by Sebastian Kluth
Progressive thrash metal pioneers Voivod have often walked off the beaten path to surprise their fans from all around the world with unconventional ideas. Even four decades into its career, Voivod still manages to take us by surprise with the release...
Belfast is a sincerely humane drama that deserves all the acclaim and attention it has recently been getting. Inspired by director Kenneth Branagh's own childhood memories, this film tells the beginning of The Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in...
Lost Not Forgotten Archives: The Majesty Demos (1985-1986) is the sixth release of Dream Theater's Lost Not Forgotten Archives that goes into its second year of existence. This collection of demos has been published for the first time nineteen years ago...
German groove metal quartet Hämatom had finally shown off its true potential earlier this year, when releasing Berlin (Ein akustischer Tanz auf dem Vulkan), an acoustic record inspired country, folk, jazz and swing sounds of the twenties and thirties...
Playful, dynamic and beautiful as the rabbit on the cover artwork Hoochie Koo is the thirteenth studio album by Japanese rock and metal trio Ningen Isu. It's the second release in the group's most consistent line-up that still exists as I'm writing this...
Quebec's cult quartet Les Cowboys Fringants has just released a surprise record in form of Les nuits de Repentigny, honouring the group's musical, geographical and cultural origins. The generous album includes twenty-three songs with a total running time...
Silver Talon is a young heavy metal sextet whose members have already played in quite a few bands such as speed metal group Spellcaster, power metal outfit Sanctifyre, thrash metal band Sabateur and gothic metal group Idle Hands. The sextet's first extended...
Russian heavy metal pioneers Aria decided to re-record their two studio albums featuring former singer Arthur Berkut with the current line-up featuring singer Mikhail Zhitnyakov. In a certain way, this is a lack of respect for the former singer who had...
Assassination Classroom: The Graduation is the second and final part of the science-fiction live action duology that had started with Assassination Classroom one year earlier. The transition between the two movies is very fluid and it's mandatory to watch...
The Haunted, also known as The Tag-Along, is a highly entertaining Taiwanese horror movie. An elderly woman from a vast apartment complex has mysteriously disappeared and her worried best friend starts having strange visions and hearing weird noises....
Two years after the rather underwhelming but financially successful King Kong versus Godzilla, Toho Studios continued its most important franchise with fourth entry Mothra versus Godzilla. This movie is one of the highlights in the franchise and its best...
Baby Assassins is a Japanese action comedy film with unconventional plot and intriguing characters that surprised me very positively. The movie is not as immature as its title or movie poster might suggest and actually has much to offer for teenage and...
Roughly a year after the release of masterful extended play The Raging River, Swedish sextet Cult of Luna offers a full length effort with nine songs and a generous running time of sixty-nine minutes. The band's style is often described as atmospheric...
Psychedelic Flower Power Meets Tight Sweating Rock Japan's powerful trio delivers the goods once more on "Burai Houjou", Ningen-Isu's eighteenth studio album in only twenty-four years. The band convinces once more with its mechanical chemistry between...
Japanese female power metal quintet Lovebites has rightfully gotten quite some attention in recent years. The four ladies don't only have stylish looks but impress with technically appealing musicianship and fast execution that would even make groups...
Geom-gaek, internationally known as The Swordsman, is an epic historic action drama from South Korea. The story revolves around Tae-yul, the best swordsman in Joseon who is unable to protect the king during an uprising. He decides to live as a recluse...
Versus is a Japanese movie that is quite challenging to classify. It includes elements of fantasy with portals leading to other worlds. It could be described as a horror movie due to the presence of murderous zombies. This is also an action film featuring...
Perennial Quest is a power metal band from Boston that is clearly influenced by European bands and most obviously by DragonForce and its first four studio albums. Seven musicians were involved in the release of this ambitious demo that includes six songs...
Graveyard of Honor is one of the best and most influential Japanese gangster movies ever made. If it had been more popular abroad, this movie might have the same reputation as The Godfather, Once Upon a Time in America and The Untouchables have today....
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the sixth and last entry in the live action franchise based upon the famous Japanese video games. To be honest, the plug should have been pulled much earlier. While the first movie has been excellent, the four sequels...
The Universal Migrator I: The Dream Sequencer Floating in Space When I bought Ayreon's double-album The Universal Migrator Part I: The Dream Sequencer and The Universal Migrator Part II: Flight of the Migrator as a teenager one and a half decades ago,...
With the seventh entry in the franchise, entitled Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, the Godzilla movie series definitely enters adventure film territory. The beloved lizard also moves away from being considered a dangerous antagonist and becomes an earthly...
Ladies and gentlemen! Please trust me when I'm telling you that punk's not dead! Before I started discovering the gothic and metal scenes when I was fifteen years old, I had been listening to punk rock music for many years. German legends Die toten Hosen...
Whenever Dutch innovator Arjen Anthony Lucassen releases a new record, it's a celebration day for progressive rock and metal fans around the world. At the age of sixty-one, the Dutch giant currently experiences a second spring as could be witnessed with...
Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea is a Japanese monster movie that follows the dreadful Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters released roughy four years earlier. While the latter was disappointing regarding production values, plot and acting performances,...
