The only possible positive side to this miserable covid affair, for the past eighteen months or so, was the ample time musicians had to amp up their game and focus on their newer studio creations. The result: a slew of great rock & metal music is being unleashed upon mankind! My lust for melodic music has always carried over into the most extreme of the realm. I'm a strong believer that complex melodies will once again help promulgate rock/metal into the music's mainstream. O

U.S. Heavy Metal Warriors IRONFLAME will release their third full-length album, Blood Red Victory, February 7th 2020, on Divebomb Records (CD) and Metalworld Switzerland (vinyl and cassette). Recorded, performed, mixed, and mastered by D'Cagna (with guitar leads by Lukas and Scott) at Sacred Sound in Martins Ferry, OH from December 2018 through February 2019, Blood Red Victory finds IRONFLAME once again brandishing their trademark approach to soaring, triumphant heavy me

“Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it’s not clear that he ever really did.” Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Band: Dialith Title: Extinction Six Label: self-release Country: USA Release date: August 16, 2019 Format reviewed: (high rate) mp3 promo Dialith formed in 2015 in Danbury, CT, and debuted on record in 2017, via a three tracks EP titled "Through Stone". On August 16th the band wi

Recommended Underground Titles - Part II "If heavy metal bands ruled the world, we'd be a lot better off." Bruce Dickinson Heavy metal, in its purest of forms, was rather dimmed out in the most recent years, by the amount of releases from its more extreme and darker relatives. Fortunately, power metal has proudly carried the torch in the meantime. Furthermore, the last couple of years saw an increase in quality releases from newcomers and veterans alike, fact that lead me to

Recommended Underground Titles - Part I "Heavy metal is always going to be there. At its core, it's all about a primitive connection we all need to keep in our lives." Rob Halford Well known permutations in heavy metal occurred at every evolution step of the genre. As the timeline moved up, the influences became less traditional: newer acts finding influences not only from other metal styles, but also from outside the rock universe. Perhaps not an entirely new trend, but cert

Artist/band: JUPITER Title: Zeus ~Legends Never Die~ Label: Zeno Records Japan (POCS-1778) Release date: April 3, 2019 JUPITER is a Japanese visual kei symphonic metal band, formed in 2013 by four of the five members of Versailles. After several personnel changes, guitarists HIZAKI and TERU remain the only original members, with drummer DAISUKE and vocalist KUZE completing the current lineup. 『Zeus ~Legends Never Die~ 』is JUPITER's third full-length studio album, and perhaps

Band: Iron Fire Title: Beyond The Void Label: Crime Records Country: Denmark Release date: March 8, 2019 Format reviewed: high-rate mp3 promo There is a fine line between power metal and traditional heavy metal. Sitting at the crossroad between epic heavy metal and speed metal, power metal saw a large number of permutations throughout the years. The Danes IRON FIRE have been crossing that line, both ways, numerous times since inception, over twenty years ago. The best selling

EMIL'S DEEP UNDERGROUND RECOS (part VI) As I was gathering information on all releases scouted on Bandcamp in the last two to three months, I've realized that the number of albums, or EPs, rightfully available for recommendations, was far greater than in the recent past. There were so many quality underground releases, across the genres, that a singular article, representing only ten titles wasn't gonna cut it! Not only there was enough quality for a standard edition of Strai