Category: Reviews

SHADOW WARROR “Cyberlblade” (Ossuary Records) I don’t know why I at first thought that this was a Japanese heavy metal band. I just got that feeling from them. But the fact is that this is a Polish classic heavy metal band. And I love classic heavy metal. It took me a while to get my head around the music of SHADOW WARRIOR but once I got accustomed to them not being Japanese I could start enjoying the music. If melody driven heavy metal is your thing and you like me is kinda trapped in the 80s still, this might appeal… Continue reading

IRON FLESH “Summoning The Putrid” (Grand Dane Records) “Swedish old skull death metal from France”. Can it get any better? Not to my ears. Swedish old school death metal is great no matter where the band come from. IRON FLESH formed as a one-man band in 2017 but soon decided to start playing live. Listening to this is like hearing a mix of Entombed and Grave. That heavy, sluggish riffing that is so connected with these two bands. As cool as it is to hear old school Swedish death metal as hard is it to get it totally right. If… Continue reading

HELL:ON “Scythian Stamm” () I don’t remember the first time I heard HELL:ON but judging from the archive I first heard them back in 2011. I have since then interviewed them a couple of times and reviewed a couple of their records too. The last one being the split they did with Pripjat. I apparently liked what I heard in the past and I see no reason to change my opinion with this new one. This is what I would like to describe as deathrash. A mix of death and thrash metal where you don’t know where one ends and… Continue reading

PIGSTY “Pig Blood” (Bizarre Leprous Productions) I am a horror movie fan but I gotta admit that I am not the greatest fan of the Omen movies. I have watched all I think but after having seen The Exorcist and RoseMary’s Baby it didn’t do too much for me. Sure, a child is always scary in horror movies. Czech PIGSTY seems to have based their whole album “Pig Blood” on the Omen movie. Not that you can really tell from their death/grind/gore. I am not the biggest connoisseur of this kind but I gotta admit that I like what I… Continue reading

DARK ZODIAK “Ophiuchus – The Thirteenth Sign of Zodiac” () Back in 2015 I interviewed DARK ZODIAK. I haven’t been paying that much attention to them since then. I even used to own an album by them that I recently sold simply because I couldn’t remember if I liked the album or not. But here I sit with their latest album to be released at the end of January 2021. Since I don’t remember what they sounded like on that 2015 album this is like starting all over again. And I have to admit that in hindsight I kinda regret… Continue reading

ANGUISH SUBLIME “Maelstrom Imperium” (Silent Watcher Records) After a demo and a couple of EPs it is now time for Serbian melodic death metal troupe ANGUISH SUBLIME to deliver a full length. Not having heard a single note from this new release, or any other releases, making their acquaintance makes me a bit curious. Not that geography matter in this day and age of internet but it is still cool to hear a band from Serbia, just as it is cool to hear a band from Peru or Singapore. It seems everybody has their definition of what melodic death metal… Continue reading

AUTUMNBLAZE “Welkin Shores Burning” (Argonauta Records) I used to be quite down with AUTUMNBLAZE back in the 90s (I think) but somehow lost interest in them. Until I heard that this new album was about to happen. That made me buy the entire back catalogue. Hopefully this new album is as good as I remember the old ones to be. I am a big fan of melancholy. Not that I sit in darkness and cry but it does give me a warm and cozy feeling. It hits all the right notes in me. That is why I totally love latter… Continue reading

DARKENHÖLD “Arcanes & Sortiléges” (Les Acteurs De Lombre) I know that I have interviewed them back in 2016 and reviewed the previous album in 2017. So I am not totally unfamiliar with the band. It only makes me really want to hear this new one even more. I gave the previous one 4,5/5. Will this one be a 5/5 album? This is black metal, make no mistake of that. If there ever was a melodic black metal band then it has to be DARKENHÖLD. Because this is both black and melodic. At times it is almost heavy metal-ish in spirit.… Continue reading

DARKNESS “Over And Out” (Massacre Records) DARKNESS are classic second wave German thrash metal. After the big three, Destruction, Kreator and Sodom a whole plethora of bands emerged in the 80s. All playing a style of thrash that really appealed to me. Even to this day I still return to this era for some really cool thrash moments. I was supposed to see them live in 2020 but Covid-19 fucked that up. Instead I have to settle for this new EP. I gotta say that it is a bit strange to sit here now and listen to a band that… Continue reading

DOMJORD “Gravrost” (Vidfare Productions) At first I thought that DOMJORD was another Swedish black metal band to add to my 2020 collection of Swedish bands that I had not heard of. But as I investigated further I found out that this is nothing black metal at all. Instead this is ambient/acoustic. As disappointed as I was that this is not black metal as surprised am I at how much I like what I hear. The Swedish melancholy is something that I carry close to heart. I find comfort in it. Hearing this album is like a warm blanket around my… Continue reading