Totally hate the fact these guys are lumped in with the stoner scene – they’re so superior to that, it’s not even funny. Frankly, in terms of straight-up traditional metal bands, there may be no Read more […]
Oceano is such a predictable band and Contagion came across as such an obvious-sounding record, that Blistering debated on not even listening to the album at all prior to reviewing it (blast you, promotional Read more […]
Like Red Harvest and Tidfall, both of whom could never manage to make cyber black metal click, Aborym has also suffered from the same indignity, even as the Italians truck in and out various “stars” Read more […]
The cover…is this a Nascar racing game for the PS3? You should know better, Halford. One can understand the cross-promotional aspect of having an actual race-car adorn the Metal God banner (which is Read more […]
There’s little debate over how increasingly extreme Cradle of Filth has become over the years, and it’s not a reach to say they’re heavier than their more black-like contemporaries (and rivals) Dimmu Read more […]
Anyone remember the days of the original Metal Mania’s on MTV with Dee Snider hosting during the mid 1980’s? If so, you might remember like me, your first encounter with Sweden’s Yngwie Malmsteen. Read more […]
Usually as veteran bands evolve, one expects commercial aspects to creep into the group psyche in the hopes of making underground origins blossom into career-sustaining recording and touring cycles. Read more […]
A bit like a junior Pro-Pain, Albany’s Addicted to Pain’s claims they are thrash seem to be a bit unfounded, as this 4-song EP is in the vein of meat-and-potatoes, American metal. You know, the no-frills Read more […]
Talk about kicking it old-school, Italy’s Children of Technology’s It’s Time To Face the Doomsday will only be released on vinyl and tape. Seriously, who has a tape player nowadays? Maybe those Read more […]
Golden times these were for Dio, especially in ’83, just when Holy Diver hit and exploded. As the title suggests, At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 captures the Man (and his top-notch band) Read more […]
Fresh-faces are always welcome in the awfully-tired stoner doom or general doom scene (excuse Blistering’s lack of enthusiasm here), so leave it to a chick and two dudes to breathe some life into the Read more […]
Weird, but isn’t one Alestorm enough for the world? It’s no sweat off anyone’s back to have Swashbuckle around, who are far more mean and thrashy than Alestorm could ever be, so perhaps it’s only Read more […]
Argh. The dreaded best-of compilation. Debate resounds as to whether bands truly desire these contractually obligation cash-grabs or if record labels believe consumers are mere sheep locking into a “must Read more […]
Hailing from the festival metal Mecca of Germany, Athorn seemingly arise out of nowhere to label rank status in a mere two years, releasing only one EP Livable Hatred in the process. But the five-piece Read more […]
A band that is very much a conglomerate of everything that Pagan/folk/epic metal is (and that’s a lot), Equilibrium have yet to figure out what kind of band they are on their second album, Rekreatur. Read more […]
Rounding up a bunch of death metal veterans for a project is hardly new (actually, it’s quite overdone), yet when it’s done right, and when it sounds like the band actually gives a fuck, the results Read more […]
Boasting a pseudo all-star lineup with former Riot/Masterplan singer Mike Dimeo and James Labrie guitarist Marco Sfogli in the ranks, Creation’s End are the stinging example that for the millionth time, Read more […]
It’s an utter crime to label these guys as doom, ‘cause there so much more to them. Like, so much more. One of the more cult and widely-respected American metal bands of this era, While Heaven Wept Read more […]
How to follow-up the best metal concept album of all-time…that would be Empire. As Queenryche’s rating exploded in the late 80’s after Operation: Mindcrime, the right move was to streamline the Read more […]
If you ever need soap opera drama within the power metal world, look no further than guitarist Timo Tolkki who moved on from Stratovarius onto Revolution Renaissance. Stabbings, bloody female vocal replacements, Read more […]
Clearly at the point in their career where they have topped-off, Germany’s Symphorce appear poised to slide down the power metal ladder with the awfully safe Unrestricted. Granted, “safe” and “power Read more […]
In what should be the first of many posthumous releases for Ronnie James Dio and Heaven & Hell, Neon Nights: Live In Europe comes across as a hastily-thrown together live set, without any real selling points. Read more […]
Must be a lonely spot for Slough Feg considering, you know, they’re practically one of the few earnest, instantly identifiable “true” metal bands going. Heck, even calling them “true metal” Read more […]
Anyone with the brains to give nods to early-era Borknagar (read: their self-titled debut and majestically majestic The Olden Domain) is worth investigating. For Norway’s Nàttsòl, working in and around Read more […]
Essentially a one-man band playing traditional-beyond-traditional metal, Johnny Lokke won’t make anyone forget the mandatory works of Priest, Maiden, and King Diamond (three bands the man borrows from Read more […]
About as unimaginative as cardboard, and looking as metal as yours truly did when he was in kindergarten, Christian metalcore titans August Burns Red have accumulated a strong following and sales numbers Read more […]
Venerable Grave Digger. They don’t do anything remarkable, nor do they do anything that would make even the most cursory of listeners become annoyed. They’re just Grave Digger, the same band it was Read more […]
In the realm of what is avant-garde and is truly avant-garde, Sweden’s Lifelover fall easily into the second category. If the litmus test is anything beyond Into the Pandemonium, then Konkurs (which Read more […]
What a massive undertaking this book by former Metal Maniacs associate editor Jeff Wagner represents. If anyone has the knowledge, passion, skills and class to tackle 40 years of a music movement and Read more […]
On paper, Control Denied seemed like the band that would lead metal into the 00’s. With Chuck Schuldiner at the helm, along with budding singer Tim Aymar (ex-Pyscho Scream, currently of Pharaoh) in Read more […]
