss Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen.

"A History of Madness" is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that ticks every box of what a work of musical art should be – even more, it's a record that's artistically polished from every angle (musical, literary ...).

"Truth Be Told" is an album built on the real "groove" of the legendary Weather Report.

"Hologramatron" is an uncompromising, innovative madman, a modern "The Wall". | "Hologramatron" is an uncompromising and innovative madman, the new "The Wall".

Only the biggest fans of the Tron franchise and Daft Punk will likely pick up the "reconfigured" Tron: Legacy soundtrack. Both camps will probably walk away disappointed.

A modern alt pop-rock album from across the border, sometimes laced with synths, programmed-sample rhetoric and/or organic collages of acoustic guitar and string arrangements. Easygoing and relaxing.

The new album deepens the character of its predecessor, and comes across even livelier, warmer and more destructive. Uriah Heep have once again eyed their own primal origins while keeping the creative engine that drives them forward fresh.

With their new album, Nazareth prove that a fresh creative hunger is surging unstoppably through their veins, and thankfully it hasn't let up since "The Newz". It's a worthy successor to the "Naz" legacy of the golden era.

With their third album, Dekadent keep climbing the ranks of avant-garde black metal's elite, and Venera: Trial & Tribulation is yet another peak for the band.

With their new release, Sahara Rain keep growing and reaching higher. "Eternity" is a very pretty melodic hard rock album that moves the Swiss hard rockers a step forward, though there's still room to build on.

»The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack« is a long way from the debuts of certain prog rock pioneers who put their best foot forward right out of the gate, but it's still an exceptionally solid piece of sonic history.

"Forevermore" brings back the qualities that made David Coverdale and Whitesnake so beloved and instantly recognizable. It sounds warmer, more natural, and doesn't lean nearly as hard on the metal gloss as its predecessor.

Lars Fiil Quartet have already knocked down the barriers with their debut. | Lars Fiil Quarter have already overcome all the barriers with their debut.

The death of friend and comrade-in-arms Dave Prichard became the acid test of both the will and the quality of the grieving remainder of the band. The album blows past every expectation and marks a milestone in their career.