Daniel's Reviews

1984's "Vengeance Of Hell" album represents the debut full-length effort from a five-piece German outfit going by the name of Living Death. Well in truth they were actually only a four-piece by the time they entered the studio. Their drummer had quit just prior to the recording sessions commencing which meant that they were forced to engage a session drummer in order to complete the record as planned which isn’t a good start to be honest. But the band forged ahead regardless & the resulting album is worth mentioning as it was released just prior to the birth of the Teutonic thrash metal scene which (much like its more celebrated US brother) would develop its own Big Four in Kreator, Destruction, Sodom & Tankard.

And the reason that this is relevant is because “Vengeance Of Hell” isn’t a pure speed metal release. In fact, despite its general reputation for being a predominantly speed metal focused affair, I’d suggest that it's actually comprised of just as much traditional heavy metal & even a few tracks that qualify as legitimate thrash metal which would make Living Death the root of the Teutonic thrash scene; at least as far as proper album releases go. And as for that variation in style across the tracklisting, I’d suggest that it’s a pretty safe bet that what we’re hearing here is the progression of a band that started out as exponents of the classic heavy metal sound & subsequently decided to move into speed & thrash metal territory. Only they’ve recorded their debut album before they’d fully completed the transition which has left it sounding a little unfocused.

The record was released through Belgian label Mausoleum Records which was also the home of several other noteworthy European releases such as Ostrogoth’s “Ecstasy & Danger”, Wolf’s “Edge Of The World” & Warlock’s “Burning The Witches” but sadly time hasn’t seen Mausoleum being remembered too fondly by underground metal fans as they developed a bit of a reputation for inconsistent quality & less than acceptable production jobs. The Wolf record is a fine example of what I’m talking about here & sadly, Living Death would fall victim to the same production curse because “Vengeance Of Hell” sounds truly awful with the instruments all combined into one muddy & overly bass-heavy mess for the most part. There are even some inconsistencies across the tracklisting with noticeable changes in sound from one track to the next. The absolutely woeful “Riding A Virgin” is the worst example with the engineer having apparently forgotten to turn the guitars up to the same level as they are on the rest of the album. I’m honestly not sure how this can go through unnoticed or how the label could possibly deem it to be acceptable to release it like that. Perhaps they just thought that this particular song was so horrible that it really made very little difference & they’d probably be right because I’ve come across very few tracks that are as unlistenably bad as this one in my entire metal journey.

The main reason for that is front man Thorsten “Toto” Bergmann whose vocal delivery seems to take the more divisive aspects of Accept’s Udo Dirkschneider & Mercyful Fate’s King Diamond & amplify them until you almost can’t bare to listen to him any more. The dude simply can’t sing to save his life & it’s truly baffling that the three or four instrumentalists would all have agreed to play in a band with him at the helm. What’s even more strange is that there are some songs where he’s noticeably more tolerable than others; where he sticks to more traditionally acceptable techniques instead of inserting ridiculous banshee squeals or random psychotic rants all over the place. So one can only assume that some of this ridiculously inaccessible garbage was actually intentional! And when you throw in some sexually focused lyrical content that’s got less class than your average 13 year-olds slumber party it makes for a very challenging listen indeed. This is a real shame because the music behind Thorsten isn’t half bad.

The rhythm section don’t do anything particularly special but there are some light-speed riff assaults included here with Living Death challenging the likes of Anthrax for sheer velocity. The thrashier material is not too far removed from Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” while the more speed metal focused tracks have clearly been influenced by the faster Accept material with early Running Wild also springing to mind. Of the few more traditional heavy metal tracks, the half decent “Night Light” utilizes a mid-paced & crunchy AC/DC feel while the lone instrumental track “Labyrinth” is clearly an attempt to imitate Iron Maiden.

There’s some definite promise here but I can’t see that it was ever going to be fulfilled with this little attention to detail in the production & with a front man who frankly leaves you wringing your ears. Living Death would go on to bigger & better things in the near future so I see no real reason to subject yourself to this album.

Right from the word go you can tell that the unfortunately named Fleshrot were yet another one of quality UK death metal bands that seemed to be coming out of the woodwork at the time. The intensity & execution here are excellent. The vocals (a mixture of deeper death grunts & screaming insanity) are quite powerful & the drumming is lightning fast & very precise. When you throw in a typically disgusting Cannibal Corpse style front cover, it ticks all the right boxes to make a good brutal death metal album. And it is really. The only thing stopping "Traumatic Reconfiguration" from rating higher is a distinct lack of variation. I find if I listen to one or two tracks I am blown away by the pure energy of the furious blastbeats but if I listen to the album as a whole my interest gradually drops as all the tracks pretty much follow the same formula & that shock impact is lost a little. Some melodic guitar solos provide a little respite at times but if Fleshrot can incorporate some different elements into their sound they could be something really special. As it stands their sound is simply not original enough to have so little variation. Regardless, "Traumatic Reconfiguration" has loads of grunt & certainly offered the promise of more impressive things to come. Unfortunately it's now nine years on & we're still yet to see what that might amount to.

By 1984 we'd seen very little in the way of high quality speed metal from the Americans with only some very minor releases having seen the light of day. Future Megadeth & Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman’s early groups Hawaii & Vixen were probably the most noteworthy but also a band from New Jersey going by the name of The Beast who included future members of death metal bands like Ripping Corpse & Hate Eternal. However it wasn't until the debut studio album from New York’s Anthrax, a member of the exclusive Big Four of Thrash Metal & one of the biggest names in 80’s metal in general, that US speed metal began to put its name on the map.

Anthrax began life in Queens, New York back in July 1981 through guitarists Scott Ian & Dan Lilker with Ian choosing the band’s moniker after noticing it in a science class text book. As with most schoolyard bands, Anthrax went through a number of lineup changes early on with future White Lion drummer Greg D’Angelo & Nuclear Assault front man John Connelly amongst the various casualties. But things didn't really start to take shape until Ian brought in school mate Neil Turbin to handle the vocal duties. He also convinced Overkill guitarist Dan Spitz to jump ship & lured talented drummer Charlie Benante into the band so you’d imagine that he was a pretty persuasive character even from a very young age.

Two demo tapes were recorded in late 1982 & early 1983 & these allowed Anthrax to build up a friendship with Megaforce Records owner Jon Zazula which resulted in a recording contract. Zazula tested the waters with a 7” single by the name of “Soldiers Of Metal” (which was interestingly produced by Manowar guitarist Ross The Boss) before committing to put out the first full-length Anthrax album “Fistful Of Metal” in January 1984. One would imagine that Zazula was more than keen to continue to ride the wave he’d created with Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” only six months earlier & as with the Exciter debut, he recruited The Rods drummer Carl Canedy to handle the production duties. This was a role that Canedy seems to have performed very well because “Fistful Of Metal” sounds very good for the time & lacks none of the intense electricity of “Kill ‘Em All” but I’m sure that a lot of you are wondering why I'm referring to an Anthrax record in terms of speed metal when they've long been known as one of the undisputed gods of thrash.

Well to my ears “Fistful Of Metal” is definitely a transition record. Like most early thrash exponents, Anthrax began life as a traditional heavy metal band & slowly morphed into a full-blown thrash metal act over time & this record shows that progression quite well with equal attention being given to their early forays into the traditional heavy metal subgenre, their initial experiments with a much faster speed metal sound & their subsequent attempts at tackling a more rhythmic & aggressive thrash metal sound that had supposedly been taken on after experiencing Metallica. I actually can’t understand why “Fistful Of Metal” isn’t often referred to as US power metal because it seems to fit the bill really nicely & I think it sits pretty comfortably alongside the thrashier releases from that movement such as Laaz Rockit’s “City’s Gonna Burn” or Metal Church’s self-titled debut.

It was already very clear that Ian & Lilker had made some good choices with regards to the lineup as Anthrax already sounded like a class act from a purely technical point of view with Benante’s powerful drumming, Spitz’s flashy guitar solos & Ian’s precise rhythm guitar performance being amongst the main talking points. I don’t think this point should be underestimated actually as a lot of the early thrash releases showcased levels of musicianship that were still very much in their infancy but Anthrax were already pushing things into a more accomplished territory & I would guess that this would have had an impact on the rest of the scene.

Vocalist Neil Turbin’s performance has proven to be pretty polarizing over the years with many people unable to cope with his consistent use of high-pitched squeals. I don’t have a problem with him personally & think he does a reasonable job overall. His lower register delivery reminds me a lot of KISS’s Paul Stanley while those higher register screams fall very much into the territory of talented Manowar front man Eric Adams. The faster & thrashier tracks possess a sheer velocity that was unmatched at the time with Anthrax seeming to push the speed thing further than US thrash metal peers like Metallica & Slayer at this stage. I think the influence of more punk-driven outfits like DRI & Suicidal Tendencies was a major factor in this actually & Anthrax would keep that hardcore punk edge for quite a while yet.

The more traditional heavy metal material includes the regular use of Iron Maiden style guitar harmonies but I don’t think that Maiden were as big a factor in the make-up of the Anthrax sound as some people make out. There is far more Judas Priest & Metallica here than anything else with Anvil popping up occasionally too. The awful Alice Cooper cover version “I’m Eighteen” is the clear weak point of the album & was obviously something that was pushed by the record label as I believe that Scott Ian refused to have any part of the recording of that song with lead guitarist Dan Spitz handling the rhythm guitar duties in his place. I honestly have no idea what they were thinking with that one as it sounds nothing like the rest of the album. I can still remember the first time I heard it back in the late 80’s actually. I thought that it sounded a lot like KISS & not in a good way. The more aggressive material often borrows more than a little bit from Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” but the sheer energy on display is quite infectious & it’s hard not to enjoy yourself. Unfortunately though, the record does tend to peter out over the last few tracks & this is mainly because the back end is predominantly made up of the older Anthrax demo material which doesn’t seem to be as closely in line with where the band were at musically at that point in time.

Overall, I consider “Fistful Of Metal” to be a pretty fun if flawed metal debut. It’s certainly the weakest of the three Big Four debuts released to the time however I do think it’s a little underrated. Sadly, it would be the only Anthrax album for Neil Turbin & Dan Lilker with both of them being fired shortly after release. Neil would never amount to anything substantial as far as metal music goes despite releasing a solo album & being involved in another couple of other failed ventures whereas Dan would go on to have a very successful metal career with a number of other quality metal outfits.

Australian technical death metallers Entrails Eradicated were first brought to my attention back in 2012 when I read that they had picked up one of the highly sought after support slots for the upcoming Cannibal Corpse Australian Torture tour due to take place in October of that year. I generally like to take the opportunity to check out the support bands in advance to see if they're worth rocking up early for so I tracked down this EP. Rightly or wrongly the bands name left me with the immediate impression that Entrails Eradicated would sit comfortably inside the confines of the brutal/slam death metal genre which was fine by me as I’ve always loved the more brutal end of the extreme metal spectrum. However the band may live to regret going for a title like Entrails Eradicated as it will immediately bias people against them if brutal death metal is not their genre of choice. Those thoughts were reinforced once I’d actually checked out the bands material which is certainly more ambitious than what your average brutality merchant has on offer. 

Entrails Eradicated is the brainchild of Jim Parker who decided to form an as-yet-untitled technical death metal band in Perth, Western Australia in 2007. Jim recorded a single promo track with the title “Entrails Eradicated” which appears in a renamed form on this E.P. under the title “Harnessing Gravitational Endurance”. He then used the promo to attract talented musicians from the local Perth death metal scene. Guitarist Lynton Cessford (Gallows For Grace/Malignant Monster) was recruited alongside vocalist Tarren Whitfield (Visceral Mutation/ex-Grotesque) & drummer Ben Craig (Arterial Hemmorrhage/Blowtorch Abortion) to form a very experienced & competent death metal unit. It seems the band elected not to recruit a permanent bass player as I can find no record of one ever existing. I can only assume that they've used a session bassist when recording or that Jim has played the basslines himself (which would be no mean feat if that is the case). Once some more material was written the band decided on the band name & recorded a single track promo for “Impending Annihilation” (2008) & a two track one featuring “Collapsible Continuum” & “Viralocity” (2009) which are all present on this EP. 

The next step for Entrails Eradicated was obviously to get a proper release on the shelves so the decision was made to self-finance the recording of an E.P. showcasing their best material to date. Hence this E.P. was recorded in April 2010 & rushed out to coincide with the band’s debut live performance at the 2010 Bali Extreme Metal Fest on 12th June 2012.  It strikes me as a strange release really. The fact that the whole E.P. clocks in at just over 15 minutes (which amounts to about 10 minutes of metal after you exclude the intros & interludes) & that it only really includes one previously unrecorded song of 1:18 in duration hints that this is all of the material the band had to work with after 3 years together. That’s really not a lot of material. But in saying that, all of the older material here has had plenty of time to evolve & is now very tight & well presented. 

Intro track “Visceral Winds” strikes me as something I’d expect Morbid Angel to use as an introduction to their live shows. It’s a menacing gothic march full of the type of foreboding atmosphere that made Wojciech Kilar’s soundtrack to the 1992 “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” film so captivating. The similarities are striking & I’d guess that they are probably not a coincidence. 

“Harnessing Gravitational Endurance” blasts in quite suddenly at the conclusion of “Visceral Winds” & gives us a good taste of what Entrails Eradicated have on offer here. It was an obvious selection for the opening song as it is the most brutal track of the five. I think it's probably my favourite track too which is in no small part due to a slightly more straight-forward approach than the other more recent tracks. I believe they open with this track when playing live too which is not too surprising either. It’s immediately evident that Entrails Eradicated’s sound follows a similar path to ultra-technical death metal bands like Origin (USA) & Obscura (Germany). Everything flies past at lightspeed. The riffs are highly technical with sweep-picking being used heavily in the riffs. The drumming is frenetic throughout with a heavy use of blast beats. No time can be spared for breakdowns or guitar solos as Entrails Eradicated prefer to use that time for dark ambient/industrial interludes & outros like the one at the end of this track. 

If “Harnessing Gravitational Endurance” doesn’t immediately grab your attention then I wouldn't bother moving forwards as subsequent tracks like “Impending Annihilation” & “Viralocity” (for which they released a promotional video) are very much along the same lines. The new inclusion “Disintegrating Complex Entities” is a short sharp blast that doesn’t really give you time to think before it’s all over. “Collapsible Continuum” is probably the least impressive track due to its heavy reliance on neo-classical guitar riffs. This is probably a good time to tell you that I am NOT a fan of the whole sweep-picked riff trend that is plaguing the death metal scene at the moment & Entrails Eradicated use it fairly heavily in every track which I find particularly wanky. It would be so much more impressive & exciting to hear if it was used more sparingly. There is also a strong case here for including more variation in tempo & style but it seems the band are pretty happy with their constantly fast & brutal approach. Time shall tell whether that will keep listeners interested over multiple releases; especially over the course of a full-length album.  

 Lyrically, all of the tracks on the E.P. are interlinked by a common concept. The idea is that all of the negative energy being created by the human race will eventually be absorbed by the Earth & will result in the planet itself becoming an all-consuming incurable virus that infects the rest of the cosmos at an ever-increasing rate. So “viralocity” is basically a virus travelling faster than the speed of light. Ooookkkaaayyy!! So it’s a bit of a far-fetched idea but at least it’s something different from the run-of-the-mill guts-&-gore style followed by most other brutal death metal bands. 

Entrails Eradicated were lucky enough to be able to secure the artistic skills of the legendary Jon Zig for the cover art. If you're reading this review then you will definitely be familiar with Jon’s work on dozens of brutal death metal albums from bands such as Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Inherit Disease, Septical Gorge, etc. Here he has managed to present the bands concept very well with a depiction of mutated humans being sucked from the Earth by the viralocity (which is displayed as a big spiraling tunnel of evil). It’s pretty suitable really. 

There can certainly not be any doubting the musical abilities of the band members. Both guitarists put in faultless displays of virtuosity here. They certainly look the part too. The promotional video for “Viralocity” shows they are both heavily tattooed & look suitably impressive whilst thrashing away over their matching BC Rich Ironbird guitars. Drummer Ben Craig takes a more brutal approach than other technical death metal drummers. There are none of the progressive fills here. Ben is more focused on blinding speed & precision & he pulls it off very well indeed. The triggered snare sound could probably do with some work as it’s not as powerful as it could be but the rest of the production is very good. The guitars are up higher in the mix than the drums but everything is clear. The bass playing is exceptional too so I’d really like to know who is responsible for it. There are plenty of bass sweeps & tapping employed to good effect. Vocalist Tarren performs admirably too with a combination of deep gutteral & higher pitched screaming employed throughout. 

Overall, while I am very impressed with most elements of “Viralocity”, it is still lacking in one key department. As impressive as the technicality is it doesn’t really demand repeat listens. I find this to be a common problem with this particular sub-genre of death metal. Entrails Eradicated are a bit of a one-trick-pony in this respect. They need to work on writing more memorable songs with more variation as otherwise a full-length album in this style is going to become stale pretty quickly. Apparently the band has been writing material for their debut full-length for many years now so there’s been plenty of time for them to reflect on things & to develop accordingly. Why do I get the feeling that we are in for more of the same though? Regardless, fans of the new breed of technical death metal bands will not be disappointed with “Viralocity” as it fulfills what it set out to do very well indeed. It certainly did enough for me to ensure that I showed up early to see what they were like in a live environment later on that year. Unfortunately the experience was ruined by some awful sound problems.

A high class example of modern thrash metal with some excellent musicianship & crystal clear production. The music is very much in the style of Exodus who seem to have been a massive influence on the new school of thrash bands. I like the more aggressive vocal style & the guitar solos are very well executed. There's even the odd blast beat thrown in for good measure. Although this is not a classic for the genre, I think it is one of the better thrash metal albums I've heard in a while.

1984 saw the Danes starting to elaborate on the amazing contribution that Mercyful Fate had made to heavy metal with a few promising (if less substantial) offerings. Witch Cross would be one of the prominent representatives & they championed a more classic brand of heavy metal that steers well clear of the gloss & frills that a band like Pretty Maids was pushing. They were a five-piece outfit who hailed from the city of Kobenhavn which is the very same city that spawned King Diamond & his cronies.

Witch Cross first formed way back in 1979 so it took them a full five years to get their debut studio album “Fit For Fight” onto the shelves following a couple of demos & a 7” single. And sadly, it would prove to be the band’s ONLY major release for almost 30 YEARS as Witch Cross are yet another one of those underground European bands that have jumped on the reformation bandwagon in recent times. And when you think about it, it’s not terribly surprising as, much like countrymen Pretty Maids' "Red, Hot & Heavy" debut from the same year, this release has gone on to become one of the elite examples of the classic heavy metal sound to come out of Denmark. If anything though, this might be a good representation of just how scarce quality heavy metal has been in the country because this is not a classic release by any stretch of the imagination. Enjoyable… sure… but nothing terribly special.

For starters, the production quality is very poor & you’d really struggle to differentiate this from the myriad of underground NWOBHM 7” singles that had flooded the market in the previous few years. It’s got that authentic early 80’s feel that, despite it’s primitive nature, seems to have an endearing quality that makes what might seem like a shitty production on the surface strangely morph into a more appealing result. I have to admit that I kinda fall for it in a way & I’m not too sure how I would feel about the record if it had a more polished production job like Pretty Maids went for. This just seems to have some serious street cred going for it & I like that. There’s a thick layer of distortion sitting over the top of everything that saps some of the power out of the band but it doesn’t manage to restrain the raw energy of Witch Cross who seem to have a very good understanding of the ins & outs of making decent NWOBHM style heavy metal.

It’s often easy to discount the level of musicianship on records like this. When the production sounds this shitty I often see people tending to overlook that element of the band & assume that the musicians skills are also primitive but that’s not always the case; as witnessed here. These guys can all play their instruments with the lead guitarists & vocalist being particularly capable. In fact, the guitar solos & the performance of front man Alex Savage are the clear highlights of the album & they manage to overcome some inconsistent song-writing to make this a worthwhile listen for old metalheads like me. Alex possesses some serious talent & his higher register delivery is quite distinctive in the way it cuts through the mix & soars over the top of the instrumentalists. I’ve often read people comparing him to Riot’s Tony Moore but there’s a little bit of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan about him during his more operatic moments with a couple of his most extravagant screams drawing comparisons with Mercyful Fate’s King Diamond. But that’s not the only place I can hear a little Fate actually. The guitar solos really do seem to have a similar feel to the ones I loved so much on the early Fate releases & that could be related to the fact that “Fit For Fight” was recorded at Easy Sound Studios with producer Henrik Lund; the very same combination that produced those classic Mercyful Fate releases. It’s strange then that the rest of the production job sounds so sub-par though given the stature of the tools at the band’s disposal though. Oh well… I’m sure there’s a story of some sort behind that.

Musically, this is very much in line with the NWOBHM model of heavy metal & as with most New Wave releases there is a hard rock track included in the very ordinary “Rocking The Night Away” but the rest of the material leaves you under no misapprehensions that this is anything other than a pure metal release & it even touches of speed metal on occasion. The influence of bands like Iron Maiden & Judas Priest is very clear but I can also hear a fair bit of US heavy metallers Riot as well as German hard rock legends Scorpions at times during the more commercially focused moments.

I like the band’s sound & concept quite a lot but unfortunately the inconsistent song-writing leaves “Fit For Fight” just creeping over the line in the end. The strength of the highlight tracks is barely able to hold on following some of the simpler & more generic sounding tracks. Sadly, this would be the last time we'd hear from frontman Alex Savage. He went on to join a Led Zeppelin cover band after his time in Witch Cross & didn’t appear in the reunited version of the band which is a bit of a shame.

Up until the mid-80's the Danes hadn’t been a regular contributor to the global heavy metal phenomenon with only the legendary & highly influential Mercyful Fate making much of an impact on the early European scene. But 1984 would see that start to change quite quickly with three or four Danish releases making a notable impact, including one that came from a five-piece outfit from Horsens sporting the particularly lame moniker of Pretty Maids. Now why in Satan’s name any budding young metal musician would choose that name for their band is beyond me. In fact, they actually began their career under the name Pretty Pretty Panick which isn’t much better it has to be said. Both clearly point to a product that’s far more likely to sound like the LA glam metal scene than anything else but while there’s an undeniable influence here it would be very unfair to toss Pretty Maids in with the likes of Warrant or Poison.

The band’s story began in 1981 with a self-financed demo resulting in a recording deal with English record label Bullet Records. A self-titled & quite well respected six-song EP would finally see the light of day in 1983 & it would see Pretty Maids making a very successful trek to the UK where they would showcase their strong live show. The buzz around the band saw them upgrading their recording contract with CBS Records in 1984 & the band’s debut album “Red, Hot & Heavy” would see the light of day later the same year; an album that would go on to be quite a success.

Now the first thing you’ll notice about the “Red, Hot & Heavy” album is the professionalism of the overall package. The quality of the sound production is very good for the time & this is certainly a long way from the primitive NWOBHM debuts that had flooded the market in the earlier part of the 80's. In fact, the New Wave is at the complete other end of the spectrum to Pretty Maids. There’s a lot more polish & gloss about them with more expansive arrangements including the extensive use of keyboards & other random studio effects. But that’s not necessarily a good thing mind you. I don't use the term “over-produced” all that often but this album is a fine example of an over-produced record. The use of keyboards & additional frills is excessive & I think this element only has a negative impact on the overall result. Fans of European power metal might disagree on that though because I can hear a lot of influence on the later European scene here.

Vocalist Ronnie Atkins has a fairly broad range of styles in his repertoire & for every cleaner & more melodic phrase you’ll get a more aggressive & grunty passage that reminds me quite a bit of Tank’s Algy Ward at times. The musicianship is excellent & it’s very clear that Pretty Maids are more than capable musicians. If I’m honest, the combination of skilled musicality & bright production values is a bit of a drawcard for me despite the overly zealous production.

Musically, I’d suggest that this is a traditional heavy metal album at its core. I’ve seen numerous examples of people claiming it as a rock record but that’s definitely not the case. Having said that though there are definitely a few more rock driven tracks with a couple sounding perfectly suited to the glam metal label. Actually, you can tell that Pretty Maids have cut their teeth playing a more commercial brand of hard rock music in the way that they handle themselves. There’s a very strong focus on melody here that can overstep the cheese line at times but it’s hard to deny the quality of most of the hooks on offer; even in the cheesier songs on the tracklisting. Sure there are a couple of weaker numbers here but nothing too awful with a fairly consistent level of quality. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a definitely power metal edge to a couple of the songs & the use of keyboards provides an even tighter link to that particular subgenre but fear not… it’s not all cheesy pop hooks here. Some of the more metal material is pretty exciting & Pretty Maids even reach speed metal intensity on a couple of tracks.

To summarize, this is a more than decent heavy metal album. I don’t love the overall concept but the execution provides more than enough to keep me interested. Pretty Maids remind me a lot of Danish hard rockers Krokus in that way. Krokus are nothing more than AC/DC clones which on paper doesn’t sound like something I’d have much time for but in practice I find their impressive delivery very hard to resist & I feel a similar way about Pretty Maids. I'd recommend you give it a crack if you like a more polished & professional brand of European heavy metal.

Some pretty promising Greek technical death metal with strong jazz influences. Needs to tighten up a bit before they can compete with the big boys. There is a very strong Atheist/Cynic influence although Echidna are differentiated by the use of blast beats on occasions. The vocals in particular sound very similar to Kelly Shaefer (Atheist). Ultimately the songwriting is not quite strong enough to maintain interest for the whole album but I can see potential. It will be interesting to see what they can do with some label backing.

Some very brutal death metal on display here & it certainly has its moments however Defeated Sanity have pretty much ripped their sound directly from Suffocation's "Effigy Of The Forgotten". They sound exactly the same as Suffocation for the most part but go way overboard with the technicality thing which doesn't give the listener much of a chance to really dig their teeth into any of the chunky riffs on display. The unintelligible vocals sound exactly like Frank Mullen (Suffocation) too. The jazzier drumming & bass parts sound pretty ridiculous with the gutteral vocals. Am I the only one who thinks that the modern brutal death metal bands are going overboard with the blast beats? I think that once blast beats pass a certain speed they sound like a parody of themselves & lose all their intensity. Worth a listen but very overrated.

Some fairly standard UK death metal which you've heard many times before. Dead Beyond Buried have clearly spent quite a bit of time listening to Morbid Angel as the influence is quite obvious. Unfortunately "Inheritors Of Hell" doesn't stand up too well in comparison. The production is fairly muddy & the musicianship is nothing special. There are none of the wonderful captivating Trey Azagthoth style guitar solos on show & John Biscomb is certainly no Pete Sandoval. However, having said all of this, there are some riffs on here that show some promise & I wouldn't discount some good material coming from this band in the future once they find their own sound.

This fourth full-length album from French black metallers Celestia doesn't really present anything new or attractive. It's run-of-the-mill black metal with simple generic riffs & a less than exciting atmosphere. I just find it to be quite dull to be honest.

US band Castavet's debut album "Mounds Of Ash" is a very good example of avant-garde black metal. They've hit on a sound that is fairly original & progressive but still manages to fit comfortably into the black metal genre. In fact they remind me of Norway's Ved Buens Ende quite a bit at times. There are some moments here that don't quite work (such as the intro section of "Mounds Of Ash") but these are made up for by the brilliance of other sections (such as opener "Red Star Sans Chastity"). The production, whilst not being incredible, does the band no harm & the musicianship is good. I'd like to see a darker atmosphere on future releases (perhaps some keyboards too) but I find this to be a promising debut that suggests that Castavet may be bound for bigger & better things.

Ereb Altor may as well have called this album "A Tribute To Bathory" because they have simply remade "Hammerheart" here. That's not necessarily such a bad thing but they've missed most of the tension & intensity that Quorthon was so masterful at creating. However "The End" is pretty well written & performed & will definitely gain some interest. The band will have to find some originality if they're to win me over though. Ereb Altor should do a bit more research into how Bathory achieved such heights without sounding cheesy which cannot be said of some moments here.

Mid-1980s style death/thrash in the vein of early Dark Angel, Kreator & Possessed with a suitably raw production. If you are into that sound & can look past the poor musicianship you will probably enjoy this but it's certainly not on the same level as the bands Chronic Decay are attempting to emulate. The "Iron Man/Darkness Descends" cover at the end is entirely unnecessary too.

Turkey's Cenotaph have given us a pretty generic brutal death metal album here. It's fast & intense throughout but there is really very little to distinguish the tracks apart from each other. I'm not sure about everyone else but I find the vocals to be pretty annoying as it seriously doesn't sound like he is even trying to make any type of actual words. It just sounds like one long groan throughout the album. Plenty of pinch harmonics going on. Another area where Cenotaph need improvement is in song structure & overall tightness. The elite bands like Suffocation have a way of balancing the technicality with song structures that flow nicely instead of jumping around all over the place randomly. Cenotaph don't possess this skill yet. This album is not bad by any means but it's not something I'd listen to again.

Some fairly uneventful & generic death metal in the vein of Incantation's "Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse". It includes a similarly raw production but doesn't offer much energy or originality.

Swedish four-piece outfit Gotham City formed in the city of Umea in Sweden in 1980 & would quickly assume a moniker whiich one would assume is a reference to Batman which is not a particularly metal subject matter it has to be said. It’s certainly not one that does anything for the common consensus that metalheads are generally nerdy pimple-faced virgins anyway… & we know all too well that that idea is long way from the truth, don’t we? Well at least I do.

Gotham City had kicked off their recorded music career with a well-regarded six song EP by the name of “Black Writs” in 1983 which I must admit I’m still yet to hear but from all reports it suffers from a noticeable lack of talent in the vocal department. Thankfully though, that message seems to have gotten back to the band because Gotham City’s lone full-length studio album “The Unknown” features a brand new front man who is apparently a vast improvement on the original. To be fair, Anders Zackrisson does seem to hint that he might possess a little bit of talent. He champions a fairly unintimidating & accessible voice that I’d guess would probably feel more appropriate out the front of a rock band rather than a metal one but I have to say that his execution isn’t amazing here. He’s noticeably pitchy at numerous stages across the tracklisting & these failings go a long way to distracting me from the better riffs on offer which doesn’t help Gotham City’s cause too much.

Musically, this record sits extremely close to the New Wave model of traditional heavy metal. In fact, so much so that you’d never guess that “The Unknown” came from another part of Europe. The production is very raw & noisy which was a very common characteristic of New Wave debuts. Could this possibly be a conscious decision from the band so as to sound as close to their idols as possible? It’s a definite possibility & if that’s the case then they couldn’t have succeeded much better than they have really. Equally so is the instrumentation which sees Gotham City readily incorporating all of the typical NWOBHM tools like galloping rhythms & guitar harmonies. There’s little doubt that Iron Maiden have played a pretty major role in Gotham City’s sound but to their credit the band have steered well away from blatant plagiarism even if they never sound all that original either. I often hear a fair bit of classic Black Sabbath in some of the heavier riffs employed which can’t be a bad thing & although I wouldn’t say it’s all that obvious there’s a subtle punk rock edge to some of this material. Despite that, there’s a surprising amount of compositional maturity here but sadly the band’s technical limitations leave the album sounding a little too much like a cheap home-made demo tape. The drums sound a little loose although definitely not helped by the production & the guitar performances are predominantly pretty weak. Especially the guitar solos which I regard as being well below par by this stage in the heavy metal game. Thankfully for us metalheads, you won’t hear too much of the hard rock influence that was engrained in most of the NWOBHM material over the previous 5 years. This is a pure heavy metal release with a few of the tracks even dipping their toes into genuine speed metal territory & one song “See How It Flyes” even appearing to be one of the earliest examples of European power metal.

There are a couple of pretty decent songs here but sadly “The Unknown” suffers from a real lack of quality in the song-writing, production & performances. It could also do with more of a defined identity as this simply sounds far too similar to the now-waning NWOBHM sound that was quickly being overtaken by the Americans. I guess Gotham City just sound a little safe & tame in comparison. Not to mention a little dated given that they’ve kinda missed the boat with the New Wave sound. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to toss Gotham City into the same basket as their countrymen Heavy Load as simply not being for me.

I first noticed Disentomb whilst browsing through a Terrorizer magazine back in 2010. I remember being really excited to see an advertisement for an Australian brutal death metal band as they’re few & far between these days. There was a nice glossy picture of the album cover & everything looked very professional. I immediately put Disentomb on my list of bands to check out. And I fully intended to but as it turns out I didn’t get around to it until a couple of years later when I saw their name on the list of supports for the Cannibal Corpse Australian Torture tour alongside Perth-based technical death metallers Entrails Eradicated. After I’d bought my ticket to the Sydney show I had no excuse not to give them a run.  

Disentomb vocalist Jordan Philp & guitarist Jake Wilkes were childhood friends growing up in Brisbane, Queensland. They became interested in metal music together through albums like Morbid Angel’s “Formulas Fatal To The Flesh” & Napalm Death’s “Punishment In Capitals” when they were around 11 or 12 before being lured into the more brutal end of the death metal spectrum. The idea of putting together their own band was discussed in late 2008 with Jake suggesting that they name themselves after a song title from Disgorge’s “Cognitive Lust Of Mutilation” demo (1992). Eventually Disentomb began writing original material in March 2009 & wasted no time in putting together some songs for a promo CD which they released in August 2009. The promo (featuring the tracks “Subterranean Burial” & “Gutted” which were both rerecorded for the album) showed quite a bit of promise & its blend of speed & brutality immediately interested me however I couldn’t quite get past the sloppiness of the performance. I felt that if the band tightened up & worked on their precision that the debut album could be something really worth listening to as I really liked the sound & concept.  

 Regardless, the two-track promo certainly did the trick as they received immediate interest & signed a single album deal with Amputated Vein Records within two months of its release. The next year was spent writing material for the album & “Sunken Tomb Of Nephilim” was released in November 2010. Italian artist Marco Hasmann designed the cover art based on a concept the band had come up with. It depicts two demons tearing a human to shreds in a particularly hellish environment & is fairly standard fare for the brutal death metal sub-genre. Having said that, it really does sum up the lyrical theme of the album which combines your typical gore-inspired material with anti-religious themes. After reading the lyrics to some of these tracks it becomes pretty obvious that God & his buddies are not on Disentomb’s Christmas card list.  

The first thing I noticed when I cranked the album on my car stereo was that the overall production is very different from the promo (which was apparently recorded in their rehearsal room using mobile equipment). It’s much more compressed & lacks the brightness of the promo. The guitar sound in particular comes out quite muddy. I certainly like the sound on the promo much better. The bands style hasn’t progressed much in the year since the promo either which isn’t really too surprising when you consider that they had still only been together for such a short time. There are no bold attempts at anything too original but that’s not usually a huge factor for the brutal death metal audience as experimentation can often be seen as “selling out”. I can detect strong Disgorge, Suffocation & Defeated Sanity influences & there is no doubt that Disentomb are right up there from a brutality point of view. They spend the majority of the album blasting you into submission but still include some slower slam style sections here & there.  

Unfortunately the technical deficiencies that were evident on the promo are just as evident here. Jake & bassist Tom “Pox” Joice are in a constant battle to stay in time with drummer Henri Sison during the faster & more technical sections. I don’t like to be too harsh but I honestly don’t think Henri was up to playing this material yet & that’s particularly noticeable during periods of prolonged blasting where things get very messy & out of control. The slower crunchier parts are very heavy & I can really get into them so I’d like to see more of those parts in future. Jord’s vocals are exceptionally effective over those sections too. Death vocals don’t come much more deep & gutteral than these & I don’t mind Jord’s style. Don’t try to make out a single word of his lyrics though because you will be unsuccessful. Tom’s bass performance is generally pretty decent without being terribly ambitious. The compressed nature of the production makes it difficult for him to shine here but he certainly fills out the bottom end. The sludgy guitar sound & the sloppiness of the drumming don’t do guitarist Jake any favours but he performs admirably enough too. Chunky palm-muted & tremolo-picked US death metal riffs are the order of the day with occasional use of pinch harmonics. I think a few guitar solos wouldn’t go astray to break things up a bit.  It’s difficult to pick out highlight tracks as the combination of the compressed production & the chaotic performances ensure that the songs don’t really stand out from each other too much & are also not terribly memorable.  

There is certainly plenty of promise shown on “Sunken Tomb Of Nephilim” but I don’t see myself giving it too many repeat listens. It might be interesting to see how Disentomb develop over their next couple of releases though & they certainly put on a brutal live show.

Carach Angren deserve a pat on the back for effort here as they've clearly put a lot of time & effort into this album. "Death Came Through A Phantom Ship" is a concept album chock full of blasting symphonic black metal & theatrical interludes. The band's performance is very tight & all the instruments are well separated & audible although the mix could've been quite bit heavier because the guitars & drums sound a bit weak. All of the black metal vocals are intelligible & you can comfortably follow the storyline. This is probably a bit of a turn-off for me as I really don't get into the Cradle Of Filth style theatrics & the storyline seems like a bit of a wank to me. The roleplay tends to downplay the aggression of the riffs in my opinion. The music also follows the storyline to an extent & I would just prefer the band to write evil black metal (which they are quite clearly capable of) rather than the over-the-top symphonic theatrics. All of the tracks are pretty good but nothing really stands out & makes me gurn like a bitch. So yeah... nothing much to see here people.

The "Robin Hood:Men In Tights" of black metal.

Blood Of Kingu is a solo project from Roman Saenko who is well know for his work under various different names such as Hate Forest, Dark Ages & Drudkh. Roman's second release under the Blood Of Kingu moniker, entitled "Sun In The House Of The Scorpion", is one beast of an album. It's great to hear black metal with this kind of aggression but also with a fair dose of atmosphere. The vocals in particular are some of the most powerful I have heard in a long time. They almost sound inhuman & are far closer to a death metal growl than your traditional black metal shriek. I have absolutely no idea what is being said & I find it strange that no lyrics are available as I had read about the projects interesting subject matter.

The epic "Incantation Of He Who Sleeps" is the highlight track with it's incredibly powerful mid-paced first five minutes giving way to some ferocious blasting in the second half. The sound is generally pretty good for this style of music & presents the instrumentation well. My only gripe with this release is that the musicianship is not as strong as it could have been. I'd just like to see everything tightened up a bit. I'd also like to see more of the powerful mid-paced sections instead of a constant blast feast. The tribal interludes could be incorporated into the overall sound a bit better too. As they are, they seem almost out of place surrounded by the rest of the material. Regardless, if you like your black metal of the raw & ferocious variety then this release should satisfy your tastes nicely.

There is an incredible amount of musicianship on show on this release. I cannot even start to think of how much time this band spends scripting each of these tracks. This is probably the most technical metal release I have ever heard. But this is also it's downfall. There is just too much going on. I find that I can't latch onto anything. They need more repetition otherwise everything just goes over my head. All the instrumentalists are amazing. The vocals alternate between a Phil Anselmo style growl & a clean style similar to Linkin Park. The Meshuggah influence is very clear. All the elements are here for some crunching metal tunes but I just think that Periphery needs to tone down the technicality a bit in order for people to be able to follow what's going on & find hooks that stay in your head for more than a second. It's very hard to go nuts to music like this.

Very basic old-school black metal which reminds me of early Burzum & Darkthrone with touches of Celtic Frost. Unfortunately this release in far too simple & I become bored very quickly. There is very little atmosphere or originality on offer. The shrieking vocals are very much in a Varg Vikernes style while the riffs are pretty unadventurous with basic power chords being the order of the day. How Terrorizer magazine found a 9/10 review in this album is anyone's guess!

Wow! It's really refreshing to hear something as original as this. AtomA have combined a vast array of influences (including progressive metal/rock, post-rock, ambient & even trance) to create a truly epic sound that is heavily reliant on synthesizers & dreamy vocals. I'm not really sure this can be called metal as the vast majority has nothing to do with metal music at all. I really love the peaks & troughs format with lots of deep sections as well as huge climaxes & the attention to detail in the soundscapes on offer here is noteworthy. There are some moments where things get a little too trancey (ie cheesy/girly) for my liking but overall this is a quality release & I look forward to hearing more from AtomA in the future.

Lars Johan Yngve Lannerback (otherwise known as Yngwie J. Malmsteen) was born into a musical family in Stockholm in 1963 & formed his first band at just twelve years of age. As a teenager he immersed himself in classical music with 19th Century Italian violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini & 18th Century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach becoming a complete obsession. But it was years earlier when a seven year-old Yngwie first saw that famous footage of Jimi Hendrix smashing & burning his guitar on stage that he knew where his destiny would ultimately lead him. Deep Purple & Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quickly began to compete with the classical composers for a young Yngwie’s attention & he began developing an innovative & virtuosic technique that would see him redefining what was possible with the guitar a decade later.

In 1978, Yngwie recorded a demo tape that would end up in the hands of Shrapnel Records label head Mike Varney in the United States in 1982. Mike was obsessed with guitar heroes but the potential he heard in this young shredder was on another level to anything he’d previously encountered. So when Mike’s new Shrapnel recruits Steeler agreed to upgrade their guitarist in 1983 Mike new just the guy for the job. He contacted Malmsteen who was easily convinced to relocate to the United States to chase his rock star dream. Yngwie’s short tenure in Steeler saw him becoming the main drawcard for the band's self-titled debut album & this resulted in an offer to join one of his idols in former Rainbow & MSG front man Graham Bonnett with his new hard rock outfit Alcatrazz. After blazing away on their debut studio album “No Parole For Rock ‘n’ Roll” as well as a subsequent live album, Yngwie was offered a solo deal with Polydor Records which would see him releasing his “Yngwie J.Malmsteen’s Rising Force” album in 1984.

Now I’ve had an extremely long relationship with this record so revisiting it has opened up more than the odd memory from my childhood. I first discovered Yngwie through a song called “Heaven Tonight” from his 1988 album “Odyssey” & picked up the full album a short time later. I can distinctly remember my absolute amazement at what this guy was capable of upon first encountering him. I was well acquainted with the guitar hero concept at the time but Yngwie was in league all of his own. The style of the music wasn’t exactly my cup of tea but I was thoroughly enthralled with what this guitarist was doing with his instrument so I found myself continually returning for more. I quickly accumulated the rest of Yngwie’s back catalogue in the first three albums “Rising Force”, “Marching Out” & “Trilogy” & as much as I don’t like to admit it, I have a strong knowledge of all of them. But it really was the debut that was the most influential on me. Partly because it’s more instrumental than the others & leaves a lot less room for cheesy vocal & keyboard hooks. But that’s certainly not all there is to it because this record really did sound like nothing else that was available at the time & it managed to define a new subgenre in the process. 

Rising Force was somewhat of an international super group with Yngwie having recruited former Jethro Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow, Swedish keyboard virtuoso Jens Johansson (who would later go on to play for Dio & Stratovarius) & talented hard rock singer Jeff Scott Soto (who would later go on to front well-known US AOR group Journey) while he opted to fill the empty bass guitar role himself. There’s no question that the sum of those talents combine to form a pretty powerful heavy metal unit but you rarely lose sight of the band leader as his virtuosity often defies believe.

The production job isn’t ideal as the rhythm guitars are somewhat dwarfed by the rhythm section but this leaves plenty of room for the lead guitar tracks which is understandable I guess. I would definitely have preferred some more power from the rhythm guitar tracks though. Interestingly the engineering & mixing of “Rising Force” was handled by a gentlemen by the name of Lester Claypool who would later go on to make a name for himself as the fantastically talented bass-playing front man from Californian funk metallers Primus. 

Now you may or may not have heard of the term “neoclassical metal” before but this record is certainly the origin of this fairly niche subgenre. You can very clearly hear Yngwie’s classical background & he seems to have developed an entirely new method for playing the guitar by trying to replicate the enormously talented Pagganini’s violin technique with enormously wide vibrato, ridiculously precise & impossibly speedy melodic runs & a little-known & extremely challenging right-hand technique known as sweep-picking that would soon take the world by storm. The roots of sweep-picking actually go way back to the 1950’s with various jazz guitarists like Les Paul, Tal Farlow & Barney Kessel having employed it in a more primitive fashion but it’s likely that Yngwie first heard it used by his idols Ritchie Blackmore & Uli Jon Roth in the 70’s. No one had taken it to the level that we would hear on “Rising Force” though with Yngwie virtually developing his entire technique around it & implementing it so fluidly into his runs that my jaw’s left lying on the ground still to this day. And when you combine the dazzling technique with some exotic melodic runs that have clearly been borrowed from classical music then you get a sound that took the classically influenced rock & metal stylings of Randy Rhoads & Uli Jon Roth to a level that was almost unimaginable before. But it’s not just in the solos that we see this classical influence as Yngwie has implemented it across the board in the song structures & instrumentation. The overall result sounds very much like a balanced combination of classical music & traditional heavy metal with a couple of songs leaning more towards hard rock, several hinting at the influence of jazz-fusion masters Allan Holdsworth & Al Di Meola & one of the two vocal tracks “As Above, So Below” possessing a noticeably more epic metal sound that oozes of the later European power metal movement with Soto’s vocal histrionics reminding me a fair bit of Manowar’s Eric Adams.

I have to admit that even though I’m enamored with the technique on display, I can’t say that all of this material appeals to me. When the song structures are at their most classically influenced I find it all a bit too overblown to really become engaged with while there can be no question that the power metal track I just mentioned falls clearly outside of my comfort zone. But despite this, I can’t help but really enjoy the “Rising Force” album. I think it includes a few belter riffs which is not something I can always say of Yngwie’s more vocal & solo-driven later material. I also think we have some of his most interesting compositional work here. If you’re a guitar nut then this should be a no-brainer. This record literally created the guitar-shred instrumental album concept & still hasn’t been topped for sheer technical brilliance. But if you’re a little averse to egotistical show-ponyisms then I’d suggest that you steer well clear of it.

Cloven Hoof are often described as coming from the so-called “second wave of British heavy metal” which is a tag that seems to have been defined predominantly to cover bands that arrived too late in the game to be covered by the original New Wave tag. But given that the New Wave had floundered somewhat after the swift rise of the MTV generation & the US thrash & power metal movements, I find the term to be pretty much disposable. To be fair though, the band had been around in one form or another since right back at the beginning of the New Wave movement so they might count themselves as being unlucky that they missed the boat when it came to releasing recorded material. But despite their lack of records on the shelves, Cloven Hoof had always possessed a penchant for the theatrical with their stage shows including elaborate outfits & props & the band members taking on pseudonyms based on the four elements of water, fire, air & earth. I’m not sure that I find those pseudonyms to be particularly metal though. Fire yeah but not the other three. I’m sure it had some sort of relevance from a lyrical perspective but perhaps not for names of band members.

Cloven Hoof finally released their self-titled debut album through Neat Records in 1984 & it’s developed somewhat of a cult following over the years. My initial impression was that the production doesn’t do the band any favours at all with the tinny guitar sound & overall noisiness & distortion having a pretty significant impact on my listening experience. That’s not to say that this was anything terribly unusual for a NWOBHM debut but it doesn’t really align with the maturity of the music on display. The AC/DC crunch is certainly evident in the guitars & it’s not hard to pick up the origins of Cloven Hoof. It’s a pure New Wave production effort that’s a long way from the new US metal sound which was completely devoid of any remaining rock influence.

Vocalist David Potter doesn’t sport the operatic style of so many of the period's elite heavy metal vocalists. He preferred a more masculine approach that does the job but lacks the x factor to take Cloven Hoof to the elite level. He’s not bad as such but I do feel that the band’s appeal is capped by his vocal limitations. It’s hard to put my finger on what’s missing but if pushed I’d suggest that he just doesn’t have any star quality.

Musically, Cloven Hoof tread similar ground to the more senior NWOBHM acts but present their ideas in a unique way. Perhaps not with the focus I’d like though. The seven tracks see them jump around a little bit stylistically with a mixture of lengthy progressive metal workouts, shorter & more traditional heavy metal numbers & also one track that was clearly an attempt to clone AC/DC’s crunchy brand of hard rock. There’s a truckload of Iron Maiden here with the guitar melodies being amongst the album highlights. I really enjoy that side of the band. The simpler songs like “Nightstalker” & “Laying Down The Law” seem to draw from the classic Judas Priest model while the more ambitious progressive material showcases the band’s clear penchant for more complex arrangements. And given the dark lyrical themes of witchcraft & Satanic rites, I’d suggest that bands like Mercyful Fate & Witchfynde have played a part in Cloven Hoof’s overall style. Angel Witch pops up at times too.

In theory this all sounds like it should be right up my alley. I mean it’s a particularly metal focused release with lots of variety & darker lyrical themes. What’s not to like about that? And to an extent that ends up being the case but the overall inconsistency of the tracklisting leaves the closing nine minute epic “Return Of The Passover” with the responsibility of pulling the album back from the brink of failure in my opinion. A feat it only just manages to achieve thanks to some genuinely innovative musical exploration from the band musically including what sounds like a Jimmy Page inspired section that sees the use of a violin bow being applied on the guitar during the intro section. “Cloven Hoof” is an overrated but consistently interesting release that should appeal to fans of the NWOBHM sound but I don’t suggest that you harbour any expectations that it will compete with the big boys of the movement.

This was my first listen to Danish progressive metal band Royal Hunt & I found that their sound sits somewhere between Dream Theater & Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force. It's progressive metal with strong symphonic & neoclassical components. I liked most of the first half of the record. Songs like "River Of Pain" & "Message To God" have a polished sheen & catchy singalong choruses that generally appeal to my taste but the second half of the album sees a much greater emphasis put on the cheesier symphonic & neoclassical elements & I found my interest waning pretty quickly. The production & performances are very good & I would think that "Paradox" would appeal to plenty of people out there but it drops a bit too far outside of my comfort zone really.

A really solid album full of pure funeral doom metal. This record achieves it's goals nicely by creating an atmosphere of depth & majesty. The orchestral sections are particularly effective & well-written. The only thing that annoys me a little is that there are a fair few discordant, off-key moments from the guitarists who are not exactly virtuosos. I'm not sure whether these are intentional or not but they aren't bad enough to kill the overall vibe. The long track lengths work really nicely for music of this sort too. It reminds me of Mournful Congregation quite a bit. Enjoy this late at night in a dark room.

This album shows off influences from various different sub-genres of metal but manages to maintain a good energy level throughout. The Breathing Process' sound is equally reliant on melodic death metal, black metal & progressive metal. The musicianship & songwriting are great & the progressive influence does not take away from the brutality of the music which is rare these days. The drums are very triggered sounding but you become used to it after a couple of tracks & forget about it. I find the main vocals to be very powerful & aggressive & they really drive the band through some of the more symphonic Cradle Of Filth style moments which I usually don't go for. There are some seriously crunching riffs on here. A really solid album.

A very solid melodic death metal outing with lots of energy & a nice heavy production. The musicianship is good too. Unfortunately I find this record to be a bit one dimensional. Every song follows the same formula & most of the riffs are reworks of At The Gates' "Blinded By Fear". But if you still really love that sound you will be into this album as it still has something to offer. Just don't expect to be blown away with the originality on show as there is very little.

A decent although fairly generic melodic death/doom metal release that didn't really grab my attention. The band has a nice crunchy sound reminiscent of many of the Swedish melodic death bands. I can detect a very strong "Brave Murder Day" era Katatonia influence in some tracks & these deeper melodic moments tend to be the highlights of this double CD. I'd like to see the band develop these sounds further on future releases as they are clearly very good at the dreamy doom stuff. The rest of the album is nothing new or fresh. The clean vocal choruses are not really my cup of tea. What is it with double CD releases of late? I see no gain in extending this to two CDs. It would've served the band much better to leave it at one.

The first thing I noticed about this fourth full-length release from German gothic metal duo The Vision Bleak was the terribly cheesy album cover. I’ve never been one to judge a book by its cover but this came pretty close to changing that.   

The album opens with “A Curse Of The Grandest Kind”, a four minute orchestral piece with spoken poetry layered over the top. It comes across as overly theatrical and a bit cheesy to my ears. The Vision Bleak have always featured a theatrical edge but I have to admit that I’m not really a fan of this element. At various moments throughout the album I couldn’t help being reminded of the vampiric musical Jason Segel’s character writes in the film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which is not really a positive thing. Allan B Konstanz’s vocals are a problem for me during the first few tracks too as they reek of Rammstein a lot of the time. I greatly prefer his more aggressive black/death style as well as his Sisters Of Mercy influenced material on show later in the album.   

The guitar riffs tend to hover somewhere between the basic death metal riffs of the Swedish death metal scene of the early 1990s & the obvious My Dying Bride influence. The second half of the album certainly pushes the My Dying Bride sound more & benefits from it greatly. Allan’s vocals are more effective & the atmosphere is far more intense. The epic “Mother Nothingness (The Triumph Of Ubbo Sathla)” is a clear highlight. I’d like to hear The Vision Bleak pushing that sound further on future releases.   

“Set Sail To Mystery” will certainly appeal to both the gothic crowd as well as the metalheads. It’s not bad but, in my opinion, the theatrics get in the way of the deeper atmosphere required to produce classic gothic metal material.

I really wanted to rate this album a bit higher than I have as it is full of well produced, high quality gothic metal in the vein of Paradise Lost. The musicianship, production & songwriting are all of a very high class. The only thing letting The Foreshadowing down are Marco's vocals. Although he is quite a competant frontman I can't help but think that his style (somewhere between Depeche Mode & Spandau Ballet) does not suit this style of music. The bands sound is fairly heavy & intense but Marco simply sounds too light to drive this band to the level that it should definitely be at. Still, "Oionos" is worth a listen if you enjoy the gothic metal genre.

Most of you probably aren't very familiar with 1980's "Midnight Rider/Red Lights" 7” single from obscure NWOBHM outfit Black Axe. But I quite liked Black Axe's sound, despite the fact that the two tracks differed from each other fairly noticeably. Well there’s a bit of a story to tell following that release as while the single wasn’t exactly a huge success for the band, it did create enough of a buzz in the underground heavy rock scene to attract interest from Chrysalis Records, who then proceeded to sign the band on for their first full-length album. Along with the recording deal, Chrysalis also asked the band to change their moniker from Black Axe to Wolf.

The newly named Wolf entered the studio in 1982 & put down the tracks for their debut studio album but, for reasons that I’m not entirely sure of, Chrysalis decided to shelve their plans to release the record. This led to Wolf’s debut sitting & gathering dust for the next two years which in effect eliminated any chance of success the band may have had to begin with. By the time “Edge Of The World” finally saw the light of day, the NWOBHM movement was swiftly declining along with the commercial interests of the bands it housed. In fact, I’m not even sure that Wolf were still together by the time the album came out which is a further indication of just how badly their record label had f**ked their rock star dreams. It’s a very sad story for a band that unquestionably deserved better. But let’s take a look at the album in question & see just how big a waste of potential it might have been.

The first thing I noticed about “Edge Of The World” is that it includes both of the songs from the Black Axe single, with “Midnight Rider” & “Red Lights” both being amongst the stronger material on the tracklisting. I’m not sure if they were re-recorded or not as I haven’t done a comparison but the production job on the album is very poor & quite inconsistent so it’s possible that the versions of these songs are the originals give the variation in sound across the album. The rhythm guitars are very thin & the drums sound pretty light-weight for the most part. Particularly the awful snare sound on some of these tracks. The whole thing sounds pretty distorted but that’s not anything unusual for a NWOBHM debut from 1982 to be honest.

Musically, this is heavily 70’s influenced with no single band being the major influence. Instead you can pick up elements of most of the major heavy rock & metal bands of the time with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead & AC/DC all raising their heads at times. The classic NWOBHM guitar harmonies are there of course but they sound more like the Thin Lizzy model than the Iron Maiden one. That’s not to say that the Irons haven’t had a hand in Wolf’s sound though as there a several examples of the trademark Maiden gallop on display here. The album encompasses what was very much the signature New Wave sound really with an equal reliance on hard rock & heavy metal. In fact, even the more metal focused tracks seem to come from the 70’s hard rock mould as far as the song-writing goes.

There’s a fair bit of pop in the way the hooks are constructed & a significant amount of bluesy boogie about some of these songs. Talented vocalist Chris English contributes to this bluesy feel as he’s got a raspy delivery that reminds me quite a bit of Rod Stewart at times. He’s not the most metal front man to be honest as he sounds pretty clean cut & unintimidating but there can be little doubt that he’s an important element in Wolf’s appeal. The twin guitar attack puts in a fine performance with some impressive hard rock guitar solos scattered across the tracklisting however their potential impact is limited by the dodgy production to an extent. The use of keyboards is notable on a few of these numbers too but they do tend to sound pretty dated & often a little cheesy so I’d probably suggest that they’d have been better off without them.

Most songs take a leasurely mid-tempo approach but the energy of the couple of faster numbers leaves me feeling that a bit more urgency might not have gone astray & also have attracted more genuine metal fans to the table. This isn’t a bad record though. I don’t mind it but it certainly isn’t gonna make any best-of lists & I don’t think it would have made Wolf into household names if it had been released two years earlier.

Stuttgart four-piece heavy metallers Sinner first formed way back in 1980 but despite their long career I’m sure that many of you will be shocked to discover that they’ve released a massive eighteen studio albums to date with their third & most highly regarded album “Danger Zone” being the topic of today’s review. Sinner are probably most well known for the inclusion of bass-playing front man Matt Sinner who also plays bass for another more renowned German heavy metal band in Primal Fear. How he’s managed to balance his duties in these two active bands for a full twenty years is absolutely beyond me but he’s pulled it off somehow.

I’ve never given them a spin personally but from what I’ve read online Sinner’s first two records, 1982’s “Wild ‘n’ Evil” & 1983’s “Fast Decision”, didn’t exactly set the world on fire with the band opting for a sound that featured a lot more hard rock than the pure metal one we hear on “Danger Zone”. Each successive release saw Sinner taking a noticeable jump up in intensity though which sees their third effort sporting a fast meat-&-potatoes heavy metal sound with the occasional nod to speed metal & European power metal. You won’t find anything you haven’t heard before but you’ll likely find it hard not to smile & bang your head along the way.

The production job is really very good for the time with a strong focus on loud guitars & drums making for a more than energetic listen. The rhythm section keeps things pretty simple & up-beat with very little in the way of experimentation. They really are playing a predominantly supporting role for the guitars & vocals & I don’t think that’s such a bad thing because there are enough hooks to keep me well interested here. Judas Priest were clearly the biggest influence on Sinner’s sound (I guess the band name should have given it away) & they do tip-toe along the plagiarism line pretty closely throughout most of this material but it doesn’t affect my enjoyment much because I genuinely love classic Priest. Matt Sinner doesn’t try to be Rob Halford though which is a definite positive because he’d fail dismally. He offers a much more gruff delivery that’s has more in common with Venom’s Cronos or Running Wild’s Rock ‘n’ Rolf but he adds just enough melody to make some of the anthemic chorus hooks dig their talons in. 

The few tracks that don’t grab me tend to be the ones where the band heads in a slightly more melodic direction with cheesier power metal choruses & melodies whereas the best tracks have more of a NWOBHM feel to them. There are a truck load of great metal riffs here & just as many exciting guitar solos & for that reason I find Sinner much more appealing than some of the other Priest devotees out there. There’s a real charm to some of these songs that enables them to overcome the generic nature of the songwriting. They’re all full of energy & enthusiasm which unsurprisingly reminds me of the NWOBHM movement that was unquestionably their primary source of inspiration. I think most fans of early 80’s Judas Priest, Anvil, Running Wild & Battleaxe will find plenty to enjoy here & I’d even go so far as to say that I prefer it to some of 1984's more popular German heavy metal records from bands like Stormwitch, Warlock, Running Wild & Grave Digger.

Very professional death metal with great intensity & energy. All of the performances are very good. The vocals are nice & aggressive. The guitar solos are excellent as is the drumming (although the sound is a bit clicky). There is a strong Morbid Angel influence although this is more brutal & includes various progressive influences which are quite refreshing & provide some nice originality. It's certainly fast & brutal enough whilst still placing a great deal of emphasis on melody. Won't disappoint any fans of good European death metal.

This is the debut E.P. from these Aussie thrashers & it's bloody great! In fact, it contains some of the best 80's style thrash metal you're likely to find these days. The production & musicianship is top notch & the vocalist takes an aggressive approach which suits the band's sound nicely. It won't take you long to pick on Metreya's influences as they're pretty obvious (Slayer, Exodus, Dark Angel, Anthrax, Testament) but they certainly know how to create some energetic metal music with plenty of intensity. They were really good live when I saw them with Kreator & Death Angel back in 2014 too.

"City's Gonna Burn" is the debut studio album from a five-piece heavy metal outfit from Berkley known as Lååz Rockit; a moniker derived from the Clint Eastwood film “The Enforcer” where the final scene shows Clint shooting a tower with a weapon know as a Light Anti-Tank Weapons System (or LAWS). The band decided the change the spelling to "Lååz" for one reason or another which makes no sense whatsoever & the umlaut above the “A”s is presumably only there for effect too. Laaz Rockit were still in high school when they formed in 1982 & one would imagine that it must have been a very exciting period for your average San Francisco metalhead at the time given all of the creative expression around them. It’d be two years before the band would manage to release this album following the “Prelude To Death” demo which had been strong enough to lure the attentions of Target Records.

Now Laaz Rockit are an interesting band in the scheme of the US power metal & thrash metal movements. Although they’d go on to become a genuine thrash metal band in years to come, the “City’s Gonna Burn” record definitely doesn’t sit comfortably under the thrash metal banner. Most people regard it as a combination of traditional heavy metal & speed metal with the odd thrashy moment here & there but I disagree. I hear very little genuine speed metal on this album. There are a couple of songs that I do regard as legitimate thrash metal though & even though a good portion of the album takes more of a classic heavy metal sound, there are noticeable similarities to the more mid-paced & chuggy riffs you would hear on early US thrash releases. I mean this is a very riffy record with some real belters across the tracklisting. These guys really knew the power of the riff & I find that element of the band to be really attractive. In fact, much of this stuff sounds a lot like early Exodus & I have to wonder if the two bands were a part of the same circle of friends. I’d imagine that it would have been a case of Exodus influencing Lååz Rockit rather than the other way around but who knows. It’s really interesting that I’ve never seen Lååz Rockit being mentioned in terms of US power metal either because this record would seem like the perfect example of what that term was penned to describe. I mean if the blue-collar power metal term covers a band that sits somewhere between traditional heavy metal & thrash metal then how is this not an example of US power metal? Is it because it’s not that melodic? I have no idea & I still think the whole US power metal thing is a pointless term created by the bands to try to differentiate themselves.

Front man Michael Croons possesses a pretty bad assed vocal delivery & one that would work really well in the context of genuine thrash. He’s one of the real drawcards for the band at this early stage as he’s got a lot of power in his voice & already sports a well-defined style that sits eerily close to the one that Steve Souza would take with Exodus in the late 80’s. So it really does make me wonder how influential Lååz Rockit might have been. There certainly weren’t too many thrash bands around that were capable of recording & releasing a full-length album in 1983/84 so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that several of the big name acts that would follow learned their craft at Lååz Rockit shows. The musicianship is surprisingly good for such a young & inexperienced band too & I find myself really enjoying the guitar solos. I guess I just have a soft spot for a pure metal band that doesn’t feel the need to experiment with different styles & genres but instead concentrates on doing what they do best.

Sadly, there’s a big obstacle in the way here that most people won’t be able to see past. The production! “City’s Gonna Burn” has so much promise but unfortunately it sounds like shit which means that even though I have a lot of time for about three quarters of the tracklisting, there’s a definite limit to where my enjoyment can go. The guitars in particular sound really poor with the faster, thrashier sections suffering more substantially than the more mid-paced crunchy material. It’s also a shame that the album ends with a song that's clearly weaker than the rest of the tracklisting in the very ordinary “Something More” which was pretty obviously only included to fill in the numbers.

Overall though, I have to admit that I quite like “City’s Gonna Burn”. It’s somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine given that it receives mostly poor reviews. If I’m honest, I tend to think that most of those reviews are coming from fans that have gone back & investigated the early records after having already been heavily involved with Lååz Rockit’s later thrash metal material & subsequently find it all a bit timid in comparison. Otherwise I don’t think people are listening hard enough because this is not a bad album from a band with a good ear for metal music. The production isn’t enough to ruin a reasonably fun listen.

Occasionally we come across a band that take the basic elements of a metal subgenre & push them to the limit as far as raw extremity goes & I'm pleased to be able to inform you that we’re about to take a look at one of those now in San Francisco five-piece heavy metallers Griffin & their debut studio album “Flight Of The Griffin”. The band first formed three years earlier in 1981 & released an album-length demo tape in 1983 before being picked up by Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records. It was an interesting signing for Mike as although Griffin are certainly very big on the guitar solos, their execution possessed nowhere near the level of cleanliness that you’d generally expect from a Shrapnel release. But don't think of that as a criticism. This is some vicious US power metal with everything turned up to eleven & the electricity that Griffin exudes is far more important than virtuosity so there’s a lot to like about the performances here.

The rhythm section has an enormous amount of energy about it with a particularly pumping loud bass guitar sound being the driving force behind the song-writing. The rhythm guitars are a bit low in the mix but they have a ball-tearing tone that really accentuates the riffs & the wealth of Maiden-esque guitar harmonies are a real strength. It’s funny that the lead work is often much louder than the rhythm guitars but it seems to work with most of this material being presented as a wall of noise. The twin guitar attack has an absolute field day with the tracklisting offering more in the way of shredding metal guitar solos than most people can keep up with. Mike Jastremski & Rick Cooper make up for a general lack of subtlety & nuance with unbridled intensity & that pretty much sums up the atmosphere of “Flight Of The Griffin”. This is the very definition of US power metal for mine & it reminds me of the way that Dark Angel’s “Darkness Descends” or Kreator’s “Pleasure To Kill” took thrash metal to its rawest level a couple of years later. It’s aggressive, driving, pure heavy metal with a thrashiness to the riffs that never forgets to maintain a strong sense of melody. 

But wait… to top it off we’ve got a real wildcard of a vocalist in front man William Roderick McKay whose delivery is about as violent as they come in American power metal. Imagine Bruce Dickinson has had an extremely bad day… for seven straight days & with very little sleep… & he’s just dropped his bag & it’s burst open & his clothes have gone all over the tarmac & blown into the propellers of other aircraft in the vicinity. I’d imagine that William’s vocals are a good representation of the sound that you can expect hear coming out of Bruce’s mouth at that time. He’s extremely raw & unpolished & is often pretty pitchy to be honest but there can be no denying his charisma & enthusiasm. In fact, he can be both a positive & a negative as far as Griffin’s commercial potential goes. On the one hand he’s clearly the main focal point of the band & keeps the listener engaged at all times. But on the other hand he’s possibly the thing that’s held Griffin back from having more appeal than they did because his skill sets were certainly pretty limited. Personally, I really enjoy William’s performance here. His delivery is substantially ballsier than most of his competition could muster & this element acts as a differentiator that helps to give Griffin a bit more of an identity in a newly competitive market.

Griffin’s influences aren’t too hard to pick up. It’s Maiden & Priest all the way but in a less controlled & ultimately more extreme format. The raw production actually enhances the music & I think a band like Armored Saint would have been much happier with this sort of sound than the one they ended up with on 1984's “March Of The Saint” album. "Flight Of The Griffin" is a bit of an undiscovered gem for mine.

Brocas Helm were a three-piece heavy metal outfit that first formed in San Francisco in 1982 with their initial demo tape being recorded the following year. It led to a recording contract with First Strike Records for the release of the first Brocas Helm studio album in 1984's “Into Battle” record.

Now there are some really interesting elements to “Into Battle” but they're sadly tainted by a couple of pretty serious flaws. For starters, the production on this record is absolutely appalling. It's incredibly dirty with the vocals sounding quite echoey & often struggling to pierce through the racket being created by the instrumentalists. This noisier production seems to be responsible for many fans & critics labelling Brocas Helm as sloppy musicians but that’s not true at all. They are in fact quite talented metal musicians in their own right with some of the material showcasing particularly progressive song structures that require a decent level of musicianship to pull off. I can only think that the band must have been furious with the result of their labour here though as I can’t fathom how you could possibly record & mix an album as poorly as this.

The second major flaw comes in the form of guitar-slinging front man Bobbie Wright’s complete lack of vocal talent. He doesn’t ever really sound like he’s up to the task here & is quite embarrassing on the weaker numbers. I just don’t see how the band could have thought that Bobbie's performance was acceptable & it’s a real shame because Brocas Helm seem to have something about them. Given a decent production & a quality front man I feel that there might have been enough decent material to make for a solid heavy metal release. As it is though we’re left to ponder what could have been.

As for the positive elements of “Into Battle”, the level of musicality is really quite good with all musicians proving themselves to have pretty sharp chops. This is some very fast & energetic heavy metal with plenty going on & I don’t ever get the impression that the boys are out of their depth. Guitar solos flow freely & the riffs often have quite a thrashy feel to them which isn’t surprising given that Brocas Helm hail from the home of the thrash metal genre. Some of the riffs can be quite ambitious with the regular use of technical runs & unusual time signatures being a highlight of the album. But the most impressive display probably comes from drummer Jack Hays who really goes to town on his kit. Some of these songs include so many drum rolls that Jack must surely have been exhausted by the end of each song & I really enjoy his performance here. Especially on the fast & more aggressive material.

There’s unquestionably a strong NWOBHM influence running through the Brocas Helm sound with Iron Maiden, Motorhead & Raven in particular being the most obvious names that pop into my head. In fact, Brocas Helm seem to be very much a combination of Raven’s fast-paced & athletic heavy metal & the proto-thrash intensity of Canada’s Anvil. Ironically, I struggle a lot with both of those bands so there’s no prize for guessing that I’m not a fan of Brocas Helm’s debut either. Unfortunately the album’s flaws are too much for me to overcome. Even if the production issues were ironed out I think I’d struggle to look past the vocal deficiencies to be honest.