Summer in Scandinavia means either a very short night or just a dawn that bridges from one day to another. And it’s a silver shimmering moon, some stars and a long shades having the potential to let grow melancholia. Such a scene is captured on the artwork of Insomnium’s newest delivery. ‘Argent Moon’ is the... Continue Reading →
Review STEVE HACKETT ‘Surrender of Silence’
Prog rock veteran Steve Hackett is quite busy these days. Not that he can perform his great songs and musical repertoire on stage. It’s the new releases allowing the iconic guitarist to stay in touch with a very strong fanbase. Driven by the emotional roller-coaster caused by a pandemic, Hackett release a calm and silent... Continue Reading →
Review BRAINSTORM ‘Wall of Skulls’
Swabian power metal veterans Brainstorm used the pandemic months to work on their next studio album. Work is finished in the meantime and after facing a short delay, the album is ready to be released. ‘Wall of Skulls’ is the title of this eleven songs featuring power metal strike that shows the band in very... Continue Reading →
Review AURI ‘II-Those We Don’t Speak Of’
Voices, violin, viola, keys, guitars, bouzouki, mandola, ulleann pipes, low whistles, aerophone and bodhran are not exactly what heavy metal band use and if you are familiar with Auri, than you also know that we are far away from metal here. Auri is a rather new band. Having been founded in 2017 by friends Tuomas... Continue Reading →
Review RAGE ‘Resurrection Day’
It wasn’t exactly easy for Rage and bandleader Peavy Wagner to work on the newest album ‘Resurrection Day’. Just after having decided to grow to a quartet again and after having onboarded Stefan Weber, it was Marcos Rodrigues who decided to leave the band. Still sticking to the idea of having two guitarists in the... Continue Reading →
Review CARNIFEX ‘Graveside Confession’
OK, I can’t really say that I was the biggest Carnifex fan until now. It was always too much of everything the band from California included in their music. Blackened death-core, that’s what you got from the band and that is still what the guys deliver on their new album ‘Graveside Confessions’. My first thought... Continue Reading →
Review GAMMA RAY ’30 Years Live Anniversary’
Hamburg – rock city. The harbor city in the Northern parts of Germany is the home base for many rock and metal bands. One of them is Gamma Ray, founded by Helloween guitarist Kai Hansen. It feels like as it would have been yesterday that the glorious debut ’Heading for Tomorrow’ created excitement in the... Continue Reading →
Review TURNSTILE ‘Glow On’
Looking at the recent losing streak of the Baltimore Orioles, at least baseball fans don’t have much to enjoy these days. A different perspective and a more positive experience is offered by one of Baltimore’s musical icons, Turnstile. The quintet started in 2010 as part of Baltimore’s growing hardcore/punk scene. It took a while before... Continue Reading →
Review DEMONS AWAKE ‘Off the Axis’ – EP
There is always a big buzz when the 'major league'-bands announce and unleash a new album. The real musical freedom though lives in the underground when musicians and bands follow their heart and do what they love to do, celebrating the mighty riff and the solid groove. One of these bands is Demons Awake, hailing... Continue Reading →
Review TUESDAY THE SKY ‘The Blurred Horizon’
Jim Matheos' guitar play is a key asset of the Fates Warning sound. Next to the mothership, Matheos had some projects up and running in parallel. OSI is one of them and the Arch/Matheos collaboration led to exciting songs too. Another project that started accidentally is Tuesday The Sky. Sitting on some songs that didn’t... Continue Reading →
Review ILLT ‘Urhat’
Illt hails from Norway (not to mix up with the band from Russia) and is the brainchild of composer and guitarist Roy Westad who started as a guitarist. Westad is well-known in Norway since he became a film composer that was involved in many films and TV projects. The highlight was certainly the winning of... Continue Reading →
Review PORTRAIT ‘At One With None’
It took a while for Swedish metal warriors Portrait to unchain their newest album ‘At One with None’. It’s the fifth album from the quartet and it is a next blast, a next stellar chapter the guys added to the books. Four years after ‘Burn the World’ hit the shelves it’s the new album that... Continue Reading →
Review THE PICTUREBOOKS ‘The Major Minor Collective’
The Picturebooks is a German rock band, haling from Gütersloh. It's a duo with Fynn Grabke and Philipp Mirtschink being the driving forces. The guys have added already some albums to the books and this time it's 'The Major Minor Collective' being another entry in the win-column. Also hit by the current situation, The Picturebooks... Continue Reading →
Review THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA ‘Aeromantic II’
It still feels a bit like The Night Flight Orchestra being a project with some releases in the ‘having achieved’-column and there might not have been plans in the beginning to make The Night Flight Orchestra to a long-lasting provider of excellent melodic hard rock. Things developed over time and in the meantime the band... Continue Reading →
Review SHIT THE COW ‘And Dance’ – EP
Shit The Cow caught my attention several years ago and to be honest, it was the moniker that created curiosity as well as it gave me a smile. After having pressed the ‘Start’-button the band name was still fun but what counts more is the music and what I got to hear sounded pretty good.... Continue Reading →









