HardAlbumReview

HardAlbumReview

Interview with Bismarck (Doom, Norway)

January 7, 2021 hardalbumreview

A promising stoner doom outfit from Bergen, Norway, Bismarck is a band that could garner many fans with their sophomore studio album, Oneiromancer, released earlier last year on April 17th. It was met with mostly positive reviews and together with their strong, positive presence across various social media, promoted the band further. I got the chance to know them via their Instagram page and could get the chance to sit them for an interview. Questions were answered by the whole band and here is what we discussed. […]

HardAlbumReview

Microdose: Psychotic Waltz, Vandan Plas, Vulkan & Haken

December 30, 2020 hardalbumreview

It took more than two decades (24 years to be precise) for these American proggers to get back and release their fifth studio album! Many things have changed since then and so has the whole prog scene but what Psychotic Waltz offers is relatable to modern prog listeners as well as the older fans of the band. The God-Shaped Void is an album that only bands of high caliber and great mastery can create. The music so resembles the common sound of past years in the genre with a more modern approach and quality, but that is what I like much more to this “modern prog” sound which has garnered many fans. The guitar solos, and hefty riffs as well, team up with Devon Graves’ vocals to make the band’s ultimate mix. It’s very interesting that the longest track Sisters of the Dawn is in fact my highlight. It is an epic narrative with all aspects of music in their finest place. It will probably be my choice of prog this year. […]

HardAlbumReview

Microdose: Smith & Myers, Lunatic Soul & Bush

December 30, 2020 hardalbumreview

Verdict: Shinedown duo returns with the second leg of their paired album and again with an assortment of covers of some of the most iconic songs of the history of rock and roll (Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell, REM’s Losing My Religion, Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger), some new hits (Bad Guy by Billie Eilish) as well as several originals which mix so well together like peanut butter and jelly. […]

2020 Albums

Album Review: Draconian – “Under a Godless Veil” 9.5/10 (Doom Metal)

November 6, 2020 zaxrecordreviews

This year has been a flourishing year for doom metal as several of the Doom giants have released their masterpieces, among whom we can name My Dying Bride’s The Ghost of Orion, Paradise Lost’s Obsidian and Pallbearer’s Forgotten Days. But above all, I had been looking forward to listening to Draconian. They have always been an inimitable band to me and their signature gothic doom death metal sound has enthralled me ever since I discovered them more than a decade ago with their album Turning Season Within (2008), where I listened to “When I Wake” until my ears, as well as my heart, started to bleed. Album after album, they have stamped themselves upon the massive corpus of Doom Metal. […]

2020 Albums

Album Review: Enslaved – “Utgard” 6.7/10 (Black Metal)

October 10, 2020 hardalbumreview

Among all the albums I was looking forward to, Enslaved’s new release was one of the very top. I have profusely enjoyed their works, old and new alike, well mostly the older ones and maybe E excluded, but Utgard, in short, was far from satisfactory and way below my expectations bar. Don’t get me wrong. Utgard IS Enslaved, but it is not the Enslaved we, the old fans, want. They have kept an overall tinge of their true Norwegian Progressive Black Metal nature, but this new sound is so distorted and contorted that makes you question the band’s current trajectory. […]

2020 Albums

Album Review: Gloom – “Awaken” 8.1/10 (Gothic Metal)

September 23, 2020 hardalbumreview

The twenty-year-old Gothic band from Slovakia, Gloom, has recently published their third studio album titled Awaken. I certainly hope that with this album, they begin to awaken their artistic instincts and produce more music in the future. It is true that gothic music has long passed its 80s and 90s prime, and been largely replaced by similar genres of symphonic rock or symphonic metal, bands like Gloom still capture the essence of this dramatically melancholic and lovelorn style and keep the candle lit in this darkness. […]

2020 Albums

Album Review: Onslaught – Generation Antichrist 9 (Thrash Metal)

August 26, 2020 hardalbumreview

Thrash metal in the UK may not be nearly as well-known and popular as its American, German or even Canadian counterparts. You may count on one hand the thrash bands hailing from the UK who were actually able to garner global recognition and establish a solid fanbase. Nevertheless, they also had their own “Big 4 of Thrash Metal” with Acid Reign, Xentrix, Sabbat and Onslaught back in mid-1980s, a tad bit later than other widespread scenes. But much of the bands’ vigor and stamina burnt out quite shortly after their formation and some underwent long-term hiatuses (Xentrix 1997-2013, Decimator 1993-2020, Acid Reign 1991-2015) and some others disbanded altogether (Sabbat 1991). But luckily, in 2000s, a second wave of British thrashers came to life with such bands as Evile, Savage Messiah, Divine Chaos, and Gama Bomb to spearhead this movement alongside some veterans like Onslaught and with others like Eradikator or Reign of Fury to follow and make this genre more prominent in the island. […]