by Sebastian Kluth
Genre-breaking female quintet Nemophila offers thirty-eight minutes of joyful entertainment in ten vibrant songs on third studio output Evolve whose cover artwork is as colourful as the material presented to us. The band has been keeping its quirky identity...
Mottomo kiken na yuugi, internationally known as The Most Dangerous Game, is the first film in a trilogy about hitman Narumi Shouhei. This character is a rough anti-hero who is addicted to gambling, has debts of several million yen, is constantly drinking...
Orphaned Land is a completely unique quintet from Israel that has been promoting understanding, peace and diplomacy for decades by now. The group offers a most fascinating mixture of epic heavy metal soundscapes, atmospheric doom metal passages and even...
Gotsu Totsu Kotsu is Japan's most commercially successful and critically acclaimed death metal band. Back from the Underworld is the trio's sixth full length effort after five years of silence. This album comes around with ten songs and a total running...
Da Zui Xia, internationally known as Come Drink with Me, is one of the very first wu xia movies coming out of Hong Kong that has paved the way for many more films of the same genre to be released ever since. This genre combines historic settings, plots...
Wo Te Po Po Tsen Me Pa Chuan Chuan Kao Tiu Le, internationally known under the stupid title U Motherbaker - The Movie, is a Taiwanese comedy movie based upon the popular television series of the same title. The movie revolves around middle-aged mother...
Shiki Soku Ze Ku roughly translates to All Is Futile and relates to the fundamentalist Buddhist doctrine that all things in this world having a connection or reason has no intrinsic essence. It's also the title for the twenty-third studio record by Japanese...
This is the second instalment in Therion's Leviathan trilogy consisting of thirty-three songs released in three consecutive years in total. In retrospective, it was certainly a logical idea to release a whopping one hundred fifty minutes of new music...
Ishtar is one of the few South Korean metal bands that has shown great potential but hasn't had much success since its genre is still being overlooked and underestimated in its home country. The band has had a streak of two extended plays and two full...
Flor de Loto is a progressive folk rock sextet from Peru that has been around for twenty-five years and that has already released nine full length efforts. The band has taken five years between Lines of Nasca and its predecessor but released two live...
Amorphis has been my favourite band for more than a decade by now but even the most faithful fans must question the purpose of a release such as Queen of Time - Live at Tavastia 2021. The Finnish metal band had only just released the excellent live record...
Avantasia's A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society continues the project's streak of imaginative hard rock, heavy metal and power metal music with an inspiring lyrical concept and a selection of interesting guest musicians and singers. However,...
Bodies Bodies Bodies is a psychological thriller with satirical elements that entertains with swift pace and a dramatic series of events. The movie however doesn't only entertain but at times criticizes the habits of Generation Z in an exaggerated way...
Slaves to Fashion is an imaginative Norwegian heavy metal quintet that had the interesting idea to honour the development of its favourite genre of music by releasing ten singles throughout one year that would end up on the appropriately titled record...
Challenging Progressive and Psychedelic Sounds with an Ominous Tone Less than a year and a half after the release of its predecessor, Japanese psychedelic rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, hard rock and doom metal trio Ningen Isu has released its fourteenth...
Colour me surprised! For years, movies have been inspired by witty scripts, intriguing novels or even great video games but this is the first time I know of that a film has been inspired by a riverboat amusement ride. While the idea might sound puzzling...
Dark City is one of the very best dystopian science-fiction movies ever released and deserves more acclaim and attention than it has already gotten. The story revolves around a man who awakes in the bathtub of a dirty hotel room. He doesn't remember who...
Gretel & Hansel is loosely based upon the German folk tale Hänsel & Grethel by the Brothers Grimm. It tells the story of an independent sister and her childish brother who leave their hometown behind to join a group of woodcutters to get some work and...
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets isn't only the best novel of the franchise but also the best movie along with the first entry Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone. The story revolves around a mysterious dangerous presence at Hogwarts that paralyzes...
Earthshaker is a Japanese heavy metal band that has been around for an incredible forty-five years and that has now released its twenty-fourth studio record in forty years. The five members are all in their sixties now and while the youthful grit might...
Amethyst is a Swiss heavy metal quintet that has released its debut extended play Rock Knights digitally in December 2022, on cassette in March 2023, on CD in May 2023 and on vinyl in September 2023. This means that any collector can purchase this product...
A very good friend of mine, who is particularly intrigued by experimental bands walking off the beaten path, has recently been introducing me to Edmontonian quartet The Spruce Moose and its second record Pyramid Scheme. The first element that fascinated...
Wrath of Daimajin is the third, final and best entry in the Japanese franchise about the ancient demon god who protects his disciples from cruel injustices. In this movie, a group of lumbermen have been kidnapped by the henchmen of an evil lord who is...
United Forces is a compilation by German power metal legends Helloween released with German Hard Rock magazine one month before the release of Helloween's self-titled album featuring three different singers and an intriguing combination of the band's...
Few bands have gone through as many line-up changes as Annihilator. The first four studio albums alone featured four different lead vocalists. This is why it's not a bad idea at all to record some of the classics again with one single line-up as a potential...
