That sharp contrast between doom and hardcore is a known characteristic of this band and it certainly does make for fascinating listening. How many songs can trace their inspiration back to Black Sabbath eponymous song on the band’s eponymous debut album? The list must be awfully long and listening to the opening Four Shrines on..
Allen/Olzon – Worlds Apart (Frontiers Music)
I guess we all know that this project features Russell Allen, the vocalist of immense US rockers Symphony X and Anette Olzon formerly of Nightwish (what a great job she did in replacing the irreplaceable Tarja Turunen) and The Dark Element with Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liimatainen? Effectively, this is a continuation of the project..
Ayreon – Electric Castle Live And Other Tales (Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group)
I’m the guy who comes up with the ideas, sees the big picture, and puts it all together... “I just love recording my various projects in the studio,” says Arjen Anthony Lucassen, mastermind behind the soaring series of concept albums set in the Ayreon universe, “but I’m not a live performer. I’m the guy who..
NOVENA – Eleventh Hour (Frontiers)
Mark the name, as these guys are going to be huge in the progressive rock universe! This is the debut album by this UK progressive metal band formed in 2013 and they already have an outstanding EP in their locker with the quite staggering 32-minute Secondary Genesis featuring three lengthy prog metal tracks - and..
Harem Scarem – Change The World (Frontiers Music)
Formed in 1987 and still going strong, the melodic rock band Harem Scarem is one of Canada’s greatest exports with their superior and ever pleasing brand of AOR. They have a couple of blips behind them especially when they changed their name to Rubber for a couple of albums around the millennium but this was..
Semblant – Obscura (Frontiers Music)
I just knew that this was going to be a difficult album for me to review when I looked at the album publicity and saw the three words that were never meant to go together, melodic death metal! I’m quite a simple person and to me, there is quite a gulf between melodic metal and..
YES – REISSUES: Open Your Eyes / The Ladder (earMusic)
In the late '90s Yes seemed to be back on a little bit of a resurgence after the baffling skirmish between the so-called 'Yes-West' incarnation which recorded 90125, Big Generator and Talk, the absurdly named 'Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe' which appeared after Jon Anderson left the former, and the shambolic Union meeting which saw a..
Coffeinne – Requiem
Coffeinne show that they have the ability to write top class material...... Coffeinne is a fairly new four-piece Spanish metal band, formed in Madrid in 2015. And before you go and Google this, Coffeinne is not Spanish for “caffeine” (“cafeína” is). The word does not seem to exist in any language I’m aware of so..
Crematory – Unbroken (Napalm Records)
With 15 studio albums released in 29 years, one cannot say Crematory are resting on their laurels – the guys (and girl!) just keep on releasing new music. Coming out less than two years after Oblivion, the new album Unbroken includes 15 songs into a duration of 66 minutes. OK, I can understand the confidence..
True Moon – II (Lovely Records)
True Moon are a foursome from Sweden who are genuinely and interestingly different. They have created a quite enchanting blend of darkwave, post-punk, and alternative rock that eclipses musical trends - a sort of cross between an 80's mix of Siouxsie and the Banshees, early Cure, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission; and more..