Emperor Prepare Anthems… Anniversary Tour

by Daniel Maarat on May 11, 2017

Emperor are currently preparing to tour in celebration of the twentieth anniversary their second album, the third rate Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. While Emperor kept on wearing armor, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk saw Emperor simplify their trademark complex, almost symphonic Norwegian black metal sound down to two to three note speed metal influenced riffs with neo-classical wank leads in conventional verse-chorus-verse heavy metal songs to appeal to a wider, Wacken-going audience.

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Lame Gates of Ishtar Albums Reissued

by Daniel Maarat on April 28, 2017

Century Media has reissued third rate Gothenburg melodeaf band Gates of Ishtar’s first two studio albums, The Dawn of Flames and At Dusk and Forever, remastered by Dugout Studios (vinyl mastering by Patrick W. Engel) and with new artwork from Juanjo Castellano as the original artwork was “really ugly” according to the band. The band should have been more concerned with writing worthwhile material than artwork for lame, cash-in releases on the popularity of In Flames and other competitors with VH1’s adult contemporary lite rock. Gates of Ishtar were not “melodic death metal masters” but warmed-over bouncy speed and power metal for a late 90s mallrat and Wacken audiences just like the most of their contemporary bands from Gothenburg, Sweden when they weren’t making outright pop music.

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Wintersun Finally Finishes Time II

by Staff on August 4, 2016

jari wintersun

Article by Ludvig Boysen.

Wintersun has finally finished the second half of their 2012 album Time I. Jari Mäenpää, the composer and founder of the band, announced the record was finally finished and will be released “sooner or later.” Mäenpää crowdfunded an entire new home studio and sauna to complete the record. Wintersun released their self-titled debut album in 2004 which became a hit among lower testosterone fans of power and Gothenburg metal due to Wintersun’s use of death metal and black metal technique. In 2012, after years of delay, Wintersun released half of their second album, called Time I which was the first half of the upcoming Time II.

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Manilla Road – Dreams of Eschaton Released

by Daniel Maarat on July 1, 2016

MANILLA-ROAD-Dreams-of-Eschaton

Manilla Road‘s unreleased “Mark of the Beast” album, recorded between Invasion and Metal, has been pressed to CD and LP by High Roller Records as Dreams of Eschaton. This is the highest fidelity version yet, pressed from a collector’s tape that originated from Mark Shelton himself as detailed on the Nuclear War Now! forum:

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Sadistic Metal Reviews: Pushing It All Out

by Staff on June 11, 2016

unicorn poop

The Sadistic Metal Reviews are were we squeeze all the empty calories out of our guts into easily digestible packages for readers’ amusement. The leftovers are distributed to starving third world children to hasten their Malthusian death through infection with the type of drug-resistant bacteria that can only thrive in a Honey Bun.

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Denner / Shermann Ready Masters of Evil

by Daniel Maarat on May 7, 2016

denner shermann

Michael Denner and Hank Shermann (the dueling guitar virtuosos behind Mercyful Fate) have announced that the mixing and mastering is done on the upcoming album from their technical power/speed metal project, Denner / Shermann. Hopefully Masters of Evil (to be released by Metal Blade Records on June 24th ) is better than their previous EP but don’t get your hopes up. Check out the preview track below:

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Dream Theater – The Astonishing (2016)

by Staff on February 17, 2016

dreamtheaterastonishingcovercd

Article by David Rosales

Dream Theater never ceases to surprise you; not in a good way, but in how they can always reach the next level of selling out. Not that they were ever produced honest music, though one might excuse their progressive speed hard rock debut (When Dream and Day Unite), at least a little, I guess. Their brand of messy and random stitching of unrelated ideas in a mixture of hard rock and outright Disney pop has gone through a long series of transformations; a move to fool audiences with the typical “constantly reinventing ourselves” excuse that allows them to keep being random.
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Upcoming tours – Nightwish, Sonata Arctica

by Gabe Kagan on February 4, 2016

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Before you ask, the answer is no; you haven’t overdosed on power metal yet. You’re still alive and reading about how Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, and Delain (whom I’ve never heard of but was apparently formed by an ex-member of Within Temptation) are about to tour the United States and Canada. If you absolutely had to hear tracks from Endless Forms Most Beautiful in a live context, now might present a golden opportunity for you, or at least a yellowish one. However, this tour is apparently popular enough that some of its earlier dates have already sold out. Expect musical literacy, science advocacy, overblown melodrama, and whatever Sonata Arctica does to rule these nights.

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