METALL – Metal Heads Review

METALL – Metal Heads

Iron Shield Records

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The story of METALL goes deep in the past and more specifically in the early 80’s. The band was formed in 1982 in Eastern Germany (if you don’t know what that is, go check a history book or Wikipedia). The band was active until 1991, after changing their name in 1988 into HEADLESS when they split. In that era they had managed to record songs for the biggest radio stations of Eastern Germany and some of them reached the number 1 place in the rock metal charts of that country. In 2013 the band was reformed under its original band name and “Metal Heads” is their debut album. I think that here fits the saying rather late than never.

SVIET MARGOT – Glance To Infinity Review

SVIET MARGOT – Glance To Infinity

Agoge Records

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The name of the band is a combination of the Russian word “sviet” which means universe and the female name Margot who is a character of the Japanese manga (comic book) entitled Lupin III. So, the name of the band can somehow be translated as universal Margot. Why universal? Probably because music along with mathematics can be the only two universal languages that we can understand. Anyway, this is the sophomore album from the female fronted band from Italy.

ANDREA SALINI – Lampo Gamma Review

ANDREA SALINI – Lampo Gamma

ticketbus

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I think most of us in our family had an elder brother/sister or cousin that introduced us to the music of rock or metal. Same is the story of the Italian guitarist Andrea Salini who, through his elder brother, discovered his love for the electric guitar and rock music. Actually this love for those things gave him the motivation to realize his dream and become a professional guitar player and composer.

CHRONOSPHERE - Red n' Roll Review

CHRONOSPHERE - Red n' Roll

    Punishment 18 Records

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The musicians that participate in CHRONOSPHERE may be young of age, but they display in their releases a maturity that a lot more experienced musicians would envy. They also have the thirst of the young band and of course they are monsters on stage and they never refuse an opportunity to play live. And if in all these you add that they have already released 3 albums (their third I am about to present to you here), then you can’t avoid to state that you are impressed by what someone can achieve if he/she is determined and loves what he does.

SWEEPING DEATH – Astoria EP Review

SWEEPING DEATH – Astoria EP

    iGrooveNext.com

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I was never font of the term progressive. It sounds to me a bit arrogant and most of the times when it is used in music, it has nothing to do with progress. Most of the times the progressive sound in my mind is equal to musical show off or even wore to musical masturbation. I respect that there is a part of people who like these kinds of things, but personally it bores me to death. On the other hand I love innovative music. I like musicians that play a certain kind of music and give it more depth and make it more interesting; the musicians that give you the sense that you listen to something familiar and yet fresh. In my opinion SWEEPING DEATH belong to this category.

GAME ZERO – Rise Review

GAME ZERO – Rise

Agoge Records

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By reading the biography of GAME ZERO I realized that finding the right people to co-work and coincidence can play a catalytic role in order to move forward with your career. Of course you can’t depend only on that, but you must also be talented and work hard to achieve what you want. So, having all these GAME ZERO in a short time managed to release their debut album which I am about to present to you here.

ALESSIO SECONDINI MORELLI – Hyper – Urania Review

ALESSIO SECONDINI MORELLI – Hyper – Urania

Independent

Reverbnation

The saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is very wise, although here we have to do with a CD. On the cover of the EP you can see Alessio holding his guitar and when I saw that my first thought was that I had to do with a release of a virtuoso rock guitarist who is displaying his skills, but it turned out to be something more interesting.

MOANING SILENCE - Fragrances from Yesterdays EP Review

MOANING SILENCE - Fragrances from Yesterdays EP

Independent

Bandcamp

The Greek metal scene was known in the past years mostly due to its extreme metal scene… Something very logical based on the quality of the bands in this genre. These latest years though our scene shows a pluralism in many different genres of the heavy metal music and with noticeable quality. MOANING SILENCE had impressed me with their debut album which I had the chance to present in this zine a while ago. Now 2 years after their debut full length the band releases an EP in order to expand more the borders of their music.

OVERKILL – The Grinding Wheel Review

OVERKILL – The Grinding Wheel

Nuclear Blast Records

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To be honest, I’ve never really have been a huge fan of this band due to the vocals and lyrical content, though with this new one (the only other album I have of theirs is “Years of Decay”) has definitely got a lot of substance to it. I was pleased that everything that makes a good album it all has which is the music, lyrical content, production quality, and guitar leads. It’s no wonder that “The Grinding Wheel” has had positive scores/feedback.

WRETCH – The Hunt Review

WRETCH – The Hunt

Pure Steel Records

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WRETCH come from the United States and as I read on their bio they were the pioneers of the Cleaveland metal scene and they were formed in 1984. The first time that I listened to them was their previous album entitled “Warriors” which left me with very good impressions, because it had all these elements that make us love the traditional U.S. metal sound.

MESHUGGAH – The Violent Sleep of Reason Review

MESHUGGAH – The Violent Sleep of Reason

Nuclear Blast Records

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Wow, some powerful Djent (a type of progressive metal). In fact, their guitarist according to a source is responsible for inventing this style. It features some real low-end sounding guitar work mainly palm muted riffs and grooves in which it seems (based on what I’ve heard from past releases) is their strongest output to date. Not only is the music good and original, their lyrics are extremely well thought out!

STORMHAMMER - Welcome to the End Review

STORMHAMMER - Welcome to the End

Massacre Records

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STORMHAMMER is a band from Germany whose career I had the chance to follow from their debut album entitled “Fireball” until their sixth studio release which I am about to present to you here. They started as a melodic heavy/power metal band and through the years they have become heavier without losing their power metal character. It is a band true to what it does and because of that they have earned my respect.