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Upcoming Gigs & Albums
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Upcoming: New releases (CD/DVD/Bluray) 2027
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Upcoming: New releases (CD/DVD/Bluray) 2026
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Upcoming: UK & Ireland Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2027)
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Upcoming: UK & Ireland Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2026)
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Upcoming: Festivals UK & Europe (2026)
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Upcoming: European, USA & World Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2027)
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Upcoming: European, USA & World Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2026)
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Latest Album Reviews
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Album review: CATS IN SPACE- Suit of Armour
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Album review: HANOI ROCKS – The Complete Collection 1981-1984
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Album review : IRON SAVIOR – Death Bringer
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Album review: MASON HILL – World So Wonderful
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Album review : HARMONY IN MY HEAD – The Music That Inspired The Genius Of Brian Wilson
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Album review : ASIA – Indigo
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Category Archives: Pure Metal/Album reviews
Album review: SONATA ARTICA – Acoustic Adventures: Volume One
Atomic Fire Records [Release date 21.01.22] After Sonata Artica toured in 2016 with an acoustic set and then again in 2019. From these two successful tours the idea was born to capture these versions on two acoustic albums, the second … Continue reading
Quick plays: BLACKLITE DISTRICT, NORTHTALE
BLACKLITE DISTRICT – 1990 AK19 Entertainment, LLC [Release date 31.12.21] Kyle Pfeiffer is better known by the name Blacklite District and has been releasing music since 2011. The album title gives a little clue to the sounds contained within, as the … Continue reading
Album review: MINISTRY – Bad Blood, The Mayan Albums, 2002-2005 (4 CDs)
Cherry Red [release date: 17.12.21] There are Industrial Metal bands and there is Ministry. After the breakthrough in 1983, Al Jourgensen’s minimalist metal-in-extremis became the benchmark for the genre pretty rapidly. You could argue that this 4 CD snapshot, originally … Continue reading
Album review : STAHLMANN – Quarz
AFM Records [release date: 10.12.21] 7th album from German band, Stahlmann. When Rammstein released their first album, in 1995, the German music press coined a new phrase, Neue Deutsch Harte. NDH became a cutting edge calling card for other bands … Continue reading
Album review: MANIMAL – Armageddon
AFM Records [Release date 3.12.21] Armageddon is Swedish Power Metal band, Manimal’s 6th release. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in bravado and sheer power, with the rough edges sanded down by a bunch of resilient, tough … Continue reading
Album review: RHAPSODY OF FIRE – Glory For Salvation
AFM Records [Release date 26.11.21] Italian symphonic metal legends Rhapsody (for that is what they were originally called) return with their 13th studio album and is the second in the The Nephilim’s Empire Saga concept series, and follows on from … Continue reading
Album review : CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – Sleeping Martyr: 2000-2005 (3 CD digipack)
Cherry Red [Release date 26.11.21] The Sleeping Martyr digipak is a cleverly selected three album package from one of the world’s coolest metal bands, Corrosion Of Conformity. All three – America’s Volume Dealer (2000), Live Volume (2001) and In The … Continue reading
Album review: BEAST IN BLACK – Dark Connection
Nuclear Blast [Release date 29.10.21] Beast In Black, the band that love to mix synths, Europop beats and their love of Anime into the more traditional power metal mix. This is the band’s third album with both of their previous … Continue reading
Album review: ORANGE GOBLIN – Rough and Ready, Live and Loud, 25 Years of British Rock and Heavy Metal
Dissonance/Cherry Red [Release date: 5.11.21] Counting back to 1995, Orange Goblin are a ten album band, whose latest live recording was available only as a digital release in 2020, due to the unforseen circumstance we call Covid. Now it’ll … Continue reading
Album review: BURNING POINT – Arsonist Of The Soul
AFM Records [Release date: 22.10.21] Finnish band, Burning Point have never found their way into the vanguard of European Power Metal. To their credit, despite being handicapped by lacklustre albums and personnel changes, they’ve kept moving forward. Now, five years … Continue reading
Album review: LORDS OF BLACK – Alchemy Of Souls II
Frontiers [Release date 15.10.21] Fifth album from metallers, Lords Of Black, the Ronnie Romero/ Tony Hernando band. They brand themselves as a “Progressive” Power Metal band. You can see strong hints of how this plays out when first viewing the … Continue reading
Album review: ALCATRAZZ – V
Silver Lining Music [Release date: 15.10.21] Now that Doogie White and Joe Stump are onboard, Alcatrazz have abandoned all that wimpy rock stuff, and mainlined themselves into the world of heavy metal, on this, their second album with Silver Lining. … Continue reading
Album review: KK’S PRIEST – Sermons Of The Sinner
EX1 Records [Release date 01.10.21] Fans of the perennial metal gods Judas Priest have been lucky on the albums front in recent years. First we had two killer albums from Priest itself. Both 2014’s Redeemer of Souls (recorded after the … Continue reading
Album review: PARADOX – Heresy II, End Of A Legend
AFM Records [Release date: 24.09.21] German giants of Thrash, Paradox are well known within the genre. They have a sizeable coterie of discerning fans who’ve followed them since the band’s inception in 1986. Had their chosen genre been say, power … Continue reading
Album review: SAVATAGE – Sirens and Dungeons Are Calling (remasters)
ear-MUSIC [release date 3.09.21] We’re cranking the machine way back to 1982, and Savatage’s twin debuts, Sirens and Dungeons Are Calling, both independently released. The band, Jon and Criss Oliva, Keith Collins and Steve Wacholz recorded and mixed all the … Continue reading
Album review: IAN PARRY’s ROCK EMPORIUM – Brute Force
Metal Mind [release date 14.07.21] Singer/songwriter, Ian Parry has always been master of his own destiny, moving from project to project and label to label over the course of his 30 year career. He counts Hammerhead, Elegy, Ayreon and Vengeance … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, Allan Sorensen, Ayreon, Elegy, Hammerhead, Ian Parry, Kris Gildenlow, Lucas Sillito, Metal Mind, Neo Classical, Patrick Johansen, Patrick Rondat, review, Rock Emporium, symphonic metal, Vengeance
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Album review: BRAINSTORM – Wall Of Skulls
AFM Records [release date 17.09.21] Judging by this new release, Brainstorm turned the pandemic related lockdown to good advantage, in writing and recording Wall Of Skulls. It’s no more than an incremental step up from last album, Midnight Ghost, but … Continue reading
Album review: GAMMA RAY – 30 Years Live Anniversary
Ear Music/Edel [Release date 10.09.21] In 2020, it looked like this could become the new normal. A live gig without an audience. Kai Hansen’s Gamma Ray know what it is to play live…they’ve been doing it for 30 years. It becomes … Continue reading
Album review: OVERKILL – The Atlantic Years 1986-1994
BMG [Release date 29.10.21] New Jersey band Overkill, named after the Motorhead album/song, formed in 1980 and were part of the early US thrash scene. Nineteen studio albums, three live and three EPs later, there’s quite a legacy there. There … Continue reading
Album review: ORANGE GOBLIN – Healing Through Fire (2CDs w/bonus tracks)
Cherry Red Records [Release date 20.08.21] This expanded Orange Goblin compilation centres on their 2007 Disaster Album, Healing Through Fire. Only a Heavy Metal band could take The Great Fire Of London and the Great Plague as the theme for its … Continue reading
Album review: INNER STREAM – Stain The Sea
Frontiers [Release date 16.07.21] Produced by talented Argentinian producer, Guillermo De Medio, Inner Stream’s debut album, Stain The Sea is a minor delight of Symphonic Metal, programmed sounds and Gothic Rock. The band is primarily singer/songwriter, Inez Vera Ortiz, who … Continue reading
LAURENNE/LOUHIMO – The Reckoning
Frontiers [release date 09.07.21] Laurenne/Louhimo’s The Reckoning is an interesting new release from Frontiers. A musical “lockdown made me do it” marriage of Smackbound’s Netta Laurenne and Battle Beast’s Noora Louhimo. They’ve written a dozen or so Symphonic Rock songs … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, Alicia Keys, Battlebeast, Frontiers, Laurenne Louhimo, Netta Laurenne, Nino Laurenne, Noora Louhimo, Norah Jones, review, Smackdown, Symphonic Metal Rock, Thunderstone
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Album review: THOR – Alliance
Deadline/Cleopatra [Release date 16.07.21] Canadian bodybuilder, historian, actor, and musician John Mikl Thor has produced some very fine metal over the years, debuting in the mid 70s. Since the turn of the millennium Thor has been particularly prolific, and this … Continue reading
Album review: SOCIAL DISORDER – Love 2 Be Hated
AFM Records [Release date 18.6.21] Social Disorder is not just another punk rock band, in fact despite its misleading name (and album title), it’s not a punk rock band at all. Love 2 Be Hated is pretty cool melodic metal, … Continue reading
Album review: TIMO TOLKKI’s AVALON – The Enigma Birth
Frontiers Music [Release date 18.06.21] Living legend of power/symphonic metal, Finland’s Timo Tolkki has again hooked up with fast rising guitarist/ writer/ producer Aldo (Secret Sphere/Sweet Oblivion) Lonobile on this, Avalon’s fourth album. As the memory of Tolkki’s longtime band, … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged album, Aldo Lonobile, Avalon, Caterina Nix, Fabio Lione, Frontiers, Jake E, James LaBrie, Marina LaTorraca, PELLEK, Raphael Mendes, review, Stratovarius, Symphonic Rock Metal, The Enigma Birth, Timo Tolkki
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