published April 2010

Back to the Future With Scott Adams

It's 1984... and there's not a sex crime or, luckily, The Eurhythmics, in sight.

George Orwell got a lot of things right about 1984 in his book of the same name; but what he failed to predict was that the year would be absolutely titanic for ‘our kind of music’.

The Generals - Stand Up Straight (Metalcentral Records)

Further evidence that quality thrash/death metal is among Sweden's most abundant natural resources.

Ever so Swedish in the band's musical upbringing, the listener can instantly discern a hefty dose of melodic death metal among the songs The Generals serve up on their impressive d

Blitzkrieg 2010: Wacken Open Air, Party.San, and Summer Breeze

Faster, harder, louder... just how much metal is too much?

In 2008, Metalbeast and I made the long pilgrimage from Perth, which often feels like the most remote corner of the earth, to Germany for Wacken Open Air.

Bison b.c. - Dark Ages (Metal Blade/Riot)

Bison b.c.'s third outing on Metal Blade isn't technically astounding but something about it makes you want to listen on

 

Cynic - Re-Traced EP (Season of Mist/Riot)

Cynic releases an album of inferior re-interpretations of songs from the "Traced In Air" record for some inexplicable reason.

Cynic are one of the watershed bands in progressive metal - rated up there with Opeth, Tiamat or Dream Theater in terms of creativity, influence a

Unleashed - As Yggdrasil Trembles (Nuclear Blast/Riot)

Viking death metallers of the world, are you ready?

Just one of the reasons I love metal is that it frequently has me looking up historical, mythological and religious references to better understand what I’m listening to.

Priestess - Prior To The Fire (Tee Pee/Impedance Records)

Canadian quartet Priestess deliver a slew of heavy rock infused with some hearty punk goodness, trippy prog psychedelia all mashed together in Prior To The Fire.

As much as I love Metal and all its various genre off-shoots, it's nice to listen to some straight ahead rock once in a while.

Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Part 2 (Candlelight/Earsplit)

What is it with US Black Metal these days? Apart from Absu, all the country used to produce was lo-fi, 4-track necro bullshit. These days, they're producing great black metal by the bucketload, and at the forefront of it all is Nachtmystium.

Nachtmystium were one of the thousands of rubbish black metal bands no-one really gave a shit about until 2006's Instinct: Decay, which saw them drop the stage names, corp

Callejon - Videodrom (Nuclear Blast/Riot)

Callejon are a German band variously described as metalcore, zombiecore, Screamometal and even Videometal. Their new album, Videodrom, is equally hard to categorise.

Callejon describes itself as "A furious mix of all out metal and emotional melodies" but to me they never really go all out with the metal and the melodies are not really very emot

Rhapsody Of Fire - The Frozen Tears Of Angels (Nuclear Blast/Riot)

'Rhapsody Of Fire are finally back!' exclaims the official website. Was it worth the wait? Well, actually, yeah - if you like that sort of thing.
Release Date: 
29 Apr 2010 (All day)

The next thing the website says is, 'Be Ready To Discover The Ancient Secret Trapped Between The Frozen Lands Of The Known World!', which clearly makes no sense at all.