Going back to your origins on the eighth full length effort after eighteen long years and numerous line-up changes is a risky attempt. German heavy metal quintet Rebellion has however managed to recapture the spirit of yore and delivers a very convincing output with A Tragedy in Steel Part II: Shakespeare's King Lear. This conceptual heavy metal effort featuring twelve songs with a generous running time of sixty-four minutes shouldn't only appeal to historians and English teachers.

None of the twelve songs on here are fillers or stinkers and several noteworthy highlights can be found instead. ''Dowerless Daughter'' for instance combines traditional heavy metal with liberating oomph and conceptual storytelling without any lengths at its very best. ''Thankless Child'' is a creative, diversified and emotional epic clocking in at just below seven minutes and reminding most of the band's praiseworthy debut record. ''Black Is the World'' oozes with atmosphere, emotions and grandeur as it grows with every spin.

The record convinces with a heavy, organic and pleasantly traditional production that makes all contributors shine. This includes the numerous talented narrators and the versatile singer. It also applies to the rhythm section around the bumbling bass guitar and the energetic drum play that never takes too much space. The guitars and keyboards provide depth, melody and warmth that make this release a genre highlight.

Even though this album is slightly running out of steam by the end, it's overall still a very consistent, convincing and inspired effort that is only a tiny notch below the high quality of Shakespeare's Macbeth - A Tragedy in Steel.

In the end, I would go as far as to say that this is Rebellion's strongest studio record since the group's numerous line-up changes that occurred in the year 2010. A Tragedy in Steel Part II: Shakespeare's King Lear is a conceptual heavy metal record that should appeal to fans of the band's early years but also to potential new followers thanks to its gritty energy and inspiring intellect. Perhaps this album will also inspire heavy metal fans to pick up William Shakespeare's wonderful literature which could be an amazing side effect of this very good release.

Final Rating: 82%

About a dozen years ago, I decided to stop listening to Rebellion's records after a series of confusing line-up changes, a tame effort with Arminius: Furor Teutonicus and questionable behaviour by a band member that shouldn't be described further. The time has now come to give this band another chance and revisit its past few studio records, starting with Wyrd bið ful aræd - The History of the Saxons. As you can read, this effort is a conceptual heavy metal record about the Saxons and features twelve songs with a total running time of fifty-four minutes.

I'm glad to announce that this record is a significant step forward in comparison to its immediate predecessor. The songwriting is more focused. However, the creativity has become more eclectic this time around. The record is consistent from start to finish without any fillers or stinkers. The complex subject is treated with intellect, passion and respect.

Highlights include the creative, diversified and entertaining ''God of Mercy'' with its wonderful radio play sections, inspired musicianship and stomping mid-paced energy, the epic, heroic and liberating ''Take to the Sea'' with its memorable chorus and atmospheric power ballad ''Slave Religion'' that grows with every spin and happens to be my favourite song on the entire output thus far. The organic production enhances the quality of the material offered on this release. Its style is most similar to the band's debut album Shakespeare's Macbeth - A Tragedy in Steel that is however still a notch better in terms of execution, passion and songwriting.

At the end of the day, Rebellion's seventh full length effort Wyrd bið ful aræd - The History of the Saxons is a step in the right direction after the unconvincing predecessor. Fans of the group's early years and Teutonic heavy metal groups such as Accept, Grave Digger and Rage should certainly check this album out. It might not be able to compete with the group's greatest efforts but is nonetheless a very good conceptual heavy metal effort that should equally appeal to your brain and to your heart. After a long break from the group, Rebellion is back on my radar again and deserves much recognition.

Final rating: 80%

Exhuma is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea by director Jang Jae-hyun and starring one of the country's greatest actors ever with versatile Choi Min-sik. In a globalized world, I was more than happy to enjoy this film at the cinema of my neighbouring city. To my negative surprise, I was the only spectator who wasn't Korean in the audience. People finally need to understand that there is a wonderful cinematic world to discover out of Hollywood. Make sure to spread the word about this very good horror film.

This movie revolves around two shamans, a mortician and a Feng Shui master who are hired to lift the curse from a prosperous family of Korean emigrants by relocating the grave of their ancestor. However, things start completely spiralling out of control when this relocation occurs. Something far more sinister than the buried body of an ancestor is hidden on the gloomy hill next to the North Korean border.

Exhuma convinces on several levels. First of all, the story comes around with a few interesting shifts and turns that will keep the audience entertained throughout. The movie's ominous atmosphere is gripping from start to finish. The acting performances are overall very good as we get to witness a particularly balanced cast. The movie's final third gets quite intense and some of the viewers at the cinema were particularly scared. Light and sound techniques increase this intensity even further. The camera work is precise and focused and the special visual effects aren't overused and work particularly well.

However, this movie also has a few minor flaws. The excellent actors and actresses aren't given a script in which they can really show their immense talents. This film focuses too much on its sinister story rather than its promising characters. While some viewers at the cinema were actually scared, I didn't find the film terrifying at all as a horror movie enthusiast. The atmosphere is tense but there isn't one particularly scary scene that has stayed on my mind.

An important issue that deserves its own paragraph is the presence of racism in this film. I'm very familiar with Korean culture and cinema, have been following Korean movies closely for about two decades and have read several books on this subject as well, so people who might tell me that I don't understand some of the remarks or that I'm exaggerating things are wrong. Those are usually the kind of remarks that you get when criticizing Korean cinema. Believe me when I tell you that I think that Korean cinema has been the greatest in the world for the past two decades and that in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases I only have favourable things to say. This is why it's important to criticize things when they really matter as is the case here. Two elements have left a bitter taste in this film. First of all, the daughter of the Feng Shui master is studying in Germany and dating a local man. Instead of caring how this man treats his daughter, the only thing the master is worried about is that their children might have blue eyes. Besides the fact that blue eyes are truly beautiful, reducing future family members to one small physical detail is stereotypical racism at its worst. Another even worse element worth to be pointed out is the movie's particularly negative portrayal of Japanese culture. I'm aware that Japan has occupied Korea and committed atrocious crimes in the past but one has to eventually get over this and realize that such things happened eighty years ago when none of the characters in the movie was even alive. The film starts with a scene where a polite stewardess shyly speaks Japanese to one of the characters who rebuffs her aggressively by telling her proudly that she is Korean. Such exaggerated anger in relation to an innocent mistake seems excessive to me. That film also discusses and portrays some of the horrors the Japanese have committed in the past but these elements don't add anything to expand the depth of the plot. Such negative remarks just feel gratuitous, old-fashioned and resentful. Furthermore, the film's antagonist also turns out to be Japanese which is analyzed, discussed and shown on numerous occasions. This film attempts to show that the Korean shamans, mortician and master are courageous, determined and idealistic while the Japanese and their collaborators from the past are inherently evil. Such drastic decisions almost give this film the style of an obsolete propaganda film that might as well come from North Korea. Let me tell you that contemporary Japanese horror movies on the other side don't attempt to make any foreign ethnicities look dreadful. There are no evil buried American generals haunting poor Japanese babies. That is however exactly what you get in this film with a Japanese warrior tormenting Korean families for centuries. This movie would have been so much better if it had simply focused on an evil Korean warlord of the past as an antagonist rather than strategically dishonouring Japanese culture, history and people. The scriptwriters deserve nothing but shame for such an excessive portrayal of racism and don't even try to justify the unjustifiable.

Aside of that major flaw that deserves to be addressed, analyzed and discussed, Exhuma, originally known as Pamyo, is nonetheless an atmospheric, entertaining and intense supernatural horror movie that deserves more attention, recognition and respect. If you like this particular movie, make sure to watch other South Korean films with similar vibes that are executed even better such as The Wailing, I Saw the Devil and Memories of Murder. The underestimated recently released The Ghost Station that actually honours Japanese horror cinema also deserves your attention.

Final Rating: 7/10 Points

Exhuma is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea by director Jang Jae-hyun and starring one of the country's greatest actors ever with versatile Choi Min-sik. In a globalized world, I was more than happy to enjoy this film at the cinema of my neighbouring city. To my negative surprise, I was the only spectator who wasn't Korean in the audience. People finally need to understand that there is a wonderful cinematic world to discover out of Hollywood. Make sure to spread the word about this very good horror film.

This movie revolves around two shamans, a mortician and a Feng Shui master who are hired to lift the curse from a prosperous family of Korean emigrants by relocating the grave of their ancestor. However, things start completely spiralling out of control when this relocation occurs. Something far more sinister than the buried body of an ancestor is hidden on the gloomy hill next to the North Korean border.

Exhuma convinces on several levels. First of all, the story comes around with a few interesting shifts and turns that will keep the audience entertained throughout. The movie's ominous atmosphere is gripping from start to finish. The acting performances are overall very good as we get to witness a particularly balanced cast. The movie's final third gets quite intense and some of the viewers at the cinema were particularly scared. Light and sound techniques increase this intensity even further. The camera work is precise and focused and the special visual effects aren't overused and work particularly well.

However, this movie also has a few minor flaws. The excellent actors and actresses aren't given a script in which they can really show their immense talents. This film focuses too much on its sinister story rather than its promising characters. While some viewers at the cinema were actually scared, I didn't find the film terrifying at all as a horror movie enthusiast. The atmosphere is tense but there isn't one particularly scary scene that has stayed on my mind.

An important issue that deserves its own paragraph is the presence of racism in this film. I'm very familiar with Korean culture and cinema, have been following Korean movies closely for about two decades and have read several books on this subject as well, so people who might tell me that I don't understand some of the remarks or that I'm exaggerating things are wrong. Those are usually the kind of remarks that you get when criticizing Korean cinema. Believe me when I tell you that I think that Korean cinema has been the greatest in the world for the past two decades and that in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases I only have favourable things to say. This is why it's important to criticize things when they really matter as is the case here. Two elements have left a bitter taste in this film. First of all, the daughter of the Feng Shui master is studying in Germany and dating a local man. Instead of caring how this man treats his daughter, the only thing the master is worried about is that their children might have blue eyes. Besides the fact that blue eyes are truly beautiful, reducing future family members to one small physical detail is stereotypical racism at its worst. Another even worse element worth to be pointed out is the movie's particularly negative portrayal of Japanese culture. I'm aware that Japan has occupied Korea and committed atrocious crimes in the past but one has to eventually get over this and realize that such things happened eighty years ago when none of the characters in the movie was even alive. The film starts with a scene where a polite stewardess shyly speaks Japanese to one of the characters who rebuffs her aggressively by telling her proudly that she is Korean. Such exaggerated anger in relation to an innocent mistake seems excessive to me. That film also discusses and portrays some of the horrors the Japanese have committed in the past but these elements don't add anything to expand the depth of the plot. Such negative remarks just feel gratuitous, old-fashioned and resentful. Furthermore, the film's antagonist also turns out to be Japanese which is analyzed, discussed and shown on numerous occasions. This film attempts to show that the Korean shamans, mortician and master are courageous, determined and idealistic while the Japanese and their collaborators from the past are inherently evil. Such drastic decisions almost give this film the style of an obsolete propaganda film that might as well come from North Korea. Let me tell you that contemporary Japanese horror movies on the other side don't attempt to make any foreign ethnicities look dreadful. There are no evil buried American generals haunting poor Japanese babies. That is however exactly what you get in this film with a Japanese warrior tormenting Korean families for centuries. This movie would have been so much better if it had simply focused on an evil Korean warlord of the past as an antagonist rather than strategically dishonouring Japanese culture, history and people. The scriptwriters deserve nothing but shame for such an excessive portrayal of racism and don't even try to justify the unjustifiable.

Aside of that major flaw that deserves to be addressed, analyzed and discussed, Exhuma, originally known as Pamyo, is nonetheless an atmospheric, entertaining and intense supernatural horror movie that deserves more attention, recognition and respect. If you like this particular movie, make sure to watch other South Korean films with similar vibes that are executed even better such as The Wailing, I Saw the Devil and Memories of Murder. The underestimated recently released The Ghost Station that actually honours Japanese horror cinema also deserves your attention.

Project Wolf Hunting, originally known as Neugdaesanyang, is one of the most brutal movies I have ever watched in my life. This South Korean film of two hours and two minutes is best described as gory action thriller. The story revolves around a group of dangerous criminals of South Korean origin who are extradited from the Philippines to South Korea on a cargo ship.

This film convinces on numerous levels. First of all, the isolated location of a cargo ship gives this movie a claustrophobic, filthy and tense atmosphere. Up next, this movie impresses with vivid pace that is gradually getting more intense towards the finale. The flashbacks going all the way back to the horrors of the Second World War offer some great background information and introduce viewers to a different location.

On the negative side, the brutal scenes in this film are heavily exaggerated. Two and a half tons of blood were used to portray roughly two dozen injured or murdered characters. This fact alone should give you a very good idea of how relentless this movie is. The story is paper-thin as the creators of this movie have just been looking for a weak excuse to justify the violent bloodshed. Whenever a character starts to develop something resembling depth and sympathy, then it isn't long before her or his untimely demise.

At the end of the day, Project Wolf Hunting is an entertaining movie for viewers who appreciate particularly brutal action flicks without any compromises. Switch your brain off and go on this violent fun ride for two vibrant hours. Anyone who expects memorable characters or interesting plot twists should however ignore this film entirely.