Author: Sean Palmerston

  • Savage Messiah: Insurrection Rising

    The full-length debut from UK’s Savage Messiah, Insurrection Rising is a decent cut of thrash metal that ultimately doesn’t transcend its sub-genre.

  • Eloy: Visionary

    Many times my friends would mention to me that Eloy is the Pink Floyd of Germany and I would have to somewhat agree with that comparison.

  • Reminder: Year End Contest Ends Tonight!

    Just a little reminder to anyone that hasn’t voted that today (Friday, January 15th) is your LAST CHANCE to enter our bitchin’ year end contest. You have until midnight Eastern Standard Time tonight to win our fantastic prize, which has now grown to 50 CDs (many of them autographed), two (2) 7″s, two (2) shirts,…

  • Weapon: Drakonian Paradigm

    Musically, what makes Weapon unique is its intricate sense of composition, its sinuous melodic leads, and the subtle accents that it uses in order to conjure a distinctive atmosphere. Conceptually (and, by extension, atmospherically), Drakonian Paradigm is uniquely syncretic in its left-hand-pathos, in turn using its music to menace several doctrines from a common ground.…

  • FACE VALUE: Rode Hard, Put Away Wet

    Where the forward-thinking hardcore bands of the time embarked upon a course of combining ‘core with metal riffing and mosh tempos, Face Value spit-balling together punk/hardcore’s fury and speed with classic rock sensibilities, jacked up rhythms and guitar hero soloing.

  • Epica: Design Your Universe

    Epica’s fourth full-length Design Your Universe was the perfect opportunity for the Dutch band to make some serious artistic and commercial strides, but what we’re stuck with is a record that tries so hard to impress that its blind ambition completely gets in the way of tasteful songwriting.

  • Mob Rules: Radical Peace

    Now on album number seven, this is their heaviest release to date by far. They still retain a bit of a prog vibe but the way the riffs are written they just reek of full on power metal.

  • Rotting Christ: Aealo

    Aealo is the best Rotting Christ album since Triarchy of the Lost Lovers. Dive deep, and discover for yourself.

  • D.R.I. / Attitude Adjustment / Voetsek @ Slim’s, San Francisco CA, January 9, 2010

    It’s a given D.R.I. will draw a crowd in their adopted city. Add that this was D.R.I’s first show here in six years since guitarist Spike Cassidy was diagnosed and then beat colon cancer and you have a sold out crowd where getting to the bathroom was a 15-minute undertaking. The band’s performance was far…

  • Acheron: The Final Conflict: Last Days Of God

    Forged from the combative live-in-the-studio atmosphere of Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill coupled with the soupy low end of Obituary yet new enough to elicit comparison to fellow evil-doers Behemoth, The Final Conflict is as furious as it is delightfully offensive.