Category: Reviews – Audio

Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?

  • Egypt: s/t

    A lost classic no longer, this hidden gem deserves to be heard!

  • Priestess: Prior to The Fire

    Prior to The Fire is earnest but it’s easy to like, solid and tight. Everything just falls into place for Priestess in a charmed way on Prior to The Fire; it’s the ideal introduction to the band, and a calling card release.

  • Leaves’ Eyes: Njord

    The overall sound gives me an image of Viking Goths parading around in Scandinavia. On most of the songs they manage to sound well balanced between classical and metal without sounding too rock opera cheesy

  • The Sign of The Southern Cross: …Of Mountains And Moonshine

    The biggest surprise in regards to mountain boys The Sign Of The Southern Cross (SOTSC) and latest effort …Of Mountains And Moonshine is probably its absolute absence of surprise.

  • Southern Cross: Down Below

    They might be called Southern Cross, but don’t let the name fool you. This ain’t no southern rock band.

  • Shrinebuilder: Shrinebuilder

    With a roster of talent that is hard to match, Shrinebuilder’s Shrinebuilder is an impressive debut.

  • Axxis: Utopia

    Incredibly upbeat and dominant despite the overuse of operatics and keyboards—they still sound stuck somewhere between Diary Of A Madman and The Neverending Story soundtrack—Utopia is an indelibly catchy affair even if it refuses to advance the state of metal.

  • Rodrigo y Gabriela: 11:11

    Rodrigo y Gabriela’s new album 11.11 challenges a lot of preconceptions of metal heads and metal music. While the instrumental, largely acoustic album cannot be traditionally considered as a ‘metal,’ the duo of Rodrigo Sánchez (lead guitar) and Gabriela Quintero, (rhythm) definitely has roots in classic and thrash metal. They started perfoming together after they…

  • Ancestors: Of Sound Mind

    Ancestors can’t decide whether to join the noodly prog rock or stoner doom circles, and has left a foot in both camps, coming off like Dream Theater on ditch weed.

  • A Storm of Light: Forgive Us Our Trespasses

    Forgive Us Our Trespasses is not only a lumbering, crushing sonic tour of a world without us, it’s also a cutting and unsubtle condemnation of humanity’s indifference to its own habitats.