by Sebastian Kluth
Far From The Sun is the weakest album in the strong discography of Amorphis. One can hear that singer Pasi Koskinen lacked passion and emotion and was about to split with the band. It's clear that the band didn't develop any further in the first time...
“A pale horse named death” is a band with a very cool name and a great album cover that plays first of all a melancholic mixture of gothic and doom metal in the key of “Type 0 Negative”. Even though the influence of this band is omnipresent and weighs...
Before Kruiz became one of the first and most important speed metal bands in Eastern Europe that also gathered some attention outside of the Soviet Union, the band played commercial hard rock that is clearly influenced by European chart breakers such...
Custard is a solid German power metal band with history and fantasy lyrics that are interesting to listen to. Their debut record has a few strong tracks but offers nothing we haven't heard before. The band delivers epic fist pumping hymns in the style...
"Korrozia Metalla" delivers an energizing piece of fast Thrash Metal on this first record. The band uses sharp and speedy riffs, a couple of great solos and short but effective and catchy choruses. Songs like the fast paced and very aggressive "Motorocker"...
If you like traditional classic heavy metal bands from Russia such as "Aria", "Master" or "Kruiz", this consistent and yet diversified debut album from a rather unknown band outside of Russia is definitely worth your attention. "Chornyi Kofe" is clearly...
With the release of this record, In Flames continue in the style of their great and diversified predecessor "A sense of purpose...". That means that they do further experimentations and get away from their death metal roots. Anybody that is waiting for...
Almost anybody gave the highest possible rating to the debut record of "Psychotic Waltz" and that's why I got intrigued by the band. As a fan of progressive rock and metal music I expected something outstanding here. In fact, the band really varies from...
Dimmu Borgir have never been a very stereotypical and traditional black metal band and people who claim that the band "betrays the genre", "dishonours a philosophy" or "forgets about its roots" are completely wrong. After the last albums, this step was...
After four long years the charismatic American progressive metal band comes back after a strong predecessor with more than eighty minutes of music. Already the first epic title track "Iconoclast" proves that the band has put all their technical skills,...
Adverus is a band that doesn't sound like anything else. Their sound is very intellectual, diversified and sometimes almost schizophrenic. The band is mostly influenced by the Gothic genre with its dark and emotional lyrics, its harmonic male vocals,...
This album is a truly hypnotizing and chilling record. Amorphis moved away from their experimental death metal roots and passed through a short transitional era to arrive at a very progressive and experimental point of their career. This album has many...
This last album with the legendary Sabine Dünser who collapsed during a rehearsal for this record is a dark and melancholic testament with a more or less important conceptual story. The positive thing is that the songs also work as single tracks and this...
After a great first record, Elvenking lived a couple of changes, especially with the departure of the former singer Damnagoras that was replaced by a certain guy called Kleid that only stayed for two years. Musically, that didn't change too much. The...
After Eluveitie finally found a good mixture between melodic death metal and Celtic folk influences on their last album "Slania", they decided to move away from this and create an acoustic album. I really expected that this step came too soon and many...
This album is probably the most courageous one I have ever heard. One could have expected a diversified album after the death metal meets progressive doom metal album that gave birth to a legacy before, but this record is high above everything one might...
So this is how it all started. Amorphis deliver a very good death metal album with this first strike but there are already signs everywhere to announce us that this band would go further and be able to do something greater in the future. I think that...
This new recording of Edguy's first album offers the chance to discover the band's origins and listen to the songs they have done when they were still at school and about seventeen years old. This happens to be a fact that many people tend to forget....
Elvenking's first strike is already amongst the best works this band has ever done and shows a degree of diversity and fresh ideas that many other bands of the genre don't have any more. The band mixes folk influences with majestic power metal sounds...
Avantasia are surely one of the more interesting so called super groups and I have to admire Tobias Sammet for what he has done on this first album. Let's not forget that his main band Edguy wasn't that well known back when this album came out, they were...
As a long-time fan of Iron Maiden is was awaiting this album since almost four years, the longest gap ever between two albums of this band. When I first listened to "El Dorado" when it was published on the official website at midnight, I was one of the...
When I first heard about this project I expected another rather slow paced instrumental album with pointless guitar solos and weird experiments that bands such as "Gordian Knot" have done. But the guitar player Chris Steberl has much more to offer and...
This exotic melodic power heavy and sometimes death metal band from Qatar convinces at first try with some amazing guitar solos like in the fast and musically well elaborated "Thee ivy and thy tree" where even the drums are quite tight and diversified....
This first official studio album by Dream theater and the only one featuring the singer Charlie Dominici is a very strong, soft and dreamy progressive rock record in the key of "Rush". There are even some very sligthly disco pop influences in a couple...
Schandmaul are a really energizing live band and have some really talented musicians in their rows. Their lyrics are mostly interesting and talk about old German folk tales, “Märchen” or historical events and sometimes invented stories by the band of...
