EP REVIEW: Atreyu – The Moment You Find Your Flame


 

Over the past decade, the once-notorious metalcore band, Atreyu have been going through a metamorphosis of sorts. From breakdowns and screams to grand sing-along choruses and arena-rock sounds, the band seems like they’ve set their sights and hearts on a sound dedicated to a bigger space, arenas, and stadiums instead of their frequented small academy slots where the band originally gained fame. This of course has been met with a strong mixture of love and derision from fans and foes alike since the release of their album In Our Wake. With the last album receiving polarising reviews across the board, will the latest of a collection of EP projects, The Moment You Find Your Flame (Spinefarm) allow the band to start winning back audiences and critics alike?

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ALBUM REVIEW: Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden


 

I don’t want to speak too early or jinx anything, but this Heavy Metal idea has been in a resurgence as of late. Bear in mind that a lot of the old promotional tools have been inactive for years. MTV lost its ass and stopped using the first letter of its acronym long ago and whatever is left of commercial rock radio is perfectly content to spin the same Stone Temple Pilots singles until the sun or Clear Channel finally burn out. Yet here we are in the age of streaming and shortened attention spans with several young acts making headway. Continue reading


STAFF PICKS: Ghost Cult Photographer Chris Small’s Top 20 Albums of 2022


Ghost Cult’s Chris Small (aka Smallz, Papa Smallz) has been an essential member of our live coverage team this year and chipped in a few other types of reviews over the years as well. When he is not voraciously consuming heavy music, he is also a dad, documents underground rap shows, and streams on Twitch. Here are his top 20 albums of 2022 list! Peace and Chicken grease, as Chris would say…

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ALBUM REVIEW: Pistols At Dawn – Ascension


 

Hot on the heels of last year’s four-track EP Nocturnal Youth, comes Pistols At Dawn’s latest album Ascension (JFL Entertainment). The Atlanta-based quintet’s sound is alternative-influenced hard rock, and their newest one Ascension is a promising if patchy, display of heavy grooves and soaring choruses with a brooding atmosphere. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Shinedown – Planet Zero


The chatter in the buildup to Shinedown’s seventh album Planet Zero (Atlantic Records) has focused on the lyrics and subject matter and a new ground for a band who have stood up for unity, mental health support, and anti-bullying. Freedom of speech has long been a vanguard of rock lyrics, and it is interesting that Shinedown’s challenge of cancel culture has been seen as evidence of an underlying conservatism, though lines about people being “woke, but not awake” and sections of the society being “Clueless and Dramatic” will invite comment, even if the stated intention is to encourage exploration of nuance and individuality. Indeed, the band stated on the album launch “It’s not a record for the right, it’s not a record for the left… it’s a record for all of us.”

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Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Evanescence, Megadeth and More Booked for Rocklahoma 2022


Rocklahoma will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year and has put together a great lineup for the party! This year, Rocklahoma will make its Labor Day Weekend Party America’s biggest as the three-day camping festival features some of today’s top rock artists, including Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Evanescence, Megadeth, Seether, Three Days Grace, Cypress Hill, Jelly Roll, and more! Rocklahoma takes place on Friday, September 2, Saturday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4 at Pryor Creek Music Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma, just outside of Tulsa. Produced by AEG Presents and original Rocklahoma founders Pryor Creek Music Festivals, Rocklahoma showcases the best new rock acts and classic artists performing on three stages. With onsite camping amenities and unparalleled VIP packages, Rocklahoma lives up to its motto of “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Rock.”

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FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Welcome To Rockville 2022


Welcome To Rockville – America’s Largest Rock Festival–will kick off the Danny Wimmer Presents festival season in Daytona Beach, Florida Today! The top-notch talent includes headliners KISS, KORN, Guns N’ Roses, and Nine Inch Nails, plus appearances by 80+ additional bands including Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, The Smashing Pumpkins, Breaking Benjamin, Megadeth, Porno For Pyros (in place of Jane’s Addiction,) Papa Roach, Rise Against, Halestorm, In This Moment, Seether, Bush, and many more.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Fozzy – Boombox


Whether it is due to the day-job of Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho, or their weird roots and route, stumbling into being a “proper band” by evolving from a high-profile covers act formed by former Stuck Mojo six-stringer Rich Ward, rightly or wrongly (and the answer is wrongly, by the way), it took 2017’s breakout anthem ‘Judas’ (from the album of the same name), a bona-fide fists-in-the-air voices-to-the-sky classic anthem, to put a stamp of credibility on the twenty-year labour of musical love of Ward and Jericho and push them headfirst through the glass ceiling and into the next level of mainstream consciousness.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Stone Broken – Revelation


Formed in 2013, Stone Broken are a quartet who, despite their transatlantic sound, hail from Walsall. Revelation, on Spinefarm, is the British four piece’s third album and it is a polished slab of commercial hard rock.

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