Category Archives: PURE METAL (All posts)

Album review: PARADISE LOST – Obsidian

Posted on May 13, 2020 by jason

Nuclear Blast Records [Release date 15.05.20] Creating an album whose compositions are fresh-sounding, well-balanced, expertly-performed and capable of causing high levels of excitement with every new spin is a pretty hard task for any band to achieve in the year … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Doom Metal, gothic, Gregor Mackintosh, metal, Nick Holmes, Nuclear Blast, Obsidian, Paradise Lost, pure metal, review | Leave a comment

Album review: KATATONIA – City Burials

Posted on April 22, 2020 by jason

Peaceville Records [Release date 24.04.20] When, on the 28th of February 2020, I visited the “Gagarin 205” club for the purpose of attending what can only be described as an outstanding performance by the Prog Metal quintet Katatonia, never in … Continue reading →

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Album review: DYNAZTY – The Dark Delight

Posted on March 29, 2020 by jason

AFM Records [Release date 03.04.20] Dynazty’s first three albums culminated in the stirring melodic rock of “Sultans Of Sin” in 2012. By 2014, they had radically recalibrated their sound, trudging through the bland power metal of “Renatus” (2014) and “Titanic … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged AFM Records, album, Dynazty, melodic metal, metal, review, symphonic metal, The Dark Delight | Leave a comment

Album review: INTENSE – Songs Of A Broken Future

Posted on March 21, 2020 by jason

Pure Steel Records [Release date 27.03.20] It has been nearly nine years since we last saw an album from Intense, during which time they have been busy inside and outside of the music scene (see interview below). The album was … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, INTERVIEWS, Interviews/10 Questions, Interviews/Rock Stars, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews, Pure Metal/Gig reviews, Pure Metal/Interviews | Tagged album, Intense, Karl Groom, melodic metal, metal, power metal, prog metal, review, Songs Of A Broken Future, Threshold | Leave a comment

Album review: ABSOLVA – Side By Side

Posted on February 25, 2020 by jason

Rocksector Records [Release date 18.10.19] Absolva formed from the ashes of Fury (UK) in 2012, featuring Chris Appleton (vocals, guitar), Luke Appleton (guitar, vocals), Martin McNee (drums) and bassist Karl Schramm, who joined the band in 2014. The band also … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Blaze Bayley, Fury UK, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, Luke Appleton, melodic metal, metal, review | Leave a comment

Album review: RAGE – Wings Of Rage

Posted on February 22, 2020 by jason

SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 10.01.20] Every family has a black sheep. That one relative who never gets invited to Christmas lunch. Rage are that family member, the unhinged uncle who is usually locked in an attic or roaming around the woods. … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, heavy metal, metal, NWOBHM, Peter "Peavy" Wagner, power metal, Rage, review, thrash metal, Wings Of Rage | Leave a comment

Album review: METAL CHURCH – The Elektra Years 1984-1989

Posted on February 22, 2020 by jason

Cherry Red Records [Release date 28.02.20] Before Kurdt Vanderhoof went off to invent a new genre with his band, Hall Aflame, in 1991, he released 3 albums with his startup venture, Metal Church. Cherry Red Records have bundled these into … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews, Reissues | Tagged album, box set, Cherry Red Records, classic metal, David Wayne, Keith Howe, Kurdt Vanderhoof, metal, Metal Church, review, The Elektra Years 1984-1989, thrash metal | Leave a comment

Album review: ROSS THE BOSS – Born Of Fire

Posted on February 18, 2020 by jason

AFM Records [Release date 06.03.20] Just when you thought that there was no band more ‘metal’ than Manowar or Judas Priest, along comes Ross ‘the Boss’ Friedman and his crew to combine elements of both and more to provide an … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged AFM Records, album, Born Of Fire, Dictators, guitarist, Judas Priest, Manowar, metal, Motorhead, review, Ross the Boss | Leave a comment

News: MARILLION, NICK MASON, STYX, BLUE OYSTER CULT (February 2020)

Posted on February 1, 2020 by jason

MARILLION - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 4 November 2019

Marillion release an expanded version of ‘Script For A Jester’s Tear’ on April 3 as a 4CD/Blu-ray package and on 4LP. Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets will release ‘Live At The Roundhouse’ (2LP, 2CD/DVD and Blu-ray) on April 17 through … Continue reading →

Posted in Album News, All Posts, Band Entrees & Exits, Gigs and Tour News, NEWS, Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions | Tagged Blue Oyster Cult, February 2020, Marillion, melodic rock, metal, news, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets, rock, Styx, Thunder | Leave a comment

Album review: SONS OF APOLLO – MMXX

Posted on January 29, 2020 by jason

Inside Out [Release date 17.01.20] Second studio outing from the prog metal supergroup Sons Of Apollo who consist of vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, bassist Billy Sheenan, guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, drummer Mike Portnoy and on keyboards Derek Sherinian. Sons Of … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Billy Sheenan, Bumblefoot, Derek Sherinian, Dream Theater, Guns 'N' Roses, Jeff Scott Soto, Journey, melodic metal, metal, Mike Portnoy, MMXX, prog metal, progressive, review, Sons Of Apollo | Leave a comment

Album review: SERENITY – The Last Knight

Posted on January 13, 2020 by jason

Napalm Records [Release date 31.01.20] Austrian symphonic metal band Serenity are back and I seemed to have missed 2017′s ‘Lionheart’, having enjoyed the previous year’s ‘Codex Atlanticus’. That’s the trouble sometimes with so many bands around it is hard to … Continue reading →

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Album review: KOBURG – Position Of Power

Posted on January 10, 2020 by jason

Bandcamp [Release date 01.01.20] It sounds like a fairy tale but, at the stroke of midnight, as the old year passed into the next decade, a new Queen was crowned. Now, America has Amy Lee, Holland has Floor Jansen, Sweden … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Evanescence, Koburg, melodic metal, metal, Nightwish, Position Of Power, review, symphonic metal | Leave a comment

Album review: MOB RULES – Beast Over Europe

Posted on December 30, 2019 by jason

SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 13.09.19] Germany has long been a hotbed for rock and metal, with the Scorpions, Accept, Doro and Bonfire leading the way and the huge Waken Open Air festival bringing Teutonic thunder to the world. Celebrating their 25th … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Beast Over Europe, live, melodic metal, metal, Mob Rules, power metal, review | Leave a comment

Album review: ANVIL – Legal At Last

Posted on December 23, 2019 by jason

AFM Records [Release date 14.02.20] It’s impossible not to love Anvil. Sure, prior to the 2008 ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ documentary they were just scratching a living, playing anywhere and everywhere that would have them but that film was … Continue reading →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, anvil, classic metal, Legal At Last, metal, review, Robb Reiner, Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, thrash metal | Leave a comment

Album review: POSSESSED – Revelations of Oblivion

Posted on October 14, 2019 by jason

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 →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Death Metal, metal, Nuclear Blast, Possessed, pure metal, Revelations of Oblivion, review, thrash metal | Leave a comment

Album review: XENTRIX – Bury The Pain

Posted on October 14, 2019 by jason

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 →

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), All Posts, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews | Tagged album, Bay Area, Bury The Pain, Chris Astley, metal, review, thrash metal, Xentrix | Leave a comment

Album review: DEVIN TOWNSEND – Empath

Posted on March 21, 2019 by jason

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 | Leave a comment

Album review: AVANTASIA – Moonglow

Posted on February 17, 2019 by jason

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 →

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Album review: FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – The End Of Chaos

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Yiannis

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 →

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Album review: THRASHIST REGIME – Carnival Of Monsters

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Yiannis

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 →

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