Vinny's Reviews

It is no secret by now that I have a lot ( i mean a fucking lot) of time for Ulcerate.  I have been listening to metal for over 30 years now and I am sadly at a time now were very little excites me in the way of new releases.  I have over-indulged in the past, trying to consume as many new releases as possible in a given year and just ended up stuffed with underwhelming music that makes no impact on what little hunger of mine still remains for the pursuit of new releases.  If I look at the music library of today and compare it with the music library of 30 years ago it is clear that I had a lot less back then, relying on a family member's collection to get me going on my metal journey and saving what little money I had to buy music of my own every few months or so.  Back then buying a record, CD or cassette made me feel excited, awash with the hope that I was about to be treated to several tracks of metal mayhem that would keep me entertained for months to come.  I long for that feeling again more than I acknowledge but what is clear to me is that there are only a handful of bands whose pending releases can make me feel that passion for metal rekindle again.  Ulcerate sit in the top two of such bands (Gorguts lead).

To say I am astonished by the continued development of the New Zealand death metallers is an understatement.  They have consistently put together intricate and involuted music for virtually their entire recorded careers.  Their music is now in such a hybrid state that it is equal parts monstrous as it is complex; impenetrable and labyrinthine beyond any puzzle the mind could fathom yet still conveying enough atmosphere and emotion to speak volumes to me.  The past two releases that precede Stare Into Death And Be Still have been nothing short of superb, with both Vermis and Shrines of Paralysis sounding as fresh and challenging today as they did when I first purchased them.

Putting into words the success of their latest offering is difficult, since depsite multiple listens to it there is still so very much that I am learning about this serpentine coil of explosive and expansive death metal.  It is however an obvious success in terms of it following the aforementioned two albums and it still displays so many trademarks of the band whilst also pushing their sound forwards and in more exploratory directions.  What is massively obvious here in 2020 is that Ulcerate have found the perfect means to apply rich and voluptuous melody to their sound without sacrificing any of their trademark ferociousness and clinical pursuit of swarming and menacing music.  The ariouse nature of some of the music on display across the eight tracks available here border on being dulcet.  They pinch like the disscordance of a Blut Aus Nord yet give a warmth akin to some of the more ethereal elements of Drudkh.  The placement of melody in this huge wall of noise that the threesome generate is in itself a massive achievement.  Musically the album feels like it is shifting like tectonic plates, giving the rumble of impending doom yet when fissures crack they spew canorous jets of calming and emotion enducing moments that temper the overall threat of the album beautifully.

This isn't technical for technical's sake.  It doesn't feel obtuse or showy at any point it just simply smells of well written and well thought out songs that encompass an array of ideas that are arranged to deliver optimal impact.  Quite where it leaves Ulcerate as a musical force is frightening because surey at some point they are going to hit a wall after nearly ten years of flawless music?  I don't have any criticism of the album, which is rare for my grumpy old ass.  The only fear that I have is this unwillingness to consider that I will ever stop being excited as I was as a teenager about the release of any future Ulcerate material, and I hope that they continue with their God like powers for years to come.

For a period I worked with a guy who put me onto Slipknot.  He was quite into nu-metal and was the only other metalhead at the place were I worked at the time.  Although I was never completely enamoured with much of the nu-metal scene that he talked to me about, I did develop a soft spot for Iowa during the early noughties.  Recently, I stumbled across the album again and found myself wondering if it rang true of having any appeal some twenty years after I first heard it.

It isn't bad per-se. However it is not something I find I can take entirely seriously, which might be the point (I am unsure exactly how seriously Slipknot take themselves).  Lyrically it is very juvenile and angsty, which makes absolute sense of course given the target audience and sub-genre of metal we are dealing with.  In terms of being on point lyrically you could probably award the album five stars based it on it reaching the interested demographic.

Musically it fairs better than I expected.  There's more than just nu-metal here with elements of death metal and groove metal making their presence felt throughout the abum.  The hi-octane delivery suits the variety of the influences well and maintains a real sense of energy and momentum throughout the record.  The riffs are infectious and groovy and do get my old assed head bobbing along on more than one occasion.  I am not a fan of clean vocals alongside guttural growls or more throaty rasps like we have throughout the record though and for the majority of the record the vocals act as a distraction unfortunately from the parts of the music I enjoy.

I won't be revisiting this again I suspect but I think that is more a me thing as opposed to anything the band did wrong on the release.  I might not be in love with it but there are a few things on here that do grab my attention and deserve recognition and acknowledgement even if the whole package doesn't entirely float my boat.

Seven years of recorded output into their shocking and graphic career, W.A.S.P. started to show some signs of mellowing.  The energy levels would be the same on their fourth album but here for the first time was evidence of the band coming of age.  Songs had a little more structure and the offering overall felt a little less "in your face" this time around.  Thankfully none of this was at the expense of the unadulterated entertainment value that tracks from the group always brought; the band seeking to maintain the memorability factor despite the advances in song writing so obviously apparent.

By the end of 1989 Blackie Lawless would disband W.A.S.P. for the first time (the other occurrence being some four years later) and had they gone out on this record then it would certainly have been a high note for the time.  Here was the upward swing in terms of improvement of Lawless' penchant for characterisation in his song writing.  Credited for writing seven of the tracks here, Blackie introduced fans to the likes of Neutron Ronnie and Maneater as well as the stereotypical Mean "Motherfucking" Man.  As with earlier outings these were all nefarious and vivacious characters that exuded a nonchalant and frisky lifestyle that most fans longed for.  The difference this time around was that things just felt a little more focused in terms of social awareness; a tad more grown up, missing some of the "ha, take that Grandma!" attitude of the first three albums.

The randomness of The Who cover at track two is perplexing though as is the pointless "Mephisto Waltz" that precedes the EP release "Forever Free" .  This instrumental piece really grates and just feels like filler from the first listen.  Like wise the aforementioned ballad is highly overrated despite being well placed in the album to maintain interest late on in the track listing.  That having been said the big tracks more than make up for these slack moments with "Mean Man", "Rebel in the FDG" and the title track all making loud and positive noises over the course of the ten tracks.

A definite step up from the first three albums and the start of a more mature and reflective style of song writing, The Headless Children smelled of a band going places and showing some real promise.  A promise realised in full three years later with The Crimson Idol.  Although this album doesn't stand up well in comparison with the follow up in terms of pound for pound stature, it still remains an important release in the progression of  band who had already left a virulent and obtuse mark on the world of metal and were now looking for a different spin to progress with.

If I have a metaphorical draw in the music filing cabinet in my brain, there is most definitely a folder in their (probably in the bottom draw, or at the very back of the one of above it) marked “Overrated Metal Everyone Loves Bar Me”. Notwithstanding that some of the entries in that folder are down to my own stupidity and ignorance for not listening to albums fully or when in the right mood/not giving them proper attention etc.

Savatage occupy some space in that folder and are probably one of the more undeserving dwellers in there given that my problem is purely with the lyrically naivety of the album. The instrumentation is in the main fine, with Criss Oliva doing a sterling job throughout Hall of the Mountain King. Wacholz drums are all but lost in the mix for the most part I find and the thunk of Middleton’s bass is like an occasional throb you pick up on occasion in each track. As I allude to above though, my main beef is with Oliva senior’s vocals.

I get the intent. Sound menacing and theatrical as much as possible and play your riffs with the same sense of threat to emphasise the danger. Unfortunately, only the latter part of the equation works. Jon’s vocals are just grating and over the top to the point of distraction. At times the lyrical quality is terrible also. I quote from Beyond The Doors of Dark:

“Beyond the doors of the dark

Demon in your heart

Scream and thrash your head

Turn around, now you're dead”

Really, rhyming head with dead was the best they could come up with (I accept that Criss Oliva could well have been involved here as well, so I am not entirely blaming Jon)? For a band four records into their career by this point I just expect better. Albeit that Hall of the Mountain King was arguably the high point of their career it doesn’t bode well that we get Prelude to Madness on here that sees Criss emulate Grieg in a total show off instrumental after just four tracks, its only success being how well it sets up the title track that immediately follows it.

Even though I am bitterly disappointed by this record, Criss Oliva keeps the stars at three for this rating exercise as he is the outstanding talent in the band and truly shines across the album with fantastic lead work and sharp riffing (which does lose some edge to the keys often present alongside them). Constantly though he is let down by his brother. What the fuck is Jon doing just before the solo in the title track? He sounds like a mute child in an emotional frenzy and totally removes any serious edge to the track.

It is genuinely like Jon knew he was second rate in comparison to his brother and was just trying to make his presence felt unnecessarily and, in the process, brings nothing but cringey comedy to the album. The best moment on here for me is the track White Witch, being the one moment that the basic structure and disjointed vocal style compliment each other for one of the more positively memorable moments on the whole record.

I find myself wanting to enjoy this record a lot more than I actually do overall and it genuinely does showcase all that was good and bad about Savatage but the conflict is too much for me.  Needless to say they are staying in the bottom drawer of that filing cabinet.

I have seen endless debates on forums over the years as to whether this album is one of the best live metal albums of all time.  Whilst I place it in my top five most certainly, a lot of this is due to the fact that it was the second live album I ever heard (right after U.F.O. Strangers in the Night).  Now I have some thirty years of metal listening under my belt it is hard to find the same excitement levels when tuning into this nowadays as I managed back in my early teens but I think it still stands up well in the grander scheme of things overall.  It has stood the test of time well, remaining the very essence of a live performance caught on record that oozes the stage presence of a band capable of commanding an audience well.

You can't help but feel like you are in the audience either at Long Beach arena or at the Hammersmith Odeon itself when you listen to this double disc affair.  More importantly you wish you were actually there, baying with the crowd.  Enjoying the majesty of one metal's biggest ever bands in their absolute heyday.  You find yourself singing along with most tracks, getting caught up in the interaction of the encores with Bruce skilfully playing the crowd like some crazed conductor leading an orchestra of thousands.

Although it would be a push to call it perfect, the bits that make you cringe slightly (Bruce's at time strained vocals for example) only add to the authenticity of the record.  These sublime moments of metal royalty showing their human side are as entertaining as astonishing dual lead work and as visually important as any eight foot high Eddie stalking around the stage area making his presence known.

Up there with Made In Japan, Unleashed in the East and the aforementioned Strangers In The Night this album thoroughly earns it's place in this exclusive club of dynamic and enthralling live albums.  Maiden truly were at the top of their game at this point, releasing strong and consistent albums and this confidence showed perfectly in their live performances of the time as so brilliantly captured here.

W.A.S.P.'s finest moment came in 1992 with the release of their fifth studio album The Crimson Idol.  Ambitious in scope and grandiose in delivery, the album marked a step up in maturity for a band notorious for the "tits n' blood" shock rock/metal had dominated most their output to this point.  This time around we had a concept album of sorts that told the tragedy of fame through the eyes of protagonist Jonathan.  It worked well too, despite not being flawless.

Opening with the rather boldly named "Titanic Overture" it was clear that the band still had the dark and macabre undertones that it had become infamous for, only this time around it was restrained much better and not allowed to run the proceedings exclusively.  The songs had depth and structure as well as (and perhaps most importantly) a clear purpose in the overall album arrangement.  This album felt less like a gang of horny teenagers trying to piss of their parents and the PMRC just for the hell of it.  We had seen this on the The Headless Chiidren some three years earlier but this time around it all felt a lot more focused without being at the expense of the fun elements of the band's sound.

There are anthems galore on here ranging from the well known "Chainsaw Charlie..." to "Hold On To My Heart" that were released as singles, along with "The Idol" which is my preferred of the three singles.  But away from the world of 7" releases there were memorable and catchy tracks like "Arena of Pleasure", "I Am One" and "Doctor Rockter" that did equally sufficient a job of keeping the concentration held for the duration of the record.

On the downside there were other tracks that just didn't hold up as well and whilst they don't detract heavily from the quality of the record overall, they do standout as being weaker and I am not sure they can be justified as being essential to the story line either.  "The Invisible Boy" does have a place yes but it is not a strong track and lacks the maturity that is obvious across most of the album.  Being placed as track two makes it stick out all the more so unfortunately.

It is still one of my most frequently revisited albums of the last nearly 30 years and this is testimony to it's longevity and importance not only to the W.A.S.P. discography but to the world of metal in general.  The band haven't topped this since (in fact I think it has been mostly downhill since in all honesty) but left an impressive and incredibly well executed talisman release before the decline in the quality of their output generally began.

dISEMBOWELMENT. There, I said it already. One word into a review about Inverloch and I thought I should just get it out of the way early on. Not that I wish to appear in anyway negligent of the legacy of aforementioned band but if, like me, you prefer to focus on the output at hand from the current band that is actually alive and kicking and recording music then you will want to read about Inverloch not dISEMBOWELMENT.

It is a hard legacy to get away from I grant you but the fact is that as a piece of death/doom metal "Distance Collapsed" is superb, regardless of how many quarters of another (now defunct) band are involved. It is a clear step up from the "Dusk/Subside" EP from 2012, which although praised by most sections I did find a bit dull and safe. It never really went anywhere despite the length of each of the 3 tracks I could never remember any actual crushing riffs just lots of atmosphere heaped on far too much.

On their debut full-length Inverloch unleash an absolutely crushing experience. They still engage atmosphere throughout the record but they use it effectively alongside monolithic song structures instead of smothering them unnecessarily. There's no getting away from the fact the whole record is positively dripping with dirge. Whether it is a slow or more pacy section of a track, it is still there in the background,an almost endless procession of the true weight of mourning. That's not to say that this bores me or is too slow or too deliberate, no my point is how well it fits. On a good piece of death/doom you should be able to track that morbid vibe and whilst being able to pay attention to other sections of the music you shouldn't really lose track of it. 

Album opener "Distance Collapsed (in rubble)" is as monolithic as the title suggests, yet immediately what is also obvious is the mastery of the instrumentation. Inverloch clearly know what they are doing with their weapons of choice and although it may seem like a very odd comparison, the level of mastery is akin to that of Ulcerate - not in terms of pace or style - in terms of fluidity and focus.

In my notes for track two on the album I have written " almost a funeral ballad" which sounds ridiculous but the pace and combination of the melancholic notes, crushing riffs and slowed picked intro on "From The Eventide Pool" do make for something truly beautiful yet desolate at the same time.

The assuredness to proceedings continues with "Lucid Delirium" which after a slamming start drops to a slower more familiar pace like dropping down through gears. "The Empyrean Torment" shows that well balanced used of atmosphere although is the only track on here for me that could actually do with a trim (there's only so many riffs a guy can take ya know)? 

Closing track "Cataclysm of Lacuna" is full of seeping vocals and riffs of incalculable weight which again uses the melancholic notes of the guitar to perfect effect and ends with a long fade out that leaves the impression that the band could still well be going playing out that song such is the feeling of vastness and expanse. Overall five tracks is a very good fit in terms of length, it seems fitting to let the music fade out slowly and leave the promise of future dreadful beauty to come. Inverloch have done themselves proud with their debut, it is accomplished, well balanced and a very strong statement of what is yet to come.

"Odori Sepulcrorum" took forever to click with me. It was obvious that there was a beast of serious intent in there but for so long the swampy, squally chaos of GM's sound took over and I never felt I could get to the true centre of the band. Now I am all grown up and understand complicated things better I own the entire back catalogue of Grave Miasma and instantly dipped in for "Endless Pilgrimage" upon release.

It starts with what sounds like a sitar, before crashing into the now familiar occult atmospheric death metal that we all know to be Grave Miasma. The demented vocals are instantly recognisable as they babble and growl their way through the incantations and hexes that the band cast with each song. Yet there are also some new bits/elements going on as well as the experimentation with middle eastern sounding instruments there is also an overall feeling of the sound being a tad more accessible than previous outings. Now, before the murk loving masses amongst you decry "Endless Pilgrimage" a failure for using more obvious (yet by no means anymore predictable) melodies just hang fire. What Grave Miasma do this time around is take all the recognisable filth, murk and deluge in the weight of their sound and form within it a spiralling melodic edge that is shaped into some menacing bends and grooves or sinister leads . 

They open track two, "Utterance of the Foulest Spirit" with a slow picked intro of evil intent before unleashing their monstrous churn upon the listener. The main riff is perfectly traceable beneath the silt yet the track soon twists away into frantic DM territory before you can say "chop n` change", then before you know it we are floating through some dark atmospheric passage before - in complete Morbid Angel worship - we get hit with a frenzied sonic attack. 

"Purgative Circumvolution" begins much more frenzied than it's predecessors but quickly settles down into a familiar dirgey plod and murk. I would compare it to a ritual in which the victim already knows their fate yet are forced to wait agonisingly for the end to come as their tormentor teases them with the pace of the ceremony. From scathing sonics to blistering blastbeats, it is all on show on this track.

"Glorification of the Impure" is as the title suggests a turgid affair, thick with the mire of the "impurity" it celebrates. The lead work here is one hell of a party piece too. Closing track "Full Moon Dawn" is an absolutely perfect ending to proceedings. The vocals seem more ritualistic with their demented chanting style, the guitars seem to blend perfectly into a black looming wall of dark perfection supported all the way by the superb plonk of the bass and thunder of the drums. When the track slows down it is you stepping back and appreciating all that has been lain before you for your auditory pleasure, before it tears off again building itself ever higher, ever darker. It is the closing act that brings down the curtain on another piece of brilliant death metal, dripping with occult styling and full of evidence that this is a band that are still growing. Growing not just because they use a fancy instrument but growing because the sound and trademark style of the band is still very much present on this, yet it is also crystal clear that they have developed as musicians and songwriters also.

This is a filthy affair, full of nods to a variety of bands ranging from Incantation (predictably) to Morbid Angel yet never once slipping into just worship territory.  The intensity of Witch Vomit's sound belies a spectrum of death metal styles in fact.  With the guitars taking on the buzzsaw Swedish style, the vocals offering the cavernous depths of death doom and the sonics of the early 90's scene.

The band vary the pace well on this EP making the changes in tempo subtle yet noticable, well-timed yet still interesting.  It is encouraging to find a band not afraid to do intro tracks and use horrific sounding atmospheres to sensible effect without overstating such content and making it centre stage.  This is all about the music folks with the band not afraid to drop in some d-beat/punk drumming when needed to realty get the impact levels up.  

With the explosion of OSDM bands in recent years, Witch Vomit don't hide their influences but don't just copy them either and as mentioned the variety here is what holds the attention whilst still being able to maintain that really nasty edge to the ploughing chops of the riffs and the guttural grief of the vocals.  In a way, even for an EP, it is over too soon but I sense that in a full length offering my attention span wouldn't compliment the effort quite so well and I imagine would need a couple of sittings per full album spin to digest better.

As a short, sharp shock of dirty and repugnant death metal this floats my boat no end.  As a band who seem to follow a format of EP followed by a full length I feel there's more to come here that I will find appealing and will build up nicely my repertoire quick fix death metal hopefully for years to come.

There's an art to good storytelling.  I don't just mean the prerequisites we all got taught in school of ensuring all stories had a beginning, a middle and an end though.  Nocturnus AD as a band are a story all in themselves after their name change way back in 1999.  By that point we had already had the much lauded and praised The Key which had given us a first taste of what the band where capable of as far back as 1990.  The complex, twisting, progressive and constantly shifting narrative that the debut album encapsulated was always going to be a challenge to build on and the band struggled to come close to matching the levels of mastery when it came to Thresholds and Ethereal Tomb.

The good news is that after some twenty nine years of waiting, fans of the group finally got an album worthy as a successor to The Key.  Whilst not perfect and notwithstanding the fact that conceptual/technical death metal is a niche listening market, Paradox is grand in its scope and polished in its delivery covering lots of information and requiring close attention to detail to really enjoy.  For the first few tracks I had to adjust to the production job as it feels underwhelming at first and lacking in power, but once you realise that this is deliberate so the style can flow as intended and let the power come from the leads and soaring keyboards to elevate the power organically then it all makes sense and instantly becomes more palatable.

The thought that has gone into this record is noticeable as it does not just tell a story for storytelling sake.  Just as much attention has been paid to the instrumentation, arrangement and song-structure in order to ensure the album does not rely on just words to tell the tale.  The musicianship is excellent on here with the band playing well collectively as well as also letting the individual musicians shine where needed.  The guitar work is shredding perfection and the keys make a fine effort at trying to match them to give a real sci-fi edge to proceedings.  Browning's vocals are measured enough to add the required depth to the songs but not entirely steal the show and his drumming feels understated throughout.  The only mystery is Daniel Tucker's bass.  The former Obituary man isn't present at all in the mix, I mean we are talking ...And Justice For All proportions of a lack of bass here.

It is a great album and I don't know if it is to be termed as a debut, a follow up or just a plain old new release.  Whichever view we take the presence of the album is more than welcome regardless of how overdue it may be.

In their work to blend the rabid sound of death metal with the punk/hardcore beats that so clearly influence them, Creeping Death spread a fair smattering of Swedish death metal over proceedings also to provide a release that I certainly want to listen to.  Whereas never quite dropping into worship territory for any particular group or style the band pull together ten tracks and display an aggressive if not predictable performance throughout.

With songs titles like Blood lust Contamination and Peeled from Reality we know we are not listening to a band who are happy with the world at large with their album full of references to violence, war, insanity and death (perhaps not in that order).  They had taken long enough to drop their debut full-length, with 2019 heralding their fourth year of existence and their fifth release to date including singles, demos and EP's in the near half-decade that they had been around.

In that time though the band have simply just blended the styles and not really done anything new or unique with their sound that a handful of other bands do just as well.  Now that's not to say they have to do anything new or unique, they might be perfectly happy with this output.  But all of the "old school" or retro tags that we apply to our death metal nowadays can lead to over saturation of the market with hundreds of bands all sounding the same or very similar.  Yes this nods firmly to Entombed just as much as it does Gatecreeper and so it is obvious that the band have an array of influences, but I don't think Creeping Death themselves ever get to really shine on Wretched Illusions which is a real shame as they are a talented bunch.

Listen, boxes get ticked, i's get dotted and t's get crossed most definitely on this release.  Will you remember it half an hour after finishing listening to it - probably not.  But you'll have fun at least I suppose.

One listen to Mefitis and you'll soon hear where their heart lies.  Mining the depths of Finnish death metal whilst espousing some melodic Swedish influences also the band have both feet firmly rooted in the early to mid-nineties scene.  Even going as far as having their album artwork done by Rantanen (of Demigod, Demilich and Adramlech cover fame) the band wear their influences from this era of expansive and bold death metal on both sleeves, leaving just a little room for Emperor-like touches also.

Comprised of just two members, the American partnership of Alex Mitroff and Jake Dawson show a myriad of talent on the nine tracks on offer here.  Full of galloping energy and racing speed pace they certainly do take you on a journey back through the last three decades to a time when brutality and heavy upon heavier just wasn't giving fans of death metal enough.  The influence of early At The Gates is obvious more or less from the word go, but this is not just mere ATG-worship.  There's enough of that Finnish influence in the sound also to add some further depth as well as smatterings of the more atmospheric and subtly flamboyant elements of In The Nightside Eclipse to really make things interesting.

Most tracks feel like they are always building with the guys making excellent use of the progressive elements of their songwriting prowess.  In so many ways, when in full flow at least, the album feels like a sustained attack on the senses delivered in the most efficient and calculated manner.  It's like bits of blades used in the frenzy break off and stay stuck in yourvwounds as a bloody reminder of the experience you have undergone.

The album has a range of instrumental tracks (three in total) that build the atmosphere and prowess of the record well, they never get showy or turn into guitar wank-fests but act instead to emphasise the lush darkness of the metal being played here.  I should add that the band have been around since circa 2007/2008 and it took them twelve years to get a full-length released.  I feel that during this time they have honed their skills nicely and given a complete and authentic death metal album that has real layers of nostalgia for the more experienced of metal fans to enjoy peeling back 

Finnish death metal has crawled onto my radar this week, completely unannounced.  After my mid-week flirtation with Lantern today I am sat down with death/doom mob God Disease.  With a range of influences obvious, from Paradise Lost to Incantation to Runemagick, there's little surprise at the melancholic and desolate tones of this record.  Man those guitars club at the soul itself, leaving long-lasting bruises that take a while to heal.  There's parts of this record that will be ringing around my head for days after just one listen.

It's fair to say they have that cold and yet somehow enriching Finnish dm sound in the bag here, if anything the album positively drips with it.  The sadness from those guitars saturates the tracks, drowning them in their cloying viscosity.  The vocals growl and grumble over the top in perfect Incantation worship and compliment the slower sections really well.  The problem I have is with the bass.  It is far too twangy in the mix to the point of being distracting, in fact it gives the tracks a very mechanised feel like we are all of a sudden listening to a Fear Factory record.  I am not sure if this is by design or is an unexpected outcome of the mixing process, but either way it is a massive stumbling block for me.

The album is perfectly capable of standing up on its pillars of solid riffs and pummelling drums without this.  On the occasions that the bass does calm down and allow the other instruments to breathe the album is in fact at its finest; dragging and lurching itself forwards nicely with the bass sat as part of the instrumentation, the rest of the time the bass is all I hear above everything else. It is a shame because there is real promise here but in a way you just can't get at it.

Some things cannot be digested, absorbed or truly understood in just one sitting. Most of my favourite records are ones that I glean something new from with each spin. Whether that is the “clicking” of a track that I have been wrestling with for some prolonged period of time and suddenly understand the brilliance of it or simply just hearing notes or even instruments that I had no previous recognition of.

Other records are simply too long for my tiny human mind to take in all at once. Bell Witch’s last two records are great examples of this. Rightly championed for their punishing and emotionally dredging output those albums set a theme and constantly progress it and evolve it whilst maintaining an absolute dirge throughout. I cannot sit through them in one sitting as I need the breathing space to absorb the music, process it and return for more.

Eremit, as well as sharing the shame artist for their album cover as Bell Witch also share this lengthy format to their debut album. Opening with a twenty three and a half minute track is a fucking bold move for your first release and certainly sets their stall out well for anyone in hearing distance. The dead march pace to the album encapsulates the very essence of sorrow and grief. Although not nearly as clever as the aforementioned Bell Witch (which is perhaps an unfair and inaccurate comparison on my part), the consistency to Carrier of Weight is undeniable and unapologetic.

For straight up, no thrills doom/sludge you could hardly hope for more. With an all-round sound that is very reminiscent of Conan the band still carve out an interesting niche just for doing such a solid and impressive job on their opening foray into the world of metal. Vocally, the style is almost blackened. Raspy and throaty utterances are the order of the day here and they match the pacing well across the three tracks. The hazy and heavy riffs are like huge waves smashing against rocks, their vapour absorbing into the atmosphere, adding thickness to the very air.

For a long while after listening this record stays with you, like weighty cobwebs or cold residue on your skin. If I close my eyes I can hear it still, and even pick out some of the transitions from the individual tracks. This is one of the albums key strengths, the three tracks all feel like separate entities, inextricably linked together though they inevitably are, they still feel like all have unique elements and bring their own value to the overall piece.

It may work better for me in piecemeal but inevitably you always end up appreciating the bigger picture that much more when the component parts are so well put together.

There was some clamour around this release I recall when it was released. A few internet forum acquaintances waxed lyrical about it and encouraged me to lend an ear to it. At the time I felt it to be quite unremarkable, resulting in it being consigned to my pile of forgotten albums in the lower dungeons of Castle MacabreEternal. But still to this day I am haunted by the ghost of this record as I continue to expand on my knowledge of death metal releases as I get older and more bitter and twisted, the internet and peers still telling me there is something special lying in wait for me should I be tempted to pick up this record again.

Revisiting the album again immediately helped me understand why it didn't click a few years back. The mix is very unique in terms of it is not the incumbent style you would perhaps expect on a blackened death metal album. Its reverb shrouded mix makes for a very dank sounding record that feels in contrast to the frenetic tremolo picking of the guitars and the blasting of those drums. At first it is quite disorientating until after a few spins you start to grow accustomed to it, at which point it actually becomes the trick that sets the album apart from other releases. Imagine being hit constantly on the right of your body and also having to contend with a constant shroud of suffocating material on your left hand side. This almost juxtaposed pace versus mix is a battle that enriches the experience, it keeps you reassessing and re-positioning all elements constantly. 

This compressed sound works well with the Finnish dm sound, with the band's home roots showing the influence of Adramelech-esque riffs and cavernous chords. Necrophilos’ vocals are grim and hint at Jon Tardy like breathy delivery minus the spewing part. They echo in the mix like dark incantations of the blackest magic. The pace of the lead work on here can be torturous, relentless in its level of melancholy inducing agony. At the same time the frantic riffing can also let in a fiery lick of lead work. The drums splutter in the background like some fleshy skinned tribal drum kit adding to this feel of density and weight. 

Structurally the songs have a monolithic feel to them – even with the more up-tempo parts considered. As a result the album feels longer than it actually is when it times out at just shy of forty minutes. I have to say the revisit has been a success with a little more time to listen through a few times and understand the more complex elements of the release. I don’t know it well enough still to be madly in love with it and have a feeling that this will grow more over repeated listens.

Billed as thrash metal/hardcore/crossover, New York's All Out War first appeared on the radar in 1992 with their debut release on Gain Ground coming five years later.  The band had been around for seven years by this point and had undertaken various demo, EP and Split releases prior to committing a full eleven tracks to record.  I am not a big follower of this crossover scene and therefore don't really have much to draw parallel with when reviewing it but I can tell you that overall it isn't very good.

Let's start on a positive.  The band should get an A+ for effort as their blending of the styles works well, with breakdowns and thrashy riffs providing the required contrast.  But herein lies the problem because that's all this record is.  It might as well be one long track as unless you are paying any particular attention to it you won't notice one track stop and another begin.

The band just didn't have enough skill or invention at this point in their careers to really go for such a lengthy release, their material would have worked so much better in continuing with shorter format releases.  In fairness, if I were more of a fan of this style it might work better for me but I am guessing most fans would struggle with this even.  The punk/hardcore beat that the drums give keep the energy levels up nicely despite the laborious nature of proceedings and the guitars do stray into more mid to slow-paced territory on the odd occasion but still nothing to break the monotony overall. 

I spent the morning looking for something different to review as I try to expand my metal horizons so All Out War just got unlucky perhaps that I dropped on them but other than the fact that vocalist Mike Score sounds like Steve Reynolds from Demolition Hammer, I found little to like.

Gatecreeper's debut full-length offers enough Swedish death metal references to please anyone sat reading this in their "...Everflowing Stream" pyjama set.  It also cemented the bands relevance in relation to other styles of death metal including some elements of crust, death/doom as well as smatterings of thrash here and there.  Upon first few listens the album sat high in my regard, more so because it blended all these elements together well and came across as fresh sounding and authentic.  On reflection, spinning back through the album for the purpose of this review its longevity is questionable.

I think this is largely due to two things.  Firstly, for an album with a lot going on in terms of styles it sounds generally the same throughout.  Tracks tend to merge into one another as a result of this, and at times it is hard to find high points on the record.  This I suspect is down to a bit of naivety in the songwriting department (so my second point) and the band trying to lavish the various influences across the record but not letting them fully develop into standout moments.  I don't make any suggestion that this is easy to achieve mind.  They are a talented bunch of guys in the band and they perform their art form well, it just needed a bit of restraint applying here and there to really let the influences shine properly.

For a nine track record it is over soon enough, clocking in at just over thirty minutes, yet it somehow feels longer like it is getting close to outstaying its welcome and your constantly looking at your watch and tapping your empty beer glass whilst yawning a lot to drop sufficient hint that the night is over for you.  It still does retain that fresh sound though with the riffs being of such high quality that they alone provide enough memorability to make up for the other structural weaknesses present on the record.  It will be interesting for me to revisit the sophomore release now I have spent some more time with this one and see if there are any obvious improvements in song structure and arrangement overall, but in conclusion the debut effort really tries fucking hard and shows a band full of work ethic but just needing to find their feet a bit more before starting to be able to truly perfect their offering.

Could any list of 'essential' FInnish BM releases be complete without the first full length venture of Impaled Nazarene present? Not that this is an easy listen by any means, even for the most extreme-loving metalhead, 'Tol...' is a full on assault that takes some unpicking before you can recognise the dexterity behind the slashes and blows it deals.

Upon first hearing this some five years ago, I immediately dismissed it. Not because of the sound but more due to the structure of the album. It had no flow, no cohesion and no rationale as a result. The fact is that this is one of the main raison d'etres of the record. This isn't meant to be an orderly, structured affair. 'Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz' is supposed to be an explosion of chaos, a nailbomb of perverse occult worship detonating in the ears of the listener. Nobody was ever supposed to feel comfortable listening to Black Metal and in that regard this delivers. 'Tol...' is one ugly looking, sounding and feeling motherfucker of a record. 

If you need structure in your life then the only comparison I can think to give is to say that 'Tol...' is put together like a grind record. Short, sharp and abrasive bursts of musicality are interspersed with horrifying sounds of ritual sacrifice, occult procreation and hellish mantras. It is perhaps metal's one and only BM/Grind album in structure at least. It is cluttered to say the least yet the jumble and litter all has relevance and contributes to the aesthetic well.

It's claustrophobic, demented and at times downright terrifying. Yet somehow the mix lends the drums and vocals centre stage (on the actual music tracks) and as a result the traditional cold feel associated with BM is somehow warmer in atmosphere, like some vigorous worship is in constant performance against a backdrop of intense flames. The production job is actually quite good considering the genre and year this was released in. Although raw sounding, the uptempo pace of the tracks are solidified superbly by the drums and vocals being pinned at the core of the sound giving them more depth than the abrasive riffing might suggest available. At times it sounds like a death metal record but its delivery is recognisably BM, dripping with misanthropy and hatred throughout.

There is question about how seriously Impaled Nazarene should be taken with some identifying them as a band merely making a parody of the BM scene (they even stopped wearing corpse paint after deeming it "too trendy"). Regardless of the meaning behind the intent of the artist, 'Tol...' delivered a wake up call to the BM scene in 1993 that continues to alienate and astound new listeners in equal measure to this day.

One of the many bands that I flirted with the material but have never actually dipped in for ownership of any of their releases, Armored Saint certainly tick all the right boxes from a heavy metal perspective.  Their 1991 release was the first of theirs I had heard after now familiar anthems like Reign of Fire and Dropping Like Flies got air time on BBC Radio One's rock shows on a Friday and Saturday night.  Whenever I got around to attempting to sit through a full-length offering I found myself all too easily distracted though and soon gave up.

Symbol of Salvation starts off strong enough with the aforementioned two tracks opening proceedings well enough.  However, I remember there being more power behind the sound back in the day and these now aged (and battered) ears don't get quite the same level of bite from these two former favourites of mine.  That's not say that they are in anyway awful of course, just not aged well for me at least.  Last Train Home carries on the familiarity of yesteryear with its catchy chorus still ringing in my head for days after just one listen.

The odd yet somehow addictive Tribal Dance continues the strong start to the record, the lead work's blistering delivery planting a smile firmly on my mug.  The slightly flashy delivery of the track also adds something unexpected, I mean the song practically screams radio play list but I don't recall it from last visit to the record.  There's definitely the prospect of some sleazy-edged (almost cock rock) metal to The Truth Always Hurts as it smoulders its way through four minutes plus of catchy licks and infectious hooks.  Bush's strained vocal style works brilliantly on this track, trading blows with the guitars nicely, vying for space and both managing to steal their own slice of the limelight.

At this point the album takes a bit of a dip.  The brief and pointless instrumental Half Drawn Bridge seems a half-arsed attempt at an intro for Another Day.  The latter track itself is a half-ballad that does nothing other than show Bush's limitations until the guitars of Sandoval and Duncan rescue things with some more sterling lead work, the pace change around halfway through heralding an overall and much needed improvement in the direction and quality of the track.  Thankfully the title track lives up to expectations somewhat better even if the chorus feels a tad laboured.  The track stomps and bites better than the previous two that precede it most definitely.

One the main problems here is the album length, largely because of the quantity of filler that lines the album listing.  As well as the aforementioned tracks that seem weaker, Hanging Judge has a similar story of a half-baked structure that is barely rescued by the guitar work.  This is followed by the excellent Warzone which oozes classy songwriting with that sultry rock-tinged style again deployed to good effect.  Burning Question tries to keep this fire going but comes up short with its clunky structure and unnecessary labouring on the verses.  We don't need Tainted Past with its unnecessary length (I get the sentiment behind it for Prichard - his solo is the best part of the track by far) and album closer Spineless is a fine end to proceedings with its stompy rhythm and cutting riffs despite us having to wade through a bit of deadwood to get it.

Overall, a mixed bag but when the record is on point it is bang on point.

The voice of the vocalist immediately leaps out at you from the opening of the full-on album starter Middle Ages, it's equal part Steve Souza as it is the more gruff aspects of Paul Di'Anno also.  I can only assume there's two vocalists here as track two (the title track) seems to have a different style, more sung and rock-edged.  This is the story of the album really, a mixture of galloping speed/heavy metal with Motörhead like rhythms thrown in for good measure.

The amateur vocals actually do suit the style of the album overall it has to be said.  For all the comedy I find in them they suit the loose and bouncy song structures that do seem to indicate that whilst the writing process might not have been the most hybrid of systems much fun was certainly had by all during the recording of this album.  The artwork belies a hint of seriousness that isn't actually present for the most part  This is bashy heavy metal that is delivered with blunt force trauma to the listener as opposed to any calculated attack.

The other real standout part of the record is the guitar work with the dual attack working well to make the often average songs develop a whole new dimension showing skill that might not be as obvious on first spin/s.  As mentioned, the drums just thump along in the background - perhaps a little too low in the mix actually - but you can hear their contribution to the metal frenzy on display for the majority of the album.  The bass for the main part is lost though, either mixed in behind everything else or just overwhelmed entirely.

Pace wise, there's little let up.  Tracks just charge on after each other like troops going into battle.  The titles are in the main adversarial in naming convention, Steel Meets Steel, Highway Killers, Evil On The Road and the superbly named Kick On Your Ass all give a good indication of the mindset of this bunch of Belgian metalheads.  Brute force aside though there's only so far that the relentless attitude can get you with an album like this.  The token comedic value of the lyrics and vocals gets old real quick when every track is full of them and the attempt at a slower paced track, Lift Me Up, is just terrible and painfully shows the shortfalls of the vocal ability available on this record.  The tits on the cover art are more attractive than most of the vocal content of the aforementioned attempt a ballad.

It still gets three stars just for the sheer bloody-minded determination to take a game plan, however basic, and stick with it for ten tracks.  But this was something that they might have gotten away with at the early end of the eighties and this album was released in 1990 when most metal fans knew and expected much better.

The reality is that Accept where virtually untouchable at the time of this release.  Coming one year after the general good reception to Breaker, their fourth album had a great foundation to build from and Restless and Wild summed up perfectly the flavour of this record.  It is a fine display of brooding and rampant metal/hard-rock from a band brimming with confidence.  This is reflected in the quality of the songwriting and the arrangement of the album as a whole.  It's all on here from memorable anthems to slow-burning numbers that writhe and slither like hungry serpents.

Within fourteen months of this release the band would push on again in their quest for metal royalty status with the equally barnstorming Balls to the Wall showing that they were truly hitting their stride.  The level of intensity that was now delivered on Restless & Wild had a maturity and control that made it more potent and compelling.  The vigorous and authoritative poise of the playing showed this was a band firmly in the driving seat of their own destiny and they had their foot to the floor.

The title track alone with its rampant gallop stamps enough authority on proceedings to let the listener know Udo and the boys weren't here to fuck around.  The real hook of the album though is how they maintain that intensity but manage to vary the pace of tracks, switching from chanting choruses and blistering leads to more moody atmospheres effortlessly.  Always there is a feel of there being something on the boil here, simmering with a passionate and unwavering flame beneath.

Udo as ever is superb and it is he who steals the limelight on this record intermittently as he jousts for supremacy with the excellent leads of Hoffmann.  The band as whole though are a tight and unified front, charging mercilessly forwards and delivering my favourite record of the Udo era.

The debut from Running Wild ticks all the boxes in terms of balls to the wall metal intensity.  Considering what the band were to become over the years it does stand out as a weak point also.  Despite the points it achieves for effort the delivery is poor and one-dimensional.  You are essentially listening to the same track over and over again, such is the lack of variety on the album.

It is hard to tell where one track stops and another begins as at times breaks between tracks seem like pauses on one long track as the next rack that starts adheres to pretty much the same pace, tempo and structure.  The songwriting criteria on this record did not have the bar set very high at all it seems.  Now, this is not to deny the credentials of the musicians involved.  What quality is here is delivered by obviously individuals, the guitars in particular save the day on more than one occasion but they can only do so much I am afraid.

I think considering this was their debut and maturity clearly was lacking there is perhaps an argument to give them a little more slack but when your thought process is to regurgitate the same riffs and occasionally say menacing words like "satan" then the game plan is too flawed from the off.  Yes, the core heavy metal component parts are here but they feel force-fed as opposed to being offered in any discernible menu format.  Imagine a meal where all four courses are the main meal, you get the same meat dish over and over again and this pretty much is what Running Wild serve here.  

1983 and album number twelve for Lizzy and by this point we have already had the likes of Nightlife, Fighting, Jailbreak, Johnny The Fox and the superb Black Rose.  Things have gone off the boil a tad with Chinatown and Renegade and so we are on a downward spiral now, right?  Actually, half right.  Lynott's last album is not a high point by any means.  Overall it is a patchy affair with the odd snippet of catchy brilliance and well played hard rock music to give the listener some flashes of what once was.  You have to sit through some nonsense also unfortunately.

The album does open strongly with the title track stomping its authority early on with its stomping keys teeing things up nicely.  Lynott's gruff vocal delivery complimenting the fast-paced track well.  Unfortunately the album takes a sharp dip after this with the clumsy This Is the One stumbling along with a slight off-kilter rhythm seemingly a stretch too far for Phil to pace with and at times the track almost feels like the lyrics are somehow a word or two short forcing other words to be stretched out uncomfortably.  The excellent guitar work of Gorham and Sykes makes up for this to some degree though but overall it's a poor track very early on in the track listing.

To follow this with a slow-paced ballad seems to throw lacklustre after poor in all honesty, not that The Sun Goes Down is a sterling piece of songwriting with its over-brooding bass line quickly becoming overbearing, particularly alongside the underwhelming chorus.  Again the lead work goes some way to performing a rescue job but it is glitter on a turd at the end of the day.  The more catchy The Holy War  ramps up the pace again soon enough with its arrogant lyrics and thumping skins supporting the choppy riffs well.  The track gets the blood pumping nicely after the early lull in the flow of the record.

This upward turn continues with the pounding rhythm of Cold Sweat driving the record along with an engine like efficiency, not afraid to mix up the structure along the way and fire in a few licks to keep things interesting.  This is perhaps the finest moment on the record kicking off side B superbly.  Unfortunately though, as with side A we immediately get lost in the overly melodic Someday She Is Going To Hit Back which even the guitar work can't save.  The cheesy Baby Please Don't Go lacks maturity and it suffers badly from poor lyrical content and a lacklustre pace.

Closing out the album strongly is one of the reasons why this rating kept the right side of three stars and didn't slip to a half star in the wrong direction.  Bad Habits is another one of those infectious tracks that slap away the memory of the albums weaker points and gets head and foot going again.  Similarly closing track Heart Attack, although not sterling in quality, hits with enough punch to leave a mark as things draw to a close.  Not terrible but would have been nice for Phil to have left us with a more consistent swansong.

Here's an odd one.  I have heard of Satan of course but never really been swayed by the praise that surrounds them.  So having stumbled across this album again today as part of my current clan challenge I didn't have high hopes.  The band name is synonymous with the NWOBHM movement of course and rightly so, there's some hi-octane galloping tunes on here for sure.  There's also obvious talent across the group with the vocals of Brian Ross and dual guitar attack of Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey being of particular note.

Somehow though, it is still a bit dull.  This may be down to the production or mixing job as opposed to the actual band themselves as somehow it sounds like the album was recorded at two different levels. So the guitars are rampant, high in the mix, clear and audible for all to hear as they fire of super-charged licks and riffs.  However, the rest of the instrumentation sounds like it was tracked from a different studio.  If sounds stifled or muffled and it is only really the piercing cries of Ross that usually manage to permeate the low ceiling and sound like they are on the same record as the guitars.

It makes for a very disjointed sounding record.  Literally it feels like two mates in one of them's bedroom playing guitar well over an otherwise half decent record because they haven't got anything to satisfy that particular six string itch they have both got.  It is a genuine shame the album sounds like this as despite the sound issues (to my ears at least) the band has a real sense of being full of energy and being eager to impress.

If you can deal with the sound then you are probably in for an enjoyable NWOBHM experience - and I did listen to this via YouTube so that won't have helped most certainly - given they have the content and credentials most definitely.  For me though the album doesn't hit the spot and feels muddled despite its strong points.

Now we are talking!  A few albums in life define genres perfectly.  In the quest for true, classic and authentic epic heavy metal if you do not find yourself lead to Manilla Road then you are clearly on the wrong path.  Crystal Logic is a rarefied slab of 70's rock infused with NWOBHM and humongous riffs of labyrinth like proportions.  Add to it the perfect nerd value of the vocals and their exaggerated, theatrical musings over fantasy themed lyrics.  Who doesn't want to hear:

"Upon the Island of Damnation

The Horde of Hades screams and wails

The blood of life and execution

Has put back light into the Veils"

There's a good chance many are put off by the vocals.  However, I cannot think of any better requirement for a sneering and at times clunky vocal accompaniment to the chronicles that are written for this record.  Despite the largely nasal sound to them there is still range in Mark Shelton's vocals here.  There's a gruff bark to them where required and the odd scream to add further drama to the performance.  Manilla Road would not be the band that we all know them to be without Shelton's unique style and the metal world lost a true legend when he passed in 2018.  On Crystal Logic he not only entertains with his vocal talents he also provides all six (and twelve) string action as well as being chief songwriter.

Far from putting bassist Scott Park and drummer Rick Fisher in the shadow of their leader, they take the opportunity to place optimum focus on their individual performances.  The sound has a really full, complete and powerful feel overall as a result.  Although I do feel the drums are a little low in the mix it is still on the side of being the correct balance.  The subtlety of the percussion adds dimension to an album that relies on no keyboards for atmospherics.  The whole album feels grimy and dank yet has an energy to it that belies what you may interpret to be its intended mood.

I can even forgive John Jinks' artwork.  Basic though it is, there is still a vibrancy to it that kind of sums up the record brilliantly.  I have the 2013 remaster (which may explain the drums) that has a second disc showcasing unreleased songs, rehearsals and live tracks which is a great addition to the regular release.

Ozzy's debut solo effort packs a fair punch in terms of tunes.  Immediately recognisable tracks like Crazy Train, Mr Cowley, Goodbye to Romance and Suicide Solution all drop enough hooks in you to leave you feeling like a cow carcass in the abattoir.  There are tracks listed here in this review that have prevalent on playlists galore throughout over 30 years of listening to metal that have no sign of being lifted anytime soon.

The more commercial sound is a change from what we had come to expect from Ozzy's Sabbath days and when compared to most of what BS had done until this point you can't help but feel the record is inferior.  As a standalone hard rock album with more than a fair share of big riffs of its own it was a fine start to furthering his long career and whilst not perfect it was certainly more than able to stand up in the shadow of his work with his more infamous other band.

Of course the bringing of former Quiet Riot guitarist , Randy Rhoads into the fray was a master stroke.  His studious and assured performance here being one of the highlights of the album as whole.  Literally setting tracks alight with his fret work he is most certainly the perfect accompaniment to Osbourne's unique and familiar vocal style in that he forces you to listen beyond the vocals.

Even on the weaker tracks that close out the record, his influence is obvious and saves the tracks from descent into becoming completely forgettable.  As a debut release it does lack the finesse you would perhaps expect from an established artist such as Ozzy but the album set off a trajectory of future releases that showed consistent improvements. 

Riot are a band that have always been in my sphere of awareness but somehow have never made it on my radar to delve into their extensive catalogue.  Their 1981 effort offers high energy rock music with a NWOBHM pace applied for good measure.  Opening strongly with my new favourite quarantine anthem of Swords and Tequila  this rapid pace continues well into the title track Fire Down Under  with its blistering lead work and relentless stomp carrying forward well the opening momentum of the record.

All elements of the group work really well together and the tracks feel tight and competently written.  Reale and Ventura's guitar work is of particular note, built on catchy riffs and bluesy melodies, their chops really expand the listening experience well.  They are superbly supported by the assuring rumble of Leming's bass that is audible yet not distracting in the mix.  It is Speranza's vocals that underpin everything really nicely though.  Gritty and gruff throughout his style compliments and showcases the bands energy levels, settling in nicely in the mix and providing a memorable yet never over the top or showy performance.  The drums of Slavin also feel perfectly stationed in the mix providing power where needed yet also still being subtle enough to not become overbearing.

For album number three, there's a solid amount of maturity on display here and the whole release shines with a level of consistency.  There's an element of Aerosmith style rock to some of the tracks, particularly when referencing the more bluesy elements of the guitar work.  It is hard to get too excited over it though, consistent though it is the flip side of this is a lack of variety.  It is playbook easy listening metal/hard rock music that maintains its energy levels well but does become a bit of a stretch considering there are ten tracks on the album.  It would certainly have benefited from a trim even though it clocks in at just under forty minutes.

The Scorps had been around for thirteen years by the time they got around to album number five.  They had only been knocking out recorded content for five years of that time, consistently gracing the shelves of record stores since on a near annual basis since 1972.  After the controversial Virgin Killer in 1976 the band dropped Taken By Force twelve months later with the US version being delayed until 1978 as the previous record had only been released in early 1977.  It is a complete anomaly to consider the band a metal band at this stage, there sound was very much at the rock edge of things and offered little in the way of anything heavy for sure.

Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the album it is hardly chock full of anthems like Lovedrive or Blackout for example.  As a result it just passes you by and you soon forget you ever played it at all really.  There is a real feel of them settling for some good tunes and ideas but never really building on them to provide any "wow" factor.  Yes, there's a couple of hooks here and there and the odd catchy riff that gets me to look up from my desk but I am soon back beavering away with little if any attention being given to the music.

For a band at album number five I expected more to be honest, certainly one that had been together for over a decade.  My experience of the Scorpions was that they peaked early in the 80's and really should have had a stronger run in to that point in time instead of almost petering out of the course of two or three records.  There's tracks here in a style any fan will recognise as they deliver smoochy ballads and tongue in cheek energetic rock songs like He's A Woman - She's A Man that harks to the more humorous side of the group.  But still there's little here to get overexcited about. 

Yawn.....

My interest in Queensryche is limited to one album in their discography, Empire.  This was of course the pinnacle of their accessibility, combining mass appeal, catchy tunes with strong storytelling based song structures.  I have never really understood the appeal of the band at any other point in their career.  Even the much lauded, Operation Mindcrime does little for me so the one dimensional and largely flat debut holds little of my attention whenever I bother to listen through.

Accepting this was their debut and the band had some craft to still learn and finesse there is still a massive amount of bluster here for very little effect in terms of memorable and powerful output.  The bare bones of their more recognisable songwriting prowess was here at this point most certainly.  The drama of their brand of theatrical, progressive/power metal apparent in the vocal style of Geoff Tate from virtually the opening track.  But he sounds excessively nasal on this record (which could be due to the fact I can now only locate a remastered copy) and this makes the vocals sound forced unfortunately.

Notwithstanding the obvious credentials of DeGarmo and Wilton there is little in the way of anything remarkable from them here with Jackson and Rockenfield generally going through the motions in the background and it all makes for a very dull experience despite it being clearly geared towards being a prog metal record.  There's no bite or energy to proceedings despite nothing much really being that bad or wrong with the playing.  The album sounds like a band with an over-enthusiastic vocalist who joined a group of mates who just weren't that interested in pulling out anywhere near as many stops as he clearly was.

King Diamond was and always will be the weakest link in Mercyful Fate.  Quite an opening statement for a review of one of metal's best known albums I know, but one that reflects my opinion of the band perfectly.  No attempt at controversy here folks, just an opinion built on my experience of most of their discography.  As a presence he is undeniably an asset.  Menacing, foreboding and threatening, his very face is iconic in terms of all the dark and nefarious things that our preferred genre of music espouses.  Vocally though he is poor, his attempts at the higher end of the scale of notes coming off as farcical in the main.  He's far better when he drops to the more grim and murky style he deploys that suits the overall tone of the music so much better.

Right now your asking yourself "why he's given it such a decent rating if he hates King that much?".  The fact is that for all my criticism of the vocals I cannot neglect the fact that the rest of the artistry on this album is excellent.  In all reviews that I write where I score an album low it is because something catastrophic encompasses the whole experience that makes it an irretrievable disaster.  This is not the case here.  Wherever else I look on the record the quality is high (with the odd dip of course), whether it is the songwriting or the musicianship, neither are diminished in terms of their impact by my beef with the vocals.

Hank Shermann and Michael Denner truly show us what capable and intelligent six-stringers they are on this record, wielding their axes with poise and guile.  On more than one occasion they rescue a track and make the directionless or clunky structure of a track seem manageable and clearer just by their presence.  "Grabber" and Ruzz provide the real rhythm in the engine room giving the record legs when it needs to run faster and also able to subtlety control the pace when it need reining in a tad.

So "Don't Break The Oath" is not a complete album for me as it suffers badly at the vocal chords of King and even the sterling band that sits around him can't elevate it to the levels of praise that the album seems to get across the board.  It does not mean however it is a bad or even an average record, more just lacking in one important and influential area.

There's not a lot wrong here I have to say. Considering the fact that I had never heard of the band until this week it is surprising that they have flown under my radar for such a long time with them having such a strong debut to kick off their careers with.  The bands style of aggressive power metal with a NWOBHM edge and some firm nods to the traditional aspects of the heavy metal sound are right up my street I have to admit.

Formed by guitarist Kenny Powell the band had a bit of a disrupted tenure, being completely inactive from 1989 through to 1996.  Their initial first four years together saw a steady decline in quality from their debut culminating in the much derided 1988 offering, Escape to Nowhere featuring Coburn Pharr of Annihilator fame on vocals.  The late J.D. Kimball held the vocal seat for the first three albums and what a great job he did.  His gruff and yet also melodic style embellished the power metal aspect of the band's sound well and is one of the real memorable points from the debut album for sure.

Also of particular note is how tight the band are generally in terms of their sound on this record.  They sound well organised and well-heeled also, taking not overly complex tracks and letting them shine with memorable choruses and energetic lead guitar work courtesy of the aforementioned Kenny Powell.  The percussion section motors along, perpetuating the feeling of the cohesive unit whilst the odd smattering of fantastical theatre elevates the tracks they are present on to new and intriguing heights.

Working tirelessly for ten tracks of enchanted drama the band incorporates a selection of song titles to make the teenager in everyone squeal in delight.  Who doesn't want to hear an album in full when you see tracks like Dragon's Breath, Be My Wench and Prince of Darkness on the album listing?  Neat find to get me through quarantine and beyond.

In the top twenty albums of all time that I have never understood the attraction of I would add the debut from Metal Church in the top five.  It does get oodles of praise and attention from virtually all corners of the known universe but I just don't get it I am afraid.  To start with, I have always found David Wagner to be overrated as a vocalist.  I mean his voice is unique most definitely, I have little grounds for argument there.  But it just lacks an real punch when needed (and the album needs a lot more punch in my book) to elevate the promise of an intense and raging metal album that rarely gets past growling stage.

The album opens with more than enough promise.  The big build up to Beyond the Black serves to lift expectations from the off but somehow it just peters out into a very mediocre and forgettable track.  The title track is guilty of pretty much the same thing, talking a good enough game to begin with but then delivering a half-arsed performance.  It is like all the good ideas were used up on intros to tracks instead of focusing on the long game. 

There's not even any real dazzling leads or solos to look to for comfort that things are going to live up to expectations.  What few there are of these are average and far too obvious and predictable.  It is not to say that Vanderhoof and Wells are poor players though, I think the arrangements of the tracks themselves are off in the main and this kind of shoe horns their work in around twisted or poorly constructed songs.  Instrumental track Merciless Onslaught tries to showcase the skill on display but is just all a bit senseless as opposed to merciless. 

The one track I find has any discernible form is side A's closer Gods of Wrath  this actually flows like all the other tracks should do.  With its mid-tempo and paired back feel the lead work really shines and the track feels that it has some overall direction.  Not even a cover of Deep Purple's Highway Star rescues proceedings as the band try to close the record out with a bit of style.  The effort feels forced and rushed, like the track itself is forcibly taken out of context as opposed to the band putting their own stamp on it.  Very overrated record.

Stourbridge's finest made an entrance into the NWOBHM sphere way back in 1980.  Their debut album Lightning to the Nations had its fair share of classics to share with the fledgling metal community of the time.  Tracks such as Am I Evil, Helpless and the lurid Sucking My Love all got heads nodding and feet tapping respectfully along tho their catchy chorus' and infectious riffs.  Metallica famously covered Am I Evil adding to its value as a metal anthem.

The fact is though that beyond the "hits" the debut album was a tad flat.  Even the title track struggles to stand up that well for me and the album seems to feel like a track heavy EP as opposed to a full length.  The intention is all good but it is just not delivered that well in the main.  The barking and groovy riff to Sweet & Innocent isn't good enough to build a whole track around and it just becomes annoying really quickly.

The snappy guitar style on It's Electric again doesn't have the repute to hold for the whole track and naff lyrics just make for a boring and repetitive track.  Throughout much of the album though, songs are saved somewhat by the sublime lead work of Brian Tatler who remains one of the unsung heroes of guitar playing in the world of 80's metal.  His solos are a notch above most of everything else that is on the album here.  Everything is solid enough but also a bit drab in comparison.

Barring Tatler and Sean Harris' warbling vocals there's not much else to remember here from a decidedly average release that gets way too much attention and plaudits when compared to the finished product.

Five albums in and Motörhead actually were motoring.  On Parole aside the band was enjoying much success with their first three albums with Overkill and Bomber showing what the band were really capable of.  The established line up of Lemmy, Filthy and Fast Eddie had gelled together well and the momentum showed no sign of abating with the impending release of Ace of Spades.

The anthemic title track remains one of their best known songs to this day, but this record also has my personal favourite track, (We Are)The Roadcrew .  The rest of the album though is a bit of a mish-mash of full on speed metal paced rock 'n roll that doesn't all stick to the wall it gets flung against at near a million miles an hour.  Sticking to a tried and tested formula is all well and good and most definitely served the band well for the bulk of their career but here some tracks do just kind of pass you by.  Live to Win, Fast And Loose and Fire, Fire are particular victims of this despite the latter songs best efforts at a catchy chorus.

As much as I have played the hell out of this record, I never thought until today when I sat down to review it just how patchy it actually is.  I mean let's be clear here.  It is never terrible, in fact it doesn't stray into the territory of ever being bad even.  There's just a lot single tracks merging into one wall of entertaining yet very familiar sound. The album really needs a couple of more anthem like tracks to lift its stature that bit higher for me.

It seems almost bizarre to criticise a Motörhead album for following a set format and believe me, I ain't looking for no massive variety here just a bit more memorability.  After the lukewarm On Parole  the bar wasn't that high and I would argue that things didn't pick up again album wise until Orgasmatron some six years after this release.

I have never fully understood the draw of Manowar.  In fact I had (until today) always found their records to lack some degree of punch and power, certainly considering all their puffed up posturing at least. Whether it is an increase in tolerance levels with age or just the fact that I have been a dick all of these years and am finally coming round is open to interpretation, the fact is that despite half convincing myself I wasn't going to enjoy Hail to England I actually got on quite well with it.

Yes, it is still far too pompous and overbearing for me to all of a sudden be calling myself a fan of theirs, but I was actually impressed by the lead work of Ross on this album and although on more than one occasion my finger strayed dangerously close to the skip button I never once pressed it when Adams' vocals started to grate.  As most tracks got going there was a mental note to self that read something along the lines of "this is not going to get played through to the end", however a full thirty three minutes was heard.

There's a consistency here that you can't fight.  The album does exactly what it says on the tin. Sticks out it's chest, pulls back the shoulders and charges headlong into battle, raising epic tunes as it goes.  Considering this was released in 1984 it is a surprisingly full sounding record that is not afraid to do a fair share of shredding to entertain the listener.  On sheer lack of fucks to give rating the album gets five stars all day.  It goes too far on Black Arrows though, coming off as a poor man's Eddie Van Halen (although I applaud the effort), but it does right itself with Bridge of Death to close things strongly.

Taking it that everyday is a school day and you're never too old to click with a band you'd long since given up on I will chalk today as being a good day.

The frenzy surrounding W.A.S.P. and much of the early part of their career often disguised the fact that aside from them displaying what some felt to be shocking sexual audacity and beastly intent, they actually released one of the best debut albums of the time.  After the furore over Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) the band didn't bat an eyelid and got on with pushing their debut down the throats of whoever would listen.  Taking the traditional rock elements and adding more than a fair few coats of shock over the top still should not be the only reason Lawless and co are recognised for their achievements in metal.  The self-titled debut is strong, full of hooks and catchy lines that stayed in your head long after the curtain fell on any associated theatre.

The album might be seen as a romp in more ways than one but at the end of the day this was the album the band wanted to put out and it sounds like it too.  There genuinely were no fucks to be given on this record and the band made this record for nobody else other than themselves, the fact that not only did it wind the PMRC up to epic proportions but also went on to sell gold in the US and Canada only added to the irony of Tipper Gore and co's derision.

Anthems just kept coming from all sides on the album.  Whether it was I Wanna Be Somebody, L.O.V.E. Machine, Hellion or The Torture Never Stops the album was destined to stay in the hearts and heads of all who heard it.  The ability to write obtuse and shocking lyrics was tempered also by the fact that the same band could deliver softer tracks like Sleeping (In The Fire) and still retain that garrish edge whilst doing so.  W.A.S.P. weren't as primitive as people would have fans believe.

Yes, there's some filler on here (hence the 3.5 stars) but this was the debut and if ever there is a time to forgive a bit of filler it is on a bands first outing into full length release territory.  Rock out with your cock out folks!

This is perhaps one of the most succinct records in any genre of metal/hard rock.  At only six tracks in length and just over thirty minutes total run time, Rising does well to get its message across so impressively in such a short run time.  Opening track Tarot Woman probably showcases this ethos best of all the tracks on the record, with its galloping rhythm and melodic keys balanced against a catchy lyric sheet across a track that adds psychedelic tinges to embellish the very mystery of the lady in the song.  It is equal amounts classic Dio and Blackmore encapsulated in six minutes of well written hard rock.

Second track, Run With The Wolf  keeps the pace up nicely adding a more metal feel to proceedings as Dio applies his trademark grittyness to his vocal delivery, he seems to control the tempo of the track all by himself like some metal composer arranging his symphony around him.  The insanely catchy Starstruck soon follows with an almost cabaret beat that sees Blackmore firing licks left, right and centre over a rampant rhythm section.

The cheeky Do You Close Your Eyes continues the showy performance with its big chorus line constituted of the somewhat clumsy lyrics that Dio somehow still manages to make an impressive job of delivering.  By far the most impressive of the tracks on the album is Stargazer with a slow to mid-tempo soaring on warm uplifts from Carey's keys that give Blackmore's riffs a floating feeling, his eastern promise sliding lead work giving an added depth to an already lush and vibrant track.

Album closer A Light in the Black stands things down nicely being the second eight minute plus track that made up side B of the vinyl format.  This is a racey number to end on and works really well, letting things go out on an uptempo high instead of a brooding ballad.  This was Rainbow in their prime most definitely and it shows on this record.

Had Ronnie James Dio not left Black Sabbath the first time around there's every chance that Holy Diver would never have happened.  Shudder at that thought a moment before I get onto my dissection of arguably Dio's strongest release.  Holy Diver seems to be a route one "go to" album for most metal fans when talking about "all time top five/ten heavy metal records" lists, usually charting quite high in such conversations. 

This is because the title track, Stand Up And Shout, Gypsy, Don't Talk To Strangers, Invisible, Rainbow In The Dark are all bona fide classics.  I can even accept Caught In The Middle and Straight Through The Heart as part of the standout tracks on the album.  The flow and precision of the songwriting and individual performances across more or less all of these tracks is nothing short of excellent.  Whether we are looking at the stick work of Appice as he thunders his way through all nine tracks or the slick guitar work of Campbell, or even the rumbling persistence of the late Jimmy Bain, there's so much here to marvel at.  Dio of course is on top form as always here, by now an old hand at the frontman role having been at it on and off since 1957.

The record has hook after hook to latch onto and rarely puts a foot wrong for forty plus minutes.  Yes, the keyboards on Rainbow In The Dark are bit OTT and yes album closer Shame on the Night is probably a track too far all things considered but neither bring the whole record down overall.  Just as much at home on recorded format as in a packed out arena the majority of this album just oozes class and refinement.  A bunch of talented musicians got behind one of the most enigmatic frontmen that ever lived and the results were superb.

Jag Panzer hail from Colorado Springs,  having formied in the early 1980's with their brand of power/heavy metal getting them eventual attention from record labels leading to their debut being released in 1984.  The five piece's first full length offering showed lots of promise and the band certainly built a career from this foundation stone having been active on the release front from the terrible follow up to this in 1994 right up until 2017's The Deviant Chord.  For all of its promise there was also equal amounts of areas in definite need of improvement, with the vocal department about to fall under particular scrutiny on this review.

Vocally "The Tyrant" (Harry Conklin) is as over the top as his alias suggests.  The trend at the time was for vocalists to be as aggressive as possible, regardless of range capability or any semblance of natural talent.  Conklin certainly achieves parity with the trend of the time but it is does border on comedic on many occasions although I did  find myself crudely tolerant of his vocals as the record went on.  His gruff style is what all records like this need most definitely and considering this was their debut there is some slack to be cut him for trying too hard overall.

Thankfully, where the vocals manage to extend a negative influence on the entertainment value of the record, the instrumentation more than rescues proceedings.  Continuing the macho themed approach to heavy metal the album is full of charging guitars with attack-minded riffs and blazing leads, all supported thunderously well by the equally domineering drums.  In terms of rhythm the album is strong and has a real sense of full-on energy from more or less start to finish earning it's metal credentials well.

From what is a solid enough a foundation the band just go a little too over the top on the pomp on the vocal front but it is still near on impossible not to nod appreciatively along to it and stomp your foot at the same time.  Turmoil in the band was to mean that nothing else came out until 1994 and frankly it took its toll most certainly, despite its flaws Ample Destruction still has much cause for celebration.

The melodic black/folk/viking metal of Windir is perhaps an acquired taste.  With the late Valfar doing nearly everything on Arntor  (barring the drums) including the production and mixing job the album throws up traditional instrumentation such as guitars and keyboards as well as the more folky (or eclectic depending on your viewpoint) accordion for good measure.

To these ears, all the pieces do fit together, to a point at least.  The album celebrates well the historical and mythical aspects of the band's subject matter, embedding well the catchy alongside the more medieval/traditional sounds whilst giving enough space to the more melodic end of the black metal spectrum.  In terms of pace the album has a fair share of variety, adopting a range of always structured tempos that hold the attention well.  The focus is still heavily on the more folk/viking tinged aspect of the sound however and this will please fans of the sub-genre muchly.

You can't ignore the quality of the musicianship on show here with some superb lead work and racing riffage to boot that showcase Valfar's (and some then guest musicians who of course came to be full time band members from the next opus onwards) talent and panache.  The tracks feel well arranged in terms of their individual structure as well as their place in the album as a whole and the album has a real sense of flow.

It is a bit samey though and as such some tracks don't stand up on their own.  Some of this is due to the barrage of styles deployed and some of it due to a peddling of the same ideas that have already been explored on the record earlier.  It was still a step up from their debut however.  The band really hit their stride on 1184 in my opinion and given that record was still some two years away at the point of this release this was still a strong sophomore.