01. For Me 05:38 02. Burn Black Light 04:59 03. Reaching Down 06:20 04. What I Breathe 04:49 05. Forgiveness 03:38 06. Don’t Falter 06:17 07. Then Fall 05:39 08. Into The Ocean 03:14

A cursory squint at their Myspace reveals that Order of Voices state their intention to exist somewhere in the region of the cutting edge of British alternative rock. At present, it’s true that this edge isn’t particularly sharp, and has seen far more cutting days, but Order of Voices are seeking to change this; an ambitious goal, to say the least, but ambition is one of the band’s strong suits.

What Order of Voices provide is an epic sound, layer upon layer of melodies. They specialise in having a melodic chorus soaring over heavily distorted mid-tempo riffs. It’s very slickly performed and produced, the various guitar melodies slot together nicely and the drums keep everything ticking over, and the vocals are near enough pitch-perfect. Can you feel me building to a “but“? Because I am…
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01. Sexual Chocolate 01:24 02. A Breaking Dawn 04:21 03. Six Weeks 02:53 04. Remember Who Put You There

‘Remember who put you there’ contains influences down the lines of: Metallica, Clutch, Snot and Down. The heavy metal crusaders from Portsmouth may have just been able to match them in producing an great album consisting of 4 amazing tunes. It’s been one of my favorite albums of 2010 so far which hasn’t been from a band on a major label. One album, four tunes, one hell of a time.
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01. Born to Kill 03:39 02. No Way but the Hard Way 03:34 03. Blonde, Bad and Beautiful 03:49 04. Raise the Flag 03:32 05. Bottom of the Well 04:29 06. White Line Fever 03:10 07. It Ain’t Over til it’s Over 03:17 08. Steel Town 03:08 09. Chewin’ the Fat 03:11 10. Armed and Dangerous 04:12 11. Overdrive 03:22 12. Back on the Bottle 03:50

Airbourne are just one of these bands that go out on the circuit to have fun and cause mayhem. Their first album ‘Runnin’ Wild’ was from start to finish one of the best rock albums I have heard in a long time. But then in 2010 the world was hit with another party anthem, fun loving album by Airbourne. Entitled ‘No Guts, No Glory’ its 13 amazing songs and best with a couple of pints of beer at which point anything can happen.
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01. The Edge of Darkness 04:33 02. Hunter and Prey 04:33 03. Into the Light 04:24 04. The Beggar’s Last Dime 05:43 05. Empty Hollow 06:20 06. Strings to a Web 03:54 07. Fatal Grace 01:21 08. Connected 02:54 09. Empty Hollow 01:51 10. Saviour of the Dead 05:45 11. Hellgirl 04:13 12. Purified 03:48 13. Through Ages 02:06 14. Tomorrow Never Comes 03:41

Some of you may have noticed that the song ‘Into the Light’ was played in the 49th episode of the podcast. This song is in fact the first single of Rage’s brilliant new album ‘Strings to a web’.

Strings to a Web is astonishingly Rage’s 20th album and by God they still know how to write an amazing album. The album is made up of high soaring guitar solo’s, wild moving synthesized keyboard parts and a Power Metal style of sing along choruses. Everything you could possibly want and more from a power/symphony metal record can be found on this album.
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01. Flaming Flowers (Send in the Clowns) 03:10 02. I See 03:01 03. My Canvas, My Skin 03:18 04. Ride On 02:53 05. Until You Find Me 04:15 06. Satellite Children 03:33 07. Bleeding 03:10 08. Origin 04:03 09. Stranger In You 03:01 10. You Get So Alone 03:36 11. MIA 05:28

‘Soul for Sale’ doesn’t present what I would call the greatest first impression. Finnish “rock and roll machine” Soulcage choose to open their debut album with “Flaming Flowers (Send in the Clowns)”, and indeed a sort of group-vocal harmony cry of “Send in the clowns!”. For one enormously cringe-induced moment, I was worried that they really had. I’m not averse to a slice of cheese with my metal, but “Flaming Flowers” is…it‘s…it‘s not even good cheese. Something like old-school Sonata Arctica or Rhapsody, that’s good cheese; an aged camembert, perhaps. By comparison, this is more like that hellish cheese-in-a-can you get in America. It’s Cheez Whiz.

However, with your expectations firmly fixed at absolute zero, Soulcage cunningly flip the script and proceed to actually be quite good. From the piano harmony leading “I See”, things proceed in an altogether more pleasing fashion; “My Canvas My Skin” is actually a very good song, despite the lyrics verging back toward “processed dairy product” territory - you can certainly tell why it was released as the album’s first single. Soulcage exhibit musicianship and an ear for both riffs and harmonies that saves this album and indeed their music from the predictable tedium of the lyrics.
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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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