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Album review: ALBERT BOUCHARD – Imaginos IV: Rhyme of the Star Clock
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Album review: EVA UNDER FIRE – Villainous
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Album review: EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER – Works Live
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Album review: LALU : A Mythmaker’s Demise
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Album review: PAULIE BOY BLUES – Back from the Dead Live in Brooklyn New York
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Album review: OSIRIS – Within A Dream
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Category Archives: Pure Metal/Album reviews
Album review: EVA UNDER FIRE – Villainous
Better Noise Music [Release date 10.07.26] The female-fronted pop metal genre is a fairly crowded space these days. We have – for example – Ad Infinitum (Switzerland), Elysion (Greece) and not forgetting the trailblazers who are sounding as good as … Continue reading
Album review : LEMMING PROJECT : Hate and Extinction, 2 CD Edition
Cherry Red [Release date : 31.07.26] If you consider the Death Metal genre to be defined by heavily distorted, low-tuned guitars, guttural vocals, and fast blast-beats, then Lemming Project is the archetype. This is a band – Thomas Jasjke, Torsten … Continue reading
Album review: WINTER IN EDEN – Never Untold
Explore Rights Management/Cherry Red [Release date 03.07.26] We’ve commented previously that this band is not exactly prolific and, sadly, we’re not aware of any live shows either. This probably says more about the state of music and opportunities to gain … Continue reading
Album review: MORK – Monolitt
Peaceville [Release date 19.06.26] mork is an acclaimed Black Metal project formed by Norwegian multi instrumentalist Thomas Eriksen in 2004, this is their 8th album. The title translates as Monolith; inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, it explores … Continue reading
EP review: SPREADING THE DISEASE – Purgatory Carnival
Facebook [Release date 28.02.26] Kent based Spreading the Disease are back and heavy as ever! The band’s current line-up consists of Steve Saunders (bass), Thorsten Giertsch (guitar), Donal McGee (drums), Daniel Stevenson (guitar) and Jonny P (vocals). Spreading the Disease … Continue reading
EP review: LEAVES’ EYES – Song of Darkness
Reigning Pheonix Music [Release date 06.03.26] Leaves’ Eyes have been around since 2003 and still feature vocalist (growls), keyboards player and producer Alexander Krull, with Finnish soprano Elina Siirala fronting the band since 2016. The EP also marks the recording … Continue reading
Album review: BEYOND THE BLACK – Break The Silence
Nuclear Blast [Release date 09.01.26] Amazingly Beyond The Black have been around since 2014 and this is their sixth album, although to this recent convert it seems like they only started out a few years ago! Beyond The Black’s line-up … Continue reading
Album review: GHOST – Skeleta
Loma Vista Recordings [Release date 25.04.25] Album number six from Ghost, produced by Gene Walker, who is actually Ghost main man Tobias Forge, as said Gene Walker name is a pun on the Swedish word gengångare i.e ghost, zombie. Interesting variety … Continue reading
Album review : TOKYO BLADE – Beware The Blade – Classic, Rare and Unreleased, 4 CD Boxset
Cherry Red [Release date : 21.11.25] A 4CD boxset of the best of Tokyo Blade’s 14 albums (and more). It’s not called a “Best Of”, but that’s what it is. CD1 : selections from Midnight Rendezvous (1984) and Night Of … Continue reading
Album review : WRATHCHILD AMERICA – Climbing the Walls / 3-D (2 CD remasters w/bonus tracks)
Cherry Red [Release date : 24.10.25] Back in 1984, founding member, vocalist and bass man, Brad Divens gave up a career in the straight world to “make it” with his Thrash Metal band, Wrathchild America. It was a high risk … Continue reading
Album review : RISEN ATLANTIS feat: FRANK BECK – Power To The Past
Frontiers Music [Release Date : 26.09.25] Singer, Frank Beck, touring sideman with Kai Hansen’s Gamma Ray for many years, now gets his solo opportunity. Risen Atlantis is the brainchild of Alessandro Del Vecchio, writer, producer, musician, commonly associated with Frontiers … Continue reading
Album review: PEACE OF MIND – Blood Is the Price
Bandcamp [Release date 05.09.25] In my mind, when I think of underground metal, I think of Germany. Many great bands have hailed from Germany, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and the mighty Rammstein to name a few. And I believe Peace of Mind … Continue reading
Album review : RISING STEEL – Legion Of The Grave
Frontiers Music [Release date : 29.08.25] Third full studio album on the Frontiers’ label from French metallers, Rising Steel, who remain a solid line up. Steel Zard – drums, Tony Steel – guitar, Steff Leadmaster – lead guitar , Stone … Continue reading
Album review : HELLOWEEN – Giants And Monsters
Reigning Phoenix Music [Release date 29.08.25] The Magnificent Seven : Daniel Löble (drums), Markus Grosskopf (bass), Sascha Gerstner (guitars), Kai Hansen (guitars, vocals) Michael Weikath (guitars), Michael Kiske (vocals), Andi Deris (vocals). The longer gap between Helloween albums again seems … Continue reading
Album review : KIX – Kool Atomic Kix (8 CD Boxset)
Cherry Red [Release date : 25.07.25] Something of a pop metal institution, KIX, the band, the brand, retired gracefully from the musicbiz in 2023, more than forty long years after the self titled debut album hit the streets. CD1 : … Continue reading
Album review : VENOM – Blackened Priests (3 CD Boxset)
Dissonance [Release date 27.06.25] CD1: Prime Evil 1989 CD2: Temple Of Ice 1991 (plus EP Tear Your Soul) CD3: Waste Land 1992 Formed in England’s industrial North East in 1979, there was none heavier, none more extreme and indeed none … Continue reading
Album review : SIGNUM REGIS – Eyes Of Power (2025 remix/remaster)
Beyond The Storm Productions [07.06.25] Eyes Of Power is a 2010 album recorded by the Slovak Power Metal band, Signum Regis, recently remixed and remastered. It’s the third from a 13 album back catalogue to undergo a retooling job. Again, … Continue reading
Album review: CALVA LOUISE – Edge Of The Abyss
Mascot Records [Release date 11.07.25] Calva Louise are a multi-national, genre-blending band that consists of Jess Allanic (Vocals/Guitar/Keyboards), Alizon Taho (Bass/Backing Vocals) and Ben Parker (Drums/Backing Vocals). This is the band’s fourth album and first for Mascot Records, who they … Continue reading
Album review : GORGUTS – Considered Dead / Erosion Of Sanity (2CDs w/bonus tracks)
Cherry Red [Release date : 13.06.25] Got to hand it to Cherry Red. Few labels are resurrecting the past glories of Metal like they are. Most who do aim for mainstream stuff, bands in the public eye, in the media. But … Continue reading
Album review : RAVEN – Screamin’ Down The House (4 CD set)
Cherry Red [Release date : 25.04.25] Formed in the north of England by brothers John and Mark Gallagher, during a time of social upheaval in the UK, Raven forged their own reflective version of NWOBHM, a proto-thrash metal that found … Continue reading
Album review : SICK’N'BEAUTIFUL – Horror Vacui
BLKIIBLK/Frontiers [Release date 18.04.25] Sick’n’Beautiful’s fourth album and their first release on Frontiers’ debut “heavy music imprint”, BLKIIBLK. Horror Vacui is an artistic concept, roughly translated from Latin as fear of empty spaces. Fronted by the sexually alluring Herma Sick … Continue reading
Album review : CRIMSON GLORY – The Roadrunner Years (3 CD)
Cherry Red [Release date 21/03/25] The Cherry Red label is currently on a run of highly compelling Heavy Metal reissues. We’ve had Wrath, Tigertailz, Barren Cross in only the last month, and very recently, the superb Vision Of Disorder. This … Continue reading
Album review : ENBOUND – Set It Free (w/bonus CD)
Embrace The Fear [Release date : 21.02.25] 2025’s Set it Free is Enbound’s third album, a follow up to Blackened, if an album 9 years later can be described as a “follow up”. Nice (if expensive) piece of marketing here… … Continue reading
Album review : VISION OF DISORDER – Vision of Disorder / Imprint (2 CD Deluxe Digipak)
Cherry Red [Release date : 28.02.25] The early nineties was a strange time for Heavy Metal. US band, Vision Of Disorder emerged from a morass of subgenres and splinter groups, all following different paths, all pursuing different objectives, mostly with … Continue reading
Album review : BARREN CROSS – Atomic Arena/State Of Control (2 CD Deluxe Digipak)
Cherry Red [Release date 21.02.25] The second and third albums released by Christian Metal heroes, Barren Cross, are now together for the first time, remastered and reissued by Cherry Red, with ‘2 bonus tracks’ added. Atomic Arena (1988) State Of … Continue reading
