KEEP IT TRUE XXII comes with an exciting line-up
CD review RAVEN ‘Screaming Murder Death From Above: Live In Aalborg’
(8/10) Not to know is sometimes not a bad thing at all. So how is this related to Raven’s new live album? The metal pioneers have been on tour in Europe towards the end of 2017. After having gone through a tough time with the band’s longtime drummer Joe Hasselvander suffering from a heart attack... Continue Reading →
CD review BURNING WITCHES ‘Burning Witches + Burning Alive’ – re-issue
(8/10) Swiss-based Burning Witches debuted in 2017 via BW Records. The self-titled album was a wow moment. Eleven songs showed that there is the next generation of metal bands in Switzerland, following the legendary Krokus. Destruction's Schmier as well as VO Pulver, known from e.g. Gurd, were already involved in the production of the powerful premier,... Continue Reading →
HAMMERFALL releases ‘Legacy of Kings – 20th anniversary edition’
Swedish Hammerfall is without any doubt one of the bands the brought back traditional heavy metal in a time when grunge had its peak. In the mid-'90s heavy metal faced tough times and it wasn't an easy period to start a new metal band. Swedish Heavy Metal Templars, Hammerfall, accepted the challenge and their debut... Continue Reading →
PICTURE releases ‘Warhorse’ on vinyl
A few weeks after having released a live album, Dutch metal pioneers Picture releases the 2012 album 'Warhorse' on vinyl. The album features singer Pete Lovell, in his second era of being a Picture member. 14 songs, spread over 2 vinyl discs, stand for strong heavy metal in the spirit of the NWoBHM. The extra... Continue Reading →
CD review PICTURE ‘Live – 40 Years Heavy Metal Ears – 1978-2018’
(*/10) Picture are real pioneers in heavy metal. The band, hailing from The Netherlands, was one of the first metal bands in Holland with a foundation date in 1978. In the meantime we are four decades further in time and Picture is still around. Already this fact is impressive since it demands a lot of... Continue Reading →
Live report SAXON / FM / RAVEN, TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht – 16.10.2018
Three live reports of the same band in one year doesn't happen that often. It's British metal pioneers Saxon that scored such a record on Markus' Heavy Music Blog. It was in February this year when Saxon played a show at 013 in Tilburg, followed by a headliner show at this years Rock Hard Festival.... Continue Reading →
CD review THE WIZARDS ‘Rise of the Serpent’
(8/10) Sometimes you never know what you have to expect when you receive an album of a band that isn’t familiar to you. Sometimes chicken, sometimes feathers. Now, this time it’s for sure chicken. The Wizards are a band I wasn’t really very familiar with. So let’s start from the beginning. It was in 2013... Continue Reading →
CD review OUTLAW ‘Marauders’
(7/10) The fact that Finland is the home base for many interesting metal bands is well known. One of these bands is Outlaw, hailing from a city with a rather difficult name: Lappeenranta. Singer Lee Anvel and bassist John Kaiser started the band which grew to a five-piece. Guitars are handled by Jimmy Slashburner and... Continue Reading →
CD review CAULDRON ‘New Gods’
(8/10) Toronto, Ontario is the homebase of rock and metal outfit Cauldron, a band that is around since 2006. The guys are a regular guest on the release schedule overview with in total four albums that saw the light of day to date. After ‘In Ruin’ hit the shelves in 2016 it was time for... Continue Reading →
CD review SOURCE ‘Source’ – re-issue
(9/10) Don’t get confused while thinking about Source from Sweden. There are two bands with this moniker, while this one here is the epic metal powerhouse. Source is the brainchild of former Portrait axeman Richard Lagergren. After having left Portrait in 2012 the guitarist immediately started to work on an own band – Source. To... Continue Reading →
CD review AXE STEELER ‘On the Run’
(8/10) Axe Steeler has a bit of an exotic bonus. The band is from South America, from Columbia to precise. The foundation of Axe Steeler goes back to 2015 with an EP that was unveiled in 2016. Two years later the first longplayer will hit the shelves and it’s worth to check it out. Axe... Continue Reading →
LP review PHARAO ‘After the Fire’
(8/10) ‘After the Fire’ is the album that started things for Cruz del Sur. Originally published in 2003 the album carries catalog number ‘Cruz01’ and is a starting point of one of the most important underground labels for traditional and epic metal. The label grew over time and is after 15 years a safe bet... Continue Reading →
Live report JUDAS PRIEST, 013, Tilburg, 06.08.2018
Towards the end of their current European tour, with playing big festivals as like the Wacken open air, British steel masters of Judas Priest had a stop in Tilburg, The Netherlands for playing a show at 013. It was a few minutes after 20:00 when the lights have been turned off and after the ‘Firepower’... Continue Reading →
CD review PRIMAL FEAR ‘Apocalypse’
(8/10) Mat Sinner is a restless mind. Things started many years ago in Stuttgart, Germany and it was Sinner, one of his main bands that kicked off a tremendous amount of releases, tours and projects. It’s almost impossible to count all the activities Mat Sinner was and is involved in. However, next to Sinner it... Continue Reading →
