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Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
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Gig review: UNPLUGGED AND UNSCRIPTED: AN EVENING WITH DANNY AND LUKE (Thunder) – Alban Arena, St Albans, 9 October 2019
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Gig review: THE DIVINE COMEDY – O2 Academy, Oxford, 13 October 2019
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Gig review: DATURA4 – CherryDon, Marseilles, 6 October 2019
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Gig review: FLIGHT BRIGADE – Telford’s Warehouse, Chester, 4 October 2019
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Gig review: MARTIN TURNER – Under the Bridge, London, 27 September 2019
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Featured Album Reviews
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Album review: LUCIFER’S FRIEND – Awakening (featuring John Lawton)
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Album review: BLACKTHORNE – Afterlife/Don’t Kill The Thrill (Graham Bonnet, Bob Kulick)
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Album review: JOSH TAERK – Beautiful Tragedy
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Album review: MARTIN TURNER AND FRIENDS – The Garden Party
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Album review: THE TIRITH – Tales From The Tower
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Single & EP Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews
News
Category Archives: PURE METAL (All posts)
Album review: POSSESSED – Revelations of Oblivion
Nuclear Blast Records [Release date 10.05.19] If you were told to imagine how a Possessed album would sound given the circumstances, no matter how vivid of imagination one may have, there is now way that this outcome could have been … Continue reading
Album review: XENTRIX – Bury The Pain
Listenable Records [Release date 07.06.19] To me, Xentrix has always been the leading UK thrash metal band back in the day. When it comes to having the whole package meaning musicianship, compositions, ferocity, melodic lines they came up on top … Continue reading
Album review: DEVIN TOWNSEND – Empath
Hevy Devy/Inside Out [Release date 29.03.19] Devin Townsend has rested his Project and with ‘Empath’ we have his first solo album since ‘Ziltoid’. Guests include regular contributor Anneke van Giersbergen, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally as music … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, Anneke van Giersbergen, Casualties of Cool, Chad Kroeger, choral, classical, Devin Townsend, Empath, folk, melodic, metal, Nickelback, progressive, review, rock, Solo, Steve Vai, Strapping Young Lad, symphonic
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Album review: AVANTASIA – Moonglow
Nuclear Blast [Release date 15.02.19] ‘Moonglow’ is the eighth full-length album by Tobias Sammet’s metal opera project Avantasia. As with previous Avantasia’s albums he calls upon an impressive list of guest vocalists including returns for Magnum’s Bob Catley, former Queensryche and … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, AVANTASIA, Bob Catley, Candice Night, Edguy, GEOFF TATE, Jorn Lande, melodic metal, Moonglow, Nuclear Blast, pomp, power metal, review, symphonic metal, Tobias Sammet
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Album review: FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – The End Of Chaos
AFM Records [Release date 19.1.19] My infatuation with Flotsam And Jetsam and their unique brand of Metal began sometime in the late fall of 1988 – that is when, while watching a late-night episode of the now legendary, Baily Brothers … Continue reading
Album review: THRASHIST REGIME – Carnival Of Monsters
Fat Hippy [Release date 28.4.18] You return home from work tired, you had people yelling at you all day, your kids are crying because you didn’t bring them the new Lego with the millennium falcon expansion, the wife is giving … Continue reading
Album review: BEAST IN BLACK – From Hell With Love
Nuclear Blast [Release date 08.02.19] Beast In Black hail from Finland and were formed in 2015 when guitarist and songwriter Anton Kabanen left his previous band Battle Beast. They released their debut album ‘Berserker’ in 2017 and now they are … Continue reading
Album review: RHAPSODY OF FIRE – The Eighth Mountain
AFM Records [Release date 22.02.19] Italian power metal band return with their latest album, cementing the new/current line-up. Formed in the mid 90 as Rhapsody, RoF made the genre of symphonic power metal their own. Founder members keyboard player Alex … Continue reading
Album review: CULTURAL WARFARE – Warmageddon
M-Theory Audio [Release date 14.9.18] Stop the press. There is a new player in Metal City that deserves your immediate and utmost attention. Hailing from Oakland US, this four-piece outfit takes a shot at making a Thrash Metal record and … Continue reading
Album review: METAL CHURCH – Damned If You Do
Nuclear Blast [Release date 7.12.18] Metal Church rank up among the founders of the early US thrash metal scene. Although never quite breaking into first tier territory, they remain a worthy outfit to this day with a series of classic … Continue reading
Album review: RAVEN – Screaming Murder Death From Above – Live In Aalborg
SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 18.01.19] Most often associated with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Raven formed in the mid 70′s and had some notoriety in the early 80′s. Playing their brand of Athletic Rock, they were a big influence … Continue reading
Album review: SOEN – Lotus
Silver Lining Music [Release date 01.02.19] Swedish based progressive metal band Soen were formed in the mid 00′s, and are an extreme metal supergroup of sorts, with their founder members having a collective CV of Opeth, Testament, Death, Willowtree and … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, extreme metal, Lotus, metal, OPETH, review, Soen, Testament, Tool
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Album review: EVERGREY – The Atlantic
AFM Records [Release date 25.01.19] ‘The Atlantic’ is the eleventh album from Evergrey, the masters of dark and atmospheric metal. Tom S Englund and the band have really worked on every detail of the album, be it the sea theme … Continue reading
Gig review: THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA – Biebob, Vosselaar, 27 November 2018
Had you asked me twenty or so years ago whether I would ever consider attending a show featuring a band whose singer is sporting a shiny purple suit the answer would be a resounding ‘no’. Funnily enough, that is exactly … Continue reading
Posted in All Posts, GIG REVIEWS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Gig reviews
Tagged 27 November 2018, Belgium, Biebob, gig, metal, Night Flight Orchestra, review, rock, Vosselaar
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Album review: ROINE STOLT’S THE FLOWER KING – Manifesto Of An Alchemist
Inside Out [Release date 23.11.18] The last time Uppsala-born guitar maestro Roine Stolt released a solo record was eight years ago, when “Supernal Endgame – Touch The Sky” was first brought into this world. Accusing the sixty-two-year-old musician of tardiness, … Continue reading
Album review: ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN – Symphonized
Inside Out [Release date 16.11.18] In the summer of 1992 a good friend came to mine for a visit carrying with him “Always…”, the debut release of an atmospheric Death Metal outfit named The Gathering. My attraction to the work … Continue reading
Gig review: RIVERSIDE – De Casino, Sint Niklaas, 11 November 2018
The first time I attended a Riverside gig was back in April 2014 and those of you who read my review of the said show will remember that the overall experience involved a very long drive from London to Liverpool, … Continue reading
Posted in GIG REVIEWS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Gig reviews
Tagged 11 November 2018, Belgium, De Casino, gig, Mariusz Duda, prog, Progressive Rock, review, RIVERSIDE, Sint Niklaas
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Gig review: POWERWOLF – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, 28 October 2018
It is immensely gratifying to have a band, whose career you have been closely following since day one, reach such great levels of success – case in point here being the German Heavy/Power Metallers Powerwolf. Not many people were supportive … Continue reading
Gig review: PRIMAL FEAR – Biebob, Vosselaar, 12 October 2018
Ask me to compose a list with the best Metal albums for 2018 and you are almost certainly guaranteed to find Primal Fear’s latest studio effort “Apocalypse” somewhere near the very top. It may be a good two decades since … Continue reading
Posted in GIG REVIEWS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Gig reviews
Tagged 12 October 2018, Belgium, Biebob, gig, heavy metal, metal, Primal Fear, Ralph Scheepers, review, Riot V, Vosselaar
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Gig review: VOIVOD – Magasin 4, Brussels, 9 October 2018
There was a time in my young adult life where the prospect of attending a Voivod show felt less of a possibility to manning a mission for the purpose of exploring the environs of planet Mars, so it is indeed … Continue reading
