I want to start out by saying I first heard of We Sell The Dead because of the involvement of former drummer for HIM, Mika “Gas Lipstick” Karppinen. Yeah, I know I ruined what little metal “cred” I imagined myself even having right off the bat, dear reader. So, if you wish to back out […]

I love Type O Negative. Although I latched onto them kind of late around the time of World Coming Down I continued listening to every successive album. Of course, a real fan goes back and purchases their early discography, too. So, anytime Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly from one of my favorite bands do something, […]

Holy crap did this come out of left field or what?  Released last year, this promo was just sent to me by the label recently and literally I had to get a review out.  Never heard of this dude, this release and or band and Ian has been in the metal industry for over 3 […]

I’m sure its a coincidence more than anything, but Battle Beast releasing their 5th album shortly after former member Anton Kabanen released the 2nd album from from the band he formed after acrimoniously leaving Battle Beast , Beast In Black, but it sure feel like a more personal, competitive move. However I digress.. So while […]

So I was half joking to myself the other day when I said to myself: “Self… I need to start a new group for death metal addicts: DMAA (which stands for Death Metal Addicts Anonymous)”.  The reason being is I find myself listening to a TON of death metal, especially slam-death, and it’s hard to […]

What do you get when you cross the most successful and popular NWOBHM band, Iron Maiden, the (slightly) darker thrash of King Diamond and even Iced Earth, the swagger of Motorhead, and the headstrong dominance of Manowar, with ass kicking XX chromosomes of mighty frontwoman power? Lady Beast, you get Lady Beast my friends. Wait… […]

As usual. when the dust has settled on a year, a few late year releases find their way into my hands and miss  the deadline for year end lists, but certainly need some attention, and this is the case  with the second album from the UKs Monolith Cult, a new act to me. In my […]

There is heavy metal, and then there is metal. It bugs me when some people (either not metal fans, or religious authorities, or simply older people who likely still have Tipper Gore/PMRC headlines echoing in their heads from the early 80s) call it all “heavy metal music.” Heavy metal is a specific genre, mostly from […]

There she stands in the darkness, flecks of her golden hair illuminated by candle flicker and lightning flash. The silhouette of a white nightgown spills to her bare feet on the wooden floor. A gold crucifix spins lightly from the beaded chain around her neck, clinking softly. The knife she clutches glints maliciously. You see […]

I’ve always dug what Crown the Lost has done and find it relatively unique, yet comfortably familiar. The Pittsburgh act’s style could generally be described as power thrash, although their knack for muscular riff chunk-age and shredding leads, whilst carrying the melody with traditional heavy metal singing, helps set them apart from the herd. It’s […]

It’s been four years since we’ve heard anything from Seven Witches, but Jack Frost is back with a new lineup and a familiar voice. James Rivera of Helstar, who sang on two of the band’s earlier albums, returns to record Call Upon the Wicked. There’s a very heavy Judas Priest flavor early in the record, […]

I’ve been a big Mastodon fan since Remission, but even I have to admit that I was surprised to see Crack the Skye named Time magazine’s #3 album of 2009. Of course, it was a terrific release, full of hypnotic, proggy epics and three of my favorite minutes of metal that year (all packed into […]

White Wizzard’s last outing, Over the Top, was my favorite record of last year. It was a great fun throwback record that hit me immediately, and some of the songs from that record are still on my everyday playlist. I gushed about it every time I got the chance. So Flying Tigers was one of […]

Alice Cooper promised a sequel, and he delivered in a surprising way. The shock rock pioneer went into the studio with the intention to record a follow-up to 2008’s creepy serial killer concept album Along Came a Spider. Once he got in the studio with long-time producer and collaborator Bob Ezrin, they decided to delve […]

Been searching for a modern counterpart to Mercyful Fate? Hell, even if you haven’t, if you call yourself a fan of King Diamond‘s work, you need to hear Portrait. Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae is the group’s potentially unintentional homage to the King, minus some of the creeping horror skulking around most Mercyful Fate/King Diamond material. […]

As fans await the follow-up to 2008’s Be Gone, Pharaoh offers them a little teaser with this six-song EP featuring two new tracks, two rare tracks and a couple of covers. It’s not the four-course meal we may have wanted, but it’s a nice little appetizer. The new tracks are the title track, “Ten Years,” […]

Kansas City’s got a lot of good things going for it in terms of heavy metal these days.  Locals such as Meatshank, Vanlade, and Ancient Creation (among others) are bringing the metal proper, the latter being the subject of this review.  With the members of Ancient Creation having been involved in various heavy metal outfits […]

On their full-length debut Curse of the Artizan, Florida-based Artizan walk a line between the classic sounds of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and a lighter weight brand of power metal, detouring just occasionally for some prog. The results are mixed. When it’s good, it’s really good, but too often, it doesn’t quite work. Artizan’s […]

So Benedictum isn’t exactly a new band, but somehow they’ve flown under my radar until Dominion, their third release. My first impression wasn’t the best, either. When the techno-dance beat at the beginning of the opening title track kicked in, I thought perhaps taking this record on was a really bad idea. But by the […]

I put this CD into my player with all my weapons laid on the table and ready to destroy. First there’s the title, Heavier Than Metal, which most certainly isn’t accurate. Then, there’s the fact that this is a group of football players dabbling at being musicians. That’s OK for a bar band, but it […]

I’ve developed a theory that you can’t stay angry or be in a bad mood while listening to Alestorm. In recent months, that theory has been sorely tested, but every time, the goofy Scottish pirates have managed to conquer my frustrations after a few songs. So, along comes their third record, Back Through Time, just […]

Kauan’s Aava Tuulen Maa received (and will continue to do so) so many spins in my player that it’s borderline ridiculous. The album simply drilled a straight phone line—through my thick bashed skull—into my psyche. With that in mind, and it always is, it was hard to angle myself when I put the group’s latest […]