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Upcoming: New releases (CD/DVD/Bluray) 2025
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Upcoming: New releases (CD/DVD/Bluray) 2026
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Upcoming: UK & Ireland Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2025)
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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 (2025)
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Upcoming: European, USA & World Tour Dates and Gig Listing (2026)
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Category Archives: PURE METAL (All posts)
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
News: VANGELIS, SLADE, GENESIS (August 2021)
Bryan Adams has signed with BMG who will release his new album later this year. Elles Bailey has released a new single ‘Cheats & Liars’. It’s the first single from her third album ‘Shining in the Half Light’ which is due next … Continue reading
Posted in Album News, ALL POSTS, Band Entrees & Exits, Books, Festivals & Large Events, Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Gigs and Tour News, NEWS, PledgeMusic/Kickstarter Campaigns, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions, RIP
Tagged Album News, All Posts, Americana, Band Entrees & Exits, blues, books, country, Festivals & Large Events, folk, melodic rock, metal, rock, Vangelis
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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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Album review: TERRA ODIUM – Ne Plus Ultra
Frontiers Records [Release date 11.06.21] In its more expansive moments, Norwegian band Terra Odium’s album resonates with the sci-fi dissonance of tech metal. The kind that Brad Fiedel and Wendy Carlos wielded on “The Terminator” and “The Shining” film scores. … Continue reading
Album review: BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER – S/T
Frontiers Records [Release date 11.06.21] Frontiers clearly think highly of Brother Against Brother. The label compares this recording by two vocalists, Renan (Electric Mob) Zonta and Nando (Sinistra) Fernandes, relatively unknown outside of their native Brazil, to the Allen/Lande project. … Continue reading
Album review: NERGARD – Eternal White
Pride & Joy Music [release date 21.04.21] Norwegian musician/songwriter/producer, Andreas Nergard creates symphonic experiences which enthrall audiences. The fact that he uses “Metal” as his chosen vehicle is almost incidental. You could add that the fact he uses voices is … Continue reading
EP review : RHAPSODY OF FIRE – I’ll Be Your Hero
AFM Records [Release date 04.06.21] There’s no band more adept at sucking us into their fantasy world of bombastic, exhuberant Metal than Champions League Melodic Metal band, Rhapsody Of Fire. This is one of those rarities we call an EP. … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Single and EP reviews
Tagged AFM Records, album, EP, melodic metal, power, review, RHAPSODY OF FIRE, symphonic
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Album review: BLOODBOUND – Creatures Of The Dark Realm
AFM Records [release date: 28.05.21] When Bloodbound’s principal songwriters, Fredrik Bergh and Tomas Olsson rerouted their musical artistry from the AOR of Street Talk to the land of Power Metal, they brought the underlying principles of hooky melodic rock with … Continue reading
Album review: SUNBOMB – Evil And Divine
Frontiers [Release date 15.05.21] An outsider may see Sunbomb as the completion of Michael Sweet’s journey to the darkside. A restlessly talented musician finally freeing himself from the strictures of Christian Rock, crossing into the world of the Sunset Strip’s … Continue reading
Album review: SONIC HAVEN – Vagabond
Frontiers Music [Release date 07.05.21] Sonic Haven is Herbie Langhan’s band. He of Firewind, Avantasia and others fame. He’s produced it, Sacha Paeth has mixed it and old Radiant chum, Carsen Stepanowicz plays guitar. So, with three vastly experienced artists … Continue reading
Album review: SCREAMACHINE – Screamachine
Frontiers [Release date 09.03.21] Screamachine comprises five experienced metallers, all of whom deserve a mention, but most notably, vocalist Valerio Caricchio and guitarists, Alex Mele and Paulo Campitelli, all of whom are veterans of the Italian/European Heavy Metal scene. The … Continue reading
Album review: BLAZE BAYLEY – War Within Me
Blaze Bayley Recording [Release date 09.04.21] If you like your rock of the metal variety you are in for a treat – this is a blistering, classic metal album in the making. The guitar work is simply put superb – … Continue reading
Album review: ARION – Vultures Die Alone
AFM [release date: 9.04.21] Over the 10 years since their debut, Arion have swapped teenage Eurovision notoriety for cutting edge symphonic rock. Like other Power Metal bands, their music is emphatic, and heavy on the drama. They know how to … Continue reading
News: POWERWOLF, TONY IOMMI, OPETH, TRIFECTA (April 2021)
Lee Aaron (pictured) will release her latest album, ‘Radio On!’, on July 23. Bellowhead release a live album, ‘Reassembled’, on June 18. This was recorded at the band’s one-off online reunion show last December. The Black Keys release a blues … Continue reading
Posted in Album News, ALL POSTS, Band Entrees & Exits, Books, Festivals & Large Events, Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Gigs and Tour News, NEWS, PledgeMusic/Kickstarter Campaigns, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions, RIP
Tagged classic rock, folk, fusion, gigs, jazz, metal, news, OPETH, pop, powerwolf, prog, rock, Staind, tour dates, Trifecta
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Album review: UNDERKING – At Hell’s Gate
Bandcamp [Release date 23.04.21] Underking is in fact a one-man band consisting of Maxwell Jeffries hailing from Nottingham and this is Underking’s third album. Maxwell has been working on this album for over a year, with the songs covering “topics … Continue reading
Album review: METALITE – A Virtual World
AFM Records [release date 26.03.21] Coming soon to a Melodic Metal dancefloor near you, Metalite and their third album, A Virtual World. Afficionados will already know the band incorporate elements of trance and electronica into their streamlined melodic metal variant. … Continue reading
Album review: SECRET SPHERE – Lifeblood
Frontiers Records [Release date 12.03.21] If Italy’s Secret Sphere aren’t the EU’s Power Metal poster boys, then they should be. They are a relatively unsung band who’ve battled through multiple line up changes, and come up smelling of roses every … Continue reading
EP review: MEMORY OF A MELODY – Burn Alive
Website [Release date 13.03.20] Memory of a Melody hail from San Antonio, Texas and prior to this EP have released three albums – 2011’s ‘Things That Make You Scream’, 2012’s ‘Mouthful of Razors’, and 2013’s ‘Phantom’s and Shadows’. After that … Continue reading
Album review: TURBULENCE – Frontal
Frontiers Records [Release date 12.03.21] Lebanese Progressive Rock/Metal band, Turbulence, are crossing a few boundaries with their provocatively titled Frontiers debut, Frontal. It is a defiantly bold attempt to incorporate the music of the wider world into their work. Something … Continue reading
Album review: HEART HEALER – The Metal Opera by Magnus Karlsson
Frontiers Records [release date 12.03.21] Magnus Karlsson needs no introduction. Neither do the (all female) vocalists who grace Heart Healer. Apparently a “Metal Opera” has been something of an ambition of Karlsson’s for some time. The idea is not new … Continue reading
Album review: ORDEN OGAN – Final Days
AFM Records [Release date 12.03.21] Orden Ogan might not be the band on everyone’s lips when Progressive or Power Metal is the subject of conversation. But they should be. And if their last album, Gunmen, didn’t put them there, Final … Continue reading
