Category Archives: Reviews

Testament – Live at Eindhoven, Live At Fillmore, First Strike Still Deadly, Demonic, The Gathering Reissues

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Well into their fourth decade, the history of Bay Area Thrash legends Testament is already a well-documented one. We all know they were originally called Legacy, and that Steve “Zetro” Souza from Exodus used to be their vocalist, and we all know that they are one of a select bunch of bands many Thrash Metal fans would like to have seen included in the so-called “Big Four”. While it looks like we may have a long wait for classics like The Legacy, The New Order, Practice What You Preach and Souls of Black (all Atlantic/Megaforce) to be reissued and/or remastered, Nuclear Blast have done (close to) the next best thing and reissued two live records, a collection of re-recorded tracks, and two studio albums.Continue reading →


Howling Sycamore- Howling Sycamore

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In contemporary terms when we think of Progressive Metal, often the first thought (and arguably nowadays the most prevalent style) is of the overtly technical, calculated and near mechanical sounding; that or the likes of Opeth with their marriage of extremity and growled vocals with progressive rock’s expansive structures and complex arrangements. Beforehand, years ago, progressive metal was arguably spearheaded by a vastly different type of beast; the likes of Queensryche with their thoughtful yet anthemic nature and armed with towering, often falsetto vocalists. Howling Sycamore certainly remembers this time well, as their self-titled début (Prosthetic) shows a love and influence from such time period as much as it marries with more modern stylings; creating a sound which in today’s progressive metal climate, actually stands out effectively.Continue reading →


Mammoth Grinder – Cosmic Crypt

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Mammoth Grinder is a supergroup of sorts, featuring current and ex-members of bands such as Power Trip, Darkest Hour and Iron Reagan. Let’s just cut to the chase this new record Cosmic Crypt (Relapse), the bands fourth release, is a fast, brutal, no-fucking-nonsense, crusty-edged grind, Death Metal Hardcore Punk rager.Continue reading →


Tribulation – Down Below

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2015 was a big year for Tribulation, and The Children of the Night (Century Media) quickly garnered them a lot of media attention for delicately weaving together Classic Rock, Prog and psychedelia, to create a haunting, depraved tale that was as much in common with Hawkwind as it did Mercyful Fate. They elevated their musical ambitions from 2013’s The Formulas of Death (Invictus), with its suffocating combination of Death and Black metal, and produced a record that not only exposed them to a much broader audience but set expectations at an all-time high. Three years later Tribulation has brought us Down Below (Century Media), continuing their evolution from morbid death-rattlers to fully fledged Occult Rock-stars.Continue reading →


Orphaned Land – Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs

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When they toured with Palestinian act Khalas a few years ago, Orphaned Land‘s Israeli frontman, Kobi Farhi would joke on stage every night about how, considering the two bands were from two Middle Eastern countries divided by a brutal and long-standing conflict, the only time they would actually argue with each other was over whose turn it was to buy the beer.Continue reading →


Phillip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue

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Can we truly separate the art from the artist? It’s the question I’ve been ruminating in my dining room while listening to Phillip H. Anselmo & The Illegals’ Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue (Season of Mist). An onstage stunt involving Nazi salutes transpired at a tribute show in early 2016 and ever since then I haven’t had the keenest impression of Anselmo. Several non-apologies have ensued and I’m not sure if we’ll ever get any closure. Continue reading →


Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons – Age of Absurdity

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After the sad passing of Lemmy and calling an end to the inimitable juggernaut that was Motörhead, guitarist Phil Campbell stuck to his strengths and in 2016 formed Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons. As the name alludes, Phil kept it in the family and enlisted his sons Todd, Dane, and Tyla on guitar, drums and bass respectively alongside lead singer Neil Starr (Attack! Attack!). After last year’s eponymous EP, Age of Absurdity (Nuclear Blast) is their debut studio album and it successfully combines Rock song-craft with rich, Heavy Metal production. Continue reading →


Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

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Falling into the category of bands with names that really aren’t as scary as they probably think they are, Finland’s Hooded Menace may sound like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon villain with gnarled fingers and a sinister laugh who hangs around creepy looking abandoned fairgrounds, but their music is the embodiment of shit-your-pants scary Death/Doom Metal.Continue reading →


Machine Head – Catharsis

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If it feels like another lifetime since Robb Flynn invited us all to let freedom ring with a shotgun blast that’s because, well, it is. In the intervening years, Flynn and his Machine Head bandmates have bestrode the metal community with style, invention, and attitude. Their legacy is, surely, settled and unarguable. Continue reading →


Portal – Ion

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Portal are one of the most important Death Metal bands in the world.

In a genre as conservative as Heavy Metal it is no surprise that lists of influential bands generally don’t go beyond a pre-approved set of “classics”, but Portal have earned their place among the Deaths and Morbid Angels. Over four albums and nearly fifteen years, they took Death Metal apart and reassembled the pieces into nightmarish, abstract shapes that for the first time managed to sound how the artwork looked. Like most innovators, it took time for their impact to sink in, but over the last few years they have – quite against their will, it seems – triggered a mini-trend of impersonators and left Death Metal in quite a different place than it was in 2013 when Vexovoid (Profound Lore), was released.Continue reading →