Twenty years into a career of cult stardom, this four track release from Yorkshire’s My Dying Bride continues their ongoing voyage into sludge rock and doom rock territories. Clocking in at over twenty seven minutes for just four songs, some of you will own supposedly full length albums which are barely any longer (Van Halen [...]

The early releases by Gibraltarian alt-rockers Breed77 (a name they choose to pronounce with a ‘seven-seven’) are very much workman-like affairs, often derivative of many US post-grunge/alternative rock bands. Even with hints of flamenco music colouring their sound, the song writing on those records often lacks the spark needed to make them stand out from [...]

A Hero For The World is a hugely theatrical musical project in the Tobias Sammett/Avantasia tradition spearheaded by to Scandinavian musicians, Jonas Kaasgaard and David Sivelind.  Between them – and, naturally, with a helping hand from a few friends – they’ve created an eponymously titled epic is as big in intent as it is in [...]

In 2012, London-based metal band Monument released their debut EP ‘Rock The Night!’.  While it was highly prised in some quarters for its old school approach, most of their material relied far too heavily on riffs and other musical motifs borrowed from the formative years of Iron Maiden.  This didn’t disguise the amount of musical [...]

I Am I is a band fronted by former Dragonforce mouthpiece ZP Theart and featuring former Quireboys/The Union drummer Phil Martini (aka Phil Martin).  ‘Event Horizon’, their self-released debut, isn’t just a re-tread of Dragonforce works.  With this band, Theart leans, in theory, towards something more melodic, offering huge European sounding power/pomp metal, given a [...]

Featuring three ex-members of Panic Cell, Seven Deadly are a five piece metal band from the UK.  Although they credit themselves as a thrash metal band, their overall sound isn’t as rooted within the classic eighties subgenre as some (Cry Havoc, we’re looking at you!).  Perhaps more than thrash, the riffs on this debut EP [...]

UK thrashers Cry Havoc mean business on their debut release.  This EP, recorded with Martyn ‘Ginge’ Ford and Matthew Bond (known for work with Slipknot, Trivium and Skindred) recalls many great elements from the late 80s/early 90s thrash metal scene, delivering those now old-school riffs as expertly as possible for a twenty-first century audience.  If [...]

Within the first year of their existence, UK rockers Rough Cut have shared stages with cult rock bands Crashdiet and Jettblack.  They’ve supported the excellent Black Spiders.  They’ve even toured with American melodic rock legends Mr. Big – an impressive addition to the CV of any band, but especially so considering  Rough Cut were without [...]

Metal may have evolved into various subgenres since the early 80s, but there’s always time for something “traditional”.  If you want classic metal delivered the way it used to be, look no further.  Bands like Three Inches of Blood may be incorporating huge amounts of squealing, all guns blazing 80s metal into their sound, but [...]

Redline’s 2012 album ‘Vice’ is rooted firmly in the old school.  On this release, the Brummie five piece band have not just settled for a little retro – they’ve chosen all out, old fashioned 80s metal as their core sound.  The first song rips from the speakers with attitude, powered by the kind of riffs [...]