Wreck-Defy – Dissecting the Leech Review By ClarkKent

Is a supergroup still a supergroup if the members who made it a supergroup are no longer part of the band? Last Canada’s Wreck-Defy passed through these halls, Steel Druhm was pleasantly surprised by their third LP, Powers That Be. However, the band that Steel reviewed has seen some significant lineup changes since then. Two of the original power players—Aaron Randall (ex-Annihilator) and Alex Marquez (ex-Malevolent Creation)—have departed, replaced with one newbie (David Allan, drums) and one seasoned vet in vocalist Greg Wagner (Wags Metal Inc.). The glue holding Wreck-Defy together is lead guitarist Matt Hanchuck and ex-Testament bassist Greg Christian, and at essence they remain a speedy act with plenty of killer riff acrobatics. Six albums in, Wreck-Defy prove they remain a force in thrash.

Dissecting the Leech sets the thrashy tone with some sweet riffs and thumping blast beats on opener “Under the Sun.” Hanchuck collaborates with a long list of guest guitarists, such as Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth) and Mike Gilbert (Flotsam and Jetsam), to ensure a never-ending supply of fresh, exciting riffs, solos, and other guitar antics. As in prior outings, Wreck-Defy plays largely in the Testament mold with a few Megadethian flourishes. However, it’s not all pedal to the medal—plenty of songs vary in tempo, like the melodic, mid-paced “Millenial Dystopia” and the near-ballad “The Path.” While retaining their core identity, Wreck-Defy manage a varied sound throughout Dissecting the Leech, with tunes lasting anywhere from the blink-of-an-eye at three-and-a-half minutes (“Do It Again”) to the progressively-paced six-and-a-half minutes of “I Don’t Care.”1 The latter flexes creative songwriting similar to last year’s Helms Deep, with a mid-track portion that unexpectedly rockets off into a shreddy solo that’s absolutely riveting.

While Hanchuck and Christian prove to be the heart, the two new players more than hold their own. Greg Wagner has the grizzled voice of an old soul and brings a level of grit to the music. Yet he’s no one-trick pony, occasionally rising to the falsetto of many power metal vocalists, not to mention taking a few stabs at King Diamond shrieks. His surprise melodic lilt on “Another Day” proves to be one of the record’s highlights.2 David Allan proves to be quite effective behind the kit as well. His opening kicks to “Under the Sun” establish a fiercely energetic tone that resonates throughout much of Dissecting the Leech. Perhaps my favorite moment comes from “The Haunting Past,” a completely bonkers track that sounds like its instruments have gone haywire before delivering a blitzkrieg of thrashy riffs and blast beats powered by Allan’s jaw-dropping performance.

Wreck-Defy power their thrash into social critiques that prove forceful behind their spirited performances. They tackle environmental, political, and generational issues, casting a gloomy pall over modern events. On “Under the Sun,” they lament the degradation of our planet through warfare (“Look at the damage we’ve done”) and warn, “we’ll all die under the sun.” Concern turns towards the younger generations on “Millenial Dystopia,” where Wreck-Defy observes that “there’s no room to grow old,” leading to a “generation of no hope.” All people want, according to “Another Day,” is “air to breathe / just let me live another day.” Considering critiques from Steel and commenters over juvenile lyrics from Powers That Be, Wreck-Defy appear to have matured in their storytelling and thematic content. They offer a coherent narrative, even if it just boils down to “the world is a mess,” and mankind is facing “a dark, dismal future” (“Revolt”), and end on the hopeful message that they’ll “keep on fighting” for what’s right (“Apocalypse of Hope”).

Like Steel before me, I had never heard of Wreck-Defy before taking this promo, and I’m impressed. Dissecting the Leech is proving among the best in a rather good year for thrash so far, though a few things do hold it back. At 48 minutes, it’s a tad long, but considering its progressive leanings and the impressive musicianship, that’s a minor issue. A couple of songs don’t fit in as well as the rest (“Dissecting the Leech,” “The Path”), proving to be weak links amidst a great set. “The Path” is particularly puzzling, appearing to serve as the evening wind-down music to help settle the kids and old-timers for bedtime. But you’d better hurry because the ironically-named finale, “Apocalypse of Hope,” serves a jolt of caffeine to keep the party going. If you like thrash, you’ll have a good time with Dissecting the Leech.



Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: February 20th, 2026

#2026 #35 #Annihilator #CanadianMetal #DissectingTheLeech #Feb26 #HelmsDeep #IcedEarth #IntoEternity #KingDiamond #MalevolentCreation #MassacreRecords #Megadeth #PowerMetal #Review #Reviews #Testament #TheOrderOfChaos #ThrashMetal #WagsMetalInc #WreckDefy

Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review By Mark Z.

Seeing an album described as “blackened death metal” almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who’s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves’ Eyes) since the band’s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn’t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn’t entirely off the mark, as the group’s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth’s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.

With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what’s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre’s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, “Ashes,” which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron’s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that’s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, “Mindvirus” and the closer, “Resist,” are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, “riding to war” riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record’s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like “Death Machine” using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.

On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris’s drumming: While I enjoy the man’s beats, I wouldn’t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred’s style but exacerbates the album’s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.

Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. “Heretics” is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in “Winds of Oblivion” and the climax of “Ashes” are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album’s only true “slow” songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, “Resist”).

Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won’t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that’s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What’s more, a perusal of Bloodred’s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you’re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com | bloodredband.com | facebook.com/bloodredofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026

#2026 #30 #AmonAmarth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemy #Bloodred #ColoursOfPain #DeathMetal #Feb26 #GermanMetal #HarakiriForTheSky #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #Satyricon #WoodsOfDesolation

Defaced – Icon Review By Kronos

It’s heartening to see Par Olofsson getting work in the age of cheap generative AI. In retrospect, his purple, shining renderings of cityscape kaijou vortex gore, now a visual synonym for modern death metal, share a looseness and repetition of detail that’s strikingly reminiscent of midjourney products. It would be all too easy to ask the computer to ape, though you’d lose the structural, communicative logic that comes from putting a sandwich-powered Swede1 rather than a gas-powered server farm behind the brush. Icon, the third record from Switzerland’s Defaced, comes wrapped up in a characteristically Olofsson-ey work and, much like the cover, is decidedly human, if a bit unambitious. Defaced have re-emerged more than a decade for good reason; a record’s worth of carefully-crafted death metal.

Defaced operate in the style of bands like Abysmal Dawn or Throne of Heresy, unabashedly ornamenting their death metal with splashes of black metal and melodeath and foregoing flashy playing and stylized production. “The Antagonist” opens Icon at full speed, demonstrating Defaced’s strengths. After a bit of string bending, the song’s low, tremolo-picked theme kicks in, and the band trades between this riff and a few others for the rest of the song, adding a new flourish each time. A secondary melody here gets a few variations, first staccato, then subdued to back a solo, then broadly chugged with a subtle pinch harmonic tag at the end, then chugged again with a big rest after the first phrase for a bit of ornamentation. Guitarists Matze Schiemann and Marco Kessi don’t pull out show-stopping riffs but play around plenty with what they do put forth and transition very smoothly between variations, ones that usually give the rhythm section (drummer Massimiliano Malvassora and bassist Michael Gertsch) some room to show off. The other Gertsch (gruff-voiced Thomas) gets a few nice cut-outs as well, with the more melodic, black-metal-influenced “The Initiation” letting his burly roars and hoarse croaks ring out above the other instruments, frequently multi-tracked. The Gertsches even get themselves a little bass/barker duet before the bouncy pit riff of “Culling the Herd” kicks in.

Icon is expertly paced and organized. Mid-album duo of “Anthem of Vermin” and “Sonate” shakes expectations just as things seem to get static, the former ending in trem-picked triumph before transitioning to the latter, an acoustic guitar piece that a half-dozen Gothenburgers would have been proud to write to tape thirty years ago. In both pieces, Defaced practice the same shrewd and thoughtful songwriting found across the album; neither follows a predictable path, but each new idea flows from the last seemingly without effort or thought.

Yet Icon lacks the punch to compel listening. The band plays expertly with their compositions and, at small scales, demonstrates a playfulness and creativity that’s often missing from death metal. But somewhere in the middle detail—the riffs and melodies themselves—things are a bit gray. Defaced’s last effort—the decade-old Forging the Sanctuary—suffered similarly, though it had a bit more ambition. Icon plays death metal well but plays it safely, carefully welding riffs together and sanding the joints smooth into something very strong and very cube-shaped.

The more closely I listen to Icon, the more I appreciate Defaced’s obvious skill; it’s more than a competent record, with watertight songs that wring their riffs pretty dry without ever getting tedious. But those riffs just aren’t very exciting, and this middle-of-the-road modern death metal style really needs spectacle to excel, like the catchy choruses and wild Death-isms of Abysmal Dawn. Icon doesn’t offer listeners excitement, but there’s room in it for plenty of contentment. If you like your death metal well-played and without the fuss, Icon is your cup of tea.2



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps MP3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: facebook.com/defacedswiss
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026

#2026 #30 #AbysmalDawn #DeathMetal #Defaced #Icon #Jan26 #MassacreRecords #Review #Reviews #SwissMetal #ThroneOfHeresy

Coronatus – Dreadful Waters Review By Andy-War-Hall

Like a sailor’s call to the sea, I am routinely compelled to the sub-genre of symphonic metal in all of its be-corset-ed miscellany. Why? Maybe I need a break from dudes singing ugly for ladies singing pretty. Maybe falling for Seven Spires justified my continued curiosity in the style.1 Maybe I’ve never been as happy as I was discovering Imaginaerum in high school. Regardless, the call brought me now to the German symphonic group Coronatus and their new record, Dreadful Waters. Led by songwriter/drummer Mats Kurth, Coronatus features three singers in mezzo sopranos Leni Eitrich and Sabine Prechtel, and “rock vocals” by Nemesis, who also contributes to songwriting along with guitarist Harry Zeidler. Rounded out with bassist Simon Gutbrod and violinist Tine Jülich, Coronatus wrote Dreadful Waters with a focus on “merging mysticism, danger and the elemental force of water.” All good words, but does Dreadful Waters bring the strings to live up to them and, more importantly, can Coronatus meet my fix for symphonic metal?

Whatever Coronatus is doing, Dreadful Waters sounds nice doing it. Oscillating between varying degrees of symphonic (“The Siren” and “Die Hexe und der Teufel”) and nautically inclined folk metals (“Southern Cross” and “A Seaman’s Yarn”), Dreadful Waters’ production and mix bring out the best in Coronatus’ instrumentation and give everything a rich openness. Guitars sound chunky and bold while taking on an auxiliary role to the violin and vocals, which are always warm and upfront. Coronatus’ mezzo sopranos bring your typical Tarja-era Nightwish operatics to “The Maelstrom” and “To the Reef!” while Nemesis’ “rock voice” means she brings a Jørn-like grizzled theatricality to her performances on “Dark Ice” and “The Ship’s Cook.” But what really stands out to me is Kurth’s drumming, which is more nuanced than the average symphonic drumming performance. The kick patterns on “Through the Brightest Blue”‘s chorus sound more like a Lamb of God drum track than Nightwish, and “To the Reef!” boasts a palpable jauntiness thanks to the percussion groove. Dreadful Waters is composed of many different pieces, so it’s nice that Coronatus got them all to sound good together.

But symphonic metal lives and dies on its vocalists, and while Coronatus’ singers are skilled musicians, their performances can feel awkward. Each vocalist often brings an almost comical level of warble to their voices, swinging tracks like “Southern Cross” and “A Seaman’s Yarn” towards the ridiculous. Nemesis in particular can overdo it, as her heavy, gravelly vibrato can at times chew the scenery. The mezzo soprano and “rock voice” stylings also sometimes stand at odds with each other, as on songs like “The Siren” and “Dark Ice,” they blend poorly and give off the impression that they weren’t in the studio at the same time. When Coroantus coalesce, like on the album highlight “The Ship’s Cook,” the result is a riveting blend of sophistication and grit that I could listen to all day, but moments like this are unfortunately rare on Dreadful Waters.

The slight vocal issues I see on Dreadful Waters may be a symptom of a larger issue on the album: the lukewarm songcraft. Coronatus’ songs mostly stick to either a slowburn or mid-paced stomp, featuring pretty folk melodies and pleasant orchestrations but little in the way of gripping hooks or powerful performances. Further, vocal melodies are usually played overly straight, throwing few unexpected turns or interesting intervals in favor of a fairly standard symphonic metal play sheet. This makes the more metal-friendly tracks like “The Maelstrom” and “The Siren” come off a bit tepid and, at Dreadful Waters’ worst, its ballads in “Southern Cross” and “Die Hexe und der Teufel” real slogs to get through. Only “The Ship’s Cook” excited me, and that’s because its power metal-adjacent vocal heroics and bouncy chorus melody embody what is woefully missing on much of Dreadful Waters: character.

Dreadful Waters neither sinks nor swims. Far from awful, this record’s shortcomings stem from not doing enough to stand out from the symphonic crowd or playing exceptionally well into its tropes. Less fairweather fans of symphonic metal than I may get more out of Coronatus’ style, but detractors of the style won’t be swayed from their haterdom by it either. Coronatus snagged a real winner with “The Ship’s Cook,” though, so I don’t foresee terrible sailing for the band in their future. But for meeting the need for big strings over my metal, Dreadful Waters doesn’t do it for me.



Rating: Disappointing
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps MP3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: facebook.com/coronatusofficial | coronatus.de
Releases Worldwide: January 23rd, 2026

#20 #2026 #Coronatus #DreadfulWaters #FolkMetal #GermanMetal #Jan26 #Jorn #LambOfGod #MassacreRecords #Nightwish #Review #Reviews #SevenSpires #SymphonicMetal

Frozen Land – Icemelter Review

By Twelve

I have such a soft spot in my heart for Frozen Land. After writing my first-ever review for Angry Metal Guy, I remember feeling shaky. It went through quite a few revisions. My second, Frozen Land’s eponymous debut, was, comparatively, simple. Their 1999 Euro power metal meets 2001 Euro power metal vision made for a catchy, delightfully fun album, and my enjoyment for it showed in my writing—still my favorite intro to any review I’ve written. So it is to my great astonishment that these Finns are now on album number three with Icemelter. Time, it just keeps going, but has it changed anything for these vivacious Vikings?

Of course not! Frozen Land is just as I remember them, or at least they are for the most part—Icemelter has a more aggressive edge to it, but is easily and recognizably the same Frozen Land I met in 2018. Opener “The Carrier,” for example, features a riff that could easily be found on a Tarot album, a notable sign of a heavier direction. But the rapid-fire vocals bridging their way to a bombastic, catchy chorus? That’s familiar Frozen Land, borrowing from the ancient playbook of Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica (who were themselves borrowing from the aforementioned playbook at the time). Their unique personality emerges in Thomas Hirvonen’s sardonic riffing in “Dream Away,” in Lauri Nylund’s subtle but effective keyboards in “Losing My Mind,” in the infectious energy of bassist Eero Pakkanen and drummer Matias Rokio throughout, but especially in “Chosen, Corrupt, and Cancerous,” and in Tony Meloni’s singing all the time.

As is typical in power metal, it’s the vocalist who takes up most of the spotlight, and Meloni’s unique style is little exception. I could see his higher register feeling awkward or out of place with the wrong group, but Frozen Land’s songs are very much written for his voice. The bombastic choruses commonly pair him with Nylund’s keys—barely noticeable, but lending him that extra bit of presence to make them shine. He also adds an important element of dynamism to Icemelter, on songs like “Haunted,” which take him from aggressive cleans to a smoother, impassioned chorus that gets stuck in the head, and wouldn’t work nearly so well with a less invested delivery.

The reason I highlight Meloni’s performance isn’t to take away from the rest of Frozen Land at all—as I’ve mentioned, the five work extremely well together to form their modern-yet-nostalgic sound. But if there’s one weakness to Icemelter, it’s that, musically at least, it’s a touch formulaic, due in part to the dated (seeming) inspiration for their material and the style with which they take to it. And, to be clear, none of their material is boring or even the slightest bit un-fun. Hirvonen’s and leads are electric, and “Black Domina” is a great example, but by the time we get there, it’s just starting to feel a bit tired. The good news is that Icemelter is only thirty-six minutes long and so never has a chance to overstay its welcome. On the other hand, when I do dislike a song, as is only the case for the title track (which comes across disjointed in its songwriting and doesn’t quite land for me), it feels like a disproportionately big deal.

Icemelter is a very fun listen. If it’s only flaw is that all the energetic, fun power metal blurs together a bit, I can live with it. Frozen Land being a quintessentially Finnish touch to a classic style, modernizes both it and themselves enough to make a strong impression. As I look back on this review, it occurs to me that it’s a bit short compared to my usual writing here, but that’s kind of the point—Frozen Land’s straightforward, easy approach to a classic style is exactly what makes them so endearing to listen to.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: facebook.com/frozenlandband
Releases Worldwide: November 21st, 2025

#2025 #35 #finnishMetal #frozenLand #icemelter #massacreRecords #nov25 #powerMetal #review #reviews #sonataArctica #stratovarius #tarot

Helstar – The Devil’s Masquerade Review

By Steel Druhm

When folks look back on the magic and glory of 80s metal, Helstar tend to get overlooked. The little Texas band that could, Helstar dropped a series of influential albums from 1984 to 1989 that were important to the US power metal and prog-power genres. Their Burning Star debut was charmingly rough and raw, and so metal it hurt, giving birth to classic cuts like “Witch’s Eye” and the timeless “Run With the Pack.” 1986s Remnants of War saw the band fully embrace the USPM sound for a righteous platter of bold, badass battle tunes that sound as mighty today as they did when released.1 Both 1988s Distant Thunder and especially 1989s Nosferatu helped lay the groundwork for many future prog-power acts, most notably, Nevermore. After that, Helstar had missteps, broke up, reformed, and never quite recaptured the magic of their salad days, despite a few solid late career releases like The Wicked Nest and, most recently, 2016s Vampiro. It’s been a long time in the crypt since then, and I was quite shocked to see The Devil’s Masquerade arrive in the promo sump. With much of the same lineup intact from Vampiro, can Helstar rise from the dead once more and draw fresh blood?

I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting as much heat and venom as the band delivers on the opening title track. It’s a beefy, bruising beast with churning riffs and James Rivera’s distinctive vocals raging. It could have appeared on Nosferatu, which is a major compliment. It has the classic Helstar sound and vibe, Rivera sounds great, and the guitarwork from original axe master Larry Barragán and new(ish) slinger Alan DeLeon Jr. achieves the right blend of beef, brains, and balls. The burly alchemy extends into “Stygian Miracles,” which really sounds like 80s era Helstar, especially the riff work and neo-classical noodling. “Carcass for a King” almost crosses over into thrash, and it’s a delightfully aggressive aural beating with uber dramatic vocals and enough riff weight to crush an industrial earth mover.

By the time you get to “Seek Out Your Sins,” you may start to realize how Helstar reminds you of Nevermore. That’s understandable, since there isn’t all that much space between what Helstar was doing in 1988-89 and what Nevermore did from 1995 onward, and here you get a hyper-active overdose of prog-power intensity reflecting both acts. “The Black Wall” is another nostalgia-inducing trip back to the past with all the beloved Helstar elements of olde exploding back into life. Likewise, the impressive and shreddy instrumental “Suerte De Muleta” would have fit on any of the band’s later 80s works. Surprisingly, The Devil’s Masquerade holds the line on quality from start to finish, and that finish is the burning speed and fury of “I Am the Way,” which even features guest vocals by Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus) and Jason McMaster (Watchtower, Dangerous Toys). At a super tight 38 minutes and with all songs smartly constrained in the 3-5 minute window, there’s no filler or chaff to deal with, just raging heavy metal full of adrenalized aggression and anger.

James Riveria has been at the mic for Helstar since the beginning, and damn, his voice has held up shockingly well over the ensuing 41-plus years. Sure, he can’t just toss out stratospheric screams at every juncture anymore, but his voice sounds strong, firm, and commanding nonetheless. He even dabbles in extreme vocals for extra spice. Not bad for a guy pushing 65. Larry Barragán and Alan DeLeon Jr. bring all the bells and whistles to the Black Mass, offering wild, shreddy fretboard surfing while making everything sound smart and stately rather than chaotic and showboaty. They dazzle with crushing riffs and heavy-as-fook leads, then color the skies with fancy fingering. They make the album’s instrumental a must listen and I’m suitably impressed by what they accomplish.

The Devil’s Masquerade is the best thing Helstar have done since Nosferatu, and I’m quite shocked that they had something this potent up their sleeves at this point in their lives. It feels enough like their heyday to satisfy old heads like me, but it offers enough nods to modern times to avoid feeling stuck in the past. Most importantly, you get a collection of well-written, entertaining metal songs with power, poise, and precision. This reminds me why I loved Helstar so much as a kid, and now I get to love them again in my dotage. If you’ve never heard Helstar, this is not a bad starting point at all. After that, go back to discover their 80s material. It’s something special.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps
Label: Massacre
Websites: facebook.com/helstar.metal | instagram.com/helstarofficial
Releases Worldwide: September 12th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #HeavyMetal #Helstar #MassacreRecords #Nevermore #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #SpeedMetal #TheDevilSMasquerade

Empire of Eden – Guardians of Time Review

By Steel Druhm

Anyone out there remember Dungeon? They were Australia’s answer to Hammerfall and Stratovarius and from 1999 through 2006 they released a series of entertaining platters of heavy/power metal before calling it a day. Dungeon guitarist Stu Marshall went on to found his own entity called Empires of Eden and set out to follow the same template used by Tobias Sammet with his Avantasia project. Stu would do the writing, play multiple instruments, and then bring in a host of musical guests to do vocals and whatever else needed to be done. A lifetime ago in 2012, I covered their sophomore outing Channeling the Infinite in a review that to this day has yet to receive one lousy comment. Such is the musical isolation Australian metal bands endure.1 Channeling was decent enough for what it was with a few hits that still live happily on my playlists. I missed a 2015 follow-up completely, and now Stu and friends are back with fourth album Guardians of Time. The same template is in play again, with Stu shoehorning in as many vocalists and guitarists as he can, this time with many coming from other Australian acts. This means the relative star power is more modest here with fewer “big” names included. Can this kind of cut-and-paste all-star effort lead to a successful album? Place yer bets!

After a cookie-cutter intro, the title track sallies forth with a heavy power metal sound led by the ageless vocals of Rob Rock. Rob sounds fine as always, giving a forceful and spirited performance, and the song’s style is one that appeals to me on paper. Unfortunately, the writing feels like the definition of average. You won’t mind hearing it but it’s unlikely to stick or leave much of an impression. Things then switch to cheesy hard rock for “When Will It End,” and it’s a jarring jump. The song itself isn’t bad and the chorus is decent, as are the vocals by Darren Smith (Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel). Again though, the writing is at the level of stock standard. This issue plagues Guardians from start to finish as styles shift and performers swap out. “Mortal Rites” is thrashy and heavy, sounding like Iced Earth collaborating with Death Angel and it’s a very modest highlight. “When the Beast Comes Out” features Sean Peck of Cage and if you squint really hard, you can imagine it being a lost track from Hell Destroyer, though it makes sense why it ended up getting lost. It’s just not very memorable.

The worst moment hits with “Stand United” which is a painfully cheesy power metal anthem badly undermined by the vocals from Tony Webster (Archetype, ex-Axemaster). His delivery is just so weak and wishy-washy that it makes the already uninspired song a real effort to get through. Add to these issues a pointlessly shreddy instrumental called “Arabian Nights” and 2 versions of “Baptise This Hell” when one would be entirely sufficient and you have an album that never finds its legs despite the talent involved. Worse, the shifting styles and revolving door vocalists make everything feel disjointed and devoid of cohesion. Avantasia works because Tobias Sammet usually appears alongside his various guest vocalists, thereby insuring a cohesive end product. There’s no disputing that Stu Marshall is a gifted guitarist, but his playing isn’t enough to make the album feel like the work of an actual band and not a mix tape of Aussie attractions. Guardians is also way too long at 52-plus minutes.

It’s rather pointless to opine on the various hits or misses of the guest vocalists and whether this guitarist or the other nailed a memorable solo. The big issue here is that the writing never exceeds serviceable and no song is sticky enough to become proper playlist fodder. That’s a step down from the last time I encountered Empires of Eden. If forced to pick the best moment it would be “August Runs Red” because it reminds me of Sweden’s 90s power-prog renaissance and the works of Tad Morose and Lefay, but even here the results are only moderately successful.

I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by Guardians of Time, but even with such muted expectations, I was underwhelmed. Stu Marshall can wail on a guitar and he’s demonstrated writing talent in the past, but this is an album full of recycled, uninspired power and heavy metal moments and it feels like a filler dumping ground. If I need guest-heavy ego metal projects, I’ll stick with the vastly superior Avantasia. In short, I shant be returning to this Eden no matter how many apples are offered.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre
Website: facebook.com/empiresofeden
Releases Worldwide: November 15th, 2024

#20 #2024 #AustralianMetal #Avantasia #ChannelingTheInfinite #EmpiresOfEden #GuardiansOfTime #MassacreRecords #Nov24 #Review #Reviews

Amputate – Abysmal Ascent Review

By Steel Druhm

Written By: Nameless_N00b_85

The indiscernible line between inspiration and imitation plagues writers, musicians, and artists of all stripes. While the Wormeds and Ulcerates of the world continue to ask what it means to be death metal in a modern context, entire scenes have sprung forth to celebrate the sound of the olde and trve, with the name of the game being “bigger and better” rather than raw in innovation. Swiss band Amputate finds themselves in the latter camp, poised to uncork a letter to the old school in the form of third album Abysmal Ascent. Their sophomore made its way through these very halls, with Doom et Al describing their efforts as “recycled.” This description poses an ironic challenge to this reviewer as we dive in to see whether Amputate has forged something with their own identity. Or, whether I must strive to not copy and paste my great predecessor’s review and be done with it.

The biggest improvement Abysmal Ascent offers is the production. In an about-face from the overly clean and blandly polished Dawn of Annihilation, Amputate have opted for an older, more direct approach. All guitars are recorded straight from their amps, and vocals have minimal effects, making the entire project sound pleasingly raw and organic, like a discount Vomitory or Gorement. This helps Amputate’s more chunky moments where their HM-2 flags fly highest (“Abysmal Ascent”, “Sepulcro”), with vocalist Tom Kuzmic doing his best “We have Erik Rundqvist (Vomitory) at home” approach. His growls, never going beyond competent in their extremity, are clearly piped straight from voice to recording, adding a layer of appreciability in their organic presentation. The DR of 7 allows bouncy, harmonized leads to shine (“Cavernous Temple of the Absurd”) as well as add thunk to the occasional bass solo (“Malevolent Manifestation”). Everything is catchy, deliberately designed, and inoffensive.

Inoffensive, however, best summarizes the whole of Abysmal Ascent. Amputate stretches a reasonable runtime of 39 minutes into a bland sheet of beige-colored audio that seems never-ending in its haze of riffs. The solos are enjoyable, melodic, and well-executed, and also enter the ears and leave the mind as soon as the song concludes (“Extractive Monolith”, “I Am Genocide”). It is telling that instrumental “Hybrid Organism” is the most interesting song on the album—not because of any weakness of the vocals, but because it forces Amputate to stretch their songwriting wings just a little bit. Otherwise, their insistence to adhere to the spirit of OSDM is their undoing, as each song sounds carefully constructed to sound like a facet of greater bands before them. From the crowd-friendly chorus of “I Am Genocide” to the last gasp of energy in sub-two minute closer “Perpetuum,” all of Abysmal Ascent gives off “good local band energy.” You’re sure they’re destined for big things one day, but also ready for them to get off the stage.

This is disappointing because the members of Amputate are no slouches in their individual performances. Nuno Santos and Kuzmic do plenty of tinkering, working with 12/4 time signatures (“Malevolent Manifestation”), speedy tech-adjacent licks (“Sepulcro”,) and good old-fashioned Swedeath sustained chords (“Abysmal Ascent”, “Extractive Monolith”). It is in these slower moments that the band has the smallest whiff of an identity, as the heavier chords allow solos and leads to have a tad more impact. These moments are fleeting, however, and even the most memorable of these—for my money, the chorus of the title track—washes away in the hustle and bustle of blandness by whatever track follows. Abysmal Ascent is an album of excellent ingredients, deliberately concocted into a fine-sounding tribute to better bands before them. And not one of the generous number of listens I’ve given this album has unearthed anything approaching memorability, identity, or repeat play value.

Ultimately, Abysmal Ascent is an etch-a-sketch of an album, each song shaking and erasing the one preceding it, leaving the listener empty and unmoved. It’s clear that Amputate has ambition and passion; what they don’t have are the riffs. They lack the ball-crushing groove of Gatecreeper, the sinister atmosphere of Frozen Soul, the rabid bloodthirst of Vomitory, or the unique melody of Tomb Mold. Instead, they slot neatly in with the Entrailses and the Beheadeds of the world—bland and offensively inoffensive, nothing more. An album with a filthier production, a greater emphasis on songwriting, and developing a sense of identity for themselves would do wonders for their admitted performance capabilities, but discerning lovers of the old school should look elsewhere.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Website: facebook.com/amputateofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 11th, 2024

#20 #2024 #AbysmalAscent #Amputate #Beheaded #DeathMetal #Entrails #Gorement #MassacreRecords #Oct24 #Review #Reviews #SwissMetal #Vomitory

Deliver the Galaxy – Bury Your Gods Review

By Steel Druhm

Written by: Nameless_N00b_85

It turns out space really is the final frontier. While topics like the nothingness of death, religion, and romantic predilections of the cadaverific kind will always be reliable tropes, space has long revealed itself to be the most tonally diverse of the metal fixations, with music to celebrate its infinite beauties as much as its unknowable (and very knowable) horrors. German melodeath outfit Deliver the Galaxy is poised to drop their third offering, Bury Your Gods, to expound on the “exciting idea that humanity is not alone in the universe.” By the time all is finished, will we have set our phasers for fun, or will we be nuking them from orbit?

After an over-the-top cinematic intro, the band comes out swinging with the title track. Featuring chunky and funky grooves, a healthy dose of Hypocrisy atmosphere, and a bombastic, amphitheater-friendly mix, it’s clear that the band dreams of big things. Choruses are catchy, and tones shift between the weight of black holes collapsing and the gentle colors of passing nebulae. “Unsterblich” is a real highlight, wringing an impressive amount of melancholy from its bridge, and a constant barrage of pit-inciting chugs turning into another earworm of a chorus. The entire package is sleek, immediate, accessible, and reliable.

However, that reliability quickly turns to banality, and a mere handful of songs in, the cracks begin to show. Deliver the Galaxy’s approach to catchiness isn’t rooted in clever vocal phrasing or compositionally clever hooks, but in rote repetition, where each verse seems to serve to get to the chorus as quickly as possible. The choruses themselves also rely on the literal song title being played in a loop. “Get Down” is a particularly egregious offender, repeating the phrase 31 times in its sub-three-minute run time (yes, really) while tacked on to music with a cheesy bop that We Butter the Bread With Butter had the sense to leave on the cutting room floor. The lyrical obnoxiousness is unfortunate, as vocalist Matthias has genuine flair, delivering his lines with a feral sense of conviction and an admirable amount of enunciation, but in the long run, these skills only betray the basic nature of the material.

The compositions themselves fare no better, as the few attempts at experimentation are ghastly. “Shadows” makes a shameless attempt at your local radio rock station with mediocre cleans and a big build-up let down by the even more mediocre chorus. The strange decision is made to end the album with a meandering piano outro, meant to serve as a cathartic release to an album that never earned it. But the biggest offenders are the solos–each is positioned exactly where you’d expect them to be, and each of which bores, stalls, and goes absolutely nowhere. Not every melodeath band needs to bring Scar Symmetry levels of shred, but when your leads are objectively outperforming your solos in both technical heft and emotional resonance, something has gone terribly wrong in the songwriting department.

Still, this album will undoubtedly find an audience, and they’re called “normies”—people who enjoy huge shows where they’re commanded to “let me hear you” or “let me see those hands.” Aesthetically, I like what the band is peddling here, and the enthusiasm with which they deliver the material is palpable. But mediocre songwriting will drag down even the nicest sounding of projects, and this album is high on melody and low on death. A commitment to overly formulaic song structures and a pop radio approach to choruses reduce the listening experience to empty calories for the ears or a space suit with low oxygen in the tank. Hopefully on the next outing the band Deliver the Goods—I’m certainly rooting for them to do so.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: WAV | Format Reviewed: WAVY
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: deliverthegalaxy.com | facebook.com/deliverthegalaxy
Releases Worldwide: August 30, 2024

#20 #2024 #Aug24 #BuryYourGods #DeliverTheGalaxy #GermanMetal #Hypocrisy #MassacreRecords #MelodicDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #ScarSymmetry #WeButterTheBreadWithButter

Eisregen – Abart Review

By GardensTale

Some bands have history. Eisregen has lore. Terrorizing Germany for almost 30 years, core members Yantit and M.Roth have managed to get 2 of their albums restricted and 2 more outright banned in their home country. The BzKJ1 brought down the hammer on account of the sheer fucked-up-ness of their lyrics, which feature graphic gore, necrophilia, incest, and more. I think the German government has never heard of slam, or that list would be a whole lot longer. Though I had caught Eisregen’s moniker floating about the web a few times, it wasn’t until now that I got to sample their proprietary brand of perversion. How does Abart stack up against its 15(!) predecessors?

No one has time to listen to a discography that size for reviewing a single album, but a brief perusal suggests that Eisregen is very much in the camp that won’t fix what ain’t broken. Three parts gothic metal, two parts black metal and one part death metal, the music is kept smaller than the uninitiated like myself might have expected, contrasting the amount of hoo-hah the band seems to have drawn. In hoarse, breathy rasps, the band sketches nightmarish stories like Mary Shelley turned to 11, without overt aggression or grandeur. Demure piano and violin supply a measure of haunting atmosphere and the necessary hooks to keep the tracks interesting beyond the disturbing lyrics. This is vital, as you need to speak German to understand them in the first place.

But whilst my expectations were tempered, I’ve found myself pleasantly taken with Abart. The songwriting is simple and not particularly dynamic, sticking to basic structures without significant evolution in pacing or mood, but Eisregen shows itself capable of engaging on many different levels across the well-varied tracklist. Wistful melancholy outlines “Im blutroten Raum,” yet the rambunctious “Hinterland” is suffused with a Finntroll-like sense of mischief. “Schöner sterben” is straight-up gothic doom in the vein of Paradise Lost, but “Lebendköder” hews closer to the theatrical gothic black of Cradle of Filth or Carach Angren. M.Roth’s rasp is suitably over the top, hamming up the evil characters he embodies with highly entertaining relish and over-pronunciation, but he can be surprisingly sonorous with his cleans which evoke Till Lindeman (Rammstein).

It can be hard to escape the autopilot altogether when you average an album every other year for three decades, though, and Eisregen doesn’t entirely escape a vibe of formulaic composition. The vocals are great, but clean asides aside, they have one tone and one intensity across the majority of the album. Verse-chorus structures are fine, but with the tempo and intra-track variety on display, the music can get predictable at times. The attempt at an epic closer, “Totkörperkunst,”2 doesn’t have enough going for it to fill its 10-minute duration. It results in an album that is enjoyable while it’s playing but lacks the zest to outgrow itself beyond that.

Still, with the law of diminishing records in mind, Abart finds Eisregen in finer form than most bands with a discography well into double digits can lay claim to. Despite the overlong finale, there are no real duds on here, with both atmosphere and hooks plentiful and very entertaining. Even the production is well above industry standard despite the vocals sitting too far forward in the mix. As for the lyrics, the ones I’ve translated are very entertaining self-contained horror stories, such as a bolt gun serial killer and a murder-suicide by embalming, so the German audience might get more out of this one. But monolinguals, don’t let that scare you off, because Abart is a fun yet undemanding little slasher anthology that will make for a great Halloween soundtrack in a couple of months.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: kkth.de | facebook.com/eisregen.official
Releases Worldwide: August 16th, 2024

#2024 #30 #Abart #Aug24 #BlackMetal #CarachAngren #CradleOfFilth #DeathMetal #Eisregen #Finntroll #GermanMetal #GothicMeta #MassacreRecords #ParadiseLost #Rammstein #Review #Reviews