In the vein of Testament american metal-veterans Death Angel continue thier mission to spread the music of pure thrash metal. On their 7th album they deliver aggressive and heavy riffs that's instoppable. Like always this band lack something. It's not impressive enough to play fast and aggressive, there also has to be good songs and they just don't manage that part good enough. Here and there they have it for a short while but 10 long songs of the same chaotic bulldozer-music is just too much. They have fallen in the same trap as Slayer and the music is obviously partly inspired by them, escpecially the vocals. Great cover and good production.

1)Left for dead (6,5)

2)Son of the morning (6,5)

3)Fallen (6,5)

4)The dream calls for blood (6,5)

5)Succubus (5,0)

6)Execution/Don't save me (5,5)

7)Caster of shame (6,0)

8)Detonate (5,0)

9)Empty (5,0)

10)Territorial instinct/Bloodlust (6,5)

Score: 5,90

Mark Osegueda-vocals

Rob Cavestany-guitars

Ted Aguilar-guitars

Damien Sisson-bass

Will Carol-drums

The canadian heavy-party-rockers released their 6th album and it sounds... Danko Jones! Heavy and furious tunes mixed with slower ones that are seldom very good... They should stick to their partyanthems but I suppose they need to vary their songs a bit? I hear a bit of Thin Lizzy here and there and that's NO bad thing! Danko Jones still rocks and this album is worth having, as all their albums, but they don't create new ground, but who needs it when it's this good? Some songs are not as good so the final score gets a bit low.

Danko Jones drummer Dan Cornelius quit prior to this album. He was reaplaced by american Atom Willard who plays on this album and does it with pondus! He played with Rocket From The Crypt between 1990 and 2000, with The Special Goodness, Offspring and Angels & The Airwaves from 2005. In 2009 he joined Social Distortion and in 2011 Danko Jones, so this guy can play fast drums, that's for sure.

1)Terrified (7,5)

2)Get up (8,0)

3)Legs (7,5)

4)Just a beautiful day (7,5)

5)I don't care (8,0)

6)You wear me down (6,0)

7)Type of girl (7,0)

8)Always away (6,0)

9)Conceited (8,0)

10)Don't do this (7,0)

11)The masochist (6,5)

12)I believed in god (8,5)

13)I believed in god (reprise) (-)

Score: 7,29

Danko Jones-vocals and guitars

JC-bass

Atom (Adam David Willard)-drums (b.1973)

What a rise back to form! The 2 years that have gone since "The Visitation" have made wonders with Magnum (or should I say, to songwriter Tony Clarkin?) and the deliver some of the best music since the end of the 1980's! Some songs are not more than okey but the good songs are really good, they live much more than on previous albums in the 2000's and the choruses are just great and melodies superb. Also the bit of progressiveness that are still here and there in Magnum's music is really good on this album. A should-have album!

1)All the dreamers (8,5) Majestic and big 7-minute song after nice intro. A really good and pompous hardrocksong. Magnum is back!

2)Blood red laughter (8,0) Melodic and heavy rocker. Good stuff.

3)Didn't like you anyway (7,5) Variated and melodic in typical Magnum-style.

4)On the 13thd day (8,5) Sooo so good! A killer refrain!

5)So let it rain (7,0) An ordinary Magnum melodic rock song.

6)Dance of the black tattoo (7,5) Heavy mainriff.

7)Shadow town (7,0)

8)Putting things in place (8,0) A beautiful ballad.

9)Broken promises (9,0) A really damn good hardrocksong!

10)See how they fall (8,0)

11)From within (7,0)

Score: 7,82

Bob Catley-vocals (b.1947)

Tony Clarkin-guitars (b.1946)

Al Barrow-bass (b.1968)

Harry James-drums (b.1960)

Mark Stanway-keyboards (b.1954)

Another album, their 15th, by Birmingham melodic rockers Magnum. They have kept to their symphonic style since the end of the 1970's and they won't change now! This album continues their style that they have crafted since their 2002 comeback-album "Breath Of Life". It's not very interesting, I've heard this all before too many times, but as it's always with this band; it's never bad! Not an album I would buy or listen too very often. Same personell as the last album and it reached nr. 55 in the UK, nr. 19 in Germany and nr. 28 on the Swedish charts.

1)Black skies (7,0)

2)Doors to nowhere (7,5)

3)The visitation (6,0)

4)Wild angels (6,0)

5)Spin like a wheel (8,0)

6)The last frontier (5,0)

7)Freedom day (7,0)

8)Mother nature's final dance (6,5)

9)Midnight kings (6,5)

10)Tonight's the night (6,0)

Score: 6,55

Bob Catley-vocals (b.1947)

Tony Clarkin-guitars (b.1946)

Al Barrow-bass (b.1968)

Harry James-drums (b.1960)

Mark Stanway-keyboards (b.1954)

I really like the cover of Smashing Pumpkins' 9th studioalbum! The music is progressive hardrock/rock/pop with Billy Corgan's unique nasal vocals making much of the melody in the songs. Good first 4 songs but then it looses tempo and after 9 songs I have fallen asleep. There are no bad songs though, it's just too soft to keep my interest up. It's very spacy and big sounding and I really like the incredibly intense drumwork on the whole album.

1)Quasar (7,0) Progressive and chaotic song with wild weird drumming. Cool.

2)Panopticon (7,0) Sames as above but more melodic.

3)The celestials (8,0) First melodic acoustic and then a very good hardrock song.

4)Violete rays (7,0) Nice melodic piece.

5)My love is winter (7,0) Same as above.

6)One diamond, one heart (5,5) Synth-beat with spacy guitars.

7)Pinwheels (5,0) First a long pling-plong-play with synhesizers and then acoustic progressive pop.

8)Oceania (6,0) 9 minutes of halfboring but halfcharming progressive popmusic.

9)Pale horse (5,5)

10)The chimera (7,5)

11)Glissandra (6,5)

12)Inkless (6,5)

13)Wildflower (4,0)

Score: 6,35

Billy Corgan-vocals, guitars and keyboards (b.1967)

Jeff Schroeder-guitars (b.1974)

Nicole Fiorentino-bass (b.1979)

Mike Byrne-drums (b.1990)

The 23rd album from the mighty Heep! This time they have really made an fantastic album that's full of vitality and life and really good melodic, hardrocking, progressive and sheer quality music that I enjoy every single second of! The only negative is that many of the songs tend to get too repetitive, making me feel that this album could have been even better than it already is. Uriah Heep have during the last 20 years or so done nothing but looking back at their 1970's roots and developing it into the new age with better sound, and this album is not any exception, and I am glad for that since they are among my favorite bands of all time. The organ that is the base in their music is much present here in a delicious way.

Sadly it's the last album to feature longtime member Trevor Bolder who died in 2013. I rembmber seeing Trevor with his long hair covering his face all the time during concert not having much of public contact at all but as important for the band anyhow after many years in the band. It's a great end for Bolder in Uriah Heep to sing in the song "Lost" on his last album.

This is an absolut must-have-album!!

1)Nail on the head (8,0)

2)I can see you (8,5)

3)Into the wild (9,0)

4)Money talk (7,0)

5)I'm ready (8,5)

6)Trail of diamonds (8,5)

7)Southern star (8,0)

8)Believe (8,5)

9)Lost (8,0)

10)T-bird angel (8,0)

11)Kiss of freedom (8,5)

Score: 8,23

Bernie Shaw-vocals (b.1956)

Mick Box-guitars (b.1947)

Trevor Bolder-bass (1950-2013)

Russel Gilbrook-drums (b.1964)

Phil Lanzon-keyboards (b.1950)

On Testament's 11th album they returned to their thrashroots of the 80's and 90's but updated it to a headcrushing good production of 2012. Powerful heavy and intense thrash with strong vocals. Some tracks are pretty good but as always the case with this band they lack something and the songs are all built up in the same way and I loose some of my interest after 4 tracks. Almost all tracks has the same tempo which is enervating and it's too much of the crushing heaviness all the time. They should pause sometimes to play calmer parts to make the tracks better and more variated. But "Cold embrace" is almost a ballad for 3 minutes and they vary the tempos in the songs quite a lot so it's not bad at all, I just mean that they could have done it even better. If I listen to the tracks one at a time they are really good. The whole album is just too much.

Testament's drummer Paul Bostaph were replaced by former Testament-drummer (the 1997 Demonic album) Gene Hoglan due to Bostaph getting some kind of injury. 

1)Rise up (8,5)

2)Native blood (8,0)

3)Dark roots of the earth (8,0)

4)True american hate (8,0)

5)A day in the death (7,5)

6)Cold embrace (7,0)

7)Man kills mankind (8,0)

8)Throne of thorns (6,5)

9)Last stand for independence (7,5)

Score: 7,67

Chuck Billy-vocals (b.1962)

Alex Skolnick-guitars (b.1968)

Eric Peterson-guitars (b.1964)

Greg Christian-bass (b.1966)

Gene Hoglan-drums (b.1967)

Powerful thrash metal right from the Bay Area in the 1980's? Could have been, but this is a new band of 19-20 year-olds from Norway and the year is 2012! Even the production is very 80's Testament-amateurish. I like the long instrumental parts not only bacause of the singers somewhat annoying but fitting scream-vocals. Heathen, Metallica and Vio-Lence are bands to compare Tantara with. They really know how to thrash like mad with full speed and changing tempos. I don't understand why they start with the least good song on the album. Fortunately it gets much much better than the titlesong that opens the album and they have long songs with much variation.

The band was formed in 2009 and they released and EP in 2010 called Human Mutation, by then they had recruited danish Bjarke Haakenstad but he left the band later and was replaced by Max Warnby from Skövde, Sweden who was in the band when they recorded the debutalbum, but he left in 2013 to focus on artwork.

This album is produced by Flemming Rasmussen of Metallica fame. A good name to start out their recording career with!

This is one of the best thrashalbums I have ever heard, buy it!

1)Based on evil (6,0)

2)Mass murder (8,0)

3)Neglible souls (8,5) 

4)The dabate (8,0)

5)Human mutation (8,0)

6)Trapped in bodies (8,0)

7)Prejudice of violence (8,5)

8)The killing of mother earth (8,5)

Score: 7,94

Fredrik Bjerkö-vocals and guitars

Per Semb-guitars

Max Warnby-bass

Stian Sannerud-drums