In the before times, I enjoyed a band called Airbourne. I’m pretty sure they were Australian, and they sounded remarkably like AC/DC. Highly recommended. So, on the list of available albums, I saw Airborn‘s Lizard Secrets Part 3: Utopia (Fighter Records) and figured I’d give it a shot. Very glad I did. This Italian group delivers a Power Metal tour de force. Bonus, the vocals pitch up in a range most of us can reach.
Guitars quite literally illustrate the opening action of “By The Light”, a group of paladins attacking an evil necromantic death cult. Their failure and the sole survivor Emaly’s efforts to avenge the deaths form the balance of Burning Sun’s Retribution (Metalizer Records), a Power Metal tour de force of a concept album in the vein of Helloween and my last album reviewed for Ghost Cult, Martyr. Pancho Ireland’s vocals maintain smooth power akin to Bruce Dickinson.Continue reading
The press kit for this record reads normal, until we look a little deeper. Martyr formed in 1982 and earned attention three years later with a major single and album. Further details about tours and acts sharing the stage – standard stuff for a forty-plus-year-old act. Then, “[U]nleash their seventh studio album Dark Believer through ROAR.” Wait, what? Seventh? When did they form? Huh. That’s like Guns ‘n’ Roses pace.
Let’s have a listen, shall we?
Austin, Texas-based blackened speed metal unit Sadistic Force are proud to release their ferocious new single “Portrait of Torment” taken from their upcoming EP, Morbid Odyssey, due out August 22nd, 2025. “Portrait of Torment” features a synth intro and guitar solo by Mark Pursino of Electrocutioner and arrives alongside a full narrative NSFW music video premiering on Metal Sucks featuring Indira Starr (Minnie’s Midnight Massacre) and was shot by Pennyrock Productions (Bloody & Bruised), available to view below. Continue reading
Heavily rooted in the traditional Doom Metal-centered alignment, Athens-based Tèlma has consistently presented melancholic sounds with ceremonial atmospheres. They have been around for roughly eight years and are profoundly inspired by many names across the globe when it comes to musical influences – including Russia’s Scald, Finland’s Reverend Bizarre, and Chile’s Procession – though most listeners probably also can sense some Candlemass-esque hints of references in their sounds.
Although only formed in 2022, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Leipzig speed metallers Morbyda have been around since the early eighties as debut album Under the Spell (Dying Victims Productions) hits all the right nostalgia notes while delivering something uniquely its own.Continue reading
Jeff Hanneman, legendary guitarist of Slayer passed away on May 2nd, 2013, twelve years ago today. Ghost Cult continues to fly the flag of Slayer high, and customarily we celebrate the life of Jeff, the music he made and the stages he left scorched. His legacy as a riff maker, songwriter, soloist, and metal personality has not been dampened since his death. In the time since he passed, Ghost Cult covered Slayer just as heavily in Jeff’s life, as they released a final studio album with Jeff’s contributions (Repentless), had a legend and friend hold down his spot live (Gary Holt of Exodus), released a comic book with Jeff’s likeness, completed their final world tour ever of two years, released an incredible film/music video trilogy (The Repentless Killogy), and so much more. At the time of Jeff’s passing, many friends and peers, such as, former bandmate Dave Lombardo wrote a loving tribute to his fallen friend, and we have created two career-spanning retrospectives (read them here and here) on the end of the band, back in 2019. From the time Jeff passed and every night on that final world tour, Slayer honored Jeff during ‘Raining Blood’ with the “still reigning” banner. The unlikely Slayer comeback of 2024 (we were quoted in the press release!) and continuing this year is done with love and appreciation for Jeff, always. In addition to the Talking Slayer podcast, and check out the 4th edition of Slayer 66 2/3: A Metal Band Biography… Or, How Fuckin’ Slayer Kicked Fuckin’ Ass, both by our pal D.X. Ferris. As we say every year at this time: Hail Jeff and hail Slayer!
The new cut from Church Road Records recording artists Inhuman Nature is a crash course in some good old-fashioned thrashin’! Each track is chock-full of all those cool components that make up a killer thrash metal album. Continue reading
Formed all the way back in 1980, German Metal stalwarts Grave Digger return to celebrate their 45th anniversary with a new album Bone Collector (RPM Roar). The band’s 22nd full-length studio release (if you choose to include the time during the eighties they were known as Digger) finds the band in blistering form with one of the finest records they’ve released in years.Continue reading
The third album from Joliet, Illinois-based Molder, Catastrophic Reconfiguration (Prosthetic Records), is a collection of sonic brutality.
Presented here are ten cuts where each stands on its own, each vying to be the song that kicks the most ass.