Category: Reviews

  • Built For Speed: Motörhead Revisited, Volume Two

    Part two of Adrien Begrand’s comprehensive wrap up of Sanctuary’s deluxe Motörhead reissues, from 1983’s diamond in the rough Another Perfect Day to 1987’s not-so-great Rock N Roll.

  • Eastern Front – Blood on Snow

    While it’s not clear how educational their first full-length record might be, musically it’s entertaining enough. Blood on Snow is mostly black metal with some death metal influences thrown in, just enough to distinguish themselves from the pack of BM artists that are circulating right now.

  • Stratovarius – Elysium

    Unfortunately Elysium (the album) fails to meet the expectations that Polaris set out. I really wanted to love this album and gave it more listens than normal but I came out loving parts and feeling very ambiguous about others. The band has managed to create an awesome half record, while the rest is ‘okay’. That…

  • Motörhead – Overkill

    Overkill is the album that spawned all your favorite bands. Overkill is the album that gave way to the ‘Trick Question, Lemmy IS god!’ punch line. Overkill is the album that earned Motörhead their rightful, center-throne seat as one-third of the Holy Triumvirate of Rock’n’Roll. It goes without saying, but Overkill should be mandatory listening…

  • Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal by Jeff Wagner

    Mean Deviation is an amazing compendium of everything weird in the world of metal—a book as grand and unlikely as the music it documents.

  • Motörhead – Rock ‘n’ Roll

    Rock ‘n’ Roll suffers from being pushed out too fast, but still has a handful of solid tracks on it. This is one of the few albums I’d advise getting as a CD reissue though, the two b-sides really push the quality way up.

  • Iron Man – The Passage

    After reissuing their debut album Black Night, Shadow Kingdom now brings us a new pressing of The Passage, the stellar sophomore album from Maryland doomsters Iron Man. Album number two was a huge step forward for the trad doom outfit, as it saw the welcoming of new singer Dan Michalak into the fold, along with…

  • Motörhead – Another Perfect Day

    Literally, a “dark horse” is an unexpected or unknown victor, a competitor that defies the odds, mocks the prognosticators, and pulls off a win that nobody saw coming. While its short game may have fizzled and its medium game may have been relegated to disowned curiosity, Another Perfect Day’s long game has proven durable and…

  • 70000 TONS OF METAL Cruise Recap Part 4

    This marks the final part of our coverage of the 70000 TONS OF CRUISE festival, recapping the activities of day four on the boat. This was a full day at sea with music from early morning until the late hours of the evening. In our fourth installment, Adrien, Kevin and Sean review live sets by…

  • Live to Win: Motörhead Revisited

    Part 1 of a 2 part series in which Adrien Begrand reviews the 2005 Sanctuary deluxe reissues of the first four MOTORHEAD studio albums after s/t.