Posted in Cd Reviews

German band Mob Rules are about to release the seventh album of their eighteen year career. ”Cannibal Nation” seems an odd title for a melodic metal band – it seems more suited to bands playing Death metal or one of the other heavier genres, but after eighteen years the bands fans aren’t going to be put off by the album title. There is a reason for the album title – the song of the same name is about African despot Jean-Bédel Bokassa – leader of the Central African Republic who was charged with crimes including Cannibalism.

Musically Mob Rules are Melodic metal – along the lines of Orden Ogan, Blind Guardian and Dragonforce. There are prog elements and power metal too, and there is plenty of power here along with the melodies...

Posted in Press Releases

Following the release on 22nd October of legendary guitarist Steve Hackett’s newest album, Genesis Revisited II which comes in a limited edition 2CD Media-book, as well as a 4LP & 2CD version, Steve is proud to announce details of his forthcoming 2013 world tour. The tour will be a special production and something of a departure from his recent live shows.

This will mark the first time any original former member of Genesis has toured the band’s repertoire solely from the 1971 – 1977 period and will comprise songs co-written by Steve from that period, including such classics as Supper’s Ready, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight and The Musical Box. The line-up will feature the addition of Nad Sylvan as principal vocalist on several songs...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

It’s never easy choosing singles from an album, especially an album where the songs are both well-crafted and packed with lyrics that instantly throw up all kinds of visual ideas, some more bizarre than others. So, following on from ‘No Place Like Home’ and ‘No Friendly Neighbour’, singles one & two from the debut Primal Rock Rebellion album, ‘Awoken Broken’, it was decided that followers of the project – new to the public, but several years in the making – should be given the chance to register their vote, and the band’s online sites duly glowed red hot with suggestion and counter-suggestion as to just what single three should be…

An interesting exercise for sure, and by and large, what the Primal Rock People wanted was ‘Tortured Tone’… not one of the album’s more de...

Posted in Press Releases

Nuclear Blast is proud to announce the signing of US hardcore metal kings, HATEBREED, who have just inked a record deal including all European territories. North America and Canada will be handled by Razor & Tie.
The forthcoming album was co-produced by Hatebreed, Zeuss (SUICIDE SILENCE, ALL THAT REMAINS, SHADOWS FALL) and Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD). Wilbur also handled mixing duties on the new record. The new studio album will be supported by extensive global touring that will stretch well into 2014.
Commented singer Jamey Jasta, ”We’re really excited to be working with such great people at both Razor & Tie & Nuclear Blast. We’ve made an awesome album and we’re chomping at the bit to get it out and hit the road. Global domination begins now.”
Nuclear Blast A&R Jaap Wagem...

Posted in Press Releases

New York death metal veterans SUFFOCATION are currently in the finishing stages of their upcoming new album entitled ’Pinnacle of Bedlam’.

The record was produced by the band and tracked at Full Force Studios in New York by longtime collaborator Joe Cincotta. The mixing and mastering of the album is set to be handled this time around by world renowned producer/engineer Zeuss (HATEBREED, ARSIS, SUICIDE SILENCE). Pinnacle of Bedlam will feature 10 genre-defining-bone-crushing tracks and also marks the return of drummer Dave Culross, who played with the band previously on their Despise The Sun EP.

Bassist Derek Boyer offered the following update:
“The recording process of our new album, Pinnacle of Bedlam, began Monday, August 13th...

Posted in Cd Reviews

This is the latest release from Universal Music’s ”Re-presents” series. As usual they’ve dug through the archives and chosen a great album to re-release. This time it’s the live album ”Live at the Marquee” from British Blues band 9 below zero. The band formed in 1977 and continued till 1983 when they split, reforming later in 1990 and continuing to the present day. The band supported The Kinks and The Who on tour as well as peforming their own shows, and also appeared on television including The Chris Tarrant Show, South Bank Show, The Old Grey Whistle Test, and comedy series The Young Ones .

”Live at the Marquee” was recorded in 1980 at the Marquee club in London, and was released the same year as a single album. This meant that it was limited to 14 tracks...

Posted in Cd Reviews

It’s been a year since Reckless love released their last album, Animal Attraction. To coincide with their month-long UK tour they have decided to release an EP – Born to break your heart. The EP’s title track is a remixed version of a song from the Animal attraction album. Alongside this we get three live tracks, a previously unreleased song left over from the Animal Attraction album recordings, and three acoustic tracks including a cover of the Thin Lizzy classic ”The boys are back in town”.

The EP comes in a gatefold sleeve and includes a sheet that folds out to a poster slightly larger than A4 with a band photo on one side and track credits on the other.

”Born to break your heart” is a great track on the album, and the remixed version sounds very similar – unless you listened to the...

Posted in Cd Reviews

French band Yotangor were formed in Toulouse in 2008 by composer and guitar player Jean-Guy Pichoustre and lead singer Yngrid Allieres. They then recruited some old friends: Tony Marcos, drums, Patrice Hernandez, Bass and Vincent Agar, lead guitar. The following year they released their first album, ‘King Of The Universe’. The album was a very ambitious album – a double concept album with 26 tracks Now they are back with a new symphonic rock album – ‘We Speak’.

This new album isn’t a concept album, but it’s certainly not a lightweight album lyrically and includes intelligent topics often not addressed in music including racism, the environment and deforestation. Musically it’s a fantastic album – some rich symphonic metal, great vocals and a lot of variety.

Opening track ”Anon...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Infinitus Mortus are a symphonic metal band from New Jersey, USA. The band was founded in 2008 by Stephen ”Stoki” Megna, as a studio project, and after recruiting a singer the first album was released in 2010 (with the confusing title of ”2012”). Now they’re back with their second album – The conspiracy of love.

On looking at the band lineup and seeing two singers, one male and one female (they’re brother and sister), I’d initially assumed this would be following the standard beauty and the beast formula – clean female vocals plus growling male vocals, but happily they’ve chosen not to do what so many other bands have done and instead have clean vocals from both male and female singers. Caitlin has a great voice and her vocals work well with both the music and the vocals of her brother.

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight is a night of Finnish metal. Folk metal band Ensiferum are headlining with Amoral and Profane Omen as support.

First up came Profane Omen. When they came on it was still very early but the venue was already half full which promised a busy night. I hadnt heard anything by these guys before but they quickly made a good impression with some seriously heavy metal and certainly got the crowd warmed up nicely.

Next up came Amoral – another band I hadnt listened to before. They weren’t as heavy as Profane Omen, being more of a classic hard rock/heavy metal band, but were still pretty damn heavy (and very loud), and having listened to them I’d certainly try and get to see them again next time they play the UK...