Going back to 1996 today for maybe my favorite KMFDM album all the way through, Xtort. My other favorites are Nihil and Symbols (I'm partial to 90s KMFDM) but Xtort is utter perfection. This playlist leaves off the perverse last (secret) track 'Fairy', but I'll let it slide. Worth looking up if you haven't heard it 😂
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsTWly5A4boF2XmUCRXZwtL1heKo7fVhG&si=h9B0fFoTHpr1EHkr
#90s #90sMusic #KMFDM #industrial #90sBands #1990s #GermanBands #Hamburg #SaschaKonietzko
Energy music. Much needed today. 'Palermo EP' by Hamburg garage punks KÜKEN. Four brief, buzzy tunes. Perfection.
https://kueken.bandcamp.com/album/palermo-ep
#punk #PunkRock #NowPlaying #Germany #Hamburg #GermanBands #GermanPunk #HamburgBands #HamburgPunk #garage #GarageRock @Defiance @alabut @kevin @brian
4 track album
Review: Not Fragile “One Way To Glory”
Release date: Out Now!
Label: Relics from the Crypt
5–7 minutesPablo Rumel
NOT FRAGILE is one of the most singular stories in German heavy metal: a band formed in 1980 that, despite releasing demos, an EP, and a powerful mini-album, saw their full-length debut relegated to confusing and posthumous editions. Their blend of speed and power metal—raw, fast, and fueled by the energy of the era, eventually turned them into a cult name. Now, thanks to the archaeological work of Relics From the Crypt, the classic era of NOT FRAGILE comes back to life with the remastered reissues of Who Dares Wins (1988) and One Way to Glory, reclaiming the medieval, electric, and battle-hardened spirit of a band that always deserved far greater recognition.
Review
One Way To Glory is, in essence, the distilled concept of metal’s epic spirit: going out to battle and facing the enemy head-on. NOT FRAGILE adopts this as both a motto and a starting point for the album. What we hear is a classically crafted record, literally, because it’s a remastered rescue of a distant 1989 release that moves nimbly across the borders of power, speed, and heavy metal.
What do we have here? A solid rhythmic foundation, with drums and bass locked tightly through the double kick; expressive guitars that, without overcomplicating their structure, alternate bursts of speed with sturdy power chords. The vocals might be a weak spot—not because Torsten Buczko (also on guitar) is a bad singer, but because the epic weight of power metal relies heavily on a virtuosic voice. Buczko delivers just the minimum: slightly raspy highs that strongly recall Walls of Jericho-era Helloween, betting on strength and leaving aside the intricacies of technique. But this is relative, because as we’ll see, there are other tracks where his performance lands better.
This becomes clear on Hard to Be Alive: the high notes are well-placed, but lack body and often feel flat. Even so, we’re dealing with a seasoned band that knows how to craft powerful songs, with inspired choruses and simple, effective structures, something heard clearly in the third track, Wanted, built on spiraling riffs, excellent bass lines, and a fast rhythm section interspersed with syncopated breaks.
In general terms, the lead guitar doesn’t attack with blazing scales; instead, it focuses on shaping the melody and reinforcing the rhythmic bed, leaning toward quick notations and tight tempo control rather than uncontrolled destruction. Too Fast might be the track with the best opening on the album: choppy, rapid-fire riffs, pounding percussion, and a decidedly speed-metal structure with repeated chords and choruses shouted at full force.
As for Seven Guns for Hire, we can say it’s perfectly placed as the fifth track: an overload of pure speed would have plunged the record into monotony. Instead of opting for a ballad, here we get a mid-tempo song with a much more interesting vocal development. There’s a noticeably stronger command of phrasing, with more openness toward aggression and raw shouting, proof that, more often than not, what a singer needs to shine fully is solid musical direction. And here, that goal is only halfway achieved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNQ6cNWcKgE&authuser=0
Clairvoyant brings in excellent chords with artificial harmonics that immediately recall early Van Halen and Judas Priest’s eighties era. The technique is used repetitively, building melodic layers that fit perfectly over the rhythmic work. While the drums stay strictly functional and never step outside the margins, the bass lines offer excellent fills. The vocals also improve here, the monotony drops, giving way to more expressiveness, with a voice that shifts between high notes and a raspier, more aggressive tone. However, there’s an interlude with what sounds like synthesized backing vocals, and that breaks the musical magic. Even so, it remains an excellent entry point to decide whether or not to dive into the full album.
Welcome You the Crowd carries that same force we can recognize from some of their fellow countrymen—think Battalions of Fear-era Blind Guardian, with strong interplay between speed and harmony, inspired and epic choruses, and screams that could even rival those of the great Ronnie James Dio. It’s another outstanding option to hear the band at their best: powerful, forceful, with excellent guitar interludes, and arguably the crown jewel of the entire record.
Both Lost in a Dream and Full Moon Rising are straightforward, no-frills songs with a solid percussive attack. Listening to them in sequence, you can feel a bit of fatigue due to repeated structures, but they keep their momentum thanks to good gear changes, even though the guitar solos remain the weakest point of the album as a whole, feeling more like a ritual that has to be fulfilled. Full Moon does surprise at the end with some bold bass lines closing the final minutes, and that deviation from the formula is precisely what you end up missing in the rest of the tracks.
W.I.R. clearly expresses what I mean about bringing the bass further into the composition. It’s a fast track, without major changes, and with a better use of the lead guitars, never excellent, but melodic enough, working very well as the closing number of the album’s final stretch.
Near the end comes the album’s longest title, To Hunt and To Be Hunted, stretching past the six-minute mark. Despite its length, it doesn’t introduce much new to what we’ve already heard, at least not until the halfway point, where the bass and cymbals take the lead alongside a whispered, mysterious vocal line, creating a brief atmosphere that soon breaks under a renewed charge.
The Evil One is the farewell. A track that goes straight for speed, introducing some interesting breaks into the main riff. Compositionally, it doesn’t add much if you’ve heard the entire album, but the guitar melodies are clearly built to summon that feeling of triumph and majesty, like the rush one gets in a role-playing game while reaching the final battle. A strong ending.
Conclusion
NOT FRAGILE’s style is direct, almost untouched except for a solid mix and powerful guitars. In the analysis we’ve compared them to early Helloween and Blind Guardian—comparisons that could easily extend to Manowar, Jag Panzer, or Running Wild. And here a clarification is crucial: we’re dealing with old material that, at the time, had to contend with those bands in terms of originality. So it’s not entirely an influence—it’s metal recorded with the pure spirit of that era.
TheNwothm Score: 8/10
Links
Bandcamp: https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/one-way-to-glory
Label: Relics from the Crypt
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#german #germanBands #HeavyMetal #NotFragile #nwobhm #OneWayToGlory #RelicsFromTheCrypt #speedMetal
For the first #ThursDeath of 2026, we have NEKUS from Marburg, Germany and their sophomore LP from 2024, 'Death Apophenia': https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/death-apophenia
Nekus have been around since 2018, and I'm not sure how I missed this great record in 2024. It's another solid gem from Sentient Ruin Records, and a great way to plod into this new year. This is crushing, heavy death doom-- cavernous and dreary, even merging on funeral doom sometimes, but with great dynamics, riffs, and textures- sometimes slow, sometimes faster. Maybe ffo Spectral Voice - but I like Nekus much more.
#metal #DeathMetal #DeathDoom #Germany #GermanMetal #GermanBands #SentientRuin @HailsandAles @brian @rtw @swampgas @umrk @flockofnazguls @guffo @c0m4 @Kitty @nnenov
5 track album
REVIEW: OLYMP “RISING”
Release date: 19th December 2025
Label: Metalizer Records
4–6 minutesPablo Rumel
OLYMP are no myth – they are Heavy Metal brought to life. With driving riffs in the tradition of the ’80s, the four guys from Augsburg / Germany get neck muscles moving. Impeccable twin-leads, a roaring bass, and the hammering of thunderous drums finally pull even the last listener up to Olympus. With years of stage experience, as well as the release of their longawaited self-titled album in 2023, the guys have been reinforcing their ambitions for the Metal Olympus since 2018. In 2025, they stormed the stage of VMF Brazil with thunderous power – a performance that etched their name onto the global metal map. Now they follow up with their second album, “Rising”, showcasing their musical evolution and further solidifying their standing in the metal scene.
Review
Prodomos is a brief introduction that opens with riffs and synthesizers, immediately establishing the link to the eighties: a sharp guitar sound that oscillates between American horror punk and the NWOBHM.
Olive Wreath confirms it. This is a pure barrage of an opening, with direct percussion, no double bass and no endless cymbal work. Sebastian Tölle’s voice is angry and energetic, without a highly polished technique, opting instead to alternate between high notes and slightly raspy mid tones. It feels like listening to Tom Araya or Paul Baloff from the mythical early Exodus, but better equalized and with more body than those old recordings. Indeed, the chords are heavy and simple, as are the solos, which do not complicate themselves with large scales.
Thread of Life maintains the same approach. After a few brief bass lines, we hear the attack of the rhythm guitars, with alternating up and down picking, adding small rhythmic twists to reinforce the chorus. What we get is a song that takes the pounding percussion of punk, the vibe of eighties thrash, and the complexity of heavy metal by extending the compositions with solos and different sections within each track.
Fire and Brimstone is built around a fast, chromatic chord, with hard rock nuances and fast sections based on single string palm muting. While it is an effective song that does not seek to reinvent the wheel but rather to recreate early metal, it clearly shows that lead guitar is not the band’s strong point. And this should not be misunderstood. Playing simple or easy parts is acceptable in less demanding styles such as hardcore, but here the lead guitar remains too opaque. There is no clear personal mark from the player, it sounds very flat, and it is not related to speed either. Just ask Jeff Beck or Joe Satriani.
https://youtu.be/PmxH1f5eHU4?si=K94c-uleT46-zDBm
A good opportunity to hear all instruments attacking together comes with Olymp, which offers a minute and a half long introduction with more developed bass lines and more drum fills. Even though the overall performance still tends to be flat, there is the use of double bass or double pedal here, giving the composition more punch and rhythmic drive.
With a cinematic introduction and a tearing scream, Eternal Torment begins. The title already suggests a crushing, warlike and extremely heavy song, and it delivers by introducing semi galloping riffs and chromatic chords from the thrash metal school. The song alternates well between mid tempos and faster passages, but the lead guitar remains buried. The solos feel weak in execution and uninspired, even containing many notes outside the scales, without reaching the kind of dissonance characteristic of Slayer, for example. Even so, Eternal Torment is a suitable track to understand the album’s proposal, as it is the most balanced one.
Titan War follows a similar path. It opens with a fast barrage of rolls and then moves into mid tempo sections, generating denser guitar layers without oversaturating. Although it has a recognizable riff throughout, its development becomes somewhat monotonous.
Orpheus shows a different development, with neo prog accents and more frequent tempo changes, making extensive use of single string palm muted bursts and rapid chord successions. Beyond those details, it is a track that does not differ significantly from the rest.
We reach the end with White Rose, a power ballad, though not in the traditional sense. It alternates clean guitars with distorted sections, features some good riffs and moments that seek to convey strength and power, such as the lament filled high notes delivered by the vocalist. Still, in overall terms, this is not a memorable composition. It is correct, but it does not close the album with a true sense of triumph.
Conclusion
Overall, the album makes it clear that the band has an identity firmly rooted in eighties metal, with solid rhythm riffs, constant energy, and a good understanding of thrash, heavy metal, and punk metal codes. The main strength lies in the foundation. The songs work thanks to their rhythm, drive, and attitude, and there are moments, such as Eternal Torment and Olymp, where the proposal feels more balanced and ambitious. However, the album also exposes limitations that, if addressed, could significantly raise the final result. The lead guitar lacks a distinct character, the drums tend toward an overly flat performance, and several compositions suffer from monotonous developments or endings that fail to leave a strong impression. This is not a bad album, but it is one that calls for more risk, more instrumental personality, and greater attention to detail in order to stand out in a very crowded field.
TheNwothm Score: 6.5/10
Links
Bandcamp:https://olympmetal.bandcamp.com/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/OlympMetal/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/olympheavymetal/
Label: Metalizer Records
Read More Reviews
#germanBands #MetalizerRecords #NewWaveOfTraditionalHeavyMetal #oldSchool #oldSchoolThrash
I understand that this week's #TuneTuesday is #RipAndTear, and so I present to you this ripping, tearing single 'Hammer, Knife, Spade' by Reutlingen, Germany's CASKET. They have a new LP coming out in January. Can't speak for the rest of the record yet, but FUCK, this song certainly rips and tears.
https://casketdeath.bandcamp.com/track/hammer-knife-spade
#NowPlaying #metal #DeathMetal #Germany #GermanMetal #GermanBands #Reutlingen #2026Albums #2026Records @brian @HailsandAles @swampgas @rtw @guffo @c0m4 @flockofnazguls
track by CASKET
#NowPlaying some fairly unhinged synthpunk via Schleswig, Germany's KLINT. Two strange songs here, the first one is cool but especially that second one -- hell yeah. 🔥 You know I sometimes love stupid, bonkers shit like this 😂
https://klint-haithabu.bandcamp.com/album/r-i-a
#punk #SynthPunk #GermanPunk #PunkRock #GermanBands #SchleswigGermany #Klint
2 track album
I so rarely have anything for #BlackMetalMonday, but I've been running across a lot of crust and d-beat punk with black metal vocals. And there's always war metal, too.
ZIEGE is from Germany and they're punk, but with the black metal vocals. Love when bands do this, and I really dig this one. Their debut EP 'Kadaverknast':
https://lckr.bandcamp.com/album/ziege-kadaverknast
#punk #dbeat #BlackMetal #crust #PunkRock #Ziege #Germany #GermanPunk #GermanBands
5 track album
This week's #GrindayFriday is the 'Smoked Out Gored Out Vol. 2' EP that Kaiserslautern, Germany's FINAL HEARTBEAT put out last month. Final Heartbeat is a nasty one-man grind project. The dude that does it changes the names of projects of his stuff often. And I end up really digging whatever he puts out. It's some seriously brutal, crazy, snare-poppin' shit.
https://finalheartbeat.bandcamp.com/album/smoked-out-gored-out-vol-2
#grind #grindcore #goregrind #crustcore #powerviolence #mince #metal #Germany #GermanBands #GermanMetal #Kaiserslautern #GermanGrind #GermanGrindcore @vanessawynn @brian @HailsandAles @guffo
6 track album
#NowPlaying this excellent split from earlier this year via Goodbye Boozy Records in Italy (one of my favorite labels). This one goes cross continental and features both Leipzig, Germany's AUTOBAHNS and Melbourne, Australia's ELVIS II. Four great raw, rip roaring tracks of garage rock/punk.
https://goodbyeboozydigital.bandcamp.com/album/autobahns-elvis-ii-split
#punk #PunkRock #GaragePunk #GarageRock #Leipzig #Germany #GermanBands #Melbourne #Australia #AustralianBands #GermanPunk #AustralianPunk #Autobahns #ElvisII
4 track album
Jake in the desert
The Nwothm