Urgh, tributes! They used to be exciting when I hadn’t heard many, but after listening to a bucketload of them, I have realized that most of them are god-awful. This tribute, one of about 1,000,000 dedicated to the legendary Iron Maiden, does nothing to change my mind. Moreover, who are these people?! I’ve heard of… Read More Various – Slave To The Power : A Tribute To Iron Maiden
Finally the ineffable kings of darkness have returned with 8 tracks of pure black metal supremacy.Comprising of Lord Ahriman and Dominion on guitars,Matte Modin(of Defleshed) on drums and Emperor Magus Caligula(original vocalist of Hypocrisy) on vocals and bass,Dark Funeral is a complete war machine. “Diabolis Interium” is a landmark release in the band’s history.Dark Funeral… Read More Dark Funeral – Diabolis Interium
Anyone still listen to pure 80s’ heavy metal? If so, embrace Canada’s CELESTIAL DAWN – a band that belongs in the early 80s but still comes as a breath of fresh air in 2002, an age of baggy-pant trends and ADIDAS mall music. I received their demo GENESIS from their Pakistani-born guitarist Kash, who has… Read More Celestial Dawn – Genesis
Candlemass is one band we, or at least I, can safely call pure doom metal. No jerking around, they play and have always played pure guitar based doom metal. Not only have they consistently released strong albums, but they are also an immense influence on the manifold of doom bands that came into existence after… Read More Candlemass – From The 13th Sun
No real metal listener needs a history lesson about Judas Priest, so I’ll just skip that. I’ll start by saying that this is another fucking heavy, fucking great and fucking classic Judas Priest album! RAM IT DOWN contains some of the best material Priest has written (‘Ram It Down’, ‘Hard As Iron’, ‘I’m A Rocker’),… Read More Judas Priest – Ram It Down
I’m not a fan of later Fates Warning. I much prefer the heavy metal approach of their first three releases to the progressive rock/metal of the later stuff. Even though they’re pretty good at the progressive stuff as well, the style just doesn’t work for me. However, I feel there are still two worthwhile albums… Read More Fates Warning – Parallels
My how this band changed. I don’t even recognize them anymore. While not entirely innovative on their last album, Bloody Blasphemy, they created a wonderful blend of melodic death, thrash with a small, minute amount of black metal and their songwriting was just perfect all around. They had a well-oiled machine going. Now what? They’ve… Read More God Dethroned – Ravenous
This new 90s metal outburst in countries overseas lately has produced some excellent outfits:Emperor,In Flames, Hypocrisy, Opeth…I could go on forever. But the problem is, once a movement starts, the amount of copycats and half-inspired groups tend to make it bland, and many mediocre releases start appearing. Some of the death/thrash/power/black metal releases I have… Read More God Dethroned – Bloody Blasphemy
Dimmu Borgir have long been threatening to crawl out from the Black metal underground and fight Cradle Of Filth for the top spot of the extreme metal world. They promised it and came oh so close with “Spiritual Black Dimensions” and “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant”, but only now, with “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia”, do they actually deliver.… Read More Dimmu Borgir – Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Throatlatch Records {TL} is the first full fledged Metal label in this country which caters to the talented Indian bands who’ve never yet had a chance to get their original music to the metalheads. The Cranium guys {heart and soul of TL} have taken a very bold step into the murky depths of the Indian… Read More Various – Deepthroat – Metal Extracted from the Indian…
First of all, let me pay my obeisance to my friend Nikhil, who introduced me to post-Soulside Journey Darkthrone, the True Black-Metal Warriors. (For those not in the know, Darkthrone refuses to acknowledge the releases prior to "A Blaze in the Northern Sky"). Those of you who have already heard Darkthrone would exactly understand the… Read More Darkthrone – Plaguewielder
The Devil is defeated, darkness has lost its Power Fire and Brimstone will torment him eternally (Revelation 20:10) (Song #7: Reality) I am sure most ours’ knowledge of the Revelations is limited to what was told to us by the veteran Brit-Legends, Iron Maiden. Here’s a band from Indonesia, out to educate everybody about some… Read More Kekal – Beyond The Glimpse of Dreams