February Overview

Here is my pick of the best albums you may have missed in February. I realised that for the January post, I neglected to include the genre for each band. I have now edited the post as I think this will make it easier for people to decide what is relevant for them. Also, from this post onwards, I will be writing a short overview for each album as opposed to an intro text. I think this works better, but of course I would prefer YOUR feedback.

Band: Hark
Album: Machinations
Genre: Stoner/Sludge Metal

Welsh Stoner Metal crew, Hark unleash their excellent sophomore album, Machinations and it is a groove-fuelled riff fest from the get go. If there was any justice in this world, then the name Hark would be on the lips of every single Metalhead out there.

Track: Fortune Favours the Insane

Band: Zeal & Ardor
Album: Devil is Fine
Genre: Black Metal (quite literally)

What happens when you take Black Metal and splice it with "slave music"? well, Zeal & Ardor have attempted to find out. Does it work or is it merely a pointless vanity project with no respect for either of the genres it blends together? I'm veering more to the latter personally as, although it might be something interesting and different, it lacks substance and often sounds contrived and forced. Either way, it has certainly become a talking point in the Black Metal scene Decide for yourself.

Track: Come On Down

Band: Crystal Fairy
Album: Crystal Fairy
Genre: Alternative

As always, I am very much loathe to describe such a band as a "supergroup" as it a term loaded with so many negative connotations and expectations. Crystal Fairy could have been hindered by the fact that its members have some serious musical pedigree, formed as it is of members of At The Drive-In / The Mars Volta, The Melvins and The Butcherettes. Of course, this hasn't happened and the band has managed to find that wonderfully rare middle ground between sounding somewhat familiar, while also managing to sound fresh and intriguing. This can be partly attributed to the near-perfect meeting of the hard driving guitar / drum combo of The Melvins, the dynamically twisted vocals of Teri Gender Bender and the mesmerising bass progressions of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. This is an album which rewards repeated listens.

Track: Chiseler

Band: Striker
Album: Striker
Genre: Trad / Power Metal

Let's be very clear about this, Striker are absolutely NOT reinventing the wheel. Influenced as much by Def Leppard and Van Halen as they are by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Manowar, this is pure, full-on Heavy Metal which has its songwriting (and playing) planted firmly in the "golden era" of the mid-late 80s, albeit with a dynamic and powerful modern production. That's not to say this is bad, in fact it is far from it. Striker is an invigorating album that will make you want to bang your head, sing out loud and even warm up your air guitar fingers.

Track: Former Glory

Band: Overkill
Album: The Grinding Wheel
Genre: Thrash Metal

I don't think anyone will disagree with me when I say that Overkill have released better albums than The Grinding Wheel. That said, it is still light years ahead of the competition and sounds remarkably fresh for a band which formed way back in 1980. Unlike most of their contemporaries, Overkill have rarely strayed far from their trademark sound and in my opinion, are a much stronger band for it. They know what they are doing and they do it bloody well. No, they are not breaking new ground, but when you have a sound as distinctive and instantly recognisable as Overkill, why the hell would you? The sound of a band clearly having a blast, The Grinding Wheel is, hands down, one of the best albums of 2017.

Track: Mean Green Killing Machine

New Release Highlights: June 16th 2017

This is the first of my weekly new releases updates, where I will be sharing what I consider to be the cream of the week's new (mainly) Metal releases. The main purpose of these posts isn't to recommend quality new releases, rather it is to keep you guys informed of notable releases week to week. What you do with this information is entirely up to you, but I will provide a link to a song from each album for you to listen to if you so desire.

To be honest, just about all of the featured albums will be ones I'm personally interested in, but there will be times when a big release deserves a mention, even if it isn't something I'm really into.

Ok, that's enough explaining. Now it's time to get to the actual point of the post. Here are this week's Metal highlights complete with a short overview text for each one.

Iced Earth - Incorruptible

US Trad Metal veterans Iced Earth were rejuvenated in 2011 with the addition of powerhouse vocalist Stu Block and are now on their third album with him at the helm. One of the most under-rated Metal bands to have formed in the 80s, Iced Earth have proven themselves by their longevity and the fact that they are still churning out quality albums, where many of their peers have long since split or vanished into obscurity.

CKY: The Phoenix

CKY are probably best known for their connection and involvement with the MTV show, Jackass and feature one Jess Margera (brother of Jackass member Bam) on drums. The band had moderate success in the early 00s with the  Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild and An Answer Can Be Found albums. Have they risen again liked the famed bird after which the new album is named? That remains to be seen.

Carach Angren - Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten

Spooky Dutch Symphonic Black Metallers Carach Angren have been underground mainstays for almost 15 years and on this, their 5th full length, could finally be set to establish themselves as major players in the scene. Their creepy and unique take on Black Metal makes them a far more interesting prospect than many of their peers as they take their listeners on a journey using in-depth storytelling and immersive, multi-layered soundcapes.

Igorrr - Savage Sinusoid

Igorrr has no regard or respect whatsoever for genre boundaries and he will gleefully bombard the listener with what is quite frequently a dischordant noise. Not one for the faint of heart or for those who prefer traditional ideas of song structure. This French madman has been known to fuse Death Metal, Electronica, Trip Hop, Baroque, Jazzm Breakcore and more into his music, occasionally on the same track.

Suffocation - ...of the Dark Light

US Death Metal legends, Suffocation should need no introduction, but for the uninitiated, the band play good old fashioned Brutal Technical Death Metal and, I'm pleased to say, show no signs of mellowing with age.

Wizard - Fallen Kings

I think I have already made it very clear in the past that Power Metal is certainly not my genre of choice and is not something that I am generally very clued up on, beyond the likes of Dream Evil, Firewind, Dragonforce, et al, who I tend to see as nothing more than an amusing and ironic guilty pleasure. Needless to say then, that despite them having been around for the best part of 3 decades, I had, until this point, not crossed paths with "The German Manowar" before, but to be honest, they are nothing more than a facsimile of the original "Kings of Metal" and are only recommended for hardcore Manowar fans desperate for a new fix of "True Metal".

Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?

Last up this week are Brighton-based Garage / Stoner / Psychedelic noise duo, Royal Blood. The band may well take influences from many who have come before them, but they twist them into something fresh and forward looking, Jimmy Page himself has said that the band are "going to take Rock into a new realm" and if that isn't high enough praise, then I don't know what is.

January Overview

Hello and welcome to the first of my "catch-up" posts. As I said in my previous blog post, I will attempt to work through my rather ridiculous backlog of new releases of 2017 (currently at 63 without tomorrow's crop), but also share some of the great albums that I HAVE managed to listen to, but have not had chance to post about on my Facebook group as of late.

As is customary, I will start with January, which saw the year get off to a rather amazing start with the release of Sepultura's finest album in at least 20 years, the return of  Alt Punk Goths, AFI and a breakout release from US Hardcore Punks, Code Orange as well as a new album from ever-reliable German Thrashers, Kreator, a surprising comeback from Finnish Industrial Metallers, Diablerie, the debut EP by brilliant Grunge throwbacks, Static Tension and for those with heavier tastes, Black Anvil dropped their latest slab of Blackened Thrash nastiness.

This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of releases, rather I have just focussed on mypersonal highlights. Enjoy and feel free to leave me a comment below.

Band: Sepultura
Album: Machine Messiah
Track: Phantom Self

Band: AFI
Album: AFI (The Blood Album)
Track: Above the Bridge

Band: Code Orange
Album: Forever

Track: Bleeding in the Blur

Band: Kreator
Album: Gods of Violence
Track: Fallen Brother

Band: Diablerie
Album: The Catalyst Vol. 1
Track: Grey

Band: Static Tension 
Album: Out of Reach (EP)
Track: Out of Reach (EP)

Band: Black Anvil 
Album: As Was
Track: May Her Wrath Be Just

A Tentative Return

I'm sure those of you that have taken the time to read or even follow this blog over the past few years have noticed that I've not been around for quite some time - the word eternity might be pushing it, but that's how it feels to me. The reasons for this are many and convoluted, but I won't be boring you with them as it has nothing to do with music, quite frankly.

Anyway, the bottom line is that even though my free time and desire for writing might have diminished recently, my passion for music and the need to shout from the (virtual) rooftops about great new albums / songs / bands has not. To this end, I have decided to make a tentative return to this writing malarky, mainly as a way of sharing as much music in one go as I can.

Going forward, I will be trying to post weekly updates about new albums on Saturdays (new albums are generally released on Fridays) and to deal with the existing backlog I will be cobbling together some quick posts by month from January to May to share my recommended albums of 2017 so far.

Like I say, this is a tentative return to the fray and a loose plan, but I really hope it works out, partly for my own sanity, but mainly as 2017 has  already been a cracking year for heavy music.
Watch this space!

Stu