There it is: the end of the end. Black Sabbath has massively influenced heavy rock music in the first ten years of its gigantic career and has managed to go out with a bang over the past five years of its career, including a strong comeback album, an outstanding final extended play and a series of concerts including the very last one from their hometown of Birmingham included here. There exist numerous versions of what might be Black Sabbath's final release. Any fan should definitely go for a version including the entire concert plus a final recording session of five Black Sabbath classics in a vivid live in studio approach. The band shows that it hasn't lost any of its atmosphere, charisma and energy after forty-nine years and it will be missed dearly.

The concert summarizes one last time everything Black Sabbath has always stood for. Bluesy, gloomy and precise riffs, hypnotizing guitar solos, dominating bumblebee bass guitar sounds, tight drumming with occasional percussive elements, eerie melodic vocals, mysterious and occult lyrics and a show with only few special effects but a true front man with a humble attitude, great sense of humor and, most importantly, a close connection to the audience. The sound of the release is authentic, energetic and unpolished. The video section is acceptable even though it includes a few too many cuts and split screen sequences which is a problem most contemporary concert movies suffer from but it certainly isn't among the worst of its kind. The atmosphere at the beginning and the end of the show is amazing but I found that the audience was at times surprisingly quiet in between.

Obviously, some elements such as the set list could be criticized here but that wouldn't do the band justice. Is this concert the best show ever recorded by the band? It certainly isn't but it's clearly above average and the historical context of the show makes it an unforgettable milestone in the history of music. Should you own this package? If you like rock and metal music of any kind, you most definitely should. Thank you for the music and God bless Black Sabbath.

Happy Death Day tells the story of the condescending, dismissive and self-centred student Theresa who gets killed by a masked assailant on her birthday. However, she doesn't die and wakes up in the morning of the same day. Theresa quickly realizes that she must uncover her assailant's identity to survive her birthday and therefore break the curse of experiencing her own death over and over again. Along with a male acquaintance she spent the night with, she starts investigating her potential enemies, their motives and alibis. While doing so, Theresa realizes how her own flaws have let to this tragic situation and she attempts to become a better person.

Happy Death Day is one of best horror movies in recent memory. Instead of focusing on gore and special effects, the film works with a desperate, gloomy and mysterious atmosphere and a few efficient jump scares. 

However, the film has much more going for it. It focuses on a stunning character development as a superficial, rude and egocentric teenage girl slowly becomes a profound, joyful and empathetic young woman. This film can be considered a coming-of-age drama and it's one of the best of its kind.

As if those elements weren't enough, Happy Death Day also tells us an interesting love story that becomes more and more profound as the film progresses. 

It also deals with family and friendship issues in a dramatic way. 

To lighten things up, the movie also includes humorous parts which mostly consist of absurd situation comedy and a few quirky dialogues. 

However, this movie succeeds where films and franchises like Evil Dead and Scream have failed before: the humorous elements never take away from the sinister moments as Happy Death Day feels perfectly balanced. 

The movie is genuinely entertaining from start to finish and once it's over, you simply feel like watching this roller coaster ride again and embrace this movie's unique atmosphere. 

Some critics and viewers have slammed the movie for having a plot that borrows heavily from the concept of Groundhog Day. This is true but Happy Death Day is executed with so much energy and originality that it simply doesn't matter. Even if you are familiar with the concept, this film will still keep you guessing from start to finish. You probably won't see this movie's outcome coming either.

In the end, Happy Death Day is among the very best movies of the year and massively exceeded my expectations. If you like clever horror and coming-of-age movies, you can't get around this film. Happy Death Day is best enjoyed around Halloween with your friends.

The new adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express impresses with lush settings, a gloomy atmosphere and great acting performances, particularly by Kenneth Branagh as clever detective, Johnny Depp as arrogant gangster and Judi Dench as arrogant aristocrat. 

On the negative side, the investigation on the train is a little bit rushed. The movie exposes plenty of theories for a potential murderer but doesn't go into detail. It's at times difficult to follow the numerous characters and their motives to commit a murder in the second third of the movie until the final third wraps it up coherently. Another negative element is that the introduction to the film is a little bit long and also unnecessary as it doesn't really add anything to the character development.

Those who have never read Murder on the Orient Express or watched one of the numerous movie adaptations will obviously be surprised by the clever story. On the other side, if you are already familiar with the story, there aren't many new elements to discover that would justify to watch this film.

Overall, Murder on the Orient Express is an entertaining, profound yet stylish adaptation of one of the greatest crime novels ever written. It's important to continue to honour this novel that has changed the world of literature. On the other side, this version is neither as detailed as the novel nor as charming as Sidney Lumet's version of the seventies. Fans of the novel and those who aren't familiar with the plot should watch this movie but everyone else can skip this version.

Six years after a disappointing sophomore output and ten years after its unique first strike, Russian sextet Kartikeya is back with a third record after numerous digital single releases. Samudra is a vast improvement over the predecessor but not as consistent as the debut release. Overall, it's a big step in the right direction for the band and focuses on the elements that made the band so outstanding a decade ago. Technical death metal fusions with atmospheric parts and Indian folklore, imagery and mythology.

The first third of the album sounds as if it were still slightly influenced by the predecessor. Kartikeya delivers technical death metal tracks with exchangeable growls and a few sinister atmospheric passages but the Indian soundscapes aren't particularly well-integrated and often feel randomly inserted and disjointed. 

The songwriting sounds much more cohesive in the brilliant second third of the record. ''Mask of the Blind'' is the first track to combine symphonic death metal and Indian folklore fluidly and harmoniously in an epic yet structured track that summarizes the band's strength in five minutes. The mysterious title song ''Samudra'' slows things down and mixes hypnotizing folk elements with an almost uneasy grunge atmosphere. The folk song ''Kannada (Munjaaneddu Kumbaaranna)'' serves as a perfect interlude between the second and last third and brings India's exotic magic to life. The more vivid ''The Golden Blades'' and ''We Shall Never Die'' are this record's most upbeat songs and convince equally with progressive musicianship and gripping choruses and melodies. Even the vocals vary more in these two songs and don't only focus on generic growls but also include whispered passages and a few rarely but efficiently used clean vocals. These two songs are both highlights on this record and in Kartikeya's career.

The last third is a little bit more ambitious but also harder to digest. The catchy Indian folkore elements are reduced slightly for more death and doom metal elements that challenge the listener. Especially the closing track with a length of above thirteen minutes takes some time to open up but turns out to be a creative gem with numerous shifts in atmosphere and style, including djent riffing, long instrumental passages and radio play samples.

In the end, Samudra has much more positive than negative elements. Kartikeya often manages to recapture the magic of its stunning debut that mixed progressive death metal with Indian folklore and adds further elements such as djent riffing, doom atmosphere and efficient samples. The songs that focus less on folk influences but rather on symphonic death metal sound slightly exchangeable, particularly in the weaker first third of the record. A shorter record with only nine or ten songs would have sounded more efficient in my book. Still, if you like technical death, doom or folk metal, Kartikeya is a group you need to check out and you might as well start with the very good Samudra.

Final rating: 79%

Thrash or Die are the Manowar of thrash metal: stereotypical image, stupid lyrics and repetitive music unite in a cringe-worthy manner. Even though the band is terrible, it isn't as bad as some people claim.

Thrash or Die do what they do with great energy and passion and this transpires throughout the entire release. The odd quintet doesn't pretend to reinvent the genre or add anything to it and simply sticks to honoring its genre and idols. The group might rip off Exodus' and Slayer's riffs here and there but it also proves that they are really passionate about this type of music. The riffs are at times bland and exchangeable but the fast and furious guitars add an appropriately apocalyptic atmosphere to songs like ''The Return of the Thrash Lord''. The drum play isn't particularly versatile but appropriately ferocious for this subgenre. The bass guitar even has a few shining moments when it takes the lead and adds an angry bumblebee sound to the mixture. Several tracks include a few radio play introductions that sound obviously cheesy and unintentionally amusing but which are nevertheless entertaining and fitting in tracks like ''Terrorvision''.

On the other side, this album has massive flaws. The production is particularly canny and unbalanced as one can immediately witness in the headache-inducing mess of an opener entitled "Fatal Fury". This song sounds as if it had been recorded with a ten-year old cell phone. It's probable that the band intended the record to sound that bad though to go with its general old school approach. Another massive problem are the one-dimensional vocals reminding me of a mixture of a hysterical Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and Steve "Zetro" Souza trying to imitate a duck. The lyrics are stereotypical and constantly deal with destruction, thrash metal lifestyle and calling out so-called posers. The cringe-worthy lyrics go along with a childish cover artwork and the stupid nicknames the involved musicians adapted such as Hellvomit Sodomizer and Triplesixxx Whoremangler. The funniest thing about this is that one of the guitarists just stuck to his regular name which makes his bandmates' aliases look particularly stupid.

Listening to this record is a little bit like watching an Ed Wood movie. You know it's bad from many points of view such as the nerve-firing vocalist, the infantile songwriting, the terrible production, the limited musicianship and the stereotypical cover artwork. But on the other side, Poser Holocaust is aggressively energizing, surprisingly entertaining and performed with genuine passion. Thrash or Die might be among the biggest posers in the scene which is ironic given the fact that they constantly call out said posers but they are unintentionally funny like a bad circus show. Still, Thrash or Die actually beat some recent records of their idols such as Exodus' headache-inducing Blood In Blood Out or Havok's pretentious propaganda coaster Conformicide. Thrash or Die might be stupid but at least they are fun to listen to and don't take themselves for being the pinnacle of their genre. If you feel like switching your brain off and listening to some extreme thrash metal, Poser Holocaust actually even delivers the goods and is otherwise at least an entertaining oddity. I would rather listen to Thrash or Die's Poser Holocaust than to Metallica's Lulu on any given day.

Final rating: 33%