by Sebastian Kluth
"The Law Of Devil's Land" is somehwat the Japanese version of Iron Maiden's "The Number Of The Beast". The doom narration part of the opening "Theme Of Loudness" reminds quite a lot the title track from the British metal legends and the first riffs recall...
"Art Of Life" isn't actually a real album by X Japan but one single track that might not please that much to metal fans or those who adored the first more speed metal orientated records of the band. On the other side, fans of X Japan's calmer attitude...
During the last years, X Japan have more and more shifted away from their powerful power and speed metal roots and created more and more complex rock opera symphonies that highlighted with the release of the twenty-nine minute masterpiece "Art Of Life"....
Textures is a quite strange band from the Netherlands that mixes melodic death metal in the key of the Goteborg school with bands such as Dark Tranquillity with quite modern thrash metal parts reminding me of Bullet For My Valentine with calm progressive...
Eluveitie is band that has always been lights and shades to me. They had truly amazing outputs such as "Slania" as well as one of the worst records I have ever heard in my entire life with "Vên". After the rather disappointing melodic death metal record...
On this eponymous record after a eight year long break, Absu are back with a bang and play a quite addicting and original mixture of melodic death and black metal with a lot of thrash influences and some great progressive sounds. This is diversified and...
Only two years after the amazing last release "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" Dream Theater are back with a bang. They got a lot of media attention because of their split with founding member and drum workaholic Mike Portnoy who now tries to sue the band...
"Blue Blood" is often seen as one of the best and most consistent records of the eccentric, artistic and unique Japanese metal band X but I can't quite agree on that. Normally I like diversified and courageous records but this is an example for overwhelming...
Seeds Of Iblis play a very interesting kind of raw underground black metal with harsh but also very atmospheric vocals and some dark spiritual chants. The four songs on their most important release to date are all quite short, intense and surprisingly...
Timo Tolkki is and has always been an exceptional musician that has many different musical sides in him. He's well known for his power metal records with Stratovarius, Revolution Renaissance and Symfonia. In the early years of Stratovarius we have even...
As this old demo has been rereleased in late 2011, I decided to check the original release out first to get a good idea of what I could expect from the new release. There are some strange things about this release that I need to mention. It's a live demo...
"Skyforger" is the third record of the new Amorphis era and it surely won't disappoint those who liked the two previous outputs. In comparison to the diversified and energizing comeback "Eclipse" and the melancholic masterpiece "Silent Waters", "Skyforger"...
This album is another retro metal and hard rock record influenced by the music of the late seventies and early eighties that should please to young and old people and can permanently play on any rock and roll party, as soundtrack between two hard rock...
For many friends of mine, this record has been their first contact to metal music and was the spark of ignition that enlightened their passion for this kind of music. Back in the days, the title track of the record and the amazing "I Believe" that didn't...
Dissona deliver one of the best records of this young year with a great progressive metal album with varied influences as some dark death and gothic approaches reminding me of Opeth, some rather jazz influenced scale choices that make me think of Southern...
This album will beat all the scores on any metal portal. This collaboration record between the old and tired experimental rock singer Lou Reed and the aged thrash metal legend Metallica will probably get the lowest average rating ever by the fans. My...
The Ayreon versus Avantasia EP "Elected" is a nice little gimmick for both fans of the Ayreon and the Avantasia project. The cover version of a classic Alice Cooper song has been done by the masterminds of both projects as their albums "01011001", maybe...
Nocturnal Excision are a very emotional, atmospheric and epic black metal band that convinces with hypnotizing doom passages, despaired and very unique shrieks and occasional death growls as vocals and some small experiments that work very well in the...
Powervice are one of many retro heavy metal bands that are clearly influenced by the hard rock and emerging heavy metal music of the late seventies and the early eighties. They are as solid as genre colleagues such as Bullet, Vanderbuyst, White Wizzard...
The Chinese metal band The Last Successor delivers great epic progressive metal with power and folk influences. I found their debut record by pure coincidence and consider myself as a fan right now. This band surely merits a larger focus and not only...
Clair De Lune is a very promising and highly diversified symphonic metal band from El Salvador that reminds me a little bit of Le Grand Guignol from Luxembourg. Fans of gothic metal with classical female and harsh male vocals will adore this output as...
I have been looking forward for the release of this record with mixed feelings for quite a while. I really adored the band's last bombastic, diversified and impressive output "Dark Passion Play" and was intrigued by this new record, its concept and the...
After the disaster piece "Lulu" and the overall very negative reactions, Metallica try to beg for pardon with this release and want to underline their thirtieth anniversary at the same time. During their four anniversary concerts in San Francisco, the...
This super-band power metal project featuring for the first time in nearly twenty-four years a collaboration of the two Helloween masterminds Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske delivers everything European power metal stands for. This first output features...
Despite several line-up changes, Elvenking pick us up with "Era" where they have left us with with their last record "Red Silent Tides". The Italian band delivers a catchy mixture of power metal and their typical folk passages with a couple of contemporary...
