01. Veiled by Greed 05:28 02. The Siege Is On 05:06 03. What Is Worse Than The Truth 06:38 04. Soul On Auction 03:48 05. The Unholy Feast 04:49 06. Decadence Within 04:30 07. Empty 04:23 08. Wicker Man 04:43 09. Smack My Bitch Up 05:59

I’ve been aware of The More I See for sometime now. My friend lent me their first album and I found it difficult to get into and enjoy. This is a completely different case with the bands 3rd album ‘Tread the Darker Path’. With all thrash metal bands you expect amazing soaring solo’s, fast drum parts and this album fails to disappoint. The More I see have come out of their acorn shell and have developed into an oak tree of metal.
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01. Your Betrayal 04:51 02. Fever 03:57 03. The Last Fight 04:19 04. A Place Where You Belong 05:06 05. Pleasure And Pain 03:53 06. Alone 05:56 07. Breaking Out, Breaking Down 04:04 08. Bittersweet Memories 05:09 09. Dignity 04:29 10. Begging for Mercy 03:56 11. Pretty on the Outside 03:56

For those who say: Bullet for My Valentine. That’s not metal! I have only one thing to say. Screw you. Bullet for My Valentine’s 4th album ‘Fever’ hit the stores on the 26th of April. As a Bullet For My Valentine fan I have to say its an amazing step up from their last album Scream Aim Fire. Fever is back to Poison Era Mosh pit anthems and soaring guitar solo’s rather than all the messed up aggressive songs found on Scream Aim Fire. Bullet have definitely gone back to their pop metal roots, which is a shame as many people notice them through their amazing Scremo vocals on Classic tracks like ‘Tears dont Fall’ and ‘Suffocation under words of sorrow’.
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01. Peace on Earth 06:38 02. Living on the Outside 05:03 03. Los Angeloser 04:09 04. If I Can’t Have you 05:00 05. Love is Not Real 07:33 06. Like a Rose 03:16 07. Song of Madness 05:31 08. Did You Ever Love Somebody 04:01 09. California Isn’t Big Enough 04:43 10. Running Away from Me 03:54 11. Let’s Be in Love 05:11 12. If it Rains 03:56 13. Elvis in Vegas 06:01

Meat loaf has been giving us amazing albums since 1977. Some of these include: Bat out of hell, Dead ringer, Bad attitude, Welcome to the Neighborhood and Midnight at the Lost and Found. But now, straight from under the wings of the bat out of hell himself comes ‘Hang cool Teddy Bear’, Meat Loaf’s best sounding, most rocking album to date. With the catchy chorus’s from ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ combined with the musicianship elements from ‘Dead Ringer’. Hang Cool Teddy Bear is a must have for Meat Loaf fans who are triumphing the bands return.
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01. Satan Is Dead 04:15 02. Hell Knows 06:05 03. Rise! 04:31 04. The Pilot Of All Dreams 03:43 05. Magic and Technology 05:50 06. Calling Down The Rain 4:12 07. Caught In The Deadlights 04:43 08. I Walk Forever 04:50 09. Sleep In The Dark 04:46 10. Gone 07:08

I love Tarot. Ask anyone that knows me and they’ll tell you how much I love Marco Hietala. I even had the pleasure of interviewing him on our podcast.

Gravity of Light is Tarot’s eighth studio album and is to be released worldwide on the 8th of June. It’s first week of sales in Finland it charted at number two something that their previous album ‘Crows Fly Black’ never managed to do.

I really wanted to like this album but after listening to it almost solidly for a week now but I’m still not sure about it. There isn’t really anything wrong with the songs - they sound typically ‘Tarot’. If anything they remind me an awful lot of their earlier albums including Stigmata except gruffer and more developed than early Tarot.
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01. Farewell, Mona Lisa 05:23 02. Good Neighbor 02:30 03. Gold Teeth on a Bum 05:22 04. Crystal Morning 02:02 05. Endless Endings 02:32 06. Widower 06:23 07. Room Full of Eyes 04:15 08. Chinese Whispers 04:06 09. I Wouldn’t If You Didn’t 04:14 10. Parasitic Twins 04:39

Ah, Dillinger Escape Plan. Even the mere name of the New Jersey mathcore nutcases can inspire fear and awe. ‘Operation Paralysis’, the band’s fourth full-length album, confirms but one thing we had always suspected; if there’s one thing you can expect from Dillinger, it’s the unexpected.

I mean, there are the familiar Dillinger hallmarks in there; the baffling key signatures and utterly insane levels of technicality, the frankly intimidating breakneck thrash-attacks. But ‘Operation Paralysis’ sees Dillinger run much further with the melodic side of their music. Even in opener “Farewell, Mona Lisa”, after a couple of minutes of frankly mad musical terror, Greg Puciato is crooning something halfway comprehensible over a clean, picked guitar line. There’s a clean chorus weaving a lyrical stream through the madness, even when it returns with a vengeance.
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01. Sleep This Away 03:21 02. Trust No One 02:43 03. Dead Wrong 02:40 04. Doomed to Fail 03:15 05. Black Metal Bicycle 03:32 06. We Are the Undead 02:54 07. Scared to Death 03:22 08. Darkness 03:42 09. Snake Mountain 02:48 10. Make Amends 03:04 11. Fake Gold 02:52 12. Drive This Stake 02:41 13. Raised Right 04:46 14. Sabotage (Beastie Boys cover) 03:01

If I was going to sum up Cancer bats in one sentence it would say this: ‘Its the Past, Present and Future of Hardcore punk’. This can be seen on Cancer bats 3rd album Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones. Its all pure heaviness from its mind numbing distorted riffing from the guitar to quite a bit of screaming and whaling from Liam Cornier on Vocals. For those who are die hard Cancer bats fan’s it is definitely a necessity in your collection. But on the other hand for people who are just trying to get into the bats maybe Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones isn’t the best starting marker for you.
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01. Sex, Drugs & Heavy Metal 3:55 02. Heart Thief 3:42 03. Trust Your Instincts 3:07 04. Young, Dumb & Full of Fun 3:46 05. Dead Girl Walking 3:57 06. Down On You 3:33 07. Pussywhipped 4:35 08. Hunt You Down 3:43 09. Act Of God 4:17 10. Coming After You 3:12 11. Top Of The World 3:00 12. Sleaze Sells…But Who’s Buying? 2:08 13. Trick Or Mistreat 3:46 14. Sweet Transvestite 3:53

Ahh, that traditional call-to-arms that starts many a heavy metal song; shouting a one-liner about getting ready to go, turning up the sound, or how asses are about to be kicked. A select few are:

Venom - Bloodlust - ‘Come on, turn it up!’
Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right - ‘Kick it!’
Sweet - Ballroom Blitz - ‘Alright fellas, let’s go!’
Buckcherry - So Far - ‘Come on! Hurrrgh!’
Jackviper - Go Fuck Yourself - ‘Listen up, motherfucker!’
Steel Panther - The Shocker - ‘Are you ready, baby?’
Airbourne - Stand Up For Rock ‘N’ Roll - ‘Alright people, welcome to the show!’
Motorhead - Dead Men Tell No Tales - ‘This is it!’
John Loeffler - Pokerap - ‘Okay guys, we gotta rap some Pokemon… let’s get it on!’

And now we can add the opener from Spit Like This’ first full-length, ‘Sex, Drugs & Heavy Metal’ to the list, with it’s ‘Yeah, turn up the level!’ introduction. The band, named after an utterance from a spitting contest between vocalist Lord Zion and bassist Vikki Spit, get things off to a suitably rollicking, in-yer-face start on an album of which there is something very Rocky Horror about (it’s fitting that it closes with a rendition of ‘Sweet Transvestite’ from the film). There are loads of clichés and silly lines, but the charm and cheekiness of it still leaves a smile on the face.
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01. Ghost 03:34 02. Crucify the Dead 04:04 03. Beautiful Dangerous 04:35 04. Back from Cali 03:35 05. Promise 04:41 06. By the Sword 04:50 07. Gotten 05:05 08. Doctor Alibi 03:07 09. Watch This 03:46 10. I Hold On 04:10 11. Nothing to Say 05:27 12. Starlight 05:35 13. Saint Is A Sinner Too 03:28 14. We’re All Gonna Die 04:30

Slash is considered to be one of the most talented guitarists in the world. From ‘Guns n Roses’ to ‘Velvet Revolver’, he has blown our minds with amazing songs like: Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise city and Slither. But now from the pits of hell and with a host of famous musicians coming out of his ass we get Slash’s awesome new gut busting Solo project called….. ‘SLASH’. This self titled stormer of an album features performances from Ozzy Osbourne to Fergie, Kid Rock to Iggy Pop and M. Shadows to Lemmy.
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01. Raised on Rock 03:58 02. Sting in the Tail 03:12 03. Slave Me 02:45 04. The Good Die Young 05:14 05. No Limit 03:22 06. Lorelei 04:32 07. Turn You On 04:23 08. Sly 05:16 09. Spirit of Rock 03:42 10. The Best is Yet to Come 04:32

The power-metal junkie’s darkest fear has been confirmed; Scorpions are retiring. After one last album, they’re going to bow out to the world with an epic tour spanning five continents. What is power metal going to be, without Scorpions?! I’m not dealing with this well, I’m still early in the grieving process…so as an opening thought, I’m going to quote one of the lines Scorpions use to close the album. “How can I live without you?/ You’re such a part of me/ and you’ve always been the one/ keeping me forever young/ …and the best is yet to come”.

I was actually a little afraid going into this album, because I knew, I knew it was to be their last - and I don’t want Scorpions to retire. Maybe it’s just me - it took me two days to pluck up the courage to watch the last episode of ‘The Wire’, because I just didn’t want it to be over…well, I got the same feeling with this album right before I hit ‘Play’. “Raised on Rock” is the perfect song to dispel such negative thoughts, though - regardless on your feelings for Scorpions or their demise, I dare you to be a heavy metal fan and listen to that opening riff without cracking a big cheesy grin.
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01. Courage Today, Victory Tomorrow! 03:55 02. So it Begins 03:24 03. As Yggdrasil Trembles 04:52 04. Wir Kapitulieren Niemals 03:26 05. This Time We Fight 03:02 06. Master Of The Ancient Art 03:48 07. Cheif Einherjar 03:42 08. Return Fire 04:04 09. Far Beyond Hell 03:18 10. Dead to Me 02:47 11. Yahweh and the Chosen Ones 03:52 12. Cannibalistic Epidemic Continues 04:59 13. Evil Dead 02:32

‘Viking Metal’. There seems to be a lot of that going around, nowadays. Unleashed are generally looked at as having been one of the key Viking Metal bands since the early 90s, but I’d like to make a point even at this early stage - what the hell is Viking Metal?! Basically, it appears to be death metal, or melodic death metal, that just happens to be about Vikings. So…it’s bands who make a career out of a single lyrical theme. Shouldn’t that get old, after a while?

Now, I find Vikings and Norse mythology as interesting (yeah, alright, read that as “cool”) as the next man, providing he’s clutching an axe and in possession of a truly epic beard. It seems like there should be a “but” here, but honestly, there’s not… Despite the question I posed literally seconds ago, don’t care if the whole Viking thing is getting old for you - I still fucking love it. And as a result, in my book, ‘As Yggdrasil Trembles’ is by extension also really cool.

Thankfully, the music also backs me up on that one. Yeah, it is just death metal that happens to be about Vikings, but it’s really rather good death metal. That happens to be about Vikings. The album for the most part strikes a decent balance between technical execution and something called “song writing” which results in a group of songs that are very heavy, but not overly fast-paced or intricate; at times, you’d actually call it catchy. There’s a solid, sort of bluesy mid-tempo heartbeat to the album you can tap your foot and nod your head to, and even growl along to the vocals if you can make them out. Basically, Vikings haven’t sounded this cool since Amon Amarth.
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