Reviews

Label: Provogue Records/Mascot Label GroupRelease date: August 28, 2020Producer: Eric CorneAlbum length: 57.44 minGenre: Blues RockRating: 9.0/10 Walter Trout is a blues rock legend and one of the most prominent musicians in modern…

Label: Insideout RecordsRelease date: 11. 9. 2020Production: Neal MorseLength: 65.44 minGenre: Progressive RockRating: 8.0/10 God-fearing prog rock icon Neal Morse never rests, whether we're talking about his solo career, his work…

Label: Toff Records/The Merch DeskRelease date: 2/14/2020Production: Nick BarrettAlbum length: 64.04 minGenre: Neo-Progressive RockRating: 9.5/10 Cult neo-prog heroes Pendragon are back with a new album, »Love Over Fear«, and after…

Label: Escape MusicRelease date: 9/18/2020Production: Brian AnthonyAlbum length: 48.28 minGenre: AOR/Hard RockRating: 8.0/10 Among AOR fans, Steve Overland is pretty much a sacred vocal icon. I don't know how many people in Slovenia…

Self-releasedRelease date: 31. 1. 2020Production: Matej GobecAlbum length: 28.37 minGenre: Rock/Alternative Rock/Pop RockRating: 8.0/10 Klon are yet another new homegrown rock outfit, this one hailing from the Savinja corner of…

Label: Dallas RecordsRelease date: 9/23/2020Production: Bogunov, Jurij Toni, Eki Alilovski & Sandi TrojnerAlbum length: 55.04 minGenre: Art RockRating: 9.5/10 Bogunov, a band that's been around since 2002 or so – at least that's…

Label: SPV/SteamhammerRelease date: September 18, 2020Production: RavenAlbum length: 38.55 minGenre: Heavy MetalRating: 8.5/10 For fans of the days when metal was the young, innocent child of the ever-harder rock of the seventies,…

Label: Insideout MusicRelease date: 17. 7. 2020Production: John MitchellAlbum length: 49.46 minGenre: Progressive RockRating: 9.0/10 John Mitchell (Arena, It Bites, Kino, Frost*, The Urbane) is an English guitar virtuoso and…

Label: English Electric RecordingsRelease date: June 26, 2020Production: Nick D'VirgilioAlbum length: 69.13 minGenre: Progressive Rock/Art RockRating: 10/10 NDV is the abbreviation, and longtime nickname, of charismatic American…

Label: Napalm RecordsRelease date: 8/21/2020Production: Andrew KingsleyAlbum length: 55.56 minGenre: Power Metal Power metal might not be the first genre that comes to mind when you think of Canada, but the fact is that one of the…

Label: Roadrunner RecordsRelease date: September 24, 2020Production: Josh WilburAlbum length: 46:31 Over the past decade, Florida's Trivium have become one of the most talked-about bands on the metal scene. And nothing here is left to…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: September 4, 2020Production: Michael SweetAlbum length: 46.33 minGenre: (Christian) Heavy Metal Rating: 9.0/10 Who was the one whose wounds healed the (sinful) Christian world? The biblical…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: September 4, 2020Production: Perfect PlanAlbum length: 55.19 minGenre: AORRating: 9.0/10 One thing's clear: AOR isn't going anywhere. It's an archaic genre that's been shoved underground and…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: August 7, 2020Production: LandfallAlbum length: 49.11 minGenre: Melodic RockRating: 7.5/10 Landfall have dropped their studio debut, "The Turning Point". They're a Brazilian melodic rock band…

"The album comes across as "childishly naive," because it speaks to you with virginally sincere enthusiasm, even though experience and mileage stand behind it. That very fact makes it clear that with this record Blues Pills have grown one…

"A brilliant progressive, all-instrumental metal album that's everything Petrucci isn't allowed to be in Dream Thater, and yet you know full well that without an album like “Teminal Velocitiy,” there would never have been a Dream Theater."

Anotos is a record that smartly marries elements of the old and new death metal schools. It brings intensity, zero compromise and plenty of dynamics.

"The new live document reflects a new era for the band, which is standing on the threshold of a fresh creative chapter. They crowned it with their latest studio album - the first with vocalist Tom Englund (Evergrey) - and this superb live…

"Vanishing Point's new album "Dead Elysium" picks up the story right where its predecessor "Distant Is The Sun" (2014) left off. Fans had to wait a long time for it again, but the wait paid off."

“Love Is” has some really lovely artistic potential. Especially if Steve Howe didn't sing on five of the album's tracks. Apparently even too much love, the downright superfluous kind, can do a bit of damage now and then.

“One thing's for sure. The old farts know how to handle the goods. And after 34 years, the new Alcatrazz album found its way back to 1986 with ease. With commander and iconic rock singer Graham Bonnet at the helm and a whole constellation…

"“The Red Planet” easily stands alongside the finest achievements in Wakeman's hugely sprawling solo output. For all its sheer quantity, there aren't actually that many records in it that deserve the label of masterpiece, as you might…

"Just one day after the release of the album “II”, the first day of the annual Frontiers Rock festival went down in Trezzo Sull' Adda, near Milan in Lombardy, and the first day's lineup also included Fortune, who were given 50 minutes to…

"Blue Öyster Cult's debut, with a one-of-a-kind essence and substance, still speaks to you and hits home after 45 years, evergreen and practically timeless."

"Put simply, it's another quality Mad Max album, one that will win over fans not just of this band but of old-continent European hard rock, as long as they go easy on Voss's worn-out vocals.”

"An album without a single dip in quality and a love letter to the golden age of AOR. Catchy, and even in 2020 still tickling in all the right places."

"A project with potential that surely won't have the last word, though the 2018 debut remains considerably more convincing."

“The debut album from Swedish melodic rock outfit Arctic Rain, led by veteran composer and keyboardist Pete Alpenborg, is going to make every die-hard fan of Scandinavian craftsmanship and proper AOR revivalism very happy.”

"“The band is totally 'stripped down', honest and straight-up. Frontal. The hooks are simple, the rhythms catchy and charging. A mostly 'adrenaline' album that invites you to a hellish party, soaked in burning high-octane fuel and loaded…

"The Bay Area legends don't do surrender. Quite the opposite. They radiate fire, wildness and a frighteningly bestial commitment, delivering one of this year's strongest, most charismatic and, in the end, most beautiful and truest-to-form…

"The Mael brothers have never bowed to anyone, and this time is no different: they refuse to play along with today's life and moral systems and norms."

"No two ways about it. Once again, this is the real Paradise Lost album: it sends sacral shivers down your spine and spins a demonically alluring magnetism with a touch of the kiss of death, in which the soul of frozen hopelessness…

"“Vector” was a story of birth, growth and development, while “Virus” is its opposite. It's the story of a not-so-honorable final lap of the human era. A new chapter packed with thrilling artistic brilliance from British progressive metal…

"With »Whoosh!« Deep Purple have made it loud and clear that they're in no rush to retire from the studio and are still having a blast making new music. Once again they've delivered an impressively solid record, on par with everything…

"A dark, solemn and seductive album, full of mysteries and, for 2020, full of sonic oddities and strangeness. An album that is also seriously catchy and easy to listen to, and that never, not for a second, "wears you down" with the looming…

"Ideas woven into colorful progressive metal instrumentals, steeped in a staggering grasp of neoclassical lessons, all of it riding vehemently on the wings of razor-sharp alertness and the sensuality of Latin temperament and instinct. A fan…

Heaven Shall Burn took a risky gamble with the double album Of Truth And Sacrifice, but in the end it turns out to have been a calculated one. The album has everything Heaven Shall Burn are known for, and then some.

"Beyond a dreadful cover that's unworthy of the high musical quality embodied by the otherwise excellent 'The Reality of Miralces,' Lionheart have hit their mark on every count."

"A record that doesn't surprise and could, under the circumstances, have come out as the new Labyrinth album, yet brings tons of joy to all fans of Mark Boals' vocal feats."

"»Pod pritiskom« strengthens the distinctive voice of Grizl's hard rock, which was established with their predecessor “17 mečev”. The album is darker than its predecessor, more intense in its phrasing, and also serves up a “fatter” guitar…

"“Creatures and freaks like the ones conjured up by the imagination of the underworld and sent after Warkings by the devil have no hope. “Revenge” delivers exactly what this band's fans demand, seek out and want."

"Evolution stopped a long time ago, but the formula is one of a kind, and these seasoned old foxes know exactly how to crank out a fresh batch of true-metal marches that will keep power metal fans under the spell of that primal German…

"»Čas brez iluzij« is a moving, deeply felt record from start to finish. With his confessional one-of-a-kind voice, Gartner adds one more musical gem to the rich, colorful tradition of Slovenian singer-songwriter music, a piece that's been…

"Generally speaking, this project isn't just bold, it's above all a success. It fuses two musical worlds into an excellent, unusual body of work, a metal opera that keeps you entertained even in the theater. U.D.O. stepped away from their…

"Just as the raw energy of untamed winds bends the trees around Slovenia's Ajdovščina region, this release speaks in the same untamed, razor-sharp avant-garde way, and any attempt to pin down its character is hopeless."

“Shuffle and Go” is yet another vivid proof that Fairport Convention age like fine wine: the older they get, the better they sound, especially when it comes to songwriting maturity and consistency.

Label: Not Two RecordsRelease date: May 15, 2020Recorded by: Borut ČelikMixing and mastering: Iztok ZupanAlbum length: 45.02 minGenre: Free Jazz / Avant-gardeRating: 9.5/10Buy the album! This year saw the release of a gorgeous…

"The main goal of the album "Vrane" has been achieved. Grega hasn't sacrificed a speck of his unique artistic originality. If anything, he's broadened the vividness of his guitar genius with new moves and ideas, successfully weaving into…

"»s/t« keeps that proverbially cute, warped wall of sonic noise, the biting, snappy sonic terror dictated, held back and nurtured, in an unbridled garage-hardened assault, by the avalanche-like noise racket of this "cocky" Kamnik trio!"

"The »Joe Blacksmith« EP is a precise, conscientious, heartfelt, dedicated and resolutely measured step in that direction. To be more precise - in the right direction."

"Prehensile Tales" is an upgrade on the Pattern-Seeking Animals debut in every way. With its superb production, enviable virtuosity and adventurous, eclectic flights of fancy, this album is bound to enchant every prog rock gourmand out…

Even though "Full House" was made during a transitional period, with Fairport Convention constantly struggling to pin down a stable line-up, it was yet another British folk rock classic, almost on a par with "Liege & Lief" in quality.

“Liege & Lief” is the cornerstone of the British folk rock scene and an album that every lover of good music should own, even if folk rock isn't one of their favorite genres. With it, Fairport Convention made their most important and…

"“Lions” is a new musical manifesto of exactly what the Tokyo Motor Fist debut put on the table. It brings no change, but it is once again a seriously bold and fun collision of the musical cross-section of Danger Danger and Trixter, with…

“‘Grit Your Teeth’ brings nothing new that the band hasn't already said plenty of times. The one change is a shift in production toward harder-hitting structures. Eleven by-the-book anthems that slot right into the mold of the band's older…

”Compared to the 'smashing' »Solitude« – let's call it an album firmly backed by a heavier dose of distorted sonic seasoning – »Aura« is its complete opposite. The musical about-face has handed the band yet another flawless studio…

"It's not yet clear whether this is the album of their artistic zenith. Kyros are still developing by leaps and bounds, and "Celexa Dreams" is a definitive, mature step up from its predecessor "Vox Humana", on which Kyros had already…

"The chemistry is there and the album grips hard. From the first second to the last, it's anything but a lighthearted romp, and with it Airbag stake out new territory in their artistic evolution. In grand style. About time, too."

"Compared to their last album, "We Are Legend" (2017), where Magenta chased a modern sound and tried on a more contemporary musical wardrobe, on "Masters Of Illusion" they're flirting with the giants of the golden age of prog rock again.…

"From A Dying Ember" is a superb new Falconer release that will delight every loyal follower of the band. They stay true to their musical recipe and don't budge an inch from it. With this album the band has also officially retired, and…

"Curiosity is a bastard! It never satisfies you completely. And how do we want to live? In a utopia, or a dystopia? The synthesis of artificial intelligence and humans in the gripping direction of the new Long Distance Calling album"

"Todd Sucherman, the drummer of American rock icons Styx, tries on the singer-songwriter hat on his studio debut and delivers an outstanding art and pop rock gem of eighties retro-nostalgia."

"“26 East: Volume 1” is a revelation for fans of classic Styx, and it adds yet another phenomenal solo studio album to DeYoung's collection of auteur perfectionism. It's bursting with drama-theater flair and pompous melodies, brilliant…

"Fans of the N.W.O.B.H.M. days will be thrilled (again) after 'Unbroken', because with 'Dark Revolution' Tokyo Blade have paid off yet another one of the many debts they owed their fans, who over the years had every right to lose hope that…

City Burials is the kind of album fans will fall for instantly. But going by the sheer quality, it's safe to say it'll win the band some new fans too. Once again, Katatonia stay consistent in their style and somehow just can't disappoint.

"Dominator returns! On wings of apocalyptic doom and merciless fury, he'll crush the last spark of your barren faith and delusional hopes, because the era of steel has dawned."

"With the help of its 'newcomers', who are brimming with great songwriting and arranging ideas, the legendary band sounds fresh the whole way through and can stand toe to toe with plenty of modern prog revivalists who love to imitate…

"In terms of virtuosic daring, the reinterpretation of the classics at times even steals the spotlight from the most notorious live albums by Yes, led by “Yessongs” and “Yesshows”."

"No beating around the bush: this is an album we can instantly tag as the "Victims Of Deception of the 21st century." That alone means "The Evolution Of Chaos" is one of the finest releases the metal scene gave us in 2010."

"The Who are simply, quietly reminding the world of music that they're back."

With Macro, Jinjer mostly just confirm their status, but there's no real, noticeable natural progression to speak of. Macro is undoubtedly a solid release, but the band already proved with its predecessor that it's capable of more.

"“We Are the Night” is a fascinating, let's just call it melodic metal, release that once again bursts with a top-shelf dose of predatory pomp rhetoric, thanks to a new manifesto of big conceptual punch from Magnus Karlsson."

"With 'New World – New Eyes,' House Of Lords once again make their fans happy with a full-blooded record, and the lovers of this genre too, a genre that's pretty archaic in a lot of ways these days."

"'Worlds Beyond', the debut album from Swedish progressive metallers Paralydium, is a bold manifesto from a young, ambitious band, marked by great chemistry between the building blocks of its sound, a polished focus and a collection of very…

"This live document is another must-have for the collection of every die-hard fan of the band, and there are certainly plenty of them. It's not exactly a surprise, and some of the band's other live achievements and official releases are far…

"This is an album that's been very skillfully brought up to date in the studio, and it's a bridge to everything that bound Arch and Matheos together on their past albums. Definitely a bridge back to early Fates Warning too."

With Death Atlas, Cattle Decapitation deliver the most polished, most refined record of their career. Every previous release was said to be a tough act to follow, but after this one, the next album will undoubtedly have a hell of a job on…

"With a performance at the Royal Albert Hall that was wrapped in a top-notch atmosphere from start to finish, Steve's in-great-spirits gang delivered an outstanding live set that covered every Genesis album from 1971 to 1976. "

“Curse of the Hidden Mirror” did have a few ups and downs in quality, but all in all it was still a thrilling record that delivered a heaping helping of listening pleasure for most longtime Blue Öyster Cult fans. After the solid “Heaven…

"“Heaven Forbid” remains the overlooked album in the band's huge discography, which makes a lot of sense when you set it next to Blue Öyster Cult's seventies legacy. Still, it's a superb effort, one where the band worked some of the essence…

"The tracks are tailor-made for Zak Stevens' vocal range, and his involvement is the element that conjures up the most Savatage associations. Everything else on the album is a cute bit of "teasing," with detours that, as mentioned, credibly…

"»Firewind« will be hard for any other power metal album to top this year. Firewind have dropped the best power metal album of 2020 so far, and chances are it'll stay that way!"

»On "Titans Of Creation" you'll look in vain for anything you haven't already heard from Testament, or for anything especially fresh, since it sounds very much like its predecessors "Brotherhood of the Snake" and "Dark Roots Of Earth". At…

Gathering Of Kings will appeal to fans of the Scandinavian sound and approach in melodic rock revivalism. Even on their second album, they're not reinventing the wheel, or inventing any "musical Einstein"

With The Nothing, Korn deliver another superbly produced record packed with punch and darkness. It's an album that will thrill the band's followers.

"On his new self-released studio outing, this outstanding musical gem of a talent keeps deepening, widening and nurturing the expressive qualities of his previous three albums, holding onto a top-shelf standard of musical artistry dressed…

"The new single "Man Alive" announces that the creative muse is far from done with Deep Purple, even after the 'The Long Goodbye' tour, which signaled that retirement wasn't far off, and after their induction into the controversial 'Rock…

"The rebirth of a legendary band in the truest sense. For new times. With a new focus! Let's hope Adrian Vandenberg keeps this fire burning in the years to come, because a hard rock achievement this good was really not something anyone…

With “Fields of Blood,” Grave Digger has at least partly made up for some of the below-par albums it put out over the past ten years.

"The Path of 01" is an unusual, one-of-a-kind and endlessly thrilling product of a bold jazz collision between five very different musical characters, resulting in a vivid body of work where analog and digital elements settle into a…

"Artistically, AlogiA have outgrown their previous studio efforts in maturity with the new album."

"SickBreed have what it takes to climb one day, among the new "alt-whatever" rock outfits in the traditionally colorful expanse of the Slovenian alternative rock underground, into the pick of the more exciting acts on the domestic scene."

"The band has come out of this album artistically even stronger. With an exceptional level of focus and commitment, they've created a document of great creative freshness. And in exploring newly discovered musical expanses, their bold…

"With »V«, Grand Design remain the ultimate "party time" band. Fans of that radio-friendly 80s rock sound will gladly give this album their attention despite the constant flirting with the look and work of Def Leppard, and it should go down…

As I Lay Dying are back with Shaped By Fire, and they came back in style. The rich production, with its powerful sound, only backs that up. It's an album made for the fans, no doubt. Whether AILD can keep up this quality going forward, only…

"So Ivanhoe haven't changed all that much. Albums come out painfully slowly, but the style stays recognizable and unmistakably theirs. A traditional German-bred progressive metal record, the kind you practically need a lantern in broad…

"Listening to this document, it's a genuine revelation, especially if you haven't spun the "Future World" album in a long while (ten or fifteen years or more), how this album is still such a compositionally strong and polished manifesto of…

Label: Metal Mind ProductionsRelease date: 21.02.2020Production: Ian ParryAlbum length: 44.45 minGenre: Progressive Rock / Art RockRating: 9.0/10 Ian Parry is no stranger to the rock’n’roll scene. He kicked off his music career in…

"Synchronized is another top-notch chapter from this long-running British AOR outfit. Fans of the British take on the genre will be thrilled, and for the revivalists (the younger crop of melodic rock bands) it'll once again serve as a handy…

"This live document is an essential piece in the collection of any fan of this exceptional vocalist. And if you want more than just the digital version, take comfort in the fact that the very same concert keepsake will come as a bonus CD…