Reviews

Originality is something the death scene largely lacks. It seems that just about every band is content to sound exactly like Morbid Angel. Luckily for us, Nile is here to change that. Now, don's get…

This album has to be the best compilation of Iron Maiden, and it's live and brutal as hell. Starting off with the speech of Winston Churchill's WWII speech sets the mood. Then 'Aces High'…

This has to be one of Iron Maiden's best albums of all. It has everything from a fast and furious metal assault such as "Aces High", to an instrumental song such as "Losfer Words".

At that time, Iron Maiden had already released two studio albums, Iron Maiden and Killers, which had made them known in the British metal scene. However, vocalist Paul Di Anno was fired from the group…

Over the course of nine years [even more if you count the years with Sanctuary], Nevermore have been slowly rising within the ranks of American melodic heavy metal. After their critically acclaimed Dead…

So, when you think of metal bands with some of the all-time great line-ups, whom do you think of? Go ahead; think for a moment. As for me, names like Bloodbath, Opeth, Cynic, and Diabolical Masquerade…

If there's any act that remains a mystery to most rock fans here in Australia, it has to be HIM. It seems like every European magazine fall head over heels for this band, and feature more interviews…

As the name tells, this album has a really dark atmosphere. Helloween takes you to the latest hour with this one, and the sound is heavy and mean. Andi Deris puts his voice a little lower, and you get…

After Swedish power metal act Hammerfall's less than impressive 2000 release Renegade [not to mention the ridicule and bad reviews the album generated], the band have rethought their game plan of…

Finland's To/Die/For have been crafting the unique combination of gothic metal with an instinctive love of all things eighties wise since their inception in 1996. Members have come and gone over the…

This album should have a special label - something like "Warning! For real gothic metal fans only!". Because every other metalhead will immediately begin comparing it to Sentenced and HIM. Well,…

If you?ve ever wondered what Slayer's Reign in Blood would have sounded like if it was death metal you have two choices. You could listen to one of the infinitely numerous ?Angel of Death? or ?Raining…

Founded by Thomas C. Hansen, Gaia Epicus is a Norwegian Symphonic Power Metal band. They play music in the style of speed metal bands like Gamma Ray and Helloween. After two demos, [Cyber Future and Keepers…

For the ones who would have slept since 1988 [...], Gamma Ray was born due to the departure of Kai Hansen from Helloween. The band found their own sound in 1995 with the album "Land Of The Free".

For over two decades [and counting], New Jersey thrash metal outfit Overkill rose to prominence in the eighties thrash movement, and have stayed true to their old school roots and released a string of…

Let's play a game, ok? Close your eyes, [but first read this!] now, imagine yourself in the desert, Sahara Desert to be exactly, it's very hot, big drops of sweat dropping down your neck, you're…

Tribute albums can be either great, or a complete waste of time. Thankfully, Iced Earth has provided us with one of the great ones. This eleven-track album gives Iced Earth fans the chance to hear some…

This is the ultimate 5cd Iced earth box set you can't live without. It includes "Enter The Realm" (their demo which led to their recording deal with Century Media)? now on cd for the first…

I won't spend much words on this live album. Recorded during two live shows in Athens in 1998, it is simply the best live album I've ever heard: perfect sound, often heavier than in the studio…

Following the excellent album Something Wicked This Way Comes, Iced Earth released The Melancholy EP including the studio versions of excellent ballads such as 'Melancholy [Holy Martyr]', 'Watching…

The biography of the American band Iced Earth suffered from too may line-up changes over the years, so, basically the only original member, founder and leader Jon Schaffer IS Iced Earth. Ok, that was the…

Todd Mc Farlane is a genius. He has created the best american comic of all times and his character, Spawn, has became a legend. Sadness, evilness, violence, love?.are all inside the dark stories he lives…

Two main things make this album the best IE's album and an immense masterpiece: Jon Schaffer's anger and Mattew Barlow's voice. Year 1996, IE had gone through some major difficulties in…

Back in the early 90's, in 1992 to be precise. The American band Iced Earth released their first concept album entitled Night Of The Stormrider. Reactions were very positive because their sound was…

I want to be clear, what I'm reviewing here is the 2001's re-mixed and re-mastered version of the original Iced Earth, part of the Dark Genesis box-set [well, yes, I'm cheating in fact],…

It's always hard to be objective when you talk about one of your favourite bands.I can's pretend I am going to be objective here, because I like this band so much. The most noticeable thing…

Man, it's so hard when we are talking about my favorite power metal band, Nightwish. They are definitely unique with their gothic influenced orchestrated power metal and because they have the world's…

Opeth is not something one can easily absorb in one listen. The band's music is complex, even when sounding as seemingly simple as it does on their latest release, Damnation, due to hit the streets…

Sweden's premiere progressive black metal act Opeth have unleashed their most anticipated release to date, their sixth album, Deliverance. This release marks the first part of a projected two album…

Passion. That's what Blackwater Park is all about. Pure, unadulterated passion. Forget that Opeth display musical ability and know-how that is rivaled by few. Forget that the ending to The Leper Affinity…

Thanks to Still Life, I have become an Opeth fan, simply because it has all I ask: at the same time violent and calm, heavy and melodic, metal and acoustic, the long songs, the wonderful singing, the perfect…

Opeth. That's already a guarantee for a splendid musical opus! With such geniuses on guitars - Mikael Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren - Opeth create in their third album powerful and dazzling death metal…

Before we get to this album, I would like to get an answer to a rather difficult question. Exactly what is Opeth's style ? The riffs are similar to progressive, but Opeth also has death vocals mixed…

With this new album the Gods Lost Horizon are able to reach again the maximum musical level they reached in their first release, Awakening The World. Again we have the first an the last track missed, I…

Debut album of this new heavy/power German band, which has member who where in the heart of Hammerfall when it was born. Some people have blamed them not to be original and just to be a copy of Manowar,…

I, for one, was quite dismayed when Burton C. Bell decided to end his days with Fear Factory in March 2002. After some twelve years, four studio albums, two remix albums and a string of singles, the ashes…

After the slight disappointment of "Obsolete", Fear Factory had to prove there status as heaviest industrial metal-band with the release of Digital Mortality, or "Digimortal" for short.

In the [too much unknown] French Metal scene, some bands like No Return, Manigance or Anorexia Nervosa make their path. Day after day the French Metal bands are better and better, stronger and stronger…

Helloween, Gamma Ray, Hammerfall... if you're into traditional Power Metal, you should pay attention to Freedom Call. This German band emerged from the unknown in 1999 with the album Stairway To Fairyland.

This is a miracle - progressive metal band that doesn't sound like Dream Theater! Rare thing these days... 'In Search Of Truth' is the concept album with the main theme dealing with the…

Wicked. Get it. Now! Those 4 words alone would be sufficient to describe my thoughts on 'Monumension'. Enslaved have always blown me out of the water, and after their excellent previous effort…

Well, here I am listening to Prometheus, Emperor's latest and final gift to the metal world. As an amateur ?critic? it's my responsibility to help evaluate exactly what it is they have given…

In the long and complex discography of the Swedish band In Flames, the Black-Ash Inheritance EP is probably the most unknown of all their official releases. And the main reason could be that it only contains…

Following their first studio album, Lunar Strain, 1994's Subterranean EP is more than a fine piece of Melodic Death Metal. It contains good material, such as 'Stand Ablaze', 'Ever Dying'…

Here is an important CD, the first official release of Swedish In Flames. 1994's Lunar Strain is indeed a monument in the world of Melodic Death Metal, especially if you consider that 1994 is almost…

After the huge success of Edguy's leader with his side-project Avantasia, some Edguy fans feared that Edguy would suffer from the popularity of Avantasia or even that Edguy would just stop existing,…

After two demos and Kingdom Of Madness in 1996, the German band Edguy is back with their second full-length release Vain Glory Opera. Written as a "metal opera" by rising power metal genius Tobias…

Many fans, including myself, would have assumed that the release of 1999's 'Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory' would be Dream Theater's crowning moment. After all, it was a monumental…

This EP contains about a hour of excellent music. It is divided into two parts: a 23 minutes long title-track and some covers taken from the famous live performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in…

While comparisons to Nightwish have been obvious in the past, Austria's Edenbridge have finally created something unique with their third album Aphelion. 2000's Sunrise In Eden was pretty much…

Regardless of whether you view Devin Townsend's work as that of a genius or confusing, there's no denying he is prolific and worshiped by many and built an underground cult-like following. Following…

Although the last couple of years have seen Norway's leading elite melodic black metal act Dimmu Borgir release a mini live E.P. "Alive In Torment" [2001] and the C.D./D.V.D. set "World…

The first time I listened to this album I was a little shocked - the sound has changed in many ways compared to the Spiritual Black Dimensions album. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but compaired…

The title in the brackets pretty much says it all. It is typical death and is really raw. This was an album, however, released in an effort to raise funds for Chuck and his family's being able to…

This is it. Finally, after more than 10 years of waiting, we have got It. The one, the only the true thrash metal album. Death have had six releases, have made some drastic changes in their style and have…

So, after probably the worst album in Death's career, they have taken enough time off (two years) before releasing this one. And it is a very rapid change from the previous one, leaving many of the…

There it is the fifth album of Death in six years. The band hasn't had an album the year before releasing this one and they didn't waste their time much, touring the world, being kept busy as…

There it is the turning point in the career of Death. The most controversial album of the all - is it death metal, or is it thrash metal. Many people claim it is true death metal, but the only way they…

Well, well, well? Here it is the album that keeps the flame burning. Death have started it three years ago and now bands like Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Carcass are strenuously practicing in some…

There continues the saga of Death. The deadly topic of the lyrics is still there, but the main and most important ingredient of death metal is gone - the vocals. Chuck Schuldiner, being a true thrash vocalist,…

The year is 1987, thrash metal is in its heyday, Metallica are preparing to release "?And Justice For All" and Chuck Schuldiner is about to put the beginning of his glorious career as a musician.

Unholy Darkthrone was upon us again back in 1995 with their fifth release now on new label Moonfog under the watching eye of Satyricon-man Sigurd Wongraven, the band released a very anticipated album called…

A cutting guitar, a bass that sounds like a buzzing of a wasp swarm, a shrill and dying voice, drums beating like chaos-tumult and a filthy production. This is the definition of pure black metal, the one…

Sweden's Dark Tranquillity may have been a half step behind some of the other leaders in the Gothenburg melodic death metal movement (In Flames and The Crown come to mind), but with "Damage Done",…

If some of you are die hard fans of the times when Dark Tranquillity used to play real death metal, then you don's have to read further, because this album is the more likely to disturb you. Some…

This is obviously my favourite album of my favourite band. So you can easily imagine that I only have nice things to say about it. So, why does this album reach perfection? Why is it, in my opinion, the…

When this ever-changing ex-Death Metal outfit from the land of the thousand lakes released works like Tuonela and Am Universum some fans were disappointed, some others angry, and many just turned their…

So here it is, the long awaited sequel to Wishmaster and it delivers the same power package but is it really something new? The clear answer is no because all the songs that Century Child delivers are…

It's hard to believe that Montreal's [Canada] Cryptopsy has been in existence [starting out as Necrosis] some eleven years! After their 1994 debut Blasphemy Made Flesh made it's way to the…

Well, I was sitting around, thinking, ?I should probably review something, but what?? I haven's gotten any new albums the last couple of weeks, so it had to be something old. It was then that I realized…