Daniel's Reviews

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.

"Burning Star" was the debut release from five-piece heavy metal outfit Helstar who first formed in Houston, Texas in 1982. Now what the hell is a "Helstar" exactly? I’ve got no idea to be honest. Are we suggesting that when people die they actually travel through space to reside inside an alien sun in some completely foreign part of the universe? That’s a more believable theory than the one presented by the bible I suppose. At least we’ve got a location based on known physical concepts. Anyway… I’ve noticed that Helstar have quite the cult underground following in power metal circles these days & even though their first-up effort is built around a more traditional heavy metal sound than their later material, you can certainly hear the initial elements that made up the US power metal model.

Helstar picked up their record deal with Combat Records off the back of two demo tapes they released in 1983 with the album being produced by The Rods drummer Carl Canedy (who also was an early member of Manowar).  The production is worth mentioning as it’s definitely got a charm to it with the driving bass lines sounding loud & powerful & the rhythm guitars having a warmer & less distorted tone that reminds me of early Mercyful Fate & 70’s Judas Priest. This sound suits the material quite well & gives the album a bit of an identity in my opinion.

Stylistically, what we have here is a traditional heavy metal sound with a bit more complexity to some of the riffing than we’d heard from the genre to the time. Helstar were clearly very comfortable with the songs by now after having previously recorded some of them multiple times during their demo days & as a result the performances sound tight & the song-writing appears to be fully developed. The links with power metal are obvious in that there is very little hard rock about this record & the style of a lot of the riffs has a noticeably thrashy flavour to it without ever losing a grip on its melodic framework. Iron Maiden were clearly a big influence on the band & you’ll hear a lot of their trademark galloping rhythms & guitar harmonies here. Those harmonies aren’t always presented as professionally as their idols though as guitarists Larry Barragan & Tom Rogers obviously weren’t as technically proficient as the Dave Murray & Adrian Smith combo. In fact, I find it very strange indeed that most of the rave reviews I’ve read in recent weeks claim that Helstar’s guitar solos are amongst the greatest in the entire history of metal. That’s a truly preposterous statement as these two have very little grasp on musical theory & you see them regularly wandering well outside of the key structures of the songs which leaves me cringing pretty badly at times. I find it a little tough to look past that flaw & you even hear a bit of it in some of the guitar harmonies too which is unforgivable really. Both of the axe men have some reasonable chops it has to be said although neither is a world class shredder. You can hear they’ve at least spent some time studying at the school of Eddie Van Halen though.

And now we get to front man James Rivera….. hmmmm…. what to say about James? Well most Helstar fans seem to really love him with some comparing him to people like Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford & King Diamond but those comparisons seem to be particularly generous to me as he’s clearly not a terribly strong vocalist. I actually find his unpolished & regularly out-of-key delivery to be pretty hard to enjoy for the most part. Especially his random falsetto screams which sound way over the top. They’re simply not required & I find them to be a little bit off-putting to be honest. He really is a bit of a deal breaker for me along with the flat song-writing in many of the choruses which often drops the ball after some strong lead-up work. It’s a bit of a frustrating album for me in that respect. You’ve got some very strong riff work with a real Mercyful Fate sound to it’s dark melodicism & a solid rhythm section that’s got a clear understanding of what the songs require but all of that good work is undone by James’ vocal failings & some flat song-writing. You’ll never find a more obvious example of this than the most notorious song on the tracklisting in the lengthy mid-paced gallop “Run With The Pack” whose six & a half minute duration is thoroughly spoilt by James’ inadequacies. I mean I can understand the appeal of Helstar if I look past my problems with the vocals & lead guitar work but unfortunately those things are a bit too much for me to cope with even though I generally like more than half of these songs.

At the end of the day, I don’t think there are any real highlight tracks here which sees the few weaker numbers making more of an impact on my overall feelings than they might otherwise have done. So overall I’m gonna have to recommend that you give this one a miss & suggest that you wait for Helstar’s more thrashy speed & power metal focused late 80’s material.

It's hard to believe that Brazilian thrash metallers Korzus have been around since 1983 without their name ever crossing my path. They’re a very professional outfit & the musicianship & production on "Discipline Of Hate" is top notch. This is the thing though... they're blatantly ripping off classic Slayer with a bit of Exodus & Testament thrown in for good measure. I can pick the original riffs from most of their close variations & they are quite often presented with the same drumming & song structure. The vocals sound pretty much exactly like "Seasons In The Abyss" era Tom Araya & I actually would've believed it was him if I hadn't already known. This guy is even phrasing things in the same way as Tom. The guitar solos are certainly a lot more melodic than Kerry King & Jeff Hannemann  would ever go for & are quite a bit more accomplished too while the drumming is EXACTLY like Dave Lombardo, almost to the point of outright plagiarism. Having said that though, I can’t deny that the performance behind the kit is outstanding & the drum sound is fucking brilliant.

Now does all this mean the album is immediately terrible? Absolutely not! I miss this sound so much. Slayer are my all-time favourite metal band & I found myself really enjoying a large chunk of this album because of this. This is high energy precision 1980s style thrash with an excellent modern production. What could be so bad about that really?

A really blatant rip-off of early Slayer which unfortunately can't summon the raw energy or musicianship required to compete with the big boys. I'm not sure how bands can live with themselves when they copy another band as obviously as this. There is much better thrash metal out there.

On "Infinity" Crematory come across as a band that is totally in control of their sound. They know what they want to do & have presented a very focused & beautifully produced metal album. All of the band members put in good performances & the sound is excellent. I don't think they could've presented these tracks much better than they do. Now.... are the tracks any good? The clean vocals are quite commercial & are in the Linkin Park style which was so popular at the time. The death metal vocals are bit weak to my ears & I don't think I've heard a death grunter who better fits the term "Cookie Monster vocals" as he could well BE the Cookie Monster. To be honest, the death growls are about the ONLY thing "death metal" about this album as the music doesn't bare any resemblance to it whatsoever. I don't think the term "gothic metal" fits here either as Crematory are not at all dark. This is just good quality metal music with simple but effective riffs & well structured song-writing but It's just too light to appeal to an old-school metalhead like myself. Commercially accessible metal like this is never going to appeal to me enough to get repeat listens however I can see this being very well received by those people who are looking for a lighter alternative to extreme metal.

A very classy black metal release. Great melody & atmosphere. The vocals are particularly strong. The whole album features a strong Satyricon influence. The production allows the band to be presented in the best possible environment for their sound. There is nothing terribly original on display here but what you do get is very professionally done. There are some really great metal riffs on display. The album is let down a little by the last two tracks which could just as easily have been omitted as they only allow the album to peter out slowly rather than ending with a climax. "Wraith" doesn't fit well with the concept of the rest of the album & features some fairly ordinary clean vocals. Bonus track "Sycamore Trees" is a theatrical piece that serves no real purpose.

A decent (if unoriginal) E.P. from Finnish grindcore band Rotten Sound that appears to be a Napalm Death tribute as it includes three Napalm cover versions which make up half of this very short release (11 minutes in total). I'm not really sure what the point of releasing this is. The three original tracks are really close to the early Napalm sound & the cover versions don't really add much to the originals. "Suffer The Children" is a bit more interesting than the other two as it features a more authentic grind sound than the original. I guess originality was never really the point of grindcore & this E.P. is still pretty fun with it's wham-bam-thank-you-mam approach. If you like grindcore you'll probably enjoy this but it won't change your life.

This is the third full-length release from Chet W Scott's Seattle-based solo project Blood Of The Black Owl. It comprises of one long piece cut into four movements of deeply engaging (& mostly ritualistic) dark ambient. 

Opener "Intent (Movement I)" is an epic dirge that builds slowly with delicately strummed acoustic guitars & glistening melodic overlays. It slowly envelopes the listener until it disintegrates into some tribal drums which initially seem to be a little too out of time for my liking although they are no less hypnotic. I can only assume that Chet was going for a very organic feel for the drums & decided that they sounded more authentic with the slight timing blemishes. The movement draws to an end after some beautiful pipe melodies pierce the sinister soundscape. An encouraging start to the album.  

 Movement II is entitled "The Statement Of Will" & it is the only piece to include any traditional metal as it blasts into some simple Celtic Frost style power chord riffs before giving way to some dark atmospheric ambience & twisted spoken word vocals. The metal section then returns with the addition of a simple clean guitar melody to close out the shortest & least impressive of the four movements. I would've been much happier if this track had been excluded & replaced with some more of the dark ambient material as it seems out of place to my ears.  

 "Chant Of The Captured Spirit (Movement III)" returns to the immense building dirge style & again captures me emotionally with it's power & hypnotic repetition. This sound is extremely dark & is certainly not for everyone but I can see quite a few black metal fans having the world of dark ambient opened up to them by this. The track perfectly depicts the urgency & horror of its title & ambient music does not get much bigger. This is the clear album highlight but I wouldn't put it on when the oldies are round for dinner. 

"The Final Banishing (Movement IV)" brings the listener back to earth with some very minimal (not to mention beautiful) acoustic guitars & whispered spoken word for the first eight minutes before transforming into another dark tribal ritual piece. Agonizing screams chant painfully & guitar noodlings fade in & out of the swirling atmosphere.  

 "A Banishing Ritual" finishes with some eery & disenchanting female vocals that leave me feeling a deep sense of hopelessness. It is only after the final seconds of the album die away that you realise what a deep journey Blood Of The Black Owl have taken you on. One full of timeless ambience & ritual. It also leaves me regretting that the second movement was included to take a small amount off the gloss away from an otherwise monumental release.

After being blown away by Adrift For Days crushingly heavy debut album "The Lunar Maria" I had very high hopes for the follow-up. "Come Midnight" is certainly another quality release but it takes a different approach to the debut. The band had previously built their wall of sound upon a ridiculously heavy doom metal platform whereas this release sees them pulling things back a notch to focus on a more textured approach that draws as much on stoner metal & post-metal as it does on doom. The droney parts are still there & so are the psychedelics although they're a touch more restrained. The result is a bit less bludgeoning but also more varied & introspective. Vocally things are a bit less aggressive for the most part & I'm not sure I that enjoy this approach so much as the powerful vocals on "The Lunar Maria" were a definite highlight for me.  

As with the debut, this is a 70 minute marathon but "Come Midnight" seems a bit longer due to some extended post-rock sections that can overstay their welcome at times. There are certainly some great moments & everything is put together very professionally but I think it lacks the overwhelming intensity of "The Lunar Maria". It's definitely worth a listen though. Adrift For Days are a class act & I get the feeling that they're only gonna get better.

A very unsophisticated death/thrash combo playing outdated generic music fairly badly. The thrash riffs & guitar solos are especially ordinary.

Canadian death metallers Aeternam are hard band to describe as they don't fit snuggly into any one genre. The best I can come up with is melodic death metal with strong classic metal & oriental music influences. Black metal, thrash metal & metalcore all get a working over as well though. I can certainly hear At The Gates & Judas Priest in many parts of "Disciples Of The Unseen". The oriental influence is very obvious in the Priest-like lead guitar melodies & is what gives them their own sound to an extent. This is a good effort for their debut album. It's just not quite captivating enough to draw me back for multiple listens as it's probably a little too melodic for my taste. The snare sound could do with some work as it sounds particularly thin during the blast beast sections too.

Aborted's sophomore outing was a welcome surprise after their debut album "The Purity Of Perversion" failed to impress me. "Engineering The Dead" presented a band that had improved in just about every area & in doing so had produced a high quality brutal death metal record that would appeal to most fans of the genre. The welcome move towards a cleaner sound & production lifts the songs to higher levels than they would otherwise have been capable. "Skullfuck Crescendo" is a particular favorite of mine but it's generally hard to pick out highlights as there's a consistent quality across all of this material. Don't expect Aborted to reinvent the wheel. That wasn't the intention here however it's a far cry from the blatant Suffocation/Cannibal Corpse cloning they were guilty of on the debut. Instead they've produced some solid brutal death metal that's fit for purpose & personally I find it quite a fun listen.

Aborted's debut album marked a pretty uneventful start to their career. While there was certainly plenty of brutality on display, they didn't really offer the listener anything much to help distinguish themselves from the rest of the generic brutal death metal on the market at the time. The big boys of the genre had been doing this stuff better for a good few years by this stage. To my ears "The Purity Of Perversion" sits somewhere between Suffocation's "Human Waste" EP & Cannibal Corpse's "Butchered At Birth" as far as style goes. In fact, the deeper vocals are very similar to early Suffocation. The production is pretty raw but it suitably maintains the energy level of the band. I find that the quality improves a little in the back end of the album but it's hard to pick out any highlight tracks as the material tends to be a bit samey. I think most death metal fans will find something of interest here. Just not enough to warrant too many repeat listens.

Sometimes a band comes along that is so cool that 95% of the population will not understand them but the other 5% will think they are gods. Harvey Milk are one of these bands. Those who understand Harvey Milk will be taken to cloud nine whereas the non-believers will be left feeling that they are incredibly dull, awkward & grating with very little to offer musically. To understand this music requires the listener to possess a minimum level of coolness. With Harvey Milk I am clearly well under the coolness level required to appreciate their undoubtedly brilliant & masterful art. This unfortunately means that my life will forever be lesser than those who are cool enough. I am condemned to wonder what the fuck this is all about and how other reviewers can find anything remotely positive to say.

There's some fairly average production on this release which makes it difficult to make out what's going on & difficult to enjoy. The vocals are too far back in the mix too. The songs feature some diverse influences but they don't tend to blend very well i.e. the black metal comes crashing back in unannounced in a rude fashion after more ambient sections rather than naturally progressing. It's not all doom & gloom though. Their are some promising moments but the noisy production quickly kills them off. 

This was my first listen to Agrypnie so I wasn't sure what to expect here but what I heard showed great promise. Atmospheric drone piece "Figur 109-3" is an effective introduction which leads into the huge "Der Tote Trakt". Drummer René Schott immediately shows himself to be more than capable on the blastbeats whilst not being done any favours by a thin, clicky kick drum sound which makes him sound looser than he actually is. Torsten Hirsch does his best Quorthon impression but his vocals are probably the area that needs the most improvement here as his barking, raspy style is quite monotonous. The Varg Vikernes style vocals in the epic title track suit the band better in my opinion.

Taken holistically, the band presents a huge wall of sound where melody & atmosphere are high priorities. The guitar riffs are certainly strong enough to compete with the big boys of the genre & some nicely placed clean interludes add to the atmosphere. The album showcases a band that is still honing their skills and finding their sound. Song structures are a bit pieced together & all subgenres of the global black metal scene get a look in. However, although Agrypnie wear their influences on their sleeves (bands like Satyricon, Burzum, Opeth & Katatonia all get a tribute for mine), the result is a very solid outing and one gets the impression that a great release is only just around the corner. Definitely a band to watch.

It took me quite a while to finally commit to checking out "Damnation". It wasn’t that the idea of an album full of Opeth’s cleaner material didn’t sound like it would be interesting. It was more to do with the fact that I felt like I already knew what it would sound like. I’ve liked everything Opeth have released in their career. They’re extremely consistent but they have often seem to lack a bit of danger to me. I also think they sound pretty similar most of the time. Even when they’re experimenting they don’t seem to break out of their comfort zones much. I’ve often thought that they could record a hip hop or country & western album & it would still end up sounding a lot like the last Opeth album.  

Anyway, when I finally got around to listening to “Damnation” I found it to be a very good listen as expected. It does sound like an albums worth of the type of clean material you will generally hear spread across their metal releases but it’s all of a high enough quality to keep it interesting. One of its strengths is certainly its consistency as every song is of a high quality but in saying that it probably lacks a couple of truly great tracks to take it to the next level. There could probably be a touch more variety too.

The first six tracks are all of a fairly similar style & the band only start to throw in some different stuff towards the end with instrumental piece “Ending Credits” (which sounds very much like it could have been a track from Joe Satriani’s self-titled album) & the deep minimalism of closer “Weakness”. The production is lovely & the musicianship is top notch as expected. I particularly enjoy the jazzy guitar solos & drumming. Mikael does a very good job on vocals although I do think he could do with a touch more variety. It’s hard to pick out highlights as everything is of a similar standard but I probably find “In My Time Of Need” & “Closure” to be the most memorable & fully realized outings.  

Opeth have never put out a bad record & “Damnation” is certainly not going to be the first. It presents an exceptional group of musicians flexing their musical & creative muscles to produce a highly professional & impressive example of progressive music. It’s not the most challenging or expansive progressive rock you will ever hear but it does manage to generate a pleasant & relaxing atmosphere which is an often underrated quality in my opinion. It’s no surprise that this is yet another quality Opeth release.

1997’s “Cryptic Writings” was a disappointing album for Megadeth. I’d happily followed them out of their thrash metal days & into their more poppy metal sound of the 90’s feeling safe in the knowledge that Dave & the boys would always dish up something of a consistently high quality but “Cryptic Writings” was the first album where I struggled to find much enjoyment. It wasn’t enough to indicate that the band’s glory days were completely over but it was definitely a concern. You got the feeling that the next record would be a very important one for Megadeth.  

“Risk” was everything that I’d feared. The band had all but discarded their metal roots & taken on an even more commercial approach. I like to keep an open mind & judge an album for what it is rather than what it’s not but this proved quite a challenge for me here. "Risk" was such an obviously conscious attempt at commercial success that I was almost completely turned off before I’d even given the songs a chance to show me what they’ve got to offer. And I’m glad I managed to give “Risk” a few listens before making my judgement because some of it did improve on multiple listens. Certainly not enough to warrant return visits though.  

Things get off to a horrible start as there is very little quality in the first five tracks but repeat listens showed some of the later material to possess a bit of the catchiness that appealed to me on albums like “Youthanasia”. “The Doctor Is Calling”, the very Bon Jovi-like “Wanderlust” & closer “Time : The End” are all pretty decent songs with plenty of hooks & memorable choruses. If the rest of the album was of this sort of quality then it’d be worth listening to. Unfortunately there are some complete shockers amongst the rest. “Ecstasy” (with Dave doing his best James Hetfield impression during the outro) & “Seven” are the worst offenders while “Insomnia”, “Breadline”, “Crush ‘Em” & “I’ll Be There” are all very ordinary too. There are so many poor attempts at writing a hit & the production schmaltz is in overdrive.   

“Risk” has a few good moments but it’s also chock full of cringes & disappointment. I find it genuinely amazing that Dave agreed to let Megadeth stoop to the levels they’ve gone to here. After reading his thoughts on the whole process recently I find it hard to know what to think. “Risk” is certainly another step down from “Cryptic Writings” & it may be the low point of Megadeth’s career. 

Norwegian black metallers 1349 return to their most brutal past with their fifth full length album entitled "Demonoir". After the less than favourable reception of their 2009 release "Revelations Of The Black Flame" (which saw the band leaning far too close to dark ambient music for most fans), the band have reverted to their traditional blasting black metal style & to great effect. Although the band have been talking up the amalgamation of their two styles I think it would be more accurate to say that the 7 ambient pieces are nothing more than interludes as they are all quite short & don't really command the listeners attention. I am a bit of a fan of dark ambient music but these pieces are not particularly captivating. I don't think dark ambient CAN be captivating in such short snippets to be honest.   

The black metal material is clearly a step up in class from most of the black metal that was released in 2010. This is mainly due to the influence of Frost's drumming as he is nothing short of a machine. Unfortunately I feel that there is too much of a reliance on the ultra-fast blast beats on show here. A bit more variation would've done this album a world of good especially as I find that the blasts don't really work too well over quite a few of the riffs & make things sound a little sloppy on occasions.   

The production is very raw in the traditional Norwegian fashion which suits the tunes pretty well while not really striking me as outstanding. Ravn's vocals are pretty reminiscent of Satyr & I find that they don't really demand the attention they deserve as they take a back seat to Frost's blasting at times. "Atomic Chapel" is the highlight in my opinion & is a good example of 1349's sound. "The Devil Of The Deserts" fades out very awkwardly into a piano piece which is probably the low point of the album.  

 Overall, I like what I hear but find "Demonoir" hard to totally commit to due to the hectic stop/start nature of the song structures & the excessive blast beats. I'd also like to see the dark ambient material incorporated into the black metal tracks more instead of separating the two styles completely. Despite these reservations I can see myself pumping this out during a few weight sessions over the next month or so as they don't come much more intense than this.

Avatarium is a Swedish doom metal outfit featuring Candlemass bassist Leif Edling, Evergrey guitarist Marcus Jidell & Tiamat drummer Lasse Sköld alongside female vocalist Jennie-Ann Smith. The project was originally conceived by Leif Edling & Opeth vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt but Mikael ended up being unable to commit due to his ongoing commitments with Opeth so Leif approached Marcus Jidell for some session work & things worked out so nicely that they decided to continue on with the arrangement.

The basis of the Avatarium sound is built on the classic Candlemass doom model however they also incorporate quite a bit of 70's hard rock, American folk & late 60's psychedelic pop into the mix which enables Jennie-Ann to show off her versatility as a vocalist. Her background is in blues & jazz but her delivery sometimes reminds me of 70's rock icons like Robert Plant & Ian Gillen & it works very well in this context.

I think the album is a bit top heavy though. The first three tracks are the clear highlights & things start to drop off a bit at the distinctly average "Boneflower" with it's predominantly psychedelic pop sound. I don't think they ever fully rectify things after that either. The remaining tracks show promise but don't reach the heights of the earlier material. "Bird Of Prey" sounds very much like Candlemass with Jennie-Ann even sounding like she's channelling Messiah Marcolin at times. That's not such a bad thing but Avatarium are definitely at their best when they allow Jennie-Ann to fully stretch her blues rock wings out over their heavier doom material on tracks like "Avatarium" & the single "Moonhorse" (even though it includes a riff that is FAR too close to the opening riff in "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath").

There's quite a bit of promise here & "Avatarium" is definitely worth a listen but I think their best material may be ahead of them.

This band seems to have an identity crisis. I'm not really sure what they're trying to do here. The tracks are all over the place. There are some decent moments (like the post-metal sections in "Sombre Fall, Burdened Winter") but they are soon cancelled out by rubbish like closer "Wayphearing Stranger" which is pure country & western. There is no just consistency here. The black metal vocals are terribly weak too. Is it seriously possible to make "Wayakin" any worse than it is? Possibly the worst track of 2010! I have no idea why this release doesn't get slammed more often. 

Equal parts death metal & grindcore, Misery Index have given us a really fun release here. The crisp production and excellent musicianship really allows them to get the best out of these tracks. I must admit that I'm not a really big fan of hardcore in general so I greatly prefer the death metal side of the band. It's initially kinda weird to hear harmonized guitar solos over hardcore riffs (Don't guitar solos go against the whole grindcore ideal?) but once you get used to the idea it doesn't seem unnatural. The slower, crunchier riffs are particularly effective with "Carrion Call" being a highlight. The Glenn Benton style vocals are suitably aggressive & I love the drumming (although quite clicky) which keeps everything really tight. The guitar solos are well performed although a little unnecessary. If you like death metal as well as grindcore then you will absolutely love this release.  

P.S. The album cover doesn't do this CD too many favours.

“Delirious Nomad”, the second studio album from talented five-piece Los Angeles heavy metal outfit Armored Saint, was released through Chrysalis Records in October 1985. I was a fan of the Saint's 1984 debut “March Of The Saint” however the band were very unhappy with the polished & overly accessible production job, as well as the obvious nods towards an LA glam metal sound in the way that some of the tracks were presented. So when it came time to record a follow-up, the band were having none of that rubbish & turned to a proven performer with strong metal credentials in Max Norman; the producer responsible for Ozzy Osbourne’s “Blizzard Of Ozz”, “Diary Of A Madman”, “Speak Of The Devil” & “Bark At The Moon” records.

And the resulting album sees the Saint sporting a noticeably more metal sound that would likely have sat more comfortably with the band. The shredding rhythm guitar sound is particularly metal & the dual guitar attack & vocals are pushed forward in the mix to create a more up-front sound that will be much more palatable for your average metal listener. The rhythm section tends to play a purely supporting role in the mix with the exception of a very loud & quite intrusive snare drum sound that I find very difficult to overlook. Was this intentional? Well how could the mixing engineer not have picked this up during the mixing process? It defies belief really but I doubt it’ll completely ruin anyone’s listening experience.

Armored Saint had retained the same lineup from the debut but it's worth noting that there are various reports around the internet that claim that guitarist Phil Sandoval left the band during the recording process, leaving remaining guitarist Dave Pritchard to complete the album by himself. In fact, Phil is reputed to have only played on two of the songs on the album. Well I don’t like to accept the common consensus as the truth so I decided it was worth putting my feelers out for the truth on Phil’s departure & what I found were a couple of old interviews with band members stating that Phil actually left straight after the album was recorded so it’s often worth doing your own research rather than accepting Wikipedia as factual. I have to say that I’m glad that the twin guitar attack wasn’t separated before the record was completed too because the solos are all pretty spectacular & the rhythm guitar work is very tight indeed.

This is a more refined sounding Armored Saint who have dropped the faster, more speed & power metal based material of the debut along with any hint at a more commercially focused glam metal sound. And in their place we get a more consistent, mid-paced tempo & a slightly more traditional heavy metal sound. The lyrical content is darker too with a heavy reliance placed on the Cold War for inspiration & the record subsequently feels a little more serious. The band have kept the arrangements pretty simple & uncomplicated for the most part & I have to say that the lack of ambition & complexity in some of the riffs employed is pretty disappointing to be honest. For a band that places such a heavy reliance on the quality of their riffs there are some pretty lazy & generic efforts included here. Thankfully front man John Bush is one of the best in the business & he’s able to pull some of the flatter song-writing back from the brink of failure with another high-class performance that solidifies his position as one of the leading metal singers in the business.

Having said that though, this is certainly a less consistent album than “March Of The Saint” was with a few tracks that clearly fall into the filler category. Plus there are less highlights & none of them are as mind-blowing as a song like “Can U Deliver” was so despite the high quality vocal & lead guitar performances & the more metal direction, I consider “Delirious Nomad” to be a step down from “March Of The Saint”. It just sounds a little bit underdone despite being generally pretty easy on the ear. It’s reported that the band thought they’d truly captured their live sound with this recording but their fanbase strongly disagreed with them & said it was lacking in excitement & I tend to agree with them. “Delirious Nomad” could certainly have done with a few more aggressive up-tempo numbers & people’s consistent use of the blue-collar US power metal tag when referring to this record leaves me fairly bemused. This is not that heavy a record really. It’s definitely more heavily focused on an early 80’s Judas Priest sound than the debut was but there’s nothing remotely close to speed or thrash metal. It's not a bad listen though regardless.

Five-piece heavy metal outfit Armored Saint first formed in April 1982 when they were all still studying at South Pasadena High School in Los Angeles, California with the band name conceived in a theatre car park after watching the film “Excalibur”. A five song demo tape was released later the same year & it impressed Metal Blade Records owner Brian Slagel enough to see a song included on the Metal Massacre II compilation with three of the demo tracks being released as Armored Saint’s self-titled EP in August 1983. This led to a recording contract with Chrysalis Records in 1984 & the eventual release of Armored Saint’s debut studio album “March Of The Saint” in July of that year.

It’s a very polished sounding product really & far TOO polished for the band’s liking as they’ve stated as much in several interviews over the years. Their feeling is that producer Michael James Jackson (who had previously worked with more commercial bands like KISS) had pushed them in a more accessible direction than they were comfortable with & you can definitely see what they’re talking about here however I can’t say that I feel sorry for them because I thoroughly enjoy the production on “March Of The Saint”. It’s a really professionally presented package that does well to highlight the best elements of these easy-on-the-ear heavy metal tunes. But to a band raised on the NWOBHM it would certainly have sounded pretty commercial & the rockier nature of a few of the tunes wouldn’t have helped either. But look… Armored Saint were from LA & this was a time when the glam metal movement was dominating the airways so it’s not too surprising that we can hear a bit of that in their sound.

Thankfully though, the performances are all excellent. These guys really know how to write catchy metal. The rhythm section show a good understanding of both composition & technique with Joey Vera’s bass-playing being quite accomplished even if it is a little low in the mix for my liking. The two guitarists are pretty special for such a young age & their guitar solos are all beautifully composed to further accentuate the song-writing. But it’s front man John Bush that’s the real winner for mine. His powerful voice reminds me a lot of guys like Alice In Chains’ Layne Stayley & Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell which can only be a good thing. He’s got an amazing scream on him & a distinctly bad-assed feel to his tone that I greatly prefer over the more operatic style that most US heavy metal singers were adopting at the time. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that John’s one of my all-time favourite heavy metal vocalists & I wasn’t surprised in the least when he ended up joining Anthrax eight years later. The song-writing is a little inconsistent at times but John’s performances see almost all of this material being pretty enjoyable as he’s just that good. He may not have as big a range as a Dio or Halford but he makes up for it with pure confidence & power.

The tracklisting includes a variety of different styles with the opening title song being more in line with some of the more epic power metal we'd hear over the next few years. I have to say that even though this song is one of Armored Saint’s biggest tunes it’s never really appealed to me much personally for some reason. I greatly prefer the more accessible & fun songs that follow it. “Mad House” for instance is pure speed metal ala Judas Priest’s “Exciter”, “Take A Turn” is a pretty decent example of the obligatory rock power ballad while “Stricken By Fate” reminds me heavily of the sound Guns ‘n’ Roses would champion a couple of years later. I’d actually be surprised if there’s no connection there to tell you the truth.

It’s pretty clear that most of Armored Saint’s influences are English with plenty of galloping Iron Maiden rhythms, some of those groovier mid-70’s Black Sabbath moments, a truck load of anthemic Judas Priest hooks & even the odd example of the Motorhead style biker metal riff included. This is classy stuff indeed & I find it hard not to enjoy even the weakest moments but I have to admit that the more commercially accessible feel does prevent “March Of The Saint” from becoming an underground metal classic. Every song has potential but only the hit single “Can U Deliver” really answers the question posed in its title in emphatic fashion. The rest of the material ranges from pretty decent to particularly solid examples of mid-80’s US heavy metal with a couple of toes overlapping into the territory of their LA glam metal contemporaries. I’d definitely recommend "March Of The Saint" though. It showcases all of the reasons that I came to love Armored Saint in the early 90’s.

I can't believe I had never heard of these guys before checking this record out 8-9 years ago now. This album is a thoroughly captivating & seriously heavy example of atmospheric & psychedelic sludge metal similar to material from Italy's Ufomammut. Many of the tracks start out quite chilled & build to huge crescendos & walls of noise. They slowly drag you in until you find yourself jumping around in a rage of excitement. The tribal element in the drumming is brilliant & reminds me of Neurosis at times.  This is certainly not for the faint-hearted or those with little patience. But if you are into a more cerebral style of heavy music then these guys will be right up your alley. Listen to this loud!

"Night On Bröcken" is a record that’s more significant from a timeline point of view than from an artistic one as it represents the more humble beginnings of one of the more iconic US metal bands of the 80’s. Connecticut five-piece Fates Warning would go on to become one of the most important bands in the development of the progressive metal subgenre & they remain a metal powerhouse still to this day but their debut full-length represents their more humble of beginnings with the Metal Blade Records backed release sporting a sound that showed very little in the way of invention or artistic license.

The crude cover art gives you a strong indication that the album might not be as polished as the rest of the band’s star studded back catalogue & that definitely proves to be the case with Fates Warning simply testing the waters by emulating their NWOBHM heroes. It’s interesting that the album title is referring to a German mountain that’s famous for its association with witches as referenced in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play “Faust”. The title of Stormwitch’s debut album “Walpurgis Night” from around the same time is actually referring to the night that the witches traditionally met at the top of Bröcken so it seems to have been a popular topic for metal bands of the time.

The production job on “Night On Brocken” isn’t horrible but it is a little inconsistent with some songs sounding a little flatter than others. You can clearly hear all of the instruments but the overall sound comes across as pretty dry  which is more in line with what you’d expect from a well put together demo tape. Interestingly, Metal Blade house producer Bill Metoyer was behind the mixing desk along with label head Brian Slagel & it’s pretty clear that they were still finding their way as far as how to package a professional sounding metal release goes but this is not a disaster by any means.

The thing that most makes “Night On Brocken” stand out from the rest of the Fates Warning back catalogue though is the style of music it presents with very little in the way of genuinely progressive material on display here. Instead we get a straight down the line NWOBHM direction with Iron Maiden being the primary influence. So much in fact, that I regard a lot of this album as pure plagiarism. The galloping riffs & harmonized guitar lines all sound oh so familiar & you can often pick the exact songs they’ve been crafted around. The album does have a somewhat more US feel to it though which is probably as much to do with the production as anything else, particularly the guitar sound.

But it’s iconic front man John Arch who is the most noticeably trying to clone the mighty Irons & while there are certainly moments when you struggle to tell that this isn’t Bruce Dickinson himself there are more where he just sounds like an average imitation. There are times when Queensryche’s Geoff Tate springs to mind too actually but even though he’s the clear focal point of the band, it’s an inconsistent performance from Arch here as some of the songs see him sounding quite pitchy or straining to reach the more mid-range notes in his repertoire. He seems much more capable with the higher pitched screams but for all his failings he IS the most memorable feature of Fates Warning’s sound at this early stage. When he gets it right we see Fates Warning’s best moments & I have to say that I find them difficult not to enjoy.

The musicianship on display isn’t of the same sort of standard as that we would hear on Fates Warning’s progressive metal counterparts Queensryche’s debut E.P. a year prior but they’d show a lot of development in that area over the next year or so. The sort of technical wizardry we’ve become used to hearing from the prog metal elite was beyond them at this point but they were certainly a more than serviceable heavy metal band. And for that reason I struggle with the common consensus that “Night On Bröcken” was a failed venture. Yes, it clearly showcases a young band that was still very much finding their sound & was more comfortable to simply test the waters with a safe & generic brand of song-writing but it’s pretty well put together nonetheless & I find myself enjoying around two thirds of the material here. The weaker songs aren’t horrible. They’re just a bit flat sounding with their more generic & basic riffs providing little to get enthusiastic about. The stronger material on the other hand offers enough in the way of soaring vocal lines, chuggy metal riffage & general enthusiasm to keep this old metalhead reasonably engaged even if the album lacks those couple of genuine highlight tracks to make it truly memorable. I’d recommend that fans of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest & Queensryche give the album a chance but it’s doubtful that you’ll find anything too life-changing.

Most people that know me wouldn't be aware of this but back in the late 80’s & early 90’s I was an absolutely huge fan of an American guitarist by the name of George Lynch. So much so in fact, that I’d put him right up alongside names like Eddie Van Halen & Randy Rhoads as one of my biggest influences as a young musician. So I have to admit that I’ve been really looking forward to revisiting some of the old Dokken records where he first made a name for himself for some time now.

Dokken first formed back in 1979 out of the ashes of front man Don Dokken’s first band Airborn but it wasn’t until 1981, when Don took his second visit to Germany, that things started to move in a positive direction for the band. Legendary guitar hero Lynch had only just joined the group & Don was temporarily groomed as the replacement front man for Scorpions while regular vocalist Klaus Meine underwent surgery. During this period Don was given the opportunity to record the early demos for Scorpions’ “Blackout” album with Michael Wagener of Accept fame & this connection led to Dokken scoring themselves their own recording deal with Carrere Records. Dokken’s debut studio album “Breakin’ The Chains” followed shortly afterwards & it didn’t exactly set the world on fire to be honest but there were definitely some promising signs here & there. Strangely though it’d be another three years before we’d see a follow-up release in 1984’s “Tooth & Nail” & it’d see the band transitioning their more traditional heavy metal sounding material to a more commercially accessible one that was heavily influenced by the thriving LA glam metal scene.

The recording process was a particularly troubled one with Don & George’s notorious personality clashes being exacerbated by heavy substance abuse & causing no end of problems. In fact, they couldn’t be in the same room at the time & this forced the producer to arrange for individual recording sessions for each of them with the scheduling scattered across the day to avoid any chance of physical conflict. I’m not too sure how much of an impact that had on the final production job but it has it’s issues even if it’s unlikely to ruin anyone’s listening experience. Particularly the rhythm guitar sound which could definitely have been improved upon.

But musically these guys can all play their instruments with the rhythm section putting in a solid display built on traditional hard rock disciplines. Don’s vocals aren’t amazing but he does very well with what he’s got for the most part. He isn’t helped by some very cheesy song-writing & lyrics at times though it must be said. But the hero of the day is unquestionably George Lynch whose stunning technique is only matched by his ridiculously wide vibrato & wonderful sense of melody. Boy, does this guy know how to compose a solo. These efforts are so complete that they’re almost like compositions in their own right. His style is almost a perfect match for my taste too & I find myself hanging out to hear his lead work even on the weaker tracks on offer.

And there ARE three or four weaker numbers here. There are no real stinkers but we do get several average attempts at commercial appeal. In fact, Dokken are one of the first bands that could be seen as being a genuine metal band & also built around the commercialism of the US glam metal scene. You can see this clearly in their influences as Van Halen is unquestionably at the top of the list with fellow hard rockers like Def Leppard & Scorpions also featuring quite prominently. But it’s Lynch’s flashy style & shreddy guitar sound that keeps Dokken from turning over to the dark side for long & this makes all of this material sit more comfortably under the heavy metal tag than the hard rock one with Saxon, Dio, Priest, Ozzy & Dio-era Sabbath influences all raising their head at times.

"Tooth & Nail" certainly showcases a fairly unintimidating & poppy form of metal though with plenty of cheese on offer (particularly in the repeated use of gang vocals during the choruses) & in truth I’m not sure I’d be much of a fan if not for the heights reached by my guitar idol. As it is though, I find it to be a pretty rewarding listen that probably lacks a couple of real classic songs to give it more long-term appeal.

By 1984, there could no longer be any doubt that the strength of the commercial US hard rock & glam metal scenes was having an impact on some of the sounds we were hearing coming out of the metal underground. And that was especially evident with this debut solo album from Plasmatics front woman Wendy O. Williams. I’m sure that some of you would be familiar with the third & most celebrated “Coup d'état” album from the New York punk metallers & the mild success of that record saw the band heading out on the road in support of the hugely popular KISS shortly afterwards which resulted in a strong friendship between the two bands. During the course of this tour, Wendy struck up a strong friendship with KISS bass player Gene Simmons which is not too surprising when you consider the reputation that Simmons has always had with the ladies. Well the story goes that following the tour the Plasmatics' label Capital Records elected not renew their recording contract which left them in a difficult position. But Gene ended up throwing Williams a lifeline with an offer to record & produce her next album. After much thought they decided it was best not to utilize the Plasmatics branding for the project for fear of legal repercussions so the record would eventually be known as a Wendy O. Williams solo project entitled “WOW”, although it does include input from the Plasmatics guitarist & drummer along as well as contributions from their mates in KISS. In fact, it’s worth noting that Gene Simmons plays bass throughout the recording under the name of Reginald Van Helsing.

Personally I think it’s a good thing that the album is separated from the Plasmatics material because it’s certainly a little bit of a departure from the more punky & aggressive heavy metal direction the Plasmatics had explored on their three albums to date. This time we get a more traditional hard rock album with a much more noticeable pop sensibility to the song-writing that’s unsurprisingly more in line with what KISS were known for at the time. There are definitely a few cuts here that could easily have been thrown onto a KISS album & no one would have been the wiser. Wendy’s punk rock roots have been completely swept aside & there’s actually very little legitimate heavy metal on offer either. KISS, AC/DC, Alice Cooper & Joan Jett are the artists that spring to mind with this one with Alice being particularly prominent in Wendy’s vocal delivery. The rhythm section keeps a solid base for the song-writing which is accentuated by an excellent production. The lead guitar work is really exciting for the most part & I find this element to be the clear highlight of the album.

Look, this is undoubtedly a good band with a charismatic front-woman but the problem lies predominantly in the simple, poppy song-writing. I feel like Wendy can do much better than this & I do get the impression that letting Gene Simmons run the show has been to the detriment of her creativity. In fact, the common consensus seems to be that "WOW" is a watered down version of the Plasmatics but I have to admit that I’d probably listen to it over “Coup d’etat”. Neither of them are up my alley though to be honest.

This is far too girly for me. It's well performed & produced but failed to capture me emotionally. The Amorphis influence is obvious as well as classic heavy metal & elements of stadium rock. The songs are generally structured well & the heavy sections blend nicely with the clean sections. The death vocals are pretty average & the clean vocal parts of truly cringe-worthy. The cleaner parts of the music are overly melancholic & come across as very cheesy. Forgive me but I'm from the old-school who believes that death metal should be dark & I find even the heavy sections to be too anthemic for my taste. Someone please ban Dream Theater-style keyboard solos in death metal too!!

I don’t think there’s any doubt that most modern metal bands leave very little room for belly laughs or humour of any kind. I mean being funny is simply not allowed for under kvlt underground metal guidelines & regulations now, is it? But we’re about to take a step outside of our dark, cavernous comfort zone for a few minutes as we discuss the world's first heavy metal soundtrack release in the shape of Rob Reiner’s classic comedy spoof “This Is Spinal Tap”.

The film was made in a documentary fashion that sees us following the misfortunes of legendary hard rockin’ heavy metallers Spinal Tap; a fictional group of English rock stars with a taste for all of the indulgences that come with the profession. In actual fact, the band was formed by a team of talented American comedians based in Los Angeles with the filming of the movie being almost completely improvised. Approximately 100 hours of footage was recorded with the script kept very open to encourage spontaneous hilarity & it’s clear from the result that they've succeeded brilliantly. There’s an abundance of fantastic one-liners throughout the movie with many of them having been ingrained in rock folklore for all time & if you haven’t seen “This Is Spinal Tap” then I order you to go & check it out as soon as you’ve finished reading this review.

But I might divert our attentions away from the film for a moment because what we’re really discussing here isn’t actually the movie, but the soundtrack release that came along with it. It’s always a point of contention as to whether the songs are good enough to stand up in their own right with these sort of comedy soundtracks & that’s a very pertinent question on this occasion. There are a few genuinely funny songs included in the film & we get them all here but we also get a number of other tracks that didn’t make the final cut for the movie too. Personally, I think you really have to buy into the music from a hooks point of view or else the jokes will likely lose their impact after several listens. And not all of these songs here are terribly funny mind you. Some could actually be mistaken for unintentionally cheesy song-writing if you’re not paying attention too closely but overall the humorous aspects of the record are very clever.

The production & musicianship aren’t amazing but that was likely intentional as we can’t have our goofy heroes showing themselves to be too polished now, can we? There’s a lot of variety here too & although Spinal Tap seems to be commonly lumped in with the heavy metal genre there’s really not all that much legitimate metal to speak of. Spinal Tap have a much more 70’s focused sound with the more metal moments possessing a similar feel to 70’s Black Sabbath & early Judas Priest. Priest’s “Rocka Rolla” debut often springs to mind actually & as with that album there’s a lot more hard rock to Spinal Tap’s sound than actual metal & a fair whack more progressive rock too. You can often pick out the exact bands, albums or songs that Spinal Tap are trying to parody with each piece & they’ve done a pretty amazing job to copy the dominant characteristics of each artist whilst presenting them in an overblown & inherently funny way at the same time. The more proggy stuff often sounds a lot like the more self-indulgent Rush, Yes or Pink Floyd material of the time while the couple of cheesy psychedelic pop songs are clearly a take on Beatles albums like “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” & “Magical Mystery Tour”.

Interestingly enough, I would never have much time for music in the style of some of these songs but when you know they’re done in jest it seems to open you up to enjoying them on a different level & I find that I end up having a bit of fun with it. Just don’t expect much metal. The metal link seems to be over-exaggerated due to the fact that the rock star lifestyle of the band hits closest to home for metal & hard rock musicians. For example, one of the most well-known tracks from the album is “Stonehenge” which was meant as a piss-take on Black Sabbath’s huge Stonehenge props for the “Born Again” tour with Spinal Tap ordering a similar product but getting a tiny sculpture only 18 inches high to perform in front of. That scene was one of the most memorable of the film but the music survives comfortably on its own merit & often reminds me of Manilla Road's early works, only a little less cheesy & a lot more enjoyable. 

Overall, I find "This Is Spinal Tap" to offer enough entertainment value to make it worth a few listens. Particularly if you're already a fan of the movie.

Dear lord!! This is where it's at! Having been a huge fan of brutal death metal since its initial creation I was still not prepared for the aural assault that was presented here. Insanely fast and precise blast beats, gutteral vocals & a massive production all combine to place this release well above the endless stream of generic death metal in the market today. Drummer Mauro Mercurio is the main focus here as they don't come much faster. Lead guitar lines are placed towards the back of the mix so as not to detract from the pure chaos caused by the rhythm section. Listen to this very VERY loud!

The 1984 debut album from Dusseldorf heavy metal outfit Warlock, entitled “Burning The Witches”, had offered a fair bit of appeal for me personally. But luckily for the band, I’m not the only one who saw something in their fairly traditional & anthemic style of heavy metal because Vertigo Records picked them up shortly afterwards & 1985’s “Hellbound” record would become Warlock’s first major label release. Of course, that brought with it a much healthier production budget which sees the record showcasing a noticeably more glossy & polished sound, although it could be argued that it’s lost a little bit of the youthful rawness that was such a feature of “Burning The Witches”. The drums are particularly heavy on the reverb & that loud electric sound that was so popular during the mid-80’s & it really does pin the album to the mid 80's which does leave it feeling a little dated. But having said that, this is a more metal sounding album than “Burning The Witches” was with everything given a little more oomph & a reduced quantity of tracks that are written around a hard rock backbone.

The production reminds me very much of the Judas Priest records from around that period actually. Perhaps that’s been further highlighted by the inclusion of several mid-paced stadium anthems that seem to be cut from the same mould that Priest had made their trademark over the previous few years too although it won’t go unnoticed that there’s also a fair bit more aggression here at times. Particularly from their blonde bombshell front-woman Doro Pesch who shows she can really scream here with a furious display of nasty metal power. She’s once again the focal point of the band, which won’t come as any shock to those that are familiar with her. The guitar solos have also been flashed up a bit with more intricacy & a shreddier feel & tone to them that once again reminds me of the Judas Priest dual guitar attack. This gives the guitarists a little more identity than they had on “Burning The Witches” which was a bit more basic in terms of composition. In fact, there’s a greater level of maturity in the song-writing & arrangements in general shown here with a better use of space & less of a reliance on clichés. The influences that Warlock draw upon haven’t changed however & you won’t struggle to pick up references to Priest, Accept & the NWOBHM.

Warlock’s debut relied very heavily on Doro to do all of the heavy lifting but the song-writing did struggle to meet the standard required to make the band stand out from the crowd & despite the extra maturity I mentioned earlier, that issue hasn’t totally been resolved here. Sure the vocals are great & Doro does everything she can to make the most of the tools at her disposal once again but there’s still a lack of genuinely classics songs here with only the title track managing to step up close to the top tier. There are a couple of weak numbers too with the majority of the material never getting above the level of gratifying & enjoyable meat & potatoes heavy metal. I think “Burning The Witches” may have offered slightly more in the way of highlights which might be why it’s generally the more highly regarded of the two but I’d also hazard to suggest that it’s low points were a little weaker than we hear on the follow-up which gives “Hellbound” a slight edge for overall consistency in my opinion. There’s not a lot in it though & if you enjoyed the first Warlock record then I don’t doubt that you’ll find plenty to enjoy on “Hellbound” too. In fact, I’d suggest that it’s the pinnacle of Warlock’s original lineup with changes in personnel coming shortly afterwards.