So, here we have a historic 7" from the first incarnation of AVENGER, from the time when Brian Ross of SATAN and BLITZKRIEG fame was in the band. It is in fact the final release with him singing, after just a demo and a split 12". The following two years would bring two impressive AVENGER […]
First off, let’s just get this out of the way. The band’s name is ESSENZ? Really? This is the best they could come up with? "We’re blackened Doom. Let’s put the fear in people’s hearts. I know, we’ll call ourselves ESSENZ!!!" Sounds more like a Beyoncé side project. After three albums, it’s probably too late […]
This album is already available for quite a while now, five years, to be more precise. But the Hungarian three-piece VERILUN never before made an appearance on these pages. So, alongside their recent second album “Through Fire… In The Sun”, the debut album “Home For The Dead” will receive some more or less warm words […]
Variety was the first word that came to my mind after the first spin of "Through Fire… In The Sun". Barely an hour filled with well-crafted musicianship, varied songwriting driven by energy and bursting with strength and power. On their second full-length VERILUN from Hungary are tracing an arc from Black Metal over melodic Death […]
I did a review of their last EP and I was sure this new material of Italy’s VALGRIND was going to be something special. And this new album does deliver! This is killer Death Metal, that shows a band that has a lot of early MORBID ANGEL, NOCTURNUS, but in this one especially of “Testimony […]
For a band formed way back in 2001 under a different name, this is just the second album of this American band. If you take a loom at the cover art, even the band name, it will be hard to realize what kind of style the band plays. The art reminds me of some used […]
The rather new US American band ENGULF is the brainchild of a guy called Hal Microutsicos from New Jersey. He is not just the founder and songwriter, but also the only member and thus responsible for all instruments and vocals. So, we have a classic one-man-band here. This usually is a sign to be alarmed, […]
In 1983, when Y&T released their fifth album "Mean Streak", they were supposed to support OZZY OSBOURNE on the German leg of his "Bark At The Moon" tour in December of that year. One of the shows was also scheduled to take place in Bremen (which is a bigger city, approximately 30km from where I […]
This album brings back a lot of great memories. In my childhood I used to live in a very small town. Specialized music magazines and internet didn’t exist yet, so the only possibilty to buy new records were two hifi stores that (besides selling TV sets, record- and cassette-players) also had a small section of […]
When I discovered San Francisco based Hardrockers Y&T back in the early 80s, they already had three full-length albums released. The first two, "Yesterday And Today" and "Struck Down" (both still released under their previous moniker YESTERDAY AND TODAY), were pretty hard to find in my area back then, and their 1981 A&M Records debut […]