The Shape are a US metal band and this is their fourth album.
Mixing modern metal, metalcore, thrash metal, nu-metal, and groove metal into their sound, this is an enjoyable romp through a landscape that sees many different complementary influences touched upon. Continue reading “The Shape – The World Away (Review)”
Wingless are a Polish metal band and this is their second album.
So strongly do I associate Poland with death metal, than upon seeing the album cover of The Blaze Within I immediately jumped to that conclusion with Wingless. Well, you know what they say about books and their covers… Continue reading “Wingless – The Blaze Within (Review)”
The Night Flight Orchestra are a Swedish hard rock band and this is their third album.
Featuring members of Soilwork, Arch Enemy, and Witchery, (among many others), this is something of a different beast from these other bands, and presents us with 50 minutes of classic rock with some progressive overtones. Continue reading “The Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic (Review)”
Now this is a tour! Four top-notch, high-profile metal bands in one glorious package? Yes please!
Continue reading “Kreator/Sepultura/Soilwork/Aborted – Manchester Academy 1, 28/02/17 (Live Review)”
Xandria are a symphonic metal band from Germany. This is their seventh album.
This is grand, orchestral, operatic metal with lofty ambitions and high aims. It’s been a while since I’ve caught up with Xandria, and it seems they’re hungrier than ever for big things. Continue reading “Xandria – Theater of Dimensions (Review)”
This is the latest EP from The Unguided, a Swedish melodic metal band.
The band’s 2016 album Lust and Loathing was one of those albums that just got better and better the more I listened to it. On the surface the band didn’t seem to be doing anything too different from Continue reading “The Unguided – Brotherhood (Review)”
L’Incendio are an extreme metal band from Italy. This is their debut album.
L’Incendio have a death metal core that they build on with elements of other sub-genre styles, fleshing out their well-rounded assault in a wider-ranging way than many of their peers.
Combining atmosphere and accessibility into their Continue reading “L’Incendio – L’Incendio (Review)”
This is the fourth album from US death metallers Allegaeon.
This is an ambitious, epic release; 72 minutes of science fiction-themed grandeur and technical aggression.
The band’s music is technical, melodic death metal that features a lot of engaging content and some quite virtuoso playing. For a band like this, the level of technicality on display is always going to be high, but Allegaeon never Continue reading “Allegaeon – Proponent for Sentience (Review)”
This is the third album from Subliminal Fear, an Italian metal band.
This is modern metal that takes its primary influences from a combination of the cybermetal styles, (Fear Factory, Mnemic), and melodic groove metal, (Soilwork, In Flames, etc.), alongside a pinch of djent and industrial.
With this in mind, the band operate in the more commercial realm of the style, rather than on the heavier end as some bands do when incorporating these influences, (for the most part at least; that’s not to say the band can’t be heavy or more extreme when they want to). The songs work well in this context though, with the band’s clean vocal harmonies being Continue reading “Subliminal Fear – Escape from Leviathan (Review)”
This is a split release between Bent Sea and To Dust, both of which play grindcore and both of which feature a plethora of members/ex-members of bands such as Aborted, Megadeth, Soilwork, Napalm Death, (Bent Sea), and Abigail Williams, Vintage Warlords, Humanity Is Cancer, Grave Plague, Fountain of Piss, Severed Remains, The Black Dahlia Murder and Phobia, (To Dust).
Phew. As you can see, there’s a lot of experience here.
The first half of the split is provided by Bent Sea, who give us almost 10 minutes of state-of-the-art ferocity. Continue reading “Bent Sea/To Dust – Ascend/Descend – Split (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 