Reviews Archive

There’s always a little bit of excitement associated with a new release from the criminally underrated Armored Saint. Even if it’s a live album such as their latest one, dubbed Carpe Noctum, for me there&rsquo...

Mors Principium Est

Embers of a Dying World

By Simon Milburn | 14 March, 2017

Melodic death metal, or melo-death, is just another genre that is rather saturated these days. Sure there were the pioneers that would always be just that bit ahead of the pack as numbers within the genre would increase rapidly. But just behind th...

Suicide Silence

By Andrew McKaysmith | 13 March, 2017

Just how far removed will fans allow a band to stray from a traditional sound? A change in musical direction is more often met with incredulity and disdain, and then of course there is the zeitgeist of the modern-age: keyboard warrior outrage. Hea...

Sunlight's Bane

The Blackest Volume: Like All the Earth Was Buried

By Simon Crawley | 06 March, 2017

Sunlight’s Bane, formerly known as Traitor, releases its full-length debut album here under the new moniker. Fans of the likes of Nails, Trap Them, and Call of the Void will appreciate what the Michigan outfit has to offer.

A little ...

Arstidir Lifsins

Heljarkvida

By Andrew McKaysmith | 06 March, 2017

Having had literally no background on the band prior to the review, I have decided to launch into listening to Heljarkviða without any background on the artist, the individual members, or any clear picture on the concept or ...

Black Star Riders

Heavy Fire

By Andrew McKaysmith | 01 March, 2017

Let's acknowledge the elephant in room first: guitarist Scott Gorham is the only member of Black Star Riders that could claim to carry any genuine DNA from Thin Lizzy. You know, the band that recorded "The Boys Are Back in Town", "Jailbreak", and ...

Six Feet Under

Torment

By Andrew McKaysmith | 28 February, 2017

Seven string bassist, guitarist, and all round wunderkind Jeff Hughell ups the ante to help Chris Barnes release an album that sounds like it could be his best since the eminent '95 debut, Haunted.

Torment is ac...

Altar

And God Created Satan to Blame for His Mistakes

By Michael O'Brien | 27 February, 2017

Now here’s a band that I haven’t thought about for a long time. There was a period during the mid to late '90s where I was quite partial to the first few albums from Dutch death metal act, Altar, but like so many bands over the years, ...

Emmure

Look at Yourself

By Andrew McKaysmith | 24 February, 2017

Frankie Palmeri. The man has been called a "disgusting human being" and a "demonic genius", he has written lyrics that critics maintain glorify violence, and he was heavily condemned for opening a short lived merchandise store that sold T shirts d...

Battle Beast

Bringer of Pain

By Andrew McKaysmith | 24 February, 2017

This scribe had the fortune to interview Battle Beast's stunning Finnish frontwoman, Noora Louhimo, for Hot Metal Online recently. The most prominent attribute I could ascribe to Louhimo is her confidence, and not the boring bravado so common to t...

Sunless

Urraca

By Michael O'Brien | 23 February, 2017

I’ve been in a pretty unhappy relationship with technical death metal for quite a while now. From my perspective, it seems as though the overriding trend these days is for a lot of the bands in this sphere to occupy one of two extremes: the ...

Glare of the Sun

-Soil-

By Simon Milburn | 23 February, 2017

Doom/post-metal. I remember when doom was just Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Trouble. Now there’s post-metal doom, and post-something-or-other-core and the silly list of names used to describe bands goes on, and on, and on. No label...

Soen

Lykaia

By Chris Gibbs | 20 February, 2017

When former Opeth drummer Martin Lopez announced the formation of his new progressive band Soen in 2010 with bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Death, Testament), the possibilities of how it would sound were tantalizing. Combining such impressive musiciansh...

Hour of Penance

Cast the First Stone

By Chris Gibbs | 20 February, 2017

Hailing from Rome, Italy, Hour of Penance has been consistently belting out records of technical death metal for the last 14 years without my knowledge; six of them in fact. In that time, they have weathered substantial line-up changes with not on...

Tygers of Pan Tang

By Andrew McKaysmith | 17 February, 2017

Talk about ageing gracefully! Almost 40 years into their chequered career, Tygers of Pan Tang (TTOPT henceforth) have released an album that sounds crisp and ready and willing to compete with the enormous volume of rock and metal releases availabl...

Vipassi

Sunyata

By Andrew McKaysmith | 13 February, 2017

First up, I must confess that Vipassi occupy a particular genre of metal that I prefer over almost all others - proggy, jazz-infused instrumental metal in the vein of Cynic and Animals as Leaders. That said, it could work against the album as the ...

Accept

Restless and Live

By Andrew McKaysmith | 10 February, 2017

This scribe's initiation to Accept was via a cover of "Metal Heart" by Dimmu Borgir on their compilation album Godless Savage Garden, which was released in late 1998. Having not read the liner notes before listening to the album, I i...

Hadal Maw

Olm

By Michael O'Brien | 08 February, 2017

Prior to receiving the promo for Olm, Hadal Maw’s second full length, I had a very conflicted and confused relationship with the Melbourne-based band. Based on previous experiences seeing them play live, I’d had positive feeli...

John Garcia

The Coyote Who Spoke in Tongues

By Andrew McKaysmith | 07 February, 2017

Way back in '96, Metallica's James Hetfield and Jason Newstead were in Australia for a promo tour touting the still divisive Load album series. Both made repeated references to the brilliant Kyuss, whose Blue ...

Overkill

The Grinding Wheel

By Andrew McKaysmith | 06 February, 2017

With over 30 official releases to their name, and a history steeped in the traditions of speed and thrash metal, what more can possibly be said for New Jersey's foremost wrecking crew, Overkill?

With the addition of groove metal elements t...