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...

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...

I used to play the early Dark Moor albums quite frequently some years ago, especially the ‘The Hall Of The Olden Dreams’ album, but I somehow lost my interest in the band when their charismatic singer Elisa Martin left the band being replaced by Alfred Romero. I simply felt that they lost some of their uniqueness with her departure. That means I’ve missed out on some of their later...

This album has been out for a few months by now, but better late than never they say. Embryo is an Italian melodic death metal band that has been around since the start of the new millennium and they have released two albums prior to this one. I can’t recall having heard any of their first two albums, but from what I’ve read their 2010 album, ‘No god slave’,...

This is a rather sad story of a Romanian metalcore band whose career ended tragically on a night that was supposed to be a proud and happy moment in celebration of the new album. On October 30th 2015 they held a release party for ‘Mantras Of War’ at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, the bands firework display set a deadly fire, greatly accelerated by polyurethane foam used in the...

Ok, where in heavens name shall I start here? In these days where the album format is being questioned by many, and where it’s more and more common to release single tracks electronically, Swallow The Sun decides to release a full triple-album containing more than 2,5 hours of new material. That’s indeed a brave thing to do. But to sum it all up I would like to quote guitarist...

Melodic death metal with a modern twist isn’t normally sorting on top on my wish list, so I must admit there was a great deal of skepticism involved as I pressed the play-button to hear Solution .45’s new creation. Solution .45 was founded by Miseration/Divinefire guitarist Jani Stefanovic in 2007 and since then members of bands like Scar Symmetry, Stratovarius, Mors Prinsipium Est and Sonata Arctica among others has...