Canadian duo Crown of Madness released their debut EP in March 2022, and for those paying close attention to the metal underground, it introduced a band with an interesting approach to an extreme sound. Their harsh combination of old school death metal and a sheet of black metal coldness would be enough to please a lot of genre fans, but occasional nods to goth and doom lent their more brutal aspects a little balance via some strangely mournful riffs.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
TELOMYRAS – Telomyras EP
On this debut EP, five piece metal band Telomyras convey a very traditional sound, but despite sounding very familiar from the off, there’s plenty about their mix of New Wave of British Heavy Metal and thrash influences that captures a real energy. It’s unlikely that trad/thrash metal fans will need a reminder of a style they’ve loved for decades, but there’s plenty about the way this band goes about their business that makes old school metal feel truly exhilarating.
FIRST SIGNAL – Face Your Fears
First Signal began life as a side project for Harem Scarem singer Harry Hess, but with the arrival of session guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace and drummer Daniel Flores for the second record ‘One Step Over The Line’, the melodic rock band took on a little more of its own identity. It wasn’t until 2019’s ‘Line of Fire’, however, that First Signal finally found their feet, but with that record, they became far more than just an extra-curricular hustle – they were now a band to rival some of the scene’s greatest acts. That album even outshone most of Harem Scarem’s work since the mid 90s.
ROBIN McAULEY – Alive
Robin McAuley’s 2021 album ‘Standing On The Edge’ was unexpectedly good. With that release, the veteran rock singer not only managed to turn in one of the year’s best melodic rock albums, but one of the year’s best albums – period. Although McAuley has only ever taken a sporadic approach to recording as a solo artist, the record’s huge choruses and swathes of late 80s inspired melodies showed his talent hadn’t waned since his heyday, and if anything, it suggested his voice was stronger than ever. The following year found Robin moonlighting with hard rock supergroup Black Swan (also featuring ex-Dokken man Jeff Pilson and guitarist Reb Beach), which allowed him to apply his voice to a few chunkier arrangements on occasion. It wasn’t the kind of album that achieved massive worldwide success, but was well loved by the dyed in the wool rock fans who actually heard it, continuing something of a winning streak.
JAKE SIMMONS – My American Dream EP
Like many musicians, singer-songwriter Jake Simmons had great plans for 2020. The time had come to start thinking about a follow up to his ‘Shake So Easy’ LP recorded with The Little Ghosts, but by the time he’d hoped to resurrect the band, the world had other ideas and sidelined everything and everyone with a global pandemic.