Author: Sean Palmerston

  • Minotaur: God May Show You Mercy… We Will Not

    Raspy and ravenous, Germany’s Minotaur have been belting out blackened thrash metal since the early 1980s. However, unlike cohorts such as Kreator and Sodom, this power trio slipped between the cracks, never receiving the same degree of recognition.

  • Amorphis: Skyforger

    The new album from Finnish band Amorphis fits in perfectly with their recent sound and albums. In fact, Skyforger sounds like it could easily be the third entry in a trilogy that would begin with 2006’s Eclipse and continue on with 2007’s Silent Waters.

  • Amorphis: Skyforger

    Combining folk elements with catchy song writing and haunting keyboards, underneath another brilliant vocal performance by Joutsen, Skyforger is set to be another classic in the Amorphis discography.

  • The Great Kat: Beethoven’s Guitar Shred

    The claims about being “one of the fastest shredders of all time” and “a musical genius” The Great Kat (nee Katherine Thomas) lays down are always up for subjective debate, no matter how much she yells and screams and claims them as fact.

  • Magica: Wolves & Witches

    If there is any potential still to be found in metal that is distinguished by a vague fantasy and mythology themes with an emphasis on female-fronted operatic vocals, it isn’t terribly obvious when listening to Romania-based Magica’s album Wolves & Witches.

  • Thin Lizzy: Still Dangerous

    Released in 1978, Thin Lizzy’s Live & Dangerous is considered essential. An about-face to the band’s hit-and-miss studio output of the time, that offering boasts a tight, almost untouchable act. Therefore, news of a follow-up effort recorded around the same time, Still Dangerous: Live at the Tower Theater Philadelphia 1977 comes across as a double-edged…

  • Spheric Universe Experience: Unreal

    Here is a another fantastic slab of progressive metal via the fine folks over at Sensory. Actually, more accurately, this is a perfectly tuned mixture of both prog and power metal.

  • Fleshgod Apocalypse: Oracles

    It goes without saying that classical music and metal have always complemented each other very well, from Concerto for Group and Orchestra to Death Cult Armageddon, from Malmsteen to Suicmez, so when we see a straight-up death metal band attempt to enhance their music with orchestral pieces, our reaction isn’t so much surprise as, it…

  • The Legion: A Bliss to Suffer

    As agonizing as the cover art looks and the song titles read (culminating in “The Reaping of Flesh and Blood”), A Bliss to Suffer is hardly a ferocious monstrosity.

  • Superchrist: Defenders Of The Filth

    This three-piece Chicago band’s music is like an intriguing mix of Motorhead and The Exploited. Their new ten-song CD has some absolutely KILLER tracks like “Stay Black,” “Take You Out” and “Still Drunk Enough” with very heavy riffs, great guitar solos and choking vocals.