by Sebastian Kluth
Artcell is a rather unkown progressive metal band from Bangladesh that has been around for far over one decade by now. Even though they might never get an international breakthrough, the band mostly skips annoying solo passages and concentrates on diversified...
If musical perfection exists, than it exists on this record. Amorphis lead us in an amorphous form on mushroom clouds and crimson waves to a musical paradise. This album is an "eargasm". It's a combination of everything I love about music. Each time I...
In Extremo is not only the most famous medieval rock outfit but also one of Germany’s most spectacular live bands. It’s impressive to see the seven members on a well decorated stage while they perform exotic instruments such as davuls, harps, mandolin,...
Holy Dragons is a power metal band from Almaty, Kazakhstan that is a lot better than its cheesy band name might suggest you at first sight. The band plays in fact power metal with grounded vocals and guts. They skip all unnecessary stuff such as narrations...
Only two years after the band's very strong self titled album, the American extreme metal legends come back with a shorter record called "Abzu" that reminds a lot of the previous output. The cover artwork is as great, the album and song title structures...
The band name sounds like kitsch, the cover artwork looks like kitsch, the music sounds like kitsch but Magic Kingdom from Belgium eventually deliver some truly entertaining high quality symphonic power metal kitsch. The special edition of this record...
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...
I've been a big fan of the very first "Resident Evil" movie because it had a unique horror film atmosphere, a twisted story and many intriguing characters. When I saw the second film, I was completely disappointed because it only focused on action scenes...
Omertà is inspired by a legendary French Canadian series of the same name and lives some sort of revival this summer with a quite well done feature for the cinemas. The movie convinces with gripping characters that are portrayed by some of Quebec's best...
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...
I discovered this exotic band from Tunisia with a song from their second album last year on a sampler included in the normally pretty weak British Metal Hammer magazine but I forgot to check them out. With the release of their new third record, I remembered...
Permanent Waves is one of the most accessible and commercial records that Rush ever made and I don't mean that in a negative way. The brilliant opening double pack "The Spirit Of Radio" and "Freewill" are catchy and easy to listen to but contain still...
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...
After the highly promising and short appetizer in form of the well entitled “Ignition” EP, the new German Power Metal supergroup with ex-Helloween singer Michael Kiske, ex-Helloween and Gamma Ray mastermind Kai Hansen on the guitars and some background...
I always knew and felt that Within Temptation were a creative and promising band with some good and innovating ideas. Even though I don't adore any of their albums, I think that every output they have released has a special and unique flow and a couple...
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...
Krypteria has always been a complicated case for me. Each of the musicians has got a lot of talent. Let's just have a look at their epic tracks, their orchestral arrangements and their conceptual musical releases at the beginning of the band's career....
There are some things I don't understand in the metal world and one of those things is the popularity and the high ratings of this record. Let's say that the debut album of the Swiss metal legend is not bad at all. It has its own style but the record...
"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"...
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 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...
Durant les dernières journées, vous avez sûrement vu une panoplie de gens portant une fleur rouge avec un centre noir sur leurs vêtements: les animateurs à la télévision, les fonctionnaires en centre-ville et même les professeurs et plusieurs étudiants...
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...
The record of the band Onmyo-Za attracted me because of the stylish band photo, the unusual cover artwork and many positive experiences with diversified, stunning and sometimes surreal Japanese metal bands from classic groups such as Loudness or X Japan...
Unbeing are a quite unknown completely instrumental progressive metal band from Montreal. I discovered their debut record by pure coincidence. It was sold by a lable during a black metal show. Let's note that this music has nothing at all to do with extreme...
