PIAS

Hammerfall has had a steady and rather successful career; remaining one of the most consistent forerunners of the power metal scene. Twenty-one years and two hiatuses since their formation, (r)Evolution, the band’s ninth full length album, shows Hammerfall returning to their roots. Consistency was a part of strong part of Hammerfall’s repertoire until their last album, Infected, which saw the band completely shifting from their unwavering traditional power metal sound into darker territories via choppy song structures and plodding rhythms.

If there’s one thing you cannot  accuse Grave Digger of, it’s of being unproductive.  Since their debut in 1984, and despite a six year hiatus that spanned from 1987 to 1993, they’ve so far released 16 full albums if you include the 1987 ‘Stronger Than Ever’ album which was released under the name Digger.  So this, my friends, makes ‘Return Of The Reaper’ their 17^th studio album. And between these studio albums, they’ve also released EP’s, compilations, live albums….

Origins is the sixth full length album by Swiss top-act Eluveitie, a band that does not necessarily needs any introduction. This newest album, available two years after the highly acclaimed Helvetios, was recorded at New Sound Studio with producer Tommy Vetterli (of Kreator- & Coroner-fame) with some new members.

All-female band Mortals (Caryn Havlik, Elizabeth Cline and Lesley Wolf) hail from Brooklyn (United States of the New World). Some of you might remember the highly acclaimed Death Ritual EP, self-released in 2012. Now they return with their first full length album for Relapse Records, Cursed To See The Future, which lasts for forty eight minutes. That’s nice, for it consists of six songs only.

Ted Nugent, American to the bitter end, the personification of the redneck, conservative to the bone, an advocate of hunting and gun ownership, anti drugs and anti alcohol, strictly catholic…  Much can be said about this man, besides his musical skills. He became known as lead guitarist of the Amboy Dukes in the sixties, before embarking on a solo career in the seventies.

Rage have been in the business for thirty years now, and have so far released 21 album, so what better way to celebrate this than to delve in their history.  But instead of re-recording existing songs, they chose tomake an album with previously unreleased songs, some as yet unheard of version of existing songs, and some demo-recordings of fractions of ideas that were left over from previous albums,and who were melted together into new songs.  There is even one song from the period when they were still called Avenger.

Sonic Syndicate is a modern metal band from Falkenberg, Sweden. They are influenced by Swedish melodic death metal bands such as In Flames and Soilwork and American metalcore bands like Killswitch Engage and All That Remains. The band was founded in 2002. Current members are; Nathan James Biggs | vocals - Robin Sjunnesson | guitar - Karin Axelsson | bass - John Bengtsson | drums

Slo Burn, Unida, Hermano,Vista Chino, All these bands have singer John Garcia in common, and still despite this list of bands, he will forever be remembered in the first place for being part of KYUSS, the band who put this genre called desert/stonerrock on the map.

Madball is a New-York hardcore band founded in the late 1980s as a side project of Agostic Front. After 8 different drum players 1 bassist en 2 guitar players are this the current members; Freddy Cricien – vocals (1988–2001, 2002–present) / Hoya Roc – bass (1993–2001, 2002–present) / Mitts – guitar (2002–present) / Mike Justian – drums (2011–present).

I seem to have missed  the two albums that were released between ‘End Of Eden’ and this album, those albums being ‘Circus Black’, which apparently was a concept album, and ‘Re-Evolution’, an album featuring existing Amberian Dawn songs, but re-recorded with their new vocalist Päivi  “Capri” Virkkunen, who has replaced Heidi Parviainen.  Together with the old vocalist, the drummer Heikki Saari and guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen also left the band.  These were replaced by two ex-members of the band, Joon