Fates Warning has always sorted among my absolute favorite bands when it comes to progressive metal, mostly due to the monumental albums released in the early stages carreer such as 'Awaken The Guardian', 'Parallels' and basically all their other albums from the eighties. The albums released after 'Parallels' though haven't appealed to me in the same way, but with 'Darkness In A Different Light' from 2013 the band was...

Norwegian death metallers Blood Red Throne returns with their eight studio album entitled 'Union Of Flesh And Machine' to follow up their 2013 self titled album. The receipe is more or less the same as always, straight forward, brutal death metal with blistering fast drums and hard riffing guitars as the driving force. Even though most of the material leaves you with a feeling of riding a runaway supersonic...

In 1997 Memnock (Susperia) founded Abyssic Dreams and recorded a two song demo, but not much happened after that since Susperia was founded and became the main focus for Memnoc. Fifteen years later he decided to bring the project back to life after a coincidentally meeting with Andre Aaslie who had just finished recording the debut album of Gromth. The two decided to exchange ideas for a doom metal...

American prog metal veterans Dream Theater are finally back with their long awaited rock opera entitled The Astonishing, a massive 2 hours plus opus that for sure will be subject to discussion among their fans. I suspect it will split their fanbase as well, where those preffering the heavier side of the band might be disappointed while fans of their more epic and atmospheric side probably will appreciate The...

New material from the amazing Mercyful Fate guitar duo Denner/Shermann has been greatly anticipated ever since I first heard rumors of this project a while ago. Now the time is finally here, and even though it comes in the shape of a four track EP rather than a full album it's been worth the wait. Among all tremendous guitar duos out there Michael Denner and Hank Shermann definitely sorts...

During the past couple of decads Norway has become a force to count on when it comes to progressive metal with several bands of international standard. Trondheim based Divided Multitude definitely sort among those, now celebrating their 20th anniversary with the release of their fifth, self-titled, studioalbum. I really liked their 2013 album 'Feed On Your Misery', and the new one pretty much continues in the same path as...

The idea of what was later to become Images At Twilight was born in the late nineties by founder Andre Aaslie, but it was not until 2010 he felt the software technology was good enough to create the symphonic and orchestral aspect he was seeking without having to use a real orchestra in the studio. Since then he has gathered band members from several renowned Norwegian extreme metal acts...

Just six months after releasing the 'Through The Storm' EP, Slovakian melodic power metal act are back with their fourth full length album containing ten brand new tracks, as none of the tracks from the EP are included on this album. Signum Regis music is relatively standard European melodic power metal with thundering drums, atmospheric and epic keyboard arrangements, hard riffing guitars with shredding solo parts, sing-along choruses and...

First of all this is not a new album, not even close, and we’re not talking a re-issue either but an album originally released back in 1983. These Bochum based Germans came together as a band in 1978, and managed to release two full length albums before they split-up sometimes during the eighties. ‘No Mercy’ didn’t receive too much attention around its release and I just accidently got aware...

Entity Of Malevolence is det debut album of American band Abhorrent Deformity and this is definitely not music for tender souls. Brutal death metal with massive blast beats and hard riffing guitars topped with deep guttural vocal grunts. There are parts where vocals changes to a more mid-range screming type as well, but personally I think the deeper vocals works best. Despite the fact that most of the material...