(8/10) What comes to your mind if you read about Astral Doors? I guess it's Dio, Black Sabbath and more traditional heavy metal. Frontman Nils Patrik Johansson was often compared with the legendary Ronnie James Dio and the voice do have similarities. However, Astral Doors is more than a clone of the iconic frontman and... Continue Reading →
CD review MORK ‘Det Svarte Juv’
(9/10) It's not always the superlatives that make an album special and standing out from the masses. It's not always about complexity, speed and bombastic sounds. Music is a career of emotions and the new album from Mork delivers to the point. Mork, that's the brain child of Thomas Eriksen and 'Det Svarte Juv' is... Continue Reading →
BEYOND THE BLACK’s Jennifer Haben joins ‘Sing Mein Song’
One thing's certain, marketing activities for Beyond The Black are extremely professional. The band of Jennifer Haben could celebrate some success and chart entries with each of their longplayers. Catchy songs and a professional promotion have been the key to success with 'Heart of the Hurricane' scoring a top 10 position. It's the latest longplayer... Continue Reading →
CD review PRISTINE ‘Road Back to Ruin’
(8/10) When the sun wins battling the winterly darkness in the North of Norway some first sun rays make some new diamonds shine. One of these shiny news is Pristine's newest album 'Road Back to Ruin'. Pristine is the brainchild of Heidi Solheim, a singer hailing from the far North. Tromsø is her home and... Continue Reading →
CD review LONELY ROBOT ‘Under Stars’
(8/10) ‘Under Stars’ is the final chapter of a trilogy that began in 2015 with an album entitled ‘Please Come Home’. The following chapter ‘The Big Dream’ continued the concept in 2017 and another two years later it’s this release that marks the closing chapter. The creative mind behind this trilogy of Lonely Robot is... Continue Reading →
CD review VULTURE ‘Beyond the Blade’ – 7″
(7/10) What's much more reliable than German speed trains is German speed metal and Vulture is one outfit that represents German steel with speed. The guys recently inked a deal with Metal Blade and a first countable result of this collaboration is a 7" single entitled 'Beyond the Blade'. Vulture, that's oldschool speed metal and... Continue Reading →
CD review RPWL ‘Tales from Outer Space’
(9/10) Music from Bavaria is often reduced to humpa-humpa Oktoberfest music, but the region in Germany's South-East brings more to table. One representative of Bavarian music with style is RPWL. The four guys from Freising, Bavaria is the successor of a band called Violet District. Kalle Wallner and Chris Postl played in this band and... Continue Reading →
CD review EXUMER ‘Hostile Defiance’
(8/10) Since a few years German thrash veterans Exumer are back with excellent thrash metal. After returning in 2012 band released with ‘The Raging Tides’ an excellent album, followed by very energetic live shows. Three years later Mem von Stein and bandmates are back with a new offer. It’s entitled ‘Hostile Defiance’ and comes with... Continue Reading →
Live report DEVIN TOWNSEND, An Evening With Devin Townsend, Grote Kerk, Haarlem – 11.04.2019
I can't remember that I've ever been to church twice within less than a week, but now it happens. After having witnessed Long Distance Calling's great show at Kulturkirche Altona it is guitar wizard Devin Townsend that invites for a special show to Grote Kerk in Haarlem. Also this time it's impressive to enter a... Continue Reading →
Line-up for ROCK HARD FESTIVAL completed
With the announcement of two more bands the 2019 edition of Rock Hard Festival has a full line-up. Next to The Spirit it's US metal pioneers Lizzy Borden being part of the festival. Here are all the bands and the days they perform: Friday, 7.6.WATAINLIZZY BORDENTYGERS OF PAN TANGTHE IDIOTSCHAPEL OF DISEASEVULTURESaturday, 8.6.GAMMA RAY CANNIBAL... Continue Reading →
CD review ICED EARTH ‘Enter the Realm’ (EP) – Re-issue
(*/10) This release brings back some nice memories. It was in 1989 when metal powerhouse Iced Earth released a first demo entitles 'Enter the Realm'. It was the only demo of Iced Earth and the moment I started to listen to the tape I was excited about what got out of the speakers. Basically it's... Continue Reading →
CD review TRONOS ‘Celestial Mechanics’
(8/10) Is Tronos another supergroup? No idea, since I don't like this inflationary used term. What I do know is that Napalm Death's Shane Embury and producer Russ Russell teamed-up and started Tronos. Drums are handled by no less than Dirk Verbeuren and if you read these names you don't need to look into the... Continue Reading →
CD review PARAGON ‘Controlled Demolition’
(8/10) Hamburg - Rock City? This can be clearly answered with 'Yes'. Not only that band like Helloween and Gamma Ray and many more have their homebase in the Hansestadt, also German metal veterans Paragon call Hamburg their home. The quintet never made it to the top, but the fact that they add with 'Controlled... Continue Reading →
CD review JORDAN RUDESS ‘Wired for Madness’
(9/10) Keyboarder Jordan Rudess is well-known from all his years with prog metal pioneers Dream Theater. It was in 1999 when he joined the quintet from New York. What’s less known is that the master of the keys also release many solo albums with ‘Listen’ being one of them. Rudess is a restless mind when... Continue Reading →
Live report LONG DISTANCE CALLING, Seats & Sounds, Kulturkirche Altona, Hamburg – 06.04.2019
German post metal instrumentalists Long Distance Calling are creative minds, no doubt. Six longplayers, full of excellent songs, speak volume and so far a lot of the creativity was channeled and transferred into great music. After also having played many shows over the last years, the four-piece band from Münster, Germany decided to go for... Continue Reading →









