Reviews Archive
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In Flames
Battles
By Chris Gibbs | 17 November, 2016
A number of years have passed since I last gave In Flames any significant attention. Even more have passed since they released an album I enjoyed, such as 2006’s Come Clarity. While that wasn’t a true return to form of their c...
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Sirenia
Dim Days of Dolor
By Michael O'Brien | 14 November, 2016
I came into Sirenia’s eighth full length album, Dim Days of Dolor, consciously aware that I’m not really its target audience. This is a band that once straddled a line between symphonic metal and melodic death metal but has st...
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Darkthrone
Arctic Thunder
By Simon Crawley | 07 November, 2016
Black metal, and that of the Norwegian persuasion in particular, definitely occupies a stark corner of the heavy metal realm. To that extent, Darkthrone was always one of those potently bleak acts that somehow conjured one’s respect. Their f...
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Testament
Brotherhood of the Snake
By Chris Gibbs | 01 November, 2016
While 2008’s The Formation of Damnation and 2012’s Dark Roots of Earth were both excellent Testament records post-reunion, brimming with thrash, melody, and hooks, there was a substantial overall lack of speed. This i...
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Watchtower
Concepts of Math: Book One
By Simon Milburn | 26 October, 2016
Watchtower is a band that I discovered waaaaaaay back in the day when Rage playing metal clips of any description was a rarity. It wasn’t a monthly thing or anything like that. It was a once in a blue moon thing and there was no internet or ...
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Obituary
Ten Thousand Ways to Die
By Simon Milburn | 26 October, 2016
I like that Obituary are still going after all these years. Sure they enjoyed the usual hiatus there for a few years - seven in fact, but when they returned with 2005’s Frozen in Time, it was clear the band never missed a beat. Trut...
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Meshuggah
The Violent Sleep of Reason
By Chris Gibbs | 23 October, 2016
I don’t know about you, but in the late 90s an obscure band from Umeå, Sweden by the name of Meshuggah took every single thing I thought I knew about metal, rolled it up into a ball of garbage and through it out the window. They left m...
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Suma
The Order of Things
By Michael O'Brien | 23 October, 2016
The Order of Things is an album I've been waiting for for a hell of a long time. Six years now, in fact.
Back in 2010 Sweden’s Suma released Ashes, which was and continues to be one of my all time favourite sludge/d...
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Insomnium
Winter's Gate
By Simon Crawley | 06 October, 2016
With a steady flow of studio album releases since 2002’s In the Halls of Awaiting, Finland’s Insomnium reveal its seventh in Winter’s Gate. Consisting of a single 40-minute track, this is a conceptual album insp...
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Crobot
Welcome to Fat City
By Chris Gibbs | 06 October, 2016
I have mentioned in the past that Nuclear Blast have built up an impressive roster in recent years, branching out to consist of some pretty killer hard rock n roll bands in addition to the high calibre death and thrash metal that is synonymous wit...
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Charred Walls of the Damned
Creatures Watching Over the Dead
By Chris Gibbs | 04 October, 2016
After an excellent two album cycle with heavy metal masters Iced Earth, drummer Richard Christy virtually disappeared from the music scene for over five years, taking up a seat as a radio presenter on The Howard Stern Show. In 2010, he returned wi...
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Syndrome
Forever and a Day
By Michael O'Brien | 04 October, 2016
I’ve long been a fan of Belgium’s Amenra, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I became aware of just how powerfully captivating they can be in their acoustic form. In addition to their excellent live album, Alive,...
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Heaven Shall Burn
Wanderer
By Chris Gibbs | 19 September, 2016
Having now ripped off faces for 20 years, Saalfeld, Germany’s prodigal sons of all things melodic death metal tinged metalcore, Heaven Shall Burn, return with their eighth full length album, Wanderer. Visually, the band's moniker is...
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Warfather
The Grey Eminence
By Michael O'Brien | 16 September, 2016
To say that Warfather’s 2014 debut, Orchestrating the Apocalypse, was a disappointment would be quite the understatement. With the exception of his vocal duties with Nader Sadek, it had been quite some time since (then) ex-Morbid An...
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Opeth
Sorceress
By Chris Gibbs | 13 September, 2016
Before we go any further, and regardless of what the gorgeous yet brutal artwork by regular contributing artist Travis Smith might imply, there are no death growled vocals on the new Opeth record, Sorceress. Once upon a time, I adored Ope...
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King
Reclaim the Darkness
By Chris Gibbs | 05 September, 2016
Australian black metal trio King consist of an impressive extreme metal line up. Vocalist Tony Forde of the legendary Blood Duster and The Day Everything Became Nothing, guitarist David Hill of Fuck I’m Dead and also The Day Everything Becam...
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Imperium Dekadenz
Dis Manibvs
By Michael O'Brien | 02 September, 2016
Over the couple of months I’ve spent with Imperium Dekadenz’s fifth full-length album, Dis Manibvs, - which also happens to be my first exposure to the band - I’ve had this nagging feeling of familiarity in the back of m...
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Soilwork
Death Resonance
By Simon Crawley | 30 August, 2016
Amidst the Swedish melodic death metal veterans’ ongoing tour to support their 2015 studio album, The Ride Majestic, fans are treated to over an hour’s worth of music consisting of two brand new songs and 13 rarely released tr...
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Vader
Iron Times
By Michael O'Brien | 22 August, 2016
I’d be amazed if anyone went into a new Vader recording expecting to be surprised by what they hear by this point. Aside from the fact that the band has been active for over 25 years, their output has also been incredibly consistent over tha...
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Crypt
Disgusting Zombie Metal
By Michael O'Brien | 17 August, 2016
Crypt, who hail from Brisbane and who have recently reformed after 15-odd years away, released one of my favourite Australian demos in 1994 with Excruciating Agony which, at the time, was one of the heaviest things I’d ever heard an...
