THE QUILL Release Seventh Full-Length Album ‘Tiger Blood’ May 24th, 2013 Swedish hard rock group The Quill issued seventh full-length album Tiger Blood on May 24th, 2013 through Metalville Records. The outing was cut at Jakaranda Studio in Gävle and the 491 Studio in Oskarshamn, with Petter Diamant handling production duties. Mastering responsibilities were overseen […]
BLOOD CEREMONYThe Eldritch Dark Rise Above (2013)Rating: 8/10 Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony are such a snazzy bunch of doomsters, and The Eldritch Dark is the quartet’s third opus. Alongside England’s Purson, these guys seem to have found a niche amid the stoned Black Sabbath imitators clogging up the current revival rock scene. Their brand […]
BLACK STAR RIDERSAll Hell Breaks Loose Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 7.5/10 Black Star Riders formed in 2012 from the ashes of the modern, touring incarnation of Thin Lizzy. The material here was considered for use under the Lizzy moniker but the band members decided against it and so formed Black Star Riders, a five-piece featuring Ricky […]
BURNING RAINEpic Obsession Frontiers (2013)Rating: 8/10 It’s been well over a decade since the last Burning Rain release. Fans had every reason to expect that 2001’s Pleasure To Burn was the last we would hear of this metal supergroup, especially considering how guitarist Doug Aldrich went on to become a member of Whitesnake in 2002. […]
BURNING RAINBurning Rain (Reissue) Frontiers (2013)Rating: 8/10 There was a time when warp speed guitars and a blues addiction were all a band needed to awe the masses. Many bands have risen through the rock ’n’ roll ranks using this simple formula. Sometimes a group comes along that not only sticks to tradition, but adds […]
INTÖXICATEDRöck ’N Roll Hell Patröl Hells Headbangers (2013)Rating: 4.5/10 Well, the cover immediately has me shuffling on the back foot, so concerned am I that this is another jokey thrash revival band who is going to bore me with tales of sex, zombies and cartoons. Let’s face it, there’s no need nowadays to intentionally have […]
IMMOLATIONKingdom Of Conspiracy Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 8/10 I’ve been a fan of these New York death metallers since the arrival of their 1991 debut album Dawn Of Possession, which on vinyl has become quite a collector’s item. Since that battering ram of a record – an era when death metal was very much the in-thing […]
ENTRAILSRaging Death Metal Blade (2013)Rating: 7/10 Having been unmoved by their 2011 opus The Tomb Awaits, I find myself once again paddling in the murky waters of Sweden’s Entrails in the hope of inspiration. The band’s previous opus was very much inspired by the classic Entombed debut Left Hand Path (1990), and the main issue […]
HELLYEAH – Brothers In Arms Anthony Morgan May 2013 Hellyeah (l-r): Tom Maxwell, Bob Zilla, Greg Tribbett, Chad Gray and Vinnie Paul The roots of American heavy metal outfit Hellyeah lie in the friendship of Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray and Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell, a friendship formed during the 2000 Tattoo The Earth tour. That […]
FAITHXTRACTORThe Great Shadow Infiltrator Deathgasm (2013)Rating: 7/10 The intriguingly named FaithXtractor is a fearsome duo comprised of brothers Ash and Marquis Thomas, and The Great Shadow Infiltrator is their second full-length opus, coming five years after 2008’s Razing The World Of Myth debut hit stores. The Ohio-based team offer what at first appears to be […]
