Powertryp is a German metal band out of Erlangen in Bavaria which formed in 2010 and it has taken quite a while for the debut album to be released with Midnight Marauder although the band did put out the demo Endless Power which came out in 2015. The band is an old school hard rock/heavy..
Glasya – Attarghan (Scarlet Records)
Glasya is a relatively new symphonic metal band from Portugal with the ambition Attarghan being the very ambitious second album. The band formed in 2017 and released Heaven's Demise in 2019 announcing them as a unit to keep an eye on with a most impressive epic symphonic album with a distinct Middle East sound with..
Alvablot – Harmonic Dystopia (Self Released)
Alvablot is a new project put together by the Swedish multi-instrumentalist Petter Karlsson who some of you may recall for his work with Therion, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Mats Leven's Skyblood and Snowy Shaw. He was the drummer in Therion but for the debut Harmonic Dystopia he is simply credited with 'everything' meaning that he has..
KAIPA – Urskog (InsideOut Music)
Calling all 70's prog fans! Legendary Swedish progressive folk-fusion-rock band KAIPA are celebrating the release of their 14th studio album Urksog, out now. It really is a classic prog creation in every sense, lots of touches of so many bands from the 70's to start with, particularly ELP to my mind, albeit with a fresh, contemporary..
Boguslaw Balcerak’s Crylord – Human Heredity (Pride & Joy Music)
I can honestly say that I have never heard the name of Boguslaw Balcerak before as I'm sure we would all agree that it is a name never to be forgotten and it also seems to have sent my spell checker into overdrive! Boguslaw Balcerak is a Polish neo-classical guitarist and quite exceptional shredder being..
WINTER IN EDEN – Social Fake (Cherry Red)
The sound - courtesy of Steve Johnson's production - is immense... It grabs you around the head and gets your attention like the musical equivalent of Judge Death opening his helmet visor on you. It's been a long time now since North-East of England prog-metal band Winter In Eden released an album - in fact,..
Infamous Stiffs – Lockdown Live (Riot Records)
Infamous Stiffs is a SoCal (Southern Californian) punk rock band which formed in 2019 and released a pretty impressive debut record last year with the short but very effective Kill For The Sound. SoCal punk bands take their influences from British bands like Throbbing Gristle and Wire and Infamous Stiffs concentrate on fast and furious..
Nazareth – Surviving The Law (Frontiers MUsic)
It is probably understandable if today's casual rock fan has not heard of Nazareth but if you pop back in time to the early 1970s then this hard rock band from Dunfermline in Scotland were real pioneers of the hard rock movement. They had a fair amount of album chart success plus several singles but..
Night Cobra – Dawn Of The Serpent (High Roller Records)
Now this one took me by surprise as I thought the band must be some old NWOBHM outfit that had slipped through the net with Dawn Of The Serpent being a new re-issue of the band's album from back in the day; the sound of the band and the album cover simply scream NWOBHM. However,..
Black Swan – Generation Mind (Frontiers Music)
It was in 2020 that Black Swan arrived on the hard rock/heavy metal scene with the triumphant debut album Shake The World which was a real tour-de-force and a major statement of intent from a team of stellar musicians and most deserving of the term supergroup. How can you not get excited when you see a..