cd review

(8/10) Releases of albums that include Dennis Ward are per se good ones. Khymera's "The Grand Design" is such a longplayer. The beginning of this project was actually a while a go when Daniel Liverani, an Italian keyboarder, and Kansas singer Steve Welsh...

(7/10) Bavaria is known for Oktoberfest, Weissbier and Lederhosen. It's less connected to thrash metal. Mortal Infinity from Altötting might change this a bit. The five-piece band was founded in 2008 and released their first EP in 2010. Two years later...

(9/10) There are many good prog rock bands out there but when it comes to me there are two masterminds. One of them is Steven Wilson and the other is Bruce Soord. Those two guys have the gift of writing beautiful songs with emotion, complexity and depth....

(7/10) Skövde rocks. That's at least what The Gloria Story wants to make us think. And actually the five guys manage pretty well. It's another Swedish band that takes a lot of inspiration out of the 70's. The five-piece mentioned Kiss as one of their...

(7/10) Phantasma is the result out of the collaboration of Georg Neuhauser (Serenity), Oliver Philipps (Everon) and Charlotte Wessels (Delain). Reading those names raises quite some expectations. And knowing that Tom S. Englund from Evergey plus some...

(7/10) Belgium post-metal gang Steak Number Eight put a fresh piece of meat on the barbeque. It's called "Kosmokoma", it's their thrid release and contains eleven tracks. When it comes to the sound of the new longplayer not that much changed for the Belgian...

(8/10) Vasteras-based punk rockers Psychpunch celeberate the 'sweet baby octane' - at least this is the title of their newest longplayer which is released in these days. JM, Lindell, Walle and Locke have recorded fourteen new songs which are framed by...

(6/10) Mercutio is actually a character in Shakespeare's 'Romoe and Juliet'. The name is based on 'mercurial' and I think that is what the band wants to be - vivid, but also a bit moody. However, where aren't here for theater arts, we are here to talk...

(8/10) It was 30 years ago when Birmingham-based hardcore punks of Sacrilege released their "Behind the Realms of Madness" longplayer. Having started as crustcore band the guys included more and more thrash elements in their sound; something that led...

(7/10) Null'O'Zero was founded in 2011 and it almost seems that there is a New Wave of Greece Heavy Metal on its way. OK, that's maybe a bit too big, but there are with Null'O'Zero and Forbidden Seed two Greek bands that show some potential for more....

(8/10) You could get the impression that Balingen, the city in the Southwest of Germany, gets more and more the new epicenter of metal. The Bang Your Head festival, which is very well established in the meantime, is taking place there year by year and...

(8/10) Voodoo Circle is the brainchild of Silent Force and Primal Fear axeman Alex Beyrodt. The passionate guitarist put together musicians that are all well-known. Next to the mainman himself there is Mat Sinner part of the band as well as David Readman...

(8/10) Actually metalcore isn't my most favorite metal genre and that's why I was hesitating a bit when I got the new release from German Callejon. Even though the band scored already quite some successes I never digged deeper into their songs and sound....

(8/10) What is always impressive is the width of bands and genres that are in Relapse' portfolio. Next to death metal bands like Obituary and Skinless the label also releases a lot of other stuff. Pinkish Black is one of those bands that are almost the...