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It took a while for us to get here, but we finally have the debut full length record from US Power Metal's Savage Oath. 

Now I might have said sometime ago that the American strain of Power Metal does not provide the same kind of positive reaction as the European counterpart. Something about it being super derivative and not doing much in the way of standing out from its influences. Power metal in the United States became much better when it dropped the cheesy pretense and became speed/thrash metal. But Savage Oath are trying to be a fading spark in a genre that is now almost exclusively carried by legacy acts.

In a way, Divine Battles reminds me of the newest releases by Cirith Ungol. The mixing is very underappreciated with how it sounds modern while also feeling deeply nostalgic. Guitars are not the focal point of this mix and that allows for the tasteful bass lines to give the album some dynamic weight. The percussion is pretty solid, if a little overbearing. But that only seems to be the case early on in the album on "Knight of the Night" and "Wings of Vengeance."

With such a solid foundation, it really pushes the vocals to the front and they sound excellent. Brendan Radigan has a varied vocal timbre and fits the landscape of this project quite well. There is quite a bit of influence from the power metal great vocalists, but also provides his own style and personality to the performance. That said, I feel like the variety in the vocals is a double edged sword; for example, while "Wings of Vengeance" has a wild timbre and can even be reminiscent of classic Rob Halford, songs like "Madness of the Crowd" have passages that sound deeply out of tune. It just sounds bad and gives me the feeling of sky high aspirations by the group that were just not met.

But beyond that, I don't see much else in the way of obvious criticisms. The album can run a little bit too long at times, but that feels like an issue for a handful of songs instead of a critique of the entire album. If you like power metal in the 21st century, but would like to hear something that isn't directly related to the past (i.e. Blind Guardian, Helloween, Metal Church), then Savage Oath might just be your next favourite band. Just hoping that the next album does something new and different.

Best Songs: Wings of Vengeance, Blood for the King, Savage Oath

This is the point of Nevermore's career where they were mostly focused on the art of their new identity.  Now that they had cemented their sound with the previous album, Dreaming Neon Black, it was time to expand on that.  Dead Heart in a Dead World is exactly that.  This might be a continuation of the darker tone they took with their third album, but this is also the album where Nevermore go back on what made them so good in their early days.  They started out as a band with various types of songs, likely trying to discover who they were.  They found that with the less innovative DNB, and it was time to combine that with the variety of their previous two albums.  As such, this album is much less thrash oriented than the last three.  The album basically goes prog, prog thrash, groove, heavy, prog, power ballad, thrash, proggy groove-thrash (this is the Sound of Silence cover), ballad, heavy semi-ballad, prog-speed.

There's a balance between identity and variety here.  They've never been a favorite of mine, but I always admired their willingness to get creative.  I mean, they covered Sound of Silence in an incredible way that I wouldn't have thought of in a million years, one that works perfectly in the groove and thrash departments, with some of that shifting technical behavior of Metallica's fourth album, And Justice for All.  In fact, I gotta say that the cover is now my favorite Nevermore song out of respect for how well they handled one of the best songs by one of music's greatest geniuses.

As for the delivery, once again we have an album full of impressive melodies, powerful tones and moods, clever shifts and a consistent persona.  It's impossible to skip a song for me this time.  In all respects, this is the strongest of their albums up to that point.  Happy to have finally checked this album out.

So... A Loded Diper album exists. If you're familiar with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and films, you know what Loded Diper is. If you're not, let me fill you in without spoiling too much. Loded Diper is a heavy metal band in which the main character Greg Heffley's brother Rodrick plays drums. All members of the band are in high school, except the lead vocalist Bill Walter who is in his 30s and still living with his grandma. The books involving Rodrick and his band, like Rodrick Rules and Diper Overlode, are a couple of my favorite Wimpy Kid books because of how much I like metal band-themed kinds of stories. Of course, I don't tolerate Rodrick's bullying behavior towards Greg.

I got my hopes a little too high when I discovered this album. The thing is, it's not an official Loded Diper album, more like a fan-made compilation. It starts with the two official songs from the live-action Wimpy Kid movies, and then the rest is just fan-made tracks, whether attempts at actual songs or just dialogue-sampled rock/metal instrumentals, similarly to Spongecore where they make metalcore/deathcore songs over Spongebob Squarepants dialogue.

The two official songs are actually quite fun, starting with "Exploded Diper" from the Rodrick Rules movie. This mid-tempo heavy metal/hard rock tune is both comedic and anthemic, and worth headbanging to. The chorus almost reminds me of the pre-chorus of Metallica's "Master of Puppets". The other official song is from the Dog Days film, and is a fun yet goofy-a** cover of Justin Bieber's biggest (s)hit "Baby". It starts off similarly to the original then gets cranked up into punky hard rock. Rodrick performs the song in an attempt to impress Heather Hills (older sister of Greg's crush Holly) at her birthday party, but it ends up going spectacularly wrong.

Then the fan-made tracks begin, starting with "Diper Overlode". It's just a sh*tty slacker rock attempt to make a song out of the official lyrics written in the Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. I'm pretty sure I can make something a lot better and more metallic using those lyrics. The dialogue-sampled instrumentals cover the rest, and they're all only either OK or poor quality. The only one I really enjoy is "Rodrick Rules", with its kick-A thrashy metalcore instrumentation.

Now I've seen the new animated Wimpy Kid films on Disney+, and the new Rodrick Rules film has an official song called "Can You Smell Us Now?" The song also appears in the Diper Overlode book. Some may be turned off by the odd vocals by Bill Walter (at least compared to Bill in the live-action film) and the ridiculous lyrics (what the h*ll is a "chocolate cow"?!), but it's truly a hard rock/glam/heavy metal tune to get even the most serious metalhead grooving. And while it doesn't appear in the Loded Diper album because it was released a few years before the release of the song and the film it appears in, I wish it was there.

If I were to show you how to make a Loded Diper playlist, take the first 4 songs and replace "Diper Overlode" with "Can You Smell Us Now?". Everything else, throw it into the fire. Now I'm hoping for an album consisting of songs by Enslave the Mollusk, Nate Wright (from Big Nate)'s rock band, whether official or fan-made....

Favorites (only ones I like in the official album): "Exploded Diper", "Baby", "Rodrick Rules"

I am fairly familiar with Pagan Altar's earlier material, specifically the debut which dates from 1982, their Time Lord EP which dates from '78/'79 and also their 2004 album Lords of Hypocrisy. The first two are interesting early examples of the metamorphisis from heavy metal to traditional doom metal that was beginning to take place in the late seventies and early eighties, similar to Bedemon/Pentagram or Witchfinder General material from the same era. I wasn't so much taken with the later album however and found it quite lacklustre and disappointing.

So, my first impressions of 2006's Mythical & Magical are far more positive, I must say. It is a much more interesting release with it's quite wide range of influences, whilst still sounding consistent. The biggest issue for a lot of fans is likely to be Terry Jones' nasal and fairly high-pitched vocal delivery which may not be to everyone's taste, but if you are OK with King Diamond and Cirith Ungol you should be fine. Talking of Cirith Ungol, there are certainly elements employed by the Californian epic metallers to be found here on Mythical & Magical, albeit a little more restrained. Just to be clear though, there is very little to no doom metal present on M&M, other than in the very loosest sense. This is predominantly (epic) trad metal with plenty of seventies hard rock influence. There is even some folk-prog featured with the enjoyable, The Crowman, which wouldn't sound at all out of place on Jethro Tull's fantastic 1977 Songs from the Wood album. Make no mistake though, this is principally a traditional heavy metal album and Pagan Altar's emergence during the early NWOBHM is apparent both in the songwriting and the production of M&M with it's relatively raw and reedy sound.

For me the album is at it's strongest when they go all-in on the more epic side of things and allow Alan Jones to indulge his soaring solos, such as the Comfortably Numb-esque closing solo to The Sorcerer. I would suggest it is Alan's guitar work that raises this album to whatever heights it occupies as it is his riffing and soloing that completely dominates the album's standout moments.

I find it fascinating that Terry and Alan are father and son. I don't know of any other band with such a relationship - I really can't imagine being in a band with my old man and I certainly can't imagine it would have lasted long if I was!

Sometimes even the most committed of metal historians can have their opinions influenced by circumstances if they're not careful. A preconceived notion of what you should expect from a release can often play a role in how you'll react to a record upon the first listen or two & that's why it's really important to give music at least a few listens before making a judgement on its value. I've rarely seen a better example of that than with the 1985 debut E.P. from Melbourne five-piece Nothing Sacred, a release that I've generally despised over the many decades since I first heard it as a youngster. It's only recently that I listened to it with fresh ears & realised that I'd been WWAAAYYY too harsh on it. The only explanation I can come up with is that I was put off by the release's having been consistently linked to thrash metal when, in reality, there's almost no sign of that genre to be found amongst the four songs included here. When I finally managed to tackle "Deathwish" with unbiased ears I discovered that it's actually not a bad heavy/power metal record though, & one that deserves to be heard too.

Nothing Sacred had been around for a couple of years by the time "Deathwish" was recorded & had built up a significant live following in their home city too. Their only demo recording had come in the form of a live demo that showcased an entire set from a show that sounds like it was a headline gig given the engagement levels of the audience who seem to be well across the band's usual setlist. That demo included a number of cover versions from bands like Metallica, Judas Priest, Savatage & Motorhead as well as a series of well-constructed originals that compare fairly well with the covers for the most part & I quite enjoyed the release overall, despite a few flatter numbers & a questionable vocal performance. The instrumental capabilities of Nothing Sacred were clearly pretty well developed even at that early stage & that comes across very clearly on "Live", despite the dodgy recording quality.

Given the pre-internet release dates of "Live" & "Deathwish", it's actually not that easy to place them into a Nothing Sacred timeline. Both seem to be listed as 1985 releases & I've seen an interview where the band state that "Deathwish" was recorded in 1984 & released the following year. I get the distinct impression that the E.P. hadn't been released at the time of the live recording though as front man Mick Burnham never mentions it when announcing the couple of tracks that were taken from "Deathwish". I also consider it to be a little strange that Nothing Sacred didn't play half of the E.P. that night, instead resorting to several weaker numbers. That leaves me wondering whether "Live" was actually recorded in early 1984 or whether the band are telling porkies about "Deathwish" being recorded in 1984 but I guess it really doesn't matter all that much. What does matter is that Nothing Sacred have produced a pretty good first up studio effort here & one that I've misjudged for most of my life.

The four songs included on "Deathwish" clock in at just under twenty minutes with not a second being wasted. The production is fairly basic as you'd expect from an underground Australian release from the mid-1980's but it's certainly acceptable & allows the song-writing to showcase its wares well enough. The performance of the band is once again very good & you can easily tell that Nothing Sacred have played their fair share of Iron Maiden cover versions over the previous couple of years. I'm particularly impressed by the way Mark Woolley (Hobbs Angel of Death) & Richard Snape incorporate their lead guitar work into the song structures because it highlights a clear understanding of the role that melody plays in the way a song can build & release tension. The rhythm section of bassist Karl Lean (Hobbs Angel of Death) & drummer Sham Littleman (Depression) are rock-solid too & prove they're no slouches when they get the opportunity to throw themselves into an energetic Maiden gallop or a tremolo-picked speed metal riff. Burnham's vocals still aren't perfect & he's certainly not one of the more capable heavy metal front men on the international scene but he delivers a much better performance than we heard from him on the live demo & I found myself getting used to him fairly quickly, despite the occasional pitchy moment.

It's hard to deny that my feelings on Nothing Sacred's links to thrash metal were warranted because there's fuck all here. I've seen the band stating as much over the years too so it's not surprising that the young teenage thrasher I was when I first experienced "Deathwish" struggled a little with it from a stylistic perspective. Now that I've accepted Nothing Sacred for what they are though, I've found them to be really pretty easy to stomach. The live demo was mainly a heavy metal release although there were a few speed & power metal number chucked in there as well as the obvious thrash cover in Metallica's "The Four Horsemen". Here we see Nothing Sacred starting to emphasize the epic side of their sound a little more which places "Deathwish" somewhere between Iron Maiden's NWOBHM sound & the more muscular & epic US power metal one. The two songs that are shared with the live demo were obviously some of the more power metal inclined inclusions on that release so I guess "Deathwish" was always gonna feel a little more power metal oriented & I think that's a good thing because I've enjoyed that aspect of the record.

Despite my earlier struggles with the release in general, the tracklisting is actually very consistent with all four songs being worthy of your attention. The more atmospheric number "Old Man" is possibly the weaker of the four as it's chorus hook is a little flat but it still manages to bring enough to the table to keep me interested. The clear highlight is closer "The Curse" which is also the most clear-cut power metal tune with Burnham's lyrics traversing the typical fantasy topics the genre is known for. "No Rest" & the infamous title track are also pretty good though & you can see why the band had built up such a strong local following because they compete well with their international competition as far as professionalism goes.

After this experience, I'm gonna have to apologise to Nothing Sacred. I hate to admit it but I've allowed my own preconceived biases to impact my affection for what was actually a pretty important release for my home country's local metal scene & I'm a little ashamed of it too as I pride myself on my ability to separate myself from that rubbish. Oh well... better late than never I suppose. Despite the fact that "Deathwish" has no right to be referenced as an early Aussie thrash record, it's a pretty reasonable heavy/power metal release that will very likely offer some appeal to most of our The Guardians members so if that's you then I'd encourage you to check it out.

For fans of Iron Maiden, Prowler & Iron Angel.

When you think of Nightwish, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

This is a genuine question for those who are reading this and are familiar with the Finnish, Symphonic metal giants. This is a band that, through the 2000s, produced a number of high quality symphonic metal records that were packed to the brim with excellent production, fun and catchy hooks, and well thought out, well constructed album concepts. However, in recent years it appears like most of the lead decision making has been placed in the lap of Tuomas Holopainen since the departure of Tarja in 2006, not to mention the other band members all being replaced, with only Emppu as the other original member left. 

When Floor Jensen took over the lead vocal role in 2015 on Endless Forms Most Beautiful, the decline in quality was noticeable, but not unbearable. But with Yesterwynde, we can see that Tuomas has finally reached writers block. With most of the original pieces absent, all that's left is what Tuomas thinks Nightwish sounded like on Wishmaster. But without other voices to bounce off of, the rest of the band feels like they are just along for the ride. As such, Yesterwynde sounds like the soundtrack to a Marvel movie, without the Marvel movie. Any motivic development that was present on previous albums has been neutered in favour of some of the worst progressive metal tendencies that I can recall; unconnected style flips, unnecessary tempo changes, bloated runtimes that include features that add nothing and instrumental wankage for its own sake. The core of Nightwish ceases to exist.

If the songs sounded decent I could have made some excuses, but even the production has gotten more lousy. And I get it, symphonic metal is hard to produce properly; my biggest criticism of Lorna Shore's Pain Remains was how it felt like the band was playing every single instrument at the same time all of the time. Without a clear feature everything blends together. And that is especially so on Yesterwynde. Unlike Lorna Shore, Floor Jansen's vocals are clean and operatic, and that makes the mesh of sound even worse. Symphonic instrumentation is overwhelming when paired with the power metal instrumentals of guitar, percussion and keyboards. And the vocals are compressed so far into the back of the mix, whatever kind of thematic arc Nightwish might have presented on this album is muted.

The album does take a bit of a symphonic turn around "Spider Silk" and the albums production becomes a little bit more bearable, but by that point the damage has already been done, and the heavier soundscapes is what I come to hear from Nightwish in the first place. It's too bad to say, but even for legacy act territory, Yesterwynde is not a good album. It almost has the exact same issue that I had with Within Temptation's 2019 album, Resist. I like symphonic metal, I really do, but too many modern bands try to make an album sound epic by stacking layer upon layer without actually stopping to ask if its still sounds good or has just become an audible mess. 

Best Songs: Perfume Of The Timeless, Spider Silk

Aesome record! YEAH!

BLS Is one of the best Heavy Metal band!

My experience with prolific German metal stalwarts Rage has been fairly limited up until now with my only dedicated investigation of their music being capped at the band’s 1986 debut album “Reign of Fear”, a release that didn’t impress me much if I’m being honest. I struggled with the inconsistencies in quality & particularly with the vocals of bass-playing front man Peter “Peavy” Wagner so I’ve never felt too much encouragement to explore the ridiculously extensive Rage back catalogue further. I’ve recently noticed a fair bit of fanfare around Rage’s 1995 ninth full-length “Black in Mind” though so I decided to give the Germans another chance. It’d been almost a decade since their first-up effort after all so one could only imagine that they’d matured somewhat in that time. Time would tell though.

The production job is pretty good & presents the songs with a metal-as-fuck aesthetic that affords the material every chance of winning me over, even if power metal releases often face an up-hill battle with me. “Black in Mind” is quite an ambitious & diverse example of the German power metal model though. It’s 69-minute run time can be fairly daunting, particularly for someone like myself that’s not usually all that fond of the European strand of the genre, but there are plenty of stylistic changes throughout the fourteen-song tracklisting to keep one from getting bored. Despite the tendency to genre-hop a bit, I think the power metal genre is still the only primary tag required to describe “Black in Mind”. There are notable heavy metal & thrash metal components included & both are significant enough to mention but I don’t think either are a true representation of the overall sound you can expect to here from this record. 

Although not as overt as I found on “Reign of Fear”, “Black in Mind” still suffers from largely the same flaws. The consistency of the song-writing isn’t great with four or five obvious filler tracks tainting my holistic impression of the album. While Wagner’s vocals may have improved over the previous decade, I still wouldn’t say that they’re amazing & find that they actually work to the detriment of some of these pieces. It's interesting that the back half of the album tends to be much heavier on the power metal than the A side which is a mixture of heavy metal, thrash metal & speed metal apart from the epic ten minutes of “In A Nameless Time”. I tend to favour the heavy metal material here with “The Icecold Hand of Destiny” being my clear favourite track followed by “The Crawling Chaos” & speed metal burner “Sent by the Devil”. I find “Shadow Out of Time”, “Until I Rage” & the popular opening title track to be pretty flat though while cheesy power metal number “Forever” falls a long way from my taste profile. Let’s not even mention “Alive But Dead” as it’s just fucking awful so you can see that a good third of the tracklisting doesn’t offer me much in the way of appeal. 

“Black in Mind” certainly isn’t horrible & I did get some enjoyment out of the majority of its lengthy run time to tell you the truth but there’s no doubt that it's too long & I feel that even a small amount of culling might have seen me awarding it a more acceptable score. As it is though, I can’t say that I found the experience all that rewarding. I'd definitely take “Black in Mind” over “Reign of Fear” but not by as much as most fans would probably think & it surprises me that this is thought to be Rage’s best release as that doesn’t exactly say a lot about their gazillion & one other albums. Perhaps Rage (& European power metal in general) simply aren’t for me but I feel good about the fact that I’ve given “Black in Mind” a good Aussie crack as it has definitely ticked a box that had remained empty for far too long.

For fans of Grave Digger, Running Wild & Avenger.

Estatic Fear released just two masterpiece albums in their short career, both of them lush with folky acoustic passages, flutes and strings mixed in with crushing Doom/Death Doom. A Sombre Dance features one long suite split up into much shorter tracks (as opposed to the first album, which featured two primary tracks totaling over 50 minutes). The shorter tracks make for a much more digestible album, and the Dark Folk passages are intelligently mixed into the songs rather than being cut into quick interlude tracks.

This album features more clean female vocals, and more Neoclassical Darkwave keywork which gives it a slightly Gothic flavor. The Death Doom is still as strong as ever, driven by liberal double bass drumming and tremolo lead guitars. A great variety in power, heaviness, and speed across even individual tracks makes it an incredible joy to listen to (despite how sombre and melancholic it is). Insecure listeners beware, for what one might call “cheese” permeates every corner, as a fantastical, dramatic showing is the name of the game for this Doom album.

And yet, to me, “cheesy” would be the wrong word. How about “classy”? The strings and melodrama here sound nothing of Power Metal or regular Symphonic Metal taste; rather, it evokes true Classical moods and compositions somewhere between the Medieval era and the Baroque era. Basically, unless you want to call Classical Music cheesy, there’s really nothing cheesy about this! Put on your best palace suit or dress and get ready to attend this funeral in a fairytale garden.

For me, Grave Digger were one of those bands that were always good, but not quite good enough. They were competent, but they were missing that X factor. The first run of the band in the 80’s had very little going for it, “generic” being the best descriptor I can think of. After their reformation in the 90’s, they came back with a lot more power, and hit their stride starting with Tunes of War. From there on out, they delivered some great songs, but the albums as a whole were still short of remarkable.

Enter Excalibur. Grave Digger’s 3rd medieval concept album, this one storying the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Look, I dunno what happened here. Suddenly, the band is churning out banger after banger, with some of the most powerful, anthemic choruses I’ve heard. Drumming and riffing here is faster and heavier than ever, and even their usually unbearable slow tracks are magnificent here.

One thing that helps for sure is the undeniably dark sound of the album (by Power Metal standards, that is). Lyrically, of course it is full of epic heroism and gallantry just as much as it is death, betrayal, and longing. But the sound of the music accentuates that dark tone – the riffs are decidedly aggressive, and backed by pummeling double bass, you really feel the suspense of knights putting their life on the line. There is a ton of raw Speed Metal influence here.

Another point towards heaviness is the vocal style of Chris (or as he is named on this album, Sir Chris "Parcival" Boltendahl). He opts for a very grumbly warble, gruff and probably more befitting of a Thrash Metal band than Power Metal. I will say it’s an acquired taste, but the reason it works exceptionally well here is all the choruses are multi-layered, incredibly well harmonized near-choral levels of gang vocals. These choruses are ridiculously anthemic and epic, by far some of the catchiest I’ve heard in the genre. As far as I understand, multiple backing vocalists, including the great Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) were brought in to help create these epic choruses. Chris’ usual grunting yell handling verse duties while brilliantly melodic gang vocals emphasize the choruses create a perfect contrast that helps you appreciate each vocal style even more.

The focus on Arthurian Legend makes the album that much more enjoyable. I will confess, I was only passively privy to the tales before listening, but the album got me so interested that I did a deep dive to learn all about the characters. Isn’t it wonderful how much we can learn from music? In any case, Grave Digger pulled all the stops here, and finally released an album that deserves to go down in the Power Metal canon as one of the greats.

By this point, Virgin Steele had acquired a fantastic sound all their own, mixing operatic traditional Heavy Metal with more aggressive USPM and true Power Metal. This was another in a string of concept albums, this time focusing on the Oresteia. I will say, of all the epic Greek myth to focus on, they really chose… one of the least epic. The preceding Illiad would have been much more interesting and action packed, fitting the music style better. The Oresteia is essentially a soap opera.

The good songs here sit among the band’s best. Opener “Kingdom of the Fearless” is a great way to kick off the story, a lengthy epic filled with power and glory. “Child of Desolation” is my personal favorite, showcasing the band’s knack for cheesy, beautiful ballads driven by melody and emotion. The Fire God borders on Thrash Metal, as one of the most aggressive songs they’ve done. But, not all the songs are this good.

The big issue here is how obscenely bloated it is. I mean… the amount of filler/interlude tracks outnumber the regular ones! And many of them approach or even exceed the 2 minute mark as well. It cannot be ignored. Granted, some of these are rather decent, but it’s waaay too much. Virgin Steele kept their previous concept albums a bit more under control, with Invictus definitely dancing on the line with its interludes, but this one is ridiculous.

It's got amazing tracks like their other concept albums, but this one suffers a lot in terms of front to back listenability. Also, the concept is not very fitting for a Power Metal album. They picked one of the few stories in Greek myth with zero action, zero fantasy, zero adventure… I feel this is overrated, great moments though it has.

As far as guitar hero shredders go, Vinnie Moore is probably my favorite. Is he the fastest, most technical, or most flashy? No, none of those things. And even then, this is one of his most subdued albums. For The Maze is not showcasing just Vinnie, the Shredder – it is showcasing Vinnie, the Songwriter.

What sets him apart from most other shredders is his penchant for mood and well-crafted SONGS, not just shred wankery. And this album is perhaps where he delves into evoking scenery and mood with his songs most. There’s something that sounds very… Japanese, about this record in places. The country’s penchant for simple but memorable (and cheesy) melodies focusing on mood always finds its way into anime and game soundtracks, and I feel this could easily be such a soundtrack, especially with its instrumental nature.

Cryptic Dreams is the first slow number, and it masterfully displays long, gentle guitar notes creating very pretty melodies without delving into shred territory really at all. Shimmering picked notes underlay a simple but effective lead that succeeds in evoking a prettier, calmer scenery. Never Been to Barcelona is the token acoustic track and transports you immediately to the scene of some Spanish place, full of culture. It’s my least favorite track, but it’s got great bass work and serves to highlight the eclecticism here.

Rain is the closest moment to what sounds like an old Japanese VN OST – just perfectly encapsulates a rainy night in the city. A quiet city, though – everyone’s gone home, despite the neon lights still reflecting on the wet pavement. But you’re still out, because right now, there isn’t anywhere that feels more “home” than alone in the rain. The last track I’ll highlight is In the Healing Garden. Despite being the big closer, this sounds more akin to after the finale. This isn’t between the hero and the villain – this is a tense will-they-won’t-they between almost lovers, or a suspenseful fissure between friends, comrades. In the end, they each turn away and walk off in opposite directions, but the chance of reconciliation remains hanging in the future.

I’ll never complain about the slower songs here. The issue instead lies with the faster songs; that is, because they aren’t fast or energetic enough. The rhythm section is especially lacking on this album. The drumming is, to say the least, disappointing. It sounds much closer to Rock drumming than Metal. There’s almost no double bass, snare hits are spaced apart with virtually no faster, aggressive beats, and it’s just… kind of boring. This style works fine for the slower songs, but really takes away from faster tracks.

I won’t say it’s my absolute favorite Neoclassical Metal album, hell it’s not even my favorite Vinnie Moore album. But it’s one of the most unique, memorable, and evocative. If you need to feel like you’re in a movie, throw this on and let your imagination run wild.

Gamma Ray were in the midst of a string of strong albums in the 90’s giving Helloween some strong competition as the best, most consistent band for the genre. Power Plant adds absolutely nothing new to the formula, but it does deliver tried and true hits we’d come to expect from the band.

As usual, the material ranges from heavy, thundering double-bass-attack Power Metal to more rhythmic arena Heavy Metal. The songs are united by a constant focus on melody, as well as anthemic vocals carrying this sense of uplifting triumph. Truly, Gamma Ray exemplify this “all positivity, all the time” mood that is almost exclusive to Power Metal within the Metal world.

 For me of course, I prefer the heavier, more energetic material, and the band is at their best when going all-out. The album opens and closes with its best material, and the cover of “It’s a Sin” is mind-blowingly great, probably one of the best covers I’ve heard. The more mid-paced Heavy Metal tracks can unfortunately get boring; “Heavy Metal Universe” in particular adds cringe to an already repetitive and simple beat.

That being said, the general quality of this record is very high. Another Power Metal banger from the guys in Gamma Ray.

Southern Metal is one of those Metal genres that just doesn’t have much appeal to me. The strong Blues influence ensures the riffs are simple and boring, and ditto for the rhythm section. Vocals are usually yarled, twang-tinged tough guy grunts, and the lyrics are typically about simple pleasures like alcohol, sex, and other drugs (or oddly enough, Christianity). It’s basically Stoner Metal, except replace the weed with alcohol. Alcoholic Metal.

Sonic Brew is not Black Label Society’s most iconic album, but it’s a great overall display of the genre. One of the reasons is that across its hour-long, 14 track runtime, the band explore every nook and cranny of the genre (that had been established by the turn of the century). It has a decent amount of variety for almost always sticking to the core sound of Southern Metal. Most of it is lead by Grungy vocals and Bluesy, Sludgy riffs. But there are acoustic passages, Southern Rock-esque guitar solos, some anthemic choruses in places, and odd moments of experimentation in sound effects.

And after my trip around the Southern Metal tour multiple times, it’s difficult to remember much of anything because the genre is just pretty… boring. And in fact, the most memorable (and my favorite) tracks are the ones that stray furthest from the style. Spoke in Wheel is a standout… as a Contemporary Country ballad.

It’s the kind of music that can be fun and groovy, but offers almost nothing in the way of depth, emotion, etc. Not quite “Bored to Tears,” but certainly nothing I’d ever come back to.

Ah, Jeris Johnson... Known for his remixes of popular rock/metal hits "Last Resort" by Papa Roach and "Can You Feel My Heart?" by Bring Me the Horizon. I actually first heard of him from when he collaborated with Plankton AI metal artist BOI WHAT in the song "Battling My Demons". I like his vocal work so much that I decided to check out more of his material, and some of the new singles got me hooked. Those singles would then be part of his new album Dragonborn. I've seen this album get as much hate as Falling in Reverse's new release Popular Monster, which is actually a little more surprising. On the one hand, not everyone is up for a huge diverse cauldron of genres, and they say too many cooks spoil the broth. On the other hand, Jeris Johnson is nowhere near Ronnie Radke levels of infamy, though Johnson has co-written a song for Popular Monster, the country metal single "All My Life". So here's what I have to say about Dragonborn...

Around half of this album is arguably the best work Jeris Johnson has ever done! This is perhaps the first ever album to combine heavy/power/melodic metalcore as main genres, while adding in some alt-metal, Nordic folk, cinematic orchestra, and his earlier trap-core. Yeah, his days of trap-core aren't really strong, but this diverse metal mix of epic and modern can overpower the poor past for a more promising present.

The title track is a nice start. It begins with the acoustic folk strumming of Korpiklaani, then rises into mid-tempo alt-metal not too far off from some of my brother's favorite bands. In the end, the acoustic folk returns, this time with background synth ambience and layered vocals that will definitely plant Skyrim into your mind. "The Story of Our Lives" is a total rocker. Sure there's a bit of the electro-trap in the verses, but it's outshined by the heavy/power metal that makes its entrance in the chorus, along with a brief groove metal breakdown that you might hear from Lamb of God. "When the Darkness Comes" is a spooky track continuing the blend of Avenged Sevenfold-style heavy metal and trap. If you're wondering if that chorus melody sounds familiar, it's that Arabian riff! It also reminds me of Kesha's "Take It Off" which uses the Arabian riff in the chorus as well. "Welcome to Valhalla" is interesting. The Skyrim-esque Nordic folk is combined with trap which is an odd mix that threatens to bring it all down. But then it explodes into an epic blend of power metal and melodic metalcore, "power-core" if you will. Then it ends with the cinematics of Wintersun's Time interludes. Truly a glorious highlight!

"Here's to the Years" continues that epic blend. Last year, Dragoncorpse united deathcore and power metal together. This year, Jeris Johnson showed the world that melodic metalcore, power metal, and Nordic folk can co-exist in that fun tune. More of the epic blend comes in my favorite track here, "Siren Song". You may recognize "Greensleeves" as the main melody, and holy f***, it can definitely compete with August Burns Red's "What Child is This?" cover. Brilliant! "Down with the Dynasty" is the 4th track in a row with the epic blend, this time with some more trap drops. "John" is another alt-rock/metal ballad not too far off from the bands my brother likes such as Breaking Benjamin, Skillet, Three Days Grace, etc. "Not a Person (Freak)" is a trap-metal mess with the closest we have to a deathcore breakdown that comes out as generic.

"Eat Drink War Repeat" is much worse, the weakest track here, making me f***ing cringe over this trap/crunkcore sh*t-fest. It's made up for a lot by "Ode to Metal", more of an ode to modern metal, but still really cool. After starting with a cinematic symphonic intro, we have an alt-metal blend of a Linkin Park-esque rapping verse, a pop punk chorus inspired by A Day To Remember, and a bridge filled with the melodic metalcore of early Avenged Sevenfold and the nu metal of Slipknot, all 4 bands paid lyrical tribute to in said chorus. "Kiss From a Rose" is a nice heavy alt-pop rock take on a Seal classic. "Finish Line" is a beautiful ending ballad of acoustic folk gone 5FDP-style alt-metal.

Dragonborn doesn't reach the perfection of Popular Monster, but it shows how well Jeris Johnson can experiment with different genres to make something diverse. If he makes a follow-up to this, I'm counting on a full-on heavy/power/melodic metalcore album with none of that trap sh*t. Now if only BOI WHAT can make his own full album....

Favorites: "The Story of Our Lives", "Welcome to Valhalla", "Here's to the Years", "Siren Song", "Ode to Metal", "Finish Line"

Never Fade Away

California's Commander ended up being a relatively brief affair. Gathered in 1985, the US power metallers decided to pull the plug just four years later, leaving behind a single full-length labeled “The High n' Mighty.” Failing to achieve any semblance of commercial success whatsoever in the thrash-dominated landscape of the late 80s, the album spearheaded the band's descent into obscurity and remains the only concrete outcome of its activity, save for a spot on the “Metal Massacre VII” compilation. “The High n' Mighty” happens to be quite a significant record for me personally. I stumbled upon it as a single-digit-year-old whelp after purchasing one of the “mp3 metal collection” discs (anybody remember those?). Since it was one of the earlier “lesser-known” bands I discovered, Commander was partly responsible for introducing me to the idea of looking beyond the big names—a thought that sparked a lifelong passion for the metal underground.

The neuronal machinery of the young, impressionable brain of mine was utterly reorganized upon hearing the guitar solo of the opening number, “Knights of the Round Table”. I would not have discovered the feats of Maestro Malmsteen until years later, and a strong allergic reaction to the more straightforward hard rock style I contracted at birth made it impossible for me to appreciate most of the classic shredders. Thus, the hyper-melodic, classical-hinted style of Commander's axeman Dave Macias was a complete novelty for me back then. Around the same time, I found out about a great guitar hero of mine, Andy LaRocque, and they both ended up playing a big part in my exposure to a whole new array of possibilities when it comes to what can be achieved with the instrument. Obviously, over the years, it turned out that Dave's way of playing wasn't all that uncommon or innovative. Nonetheless, it remains fucking delightful to listen to and stands out as the strongest asset of the record at hand, with moments of lead guitar brilliance aplenty throughout the runtime. The opener's qualities don't end here for me, however. I find the track to possess a rare and highly sought-after trait in the particularly high load of uplifting energy, with the potential to help you power through some really tough chores. For example, I would reach for “Knights” regularly on the long study nights in college, and it proved itself to be both more effective and a healthier stimulant than the trusty Jägermeister mit Red Bull. Admittedly, the track is quite heavy on the cheese department as far as the album goes, and I would even go so far as to suggest that at times it approaches straight-up europower territory. That said, it finds itself sitting reasonably well within the outskirts of my acceptable glucose concentration regions.

“Knights” might be a sweet little darling of mine, but the main course on offering here is, without a doubt, the absolute behemoth of USPM glory in “Die by the Sword”. The song is a masterclass in tension-building, with the cyclic nature of the composition playing very well into the lyrical theme of fighting an inescapable fate. While Dave Macias has been the undeniable star of the show so far, I have a feeling that, recognizing where their most fruitful effort was, the other members decided to really up their game for this one. In effect, we get to experience no less than a few instances of truly cathartic musical beauty throughout the track's runtime, with the culminating point of the story featuring a particularly moving performance by the frontman, Jon Natisch. From that moment on, the gears are set for the last buildup and the gloriously satisfying finale. Introducing some needed variety and enhancing the song's character are the pleasantly clacky bass lines, courtesy of Ron Avila. The drummer Richard Mejia retains the thematically appropriate, steady pulse throughout most of the runtime, reaching out for his more advanced skills in the moments of increased intensity, thus contributing greatly to the emotional contrasts within the piece. My personal highlight, however, has to be the performance of the guest synth player, Mark Benson, with both the intro and the passage starting at around the five and a half minute mark having a very profound impact on me. That is due to the evocation of the retro-futuristic sound of the early digital age—a time when we as mankind were looking bravely forward in anticipation of the bright future to come, and a time I find myself deeply nostalgic for. The hints and motifs of this type are present throughout the album, amplified by the production job that graces Dave's leads with an unmistakable tone evoking the images of molten, industrial steel.

I believe at this point it is quite evident that I find the high points of “The High n' Mighty” to be much more than enjoyable, and on their basis alone, I would be quick to reach out for an award in the highest range of 4 to 5 stars. However, we obviously have to touch on the rest of the material and judge the album as a whole. Of note is the speedy number “Return of the Goths”, featuring a particularly beautiful solo by Dave. We also get a convincing package of tracks spawned by the band's admiration for the great Ronnie James Dio. “Kill the King” is a tightly executed cover that manages to manifest its relevancy by upping the heaviness of the well-regarded original. Furthermore, the inspirations are so evident in “Wizard”, that one could be forgiven for mistaking it for another Rainbow / Dio cover track, with especially Jon Natisch displaying tricks taken straight from his idol's playbook. The closer, “The Blade Shines On” is a good song as well, in a similar vein to “Return of the Goths”, though never quite reaching its heights. Unfortunately, I have to say that the record features a block of pretty unexciting material from the title track through “Terror”, where the songwriting takes a noticeable dip in quality. Furthermore, it is clear that Jon Natisch wasn't an experienced vocalist at the time of the recording. His lines are weirdly laid out at times, and occasionally he struggles to stay on-key. His passion and talent cannot be denied, but the lesser quality of the aforementioned three tracks makes it a bit harder to ignore the odd inadequacy. All in all, they do tempt me to reach for the skip button and represent an obstacle to enjoying the record in its full running time.

I find it regretful, that Commander ended up dissolving so early into their career, never fully realizing their vision of bombastic heavy metal. I believe they had the potential to spawn at least a few more beautiful spells and develop a minor cult following they deserved. Over the years, I would scan the Internet from time to time in anticipation of a proper re-release on CD (that it still hasn't manifested itself is but a travesty) or an unlikely reunion. Thus, I was deeply saddened to hear about Jon Natisch's untimely passing in 2012. “The High n' Mighty” might not be an eternal classic when looked at as the whole package, but nonetheless, its high points remain among my all-time favorites within the subgenre. If you are attracted to USPM style in any capacity whatsoever, and especially if you consider yourself a connoisseur of flashy, melodic guitar leads, I would highly recommend you check out at least the highlight tracks outlined below.

For fans of: Dio, King Diamond & Y.J. Malmsteen's Rising Force

Highlight tracks: Knights of the Round Table, Return of the Goths & Die by the Sword

Charon's Melody

On the surface, The Ferrymen's third album One More River To Cross isn't necessarily anything special. It's anthemic Power Metal tendencies have been done to death, but sometimes the formula simply works in a way that's so infectious that I can't help but keep going back to it. All-star Power Metal acts seem like a dime a dozen nowadays, since the more prolific musicians that have a knack for composing have a tendency to have a metric ton of offshoots from their original projects. This time, it's guitarist Magnus Karlsson of Allen Lande and Primal Fear hooking up with vocalist Ronnie Romero of Lords of Black and modern Rainbow and accomplished drummer Mike Terrana of Avalanch and Masterplan. After I realized the pedigree that this trio brought to the table, it's no wonder that I'm drawn to The Ferrymen in the way that I am, but they're one of the few supergroups that manage to bring better than average songwriting along with their stellar lineups.

The opener "One Word" tells you pretty much everything you need to about The Ferrymen, and you'll be getting some déjà vu if you've heard any other albums from Power Metal supergroups like Allen Lande. These groups mostly serve to highlight their vocalists, but don't cut any corners with adding orchestration, keyboards, or any other effects they can think of to fill out the mix. From the tension building piano and choir intro, to the dueling lead and chugging guitars, to the overblown but catchy chorus, the opener sets the perfect stage for the rest of the album. If you like what you hear with "One Word", congratulations, the rest of the album is waiting for you. If not, I've got some terrible news for you because The Ferrymen aren't exactly here to escort you to a greater plane of Power Metal existence. I really enjoy One More River To Cross' pacing as it keeps the middling tempos interesting and distinct from song to song, with "The Last Wave" being a bit more lackadaisical in its chorus but "City of Hate" bringing more energy to the table with its deeper chugging and slightly faster tempo. Overall, though, The Ferrymen have very little new tricks up their sleeve and it all comes down to how well this group of expert metal musicians can write some songs to stand out from the pack.

For me, The Ferrymen occupy this strange spot of a band doing exactly what a lot of other groups are doing, but performing it in a way that separates them from the pack. It helps that Ronnie Romero absolutely kills it in the vocal department, with chorus after chorus being performed in an extremely memorable and impressive way. The choruses "Shut It Out", "One More River to Cross" and "The Last Ship" have popped into my head much more than I'm willing to admit even after more than 2 years from this album's release, whereas with most other generic Power Metal albums I struggle to remember a single song or riff. The admittedly cheesy orchestration comes in full force on tracks like "One More River to Cross" and "The Other Side" and I don't mind it since Terrana's and Karlsson's performances compliment it better than your average Power Metal schlock, but it definitely feels like an afterthought in the end. As above average as the songwriting is in One More River to Cross, certain tracks like "Bringers of the Dark", "City of Hate", "The Passenger", and "The Other Side" fall by the wayside as tracks that have better counterparts within the same album. This is partially because The Ferrymen know what kind of band they want to be, but it's still a weight on the album experience that certain songs just feel like lesser versions of something that was already played. However, as an album experience from front to back, The Ferrymen do a fantastic job of structuring the tracks so that I'm engaged and not necessarily thinking about track quality halfway through. Despite the repetitiveness, every riff and chorus is interesting and memorable enough to keep me coming back for more.

Despite being another notch in the generic Power Metal supergroup totem pole, One More River to Cross has stood the test of time as an album that legitimately showcases the talents of exceptional Power Metal musicians. I'll be the first person to admit that it immediately falls victim to most of the Power Metal pitfalls of being bombastic just for the sake of it and not having enough variety or massive moments, but damn this album has some amazing choruses. It stumbles here and there along its lengthy track list and as much as I think "The Last Ship" should have been the final track instead of "The Passenger", it's one of the most successful Power Metal supergroup projects I've heard thus far. 

It's always exciting when one of our more well-educated members nominates a feature release from an artist that I'm completely unaware of, particularly when they also announce that it's somewhat of a favourite of theirs & that's been the case with the 1987 debut album & sole release from Los Angeles four-piece Commander. One look at the sword-adorned cover artwork gave me a fair indication that "The High 'n' Mighty" might play in the more epic US power metal space too & that's generally my sweet spot when it comes to The Guardians so I thought I'd take a step outside of my comfort zone by reviewing a The Guardians feature release for the first time in a while. I'm glad I did too as I got some enjoyment out of this record, even if it may not be enough to see me returning to it in the future.

Commander's debut sports a production job that suits the material very well. It's got a raw, mid-80's edge to it that I'd suggest fits nicely within the vinyl format but it also contains a powerful guitar sound that is really effective for this brand of metal which sees these Americans attempting a combination of US power metal & traditional heavy metal sounds, thankfully never touching on the European power metal sound that I struggle so much with at times. There's no doubt that Commander were consciously going for an epic feel on some of this material & they pull it off quite well for the most part. The guitar work of Dave Macias is excellent & is the major drawcard here in my opinion. He doesn't try for anything particularly original but pulls off everything he attempts with confidence as he was clearly an accomplished musician. He needed to be too because he had some ground to catch up given the patchy performance from operatic front man Jon Natisch whose soaring higher register delivery openly showcases his vocal flaws with a number of pitchy moments scattered across the tracklisting, Sure, he can pull off some ear-piercing screams at times but he can also make me feel like someone's running their fingernails down a chalkboard at others. It's kinda weird that his performance is perfectly fine on some tracks yet we see him virtually ruining others so I can only guess that the limited budget the band had to work with didn't allow them the time to hide Natisch's inconsistencies.

Upon first listen, I have to say that I really struggled & the reason for that is the strange way that Commander have ordered their tracklisting. I'm conscious that Karl mentioned that opening track "Knights of the Round Table" is one of his all-time favourites but I found it to be almost unlistenable personally & easily the weakest track of the nine included so I guess it comes down to personal taste. It was a bad way to start the album as it saw me getting my guard up early which likely resulted in me not picking up on the increased quality over the next couple of tracks. There's a flat period through the middle of the album too with neither of "We're Ready" or "Terror" doing a lot for me. Thankfully though, the back end of the tracklisting saw me starting to see some promise in "The High 'n' Mighty" & by the time I'd given the record a couple more listens I felt that I was better able to distinguish its strengths & weaknesses.

As you can probably tell from my previous statements, it's pretty clear that I find "The High 'n' Mighty" to be an inconsistent release with the quality levels spanning the full width of my ratings profile. The high point is utterly devastating in the incredibly epic US power metal classic "Die By The Sword" which is honestly one of the best examples of the movement I've ever encountered & saw me replaying that song in isolation a number of times. The title track & an excellent cover version of Rainbow's widely praised "Kill the King" are also of a very high quality, the more metallic format actually seeing me preferring the latter over the legendary original. "Wizard", "Return of the Goths" & "The Blade Shines On" are all pretty decent too but the three weaker numbers that I previously mentioned ensured that my overall score was never going to ascend as high as Commander would have intended. Unfortunately, it's Natisch that's largely responsible for Commander's shortcomings as I don't think there's anything wrong with the weaker tracks from an instrumental perspective.

Look, if US power metal is your absolute favourite brand of metal then you'll probably want to hear "The High 'n' Mighty" at some point but I think it's also pretty clear as to why I hadn't heard of Commander before because their shortcomings leave them struggling to break out of the third tier for the most part. This is a little disappointing when you take into consideration the obvious potential in this band had with the stronger material being a clear indication that Commander could well have produced the full package with a little more time. As it stands though, "The High 'n' Mighty" will remain a predominantly enjoyable release that's limited by an inconsistent tracklisting & vocal performance.

For fans of Heir Apparent, Hittman & Fifth Angel.

‘Celestial Entrance’ is the second album by Norwegian progressive metal band Pagan’s Mind. Released in 2002, it sees a vast improvement upon the groups 2000 debut, with song-writing, instrumentation and vocals all taking a huge step up in quality.

I first got into Pagan’s Mind by stumbling upon some of their music videos on YouTube, and found myself instantly digging their sound. So when my first album experience of theirs was their debut, 2000’s ‘Infinity Divine’, I was slightly disappointed. I just felt like the music wasn’t very inspired, and that vocalist Nils K. Rue (who is absolutely fantastic, by the way!), maybe hadn’t quite found his niche in the band.

That all changes with ‘Celestial Entrance’.

The band really hit their stride here, with a sound a bit more their own. With some fantastic compositions, excellent musicianship, including some remarkable interplay between the guitars and keyboards, and of course, the aforementioned Nils K. Rue, who’s vocals are incredible, and has really found their place in the music.

While a couple of the tracks are still fairly hit-or-miss, there is plenty to enjoy here. ‘Aegean Shores’, ‘…Of Epic Questions’ and ‘Back to the Magic of Childhood’ are all great tracks that are well worth repeated listens. But the true gems are ‘Approaching/Through Osiris Eyes’ and ‘Dreamscape Lucidity’. Both songs are absolute masterpieces, and the album is worth checking out for these alone. Then there’s the closing track which horribly rips off Dream Theater’s ‘Leaning to Live’, in key, melody, even the lyrics are almost identical. It’s a weirdly hilarious but forgivable way to end the album.

Overall, Pagan’s Mind will go on to release much stronger albums than this, but this is a solid follow-up to their debut, and a highly recommended addition to the collection of any progressive or power metal fan.

Released in 2003, ‘Epica’ is the sixth studio album by symphonic power metal band Kamelot. It follows very closely to its predecessor, 2001’s ‘Karma’, with more focus on symphonic elements and orchestrations, as well as a stronger sense of melody and more polished song-writing, stepping away more and more from the traditional power metal style of their early albums, and into something a lot more epic and grandiose.

With a similar sound and production as before, ‘Epica’ sounds as rich and lavish as ‘Karma’. The musicianship is tight, with everyone performing to a high standard, and in particular, praise goes to vocalist Roy Khan for his powerful and emotional performances.

With highlights including ‘The Edge of Paradise’, ‘Center of the Universe’, ‘Lost and Damned’, ‘A Feast For the Vain’ and the beautiful ‘Wander’, there’s an abundance of great tracks here, and if you liked ‘Karma’, there’s no reason you won’t like this. And ultimately, this will lead to the next album, because if you like the direction Kamelot are heading in here, then you’ll certainly love what’s to come…

Powerwolf are back with their seventh studio album in seven years and they are ready to power metal your face off until you cannot power your power metal anymore. This new album has so much great power going on it that it's honestly impossible to keep up with all the power. With new standards like "Power Metal Song #1" and "Power Metal Song #3," this record will be the most power metal album you hear in all of the year Power-Twenty-Power.

Okay, joking aside, I don' think that Wake Up the Wicked is that bad. The production is tight, the band still have some solid melodic leads on "We Don't Wanna Be No Saints" and "Kyrie Kiltorem," and the record clocks in at a brisk thirty-seven minutes; the song lengths do not overstay their welcome and feel like fully fleshed out ideas, and the album as a whole is high octane energy that never feels like it needs an interlude.

In the grand scheme of things however, Powerwolf are getting on my nerves when it comes to new releases. As mentioned previously, over the past seven years, Powerwolf have released a new album on an annual basis and there has not been any attempts to deviate from their established formula in that time. For as much as I despise modern Alestrom albums, at least they don't assault you with the same, drawn out pirate/folk metal at this rapid of a pace.

I wanted Interludium to be a turning point for the band; a metaphorical interlude that would lead into a second act that was more introspective and thought provoking. It didn't have to be progressive or conceptual like the most recent albums by Angra or Unleash the Archers, but something...unique. I can get a kick out of Wake Up the Wicked for sure, but I'll have a really hard time remembering any of this by years end.

Best Songs: Kyrie Kiltorem, Joan of Arc, Thunderpriest

I’m sure I’m not the only one who spent years believing ‘Cowboys From Hell’ was the bands first release, but alas, here we are, 1983’s ‘Metal Magic’, the true debut of glam metal/future groove metal legends Pantera.

Turns out, before becoming one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, Pantera had released four independent albums, although, unlike the heavy, gritty and downright dirty sound of their 90’s output, these were more on the glam side of things, so expect spandex, songs about partying, “Diamond Darrell”, and dare I say it… keyboards!

But despite being generally reviled by fans and even the band themselves, the truth is, these albums aren’t that bad. ‘Metal Magic’, while not exactly innovating new sounds or breaking down barriers, still has a couple of nice little rockers on it. ‘Tell Me If You Want It’, ‘Ride My Rocket’, ‘Widowmaker’ and ‘Biggest Part of Me’ are all pretty decent hair metal anthems, and considering how young the members were at this time (Dimebag was only 16!), it’s really hard to not be a little impressed.

Just a shame about the naff production.

Overall, this album won’t change your life, and my God, this is completely different from the Pantera which sold millions and millions of albums in the 90’s, so if that’s what you’re expecting then don’t bother. But ultimately this is an interesting listen to see how the band changed and evolved to become what they are, and you may even find yourself liking it.

I am still a MAJOR noob to the world of epic doom.  I have a little experience in its parent traditional doom, but I'm not even familiar with the works of Solitude Aeturnus, Doomsword, Solstice or Krux.  Having said this, the reason I decided to listen to this today was because I finally have enough room in my top 2024 albums chart for another metal album to potentially make the top 30.  I'm trying to keep it at a 20% max, so as to ensure I explore other genres heavily.  It's been a terrible time trying to expand on it, but thankfully, my saving grace for the day have been that Twikipedia album and new live albums by Can and Yes.  On top of that, checking the charts, it looks like "epic doom" isn't really known for a grand scale of variety among its more popular groups.

Now I just read that the difference between traditional doom, which is bent in more heavy metal and blues influence. and epic doom is the theatrics, which gives this brand of doom more room for an otherwise opposite genre: US power metal, which is much more energetic.  The Stygian Rose makes a point of letting you know that it plans to make the most of energetic theatrics five seconds in, and the riffage is not only impressive, but the progression of each song is both interesting and easy to follow, even when songs change pace.  I mean, it's totally easy to fall in love with that gothic black guitar tone at the beginning of Down in the Hollow.  The stronger changes seemed to be more apparent with each track, such as the tempo changes with Heavy Is the Crown of Bone.  I was just utterly soaking in the combination of traditional doom, funeral doom, USPM and some doses of gothic and black, as well as the progginess of track four.  But the variety itself wasn't the highlight, but the COMPOSITION.  These guys are utter PLAYERS.  Crypt Sermon manage a lot with the album's average runtime.  There are completely hypnotic elements like that synthy beginning to Scrying Orb, which is one of multiple examples of how crystal clear the album's production is without the overpolished reverb of studio necessities.  This is especially handy considering that the band plays with atmosphere the further along the album goes.  Take the noisy yet heavenly funeralism of the closing title track's intro for example.  I have to be honest: that's one of the finest example of composition, aura, produiction and technique I've ever heard in 2500+ metal albums.

And let's talk about the lyrics.  During The Scrying Orb, I noticed something: these guys are about as good at delivering lyrical imagery of other worlds and realms without sticking fully to tradition as Blind Guardian.  I mean, take Imaginations from the Other Side and Mirror Mirror.  Rhyming anyone?  Crypt Sermon aren't as upfront about the experimentation with melody here, but they know how to keep things engrossing on all levels.  Take the line "Blessed be the green lion, the green lion that eats the sun, to see through Orion where two hearts will beat as onе."  I'm just getting customized flashes of ancient walls with highly detailed hieroglyphs moving to the story.  And thankfully, this guy has a totally appropriate voice for both the energetic bits and the atmospheric bits.  I honestly like his voice much more than Messiah Marcolin's.

I've been pretty excited about 2024 this year, even to the point where I feel like I'm overrating albums because there are so many albums this year that completely fit my standards for perfection.  So in my effort to ensure that my reviews are founded on knowledge, I have to ask myself, "how do I know that this album isn't essentially copying another epic doom metal band that I haven't yet heard?"  I think it's a 100% valid question considering that I made the dumbass decision to listen to a 2024 album for a genre I've only heard like 5 albums for, especially since most of those 5 are early Candlemass.

So I'm just going to go based on my standards across 2500+ albums, assuming that's at least enough by this point: I loved it.  There was not a single millisecond I wasn't completely behind.  It might be a bit too diverse for the general traditional doom metal album to really be seen as an epic doom classic, but if Coagulated Bliss is seen as a modern grind classic no matter how many genres it plays with, that I'm going to go by the standards I set up for myself and ask the four questions.

1. What is the goal of this album?  It seems to be a further exercise in Crypt Sermon's growth as a band by once again differentiating their sound from the previous album.

2.  Does the album meet its goal?  100%.

3. What does the band sacrifice or neglect by meeting this goal?  Honestly, I don't think it really neglected anything except maybe standard epic doom behavior, if I'm to believe the RYM track listings.  I guess if I had to compare it to other doom albums, one technicality that isn't quite a flaw but isn't quite as good as another album in this regard is that its variety, while perfect for the album, isn't as wide-ranging as Idolum or The Dreadful Hours.  But it still works perfectly for the album, which pretty much states that there was no real sacrifice if the goal was to expand.

4. Are the sacrifices and negligences made up for by other aspects of the album?  If the above indeed was a sacrifice, then I have to say that in the end, this album is the kind that can probably attract a variety of metal fans by staying true to the band's spirit.

All in all, I just have to call this one of the greatest doom albums I've ever heard.  On my list I'll be putting this at #244 on my list of perfect albums between Peter Gabriel's So and Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert.  This makes the album my #2 metal album for 2024, my #6 2024 album period as well as the seventh 100 for 2024 that I've given.  Haven't had a year like this is a long time.

A very weird Japanese power metal album. That band name is pretty interesting, some sort of Japanese wordplay like "Seikima-II". So, "Kokumaromilk"... it's two words, "kokumaro" and "milk", the former being a kind of curry dish and the latter is some kind of white shit that comes from cow tit or something, idk never heard of it. So the wordplay is that those two don't really go together and the album name is like that too. "少女娼婦" or in English "girl prostitute" but the effect is more like "virgin prostitute" which not only is contradictory but also a pretty sad and terrifying concept. This band really likes their contrasting concepts and blending two things that shouldn't be to create a strange and psychotic atmosphere.

Even the beginning of this album is some straight up weirdness. It's some seemingly pretty normal power metal albeit symphonic in a really off-kilter way. Honestly, i'm having a pretty hard time trying to relate the strangeness of it. One aspect that can be easily pointed out, though, is the vocals. This is where that concept of contradictions comes back in. Take the second track, for example, where she comes in all cutesy and child-like and she progresses into sounding very manic and panicking. At two minutes in or so, she does this spoken word part where she totally freaks out, screaming and panicking. In terms of the vocals, this is definitely the craziest point. I suppose the approach is like she's playing different characters with her vocals which brings up that psychotic atmosphere I was talking about earlier. As if this album couldn't get any stranger, there's the fourth track which is this ten minute long noise section with even more spoken word parts all throughout the song, narrating whatever lyrical concept this band has. I'm not Japanese and there aren't any written lyrics online so that makes it a mystery for now. The song kind of sounds like a post-metal thing with the sirens and just the general bleakness of it which is an interesting midpoint for this album, considering what it sounded like prior to this. It does have a progression to it, though, and at the end, the singing finally comes back but this time, heavily filtered and sort of washed out. That's also exactly where this record decides to flip the table with the next track which is this upbeat, jazzy pop song. Reminds me a lot of vocaloid and give me another metal album where that description is appropriate. I reckon it'd be pretty difficult to do that.

I've kind of just summarized certain tracks here but you can't really describe something like this as one whole. It's kind of like the Mr. Bungle way of avant-garde metal where you do some crazy cross genre shenanigans and generally just making it as weird as possible. For sure some of the weirdest, most batshit power metal you'll ever listen to and it's kind of a shame that this band isn't as well remembered as i'd like them to be. They're definitely in the upper leagues of Japanese weirdness with bands like Sigh and Gonin-Ish.

Canadian thrashers Annihilator went from zero to hero in quite a hurry back in 1989 with their debut album “Alice in Hell” making huge waves in a thrash metal scene that was already starting to show signs of decline. Songs like the title track & “Word Salad” were all over the metal radio programs I religiously recorded & replayed at the time which saw me investing in a cassette copy of “Alice in Hell” shortly afterwards. While I don’t prescribe to the idea that "Alice in Hell" was a classic thrash record like many extreme metal fans do, I’m certainly a big fan of its classy complexity & beautifully executed compositional work which would lead to Ben & I picking up Annihilator’s more technical 1990 “Never, Neverland” sophomore CD as soon as it hit the shelves. I found that record to be pretty enjoyable too however, once again, I’d suggest that my affection for it is slightly less intense than others as I don’t consider it to be in any way essential. There’s no doubt that I classed myself as an Annihilator fan in the early-to-mid 1990's though so I took a keen interest in the band’s third full-length when it finally saw the light of day three years later with Ben purchasing the release on CD. I think it’s fair to say that my initial experiences with “Set The World On Fire” weren’t what I expected though & I found myself struggling to give a shit given that my taste had moved into such extreme territories over the previous few years. I’d continue to catch up with every subsequent Annihilator release over the years, if only for reasons of nostalgia & completism, but I don’t think I’ve returned to “Set The World On Fire” since the early 1990’s, apparently being scared off by the fact that it’s the band’s least intense release overall. Recent events have seen me discovering that I’ve been a little harsh on releases that took similar creative turns recently though so I thought I’d see if that was the case with this one too. I’ve gotta say that I’m glad I did too because it’s not half bad.

Now, let’s get one thing out of the way very early on by stating that “Set The World On Fire” is NOT a thrash metal record. In fact, there’s only really one thrash song included on it in the Exodus-inspired “Knight Jumps Queen”. The rest of the ten-song tracklisting is made up of an array of different subgenres that I’d generally suggest fall into a more commercially accessible space than anything Annihilator had done before or since. The production job is outstanding & is a real feather in the record’s cap with every instrument jumping out of the speakers at you in vibrant fashion. The performances are also stunning, particularly that of band leader Jeff Waters & his guitar-slinging partner in crime Neil Goldberg whose rhythm guitar work sits amongst the best I’ve ever heard which is really saying something. New front man Aaron Randall puts in a high-class performance too & gives the more commercially focused songs an additional layer of integrity. I have to admit that I didn’t even realise he was making his debut for Annihilator as he doesn’t sound drastically different to Coburn Pharr who appeared on “Never, Neverland” as far as I can recall. And what about the drum skills of future Extreme/Dream Theater/James LaBrie/MullMuzzler/Steve Vai skinsman Mike Mangini then!? Fuck, this dude can play. That elite capability has certainly played a strong role in my enjoyment of this release as I find it really hard not to get into a record when it sounds this good & it showcases the work of such capable artists. Thankfully though, the song-writing is nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. In fact, this is really a very consistent record with only the intentionally weird progressive metal closer “Brain Dance” failing to meet the mark.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of different influences on display on “Set The World On Fire” but this doesn’t leave the album sounding like it’s been pasted together. The strong production job & musicianship give this material enough of a common theme to tie it all together nicely. To be critical, the tracklisting is quite top heavy though with the three best songs kicking off the album in fine style. In fact, after those three songs I was wondering if I might have an underground classic on my hands here but it sadly wasn’t to be with the quality of the song-writing dipping a bit after that & never quite returning to its former glory. The clear highlight of the record comes right at the beginning with the Pantera-style groove metal title track being one of the finest moments in the entire Annihilator back catalogue. Speed metal burner “No Zone” keeps the energy high before catchy heavy metal anthem “Bats in the Belfry” brings the intensity down a bit. Interestingly, there’s a strong glam metal edge to a couple of numbers with “Snake in the Grass” clearly having been inspired by Skid Row & “Don’t Bother Me” having borrowed it’s rhythms from Van Halen. There’s even a bit of Extreme about the slick AOR sound of ballads “Pheonix Rising” & “Sounds Good To Me” but, just when you think Annihilator are verging on the cheese zone, we find them reaching into their back pockets & pulling out a progressive edge that eases any tension that may have been building up inside of my hardened extreme metal mind. The influence of fellow Canadians Rush is clear at times although I wouldn’t suggest that it’s ever intended as a focal point. It’s more of an accompaniment that’s used to good effect in my opinion.

Look, I’m not going to tell you that “Set The World On Fire” is essential listening, even for Annihilator fans. But I am going to tell you that it’s a pretty decent effort if you’re willing to follow the band into uncharted territory with an open mind. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that I don’t think “Set The World On Fire” sits far behind its much more highly praised predecessor “Never, Neverland” in terms of general song-writing quality. It’ll only be the stylistic license that Waters has taken that might turn you off. Let’s be honest, Annihilator have always struggled to offer anything that comes even remotely close to their debut album in the 35 years since its release so I don’t think fans of the band can afford to be too picky when it comes to a record like this one & I’m really glad that I’ve reset my opinion on it as I’d clearly let my initial shock get the better of me back in the day. This simply isn’t the cheese factory I thought it was all these years.

For fans of Skid Row, Metallica's "Black Album" & Megadeth records like "Cryptic Writings" & "Super Collider".

The musical journey of Trail of Tears was filled with sorrow (Helena Iren Michaelsen era), darkness (A New Dimension of Might), violence (Kjetil Nordhus era), and accessible glory (Cathrine Paulsen's second era). It really is a shame that the band fell apart after Bloodstained Endurance and Oscillation. The talented voice of Cathrine can't be found anywhere besides this band and Lucid Fear. During the split, Ronny Thorsen was in a different band, Viper Solfa.

And now these extreme gothic metallers are reborn! Two singles were released, leading up to the EP Winds of Disdain. Their greatness is still in full force, but a new female vocalist has stepped in, Ailyn (ex-Sirenia). Here we have crushing guitars, bombastic symphonics, bass/drum assaults, and cool synth effects to reminds us who they are.

"Winds of Disdain" launches into heaviness right away, in which the B-flat-tuned drilling guitars made me think of 2010s Wage War and the growls that fit amongst the thrashy pace reminded me of Sylosis. But when the orchestration and Ailyn's serene vocals appear, you know it's Trail of Tears, back with a vengeance. Beautiful acoustics begin "Take These Tears", a brief throwback to Disclosure in Red, before more of the heaviness. This also occurs in "No Colours Left" before more of the downtuned metalcore-ish riffing of Architects and Protest the Hero that again leads to Ailyn's singing. We also hear the band's earlier raw bass in "Blood Red Halo" that I want more of in their possible next album.

All in all, Winds of Disdain proves that the band hasn't lost any steam after that long gap since their last album. I look forward to if the band ever makes a new album with this kind of sound plus more of the occasional acoustic section and audible bass. An absolute must for any symphonic gothic metal fan. Oscillation wasn't their final stand after all!

Favorites: "Winds of Disdain", "No Colours Left"

YES! I fuckin' love W.A.S.P. This album, the Last Command, The Crimson Idol, and Headless Children. All fucking great! Blackie Lawless for President!

For the unaquainted, WASP is everything great about Sunset Strip sleeze. Imagine the absolute best of Motley Crue. Now imagine that it's heavier, meaner, and sleazier. That's what WASP is. They are the fuckin' gear. They will even sometimes throw in some southern rock for you. WASP is a party in your speakers, go to the party, drink some Jack, Snort some coke, bang some hookers in the back of a limo. That's what WASP sounds like, and if you just listen to them you can have all that fun without the hangovers, rehab, or STDS! That's a fuckin' win isnt it!? 

I understand that Phil Lynott is beloved by many, but goddamn this album is not exciting. It just blurrs into itself, and I just want it to end honestly. Like it's the worst kind of music, because it's not awful. If it was awful I would have something to say about it, but it's not good either. If it was good I would be enjoying myself. I'm not. This is just a slog. This is some music that exists. This is a tall glass of room temperature water, and I'm not even thirsty man. This is a particularly flavorless protein bar, you CAN eat it, and it will sustain you, but it's not tastey. Is this enough metaphores? Have I gotten the mediocrity across? CAN I GO HOME NOW?

I'm going to save you a lot of time here. "Sails of Charon" fuckin' rules, and the rest of this album doesn't. I'm not the biggest Scorpion's fan in the world to begin with but this album is very uninspired and boring outside of Sails. That's it. That's all I can muster. Put "Sails of Charon" in your playlist, and then move on from this. There is no other gold in these hills.

Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Saxon.... Yeah one of these things is not like the other ones is it? That's a pretty distant third place. Now despite being a long way behind those legends, Saxon did carve a name for themselves, because every once in a while they had a "747-Strangers in the Night", "Denim and Leather", "Wheels of Steel", "Princess of the Night" or "Crusader" songs that are just so damn good that the band could punch far above their weight, and actually hang with the big boys on occasion, but you know what all of those songs have in common? None of them are on this album. Here you just get Saxon in their essence, which is a mid-tier throwaway NWOBHM band, and I'm still salty as fuck that they didn't play "Crusader" when supporting Priest on the Firepower tour.

Calling your band Satan is something that immediately puts me off, it just seams so try hard and edgy. I mean, bit on the nose innit? This was going to have to do something spetacular to shake the stink off of that. Album starts with over a minute intro with no metal in it-->At this point I'm not even mad just disappointed. Anyway eventually we finally get to the music, and it was a lot better than I expected. It wasn't good, but it was better than I thought it would be. What you get here is a poor man's Mercyful Fate. Now if you like most of what Mercyful Fate does but you can't get past King Diamond's falsetto, then this might be something to look at, but while you will lose the falsetto, you ill also lose a lot of polish. The band is trying their damnest-this is isn't suffering from a lack of effort. They just can't quite pull it off. The end result is somewhere between Diamond Head and Mercyful Fate, but it's not as good as either of those bands. They squeeze a 2.5 out of me here by surpassing expectations, and while it doesn't work for me, I think it will for a lot of people. This isn't going to be anyone's favorite album but it's going to be a welcome addition to a lot of playlists.

No seriously, this sucks. It's fuckin' weird to listen to, because you can hear little flashes of the Piratey stuff they would become more well known for later on. I don't like that shit either for the record. There's also something just strange about the production on this that I can't put my finger on. The best way I would describe this; Venom but without the committment to the bit that Venom had. I wasn't there in 1984, so this is just my conjecturing, but this sounds like an album that was made because the band felt they had to make it. They just don't sound into it, or like they were enjoying themselves. It's lyrically full of satan stuff, and that's not who Running Wild are. You can hear the lack of genuinity. I don't think they had fun making it, and I damn sure don't have fun listening to it.

This is mediocre speed metal but I raise it above 2.5 because it's played with such piss and vinegar. There is a certain joyous energy on this album that is infectious. I wish that i enjoyed listening to it as much as they enjoyed making it, but I just don't. Ironically my favorite track is "Feel the Same" and it feels the most bummed out of all the tracks-it sounds like something from a Scott Weirich project, and I love Scott. Seriously listen to that and picture it with Scott on the vocals it's a lost St. Vitus/Obessesd track. 

You know I'll tell you why this doesn't work for me. It's got no edge. I'm the problem here. This album is just too much fun for me. I party in hell (Venom, Slayer, etc), this parties in a bar.

Right, so here we get 6tracks, and 33minutes. That's not a lot of room for error. They better all be bangers right? Well, here's what else you get: Ronnie James Dio, Ritchie Blackmore, Cozy Powell,  Jimmy Bain, and Toney Carey. Yeah everybody here is a badass and in top form. I run into that familair problem now of "what to say". I mean this really is epic music that speaks better for itself than I ever could. I could describe it as classic rock or classic metal, but it's a lot more than that, it's like classic+. I could compare it to similar artists, but there really isn't anybody similar. Look, it's some of the best musicians to ever play this kind of music firing on all cylinders. Go listen to it.

I hate Queensryche, and I have always hated Queensryche. This album did not change my opinion. This is a collection of boring tracks that bleed into one another, never do anything interesting, and go on for way too long-like every Queensryche album. I have no idea how on earth this band got to level that they did, and I think it will forever be a mystery to me. Somebody's got to comment below and explain to me what I'm supposed to like about this. I made it through the hour run time but it was painful. Never again fam. Never again.

Yeah I don't know what's going on that album featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads is sitting at 3.5. Bob Daisely on the bass is also very excellent and underespected.

This album has "Crazy Train" that alone is worth high merit, but it also contains "I Don't Know", "Suicide Solution", and "Mr. Crowley". All songs you've probably heard as they are classic rock radio staples and live concert mainstays. They've all also been covered several times by several people, "but Zero, what about the tracks that weren't hits?"

Fair question, let's take a look. "Goodbye to Romance" is a pretty good ballad. "Dee" is a short and sweet instrumental noodle. "No Bone Movies' is admittedly pretty mediocre but it's still got Rhoads playing some cool stuff. "Revelation/Mother Earth" is kind of a Sabbath throwback with it's slower tempo and apocalyptic warnings. "Steal Away the Night" is "No Bone Movies Again"-mediocre song slightly elevated because of what Rhoads is doing.

So yeah there are some less than legendary entries, but even those are solid enough, and the big hitters on this album are VERY BIG. This is an important album and every metalhead should have it in their collection.

I was pretty excited about this one. I had never heard it before, and the album art just tickles my brain in all the right ways. Love at first sight? Maybe let's see how the date goes...

Yeah I didn't get catfished with this one. What you have here is something like ManOwaR meets Manilla Road, but the production isn't quite as good as what you might find on albums by those bands-and that works in it's favor. I love music that sounds like this. It's a little bit messy and a little bit muddy, but not raw. It's the sound of a very nicely done demo-tape, and I absolutely love that. Like next time your band is rehearsing and your listening to the standards like ManOwaR, Manilla Road, Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc, you can pop out your copy of Omen's-Battle Cry and hit em with something a little bit diferent but equally awesome. It's that kind of buried treasure album. Lyrically mostly medievel fantasy stuff, executioners, dragons, blades, battles, the usual stuff.

All that being said this is a 5 star from me, because it just gets "the formula" right for me to do that. Another person might listen to this and find nothing special. Listen to it and form your opinion, but for me it's a banger that I'm going to come back to time and time again. It's in rotation.

I am a die hard Motorhead fan. Lemmy Kilmister is the father figure I never had. This is the band and the man that got the coveted BIG BACK PATCH on the battle vest. It's just bangers from start to finish, and an absolute monster of an album.

You get the greatest three piece Rock and Roll band that has ever existed; ON THE DRUMS PHILTHY ANIMAL TAYLOR! ON THE GUITAR FAST EDDIE CLARKE! and ON THE BASS AND VOCALS LEMMY KILMISTER!  THEY WERE MOTORHEAD AND THEY PLAYED ROCK AND ROLL. NEVER FORGET THEM!

An album of fast and furious boogy-woogie rock, covering such topics as Western Movies, Gambling, Chasing Women, Life on The Road, and Rock and Roll itself. 

It's as perfect as rock music gets. The fury of this band can not be described just experienced. Go experience it!

My soul small bugaboo is that it's not a metal album. Lemmy was steadfast and consistent in his feelings that Motorhead were a rock and roll band. I've read and watched everything about the man that I can get my hands on. He always maintained that while the metal and punk rock communities absolutely embrassed them-Motorhead were a straight up fast Rock and Roll band, and when I go back and listen to his inspirations: Eddy Cochran, Little Richard, etc. their influence really is quite prominent in Motorhead's music. At it's core Motorhead play that old school rock and roll, but they play it faster and meaner than anybody else was at the time, and more importantly BETTER.

For once I'm not the odd man out. This album seams to strike everyone else about the same way it strikes me.  The title track is something very special, but the rest of the material never quite measures up. It's an utterly mediocre album with a couple of bright spots. "Beyond the Black" is a solid enough opening. "Gods of Wrath" is cool once in a while, title track kicks lots of ass, and you get a cover of "Highway Star" that I have dubbed "the cocaine version" because of the speed and manic vocals Metal Church put on it. It's good but nothing super special.

Some people don't like this album. SOME PEOPLE HAVE LOST THEIR MINDS!

What you get with Mercyful Fate is all of the things that you love about Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, but more evil. Dualing guitars, high (high AF in this case) vocals, thumping bass, pounding drums, it's all here. It's just that subject matter is now centered on satanism, the occult, and black masses. These are not topics that appeal to me, but this is the kind of album where I can put on my halloween costume so to speak and get in on all the evil fun! I will come to your black mass as long as there is badass heavy metal somewhere between the orgy and the virgin sacrifice, and if Mercyful Fate is the church band then I know it's gonna be there.

So for a guy like me, this is a 4 star album, but if you really like the added satanic themes then it probably ticks all your boxes for a full 5.

Look, I know that ManOwaR is a polarizing band, but I've never understood why. Eric Adams is right there with Halford, Dio, and Dickinson in the realm of mind blowing lead singers. Scott Columbus is a barbaric cannon of a drummer that suits the whole ManOwaR theme to the T. Ross the Boss can shred the paint off the walls, but he can also write catchy battle riffs, and Joey DiMaio is simply the fuckin' man on the bass. I truly believe people that hate ManOwaR just hate fun, and want everything to be sinister and serious all the time. Yes, ManOwaR are incredibly fucking cheesy-that's the point!

I read the other reviews for this album, and I thought it was odd that people were sighting the production (or lack thereof) as a negative, as some of those people champion some of the rawest black metal albums made. "The bass is too far forward in the mix". No it's fucking perfect. It's the thunder of the Heavy Metal army marging into battle! I am a sucker for the kind of cliches and cheese ManOwaR leans so heavily into; Metal as an Army, Battle Hymns, Barbarians, Swords, The Riddle of Steel. I love all of that shit! I think the production on this album actually makes it ManOwaR's heaviest offering. 

Then you have the frosting on the epic cake this album is: "Bridge of Death". 

The story of Bridge of Death is about a man who goes down into hell itself and walks across the titular bridge to confront the Horned one himself, not to fight him, but to become the most powerful demon in the universe. It's fucking awesome! I cap all of my workouts with this song, because when you're very tired the opening is slow and lets you catch your breath and summon strength for that final confrontation-that final set. 

If nothing else you need to hear that track. The whole album is fantastic, but Bridge of Death is just a whole other level of kick ass. 

Many stand against us, but they will never win! 5/5

Another one of those albums where it's almost certain that you've already heard it, and if not you really should stop reading the review and go listen to it. With that in mind, rather than review this album for the bajillionth time. Let me tell you about the time I saw Judas Priest Live.

Firepower Tour 31 March 2018 Masonic Temple Detroit MI.
The openers were Black Star Riders-basically Thin Lizzy minus Phil Lynnot, and Saxon who did not play "Crusader" that night.  WTF Bill?

Judas Priest used "War Pigs" as their play on Track and the crowd was fuckin' locked in from start to finish. The whole band kicked ass, Rob Halford really does sound still sound like that. The visuals were on point. It was everything you can ask for in a live show. I would absolutely encourage anyone to catch Priest Live. Just like I would absolutely encourage anyone to listen to not only this album but everything in their discography. 

METAL GODS!

Look even diet Iron Maiden is still pretty damn good, and that's what this is. I would say the music is slightly more aggressive, and that the vocals are slightly worse, and the Steve Harris bass is completely gone. It's fun, you are going to have a good time with it, but absolutely nothing in here is going to blow your mind, and there is nothing in here that Iron Maiden didn't already do better. Throw it in your mix, and it's a nice visitor every once in a while, but listening to it as a start-to-finish album will wear out it's welcome. 

The "Air Raid Siren" Bruce Dickinson on the vocals.
The twin Guitar attack of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith.
The Powerful and progressive drumming of Nicko McBrain.
and of course arguably the most influencial Heavy Metal Bassist of all-time, the galloping thunder of STEVE FUCKING HARRIS!

"Aces High", "Two Minutes to Midnight", the title track, and the EPIC "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" are all on this album. Look man, I play heavy metal, and I'm a bassist. I fucking love Iron Maiden! If you haven't heard Iron Maiden, just stop reading this and go put it on right now. If you have heard Iron Maiden (you know 99.9% of you given where we are), then you already know this is the cream of the crop. That's it, there isn't much to be said; if you haven't heard this you should be listening to it right now, and if you have heard it you know how awesome it is. This leaves me with very little to do. Now I have some very important top secret bass guitar business to tend to that supercedes any need you might have for this here review.

"Stand up and shout" doesn't do much for me, but it's a fine opener and sets the tone for the upbeat, and fun power metal that's coming. This is just metal of the highest quality, it's got catchy hooks in every instrument whether it's the galloping bass on "Holy Diver" the keyboard riff on "Rainbow in the Dark", or the abundance of great guitar riffs everywhere throughout. It's all capped off by Ronnie Jame Dio's vocal delivery and I think it's well-known that he's one of the best to ever do it. Lyrically this is largerly a positive and up-beat affair about believing in oneself. Look, I don't have the gift of gab to do this justice. This is legendary and for good reason. 

Yeah yeah I know. If I just listened to this again, it's all gonna click on try number 1,648. Here's the deal, I've revisited this album more times than it deserves since I discovered them by way of Garage Inc in 1998. It's 2024 so I've had 26years of this to form my opinion, and my opinion is that it sucks. 

I think that "Am I Evil" is a monumentally overrated song. I've never understood it's appeal, and at least state-side to my knowledge nobody else did either until Metallica covered it. 

I am also not a 12 year old turbo-hormoned boy. I am a 35year old grown ass man (married for 7 of them) so the appeal of a 7minute ode to fellatio is lost on me. I just don't need that brother.

Those are the album standouts. The rest is mediocre to bad filler stuff. Seriously even people who rate this album higher than I did just talk about those two songs primarily, because nothing else on it is remotely interesting.  

If you like it, crank that shit up, but don't do it around me or I'm taking away your AUX privileges.

This is tough, because I like the music quite a bit, and I kept going back and forth on Tim Baker's vocal approach. I ultimately decided that there had to be somebody who could have done it better. There are a lot of good riffs, melodies, and grooves in this album, but you have to deal with Baker just being obnoxious. There are cases where not having the "best" vocals works out for a band. I don't want anyone other than Cronos singing in Venom, and if I'm listening to Manilla Road, I want Mark the Shark. Tim Baker does not have that charm, he's just annoying. I ultimately decided that the music is a 5/5 but Tim's vocal is a -2.5 penalty and put this thing right in the middle. No disrespect to Tim, it just doesn't work for me-it grates. 

So yeah in short; really great classic heavy metal here, tainted by an aggressively agitating vocalist. If you can tolerate Tim, you'll really love this.

You come to this album for 1 reason, and that's the title track. 

"Angel Witch" by Angel Witch, from the album Angel Witch is one of the best metal songs ever recorded. It is a masterpiece of a song and a mandatory listen. However, the rest of this album is painfully mediocre, verging on boring. Unfortunately "Angel Witch" is the first song on the album, so you spend the whole album longing for the band to do something that good again, and it just never happens. It's like in Space Jam where the aliens sap all the talent from the NBA players. Those same aliens visited Angel Witch after recording that opening track. It's a shame really. So this is a 2.0 album that I am raising to a full star on the merits of that song alone.

How much you enjoy accept is going to have a bit to do with how you feel about Udo Dirkschnieder's vocal appraoch. He's got a high nasal timbre that's like a slightly more aggressive version of what Brian Johnson does for ACDC. Personally I am fine with it but there are better out there. 

The album is top heavy, throwing the haymaker that is "Fast as a Shark" right out of box, and it is the heaviest thing on the album and a classic track. You also get the title track and "Shake Your Heads" in the first half.  The rest of the album up to "Princess of the Dawn" is just filler, but Accept's filler is still better than most bands filler. These other songs aren't bad just not exceptional in any way. 

"Princess of the Dawn" is a pretty good song but it's just a tad bit long for what it is. Accept is not a progressive enough band to be doing 6+ minute long songs. 

All in all if you like metal or 80s hard rock you're going to have fun with this. It's a good album if not quite legendary. The stars on it shine very brightly.

Earlier this year I conducted an exercise whereby I made a dedicated attempt to identify the first five metal releases that converted me to the ways of darkness & the results (surprisingly) seemed to indicate that London legends Motorhead may well have been band #1 for me through their 1984 “No Remorse” compilation. Needless to say then that we’ve had as long a relationship as I can boast in metal terms. Interestingly though, I’d never heard any of Motorhead’s studio albums past 1987’s eighth full-length “Rock ‘n’ Roll” until this week when I investigated this month’s The Guardians feature release in 1993’s “Bastards” which is their eleventh full-length. Motorhead have never been a band that’s gonna make too many of my best-of lists but they are one that I hold an enormous amount of respect for & generally enjoy too with only their early self-titled & “On Parole” records not offering me some level of appeal along with 1980’s throw-away “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers” E.P. & the disappointing 1983 live album “What’s Words Worth?”. Everything else is at least worthy a few listens so, when a well-educated mate of mine recently mentioned that “Bastards” might be the release to finally convince me of Motorhead’s metal credentials, my ears pricked up & I made a conscious note to investigate it at some stage.

Upon first listen it became immediately obvious that “Bastards” is a very different sounding record to the other Motorhead albums I’ve partaken in over the years. The production job is much cleaner & more metallic with Phil Campbell & Wurzel’s guitar tones being thick & heavy & Mikkey Dee’s drum kit sounding sharp & precise. I have to admit that this caught me off guard a little at first because Lemmy’s bass guitar seems like much less of a protagonist in this environment & his vocals don’t seem as comfortable without the dirty grit that Motorhead made their calling card over the years. Repeat listens saw me overcoming this obstacle though & predominantly off the back of some quality hooks & song-writing.

My mate was 100% correct on “Bastards”. It’s by far the most metal release I’ve heard from Motorhead & a dual tagging is more than justified here. The album kicks off with the two most obviously metal tracks too with opener “On Your Feet Or On Your Knees” & speed metal stomper “Burner” both tearing shreds off the unsuspecting listener. The rest of the tracklisting sees Lemmy & co. consistently playing in that grey area between heavy metal & hard rock which often makes it hard to make a call one way or the other. That’s not to say that "Bastards" is a drastic stylistic departure for Motorhead though as you can still identify their bluesy roots easily enough during many songs & I never feel like I’m listening to anyone else.

“Bastards” is an extremely consistent album in many ways. The four-piece band sound like a well-oiled machine & it’s hard to imagine that they were capable of creating anything that was noticeably subpar at this stage in their evolution. The record is at its peak during the three-track run that contains “Burner” (my personal favourite), “Death or Glory” & “I Am The Sword” but “On Your Feet or On Your Knees”, “Bad Woman”, “Liar” & closer “Devils” are really solid too. In saying that though, I’ve always struggled to see Motorhead challenging for my higher scores & nothing has changed in that regard. I just don’t think they appeal to me enough from a purely stylistic point of view & that limitation sees me unable to claim any of the twelve songs as genuine classics, despite all of them offering me a level of enjoyment.

Nonetheless, “Bastards” has really surprised me this week. I wasn’t expecting it to challenge some of Motorhead’s more famous releases for top honours but that would seem to be the case here with only “Overkill” & “Ace of Spades” sitting above it on my Motorhead pecking order now. Don’t be afraid kiddies. This is a high-quality metal release in its own right & is one that’s deserving of essential status in the context of Motorhead’s illustrious career too.

For fans of Venom, Tank & Girlschool.