by Sebastian Kluth
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...
Opening act: Battle Beast Set list: 1. Unbroken 2. Straight to the Heart 3. The Golden Horde 4. Eden 5. No More Hollywood Endings 6. Bastard Son of Odin 7. King for a Day 8. Beyond the Burning Skies Second band of the epic night: Sonata Arctica Set list:...
DragonForce's Extreme Power Metal is a quite misleading album title. Without abandoning its trademark guitar duels and keyboard sounds, this album is one of the easiest to digest in their discography. It offers several mid-paced tunes and a few quirky...
The Salvation is a Danish western and while this might sound surprising at first sight, The Salvation is easily the best western I have seen in many years and a solid candidate for western of the decade or even of the century. The story revolves around...
The Street Fighter is a Japanese martial arts film that stands out with its rough fights and graphic brutality. Main character Tsurugi Takuma is a tough guy with quite a temper who is able to rip out his opponent's eyes, testicles and vocal chords. The...
When I initially watched Overlord, I was expecting an average horror movie with a few shallow historical references. What I've got however is an atmospheric, gripping and mysterious horror film with appropriate references to the horrors of the Second...
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...
Light & Shade is more than your ordinary power metal band. It's the project of four skilled musicians from Germany, Italy and the United States of America. The quartet plays power metal with heavy riffs interwoven with symphonic and progressive keyboard...
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...
Extreme Job is an entertaining action-comedy movie that has received massive critical acclaim in its home country and certainly deserves international recognition as well. The movie focuses on a team of detectives who have been running out of luck recently...
More Moonglow - The Rock Hard EP comes for free with German Rock Hard magazine and intends to promote new studio album Moonglow. With six tracks and a total running time just above forty-five minutes, this exclusive release offers value for money for...
Zhang Yimou's Coming Home is a thought-provoking, slow-paced and emotionally moving drama that tells the tragic story of a family torn apart by the Cultural Revolution. The movie is surprisingly critical of China's past, takes its time to introduce the...
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...
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...
Krypteria was an imaginative symphonic gothic metal band that slowly faded away in the beginning of the decade. Four of the band members joined forces for a new group called And Then She Came. The eponymous debut released two years ago was already quite...
The Hidden Fortress is an entertaining adventure film and rightfully regarded as one of Kurosawa Akira's greatest and most influential movies. The story follows two naive peasants who try to find gold during a war between the victorious Yamada clan and...
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....
Hidden Agenda is an interactive game for Playstation 4 that requests the additional use of a mobile device or tablet. You will need to download an additional free PlayLink application to be able to play the game. You won't be using the regular controller....
Riverwood is an Egyptian quintet that plays progressive folk metal in the key of Amaseffer, Myrath and Orphaned Land. Fairytale is the quintet's debut record and already shows a lot of promise. Even though the folk sounds seem to come from keyboards,...
What do Johnny Cash, Gravity Kills, Sammy Hagar and Marilyn Manson have in common with Def Leppard? That's right, they have all covered Depeche's Mode ''Personal Jesus''. Def Leppard's version is actually one of the most decent cover versions because...
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...
Ladies and gentlemen! On the twenty-first day of my trip through Atlantic Canada, I took the ferry from Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland to North Sydney, Nova Scotia and stayed in Sydney for the night. Highlights: Walking through Sydney in the early...
Unlucky Morpheus is a band whose discography mostly consists of Touhou arrangement albums. In the past few years, the band has however started writing some original material as well and has also increased tour activities. This brilliant live album is...
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...
