NILEAt The Gate Of Sethu Nuclear Blast (2012)Rating: 8/10 Death metal’s a funny old game, as somebody may have said somewhere, and especially in the 21st century it is an altogether different beast to what spewed out of the Floridian everglades in the late 80s. Whereas the majority of the veteran death metal bands are […]

GOJIRAL’Enfant Sauvage Roadrunner (2012)Rating: 9/10 While I have seen Gojira live a few times and have heard bits and pieces of their prior albums, L’Enfant Sauvage is my first experience with a complete Gojira thought. And let me tell you, these French guys have a lot of thoughts! This album is a giant wall of […]

MANTASDeath By Metal Relapse (2012)Rating: 8/10 Hard to believe that this stuffy, demo quality set of recordings from the 80s were spewed from the mind of one Chuck Schuldiner, the man who would go on to become a death metal legend and who sadly passed away in 2001. Mantas were a raw and primeval force […]

WHITECHAPELWhitechapel Metal Blade (2012)Rating: 5/10 Whitechapel are one of those bands that, if you caught them early on, you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard them. This Is Exile (2008), to this day, is one of the scariest albums I have ever heard and since then the […]

SPINESHANKAnger Denial Acceptance Century Media (2012)Rating: 8.5/10 After a six-year hiatus, and even longer since their last album (2003’s Self-Destructive Pattern), Los Angeles-based Spineshank return with the appropriately titled Anger Denial Acceptance, a coming of age album if there ever was one. When last we left the gents they were struggling to find their place […]

THE OTHERThe Devils You Know Steamhammer (2012)Rating: 7.5/10 German horror punkers The Other (named after the 1972 horror movie of the same name presumably) started out as a Misfits cover band but quickly evolved into the German version of the band. The Devils You Know is the band’s second release for Steamhammer / SPV Records […]

IHSAHNEremita Candlelight (2012)Rating: 7.5/10 Ihsahn is likely still best known for his work in seminal Norwegian black metal band Emperor. Much like Devin Townsend coming out from the shadows of Strapping Young Lad, so has Ihsahn taken a long journey to free himself from the constraints of the work he did as a young adult. […]

LITA FORDLiving Like A Runaway Steamhammer (2012)Rating: 9/10 After a massive false start with Wicked Wonderland (2009), Lita Ford finds herself freshly divorced, pissed off and ready to prove that she still has her chops with Living Like A Runaway. And that she does. In spades as a matter of fact. The album kicks off […]

METAL BLADE – 1982-2012 (30 Years Of Metal) Anthony Morgan June 2012 Brian Slagel Pic: Stephanie Cabral Born February 14th, 1961, Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel grew up in Woodland Hills, California listening to 70s hard rock mainstays like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Kiss, AC/DC, UFO, and many others. Brian wrote for various heavy […]

MNEMIC – Transcension Anthony Morgan June 2012 Mnemic (l-r): Victor-Ray Salomonsen Ronander, Brian Larsen, Guillaume Bideau, Simone Bertozzi and Mircea Gabriel Eftemie Bassist Tomas ‘Obeast’ Koefod announced his departure from Danish metallers Mnemic on April 13th, 2011, citing musical differences. Tomas had supplied bass parts to Mnemic full-lengths two through to four, namely October 2004’s […]