TESTAMENT – Dark Roots Of Thrash Anthony Morgan July 2012 Testament (l-r): Greg Christian, Eric Peterson, Gene Hoglan, Alex Skolnick and Chuck Billy Attempting to pen new compositions that would form a tenth studio full-length, Testament guitarist and founder Eric Peterson encountered problems gathering initial track ideas at home. Influenced by heroes such as Black […]
CRUCIFIED BARBARAThe Midnight Chase GMR Music (2012)Rating: 7/10 Swedish rockers Crucified Barbara return with their third album, The Midnight Chase, which comes three long years after the release of their last full-length offering, ’Til Death Do Us Party. During the time in between the band have released a DVD (2011), participated in the Eurovision Song […]
TESTAMENTDark Roots Of Earth Nuclear Blast (2012)Rating: 8.5/10 Some things in life are certain – death, taxes and Testament releasing slabs of solid metal. Dark Roots Of Earth is the tenth full-length proper from the Bay Area monsters, and picks up exactly where 2008’s The Formation Of Damnation left off. Even though they never actually […]
SLIPKNOTAntennas To Hell Roadrunner (2012)Rating: 8/10 Slipknot = angst. Teen angst to be more precise. And like the band, I’m from Iowa too. The problem is that my anguish took place in Florida, in my mid-30s. I had it all backward. Yet akin to the changes I’ve made personally over the past two years, Slipknot’s […]
BARONESSYellow & Green Relapse (2012)Rating: 8/10 There are some critics hailing Yellow & Green, the third full-length from Baroness, as the “album of the year”. It’s not – but it certainly stands out as amongst the best releases of 2012 so far. Suppressing the Mastodon comparisons, what the Savannah, Georgia-based quartet have crafted on this […]
TITANS EVELife Apocalypse Titans Eve Music (2012)Rating: 9/10 A year and half after its release, I’m still shocked that Titans Eve’s debut album, The Divine Equal (2010), didn’t turn more heads than it did. The band is using the momentum gained though to launch a cutthroat new album entitled Life Apocalypse. A fitting title for […]
DOROUnder My Skin: A Fine Selection of Doro Classics AFM (2012)Rating: 7.5/10 For those that have been living under a rock since Doro Pesch hit the metal scene in 1982 fronting her then band Warlock, Doro is the premier name when talking about women in metal. As a woman in music in general, she has […]
Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway Kirk Blows Plexus Publishing (2012)Rating: 7.5/10 Hammered: Heavy Tales From The Hard-Rock Highway collects previously unpublished stories taken from the rock ’n’ roll escapades of music journalist and erstwhile Metal Hammer and Metal CD editor Kirk Blows, stories divided into eight separate chapters: ‘Heading Out To The Highway’, […]
