Abigail Williams In The Absence Of Light Candlelight Records 27 September 2010 by Tom Dare The overuse of symphonic keyboards is something of a bugbear amongst those of us who delve into the world of the filthy and wretched. While some bands use them to ornament and texture their work, others either end up smothering [...]

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Eastern Front Blood On Snow Candlelight Records 13 September 2010 By Tom Dare In already packed black metal market – especially given the rather niche nature of the movement in the first place – there are a limited number of ways to get noticed. It is especially difficult if you’re British, given the UK’s (somewhat [...]

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The chance to go see Norwegian legend, Ihsahn, play a solo show in London should’ve been something of a no-brainer, but we were still in bits following a weekend of carnage at Bloodstock. So it’s a good job our man Amit Sharma had the stamina for it then, isn’t it? At the extreme end of metal, [...]

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Iron Maiden The Final Frontier EMI 16 August 2010 By Tom Dare & Hugh Platt Rather than give Iron Maiden’s latest album, The Final Frontier, our usual review treatment, we instead decided to have see how the album faired up against the expectations of a dedicated Irons fan, and those of fair-weather fan. Guess what? They [...]

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Comeback Kid Symptoms + Cures Victory Records 31 August 2010 by Mike Strata For a moment there it looked for all the world like Comeback Kid were heading down the same career path as late 90s/early 00s melodic hardcore heroes Stretch Arm Strong. Fast, catchy, posi sound? Check. Breakout album leading to more “mainstream” success? [...]

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Bonded By Blood Exiled To Earth Earache Records 16 August 2010 by Tom Dare While the latest crop of thrash revivalists have released some fine records, with the Big Four tour and the old greats like Exodus, Testament and Overkill back in fine fettle, there’s noticeable problem from examining the records from the new bands. While [...]

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Kataklysm Heaven’s Venom Nuclear Blast 13 August 2010 by Tom Dare You probably think you know how this review of Heaven’s Venom is going to read. I’m going to trot out some clichés about Kataklysm being one of those bands laden with backhanded compliments – “consistent”, “dependable”, “proficient” and the like – without ever saying [...]

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In This Moment A Star-Crossed Wasteland Century Media 12 July 2010 by Hugh Platt Why am I writing this review? Is it because In This Moment’s latest album, A Star-Crossed Wasteland, is destined to be one of the classic albums of 2010? Or maybe it’s because it’s a load of sonic horsetoss, and I fancied [...]

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Heights From Sea to Sky Creative Control August 2010 by Tom Doyle Instrumental music is and elusive little beast. Without a vocal focus the entire song writing process shifts and the melodicism of guitars, bass and even drums are thrown, kicking and screaming, into the foreground. Any band attempting to make a purely instrumental record [...]

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Blind Guardian At The Edge Of Time Nuclear Blast 30 July 2010 by Tom Dare That’s it. It’s all over. Listening to At The Edge Of Time is like watching Usain Bolt run the 100 metres- it doesn’t just beat its rivals, it crushes them with enough time to spare for a quick pint and [...]

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