Brutal but melodic Death Metal from Australia. Almost made the list.
Radical change in style and pace for these Swedish doomsters. The monolithic riffs are gone and in their place is delicate mournful acoustica. Alright, if a little directionless.
Wolves Among the Ashes. Blackened Metal that is heavy, crushing and corrosive, but ultimately lacks any shade or variety.
Starts and ends well. Pity that the middle section is poor.
Let's cut to the chase, whilst this is alright it isn’t a patch on their previous two records.
Highly political raw punk. I enjoyed the power and passion, it just lacked a couple of killer tracks.
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This is more art installation than rock record. It is also one of the albums that suffered from me not being able to conduct multiple listens. I am convinced that if I had been able to live with it a while its beauty would have been revealed. Sadly with just two run through it felt like impenetrable noise.
Perennially unfashionable Brummies (even when they were playing arenas in the late eighties). This is a slice of warm seventies prog. It's alright, but is unlikely to make any impact outside of their small but committed fanbase.
It’s got one phenomenal track. Namely the retrospective nostalgia fest Public Enemy number won. It features Ad-rok, Mike d and the remaining members of Run DMC and it is brilliant. It is likely to bring a tear to the eye of even those with a fleeting interest in true old skill hip-hop. The rest of the album just feels like it is building up to or away from that track.
Punk tinged Death Metal from the bay area. Raw and raucous.
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Jaunty blackened folk from the Finnish veterans. They do what they do well, but there is little sign of progression or development.
At the time of writing Burton C Bell is no longer Fear Factory's vocalist. However, given the Hokey Cokey that is his membership of the industrial auteurs, he may well be back in by the time you are reading this. This is his gothic industrial side project/main band (delete as applicable). It sounds like Gary Numan.
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Metal as they used to make it. Big, bombastic, obsessed with sword and sorcery and lacking in any level of self-awareness. It's fun and just a little bit silly.
Second solo album from Behemoth front man Negral. By some anomaly whilst I preferred this to the first album it seems to have missed out on the hundred. It’s very Nick Cave, very very Nick Cave.
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Welcome to obscure Thrash act corner. Their fourth album in 33 years and first since 2009, this is old skool Thrash. It merrily chucks along and then stops.
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Cult hero’s plagued by injury and tragedy return. This is perfectly serviceable post hardcore. Big sounding with even bigger choruses and crunchy guitar.
There is an unwritten rule that the Eurovision contest has to have at least one track every year that has its roots in metal. Well, Amaranthe have created a whole album of those type of songs. It’s slick, melodic, poptastic and sweet enough to decay even the most robust of set of gnashers.
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There is defiantly something here and if I was still an Indie kid I think I would be getting very over excited about this lot. But, I have moved on and as good as I think this album is, I am just not sure whether it actually has anything for me.
Death Metal from Yorkshire. It’s alright.
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Gus Gus is a veritable legend. In about sixteen different bands and also finds time to be Ozzy’s prime guitar slinger when Zack Wylde is off doing Black Label Society. Firewind are Greece’s big name in Metal. This is by the numbers Power Metal. Alright but nothing sensational.
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