ALBUM REVIEW: Lord Of The Lost – Weapons Of Mass Seduction


Ah, Eurovision.

That strangest of competitions where coming last can be as much of a badge of honour as winning.  Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Carpenter Brut – Leather Terror


The second part of his ongoing conceptual “Leather” trilogy, Frank Huesco, the French darksynth artist better known as Carpenter Brut, follows up 2018’s Leather Teeth with the sequel, Leather Terror (No Quarter Productions/Universal Music/Caroline Records). Conceived during lockdown and featuring absolutely no electric guitars, this latest synth-driven piledriver serves as the soundtrack to an imagined 1987 horror movie about Bret Halford, a nerdy science student who resorts to somewhat dubious scientific methods to win a girl from her high school jock boyfriend. After his experiment turns unrequited love into disfiguration and madness, Halford becomes “Leather Teeth”, the scarred, peroxide blonde frontman of glam rock band Leather Patrol. Picking up the story at this point, Leather Terror uses its twelve tracks to show Halford taking his new serial killer rock star identity and wreaking revenge on those who abused him.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Beast In Black – Dark Connection


Replacing axe-wielding lions and scantily clad, big-haired warrior maidens with vivid, futuristic imagery, it only takes a quick glance at the cover art of Dark Connection (Nuclear Blast), the new album by multinational power metal act Beast in Black, to see that science fiction and anime have played an integral role in its, er… inception.

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