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It's interesting that many of our members rate the debut album from French black metallers Blut aus Nord extremely highly but it's never impressed me as much to be honest. "Ultima Thulée" was recorded when band leader vocal, guitarist & main musical mastermind Vindsval (Ershetu/Forhist/Yerûšelem/Children of Mäani/Eitrin/Karras/The Eye/Vlad) was just 15 or 16 years old so it's not surprising that its approach is a little less original than Blut aus Nord would later become known for but it still represents a more than decent example of the atmospheric black metal sound with Vindsal's tortured screams being a highlight & reminding me of Varg Vikernes performances on the classic Burzum records. The youngster's riffs are shrouded in frostbitten, lo-fi noise & often rely upon the basslines of session musician Ogat (Antaeus) & keyboards of W.D. Feld (Yerûšelem) to become fully intelligible. Like most of Blut aus Nord's releases, the drums are entirely programmed & I do feel that this is a slight weakness as I would have preferred a more organic feel to them.

The atmospheres presented on "Ultima Thulée" are suitably icy & most of the tracklisting is fairly engaging with songs like opener "The Son of Hoarfrost", my personal favourite "From Hlidskjalf" & the excellent "On the Way to Vigrid" being the clear standouts of the eight tracks included. I must admit that I find "Till' I Perceive Bifrost" to be fairly lackluster & the only genuine disappointment with the others all managing to maintain my interest in some capacity. Some of the transitions in these pieces are pretty jarring & disjointed though which is perhaps understandable given the age of the main composer while the keyboard-driven interlude sections aren't anything terribly special but are certainly passable.

I've gone on to become a big fan of Blut aus Nord over the years as they always manage to create fresh & original yet still inherently dark soundscapes for me to get lost in. "Ultima Thulée" doesn't achieve the same sort of otherworldly majesty but it's still a passable black metal release that perhaps suffered from the time it arrived on the scene as 1995 sits towards the back end of a five-year period that represents the peak for the genre with loads of important releases appearing either side of it. Still... "Ultima Thulée" is certainly worth a listen & should satisfy most punters who enjoy the wintery European atmospheres of the time.

For fans of Burzum, early Emperor & the first couple of Enslaved albums.

I could go into one of those shitty AI music program software and ask it to generate a djentcore album, and it would likely be less generic, derivative and boring than ERRA's Silence Outlives the Earth. Silence would have least been variety.

Best Songs: Cicada Siren, I. The Many Names of God

For Fans Of: Periphery, Currents, Invent Animate

Dorso formed in 1984 and remain a going concern, releasing eight full-length albums with quite a wide range of genres from thrash/speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, heavy metal through to black metal. "Bajo una luna cámbrica" was the band's debut full-length, being released in June of 1984 and featuring the only ever-present band member, bassist / vocalist Rodrigo "Pera" Cuadra, alongside guitarist / vocalist Gamal Eltit. Drum duties were shared by four guest/session drummers with Eltit also manning the kit for the track "Críptica visión".

What we have here with "Bajo una luna cámbrica" is principally a thrash metal album, but it is also a fair bit more than that with some quite impressive progressive touches. The album's longest track, "Cíclope" is a really nice piece of progressive metal with some legitimate Seventies' touches and a distinct latin flavour. The song writing is ambitious, certainly compared to their peers, with the band being more interested in keeping things interesting than trying to be as extreme and fast as possible. This certainly doesn't translate to the album being at all lightweight, they can be plenty aggressive and thrash with the best of them when the mood takes them with some pretty killer riffs, check out "Vuela en tu dragón" or "Hidra" and hear for yourself, it is just that this isn't the be all and end all here. I guess this could be termed as technical thrash metal and the guys do seem to be technically very adept, but I think of it as being more progressive than technical with even a jazz influence at times. The short "Suite", for example, is basically a guitar workout in the vein of a heavy Robert Fripp or even Frank Zappa and Gamal Eltit's guitar solo work is generallyxcellent, utilising a number of variations of style as well as really shredding when required to do so.

Sadly, the production doesn't really do the guys a lot of favours and its muddiness does blunt the edge a little, but not enough to cause any drama, being more of a niggle than a major issue. The songwriting really is fantastic and has impressed me mightily. I can't help wondering whether this was an influence on modern chilean thrash legends Demoniac and the curveballs they like to include in with their thrashing mayhem. I am really glad to have stumbled upon this and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in hearing a quite unique album from the Eighties' South American metal scene that offers a bit more than straight ahead metal charges.

Released in 1991, ‘Gothic’ is the second studio album by British gothic metal legends, Paradise Lost. I didn’t like the bands’ first album, finding it too gothic, growly, doom and gloomy, but perhaps things have developed on from there with this follow-up album?

Nope. Not really. 

There’s no doubting the impact Paradise Lost had on the British death/doom metal scene in the early 90’s. But this music just isn’t for me. I find it too dreary. Too depressing. Too boring. The endless, guttural growling ruins everything for me. The guitar work has improved since their previous album, but not enough for me to really dig any of the tunes. 

It’s listenable, in the background, and mainly because it’s only 40 minutes long! But overall, this isn’t for me. Their later stuff, which incorporates keyboards and more melodic vocals are more my thing. I’ll stick to those instead. 

My first experience with New York brutal death metal outfit Dehumanized came through their 1996 "Terminal Punishment" demo tape (4/5) back in my mid-1990's tape trading heyday & it made a significant impact on me, receiving regular replays over the next couple of months. I was a huge fan of the New York BDM sound at the time & these five guys offered a very solid example of it without ever really pushing the leaders of the scene like my very favourite metal band ever Suffocation. Dehumanized's debut full-length wouldn't land until my interest in metal was already tailing off during the late 90's so our paths wouldn't cross until a good decade later. The experience was similarly positive though & "Prophecies Foretold" & I have exchanged blows several times since then, appearing to enjoy each other's company quite a bit. When I first heard the record in full though, there was something a little fishy about it. You see, halfway through the tracklisting I started to get a strong feeling of deja vu & there's a good reason for that because the final four tracks are essentially an untouched version of the "Terminal Punishment" demo I'd enjoyed so much as a kid. The first five songs sound vastly different to the demo though which gives "Prophecies Foretold" a bit of a split personality. Both personalities are certainly worth knowing but I hold a slight favour for the demo material.

The new material that kicks off the album sees Dehumanized taking on a sound that splits the brutal & conventional death metal styles, never quite deciding on where it wants to reside. There's just as much Disincarnate & (dare I say it) Neuropath in their sound as there is their New York counterparts with a stronger melodic component & a little more nuance & tempo restraint being shown. The demo material is pure New York BDM though with those signature palm-muted slam riffs in strong effect throughout. The vocals are more gutteral & the tempos whiplash between slow & chuggy, hardcore-inspired Dying Fetus style slams & light-speed blasting. It doesn't appear as if drummer George Torres was using triggers as the kick drums sound fairly messy due to the disparities in their sound. Surprisingly, Torres is the only member of Dehumanized that I recognize from other projects, having contributed to slam death metallers 420 & Artery Eruption as well as BDM legends Skinless over the years. Frontman Jerry Barco's vocals differ quite a bit between the two releases too, being more gutteral on the early material with the brand-new songs all sporting a brighter production job.

Regardless of the split personality, I still really dig "Prophecies Foretold". It champions everything I enjoy about death metal & arguably does it better than they managed to do on either of their subsequent albums. Don't let the terrible cover art fool you. There are easily enough chunky riffs & spasmodic blast beats to satisfy your average brutal death metal nut included here. 

For fans of Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia & Mortal Decay.

The long running Norwegian black metal band, Dimmu Borgir, have made a habit of writing and releasing high quality, powerful music. And Grand Serpent Rising is no exception. When the music hits and this album begins its "Ascent", it travels far and wide at a blistering pace. The guitar riffing is filled with energy and intent, the bass lines are super strong and give the rest of the instruments room to breathe, the percussion work is superb, borrowing from the classic black metal of old, while also having room for some ear splitting moments as well (i.e. "Repository of Divine Transmutation"). The symphonic backgrounds are also splendid; parts of this album have little callbacks to the great Emperor and the dynamic influence the symphony plays on Prometheus. 

That's all the good stuff. Unfortunately, while Dimmu Borgir keep their songwriting chops in top form, they've also kept their piss poor structure for an album in the same shape. I've like Dimmu Borgir albums before, and I can point out individual songs from Puritanical Euphoric Misantrhopia, or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, and Abrahadabra that stand out, but you won't catch me listening to any of those albums in full anytime soon. This band has consistently pumped out overbloated albums for over three decades and it seems like with Grand Serpent Rising, that trend is getting worse! This is not helped at all by the bands always on full speed aggression that they continue to pump out album after album. It's hard to deny the quality of the music found within this album, but songs like "Recognizant" and "Repository of Divine Transmission" could have been so much better if, either the songs themselves had been trimmed down, or the album as a whole.

Best Songs: As Seen in the Unseen, Silk Minnes en Alkymist, The Exonerated, Shadows of a Thousand Perecptions

For Fans Of: Septicflesh, Rotting Christ, Enslaved

Death and Mayhem (D.A.M. for short) hailed from the northwest England seaside town of Morecambe Bay, which is not far from where I live. I can remember seeing them in the various metal mags back in the day advertising their wares, with the mascot that reminded of an unmasked Dr Doom from the Marvel comics, but somehow, I never got around to hearing them at the time. With this being my month for a nomination in The Pit, I thought there was no better an opportunity to sample their debut album from 1989. Human Wreckage scrapes a 50% mark on Metal Archives, but we all know how bonkers people’s opinions can be, right?

Well, Human Wreckage starts off well enough. Opening track proper, ‘Death Warmed Up’ sounds a lot more alert than the title would suggest. Some rugged chops and a decent solo make it a finer opener indeed. The first criticism is hard to ignore as an issue though. The drums are way too far back in the mix, relegated to more of a supporting role as opposed to a central driving position in the mix. This certainly helps the guitars and vocals to shine. However, it adds a timidness to the edges of what I am listening to. Riffs and vocals can only go so far as to flesh out a song, and without the firm skeleton of the percussion department things soon start to sound a little wishy-washy.

Some of the song writing is also unfortunately questionable. When they slow down the pace on Prophets of Doom, the cracks do start to show. The track at times sounds like it is falling over itself and this a theme that recurs sadly over the course of the rest of the album. It is as if D.A.M. exhaust their song writing prowess after three tracks. When they go slower, it really is a mistake. ‘Infernal Torment’ would only work with a Dave Mustaine style sneer on it, and Jason McLoughlin ain’t no MegaDave unfortunately. It is only really the late Mark “Elly” Etherington’s lead work that saves Human Wreckage from being a complete car crash at times. This is their debut album, coming just a year after their demo, so some leniency is perhaps well entertained in reviewing this album. However, as feature releases go, I have picked better.

I've pretty much just fallen off from alt-metal after my recent departure from The Gateway. I've moved away from alt-metal bands and even some bands that mix the genre with others like metalcore and industrial metal. When this Mushroomhead album XIII ended up as a Gateway feature release, I thought I would give this band and album another go. And I have to say...

I still enjoy this! The experimentation I can admire when blended with the accessibility they've gained after their first 3 albums that were self-released. I've considered Mushroomhead a standout band in alt-/nu metal, and revisiting this excellent album made me restore that thought.

Opening track "Kill Tomorrow" has some of the stoner-ish vibes of early Black Sabbath given a more anthemic alt touch. "Sun Doesn't Rise" is the first single, a commercial yet metal banger with a catchy chorus sung and growled by vocalists Jeffrey Nothing and J Mann, respectively. The band gains some strength in "Mother Machine Gun", which has some moody piano. Then we have some smooth emotion in "Nowhere to Go". And some heaviness in "Becoming Cold (216)".

"One More Day" is more of a gothic-sounding power ballad with violin and female singing, the latter performed by Devon Gorman. That's the kind of experimentation I love that they didn't have too much of in their underground releases, though the earlier heaviness would carry on into subsequent tracks in this offering... "The Dream is Over" is so d*mn brutal with guest vocals by Meshuggah vocalist Jens Kidman. "The War Inside" explores breakneck speed which makes another highlight. "Almost Gone" has more of that old-school Sabbath twang in the riffing which I don't mind. "Eternal" is more focused on speed and roars. A little tiring but still great.

"Our Own Way" is the most melancholic track, with nothing but sorrow in the piano, guitars, and vocals. I love it! Though it's only surpassed by the 8-minute epic "Destroy the World Around Me". The doomy drama of that track I think should've ended the album right there. However, it is followed by the one track I find somewhat weak, track number "Thirteen". It sounds a little too creepy and almost comes out as filler. And I'm not too crazy about their cover of "Crazy" by Seal, though it's still OK.

If this album ended with that 8-minute epic, I would've consider Mushroomhead's XIII a perfect album enough to make me reconsider abandoning all of alt-metal. Still the majority of this release has satisfied me. Who knows if I might revisit their later albums someday? Well, never say never!

Favorites: "Kill Tomorrow", "Sun Doesn't Rise", "One More Day", "The Dream is Over", "The War Inside", "Our Own Way", "Destroy the World Around Me"

I was a bit more sympathetic to the 'charms' of nu-metal back in its heyday, and regularly spun CDs from the likes of Slipknot, Korn and Spineshank. Mushroomhead's "XIII" was another that I picked up at the time of release. It appealed to me because it felt like it had quite a dark and ominous subtext to it, as opposed to the youthful anger and impotent rage of the more popular nu-metal acts. However, as I succumbed more and more to the seductions of extreme metal, the rap-heavy and ultimately impotent anger of nu-metal dropped out of my metal diet almost completely.

It has been a long time since I last played "XIII" but hearing it for the first time in many years I am reminded of why it had a particular appeal to me in the first place. It kicks off strongly with the ascerbic-sounding "Kill Tomorrow" complete with its hardcore-derived vocals hitting hard from the off, threatening to rip the listener's head clean off. "Sun Doesn't Rise" buys more into the rap side of nu-metal, but it has that ominous atmosphere to it that initially drew me to the album way back when. This dark cloud of ominous uncertainty sets this album apart from the "Iowa"s and "Follow the Leader"s of the time and is much more in keeping with the kind of doom aesthetic that appeals to me most. Alongside this there is often a mechanical throb to the riffs ("Mother Machine Gun" and "The Dream Is Over" for example) a la Fear Factory that gives Mushroomhead's version of nu-metal an industrial feeling at times and which positions them as close to FF as Korn.

The band sound incredibly tight with chunky riffs and a throbbing bassline, although the drums sound a little thinner than I would have liked, particularly the snare which, whilst it is no St Anger, is still a little tinny. The dual vocals contrasts hardcore punk raging with a strong, and faintly bluesy clean style for a quite striking effect. They also had an uncanny ear for a catchy melody with "Nowhere to Go" surprisingly never released as a single, despite sounding more radio-friendly than the album's only actual single "Sun Doesn't Rise" and making me feel like I should be waving a Zippo lighter in the air whilst "Almost Gone" is such a groovy mutha that it may well make even a grumpy old metalhead like me want to start dancing! Obviously such a long album would be much better if it had finished after the 8-minute "Destroy the World Around Me", foregoing the inconsequential "Thirteen" which is quite annoying, particularly with the old 'scratchy needle' sound effect, and the cover of Seal's "Crazy" which feels out of place with the rest of the material here.

The last few minutes aside, listening to this now, over two decades after its release, it feels like it has aged incredibly well, unlike so many of its contemporries from the nu-metal scene and still sounds fresh and exhilharating. Thanks for putting this forward as a feature, Saxy, and allowing me to reconnect with an old friend that I haven't entertained in quite a while and who is actually better company than I remember them being.

First thing to note is that I didn't completely hate this. Yeah I know, no one was more surprised than me, but I was swept along by the obvious enthusiasm and energy of the band and kind of went along for the ride. The speedy riffs and shredding solos are pretty entertaining, the riffs to both "Scream for Me" and "Burden of Time" for example stood out as being much heavier than I would have expected. Vocalist Asami is a big plus, sounding both melodic and reasonably powerful, although I am not so keen when she reaches for those really high notes and becomes a bit screechingly ragged, although this seems to be a feature of power metal generally that I just can't get to grips with. It is power metal after all so, of course, it is larger than life and over-the-top with keyboard overlays and some layered backing vocals, but not in a terribly cringey manner, ultimately being more operatic than pantomime. I do think that the album runs out of steam after "Burden of Time" and tracks like "The Apocalypse", "Inspire" and the godawfully balladic "Edge of the World" (the album's nadir for me) sound more like the kind of power metal that I struggle with.

Look, in truth this isn't going to break into my top 500 (or even 1000) metal albums and I am unlikely ever to pass this way again, but while it lasted I found it entertaining enough and I got through the whole thing pretty easily without a single skip and remarkably few cringes. In fact, if it had ended with "Burden of Time" I would have thought even more highly of it. Damning with faint praise then? Yeah, probably, but for me and power metal this was an untypically positive experience with the guitars and vocals being sufficiently impressive to keep me on board and to allow me to forgive the album its other obvious excesses, not least of which is the ear-batteringly, over-compressed mastering that makes it feel like it is being rammed into your ears with a steamhammer - and not in a good way!

Between 2000’s ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water’ and 2003’s ‘Results May Vary’, American rap rockers Limp Bizkit went from being one of the biggest bands on the planet, to becoming one of the most hated. There is a number of reasons for this. Whether it’s to do with the quality of the music, pop culture fads, individual members of the band, or just about any other reason you can think of, it’s undeniable that from the mid-90’s to the early 2000’s, Limp Bizkit’s career was on an upwards trajectory. 

Then they released this abomination. 

‘New Old Songs’, released in 2001, features a whole bunch of soulless, uninspired and quite frankly, terrible remixes of tracks from the bands previous three studio releases. I can see how this certainly put people off. None of these tracks are overly enjoyable. They certainly didn’t appeal to the rock and metal fans, and I doubt hip hop fans would have cared to give it a chance either. 

At an absolute stretch, the ONLY decent track is the DJ Lethal remix of ‘My Way’, but even that is clutching at straws. I’d much rather listen to the original track. 

I don’t know what Limp Bizkit were aiming for here, but it blew up in their faces. Did the album sell a lot of copies and make lots of dollar for the band? Absolutely. Is there anyone who actually likes this album though? No. No there isn’t.  

‘Voice in the Light’ is a 2007 concept album by progressive metal supergroup, Amaran’s Plight. Featuring renowned musicians such as vocalist D.C. Cooper (Royal Hunt), guitarist Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) and drummer Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard), this ambitious release is a treat for fans of the genre, and for fans of the individuals involved. 

Stylistically, this sounds a lot like Shadow Gallery. Fans of the band will no doubt enjoy this, and it shows the heavy involvement of guitarist and songwriter Gary Wehrkamp. Clocking in at one hour and 19 minutes, and stretching the physical CD to its storage limits, I won’t deny that I find the story a bit muddy at times. Whether it’s due to the long-winded duration, or just a number of filler tracks causing me to lose interest, usually by the end of the album I’m left baffled by whatever the concept was supposed to be. 

Musically however, this is a very good release, with a number of particular stand-out moments. The musicianship is excellent (as you’d expect), with plenty of dazzling guitar and keyboard virtuosity, as well as fantastic vocal performances, and the album is full of both heavy and melodic tracks. Highlights include ‘Truth and Tragedy’, ‘Turning Point’, ‘Betrayed By Love’, ‘Coming of Age’, the beautiful ‘Reflections Part 1’, and in my opinion the highlight of the album, the energetic ‘Viper’. 

While I doubt this is likely to be anyone’s favourite album, especially as the duration can make it a bit of a slog at times, overall, ‘Voice in the Light’ is a very solid release, and a worthy addition to any progressive metal collection. 

I originally became a part of the Australian metal scene as a fresh-faced teenager in the very early 1990’s. I’d been a fan of hard rock & metal for a good couple of years by that point & would religiously attend all of the international tours that were taking place at the time but it took me discovering legendary Sydney thrash metal establishment Mortal Sin in 1989 to realise that there was a local scene that could compete with the overseas acts I’d fallen in love with over the previous few years. But once I started to associate with older metalheads, I soon started to develop a list of mythical band names who had reportedly played strong roles in developing our beloved metal landscape here in the land down under. Amongst those names was a group that went by the very common metal moniker of Tyrant & who surprisingly hailed from the unlikely location of Tasmania i.e. the island state that’s positioned off the bottom south/east corner of Australia. I don’t think I ever got the opportunity to hear a Tyrant record at the time but I was always acutely aware that they were in some way important. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve finally ventured back to check out Tyrant’s earliest work in the four-song “Never Too Loud” E.P. which was very successful on a local level & led to a string of important gigs across the country during the mid-1980’s.

Tyrant began life in the Tasmanian capital city of Hobart in March 1983, the project of the two Zarins brothers (guitarist Andy & drummer Robert) with their neighbour Neil “Steel” Wilson handling the vocals. They originally went by the much less cool name of Slyder & were more of an AOR act but the excitement of the NWOBHM & a very strong local pub rock scene soon saw them giving in to the lure of heavier sounds which triggered the requirement for a name change. Second guitarist Grant Wallace & bassist Paul Hassman would be added to the lineup & Tyrant quickly became a mainstay of the Hobart rock scene, leading to the recording of this debut four-song release in 1984, a record that would gain the band a fair bit of exposure across the southern part of Australia in particular & would ultimately lead to Tyrant relocating to Sydney to chase rock stardom in 1985.

“Never Too Loud” is a fairly basic release really. The four songs are all pretty traditional in both style & structure with the production job being a little rough & presenting the songs in more of a demo context than a glossy, commercially-accessible radio rock package. There’s not much information around on “Never Too Loud” but I’m gonna assume that it was a self-financed affair as that’s what it sounds like to my ears but the sound quality is still clear enough to give the song-writing the chance to dig its hooks in.

The early Tyrant sound has one foot in each of the two camps that inspired it i.e. the NWOBHM & the Oz rock scene. The song-writing is structured in your classic hard rock verse/chorus style with the rhythm section maintaining a controlled, thumping mid-paced rock rhythm while the dual guitar attack draws its influence from the flashier heavy metal scene that was arguably at its absolute peak following its successful infiltration into the American market over the previous year or two. This combination works really well for Tyrant too & it’s probably not terribly surprising that a sound like that was going to appeal to the Aussie market either given that it gave the boys a really crunchy heavy metal sound that would work brilliantly in a live setting but was still easily relatable for your average Australian.

The four songs included are all of a pretty reasonable quality, although they admittedly don’t break any new ground & are all structured in a very familiar way. You can easily hear the influence of Aussie pub legends AC/DC, Rose Tattoo & The Angels in the anthemic hard rock hooks with the major emphasis being on the catchy, uncomplicated chorus lines. The guitar work is much more metal than those acts usually attempted though, drawing inspiration from hard rock-inspired heavy metal acts like Saxon & Accept as well the the early-1980’s Judas Priest albums. Frontman Wilson generally seems to be regarded as the protagonist of the Tyrant sound, possessing a clean & easily intelligible tone that I find to be more serviceable & acceptable than I do charismatic & exhilarating. In fact, I think that Wilson’s vocal limitations place a cap on the heights that “Never Too Loud” had the potential to reach to be honest as the crunchy instrumentation is well executed & was very much in line with what was popular in the global scene at the time. I can see how Wilson might have been a different prospect in a live environment though as he can certainly hold a tune & the whole package seems to have been tailored specifically for live performance.

I enjoy all four of the songs included on the E.P. to varying degrees. It’s really only the highly memorable “Thunder & Steel” that possesses the class required to see me feeling like I may return to it in the future though. Opener “War of the Roses”, the title track & closer “Lambs to the Slaughter” all have their moments but Tyrant’s music is generally always going to live & die by the quality of the chorus hooks with the rest of the song-writing all being presented as the entrées to the chorus’ main courses. For a country that was as isolated from the rest of the world as Australia was at the time though, “Never Too Loud” served its purpose nicely & I can see why people may have gotten a little hot under the collar for this rough-&-ready, working-class heavy metal. I’m glad that I’ve given the E.P. a couple of revisits now too as it feels like a reasonably important release in the Aussie metal story to me, even if I don’t think it’s strong enough to warrant me returning to it again in the future.

For fans of Saxon, Accept & early-1980's Judas Priest.

Melbourne’s Taramis are often spoken of as one of the first Australian groups to experiment with progressive & technical metal elements & I don’t have any reason to dispute that, although I’m not sure they were doing it quite as early as people sometimes make out to be the case. They started life in 1983 under the Prowler moniker, playing mainly covers & eventually releasing a demo tape called “Blood & Honour” in 1985 which I checked out for the first time only a couple of years ago, finding it to showcase a fairly traditional heavy metal sound that wasn’t exactly the “Progressive Heavy/Power/Thrash Metal” that Metal Archives would have you believe. The “Blood & Honour” cassette wasn’t too bad though & I ended up quite enjoying it as the talent the band members possessed was already evident even at that early stage in their evolution. The name change to Taramis was inspired by a character from Robert E. Howard’s "Conan the Barbarian" stories & would align with Prowler’s shift of focus towards original material in 1985. It also saw the group starting to attempt more complex, technical & progressive song structures with front man Shane "Joel" Southby’s soaring higher register vocals seeing them morphing into more of a power metal act in my opinion. Taramis’ first live show would take place on New Year’s Eve of that year & they’d quickly become a staple of Melbourne’s metal scene, largely off the back of their strong relationship with the notorious Metal For Melbourne festivals.

Taramis would release their debut album “Queen of Thieves” through the Metal For Melbourne label in 1987 & is another release that I only got around to checking out in more recent years. It’s here that you’ll see the band becoming more ambitious with their compositions & heading in more of a progressive power metal direction with the lyrical content trending towards more epic, fantasy-based themes. I quite like “Queen of Thieves” which would go on to be internationally licensed by legendary American metal label Metal Blade Records & made Taramis arguably the first Aussie metal band to secure international distribution. They’d record an untitled demo tape in 1988 which I enjoy too. In fact, I’m gonna suggest that it’s probably my favourite Taramis release these days but things went a little quiet for a few years after that release.

Now that we’ve got the historical stuff out of the way, we’re brought up to the time when I first became aware of Taramis as a 15 or 16 year old Sydneysider in the early 1990’s. My first exposure to the Victorians came through the opening track “Dreaming” from their (at the time) brand-new sophomore album “Stretch of the Imagination” which I heard played on a late-night underground metal radio program & recorded to cassette for further investigation over the week that followed. “Dreaming” would receive regular replays over the next month or so & led to me picking up a dubbed copy of “Stretch of the Imagination” shortly afterwards. I gave the album a few listens & quite liked what I heard for the most part but I’d soon place my cassette towards the back of my collection in search of increasingly more extreme music, only returning to it on Spotify this week in order to develop a firm opinion on a release that owns a fairly significant position in the early Australian metal landscape.

Taramis had undergone some significant lineup changes between their two full-length albums. Original guitarist Craig Robertson & bassist Danny Komorr had departed & been replaced by former (& future) Nothing Sacred axeman George Larin & talented bassist Evan Harris who would later go on to join well-known Melbourne power metal act Black Majesty in the mid 2010’s. These acquisitions saw Taramis’ ever-growing technical aspirations taking on a much more pronounced form with Larin also bringing with him a noticeably more aggressive & thrashier edge to the riffs & making “Stretch of the Imagination” comfortably Taramis’ most intense & complex work. Producer Doug Sanders (who had previously worked with the likes of Tyrus, Hobbs Angel of Death, Light Force, Persecution & Mass Confusion) does a reasonable job at bringing it all together too, although the guitars due sound a bit thin & tinny & the drums are very clicky indeed so it sounds very much of its time. Harris' contribution stands out as being particularly accomplished & those that enjoy a more pronounced bass guitar component in their metal will no doubt get some kicks out of his almost virtuosic performance here.

The sound of “Stretch of the Imagination” sits somewhere between progressive metal & technical thrash metal with the former being the more pronounced of the two. Both approaches are highly enjoyable & well executed from an instrumental perspective but, as with “Queen of Thieves”, it’s frontman Southby’s vocal performance that comes under the most scrutiny & will ultimately determine whether this record is for you or not. You see, while Southby’s highly theatrical & (at times) wincingly high-pitched delivery sometimes manages to hit the mark in terms of creating epic power metal atmospheres, just as often we see him failing to fully hit his notes & contorting my face into something akin to a cringe. The instrumentation is unanimously expansive & classy though which manages to save Taramis’ second full-length from being a creative failure. To highlight the flaws in more detail, the tracklisting on “Stretch of the Imagination” is noticeably inconsistent. The stronger material (see opener & album highlight “Dreaming”, the full-throttle thrash metal of “Behind These Eyes” & short closer “Delayed Reaction”) is very solid indeed & generally coincides with Southby’s more successful efforts. Similarly, half of the songs fail to capture me in the same way as I simply can’t accept Southby’s patchy attempt at Messiah Marcolin meets Bruce Dickinson air-raid operatics on songs like “Maze of Glory”, “Another Tomorrow”, power ballad “Lonely Star” or the particularly dreary “Diceman”. Thankfully, the better material is just strong enough to overcome the less impressive inclusions, leaving me with a generally positive feeling coming out of the album. The inclusion of a classy progressive metal instrumental (i.e. the fairly decent "Jigaboo Boogie") certainly helps though as it gives the listener some welcome respite from Southby’s vocal assault.

Qualms aside, I’ve quite enjoyed this revisit. I’m not sure I can prescribe to the general consensus that “Stretch of the Imagination” is Taramis’ finest work any more though. I think I simply find Southby’s delivery to be a better fit for the progressive power metal sound of “Queen of Thieves” & the 1988 demo these days so I favour those ever so slightly over this one, despite the fact that the more technical & thrashy sound would usually be something that should appeal to me more on paper. I don’t think I feel strongly enough about any of Taramis’ releases to see me returning to them in the future though if I’m being completely honest.

For fans of Sieges Even, Realm & Watchtower.

1995 saw the release of Saint Vitus' seventh full-length album, "Die Healing" and marked the return of original vocalist Scott Reagers to the fold. It followed what is widely considered the band's weakest album, 1992's "C.O.D." which, following the departure of Wino, had featured Count Raven's Chritus on vocals. Now, as much as I love Wino's grizzled vocals, I think Reager's more eccentric style actually better captures the soul of Saint Vitus, so his return was well-timed and he is on fine form here. "Die Healing" was intended to be the band's swansong (although that notion has consequently been proven premature) and it seemed apt for them to end as they began with Reagers behind the mic.

Kicking off with one of the band's best tracks, "Dark World", Die Healing immediately exorcises the ghost of "C.O.D.'s" mediocrity and points towards a band intent on going out in style. Dave Chandler has an ear for simple but effective doom metal riffs and he sounds unlike anyone else with an instantly recognisable and unmistakeable guitar tone that many have tried and failed to adequately reproduce. There is a certain rawness to the best Saint Vitus material, derived from their early days touring with hardcore punk bands, that makes them sound like the sort of band who have just rolled up in a rattling old Transit van, unloaded their own battered gear, plugged it in and just started playing. Now while I am certain that is far from the truth, it doesn't alter the fact that when they are at their best that is exactly how they sound and personally I love that about them.

The tempo here is generally pretty slow, although they sometimes switch it up a little to provide contrast. "Let the End Begin", for example, is one of the album's most sluggish tracks, but contains an uptempo mid-section where Chandler lets rip with a much more energetic riff and guitar solo before reverting back to the creeping grind of the opening section. In fact the guitar solos are generally pretty shred-like with DC going fret-crazy and teetering on the edge of feedback, almost Hendrix-like at times, as on "Trail of Pestilence" for example. The band are also unafraid to lampoon themselves and the wider doom ethos a little bit, with "The Sloth" telling an apocalyptic tale of a marauding Kaiju-like sloth creature slowly laying waste to all around it like a slow-motion Godzilla.

Saint Vitus are unquestionably my favourite of the very early doom metal bands and whilst Trouble, Pentagram et al have their moments for sure, I think SV are the most consistent, C.O.D. aside. Whether it is Reagers or Wino on vocals they just encapsulate that filthy, grizzled aesthetic that so typifies the earliest trad doom scene and which lends them an air of authenticity that feels like they could turn up to play at your local pub on any given night. Great band, great album check it out if you haven't already.

Throughout the 90s, metal was declared a somewhat "dead" genre when it's plagued with what elitists consider talentless and lame. However, the genre never died. It's far from dead. There are many bands who have reached their breakthrough in the 90s yet don't get a lot of credit. Virgin Steele is one of those bands, with their late 90s material having picked up where the glory of classic metal died off when the 80s ended. The irony is how their 80s albums turned out somewhat shabby with not much commercial success, but if your favorite album of theirs is Age of Consent, you do you. I'll just have fun with their 3rd grand masterpiece in a row, The House of Atreus Act I!

The first act of a two-part saga, it consists of 22 tracks that are either interludes or moderate-length songs, with a couple 7-minute epics. Basically a similar format to Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle-Earth from the previous year. The sound is kinda like a blend of Blind Guardian and Manowar, though that song-interlude ratio may be hard for some people to sit through. The entire offering is like the soundtrack to a musical play/film, based on the trilogy of Greek tragedies, the Oresteia.

The prologue of the saga is the War of Troy, told entirely in the opening track "Kingdom of the Fearless (The Destruction of Troy)". Fast intensity and lyrics of war make this your friendly neighborhood power metal anthem. The 7 and a half minute length fits well with the long convoluted war. Fantastic start! The next track "Blaze of Victory (The Watchman's Song)" is a dark ballad that starts where the story really carries on, after the war. Agamemnon comes back home to his wife, and a watcher was hired to look out for Agamemnon's blaze of victory. Next up, "Through the Ring of Fire" is a more upbeat track in which Agamemnon is glad to be back home. It is followed by not one, not two, but 3 interludes; "Prelude in A Minor (The Voyage Home)", "Death Darkly Closed Their Eyes (The Messenger's Song)", and "In Triumph or Tragedy", all telling different moods surrounding Agamemnon's return. They all probably would've worked better as one track, but the album is too perfect for me to change anything. The following track "Return of the King" refers to, of course, Agamemnon. However, we get a glimpse of the sideplot where the queen is planning her revenge, and the elders, who have overheard her, warn the king. In the 6 and a half minute "Flames of the Black Star (The Arrows of Herakles)", Agamemnon reclaims his throne but is cursed by Klytemnestra.

Again we end up with 3 more interludes that could've been indexed as one track but weren't and that's still OK; "Narcissus", "And Hecate Smiled", and "A Song of Prophecy". The first and last of the interludes add to the dark mystery, although the second one is a short metal track that's more dependent on the story. Cassandra's prophecies are dismissed by Agamemnon who doesn't know his actual fate. In "Child of Desolation", Cassandra dies an innocent death, lamented in the form of a power ballad that this beautiful song is. The interlude "G Minor Invention (Descent into Death's Twilight Kingdom)" seals Cassandra's fate. Another interlude, "Day of Wrath" begins the planned assassination of Agamemnon. And so it commences in "Great Sword of Flame". The heavy speed of the song suits Agamemnon's final fight that he would ultimately lose.

"The Gift of Tantalos" and "Iphigenia in Hades" are two more interludes, telling the emotions of two different characters. The former is in the perspective of Agisthos with his happiness and rage, and the second is in the perspective of Agamemnon's wife Klytemnestra with her happiness and sadness. Very well described! "The Fire God" introduces another character, Agamemnon's daughter Electra, enraged with Agisthos and Klytemnestra. The vocals are some of the angriest David DeFeis sounds here. Anyway, Electra asks the Fire God to strike vengance against the two, which he suggests her young brother Orestes to do years after he is taken to Phocis for safety. "Garden of Lamentation" is a short ballad-like interlude with Electra's farewell to Orestes after taking him away from the kingdom, with help from the Elders who challenge Agisthos who is the new ruler. More of that part of the story is told in "Agony and Shame", a more complex progressive song. All that belonged to Agamemnon now belonged to Agisthos. "Gate of Kings" is the final full song here. Electra and Orestes have one final motivational conversation with one another. The task at hand that each person has will someday be completed, and there's still hope even with each other's distance. Such a hopeful power ballad! With that, they each part ways to fulfill their role in the quest to restore order to the kingdom, and the outro "Via Sacra" is the end credits theme, and an effective way of saying "To be continued..."

Whether or not you want to understand the story more while listening to this album, you can't deny the absolute high-quality music it contains. The music and lyrics tell the story really nail it. Any listener of any kind of music should check this masterpiece out along with their previous two albums. One of the greatest stories ever told in metal!

Favorites: "Kingdom of the Fearless (The Destruction of Troy)", "Through the Ring of Fire", "Flames of the Black Star (The Arrows of Herakles)", "Child of Desolation", "Great Sword of Flame", "The Fire God", "Agony and Shame", "Gate of Kings"

I can't tell which one's the best Virgin Steele album, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II or this one, Invictus. They both have flawless glory in their own right, but which should forever hold the throne? I'll guess we'll find as I review this stunning work of art...

With Invictus, Virgin Steele descend further into chaos, speed, and might. The vocals, guitars, bass, and drums are as glorious as in the previous album. The keys here are more mystical though, sounding so cinematic even when mixed with the guitars. They've taken the classic heavy metal of Manowar and cranked up the power metal aspects to 11 or higher. Invictus, despite its long length, has true consistency!

"The Blood of Vengeance" is a two-minute spoken intro narrating what happened before the story and what will happen during then. The title track slices through with its heavy riffing and David DeFeis' gravelly singing occasionally hitting falsetto. The soloing from the keys and guitars impresses me, and that chorus is so wicked ("Fall on your sword, fall on your knees, die like your son nailed to his tree"). One of the best songs by the band and 90s heavy/power metal! DeFeis' work shall be praised. Reminding you that this part of the journey through Heaven and Hell has only started, "Mind, Body, Spirit" continues it as another well-done track. Even though the chorus is great, everything else almost outshines it. The entire bridge including the solo is some of the best guitarwork to be found in this offering. "In the Arms of the Death God" follows as another short interlude. "Through Blood and Fire" jumps in with more of the mind-blowing keys and guitars, with a great chorus to go with it. "Sword of the Gods" is another epic 7 and a half minute track. The structure is simple yet complex, with some galloping riffing for the first minute and a half, reprised in the last minute and a half.

"God of Our Sorrows" is a sorrowful one-minute interlude, though I think it would've made more sense if it was embedded with the next one... "Vow of Honour" shows DeFeis attempting some operatic falsetto. Holy sh*t, how high can this dude sing!? Almost competing with other heavy/power metal vocalists! "Defiance" marks another epic highlight. The final chorus and outro covering the last minute and a half has the flawless glory I've expected in this album. They still stand defiant! "Dust from the Burning" just pulls off some straight-on rock, which is still good. It segues to a 22-second interlude, "Amaranth".

"A Whisper of Death" in a 9-minute epic that helps exemplify the epic heavy/power metal sound. And that's just the start of the final half-hour stretch of glorious songs. "Dominion Day" continues that streak. Sometimes it sounds ballad-esque, other times it's full-on crushing. Another one of the best songs here! "A Shadow of Fear" is darker than anything Virgin Steele made before this album. The vocals still shine as they often do. Then comes a brief 22-second reprise of the "Theme from 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'". And now, the grand finale, the 10-minute epic to end all epics, "Veni, Vidi, Vici". The title already hints at what the band has done. They came, saw, and conquered all their foes to become kings of epic storytelling metal. This shows Virgin Steele at their most legendary and concludes the saga exactly as it should.

Now back to the question I've asked in the beginning of this review: Is Invictus the best Virgin Steele album? Well I'm gonna place it at number 2, just a slight percent below Marriage Part II. You have to appreciate this masterpiece to appreciate true metal or even true music. This is epic power that barely any other band has conquered!

Favorites: "Invictus", "Mind, Body, Spirit", "Sword of the Gods", "Defiance", "A Whisper of Death", "Dominion Day", "A Shadow of Fear", "Veni, Vidi, Vici"

Virgin Steele's pinnacle era was the second half of the 90s, particularly 3 masterpieces to round it off big-time. Which one of the trio is the best? Perhaps their best album and one that I can once again consider one of the best 20th century heavy/power metal albums after this revisit, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II!

The golden era is only the second of 3 different eras of Virgin Steele, and it can beat the other two eras by far. Those other two being the classic heavy metal era of the 80s that ended with a strange turn into hard rock in Life Among the Ruins, and the more progressive yet divisive current era starting with Visions of Eden. The 1994-2000 era consists of 5 albums connected into two sagas, all deserving of 4.5 or 5 stars. Marriage II is the second part of a trilogy and might just be the highest point of their career.

Right from the start, they fire away with "Symphony of Steele", which after a one-minute keyboard symphonic intro, blasts off into their blend of the power metal of Helloween and the heavy metal of Manowar. A brilliant highlight "Crown of Glory" follows with mind-blowing energy and sorrow. That intro is filled with beauty and melancholy ("Bury me beside the endless sea, raise my ashes to wind"). "From Chaos to Creation" is more than just an interlude. It's a short blast of the epicness and heaviness to be expected as the album progresses. It leads to "Twilight of the Gods", continuing to blur the lines between Germanic and Greek mythology. Superb power metal there! "Rising Unchained" keeps up the earlier tracks' motive, with some of the best music and vocals in the album ("Don’t cry for mercy, for you know there will be none").

"Transfiguration" is a more ballad-ish track, which I guess can break up the fast heaviness for a bit. "Prometheus the Fallen One" is the first of two long epics, structured with intense wrath. The second epic and the most special track is the 10-minute "Emalaith". It starts off sounding like a power ballad then becomes more progressive and diverse. I'm not kidding when I say that Virgin Steele's own "Stairway to Heaven". After that, "Strawgirl" follows as another shorter ballad. Excellent guitar leads, but it sounds more like a cheesy ballad than anything. The lowest point of the album while not affecting its perfect score in any way.

"Devil/Angel" pretty much destroys all the soft cheesiness as a total speed demon. Clearly this band has listen to Judas Priest's Painkiller album! The riffing and chorus are so memorable. "Unholy Water" is the closest we have to their earlier 80s hard rock/metal sound, and it works well with the more serious lyrics. "Victory is Mine" is the greatest way out for this massive album, filled with victory and revolution. Well we still have the "Revisited" outro that is like the end credits theme for this album until the next one.

So yeah, I still love this Virgin Steele offering, even after that few-year break from it before revisiting. So gather around, people, and witness Heaven and Hell getting married, 'til death do them part!

Favorites: "Crown of Glory", "Twilight of the Gods", "Rising Unchained", "Prometheus the Fallen One", "Emalaith", "Devil/Angel", "Victory is Mine"

5 years before this second attempt at reviewing this album, when I was trying to restore my earlier melodic heavy/power metal taste, there are some bands I hadn't checked out yet until that point, such as Running Wild and Virgin Steele. Sometimes an attempt at bringing back something from the past ends up falling flat, and when that happened then, I've forgotten about those bands for a few years. But with my Guardians interest back and stronger than ever, it's time to revisit Running Wild's grand pinnacle!

Death or Glory still stands as one of my favorite 80s speedy heavy/power metal albums, with total synergy in the music and lyrics. This epic classic of an album is what helped the whole "pirate metal" idea catch on and be expanded further decades later by Alestorm and later Visions of Atlantis.

The album opens with what I still think is the best track here and one of my favorite songs of the 80s heavy/power metal sound, "Riding the Storm". It is an absolute diamond gem of a song. The mid-paced intro sounds like it could've influenced the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, then speeds up into a total early power metal storm. The vocals by Rolf Kasparek help shape things up especially in perhaps the best chorus of the album. The soloing and the bridge also rule. An epic start to a glorious masterpiece album! The brilliant strength doesn't end there as "Renegade" is worth following up from that track with more of its energy. There's even a spoken passage before some speedy melodic soloing. The next song "Evilution" is a little weak compared to the rest but still great enough that the album's 5-star rating isn't affected.

Fortunately we have another one of the best songs here in "Running Blood". It's more mid-paced as the dark "witch trials" are called out with the message being clear in the heavy chorus. "Highland Glory" is a great instrumental. In terms of metal instrumentals, it isn't one of the best tracks of the album but it is one of the best of heavy/power metal. "Marooned" has fast riffing melody that sounds so unique. The riffing sounds so melodic, and the drumming is fast but not thrashy fast, all helping separate power metal from speed metal. Also, cool gang vocals at the end. "Bad to the Bone" isn't as highlight-worthy as I once thought it was, yet it's still catchy, especially in the chorus.

"Tortuga Bay" keeps up the great riffing power and choruses. The title track is one of the best title tracks I've heard in 80s heavy/power metal. I absolutely love the soloing there! Then it leads to "The Battle of Waterloo", a nearly 8-minute closing epic, and it's obviously what it's written about. A bagpipe intro leads into battle-ready metal that gets more progressive beyond the first chorus. The CD edition contains a bonus track, "March On" which I don't think is as good as the rest here.

Death or Glory is one of the true best albums of early heavy/power metal. I recommend listening to it all the way through, specifically the 50-minute vinyl edition without that bonus track, the edition I've based my 5-star rating on. All those strong songs have sealed the band's identity as the OG heavy metal pirates. Listen on and sail on!

RIP Majk Moti

Favorites: "Riding the Storm", "Running Blood", "Marooned", "Death or Glory", "The Battle of Waterloo"

The Ghost of Tomas Lindberg

It is with trepidation that I finally get around to reviewing what may very well be the final At the Gates album. One of the fundamental bands that I discovered during the mid/late 2000s for introducing me to heavier/extreme sounds in metal music. I want At the Gates to send us off on a stellar finale, but because of circumstances that span well outside the range of this forty-two minute album, this swan song turns out to be less impactful than expected.

Now I try going into these types of reviews with a preset that a record released posthumously should not affect its score. Sometimes the emotion is justified (i.e. Trees of Eternity's Hour of the Nightingale) while others leave me feeling more empty. The Ghost of a Future Dead meets me somewhere halfway between the two. On one hand, At the Gates are quite influential on my life as mentioned previously, but on the other, this record is brought down the same reason as Avenged Sevenfold's Life is But a Dream from a few years back. In both cases, the lead singer had been dealt a terrible hand and it drastically affected their voice. Tomas Lindberg's cancer diagnosis as well as the treatment must have left his vocal cords destroyed and you can hear that with how shrill the vocal delivery is here. Jens Bogren has done all of the amplification and modification possible to make the vocals sound adequate, but even that falls short most of the time. It's an album that doesn't compliment its shortcomings very well.

Which is a bit of a shame because beneath the vocals is a very solid melo-death album. The instrumentals are very good and deliver some top quality riffage and melody. Early tracks and promotional singles lead the way with "The Fever Mask" and "The Dissonant Void" being early album standouts. "Tomb of Heaven" hits hard and reminds me a lot of Slaughter of the Soul in its presentation/execution. But it's after that song that the album just kind of flattens out. The second half of the album drags on and has no standout features that haven't been done already, and better, in the first half of the record. After the penultimate track brings everything back down and prepares the listener for the finale, "Black Hole Emission" continues in the exact same style as what was brought before. It is a lackluster way to end an album that was already losing steam about five songs previous.

And so, after more than three decade career (which included a lengthy hiatus), At the Gates seemingly comes to its end. And in a weird way, The Ghost of a Future Dead follows in the career of At the Gates in its presentation. The first few tracks are heavy and driving (The Red in the Sky is Ours), which is followed by about two or three songs that grow even more aggression (Slaughter of the Soul) before resting on their comfort zone during the albums second half (At War with Reality, To Drink From the Night Itself). This is not the way I expected these giants of the Gothenburg death metal to go into that good night.

Best Songs: A Ritual of Waste, Of Interstellar Death, Det Oerhörda

For Fans Of: Dark Tranquility, In Flames, Arch Enemy

This highly regarded Ukrainian duo first crossed my path back in 2009 through their excellent 2004 sophomore album "Autumn Aurora" which triggered me to explore the rest of Drudkh's back catalogue (well, at least the metal releases from it) over the next couple of months. Their 2003 debut album "Forgotten Legends" would be positioned quite early in that journey & didn't disappoint either, gradually becoming my drug of choice when it came to Drudkh. "Forgotten Legends" is a surprisingly accomplished atmospheric black metal effort for a first-up release & very quickly shows the duo of vocalist Thurios (Rattenfänger/Astrofaes/Blood of Kingu/Hate Forest/Old Silver Key) & guitarist/bassist Roman Saenko (Hate Forest/Precambrian/Rattenfänger/Windswept/Blood of Kingu/Dark Ages/Necrom/Old Silver Key) to possess a very strong understanding of the elements that make the subgenre engaging. Session drummer Yury Sinitsky (Lutomysl/Blood of Kingu) keeps things very simple in a similar way to that of Varg Vikernes on the classic Burzum records which allows Saenko's trance-inducing & repetitive riffs to slowly envelope the listener. I wouldn't say that these riffs are taken from the top shelf of the black metal spectrum but they are unanimously enjoyable nonetheless, keeping the tempo around mid-pace throughout & never being tempted into frenetic blast-beat territory. It's only when those riffs are combined with Thurios' blackened shrieks that we see the atmosphere reaching its full potential though & I'm subsequently gonna suggest that it's Thurios' contribution that is the most important component of the early Drudkh sound. His keyboard work is surprisingly scarce which leaves "Forgotten Legends" sounding quite traditional. The listener will no doubt pickup on the nature themes even if they can't interpret the lyrics because this record simply "feels" earthy, without ever fully crosses the line into the pagan black metal territory.

The tracklisting on "Forgotten Legends" is extremely consistent with the three lengthy metal tracks & the rain-soaked atmospheric outro piece all being very strong but never tempting me to claim any of them as genuine classics. All three of the proper songs have their moments & harness a pretty dirty guitar tone that always maintains a bit of bass to good effect. If pushed, I'd probably suggest that the sixteen-minute opener "False Dawn" is my pick of them as it slowly draws you in & maintains your interest for the full duration of the piece. It was a bold move to open their first full-length with such an epic undertaking but it has paid off in my opinion. One probably needs to remember that both of Drudkh's band members had paid their dues by this point though given that they'd both been a part of Hate Forest for seven years when they recorded "Forgotten Legends".

As with Drudkh's other popular releases, I've really enjoyed this revisit & feel that "Forgotten Legends" is a solid black metal record that will satisfy most punters who maintain a penchant for the more restrained, measured & atmospheric side of black metal. While 2006's "Blood in Our Wells" is often referred to as Drudkh's pièce de résistance these days (along with the previously mentioned "Autumn Aurora"), I tend to favour this record just slightly over both of Drudkh's other early masterpieces. I really enjoy its epic feel as the two musicians show a clear enjoyment & an undeniable talent for their chosen craft.

For fans of Burzum, Hate Forest & Walknut.

I first became acquainted with Sweden's Unanimated through their debut album "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" which I picked up through one of my Neuropath band mates shortly after it was released in 1993. While Unanimated's initial effort didn't exactly fit inside my traditional extreme metal comfort zone, I nonetheless found myself quite enjoying its unique blend of melodic death & black metal sounds & gave it a few repeat spins at the time. In fact, I still regard "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" as one of my top ten melodeath releases to this day which is really saying something. By 1995, I was more heavily involved in the tape trading scene than ever before so, when I heard news of a brand-new Unanimated record, I immediately went about picking it up through one of my European contacts, looking for more of the same from the Swedes yet also hoping that they might push things up to a new level. Many death metal fans will tell you that they did too. Me? I'm not so sure.

"Ancient God of Evil" is a very polished release for the time with the crystal-clear Dan Swanö production job giving Unanimated the best possible chance at succeeding in their quest for extreme metal stardom. It's also a touch more melodic than its predecessor with the black metal component being a little stronger & taking the form of some pretty cool keyboard-backed atmospheric sections. It's worth noting that these guys were amongst the first to attempt the more melodic black metal sound & were quite influential on that subgenre so they were old hands at it by this point in their careers. Raspy vocalist Micke Jansson (Damnation) does an excellent job as the band's main focal point while the all-star rhythm section of bassist Rickard Daemon (Dismember/Murder Squad/Carbonized/Damnation/General Surgery) & drummer Peter Stjärnvind (Merciless/Murder Squad/Black Trip/Damnation/Entombed/Krux/Nifelheim/Pest/Regurgitate) hold down the back end with aplomb, leaving plenty of room for their band mates to build their instrumental hooks. While guitarists Jonas Mellberg (Therion) & Johan Bohlin (Desultory) may present a plethora of memorable melodic ideas between them though, they aren't exactly virtuosos & struggle to achieve anything above a very basic guitar solo so I think they often would have been better off going without & focusing purely on the riffs.

The song-writing on "Ancient God of Evil" is very consistent in that there are no weak tracks included, mainly because Unanimated were a class act so, even during the songs that sit furthest from my comfort zone, I generally maintain some level of admiration for the scope & execution. Despite the undeniable class & consistency though, "Ancient God of Evil" isn't exactly chock full of highlights. Like most melodeath, I find popular, hook-laden songs like opener "Life Demise", "Oceans of Time" & "Dying Emotions Domain" to be more agreeable than they are exciting. It's the short instrumental "Mireille" & catchy closer "Die Alone" that hit me the hardest & show the full potential in the mid-90's Unanimated sound. There's no doubt that Unanimated knew what they were doing. I'm just not quite sure this sound & style is something that I can get completely onboard with though so I'd probably position "Ancient God of Evil" slightly behind its older sibling "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" in terms of my overall enjoyment of the package. It's still one of the better examples of blackened melodeath that you're gonna find though so I've managed to find some space for it at the bottom of my top ten melodeath releases as well.

For fans of Dissection, Necrophobic & Thulcandra.

"Vaenir" is this Gothenburg doom trio's 2015 sophomore full-length, following relatively hot on the heels of the debut, "Empress Rising" from the previous year. They play lengthy distorted doom metal dirges with towering chords, sloth-like pacing and a 'washed-out' vocal style that feels like it is coming to you across huge cosmic distances. Despite the thunderously robust foundation laid down by bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems and the undoubted weight of the riffs, the vocals impart a certain ephemeral quality to the atmosphere and act as a spiritual counterpoint to the immensity of the bottom end.

Monolord have a distinct blueprint for how they want to sound and pretty much stick to it throughout. There is very little variation in pacing within tracks, no sudden changes of gear to spice things up, these Swedes being pretty much fundamentalists when it comes to doom metal. If you are impatient for variety and innovation in your listening diet then chances are that Monolord will hold very little appeal for you and you may be better served moving on elsewhere. More recently I feel they evolved a slightly more lightweight sound with hints of psychedelia thrown in, but back in the heady days of 2015 they were all-in on the crushing repetitiousness of 'true' doom metal and were unrelenting in its delivery.

And that, not wishing to sound in any way dismissive, is pretty much everything there is to know about "Vaenir". How you feel about that depends on what you want from your metal. Me, I am more than happy with an album of heavy and uncomplicated doom metal done well and with an unpretentiousness that speaks to a band fully committed to shaking the cosmic walls.

The second full-length from this Canadian war metal duo offers much the same as their debut album "Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist" from the previous year i.e. a short, savage & relentless storm of blast beats & screaming vocals that will invariably get your blood pumping if you're a fan of this niche extreme metal subgenre. As always, Revenge showcase a strong passion for grindcore, although the production job doesn't allow for much in the way of variation or articulation. There's not really much of a need for it though as everything flies by like an out-of-control battering ram, leaving the listener holding on for dear life. I think I enjoy "Victory.Intolerance.Mastery" slightly more than Revenge's other more popular releases like "Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist" & "Behold.Total.Rejection" but there's not really much point in separating them from each other as they're all basically the same shit (as hinted at with the series of very similar album covers). I will say that I was on my way to a four-star rating for the first five tracks here but the quality level just tailed off a bit through the end of the tracklisting which saw me falling just short. The damage was already done though & I'm not sure I ever expect Revenge to produce something deep & meaningful anyway. They're very much a role player whose aim is to satisfy a well-defined need & they do what they do well. I'm just not sure that they'll ever really change my world with this sort of offering.

For fans of Conqueror, Diocletian & Blasphemy.

This is a fully flushed out medieval black metal record with a lot of power and grandiosity, while still having the room/time to leave some space for pieces of reprieve and recollection. Unlike yesterday's review of Stormkeep's newest album, Archvile King are not afraid of their dungeon synth inspiration and use it both as a powerful intermediary, as well as complimenting these strong black metal foundational tunes. Musically, the album is quite diverse while still maintaining strong motifs. Furthermore, the record does not have a moment of wasted space. Production of the album is splendid with plenty of low end to make songs scream and howl. Speaking of howling, the vocals on the record are deliberate and visceral. This sounds like the type of black metal record so many major record label bands wish they could make, but are restricted from doing so. Sometimes it pays to be independent. 

Best Songs: L'excusé, Sépulture, Le chant des braves, À ces batailles abandonnées

For Fans Of: Véhémence, Obesquiae

Kings Cross were another act that competed with the recently mentioned Surrender for the honour of having released the very first genuine metal release to come out of my birth city of Sydney. There's very little known about the timing of the two records though so I've had to take a guess as to which may have come earlier & have generally leant towards Surrender as their self-titled album was far more significant than Kings Cross' three-song effort. It was also miles more enjoyable too as the "Gimme" E.P. is a lacklustre affair that places all of its hopes & dreams on the back of brothers Darren "Jed" McCormack & Matt "Big Bird" McCormack whose virtuosic lead guitar skills are pretty incredible when compared with the overall package. They'd clearly been spending years kneeling at the altar of the late, great Randy Rhoads as there are some striking similarities in style. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save "Gimme" from the second-hand store racks though as two of the three songs are completely disposable (read: garbage) with closer "Love Machine" being one of the worst metal tunes I can remember hearing, thanks largely to the completely out of key vocal effort of front man Mark White.

Kings Cross began life as New England in 1983 before changing their name shortly afterwards. The "Gimme" E.P. would be their only metal release with their 1988 debut album "Psychedelic World" coming after they'd relocated to Los Angeles in search of international acclaim & seeing them dropping the metal component in favour of a more psychedelic glam/hard rock approach. Kings Cross were built around the three McCormack brothers who would later go on to form seminal Sydney thrash metal band Massive Appendage with Jed & Shawn also ending up in Fester Fanatics later on. The early Kings Cross sound sits right in the middle between the LA glam metal one that was so big at the time & a more muscular heavy metal one. They tended to sound closest to Skid Row due to White's similarities in tone with Skid Row's legendary Sebastian Bach in my opinion. Unfortunately, his skill set is not even close to being able to match Bach's though & his failings are the main detractor from me being able to enjoy this release. I do quite like the glammiest of the three tracks in the catchy "Back Street Theatre" but it's sadly not enough to balance out the dire nature of the song-writing on the other two inclusions so I can't in good conscience encourage any of you to actively seek out "Gimme" which should reside solely in the annuls of Australian metal history for all eternity.

For fans of Twisted Sister, Skid Row & Motley Crue.

I have been a casual fan of Khemmis since first coming across their sophomore "Hunted" back in 2016 shortly after its release. Consequently I checked out the debut and, at that time, I wasn't particularly knocked-out by it I must admit. So, a decade later and with a new album on the shelves, I figured time was ripe for a revisit.

Firstly it must be mentioned that this is much more doom metal oriented than their later material, with Pallbearer most often being justifiably cited as a touchstone. "Absolution" maintains a significant percentage of traditional heavy metal in its doom metal DNA, pushing it into epic doom metal territiory. The production and guitar sound is very much in the doom metal milieu however, with a deep and resonant fuzziness that is typical of traditional doom metal and with a certain bluesy feeling to the riffs. The guitar solos sound cleaner and clearer than the riffs and are enthusiastically deployed with an exuberant relish that hints that this is where the guitarists Ben Hutcherson and Phil Pendergast really get their kicks, giving off a Brian Robertson / Scott Gorham, Thin Lizzy vibe. The two also share vocal duties and this is probably the album's weakest point as they alternate between reasonable cleans and frankly unconvincing deathly growling bellows. The rhythm section of bassist Daniel Beiers and drummer Zach Coleman are solid enough, although they seem to be playing well within themselves and keeping it pretty simple.

I must admit that I found myself enjoying this better this time around than I did back then, although I still have reservations. Sometimes the soloing sounds divorced from the meat of the track itself and too often feels shoehorned in whilst I feel the clean vocals are strong enough to carry the material without resorting to the unnecessary and unconvincing death growls. The riffs are generally pretty cool though and when the guitarists do hit a sweet spot between riffs and solos, such as on "Burden of Sin" it is pretty engaging stuff. They saved the best until last and close the album out with the longest and best track, "The Bereaved", which is where the previously mentioned Pallbearer comparison is most apparent. Ukltimately this is a solid but flawed debut, but the band would get better next time around.

The sophomore album from Denver's Stormkeep is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can tell that Stormkeep have learned their lesson from the debut, Tales of Othertime, that they are not very good progressive songwriters. As such, the song structures found on The Nocturnes of Iswylm are more streamlined with more recognizable melodic hooks, shorter runtimes and more aggression. The downside is that much of what made Stormkeep's debut so memorable has been lost; the symphonic backgrounds and dungeon synth passages have been kneecapped in favour of more traditional melodic black metal. Because of this omission, the fundamental black metal music is now lacking in that kick to push it over-the-top. This isn't like an Emperor album where the symphonic accompaniment is actively contributing to the songs/albums progression. Stormkeep used to do this with their debut, but now they have been so muted or omitted altogether that The Nocturnes of Iswylm becomes a record that just lingers without momentum. It's a shame because these guys showed enough potential years ago to potentially be the next modern Emperor or Summoning. 

Best Songs: The Taste of Immortal Blood, The Black Dragons of Iswylm, Echoes in the Vasts of Sequestration

For Fans Of: Summoning, Caladan Brood, Vargrav

I have never made any secret of the fact that Warning's masterpiece, "Watching From A Distance" is my all-time favourite album, so I can probably be forgiven for going into "Rituals of Shame" with inflated expectations, although I must add that those expectations were tempered by equal parts trepidation that the band may drop the ball and turn in an album that sees them just going through the motions like so many acts returning after a long period away and so sullying their legacy. So now I have the beautiful oxblood red vinyl platter on my turntable the obvious first question must be, "do I think it is as good as WFAD?" Well, the answer to that is not so simple because it is impossible to compare an album that has been so meaningful to me for two decades with one that has been out mere days. So am I at all disappointed with this third Warning full-length then? Absolutely not and while it hasn't initially hit me on as deeply an emotional and personal level as its predecessor this is still an amazing piece of doom metal melancholy. Patrick Walker just 'gets' doom metal in a way that few others are able to. It isn't just about leaden pacing and towering riffs, Walker doesn't merely write songs that are sad and sorrowful, but also dig deeply into his emotional vulnerability, laying bare his soul in a way which will either resonate with the listener or it won't. If it does then a connection with the material is possible that transcends mere grooves on a plastic disc and if it doesn't it may be dismissed as overly sentimental.

The most striking thing about "Rituals of Shame" is that it doesn't at all feel like an album released two decades after its illustrious predecessor by a band that had been on hiatus for most of the intervening years whilst Patrick Walker concentrated on his 40 Watt Sun project. There is such a remarkable consistency of material between the two albums that you would be forgiven for thinking that it had been recorded in 2010 and only just seen the light of day. In fact the debut "Strength To Dream" is further removed artistically from "Watching From A Distance" than "Rituals of Shame" is, despite there only being a third as much time between the two. The really great thing, though, is that the latest isn't merely a lazy rehash of the former. Despite the similarities, "Rituals of Shame" isn't merely WFAD part two, it has its own character and feeling. Inevitably such a monumental album will cast a long shadow over its younger sibling, but I am convinced that in time it will emerge from that shadow and stand tall in its own right.

WFAD had an indefinably wistful quality despite the huge, doom-laden chords and foundational stolidity of the rhythm section, whereas RoS feels a little less ethereally affecting. This is partly down to the heavier-handed production and increased compression, but it is also due to the inclusion of second guitarist Wayne Taylor who has played live shows with the band since 2016, appearing on the 2021 Roadburn Live album, whose second guitar adds depth and rounds out the sound, making it feel more down-to-earth. Of course, the absolute core of Warning is Patrick Walker's vocal performances and this is where "Rituals of Shame" may even outdo its predecessor because, as I alluded to when reviewing the "WFAD Live at Roadburn" album, Patrick's voice seems to have got even better with time. His vocals sound more varied and expressive now in middle-age than they did as a young twenty-something and his ability to wring genuine emotion from the receptive listener with a mere twist of his voice is undiminished.

I have to say that I am more than happy with this new offering and it has rarely been off my turntable since it arrived. Whilst it is consistent with its predecessor it is undeniably an evolution rather than a rehash and in time I think it may take on a life of its own maybe being a new generation of doomheads' introduction to the band and becoming as significant to them as WFAD has been to me. So whilst "Rituals of Shame" has not deposed "Watching From A Distance" at the pinnacle of my top albums of all-time list, it has certainly pushed a large number of worthy contenders down another slot and has livened up a year that wasn't appearing too great on the doom metal front prior to its release.

Vreid are a long running Nordic Black & Roll band and The Skies Turn Black is the bands tenth(!) studio album. Now, going into this album, my experience with Black & Roll has been decidedly minimal. I think I reviewed an early Kvelertak album many years ago and left my exploration of the genre at that, thinking that it was cool in concept, but maybe not so much in execution (the language barrier may have also played a crucial role). Well I would never have guessed this group, unbeknownst to me and, surprisingly, most of Metal Academy's regulars, made something of this quality two decades into their career.

What I enjoy most about The Skies Turn Black is the heavy Ghost influence. Now I know in many metal circles, admitting you like Ghost is worthy of excommunication, but I stopped giving a shit what the metalcore kids think is cool a long time ago and I think Ghost is awesome, and it seems like Vreid think Ghost are awesome too! The guitar riffs sound taken straight out from a record like Meliora. The heavier touches are added tastefully as to not entirely squash the catchy riffs. And the vocals have a touch of intensity to them that could never be replicated by Tobias Forge in the AOR sphere. The Skies Turn Black adds enough texture from the complimentary instruments (strings, synthesizers, etc.) to give it something closer to gothic rock. And the guest vocals from Djerv on "Loving the Dead" are such a beacon of light around the heavier "A Second Death" and "Build & Destroy" (although I personally think the the promotional single version of "Loving the Dead" is much better).

As Ghost moves further away from the heaviest sounds on Opus Eponymous and Meliora, and more towards the headliner stage, it left a void in my heart for heavy textures, with that arena rock appeal. Vreid hit the mark well on The Skies Turn Black.

Best Songs: The Skies Turn Black, Loving the Dead, Chaos, The Earth Rumbles

For Fans Of: early Ghost, Enslaved, Mork

The Immortal Bird that recorded this 2015 album is very different from the three-piece that exists to this day with only vocalist Rae Amitay remaining. Drummer Gary Naples and guitarist Evan Anderson Berry left not long after "Empress/Abscess" hit the shelves, being replaced by Matt Korajczyk and Nate Madden respectively. Bassist John Picillo left in 2019 and hasn't been replaced with Madden doubling up on both four- and six-string guitars. It is good then that Rae Amity has remained as the only constant factor in the band because there is a rounded depth to her ravaged, bellowing shrieks that would be quite difficult for any other singer to replicate. She has a line in controlled fury that is distinctive and powerful and which would put the ineffectual bellowings of many metal tough guys to shame.

Immortal Bird play an amalgam of black and death metal that sounds immediate and confrontational with a suggestion of crusty sludginess that gives the material a further coating of grimy filthiness along with a twist of dissonance for added discomfort. With the five tracks on "Empress/Abscess" only nudging a hair's breadth over thirty minutes there is never any danger of attention wander, although the more timid listener may want to flee and lock themselves in the bathroom. Comfort is not something that Immortal Bird are interested in dishing up, they have a jagged and angular approach to songwriting that will keep you on you toes and which, with other bands, I often struggle. However just when it feels like the band are pushing you to the edge they have an uncanny ability to suddenly drop into a killer riff and sweep you away on a tide of moshpit fury. I get the feeling that the convulsive nature of the songwriting isn't to appear intellectually sophisticated or technically smug, which I feel is the case with some of the acts who write this way, but it is done with the aim of unsettling and disorienting the listener so that when they drop one of those killer riffs it hits all the harder.

So, overall, with a sometimes challenging but always interesting songwriting style, some genuinely exhliharating riffs and one of, if not the, finest female vocalists in all of metal there is plenty here on this short album to keep drawing me back to it time and again. Immortal Bird are one of those bands that I genuinely cannot fathom why they aren't bigger than they are.

Well, time for In Flames album revisit #2! Come Clarity has been known as the band's transitional album between their earlier melodeath roots and their later alt-metal era. There are also some claims that this is the closest the band has gone to metalcore territory ala Trivium. Although I haven't listened to In Flames for several years, aside from their new album Foregone, I remember thinking Come Clarity was a solid album. Now let's see my opinion still stands....

Indeed, Come Clarity is a transitional album for In Flames. However, it still has a lot of the melodeath side of their sound, albeit in a more modern approach with metalcore elements. The alt-metal of their subsequent albums is more prominently used in a few tracks, both the mainstream and experimental ones.

Unleashing this modernized melodeath sound right out of the gate, "Take This Life" is the perfect kick-A way to start. Next up, "Leeches" has odd keyboard effects present, but I like the contrast between the heavy verses and melodic chorus. "Reflect the Storm" has that blend of melancholy and mainstream, particularly in the chorus that shows vocalist Anders Friden expanding his vocal abilities. Adding more to the experimentation is "Dead End" which features Lisa Miskovsky. When I first heard the start of that first verse, I almost thought it was a Paramore song. She sounds quite confident here, and the end result is a lovely duet. Although In Flames has done a few tracks with guest female singing before, that one might turn off some longtime fans. "Scream" brings back their earlier roots without much experimentation, though it's not that impressive.

The title track calms things down as an alt-metal power ballad. The fact that it's chosen as the album's title track foreshadows their later path. I actually loved that one during my time in The Gateway, but now I realize it's not as great as I thought it was. Another indicator of me not being suited for that clan. The braver and heavier "Vacuum" picks up the pace greatly. I can almost say the same about "Pacing Death's Trail". Next track "Crawl Through Knives" was originally meant to be this album's title track. I kinda wish it was though because it's the perfect diverse display of the band's transitional sound. I would recommend that track for anyone trying modern melodeath for the first time.

"Versus Terminus" is another example of trying too hard to sound like the band's earlier selves. "Our Infinite Struggle" makes up for that as a memorable highlight, heavy all the way while only cooling down for the great midsection. Sadly, we have "Vanishing Light" which is the worst track in their melodeath side, not doing anything interesting. "Your Bedtime Story Is Scaring Everyone" is one of the band's most experimental songs yet, sounding so haunting yet leaving me confused and wondering why it even exists.

All in all, Come Clarity is simultaneously In Flames' last melodeath album until Foregone and the first to show the mainstream diversity of their subsequent releases that would turn away longtime fans and bring in new ones. Having heard both of that band's eras before, I'm already used to what's been going on in this album and wouldn't totally put it down even at its weakest moments. I can understand the evolution. So although it can never beat the glory of their old-school melodeath offerings, Come Clarity is still pretty good for at least half of the album, and it's hard to deny its status as a major turning point for the band. It's clear as day....

Favorites: "Take This Life", "Reflect the Storm", "Dead End", "Vacuum", "Crawl Through Knives", "Our Infinite Struggle"

Most of our regulars would probably be aware that I've never been a fan of In Flames' most celebrated 1996-2000 period with albums like "The Jester Race", "Whoracle", "Colony" & "Clayman" doing very little for me. The Swedes' 2006 eighth full-length is a bit different to those records though & offers me just enough appeal to see it reaching a more acceptable rating. This isn't your standard melodic death metal release though. In fact, it's a little hard to argue that it's a death metal release at all, although they never fully pull away from their roots either.

With "Come Clarity" we see In Flames embracing the melodic metalcore sound that was making waves in the underground metal scene at the time & combining it with their signature melodeath riffage & alternative metal song-structures to create a more accessible record that aims to win a new fanbase over with more of a stadium sound. When they manage to nail that combination, it works really, really well, as evidenced by the classic alternative metal anthem that is the title track or the very solid melodic death metal burner "Vacuum". The vocal performance of Anders Fridén is worth mentioning as it never feels like a death growl, instead sitting closer to a psychotic metalcore scream during the more extreme sections while making a decent fist of the clean chorus melodies too. It's worth noting that there are just as many failures as there are wins here though but, thankfully, those wins are comprehensive enough to overcome the losses & leave me with a more positive feeling than I can recall having with In Flames' more unanimously praised albums. As with a lot of releases like this one though, a song's potential to capture the listener all comes down to the quality of the chorus melody & your experience will ultimately depend on whether you can connect with those enough to get onboard with "Come Clarity" or not. I've been surprised to find that I can these days so perhaps there's hope for me yet.

For fans of Soilwork, Darkest Hour & Trivium.

The sophomore album from the Belgium death doom outlet, Ethereal Darkness, comes with a smattering of high praise from those who have heard it. I found this a little surprising, considering I believed that the bands debut record, Smoke and Shadows, was a fairly pedestrian and overall uninteresting piece of death doom metal. So after almost seven years, Ethereal Darkness have put in some effort to make Echoes sound much more thoughtful. The music within is not cookie cutter and even attempts to branch out from its roots; I particularly liked the shaded black metal influence that appeared on songs like "The Cycle" or "On the Edge of the Cliff". The number of tracks has been considerably reduced from the debut, but have been replaced with extended runtimes. And on some level, these longer songs can work. The closer, and longest song on the album, "Realization", has a sense of wonder as it recounts all of the influences and styles that Ethereal Darkness took to get to this point. However, those points of reference aren't always the best. Those tracks that have that hint of black metal foundation are really the only high points on Echoes. The rest still sounds like run-of-the-mill death doom that I've heard and forgotten about many times. This is all coming off the back of the most recent Fires in the Distance album, Circadian Promise, that exceeded my expectations and then some. I mean, it is an improvement from the debut, but after seven years of smoldering and bubbling, the eruption should have been a lot more noteworthy.

Best Songs: The Cycle, On the Edge of the Cliff, IV

For Fans Of: Fires in the Distance, Sun of the Dying, Jord

Aron Shute may just be my new favourite black metal vocalist. His performances at times on The Transformation Room are deranged and demented which just so happens to be how I like my black metal orations to be decanted. He is also bassist and one of three vocalists in Koma, a sludge/doom band who are on my to do list also now. I stumbled across Crystal Coffin whilst researching inclusions for my The North clan playlist suggestions and I soon went all in on listening to the whole album. Whilst the conventional black metal tropes are more than evident, what appeals to me about CC’s sound is that there are also prog, ambient and electronic musings going on throughout the album. The band manage to incorporate these different elements without afflicting the listener with a sense of alienation from these perhaps unexpected inclusions.

Taking up the unusual or unexpected is not just limited to the music though, The Transformation Room takes the Holodomor that occurred in the Ukraine in the 1930’s (a man-made famine around the Soviet Union at the time that it is debated whether it was intentional or not, and was responsible for millions of deaths) as its theme, whilst exploring the relevance to personal suffering, pain and higher plains of existence. Despite its macabre subject matter, the album sounds like a thorough examination of this entire concept. It flows the earthiness and grounded nature of a reality of hell on earth into the transcendental possibilities of what lies beyond through those more eclectic musical choices well.

I am not a fan usually of instrumentals or passages in the middle of records but ‘The Inverted Burial of Taras’ is one of those ambient moments that provides some real respite before the band charges headlong into album highlight ‘I Emerge’ where Aron’s vocals really get to show their nefarious side. This an almost doom metal track. Where it not for the rasping vocals in fact, there would be little to stop you thinking this was a guest track. Lenkyn Ostapovich’s guitar and keyboards both get to really shine on this track and with drummer Rob Poirier also being in Koma, it should not perhaps be such a surprise of the doomier direction of this track. This horrendous event from 20th century eastern Europe is effectively portrayed in this melodic, harrowing and compelling concept album. If you like your black metal with a bit of variety, then this is most certainly worth a go.

Unexpected and completely unannounced, Myrath have landed in my world and made an almighty impact by way of this month’s Infinite feature release. On paper, there was a lot to alarm me with the tags of symphonic metal and progressive metal throwing up two of some of my least favoured sub-genres. However, the reality of the actual listening experience has proven far more empowering than I ever could have expected. Wilderness of Mirrors is catchy, hooky and as result incredibly memorable. The spontaneity that presented upon my first listen was just the catalyst to a consistently rewarding album that repeated listens through seem to only improve on that initial positive reception.

The symphonic elements are thankfully not huge orchestral movements, and nor are they washy keys that flood everything either. The Middle Eastern influences on show here are incorporated skilfully into varying tempos and rhythms. Accented vocals are not always done well (Orphaned Land come to mind here) but in the main the vocals here only add to the authenticity of the music. There is some clunkiness to them sometimes, like on the track ‘Until the End’ featuring Amaranthe’s Elize Ryd where there is the annoying extension of words to make them fit the music, or on the opening to ‘Les Enfants Du Soliel’ when the choral vocals get sung over by the band’s vocalist. Whilst they are isolated moments, they do linger on the mind for a while after.

Production wise, Wilderness of Mirrors is immaculately produced. It is to be expected though. Within a few minutes of album opener ‘The Funeral’ it becomes clear that anything less production values wise would be a travesty. This is an album that is wanting to soar from the off, taking little time to awaken that massive wingspan. I would have more stars for it if perhaps the record did not dip in quality towards the end. After my personal favourite track, ‘The Clown’ things do get a little samey for me. Even though the musicianship remains strong and exuberantly showy, there is a sense of the ideas tank starting to run on empty over the final four tracks. This has still been a revelation for my usually more extreme ear however and I must have played this album for around two weeks on a daily basis.

I've always been a fan of this compilation of Houston-based death metallers Imprecations' early works as the material is both extremely solid & highly consistent, despite the three releases it compiles offering drastically different production jobs. "Theurgia Goetia Summa" begins with the three-song "Promo 94" before moving into 1993's "Sigil of Baphomet" E.P. & ending with 1992's "Ceremony of the Nine Angles" demo tape. If pushed, I'd probably suggest that the 1994 promo is the most fully realised representation of the early Imprecation sound but all three are well worth hearing. It's the two demos that I regard as being essential listening though with the E.P. suffering a bit from a muddier sound & the raw intensity being slightly better represented on the cruder recordings. Imprecation's well-defined death metal style is reflected on all three releases with a combination of very fast blast beats, crushing doom riffs, cavernous vocals & subtle keyboard accompaniment working beautifully in the context of the global tape trading scene of the time. This release appears to have been custom built for all you filthy underground enthusiasts out there with Imprecation's blend of Incantation & diSEMBOWELMENT influences really hitting the spot for this ol' metalhead.

For fans of Infester, Blaspherian & Morpheus Descends.

Stephen O'Malley is a name that is written large over the history of drone metal. Making a name for himself with legendary extreme doom outfit, Burning Witch and short-lived death doom project Thorr's Hammer, he also formed Sunn O))) alongside long-time collaborator Greg Anderson. Khanate was formed in 2000 after O'Malley met avant-garde musician and member of O.L.D. James Plotkin at an Isis gig. Plotkin recruited O.L.D. bandmate Alan Dubin to perform vocals for the new project with the four-piece being completed by drummer Tim Wyskida.

Well, when you dive down this rabbit hole, you'd better not be expecting Wonderland because here be monsters. From the off Khanate set out their stall to be a genuinely disturbing listen, taking the blueprint of Burning Witch's psychotic doom metal and stretching it further with increased repetition, glacially slow tempos, seismic rumblings and squeals of feedback that act as the backdrop to the outpourings of Durbin's troubled and troubling vocal protagonist whose screeching screams worm their way into your brain and sit there eating away at your sanity. Instrumentally quiet and gentle sections where his vocals are mere creepy-sounding whispers, are akin to the murmured secret exhortations to violence I imagine schizophrenic killers hear from the imaginary voices in their heads. A couple of lines from "No Joy", for example, read "No joy precious joy no joy, Eat that smile right off a face, your face, No joy only only eat stuff that grin down, down your neck no more eat no more, Breathe breathe don’t breathe please don’t breathe". I mean, what the fuck? This truly is a trip to the dark side of the human psyche and a disconcerting listen that leaves you with the impression that you have been witness to the outpourings of a genuinely troubled mind, like the innumerable notebooks that Mills and Somerset find in the room of the psycho in Se7en. Sure, Khanate aren't the only band that deal in disturbing lyrical imagery, but here there is no release with a catchy riff or a shredding guitar solo, all there is is the grindingly slow, dissonant throb of bleak inevitability unrelieved by any kind of positivity or hope.

I hate real world violence and horror, but there is a deeply primal and subliminal part of the human mind that is attracted to darkness in art, hence the enduring popularity of horror movies and true crime series. Obviously, drone metal is very much a niche sub-genre in the wider metal world, certainly when it is as disquieting as Khanate, so it obviously isn't for everyone, especially the impatient listener, but if you have a penchant for the darker and more uncomfortable reaches of extreme metal then Khanate are absolutely a required listen.

Having taken many years to come around to the lurching sludge and ethereal post-metal of Neurosis, it is testimony to how far up in my esteem they have come that I bought An Undying Love for A Burning World as soon as the pre-order was on offer. Having struggled for years with Scott Kelly’s vocals, only to see that, having finally come to terms with them he was an abusive piece of shit, the change to Aaron Turner feels natural. Not that I would ever class any Neurosis album as necessarily a safe space, to see an important (yet intolerable) member replaced could have been quite a disruptive event overall, yet AULfABW sits right in that challenging atmospheric-sludge space as if the line up has been together, making records for years.

This tension and relief in their sound (as described on their Bandcamp page) has never been more obvious. Haunting dissonance and crushing heaviness seesaw throughout the album like the most familiar of bedfellows. There is a constant sense of fraught drama lurking in the wings of most tracks, but it is hard to say anything comes off as being undesirable in the end. Whilst always vocally adversarial, Neurosis still delivers their musings with such authenticity that is hard to not find resonance with them. It is stark music that rebels against every possible wrong of the world simultaneously, yet no threat is needed when such brevity is in use. This is expression on a human level, riding on a virulent strain of futility whilst being chased by the spectre of hope. As such you could be forgiven for finding this a bleak album. To my ears it rinses the beauty out of the most unobvious spaces, acknowledging that suffering and salvation perhaps come from the same base source and are inextricably entwined as a result. Both are in effect, natural outcomes.

Having a ten-year gap between releases has seemingly reinvigorated the group as they have managed to make a record that will not only rank highly in any lists I get around to making this year, but in the scheme of their discography, this is a triumphant continuation of their already well-established legacy. Notwithstanding that there are clearly some tough times captured on the record, AULfABW is not necessarily pessimistic to my ears. It is blunt and to the point yet gloriously expansive in its scope. Far from being a kaleidoscope of styles though, the album is no deviation away from what Neurosis fans have come to expect. Records with real depth such as this one should be celebrated.

I must confess that at the time, back in the 1980s I gave Metal Church a wide berth, for no other reason than their name made me think they were a glam metal band and so were taboo as far as I was concerned. OK, yeah I know, but I have always been a bit of a dickhead, so more fool me. Even to this day this debut is the only album of theirs I have given much attention to. I have heard its follow up "The Dark" but it didn't make much imprssion on me so the self-titled remains my only real touchstone with the San Franciscan metallers. In addition to this I was never a very big fan of power metal, but since joining Metal Academy I have become converted to the joys of the US version which is less bombastic than its european counterpart and is much more to my liking.

"Metal Church" whilst often being touted as speed metal, or even thrash, is neither of those but rather a good example of USPM. Undoubtedly, when they put their feet on the gas, it is certainly pretty close to speed metal, the instrumental "Merciless Onslaught" for example, but overall the tempos are more varied and there is a bit more to it than the average Exciter album. The title track, (my personal favourite) whilst having a relentless riff, isn't an all-out blur of speed, but is a much more deliberate and considered medium-paced affair, meanwhile "Gods of Wrath" even has a balladic verse structure alongside a classic-sounding NWOBHM riff for the chorus.

Having formed in 1980, the band had been churning out demos prior to Metal Church and that experience served them well because I think they sound like a pretty tightly-knit unit here. Whilst the twin guitars of Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells are undoubtedly the star attraction, I think drummer Kirk Harrington deserves special mention for his performance which is pretty damn impressive and does a lot more than just keep time with his relentless and intricate drum patterns. Vocalist David Wayne has a tendency to become a bit screechy, but never to the point of annoyance, and he does inject some character with his voice. As I said earlier, though, it is those twin guitars that really dominate "Metal Church". Whether it is the charging of the rampaging riffs or the frantic shredding of the electrifying solos Vanderhoof and Wells impress with their energy and skill.

These were pretty exciting times to be a metalhead as the new wave of acts sweeping the metal world were stripping away the final vestiges of hard rock from their sound, pushing each other to be faster and more evil-sounding and with this debut Metal Church can hold their heads high with their contribution to the movement. In all honesty, though, I would have been perfectly happy without the "Highway Star" cover which feels like an unnecessary nod to the increasingly irrelevant old guard. By the way, is it just me, or is the title track a candidate for the "Influence or Coincidence, Inspiration or Plagiarism" thread because it sounds to me like Dave Mustaine ripped it off for the chorus of "Architecture of Aggression". It isn't like he was unaware of this album surely, they are contemporaries from the Bay Area and must have crossed paths in the 80s.

Fires in the Distance is an American band from Connecticut that has joined in with October Tide and Hinayana to bring forth melodic death-doom in the past 10 years. They've released 3 albums, the third of which marked the entrance of a new vocalist. This is their new album Circadian Promise!

Their new vocalist Brendan Hayter gives the bleak instrumentation great flavor and holds everything in place. Although the music, especially the guitars, sounds dark and heavy, it actually sounds brighter than other bands of the genre, and suprisingly it fits so nicely. Many of the different moments here sound so grand, whether the vocals are clean or harsh. And the piano and guitars stand out amongst the rest of the melodic death-doom scene.

Opener "Of Radiance and Levitation" sounds so crystal clear in the music. Guitar harmonies and deathly vocals guide you through this dark waltz. It's a true bridge between the melodeath of Dark Tranquillity/early In Flames and the doom-gloom of My Dying Bride/early Katatonia. The soft dreamy guitar/keyboard bridge passes by without ever being forgotten. Beautiful! "To You, Author of My Fade" takes a break from the slowness for some speed to add to the guitar/keyboard atmosphere. Those drums and riffs hit hard, and of course we have those searing screams and sweet cleans. So excellent!

Another track worth hearing is "Lightless Days of a Songless Bird". Even the title sounds so poetic! I love the chorus, though I wish the clean singing could've accompanied it. Also sounding great is the 5-minute "By This Time Tomorrow". The buildup and soloing are way too majestic to miss out on.

"Once the Silence Takes Your Place" has more of that slow power. Everything sounds so straight throughout these 9 minutes, still sounding dark and tight in the music and vocals. Later on in the track is some wild screaming that leads to amazing soloing and more of that clean singing. I would say this would make an amazing ending, but then comes the epilogue... "Agonal Dreaming" unleashes melancholic melody and rhythm from the keys, guitar, bass, and drums. And that's how to end this album smoothly.

I can easily say that Circadian Promise has reminded me about what's so great about a dark depressive style like melodic death-doom. I can enjoy this album more as listening progresses. This shall strike hard and keep you on the edge of your seat for their next album in the future, and that's a promise!

Favorites: "To You, Author of My Fade", "By This Time Tomorrow", "Once the Silence Takes Your Place"

When I heard about the new Fires in the Distance album, I immediately shot it to the top of my most anticipated albums list. The bands sophomore album, Air Not Meant For Us came as a total surprise as it beautifully worked its way around a faulty production for some of the coolest new death doom I've heard this side of the 2020's with its triple counterpoint of vocals, guitar and piano. I was very excited to see how this band would develop their sound further.

Initial impressions weren't the best, but continued listens helped Circadian Promise skyrocket up the 2026 rankings as one of the best albums of the year. My main concern was the piano, which instead of being played plainly, has been given a drowning filter, taking away some of its melodic dominance. Upon repeated listens, I could quickly tell that this stylistic change was for the better, as the main vocal work has become even more diverse than ever before. The new vocals of Brendan Hayter adds a new, more explicit, gothic texture to an already very dark album. Meanwhile the percussion has gotten a massive glow up and the added strings give the album some well deserved drama.

The songwriting has taken some significant steps forward. I remember that Air Not Meant For Us certainly had its epic moments, but Circadian Promise takes that and puts it on overdrive for almost the whole record. I love the song structure of this album, even if it can get a little tiring after a while. Thankfully, Fires in the Distance are fully aware of this which is why songs don't lazily stay in one place for too long. The bass is noticeable and carries the album forward through its different endeavours. The percussion plays a huge role as well and the occasional spurts of blast beats or drum fills give the whole song a feeling of growth. Take a look at the closing track "Agonal Dreaming". Even though I don't like how Fires in the Distance end the track with a return to a slower groove, the first two-thirds of the song shows an amazing display of maturity and restraint and not allowing the climax moment to take over. 

All in all, this was a most welcome surprise in a year that has been hurting for good music. Fires in the Distance found a balance of epic doom and gothic metal that is also extremely tuneful and heavy. 

Best Songs: Of Radiance and Levitation, Lightless Days of a Songless Bird, By This Time Tomorrow, Once the Silence Takes Your Place

For Fans Of: Swallow the Sun, Dark Tranquility, Insomnium

Love is Not Enough marked an excellent comeback for these Massachusetts metalcore masters earlier this year, but what we didn't know was, they already made another album besides that one! Hum of Hurt, released just 4 months later, shows that their flame of creativity has not been extinguished.

This album is more of a companion to the previous album instead of just B-sides. Basically like some of The Ocean's pairs of albums. Love is Not Enough is more of an aggressive throwback to their roots, while Hum of Hurt adds in the diversified sonic fury they've had since Jane Doe. Considering how this was released 25 years after their magnum opus, it's practically coming full circle!

Similarly to how the new August Burns Red album opens, "Slip the Noose" launches into a brief storm of rage. It's like this album's "Concubine"! Then "Doom in Bloom" slows things down, sounding crushing and unforgiving. Now, "It Only Gets Worse"? More like it only gets better! It's just pure chaos just like in the earlier breakthrough years.

Striking me further is "Detonator" and the edge it has in the riffing of Kurt Ballou and the vocals of Jacob Bannon. Such an intense song! Maybe not even a song, but rather a war speech set to metalcore, and that's what I like about it. You may recognize this next track "I Won't Let You Go" from Cyberpunk 2077, with the band credited as Shattered Void. The lyrics of perseverance sound right in both that game's soundtrack and this album. "It’s Not Up To Us" delivers a more minimalistic approach. At least in the ethereal parts in which Bannon yells out to the heavens before more of that chaotic hellfire. Those vocals are more unpredictable, especially during the outro of pain and no hope.

The centerpiece of the album is the 6-minute epic "Dream Debris". Right from the tribal march of drummer Ben Koller and the rumbling of bassist Nate Newton, comes a spectacular slow buildup to a massive headbanging groove. Converge still have their later atmospheric side to go with their earlier math/metalcore, as that majestic gem has proven. As with the previous album's interlude, "It Used to Matter" breaks things up with melancholic strumming to get you ready for the remaining two tracks. The title track has the theme of looking back at regretful decisions made in the past. The 5-minute ending track "Nothing is Over" strikes with the last of this offering's aggression. Nothing dreamy, just triumph and chaos as you would expect from this band.

Hum of Hurt is the counterpart to Love is Not Enough that we never knew about until its announcement. It shows the band's later more adventurous side without losing any of the heavy chaos that mostly shines in the other album. They're both different yet meant to be heard back-to-back. Altogether, the band still have the strength they've had in most of their career. May that strength never wither!

Favorites: "It Only Gets Worse", "Detonator", "It’s Not Up To Us", "Dream Debris", "Nothing is Over"

Just one day before what can be described as the Day of the Beast (6/6/2026), two of my favorite metalcore bands have each released a new album. Those two bands being August Burns Red and Converge! Unlike Converge, August Burns Red doesn't seem to have any plan of releasing one album this year and surprising us with another one later this year. They've taken their time...

August Burns Red is already over two decades deep into their career, and they've already just dropped their 11th album. Close to one album every two years! If only Trivium could've continued that pace... Despite the album being titled Season of Surrender, August Burns Red will never surrender. Not when they have some heaviness to unleash.

Already at a punishing start is the opening track "Legion", getting straight to the point with Jake Luhrs' vocal fury. The progressiveness of their previous album Death Below hasn't been left behind as there are still some tempo changes. The guest appearances aspect hasn't been taken out either, and the first of this album's guests, Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada screams out a brief verse. Although there's some occasional melody, it's all just killer chaos. And there's more of that in "The Nameless" with the heavier metalcore roots to make me happy from the rage. Luhrs bellowing "DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGERS!!!" makes it clear that they're throwing back to the era of that album. "Behemoth" has even greater rage. An absolutely perfect return to their sound from 20 years ago, and then some. We have an Architects-style "BLEGH" 30 seconds in, plus a heavy breakdown a minute later followed by an even more crushing one shortly after. This band really should get more credit for enhancing metalcore, both now and long ago. "Den of Thieves" is more nostalgic in the Gothenburg-infused guitarwork. The guitar soloing shows how much of a hero guitarist JB Brubaker is.

He continues to shred in "Sonic Salvation" with some oriental vibes. Polaris vocalist Jamie Hails unleashes his screams, even duetting with Luhrs. The lyric "I NEED AN OUTLET FOR MY ANGER!!!" couldn't have been any more fitting for both vocalists' raging output. When Hails does his cleans, they're some of the only parts of the album having clean singing. Despite ending so quickly after all that blasting, it's perhaps one of the metalcore tracks of the year! The one other track with clean vocals, "Cerebral Malfunction" features the two Make Them Suffer vocalists; Sean Harmanis and Alex Reade. The recent atmosphere and earlier aggression are in great contrast. The ethereal singing by Reade and the guitar shredding by Brubaker are the closest the band has gone to power metal. Such a distinct standout! The guitar/synth interlude "Tears of the Cloud" follows. It segues to the heavy yet melodic "Whispers Like Splinters". They simultaneously have more heaviness and melody than before, and that breakdown slays.

Heading further back into their roots is "S.O.S." Same with the ironically titled "New Horizons", which sounds like a B-side from one of their earlier albums. As much as I enjoy those previous two tracks, there should've been something new to add to the album's second half. That's where the 7-minute closing track "Forged by Failure" comes in. Heavy groove alternating with soft atmosphere gives the structure more variety, sounding a bit like Parkway Drive. A massive epic just like that of their previous two albums!

August Burns Red's new album has cranked up the metalcore hard. Everything's in great balance between the old and the new, pleasing fans old and new. With the band just firing away with their breakneck music, they won't stop their studio creativity and live energy any time soon. Keep the flame burning!

Favorites: "The Nameless", "Behemoth", "Sonic Salvation", "Cerebral Malfunction", "Whispers Like Splinters", "Forged by Failure"

These occasional dips back into the heavy metal/traditional metal world seem to be a little easier on the ear than I have come to expect them to be, certainly over the past couple of months or so anyways. Another female-fronted outfit in the form of Tower follow hot on the heels of last months Serpent Rider feature release and they manage to land a bit more successfully it must be said. The spontaneity of Let There Be Dark is hard to not fall for. I recall the debut from this band back in 2021 and how it caused a minor ruckus amongst my online metal peers who celebrated it alongside many a favourable review also. I don’t recall anything particularly standout from the debut record and as such I have viewed Let There Be Dark on its own merits as a standalone record.

Tower give a good acquittal of themselves here, building a consistent and strong track listing that burns with the energy of Chastain without quite crossing into the speedier side of Sölicitör, but also espousing a health nod in the direction of Warlock along the way. The inclusion of two instrumentals feels a dubious choice in an otherwise well-constructed album, but when they focus their efforts into actual songs, Tower are at their very best I would say. Whilst the album may lack any genuinely stunning performances beyond the vocals of Sarabeth Linden, everything is played with competence with the caveat that some aspects (the drums) are a little staid overall.

It is hard for me to get too excited over such a regurgitated sound though. No matter how solidly it is played, this is nothing new to my ears and nostalgia alone is not enough to keep my scores higher than the mid-point for Let There Be Dark. Despite the unnecessary instrumentals, the album is succinct enough however, coming in at just under forty-minutes seems a sensible length to avoid boredom settling in for me and at no point do I scrabble for the skip button. For some, this record will be flying the heavy metal flag high, and I don’t dismiss that purpose. However, it is not one that I am as invested in as I was a few years ago and so it does sound to me like just another heavy metal record.

Ah, Motörhead. I can't tell you how heavily obsessed with this band I was in my secondary school days in the latter part of the 1970s. Lemmy, Eddie and Philthy were the absolute fucking peak of musical rebellion for me back then. Punks thought they were rebelling, but they were just glorified clothes horses. Nah, bikes, booze and speed as preached by this unholy threesome were where rejection of the system and true freedom really lay. Motörhead shows were special, they had a hardcore of fans who always showed up, particularly from the biker community and were a celebration for those who rejected and lived outside of the system. The band had been steadily growing their popularity with each release, but then, all of a sudden in '79 / '80, rock and metal became popular here in the UK and all manner of "normies" started taking notice. Pivotal in that metal explosion here was "Ace of Spades". It became popular here on a level that was unprecedented for UK metal bands (even Sabbath didn't really hit this level of popularity in the general populace). Shit, the 'Head were even there on Thursday night on Top of the Pops for fuck's sake. I was a naive kid and some part of my kid's mind felt betrayed by this sudden "sell out". Of course this was a great album, but my admiration of it was a bit grudging because, much as I loved it, I resented having to share something that had been so personal to me with all these newbies who had no history with the band. Stupid and naive, but my immature mind knew no better. Rather than revelling in the fact that my love of the band had been vindicated by so many others now discovering them, my connection now felt diluted.

So now, as an only marginally more mature-minded old man, what's my take on "Ace of Spades"? Well, I don't think its influence on the future of metal can be understated. Its influence on bands such as Venom is evident and therefore, by extension, on the whole extreme metal scene. It was certainly Motörhead's most truly metal album up to this point and is a long way from the material you would find on their earliest recordings such as the heavy rock 'n'roll of "On Parole". It is also one of the band's most consistent records with few real dips in quality, unlike a lot of their albums which always frustratingly seemed to have at least one "bum" track, think "Vibrator", Step Down" or "I'll Be Your Sister".

The tempo established by the iconic opening title track is maintained pretty consistently throughout the album with tracks like "Fire Fire", "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" while they shake it up with some variety of pacing as supplied by tracks like "Shoot To Win" and the brooding "Chase Is Better Than the Catch". And over all this booms Lemmy's unmistakeable, thundering basslines whilst Philthy lays into all around him like the "Animal" for which he is named, the duo combining into one of the most devastating and charismatic heavy metal rhythm sections of all times. From what I understand Eddie Clarke was already at this point becoming a little disillusioned with playing second fiddle to Lemmy, yet he was such a consummate professional that you would never guess it as this is probably his all-time best work and his riffs and solos are vibrant and energetic, playing the lightning to Lemmy and Phil's booming thunder. Sure, I will concede, sometimes Lemmy's less-than-serious lyrics can cause the odd grimace, but I think he wrote them with tongue firmly in cheek most of the time.

I don't know if they ever suspected that the title track would become the iconic track it did. I mean it is up there with songs like "Paranoid" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in terms of tracks that are so well known people actually become tired of hearing them over time. Whether they did or not, it is one of the best known British metal tracks ever. Hell, even my Elvis-loving mum could be caught singing it occasionally. To be fair she did once sweet-talk a bouncer into letting her in for the last half hour of one of the band's shows at our local fleapit when she came to pick me up. It blew her mind and she always loved Lemmy after that! I digress, but the material on "Ace of Spades" is so strong that even with such a titanic track opening the record, the remainder doesn't feel even remotely disappointing and a couple such as "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" are even better for my money. Ultimately the top and bottom of it is that this is one of the iconic albums of the UK metal scene alongside "Paranoid" and "Number of the Beast" and no matter what I or anyone else says that ain't changing any time soon.

On a more sombre note, I always use metal-archives as the resource for factual information about the albums I am reviewing and, rather poignantly, I thought, the full lineup page for "Ace of Spades" which includes producer Vic Maile, engineer Trevor Hallesey and even photographer Alan Ballard has R.I.P. next to each name. Fuckin' sad man.

Sydney thrash metallers Mortal Sin hold a very strong place in my heart, despite never really quite living up to their reputation in my opinion. You see, they were the first local extreme metal band to cross my path when I first became obsessed with the scene in the late 1980's & they gave me the belief that I should try my hand at creating a band of my own. My attention was initially grabbed by their highly regarded "Mayhemic Destruction" debut album which led to me moving onto their 1989 sophomore record "Face of Despair". If I'm being completely honest though, neither of those full-lengths has ever left me convinced that Mortal Sin are worthy of being placed in the top tier of the global thrash heavyweights. In fact, I can't say that I'd even lump them in with the second tier either. To my ears, they're both serviceable & mildly entertaining but rarely get my blood pumping & it's for that reason that I've awarded both a middling 3.5-star rating here at the Academy. Their live shows where another story though & I had an absolute ball in many a Mortal Sin mosh pit over the years. However, I digress because the point I was trying to make is that Mortal Sin were well & truly on my radar when their third full-length "Every Dog Has It's Day" hit the shelves in 1991 which even led to me purchasing the "Every Dog Has It's Day" cassingle in the leadup to the album release. Now prepare yourselves for a hot take because you're about the receive one.

The story behind "Every Dog Has It's Day" (otherwise known as "Rebellious Youth" if you've picked up the Virgin Records release) is that a fair amount of internal turmoil occurred within Mortal Sin's ranks following the release of "Face of Despair" which eventually resulted in the band breaking up altogether. Bassist Andy Eftichiou wasn't satisfied to simply let old dogs lie though, going behind the backs of the other band members to create a completely new version of Mortal Sin. Once the other band members found out about it, they took legal action & it got really messy. The new lineup didn't hang around too long but it did last long enough to record this third full-length which would be the first to be released while I was keeping tabs on the band. Sadly, the majority of the global metal scene gave "Every Dog Has It's Day" a pretty harsh panning at the time & that hasn't improved since but I have to admit that I don't remember the album that way at all & I've recently wondered whether that's due to nostalgia or whether Mortal Sin's diehard fanbase had simply not given the record a chance. This week I decided to find out as it's been decades since I last heard the record in full.

The lineup that recorded "Every Dog Has It's Day" isn't exactly star-studded with a number of relatively unknown new members filling key rolls. In fact, guitarist Dave DeFrancesco was the only one that had anything of significance on their resume, having appeared on the pretty decent "Into Reality" demo tape from local speed/heavy metal outfit Enticer a couple of years earlier. The band perform their roles admirably nonetheless & show themselves to have some pretty reasonable chops in the process. The major talking point though is generally the vocal ability of new front man Steve Sly whose delivery is noticeably more melodic & clean than the James Hetfield-ish voice of Mat Maurer on the two 1980's records. A lot of people claim that Sly ruins "Every Dog Has It's Day" but I simply can't prescribe to that line of thinking as he can certainly sing & delivers a performance that isn't all that uncommon for thrash metal in my opinion. Sure, you may prefer Maurer over Sly but, if you treat the album on its own merits, I think you'll find that there's not anything technically wrong with Sly's voice. The other main talking point is the theory that the new version of Mortal Sin had watered down the intensity of the 1980's lineup with a more accessible & commercialized sound. Once again though, I never really thought of Mortal Sin as being anything all that extreme & the material we receive here is some more than serviceable mid-tempo thrash metal that wouldn't sound all that out of place on a Testament or Xentrix record from the time. The average tempos are a touch slower than previous efforts but so fucking what really. The misguided ballad "Wasted Days" is the exemption to the rule though & is the clear weak point of the album.

But is the songwriting as boring as it's made out to be then? Well, in a word "no", it's simply not. There are plenty of great riffs included with the rhythm section doing a great job at maximizing their weight. Perhaps the Studio 301/Powerhouse production isn't as warm & heavy as a record like "Mayhemic Destruction" but it's certainly not bad. I'm quite a fan of the lead guitar work which is more than capable & it works nicely to provide support for the hooks which, contrary to popular opinion, are memorable enough for me to remember most of this material several decades later. Opener "Inside Out" is a beauty & is my favourite cut on the record while being ably supported by "Side Effect" & single B-side "See No Evil". I honestly don't see the quality being all that different from that of "Mayhemic Destriction" or "Face of Despair" if I'm being perfectly honest & are even going to go so far as to say that I marginally prefer "Every Dog Has It's Day" to "Face of Despair" these days. So look, I'm not asking that you all take my word for it & immediately realign your opinions on this album to be in line with my own but I am going to suggest that you ignore the general perception that's voiced online when going into the record as you might be surprised by the outcome.

For fans of Metallica, Xentrix & Testament.

I'm not going to get into the divisive nature of King Diamond's vocals here, I am sure I have addressed that issue elsewhere. Let's just accept for now that I actually do enjoy his idiosyncrasies and move on. The simple fact was, and remains, that Mercyful Fate wrote some absolute killer metal tracks. They gave Iron Maiden and Judas Priest-like melodic riffs a more evil bent with overtly occult lyrics, although still firmly in the literary or cinematic realm rather than the Anton LaVey serious satanism of later black metal bands. This, coupled with KD's histrionic vocals and early version of corpsepaint gave the impression that the Danes were pushing the envelope of sheer metalness ever further. MF were undoubtedly a major influence on the early exponents of extreme metal and the metal landscape may have ended up sounding quite a bit different without them.

I absolutely love the band's debut album, "Melissa" and it has several of not only my favourite Mercyful Fate tracks, but favourites of traditional heavy metal as a whole. Songs like "Evil", "Into the Coven" and "Satan's Fall" have riffs with the ability to get my head nodding and feet tapping whilst King Diamond's vocal hystrionics simultaneously set the hairs on the back of my neck on end. I think it is more than fair to say that there hadn't been anything quite like Mercyful Fate before. The band had a big task on their hands, then, to follow such an impactful record with one of similar quality that would cement their legacy as metal frontrunners. Ten months later they dropped "Don't Break the Oath" onto an expectant public and the rest, as they say, is history.

I think the first thing that hit me about "Don't Break the Oath" is that KD seems to have dialled back the vocal excesses and delivers a more controlled performance behind the mic. That doesn't mean that he took a conventional approach to his singing duties by any means and if you didn't like his vocals on the debut, then this is unlikely to change your mind as he still hits those theatrical falsettos fairly regularly, just not in as over-the-top a manner as on "Melissa". What about the riffs then? Well, DBtO is as jam-packed with riffs as a Snickers bar is with peanuts and every one registers pretty fucking high on Sonny's patented head-bangability scale. These riffs will be bouncing around your brain long after the record has ended, probably getting you very strange looks should you be using public transport at the time. On top of this Shermann and Denner's guitar work is exemplary with an energy and vitality that sounds genuinely thrilling whenever they let rip with those dynamic solos. The songwriting here also sounds more mature than on the debut, the tracks resolving themselves with a little more complexity than before. This ain't prog though and the memorable hooks are still there in vast numbers, they are just not the be all and end all on this album.

This is certainly a worthy follow-up to "Melissa" and is arguably a better record, even though the hooks on the debut are incredible, but there feels to be a bit more meat on the bones here which, when coupled with King's more restrained performance add up to one of the best traditional heavy metal records of the 1980s.

Riot kind of passed me by at the time, never penetrating my 1980s musical bubble and, frankly, this doesn't possess the energy or aggression that is likely to to draw much of my attention all these many decades later. To me this sounds like a product of its time with way too much hard rock catchiness for my comfort. I mean, come on, "Feel the Same" and "Don't Bring Me Down" are Aerosmith tracks surely. This feels like AOR metal to me, written with US FM radio play in mind and not to provide any aggression or adrenaline as that may negatively affect record sales. Basically this is SAFE and safe is not a word I want attached to my metal listening thank you very much. I guess you want a bit more from me but, frankly, I don't want to waste too much time on this because listening to it is like staring at a blank wall for thirty-seven minutes. It gives me nothing and I shall return that with nothing of my own. If this is what was passing for metal in the US back in the early 80s prior to the thrash boom then I can understand why Def Leppard became so big over there (and you were welcome to them).  I guess "Swords and Tequila" is kinda fun and "Run for Your Life" is passable, but the rest is anodyne and meaningless to me. 

I have only listened to a handful of albums from Running Wild, from various points in their career and with mixed results. Of those I have heard, for me, this stands head and shoulders over the rest. Their later "pirate metal" schtick doesn't really track and feels a bit too goofy to take seriously, whereas "Gates to Purgatory's" speed metal influenced, occult-themed trad metal is much more to my taste. They appear to have been initially influenced by the early-80s metal coming out of the UK, particularly Venom who, considering their influence here and on the likes of Sodom and Kreator, must have been huge in Germany around this time. They sound more technically adept and tighter than the Geordie trio for sure, but the influence is definitely there. Another obvious touchpoint for me is Tank with Rock 'n' Rolf's vocals sitting very firmly in the same ballpark as Algy Ward. However, with their more melodic sensibilities, twin guitar attack and proficient soloing, the additional influence of english heavyweights Iron Maiden and Judas Priest can't be understated either. In fact I suspect they are named for the Priest song of the same name from "Killing Machine" which seems to be exactly the kind of track that this album's foundations are built upon. For me this dichotomy makes for a nice balance that lends the hooky riffs and proficient guitar work a suitably raw edge that pushes it into the more aggressive regions of the speed metal world and away from the pomposity of power metal.

It isn't all headlong speed metal charging, though, with the pounding and hulking "Preacher" having more of a doomy riff and slower tempo, putting the brakes on and allowing a pause for breath after the opening dual salvo of "Victim of States Power" and "Black Demon" before diving right back into the even more adrenaline-fuelled headrush provided by "Soldiers of Hell" and "Diabolic Force". Meanwhile "Genghis Khan" does sound awfully Maiden-esque and I may be imagining it, but it feels a lot like the spiritual successor to the identically-titled instrumental from the Irons' "Killers" album. It is, however, one of the album's weaker tracks, sounding a little bit messy at times. I'm not convinced by the closer, "Prisoner of Our Time" either. I like the anthemic chorus and the soloing, but the verses just feel a bit flat in comparison.

So how does it stack up then? You know what, I am actually a bit pissed off that I never got wind of this album at the time of its release because tracks like "Diabolic Force" and "Adrian S.O.S." were exactly the kind of burnt rubber, fuel-injected riots that a bike-crazy, speed junkie like I was back then would have absolutely drooled over. A couple of misfires aside I really like this and I would certainly take it over the band's later stuff. Maybe I would be a bit more disparaging of it if I had a history with the band, but I don't so I unashamedly give this a thumbs up.