Finish bombast metal powerhouse Battle Beast is on the road, playing a tour that leads them through Europe and the UK. One of the shows takes place at Gebr. de Nobel in Leiden, The Netherlands on May 1st. Labour Day is a bank holiday in many countries but not in Holland and also not for... Continue Reading →
CD review RIOT CITY ‘Burn the Night’
(8/10) When I received this album my first thought was: "Why do I get Triumph's 'Surveillance' album?" Things straightened out rather quickly since the sender of this album is not Triumph but a band called Riot City and although the artwork reminds a lot of the classical Triumph release this record contains totally different music.... Continue Reading →
CD review MYRATH ‘Shehili’
(8/10) Myrath is an interesting outfit in many aspects. Myrath, that’s Arabic for ‘heritage’, hails from Tunisia, which is per se already something more unusual and it shows that Metal is uniting people from all over this planet. Secondly it’s the great music that comes through Myrath. The band, being the brainchild of guitarist Malek... Continue Reading →
CD review RUTHLESS ‘Evil Within’
(7/10) Underground legends Ruthless evoked the 'Discipline of Steel' back in 1986 when the band premiered with a ten track comprising longplayer. Although the album wasn't a bad one, competition was quite strong at the time and an upcoming grunge vibe didn't make things easy either. As a result Ruthless parted ways in 1990. 25... Continue Reading →
Live report VICIOUS RUMORS / AIR RAID / MAGISTARIUM, Gebr. de Nobel, Leiden – 18.04.2019
Power Metal legends Vicious Rumors released with ‚Digital Dictator‘ a milestone album with songs that are still as relevant as they were in 1988 when the sophomore longplayer saw the light of day. Inspired by the 30th anniversary of the album, Vicious Rumors embarked on a tour which includes the entire album as first set... Continue Reading →
CD review STEEL PROPHET ‘The God Machine’
(8/10) US-based Steel Prophet are a regular bringer of metal since many years. The bands debut dates back to the year 1995 and since then the guys delivered eight new albums of which the newest one is entitled ‘The God Machine’. Five years after having shipped the ‘Omniscient’ longplayer to record stores it’s ‘The God... Continue Reading →
CD review ENFORCER ‘Zenith’
(8/10) It's not new era Swedish metallers Enforcer are heading towards, but the new album is a significant change compared to what the guys released previously to 'Zenith'. If you listened to the first single release of the new longplayer you noticed changes. 'Die For the Devil' is throwing a lot of 80's Sunset Stripe... Continue Reading →
CD review GRAND MAGUS ‘Wolf God’
(8/10) Grand Magus, that’s Heavy Metal hailing from the North since many years. The trio from Stockholm, Sweden started in 1996 and what was more Stoner/Doom in the beginning evolved to Heavy Metal rather quickly. The well-known ‘Iron Will’ album from 2008 paved the way for bigger success and in the meantime Grand Magus is... Continue Reading →
CD review ASTRAL DOORS ‘Worship or Die’
(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 →
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 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 SMOULDER ‘Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring’
(9/10) There are many reason why Toronto is a great city. There are very friendly and open-minded people, there’s a good vibe in the city, they have with the Toronto Blue Jays a cool, and hopefully soon also successful baseball team, and so on. Furthermore it’s the home base of metal bands like the legendary... Continue Reading →
CD review METALL ‘Metal Fire’
(7/10) Metall is a band not that many of you have on the radar although the quintet has a starting date that was in 1982. The first three years were mainly used to stabilize their line-up before the guys started to record first songs. Metall, and the two ‘l’s aren’t a typo, didn’t have the... Continue Reading →
CD review ATTIKA ‘When Heroes Fall’ – re-issue
(7/10) A few days ago I posted a review of Ritual’s “Trails of Torment’ album, which is re-released by Pure Steel Records. Now it’s another band from the ‘90s that benefits from a re-issue of one of their albums. Attika is the name of the band, a quartet that released their ‘When Heroes Fall’ album... Continue Reading →









