This is the eleventh album from Soilwork, a veteran Swedish metal band.
Soilwork’s eleventh album mixes melodic death metal with fat grooving riffs and a hard rock sensibility that sits at the heart of the band, allowing them to straddle the worlds of metal and rock quite effectively. Having said that, it should be clarified that the rock aspects of this album are mainly hidden underneath a firmly metal veneer; they inform, without overpowering. Continue reading
Chapel of Disease are a German death metal band and this is their third album.
2015’s The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art stood out for its dark individuality and bleak delivery. Here was a band that took the old-school death metal template and added an atmospheric, sometimes doom-laden twist to it. It was a very effective record. Continue reading
Striker are a Canadian heavy metal band and this is their sixth album.
I really like Striker. Simple, effective, well-written, and catchy as Hell, their music is just so timelessly appealing and pleasurable to listen to. That’s basically how I feel whenever I give 2017’s Striker a spin, but the same can be said, (and I am saying it), about Play to Win. Continue reading
Forming the Void are a progressive stoner/sludge doom band from the US. This is their fourth album.
After enjoying Forming the Void’s split with Pyreship, I was eager to hear more from the band. Thankfully, that desire has been catered to in the form of Rift; 46 minutes of new material for me to wrap my ears around. Continue reading
The Night Flight Orchestra are a Swedish hard rock band and this is their fourth album.
The Night Flight Orchestra are shockingly good. I mean really, really good. By all rights I shouldn’t like this kind of thing, as it’s not the sort of music I tend to listen to very often, if at all, but something about the execution of this band’s tunes really grabs me hard. Continue reading
This is the ninth album from UK stoner metal band Orange Goblin.
It was 2014 when we saw the release of the first-rate Back from the Abyss. It seems like it’s been a long time since then, (and it has, I suppose), but now I’m very pleased to say that Orange Goblin are back with one of their strongest and most diverse albums to date. Continue reading
Graveyard are a hard rock band from Sweden and this is their fifth album.
Even though this is the band’s fifth album, this is my first encounter with them. Featuring a very enjoyable classic version of hard rock, this is retro-styled and blues-infected, resulting in a soulful album of tunes and rocking anthems. The band’s multifaceted and rich songwriting shines strongly, and Peace provides a very satisfying and gratifying listen. Continue reading
Blackwater Holylight are a rock band from the US and this is their debut album.
Here we have 41 minutes of retro-appeal rock, replete with decent variety, good songwriting, and heartfelt vocals. Continue reading
Blissful Stream is a Swedish one man doom metal band and this is his latest EP.
I really like Blissful Stream. Both 2016’s Ascending Demons and 2017’s Devil’s Night to All Souls, (a split with Lightsabres), were very enjoyable and showcased the artist’s lo-fi and charismatic take on doom metal/rock. Now it’s 2018, and time for a new EP, which we have in the form of the 14 minutes of material that makes up Dead Religious. Continue reading
This is the seventh album from Glorior Belli, a French black metal band, (essentially a one man band with hired help).
It’s always great to hear something new from this charismatic and individual band, and here we have 47 minutes of new material.
If you’re not familiar with Glorior Belli’s work, (check out Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls and Sundown (the Flock That Welcomes)), this is a band that Continue reading
