Category: Reviews

ME AGAINST THE WORLD “Breaking Apart” (Fastball Music) I usually don’t read the press releases that comes with the albums because I want to have a blank mind when I listen to an album for the first time. But that also means that I at times assume totally wrong. What I thought a band would sound like turns out to be as wrong as it can be. ME AGAINST THE WORLD sounds to me like the name of a hardcore band. This is much more of a hardrock band even though the guitars sound like they could cut razor wire.… Continue reading

M I GOD “Specters On Parade”’ (Fastball Music) M I GOD are new to me. I have interviewed them but that was a while back. Due to different reasons I haven’t gotten round to listen to this album until now. But I have been looking forward to hear this ever since that interview. And now it will finally happen. I have no idea what sophisticated metal is all about, but I gotta say that it does intrigue me. I don’t know why but for some reason I kinda hope that this will be like the equivalent of the Alien movies.… Continue reading

NEED 2 DESTROY “Show” (Fastball Music) There are times when I feel a total NEED 2 DESTROY. I think we all got that feeling every now and then. I hope that listening to this album will take away some of that urge to destroy. Or it might be totally opposite. Maybe I want to destroy even more after having heard this one. We’ll have to see. I am not a great fan of Sepultura from “Chaos AD “ and forward. The last album I can tolerate moderately is that Sepultura album. from there on, and with Soulfly I really have… Continue reading

PILEDRIVER “Rockwall” (ROCKWALL Records) Back in the 80s there was a band called Piledriver, that was some sort of carnival metal act. This is not that band resurrected. But the name PILEDRIVER still brings with it a degree of expectations. You cannot play weak ass music and be called PILEDRIVER. So my hopes are that this one will be a stonker of an album. I gotta say that this is not really my cup of tea. I am not that greatest fan of the more bluesy sort of hardrock/classic rock. Sure, I do love old Whitesnake but it is not… Continue reading

SILVER DUST . “House 21” (Fastball Music / Escudero Records) I am not at all familiar with this band even though their name rings familiar. But with all the bands that are out there, it is bound to happen that band names get confused with each other. Just a minor change in spelling and you have a new band. Once the intro was over this one turned into a cool entity. I have a hard time to describe it but if you can imagine Ahab fighting the whale you get a picture of the grandness of this. It is epic… Continue reading

STEORRAH “The Altstadt Abyss” (Fastball Music) There is something bigger than life about this bands name. Like it is some sort of roar of intent. That it is bloody hard to pronounce in a correct way just adds to the feeling that this can be something really massive. Progressive death metal to me is latter day Death. Perhaps you could throw in Atheist and Pestilence too. At first I thought I was gonna dislike this new STEORRAH album like there was no tomorrow but somehow it grew on me the more I listened to it. I always trust my gut… Continue reading

SYRENCE “Freedom In Fire” (Fastball Music) It might just be me because I am Swedish that I came to think of a flower the first time I saw this band’s name. I don’t think that there is too much flowers about this German heavy metal band, not that flowers cannot be used in metal. But they do not look like the kind of band that has flowers and stuff on stage. Melodic heavy metal is so much better than any pop music will ever be. I don’t have to listen to some weak ass music to get a dose of… Continue reading

Lee Aaron – “Power, Soul, And Rock N’ Roll – Live In Germany” CD / DVD (Metalville) If you remember 80s hits like ‘Whatcha Do To My Body’ or ‘Sex With Love’ – not to mention the double platinum album “Bodyrock” – then the name Lee Aaron should not come as a surprise. Snapped up by Attic Records in the early 80s, Aaron released 6 albums through them, and toured Europe extensively along with appearances in Japan and America, earning herself 3 Toronto Music Awards for Best Female Vocalist and 10 Juno nominations! However, by the mid 90s Aaron moved… Continue reading

Coffins – “Beyond The Circular Demise” (Relapse Records) Make no mistake, Coffins are here to destroy souls. After more than 20 years, few can be forgiven for not knowing the foreboding doom death noise this Japanese cult band evoke. Spitting in the face of innovation – don’t even think about commercialism – Coffins prefer to dig even deeper into the foul bowels of their evil souls. And when darkness isn’t black enough, when death isn’t the end but the beginning, you’ll find them staring right back at you from the abyss. With 4 full length releases and a jaw dropping array… Continue reading

Tungsten – “We Will Rise” (Arising Empire) Meaning ‘heavy stone’ in Swedish, tungsten is a rare metal almost exclusively combined with other elements in chemical compounds rather than alone – and so too it is with Tungsten the band. Formed by ex Hammerfall / Yngwie J Malmsteen drummer Anders Johansson and his sons Nick (guitars) and Karl (bass & keyboards) along with vocalist Mike Andersson (Cloudscape, Planet Alliance, Fullforce), Tungsten deliver a superb combination of old and modern melodic metal dripping in Nordic melodies, a suave touch of the neoclassical and basking in epic glory!! Indeed, if there’s one thing this impressive… Continue reading