01. Whom the Gods Love Die Young 04:47 02. Battle Within 03:34 03. Eyes of a Stranger 04:01 04. The Seventh Sign 05:02 05. Raise Your Hands 04:37 06. Rock City 03:58 07. Sin City Lights 04:51 08: Carved in Stone 04:43 09. Metal Slave 04:20 10. Sinners and Saints 03:42

Welcome to the world of Mean Streak, the latest crusaders in the battle to defend the faith of heavy metal. The kind of largely imaginary battle which involves leather armour and large axes, obviously. They were formed in Sweden (where else?) in 2006 entirely as a studio project by Peter Andersson, apparently in order “to make music straight from the heart”…and “the early/mid ’80s”. Andersson started out alone, recording all of the guitar and bass parts and even programming the drum lines before he had recruited another band member. He added singer Andy LaGuerin and drummer Jonas Kallsback to fill out parts in the studio before the idea of getting a record deal or even playing live even occurred; guitarists David Andersson and Patrik Gardberg were only recruited when a local club heard their demos and requested a live performance. This led to interest from a local record label, and all of a sudden Mean Streak had walked into a recording contract.

The first fruit of this deal is the album “Metal Slave”; the name tells you quite a lot of what you need to know about Mean Streak. They are Slaves to Metal. Indeed, they are so dedicated to their particular craft (their Myspace defines it as “Metal/Metal/Metal”) that every song is a microcosm of the greater whole; essentially, you always know what you’re going to get. Right from opening track ‘Whom the Gods Love Die Young’, there are no surprises here; every song comprises a selection of thundering riffs, double-bass drumming, wailing solos, and soaring vocal melodies. We’re firmly in the Manowar/Grand Magus/hooray-for-epic-metal vein here.
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01. White Willow 06:28 02. Down Memory Lane 03:58 03. Lakeside Park 05:36 04. 3rd Type 07:23 05. Near Death Experience 01:46 06. Lost Ghost 06:16 07. Dragged 06:04 08. O.B.E 03:59 09. Tomorrow 08:07

I’m going to have to make clear that right from the start I have something of a bone to pick with Spheric Universe Experience; any astrophysicist worth his salt knows the universe is saddle-shaped. Not spherical. If Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein are down with that, sorry, I’m not letting a French prog band sway me.

Anyway, if we can somehow pretend that wound isn’t fatal, we could move on to the music…”Unreal” is the third album from the Nice-based five-piece, and is every bit as slick, assured and polished as you’d expect from a band who have been honing their craft for a decade. Despite recruiting a new drummer, Christope Briande, since the recording of 2007’s ‘Anima’, they appear as tight and confident as ever.
The band list their greatest influences and Dream Theater and Symphony X, and this is immediately apparent on opening track ‘White Willow’, as guitarist Vince Benaim doing his best to channel John Petrucci and a range of weird keyboard effects are the order of the day. That said, the giants of prog-metal are by no means bad role models, and subsequent tracks show the band breaking out and doing more of their own thing, and doing it well.
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01. Twisted Coil 11:43 02. Leland Street 08:03 03. Green and Cream 10:32 04. Season of Denial 10:22 05. Over 06:11 06. Perfection 10:46

“it won’t be Ayreon, that’s for sure.” - Arjen Lucassen

The above quote was given during our interview with Arjen Lucassen in April 2008 when work had just begun on Guilt Machine. Arjen has proven true to his word.

If you are expecting another Ayreon epic telling the sprawling tale of knights and wizards, space travel and aliens then this album is not for you. This album is a journey through sorrow, despair and guilt; a vast thematic and musical departure from the Ayreon project. This is not to say that if you enjoyed Arjen’s previous works you will not enjoy Guilt Machine, but there will no doubt be a few disappointed Ayreon fans out there.
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Photos from the Amon Amarth show at Northumbria University on October 29th. Last two photos are of Entombed who supported the Amon UK tour. Photos by Victoria Baker.

The Haunted and recently reformed At The Gates guitarist Anders Björler talks to Gordy in Glasgow about his inspiration, favorite riffs and what its like being a semi professional musician.

Swedish thrash metallers The Haunted released their last album ‘Versus’ in September of 2008 and are about to visit the UK in support of Slayer. Our interview with Anders was conducted before The Haunted attended this years Bloodstock festival.
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 Episode 44 - Anders Björler from The Haunted and At The Gates [69:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was flicking through some god-awful Metro-style paper on the Chicago L-Train when the night’s entertainment listings caught my eye. Bob Dylan and his band were playing some fancy downtown club, and perennial stoner-rock campaigners Fu Manchu were playing the ‘Double Door’ out in North Chi’. Needless to say, the choice was obvious.

Admittedly, Fu Manchu could be accused of getting increasingly commercial, over-produced and frankly uninspired in their studio output in recent years - in fact they (arguably) haven’t produced a truly solid album since 2001’s ‘California Crossing - but it has never been in doubt that they are an absolutely cracking live band. I get the feeling that with the generation of bands emerging today, going out on tour just isn’t as important as it should be; everyone just gets their single out on iTunes and headlines a minor stage at Download three weeks later. After all, who really wants to live out of a van, surviving on cheap beer and gas station food? Well, Fu Manchu, that’s who. They’re the ultimate road warriors, having spent their entire lives in an epic circuit of the USA (and when we occasionally get lucky, Europe), only taking the odd month off to churn out a new album to tour for. The latest excuse is their 10th album, ‘Signs of Infinite Power’, out earlier this month, and the Fu chose to hit Chicago not only on a saturday night, but on Halloween.
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