by Sebastian Kluth
Rainy Dog is the second film in Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy that focuses on foreign gangsters with inner struggles that are trying to find a purpose in life. Despite a similar topic, Rainy Dog is very different from the first film Shinjuku Triad...
Therion’s mastermind Christofer Johnsson wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t try out a few new experiments with each record. The first release of the new millennium marks the addition of the Niemann brothers (consisting of guitarist Kristian [Sorcerer] and...
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....
''Hacksaw Ridge'' is a superbly crafted anti-war movie and easily the best movie of its kind since the release of the South Korean war epic ''My Way'' five years earlier. This movie is based upon true events and tells the story of Seventh-day Adventist...
From a purely objective point of view, ''Yoga Hosers'' could be seen as one of the worst movies ever made. The story is extremely weak. The movie has several big plot holes. The acting performances are somewhere between average and terrible. The characters...
The Road to OR-Shalem is not only a highly recommendable live record but also a collection of Orphaned Land's greatest hits of their early works and therefor a great starting point for anyone who wants to discover the quintet's epic Middle Eastern folk...
After a career of more than thirty years and ten years after the last compilation, it's about time for a new greatest hits release. Stratovarius' simply titled "Best of" offers a balanced mixture of the band's catchy, saccharine and short singles like...
Kna'an is a collaboration between Israeli Middle Eastern folk metal groups Amaseffer and Orphaned Land. The goal was to write a soundtrack for a German theater play about Abraham's journey to Canaan. Even though this initiative originally came from a...
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,...
Di er shi tiao, internationally known as Article Twenty, is a Chinese courtroom drama directed by renowned veteran Zhang Yimou. This is the first legal-themed Chinese movie that focuses on the issue of justifiable defence. The movie aims to prove the...
Wo Te Po Po Tsen Me Pa Chuan Chuan Kao Tiu Le, internationally known under the stupid title U Motherbaker - The Movie, is a Taiwanese comedy movie based upon the popular television series of the same title. The movie revolves around middle-aged mother...
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...
The Killer Reserved Nine Seats, originally titled L'assassino ha riservato nove poltrone, is a giallo that combines elements of a psychological thriller with mild softcore pornography. The plot is closely inspired by the works of Agatha Christie which...
“Brave New World” has always been a mixed bag for me. Many songs on the album were still written with Blaze Bayley in the band. If I take into consideration how great Blaze Bayley’s first solo record “Silicon Messiah” turned out to be, I would have adored...
Two years after the outstanding self-titled debut from power metal and melodic rock supergroup Unisonic, the quintet is back in full strength with its sophomore output entitled Light Of Dawn. While many people I know didn’t appreciate the debut, it was...
Colour me surprised! I didn't like anything Lacuna Coil released since ''Karmacode'' ten years ago but the two new songs included as an exclusive version on German gothic magazine Sonic Seducer are quite promising. The excellent ''The House of Shame''...
This limited Record Store Day live album by American thrash metal legend Metallica is a really interesting release. First of all, it's limited to twenty thousand copies in the world and includes a little certificate that gives you the feeling to own something...
Lords of Black is a Spanish heavy metal quartet that deserves more acclaim, approval and attention than it has gotten so far. All four members have been or are still involved in numerous interesting bands and projects. Bassist Daniel Criado was once involved...
Ice Road is yet another action-thriller starring Liam Neeson in a typecast role he has played over and over again throughout the past two decades and counting. And this is perfectly fine. In this particular film, Liam Neeson plays a tough, resilient and...
Nine Inch Nails' second Ghosts record, released simultaneously with the first, third and fourth parts, looks quite similar to its predecessor on paper. Once again, we get to listen to nine tracks. The track lengths vary between one minute and a half and...
Godzilla vs. Megalon is the thirteenth entry in the Godzilla franchise and once again a family-friendly movie directed by Fukuda Jun. The film wasn't even supposed to be a Godzilla film in the first place and was intended to focus on the adventures of...
Eluveitie is a folk metal band that has had its ups and down and experiments in the early stages of its career. The horrendous debut extended play Vên with its unbalanced genre mixture and terrible production was followed by the much smoother and more...
When you purchase an Anvil record, you know exactly what to expect: tight old school heavy metal with occasional hard rock and doom metal influences shining through. This is also the case for the band's seventeenth album in forty years. What makes this...
''Infinite Entanglement'' is the first strike of a conceptual trilogy that goes back to Blaze Bayley's beloved space theme that already dominated his first solo outputs ''Silicon Messiah'' and ''Tenth Dimension''. This album sounds less diversified, emotional...
The immortal Japanese heavy metal institution Loudness comes around with its twenty-eighth studio record in thirty-three years. The cover artwork and album title, The Sun Will Rise Again, reference the band’s breakthrough record Thunder In The East from...
