by Sebastian Kluth
After many positive reviews and enthusiastic mentions on numerous lists for album of the year, I decided to give Power Trip a second chance. I had seen the band in concert with Iron Reagan last year but hadn't been particularly impressed. Nightmare Logic...
A Cure of Wellness is one of the best Western movies in recent memory and it's a mystery to me why this film didn't get the attention it deserved. Many people claim that it bombed at the box office. That's not surprising because I was actively trying...
La Isla Minima, also known as Marshland, is a Spanish thriller that has won ten Goya Awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards. For once, this film truly deserves the praise it got. The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of...
There have been numerous stereotypical, repetitive and gruesome zombie movies since the beginning of the millennium and now South Korea has officially jumped on the bandwagon... and revolutionized the entire genre with the very best movie of its kind....
Korsair is a Swedish progressive metal project around mastermind Anders Thonander who's playing bass and keyboards on the debut full length effort and who takes care of the programming and the ambitious lyrics that tell the story of two twins, two friends,...
Countdown is an entertaining horror movie that is best enjoyed with some friends around Halloween. The film revolves around a cell phone application that predicts when a person is going to die. The story follows a young nurse who realizes she only has...
Ladies and gentlemen! I attended a very entertaining hockey game between the current Stanley Cup Champions Saint Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators last Thursday night. Even though only 9204 people were in attendance, the atmosphere was intense. The Senators...
Spinning Man is a quite unconventional psychological and philosophical thriller which has its positive and negative sides. The story revolves around a young cheerleader who has gone missing. Witnesses have reported seeing a car next to her work place...
Just a look at the great cover artwork recalls the works of Judas Priest three and a half decades ago and this is also exactly the sound Riot City is going for on its debut full length effort Burn the Night. The young quartet from Calgary offers eight...
The Wandering Earth is a Chinese science-fiction blockbuster based upon the critically acclaimed novella of the same name by award-winning author Liu Cixin. The movie convinces with stunning visual and sound effects that bring a dystopian world to live....
Tomie: The Final Chapter - Forbidden Fruit was supposed to be the last film in the franchise about the evil girl that cannot die. As we speak, four more movies have been made but it might have been a good idea to actually end the franchise on a solid...
Brothers is a mixture of a historical drama and a military action movie. Based upon true events, it tells the tragic story of two brothers. The older brother protected the younger from a ruthless criminal whom he killed. He had to spend ten years in prison....
Despite obvious grammar mistakes in the lyrics, Metalwings' debut EP Fallen Angel in the Hell was a promising release thanks to grounded, natural and unique vocals and the use of viola sounds and Irish flutes in an epic symphonic metal context. The first...
I have been a fan of the Tomb Raider franchise for more than twenty years which means more than two thirds of my lifetime. I have played all the video games and watched the previous movies with Angelina Jolie. The first one was a little bit shallow while...
Ring of Fire is a progressive power metal all-star band supported by the Italian label Frontiers Records. There are three elements that got me interested in the group's first release in ten years. First and foremost, the title Battle of Leningrad evokes...
*** This review may contain spoilers *** Let's get one thing straight. This movie isn't historically accurate. It is much more a movie about the relationship between a grandmaster and his respected opponent's daughter than a biography of Ip Man. That...
I discovered Mongolian folk rock band Hanggai back in 2012 when I was particularly interested in Chinese culture, history and music. I managed to purchase a rare copy of their excellent 2010 record He Who Travels Far. I never expected to get the chance...
City of LIfe and Death is a Chinese drama about the Nanking Massacre when the Imperial Japanese Army tortured, captured and assassinated around three hundred thousand residents. The movie has a few unusual elements. It is shot in black and white which...
Stahlmann is a Neue Deutsche Harte band in the key of Rammstein, Oomph! and Megaherz that has been around for eleven years now. The band has released six studio records in the past nine years and has played numerous festivals. The group's work ethic is...
DreadOut is an Indonesian independent survival horror game that convinces with its cultural, mythological and spiritual references, refreshingly grounded and sympathetic characters and an omnipresent gloomy atmosphere. Even though the game received average...
Italy's stunning doom metal quintet The Foreshadowing is back with an unusual digital single in support of the horror comic book series Paranoid Boyd. The song starts with a collage of ambient sounds and dialogues before heavy breathing leads to the actual...
If translated literally, 腐尸爱美丽 would be called Carrion Loves Beauty but the band goes under the name Twilight Blooming instead since the last two years. The record 远方, which literally translates to Distance, is known as Far Away and is the first studio...
Three years after the pitiless Cavalo de Tróia, Brazilian crossover thrash metal quartet Ação Libertária is back with another thought-provoking full length effort consisting of twelve tracks and a running time of thirty-five minutes entitled Cidadão de...
I have often come across the name Visions of Atlantis but never bothered to check out a record so far. If I had to describe the band's style briefly, I would say it's the type of female-fronted power metal with symphonic elements that was all the rage...
I have always been a supporter of kawaii metal as it has revolutionized the metal genre. Revolutionary bands have always taken risks, expanded horizons and been controversially discussed. This was the case when doom metal created a whole new genre of...
