-
Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
-
Gig review: BLACK EYED SONS- The Lexington, London, 16 December 2024
-
Gig review: BRAVE RIVAL – Thames Side Brewery, Staines, 8 December 2024
-
Gig review: STRAY – The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 7 December 2024
-
Gig review: THE SHEEPDOGS, THE COMMONERS – Islington Assembly Hall, London, 5 December 2024
-
Gig review: GUN – Barrowlands, Glasgow, 14 December 2024
-
Gig review: THE DAMN TRUTH – The Grace, London, 26 November 2024
-
Featured Album Reviews
Features
Single & EP Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews
News
Category Archives: PURE METAL (All posts)
Album review: GHOST – Impera
Loma Vista Recordings [Release date 11.03.22] Papa and the Nameless Ghouls are back with album number 5. The last album, Prequelle, took us back to the time of the Plague, but here we join Ghost in more modern times. The concept … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews, The Best of 2022
Tagged album, Bon Jovi, Call Me Little Sunshine, Ghost, heavy metal, Hunters Moon, IMPERA, Loma Vista Recordings, Meloria, nameless ghouls, Papa, review, rock, Runaway, Tobias Forge
Leave a comment
Single review: MORS PRINCIPIUM EST – The Lust Called Knowledge
AFM Records You have to confess that the emphasis is on the “Melodic” when Mors Prncipium Est are described as Melodic Death Metal. New album, ‘Liberate The Unborn Humanity’, which is an interesting proposition, is due out on 8 April … Continue reading
Album review: SERIOUS BLACK – Vengeance Is Mine
AFM Records [Release date: 25.02.22] Sixth album from Power Metal band, Serious Black. Their reputation for international membership has continued throughout a 7 years and counting career. German founding member, Roland (Helloween) Grapow bailed early on. US vocalist Urban (Tad … Continue reading
News: SKID ROW, STEELHOUSE FESTIVAL, BOWLING FOR SOUP (March 2022)
Belle and Sebastian’s new album ‘A Bit Of Previous’ will arrive on May 6 via Matador. Graham Bonnet Band will release a new album, ‘Day Out In Nowhere’, on May 13 via Frontiers. Don Airey guests on one song. Bowling For Soup … Continue reading
Posted in Album News, ALL POSTS, Band Entrees & Exits, Books, Festivals & Large Events, Gigs and Tour News, NEWS, PledgeMusic/Kickstarter Campaigns, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions, RIP
Tagged AOR, blues, Bowling for Soup, folk, gigs, melodic rock, metal, New releases, news, prog rock, rock, Skid Row, Steelhouse Festival, tour dates
Leave a comment
EP review: THE CRUX – Time and Space
Facebook [Release date 22.04.22] The Crux were founded in 2009 by heavy metal loving brothers James Boyd & Neil Ward. Having released a self-titled EP in 2009 under the name Warcrux, they played multiple shows in Northern Ireland & Ireland … Continue reading
Album review: THE RODS – Metal Will Never Die (The Official Bootleg Boxset)
Cherry Red/HNE [Release date: 25.02.22] Metal Will Never Die is an understandable assertion from The Rods, a band who’ve survived multiple assaults on their place in the genre’s popularity over the last 40 years. The band, a trio, consisted of … Continue reading
Album review: SPIRITS OF FIRE – Embrace The Unknown
Frontiers [Release date: 18.02.22] Classic Metal band, Spirits Of Fire release their second album, Embrace The Unknown. The band was formed from scratch in 2017 by Chris (Savatage) Caffery, Steve (Testament) DeGiorgio, and Mark (Fates Warning) Zonder with the estimable … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts)
Tagged album, Aldo Lonobile, ANGRA, Chris Caffrey, Classic Heavy Metal, Fabio Lione, Fates Warning, review, RHAPSODY OF FIRE, Roy Z, Savatage, Secret Sphere, Spirits Of Fire, Testament, Tim Ripper Owns
Leave a comment
Album review: TRICK OR TREAT – Creepy Symphonies
Scarlet Records [Release date 01.04.22] ‘Creepy Symphonies’ is the seventh studio album from Trick Or Treat, who always entertain with their music. Like Freedom Call, Trick Or Treat like to think of their music as happy metal. Vocalist Alle Conti … Continue reading
News: SAXON, ALICE COOPER, THE UNDERTONES (February 2022)
Accept have signed with Napalm Records. Aerosmith release ’1971: The Road Starts Here’ on April 8. Angel Nation release their new album ‘Antares on April 8 through Inner Wound Recordings. Autograph have signed with Frontiers with a new album due … 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 albums, Alice Copper, AOR, blues, February 2022, folk, gigs, melodic rock, metal, New releases, news, prog, rock, Saxon, The Undertones, tours
Leave a comment
Album review: BATTLE BEAST – Circus of Doom
Nuclear Blast [Release date 21.01.22] Album number six from Battle Beast, after a bit of a gap since 2019’s highly enjoyable ‘No More Hollywood Endings’. Their line-up remains the same, namely Eero Sipilä (bass), Pyry Vikki (drums), Janne Björkroth (keytar), … Continue reading
Album review: SAXON – Carpe Diem
Silver Lining [Release date 04.02.22] Saxon, one of the world’s most consistent and reliable classic metal bands, a name synonymous with the New Wave Of British Heavy (NWoBHM); there were there at the start in the late 70s. Hits such … Continue reading
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
News: BIG BIG TRAIN, DIAMOND DOGS, NICK MASON (January 2022)
Alestorm begin work on their next album, ‘Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum’, which will be released on Napalm Records later this year. Arch Enemy will release their latest studio album, ‘Deceivers’, via Century Media Records on July 29. Big … 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 AOR, Big Big Train, blues, Classic Rock Magazine, Diamond Dogs, folk, gigs, Melodic Rock Records, metal, news, Nick Mason, prog, re-issues, rock, tours
Leave a comment
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
News: ELLES BAILEY, STONEDEAD, URIAH HEEP (December 2021)
Tim Arnold releases his new album, ‘Maybe Magic’, on January 7 via Bandcamp. Pretty Maids vocalist Ronnie Atkins releases his new solo album ‘Make It Count’ on march 18 via Frontiers. Elles Bailey has opened pre-orders for her next album, ‘Shining in … Continue reading
Posted in Album News, ALL POSTS, Band Entrees & Exits, Books, Festivals & Large Events, Gigs and Tour News, NEWS, PledgeMusic/Kickstarter Campaigns, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions, RIP
Tagged alternative, blues, blues rock, Elles Bailey, festivals, folk, gigs, indie, melodic rock, metal, news, pop, prog, rock, Stonedead, tours
Leave a comment
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: INSANIA – V Praeparatus Supervivet
Frontiers [Release date 12.11.21] Few bands get back together after a 14 year breakup, but that’s what Sweden’s Power Metal band, Insania have done. Twin vocalists, twin guitars, bubbling bass and ahhh… that double kick bass drum thump on the … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts)
Tagged album, Frontiers, Helloween, Insania, Iron Maiden, power metal, review, Sweden
Leave a comment
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
News: POWER QUEST, BEARDED THEORY, GIANT (November 2021)
Annihilator release their latest album, ‘Metal II’, on 18 February via earMUSIC. Asia are to release a 10CD boxset The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 through BMG Records on 26 November. There will also be a digital album featuring a … Continue reading
Posted in Album News, ALL POSTS, Band Entrees & Exits, Books, Festivals & Large Events, Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, NEWS, PledgeMusic/Kickstarter Campaigns, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/News, Re-issues/special editions, RIP
Tagged alternative, Bearded Festival, blues, Buckcherry, Faster Pussycat, festivals, folk, Giant, gigs, indie, melodic rock, metal, news, pop, Power Quest, prog, rock, tours
Leave a comment
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
