Category Archives: Reviews

DEAD AND BREAKFAST “Rebirth” (-) This is an odd name for a band and it does not really tell me anything about what to expect from the music, unless I expect something totally off the wall. And since I don’t this is gonna be a really cool surprise or a brutal let down. This is much more hardrock, even heavy metal, than I expected it to be. With a band name like that I kinda expected this to be some sort of flipped out Frank Zappa trip but it grooves really cool. This is some catchy as hell stuff. It … Continue reading

DEADHEAD ”Swine Plague” (Hammerheart Records) I remember DEAD HEAD from the 90s. I think I even have one of their early records in my collection. This as I remember it was a deathrash kinda band back in the days. They weren’t pure thrash and not full out death metal. It is going to be interesting to see what some odd 20 years has done to the band and their sound. I wish I could say that this sounds like they did in the 90s but the truth is that I do not remember what they sounded like back then. But … Continue reading

EORONT ”Another Realm” (Code666) EORONT sound like some kind of weird lizard. But since I doubt that this Siberian band has named themselves after an animal I have no idea where the name comes from. I don’t think that I have come across that many bands from Siberia. Not that I think the cold harsh environment and the many Soviet gulags will shine through in their music it is still cool to come across a Siberian band. After an intro this broke free and became a black metal inferno. I thought I had nailed what EORONT sounds like but then … Continue reading

AURELIO FOLLIERI “Overnight” (RED CAT RECORDS Inst Fringe) Instrumental albums do come my way every now and then and every time I am as lost as I can be. As I am no musician I have a harder time getting my head around the technical side of the performance and instead have to concentrate on the musical side. Whenever I get sent an album like this I wish that I learnt to play the guitar. I don’t know what kind of musician I would have been but I like to think that I would have created the most beautiful music … Continue reading

SCARGOD ”Stay In Track” (7Hard) This is a new band to me. They are being described as melodic metal and since I like a bit of melody I am looking forward to getting better acquainted with this band’s music. The question that begs to be answered is what kind of melodic metal band they are. I guess what I consider melodic and what the label does are two separate things because this isn’t the melodic metal that I had expected. This is much more dark/gothic/extreme metal than it is melodic. This turned out to be decent enough. This is not … Continue reading

WASTES “Into the Void of Human Vacuity ” (Code666) I have to admit that I don’t know how to pronounce this bands name. If I do it in English it just sounds stupid and pointless. But if it is in any other language then it makes much more sense. But a band name is just a band name if the music isn’t worth anything. And WASTES are supposedly an extreme funeral doom band. One thing is for sure, you gotta have great patience if you listen to funeral doom because this is slow. If you don’t like people who drag … Continue reading

YAGOW “S/T” (Crazysane) The first time I heard Sleep I was blown away. Not that they were revolutionary or anything like that but because they took the whole idea of doom so much further. I had heard bands that played slower than slow before but not in the way Sleep did. YAGOW seem to be worshipping at the altar of slower than slow space gazing doom. And if that is so then this has all the promises of being something special. And this is spaced out. Ever since Beatles dived into the whole eastern philosophy pool bands have had a … Continue reading

Suffocation – “…Of The Dark Light” (Nuclear Blast) Along with Immolation, Suffocation are one of New York’s longest running and greatest death metal bands since the late 80s. Evolving in line with the genre to become increasingly more technical, albeit in subtle phases, Suffocation are widely regarded for pioneering slow stop-start phases known as ‘breakdowns’ which the band use to lethal effect here, not just to add superbly well timed tempo changes within their song arrangements, but also to blend one song into one another such as on the opener ‘Clarity Through Deprivation’ where the breakdown towards the end amid a … Continue reading

Tankard – “One Foot In The Grave” (Nuclear Blast) One of the ‘Teutonic 4’, you knew even back in the 80s that with a name like Tankard, these guys were definitely different to Destruction, Sodom and Kreator! Indeed, with a decidedly different outlook to life i.e. drink n be merry, Tankard’s brand of beer thrash was soon making its mark among the thrash hordes of Germany, playing to a national past time, while more than able to kick it, at least in speed and aggression with their peers, if not in their grimness. From their “Zombie Attack” debut in 1986, … Continue reading

Destructor – “Decibel Casualties” (Pure Steel Records) When the smoke clears – only one remains: Destructor. Hailing out’ve Cleveland OH, if ever there was a band that lived up to their name then Destructor was it. Although labelled ‘thrash’ Destructor went well beyond those boundaries to produce their own OTT sound and image that took everything to the max (along with a fair amount of bondage tape). Releasing “Maximum Destruction” in 1985 only proved to the world what they were capable of – and more than justified names like Dave Overkill, Matt Flammable, Pat Rabid and Dave Holocaust. Tragically while … Continue reading