2025 wrap-up

'Tis the holiday season once again. Can't believe how quick it's come 'round! Here I am writing this year's wrap-up once again, so here's my 2025 musical life in review. 


NEW ALBUMS (worst to best):
I bought a reasonable number of new releases this year. I'm not sure it's been as good as 2024 for me overall, but then again last year we had brand new studio albums from Judas Priest and Deep Purple - 2 of my absolute favourite bands. Either way I've still picked up some good shit this year, as you can see in the photo below.

Well the worst new album for me that I bought is easily Machine Head's UNATØNED. I only listened to it a handful of times when I updated my Machine Head page and I haven't gone back to it since. In fact, the only reason I bought it is because when I decided I wanted to re-do that page, they'd released 3 albums since I made that post way back in 2017 when I started this blog. And coincidentally, UNATØNED was released this year. Like I said, I haven't listened to this album since the summer, and I can't bring myself to do so again. It's exceptionally average and painfully safe. Considering I found 2022's ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN to be very nearly great (a strong album at the very least), UNATØNED is kind of a big disappointment. Thing is though, I wasn't particularly surprised by this. Robb Flynn is man who likes to jump from trend-hop throughout the Machine Head catalogue, meaning there's albums in there that I like and others I don't. This one is ridiculously modern, polished and accessible as far as metal goes. Like I said in my review, it's not particularly embarrassing or even bad (although 'Bonescraper' really pisses me off now, such a lame song) - it's often pretty catchy for sure - just very lightweight and unambitious overall, especially after albums like The Blackening and Of Kingdom and Crown. Meh.

My next choice is an underground one. It's Valediction by Welsh atmospheric/melodic black metal band Ofnus. I actually saw these guys play my home town last year (it's very rare we get any live underground extreme metal where I live), and me and my friend both really enjoyed them. Then they appeared on 2025's Bloodstock lineup, so I decided to head over to their Bandcamp and buy this new album of theirs. My plan was to listen to Valediction a bunch of times before seeing them at Bloodstock... and then when Bloodstock came, I only went and bloody missed them! They played early on the Friday morning, and the queue to the arena from the main campsite was huge. Damn. Still, the album's rather good. Epic, melodic black metal. Not black metal of the raw, abrasive kind - much more grandiose (kind of like Emperor in some ways). There's only 7 tracks here; all except 2 of them clock in at over 8 minutes long, so the album can be quite a demanding listen depending what sort of mood of I'm in, but that's kind of black metal in a nutshell. The vocals are a little generic - solid, passable, but similar to 99% of other black metal bands. The music however, is pretty damn solid overall.

Primal Fear's Domination is next. I don't have a particularly long history with this band - even though I was well aware of them way back in my teens, I didn't actually buy any of their albums until the last couple of years. That album in question was the self-titled debut, a record I kinda love actually. Even so, I still hadn't picked up anything else by them until 2025's Domination. Anyway, this was kind of an impulse buy, but one I've been enjoying quite a bit. The album has a shiny, anthemic power metal aura about it - I get that this band have been associated with power metal for quite sometime, but their debut always reminded me more of Painkiller-inspired speed metal. Domination isn't especially that. But it is a well-performed and recorded power metal album. The songs are highly melodic, hooky and full of anthemic vocals from main man Ralf Scheepers. The chorus to 'Heroes and Gods' always gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it! The guitar work in terms of both the riffs and leads are mostly old-school, but the modern production keeps the music sounding contemporary. My biggest complaint is the way Scheepers recorded his vocals - I can't figure out if he autotuned them in any way, but there's a strange distortion-like sound to them. I don't dislike his vocals at all, there's just something odd in the vocal production department going on somewhere. Still an enjoyable CD either way, just not one of my favourites of this year!

German thrash metal mongers Destruction are next with Birth of Malice. I hadn't planned to purchase this album, but I saw Destruction with Testament and Obituary back in October, and Destruction were unexpectedly the band of the night for me. I've had both The Antichrist and All Hell Breaks Loose in my collection for years and years, but never really picked up anything else by them. Anyhow, they were simply awesome live, so I quickly ordered a copy of Birth of Malice afterward. It's a very strong thrash platter - not flashy in any way, it just tears arse from start to finish. I'm not opposed to a bit of melody, prog, or thought-provoking material in my thrash - but that's not what Destruction are all about. This is meat n' potatoes thrash metal, but the musicianship is still tip-top, the band are tight as hell and the songs are fast. Other than the somewhat unnecessary cover of Accept's 'Fast as a Shark', this album certainly provides me with a thrashin' fix whenever I need it

The past couple of years I've really taken to Grave Digger, and as usual, their latest album, Bone Collector, is a blast. Sometimes they lean more towards speed metal than power metal and vice versa with their albums. I find that Bone Collector leans more into their speed metal side, and does not follow any particular lyrical theme like so many of their other records do. Crunchy, riffy, old-school speed metal with Chris Boltendahl's gravelly vocals on top - that's what this is. Unlike so many other metal bands these days, Grave Digger never overproduce their music. Clean, polished production works just fine for some bands, but I like how Grave Digger's albums still sound organic and human. The same can be said for Bone Collector. This is no-nonsense HEAVY METAL! I'm not sure I like it as much as 2022's Symbol of Eternity (which I ironically scored lower than this, but I seem to like more as time goes on), but either way Grave Digger are one of the most consistent bands in the genre.

It sure is nice to have Biohazard back! Better still is the fact we got a new album from them this year - Divided We Fall, their first since 2012's Reborn in Defiance! I think I kinda wanted this to be my album of the year, mainly because it's been such a long time since we've had anything new from Biohazard. Them being on hiatus for several years didn't help things of course, but either way Divided We Fall is hardly disappointing even if it's not my number 1 this year. The album is full of rage and pure aggression from beginning to end - which is what you want - and slots in quite comfortably alongside their '90s metallic hardcore classics Urban Discipline and State of the World Address. I saw them live again in March this year, and can confirm they've still got it. Welcome back Biohazard!

Rage's A New World Rising was maybe the biggest surprise for me this year, at least in terms of how much I've been enjoying it. This is a band I've been listening to in small doses since college - in fact, I've had their album's Unity and Soundchaser in my collection for more than half my life now and even though I love 'em, in total I still only own 5 Rage albums! But anyway, I've been listening to A New World Rising non-stop since it dropped at the end of September - this is a high-class slab of speed/power metal. The musicianship and instrumentation is stellar, the production is crisp and the songs are full of blazing guitar solos and riffs, and a high number of catchy vocal hooks. The band sound like true heavy metal, yet don't sound dated. On the first couple of listens I was a little disappointed with Peavy Wagner's vocals - the man is 60 now, and he understandably isn't singing to the same standard as he was prior. Some guys still have it at that age, some guys struggle. But after a couple of listens I got used to him and the music is so strong here anyway that I can often look past the ageing vocals. Songs like 'Innovation', 'Next Generation', 'Against the Machine' and 'Paradigm Change' get stuck in my head for days! 

I had never checked out any of Don Airey's solo material until his new album Pushed to the Edge was released this year. I really like this. With him on keyboards and Simon McBride on guitar (who had played with Don for a number of years before he joined Deep Purple), there's obviously some similarities to Deep Purple on this CD. But this only makes it all the stronger!! Aye, this is an excellent slice of keyboard/guitar-driven hard rock with great vocal performances from guys like Pete Agnew and Dan McCafferty of Nazareth to accompany Don's organ wizardry. Scorching opener 'Tell Me' is my song of the year! I read a review somewhere a few months back calling Pushed to the Edge "more Deep Purple than Deep Purple" (or something similar) - I don't fully agree with this. Like I said, the album has a Deep Purple aura about it, sure, but it still has a personality of it's own. Let's not forget just how many freaking bands and artists Don had worked with prior to even joining Deep Purple. Great stuff.

Taking the top spot is Glenn Hughes' latest solo record, Chosen. The man is 74 years old now, yet his vocal talent remains unspoilt. He still sounds phenomenal! But the music itself on this album is really strong too - catchy, classy, well-structured hard rock songs that are full of memorable hooks plus excellent production. I only had to listen to the album 2 or 3 times to remember each of the 10 tracks on here. Chosen has been on repeat for me since I received my pre-order in September! Don Airey's Pushed to the Edge nearly topped Chosen for me - that album is a little more deep instrumentally, whereas this is hookier overall. I like to think I care more about the music than anything else, but sometimes I'll unashamedly admit that catchiness wins me over! Whatever, I think any fan of classic rock should be checking this out.

The last album I've gotten hold of this year is Testament's Para Bellum. I haven't ranked this one yet because it was a Christmas present and I've hardly listened to it yet! In fact, it's playing right now as I type! I suppose I could've waited a week or so before posting this wrap-up to allow the album to settle more, but I've had this entire article saved as a draft for over a month now, and I wanted to get it done before the beginning of 2026! Anyway, about Para Bellum - well, it's Testament alright. Extremely polished, tight and technical, sometimes melodic. Chuck Billy is still as diverse as ever with his vocals, still doing the harsher/nearly-clean stuff and whilst occasionally dabbling with death growls. The songs are mostly thrash of course, but Testament sometimes tread into death/blackened metal-ish territory with these numbers, while 'Meant to Be' is effectively a ballad! The production is outstanding. But these are just first impressions - I'm digging what I've heard so far (I haven't heard a Testament record I didn't like, even some of the mid-90's ones), but I can't say that I already think it's better than The Formation of Damnation, which was my first taste of Testament way back in 2008 and still my favourite. But I wouldn't be surprised if this ranks pretty high in a few weeks time. I got a taste of 'Infanticide A.I.' and 'Shadow People' back in October from this album too, because I saw Testament live just 2 days before Para Bellum dropped (more about the gig later).


REISSUES & OTHERS:

We got some nice reissues this year, and I happened to pick up a few. The most notable one for me was the 20th Anniversary Remix of Deep Purple's 2005 album Rapture of the Deep. This one was worthy of a pre-order. I made a blog post about this release in the beginning of September, and I have to say Roger Glover's done a fine job of breathing new life into this underrated Steve Morse-era Deep Purple record. I've always liked Rapture - it's not one of my absolute favourite Morse albums, but I've always found it to be strong. The new remix easily elevates it to an 8/10 for me, and I never really took issue with Michael Bradford's original 2005 production job/mix anyway. Yet somehow the band have managed to really enhance this record sonically to the point where Rapture '25 is now my default way to listen to the album. Some good examples of where the album shines are the ballad 'Clearly Quite Absurd' which sounds utterly pristine now, and Don Airey's overdriven organ sound on 'Wrong Man' which really cuts through the mix better too. A very cool release for fanatical Deep Purple collectors like myself.

I also picked up the Gillan boxset 1978-1982. It's a really great package from in my opinion the most underrated side band of the Deep Purple family tree. Everyone loves Rainbow and Whitesnake for good reason, but even though the Gillan band weren't around very long in the grand scheme of things, each of the 6 albums they recorded together is a classic in my opinion. Some of Ian Gillan's most fun, crazy performances can be found on albums like Future Shock and Mr. Universe. There was no other band like them. Anyhow, the boxset resurrects all 6 albums and puts them in a single 7-CD package. B-sides and other material has also been tacked on as bonus material. It literally contains everything you could possibly want from this band (bar unofficial bootleg live releases and whatnot anyway) and only costs 35 quid. £35!! It's not very often I buy, well, anything in this hobby these days and feel like I've gotten a bargain, but the Gillan boxset is an exception. I actually already owned a lot of these albums across CD and vinyl before, but I picked up the boxset anyway because I wanted Double Trouble and Glory Road on CD. So yeah, very happy with this one. 

I also got the reissue of Magnum legend Bob Catley's 1999 solo album Legends. I hadn't planned on buying this, nor was I even aware Bob's solo discography was getting reissued this year, but I happened to stumble across this in my local record shop. So I picked it up of course. This is my first and so far only Bob Catley solo album - I love Magnum, but it's only been in recent years that I've really become a serious fan of that band. And I have to say, if the rest of Bob's solo catalogue sounds like Legends, well, I might just track down some more of his stuff! This is great! Dramatic, melodic rock. Unsurprisingly similar to Magnum, but with enough subtle differences to keep the music fresh and original. 

Another nice surprise this year were the new Ear Music vinyl and CD reissues of Annihilator's '90s albums King of the Kill, Refresh the Demon and Remains. Obviously I didn't need to add the new CD reissues since I've already got old pressings in my collection, but it's really nice to have King and Refresh on vinyl now. So I totally justified picking up these 2, especially since I love both of these albums. The new reissues are nice too - they're both gatefold sleeves and come with new Jeff Waters interviews plus lyric sheets. Very cool. I didn't bother with the new Remains vinyl however - I don't know if I'm a big enough fan of that one to own 2 copies of it. My old CD will do. In addition to these is also the new More Noise Vol. 1 CD, a compilation of Annihilator rarities. Funnily enough I already had about half the tracks on this disc as some of the older CD reissues of albums came with them as bonus songs, but it's nice to have the unreleased studio track 'It's You', and I really dig the bass-driven demo of 'Weapon X'. Other than that however, this CD is really only worth it for die hard fans like me.

The last album I got hold of in this category was Saxon's new live album, Eagles Over Hellfest. It is a recording of their 2024 performance at Hellfest. From the looks of things, they were headlining the second main stage on the Saturday night. I saw them in March last year supporting Judas Priest, as well as this year in November. The setlist from this live album is pretty similar to what I witnessed last year too - the awesome Hell, Fire and Damnation album dropped in January 2024, so there's a couple of tracks from that record here too (the title track and 'Madam Guillotine'). But the bulk of the setlist here is made up of '80s classics - 'Motorcycle Man', 'Heavy Metal Thunder', 'Dallas 1 P.M.', 'Power and the Glory', 'Strong Arm of the Law'. Being a huge fan of the band, I suppose I would've liked to have seen a couple more songs from the past few records on here, but I never tire of any of the oldies either. So I'm cool with it. The band are still playing great here - Biff Byford's vocals are understandably getting little a worn at times, but I can still confirm that he's still a hell of a frontman. Die hard Saxon fans should indeed seek this one out. I hesitated at first because Eagles Over Hellfest is packaged as a 2 CD set, with the other disc being the entire Hell, Fire and Damnation album. Since it only came out in 2024, I wasn't sure if I wanted to purchase the same album again, little over a year later! So I listened to it a few times on Spotify instead. The nerd in me eventually caved in however, and asked for this package for Christmas! Saxon are one of those bands where I go out of my way to buy all their live releases as well as the studio stuff, so if this one was missing, it would've eventually bugged me. It now sits nicely in my ever-expanding Saxon collection. 


CONCERTS:
I only attended 1 gig during the first half of the year, and it was Biohazard/Life of Agony in March at the 02 Institute in Birmingham. This was a nice treat - I saw Biohazard at the same venue back in 2012 (albeit on the stage downstairs), and then again at Bloodstock 2014. I had the opportunity to see them again at Bloodstock in 2022 or 23 (??), but they were on at 11pm Sunday night - I'm normally back  home by then! Anyway, they played a setlist that only consisted of songs from their first 3 albums, i.e. the classics. Their new album, Divided We Fall, still hadn't been released in March, so they didn't play any new material from it. Either way, it didn't matter what they played - they were on fire. Pure aggression and heaps of energy for the entirety of the show. It was just nice to have 'em back. And it was nice to see Evan Seinfeld up there - the 2 times I saw them 10+ years ago, Scott Roberts had replaced Evan. I also enjoyed Life of Agony more than I thought I would. Not to the point where I rushed out and bought any of their albums, but their brand of hardcore fit the bill rather nicely, and the crowd responded well to them.

Biohazard @ 02 Institute, Birmingham 02/03/2025

August saw me back at Bloodstock festival for my 15th time (!!). This year was sold out. I'm still struggling to figure out why this is. 2026 has already sold out too. Before then, I don't think Bloodstock has ever sold out. I've bought tickets in the past within 2 months of the festival and had no issues. Maybe it was just the lineup? I have a theory that Gojira playing the Olympics in 2024 boosted ticket sales, since they were headlining the Sunday night. Maybe? But then I wouldn't be surprised if scalpers had something to do with it too. Personally I didn't think the lineup was anything special this year. If anything, I think the lineups have been getting worse over the last few years. A lot of this is down to me getting older though - metalcore is huge these days, and Bloodstock have been booking a lot more metalcore bands than in the past. And I really don't care for metalcore!! But hey, the atmosphere this year was the same as it always was, meaning I still had a great time. Of every festival I've been to, Bloodstock always has the nicest people. The weather is almost always dry around this time in August, and let's be honest, there's always lots of bands I do like playing. Machine Head, despite me finding their albums to be hugely inconsistent, were great. Robb Flynn is a fantastic stage presence and knows how to control a crowd. I also enjoyed Ministry a lot more than I was anticipating - I only casually listen to Ministry, but they were great live. It was nice to see Emperor again, and I also really enjoyed Flotsam & Jetsam and Orange Goblin (who are sadly calling it a day very soon). 

Emperor @ Bloodstock Open Air 08/08/2025

Machine Head finale @ Bloodstock Open Air 09/08/2025

In October I was back in Birmingham once again. I attended the Thrash of the Titans tour - Testament, Obituary, Destruction and Nervosa. I've actually seen Testament and Obituary live numerous times since 2009, and I also saw Nervosa back in 2018. But funnily enough, I had never seen Destruction before. I don't think they play the UK very often - for example, the only time they've ever played Bloodstock was way back in 2008. Either way, both me and my friend were in agreement that they put on the best performance that night. Pure thrash mayhem, and we even briefly met Schmier at the bar afterwards!! The rest of the bands were still very good too. Nervosa were overshadowed a little by everyone else; they were on first and played the shortest set, but they were still decent. Obituary are a death metal band of course, but I've always thought they had tons of groove in their riffs too. Jon Tardy is the same old Jon Tardy, and he hasn't changed much to my ears! Good stuff - the last time I saw them was way before COVID, so it was nice to watch them again. And Testament always put on a good show. I think Para Bellum dropped literally 2 days later, so they played a couple of tracks from said album. I think I've seen them play better performances in the past, but like I said, Testament are always worth a watch.

Destruction @ 02 Academy, Birmingham 08/10/2025

Little over a week later I took my fiancée to see Glenn Hughes at KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton. In support was Sophie Lloyd, who appears to have a massive social media following. Not bad at all, but Glenn was awesome. I saw him around the same time 2 years ago, again at the Steel Mill - only that time he was performing Mk. III/IV Deep Purple songs only. This time he was performing songs from throughout his entire career - solo material, Black Country Communion, Hughes/Thrall, Deep Purple... even going back to the early days of Trapeze. He also played 'Grace' from the Iommi solo album Fused, which was particularly nice to see. Of course, he also played a few tracks from the new album Chosen - fine by me, since it's my number 1 album this year! It was a tremendous show, Glenn was in fine form vocally and frankly I just love going to the Steel Mill in general. Unlike corporate clubs like the 02 venues it costs £4.50 a pint and not £8+ (!!), the merch stalls are actually ran by the band and road crews, plus they serve food and hot drinks. My fiancée is barely a rock fan, yet she loved the Steel Mill. When I was at the 02 Academy the previous week for Testament, my mate had finished work and not had time to eat. They don't even serve snacks in that place. Anyhow, the Steel Mill feels like it was tailored to rock fans, and is owned by someone who actually cares (KK Downing).

Glenn Hughes @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 17/10/2025

On the 14th November I found myself in Wolverhampton again, this time at the Civic Hall to see Saxon. I've seen them numerous times over the years, and I plan to keep seeing them as long as they keep going. They're one of my favourite bands after all. Although that day was literally pounding with rain - I didn't want to have to drive, so I was relying on trains. Thankfully they kept running all day/night as normal despite the catastrophic weather... in fact, I think it was the first time I've ever taken my waterproof jacket to a concert! I may have sank multiple Guinness' in the Giffard Arms before I arrived at the venue, but it only made it more merrier! Anyway, in support of Saxon was Udo Dirkschneider performing the entirety of Accept's Balls to the Wall. A fitting opening act in all fairness, although strangely enough I only have 1 Accept album in my collection (Blood of the Nations), none of Udo's solo stuff and have never actually taken a deep-dive into either catalogue. Also random is the fact I have seen Accept at Bloodstock, although I forget which year. Either way, Udo may not be the most mobile on stage, but he still sounds good vocally - and the rest of his band did a fine job with the music.

About Saxon though - considering Biff has literally just battled cancer to the point where tour dates in Spain for April/May were postponed, he was the same old Biff I've come to know since I first saw the band at Sonisphere in 2009! I barely noticed any difference in his vocals/stage presence compared to when I saw them open for Judas Priest in March last year. This tour - Hell, Fire and Steel - saw Saxon play the Wheels of Steel album in it's entirety, but before they got around to doing that they played 8 songs - classics including 'Power and the Glory', 'Never Surrender' and 'Backs to the Wall', plus a couple of newer ones from 2024's Hell, Fire and Damnation. Awesome as always, and then of course we got Wheels of Steel. It was really cool to hear songs like 'Street Fighting Gang', 'Machine Gun' and 'Freeway Mad' that I can only assume haven't been performed live for years. I know that Wheels is one of their best-known records, but it still has it's deep cuts. Also, Diamond Head legend Brian Tatler is such a great replacement for Paul Quinn. The man has already moulded himself into the band. Yep, it was a fantastic gig. I couldn't really tell you which is my favourite Saxon performance of the times I've seen them, they've just been consistently strong every time. 

Saxon @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 14/11/2025

...and finally, on the 6th December I was back in Wolves again (!!) for the Bloodstock Winter Gathering! I didn't know if I was even gonna make this one until the week of the event, but a friend actually gave me a free ticket so that was awesome of him. Anyhow, it took place at KK's Steel Mill once again, which was ideal. It was nice to see Venom Inc. again, but it was even cooler to see Candlemass headlining the day. I'd always wanted to see these guys live since my college days, and funnily enough I've managed to see them twice in the last 2 years (the first time at Bloodstock 2023). Other bands I saw were comedy grindcore act Raised by Owls, blackened thrash band Devastator and the Welsh stoner metal group King Kraken (who I'm sure I've seen live before, but where and when I can't remember!).

Candlemass @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 06/12/2025

THE BLOG:
I managed to cram in a fair amount of content here this year. I reviewed entire discographies of Steppenwolf, Blind Guardian, Metal Church and Grave Digger for starters, and I updated my Machine Head page and completed that catalogue too. Steppenwolf's catalogue was kind of interesting to review, although I don't think they evolved as much musically as you'd think - especially considering they started recording music in the era of flower power and psychedelia, and then continued into the '70s. But there's some underrated classics like Steppenwolf 7 and For Ladies Only in this discography that people don't talk about very often.  

Reviewing Blind Guardian was fun. For a very long time I only had Follow the Blind and Imaginations from the Other Side in my collection. It's fair to say I'm a huge fan of their albums from the 1988 debut up to 1998's Nightfall in Middle-Earth. This was a near-enough unbeatable 10-year run of albums in power metal. I do enjoy nearly everything else that came after as well, but they certainly branched out and experimented with their sound. There's definitely an era of Blind Guardian I favour over the other, but like I said, there's still some stuff from the latter years I really like too.

Metal Church are a band I've been a fan of for so long now, but it wasn't until this year that I actually bothered to obtain all their stuff. I had maybe half their discography in my collection prior. Either way, the first 3 records (Metal Church, The Dark and Blessing in Disguise) are simply some of my all-time favourite US metal albums of all time. Absolutely essential listening. Tons of great albums that came after too. Just an extremely reliable and consistent band regardless of the multiple vocalists they've had over the years. 

And then there's Grave Digger, a band that have slowly but surely become one of my favourite Euro metal bands in the past couple of years. I appreciate consistency; while there are bands I love that try to do things differently with many of their records, some bands don't need to do this. Grave Digger are one of them. They're either delving into history with a power metal-focused concept record, or delivering straight-up Germanic heavy/speed metal with pretty much every release. So many good albums to choose from, and their 1994-2003 run is epic. I've lost count of the number of times I've listened to The Reaper, Heart of Darkness, Tunes of War, Knights of the Cross, Excalibur, The Grave Digger and Rheingold this year. 

The most polarising discography I reviewed this year though, was easily Machine Head's. Until this year, I stopped buying their albums after 2014's Bloodstone & Diamonds. As stated in my review, I was kinda finished with this band for ages until I suddenly decided I wanted to revisit their catalogue and buy the 3 albums they've released since I stopped listening to them. I think part of this decision was because the band headlined the Saturday night at Bloodstock this year, and I hadn't seen them since 2012. Live they were great as always... this discography not so much - in my opinion of course. It's not all bad news. I still think Burn My Eyes and Unto the Locust are great. The Blackening may be one of the all-time most overrated metal albums in my eyes, but I think it's still good. 2022's Of Kingdom of Crown was a genuine surprise - I like that one a lot too. And I still think The More Things Change... has it's moments. But then there's The Burning Red - this one's only gotten worse over time for me, and I still consider Supercharger to be absolutely horrible. But even worse is 2018's Catharsis! I remember this coming out and getting a massively mixed reception. I avoided it until this year and yeah... I'm definitely in the category of people who hate this thing with a burning passion. It's absolutely baffling that Robb Flynn - who was already a man in his 50s when Catharsis was recorded - managed to churn out this complete turkey. 'Bastards' is easily the worst song I've had to endure this year - utterly juvenile, university student-levels of clueless political ranting over what is essentially nu metal instrumentation. Like I said in my review, I honestly don't care where Flynn stands politically, but fuckin' hell this album is just brainrot on every level.

One of the most fun blog posts I've done this year is my 'Deep Purple SOLO PROJECTS/ARTISTS' page. I've grouped albums from current and ex-Deep Purple members' albums that aren't Rainbow/Whitesnake. So anything by Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Don Airey, Roger Glover etc.. I have enough CDs and vinyl from all these guys that a separate page was worthy of them. Anyhow, I'll add any more of these reviews to the page as time goes on and I accumulate more of them in my collection. 


2026 BLOG/MUSIC PLANS:
As for 2026 plans, well, it's gonna be the most important year of my life - because I'm getting married in October!! Music-wise however, I've been saying for a few years now that I plan to collect the entire Uriah Heep studio album discography! This has proven to be difficult though - I'm not made of money and there's a few albums in that catalogue that are a pain in the arse to obtain without spending an arm and a leg. 2011's Into the Wild for example, is incredibly difficult to find here in the UK. And on Discogs, right now there's 2 copies for sale in Brazil. One of them is used and costs £57.03 in total ($50 shipping 😡😡😡!! Foreign Discogs shipping prices often make zero sense to me), the other is £39.58... still way too expensive. So unless their catalogue gets a thorough reissuing sometime in the near future, I don't see myself finishing my Heep collection any time soon sadly.

After seeing Destruction this year live, they've really gone up in the ranks for me in terms of thrash bands. I've bought a handful of their albums since October, and maybe I'll think about trying to obtain their discography next year. It's seems a little more doable and affordable than Uriah Heep at least. We'll see. Erm, so I guess I don't really have many definite plans here for 2026 (just a few more articles so far which I've explained in the next paragraph)! This doesn't mean I'm slowing down, not at all. I don't work to a schedule is all. I'll just keep adding in reviews here and there, and write the odd article too I guess. Things always need updating too - there's still a lot of poorly-written crap on here from before COVID. 

I've recently been writing a series of posts I've called 'Blast from the past albums'. These are rambles about CDs I bought and listened to a lot back in my teens (and possibly early 20s), but have barely touched as I've gotten older. I've done 5 of these posts so far and really enjoyed doing them - it gives me a chance to talk about individual albums from bands I have no plans to review entire discographies of, and also often provides a nostalgia trip too if I say so myself. I have a list of albums I want to talk about for more of these types of posts, so expect more throughout 2026!

For a very long time now I've been toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel to run alongside the blog - I think it could be another fun little hobby project in the same way this website is for me. Like this blog, it would just be another way of documenting my hobby. I'm not interested in actually becoming a full-time YouTuber or anything like that, I just have a lot of stuff to show and things to say about my favourite music! This is not something I would've even considered doing in my early to mid 20s. I suppose I was quite camera shy back then... or just shy in general even. This is not really an issue for me in my 30s. I'm a different man nowadays. 

The only concerts/festivals I have planned for 2026 right now are Bloodstock Open Air in August (as per usual) and Deep Purple in Birmingham for November. Bloodstock's 2026 lineup already looks better than this year for me. Saxon, Judas Priest, Biohazard, Sepultura, Body Count, Testament, Death Angel, Cryptopsy, Nevermore, Municipal Waste, Black Spiders, Lamb of God... plenty of great bands, even if I've already seen 95% of the one's I've just mentioned. That said, Saturday on the main stage looks particularly terrible for this metalhead. Metalcore band after metalcore band followed by Slaughter to Prevail headlining. Fucking Slaughter to Prevail headlining the mainstage!! They can't even sell out the 02 Academy in Birmingham for Christ's sake!! If you like metalcore/deathcore, then fine. Whatever. But Slaughter to Prevail can do one. I can't stand them! I get they're popular to a degree but this feels like a vanity booking courtesy of Bloodstock's own Vicky Hungerford, because they're supposedly one of her favourite bands. I'll be at the Sophie Lancaster stage that day I think. Or the campsite, drinking. Probably the latter.

And this will be my 3rd time seeing Deep Purple too. Ian Gillan reported recently that he's losing his eyesight, and will call it quits when performances become an embarrassment. Even around the time Now What?! was unleashed back in 2013, I'm sure I remember rumours of them splitting up or at least retiring from touring. But something tells me we really are coming to the end now. I know they're writing new material, so a new album is likely - but I really feel like next year's tour could be the last one now. The story has to end eventually. So I've gotten me and my fiancée tickets one again - they've been great the last couple of times I saw them, and I'd like to be there for what I think could very well be their final shows.


And that's it for my 2025 wrap-up. I won't be ditching metal/rock for EDM any time soon, so don't worry!!

Blast from the past albums #5: CANNIBAL CORPSE - Evisceration Plague (2009, Metal Blade)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

Even though they're not necessarily one of my absolute favourite death metal groups, I still own every Cannibal Corpse record. You know exactly what you're getting from this band every time they put out something new - they're trustworthy and reliable. They're also one of my favourite metal bands to see live, 'cos they crush it every time. Also, their 2006 album Kill is definitely one of my all-time favourite extreme metal records. Kill was the first CC album I ever bought; I picked it up when I was 15 and in my final year of school, and was blown away by the relentless brutality of the music, but also the amazing production and technical proficiency of the band. Naturally, it made me pick up more of their back catalogue and by the time 2009 rolled around, I was eager to hear what was their newest release of the time, Evisceration Plague. You'd think this being the first CC album I bought as a new release, and also the fact I saw them live for the first time on the Evisceration Plague tour (01/11/2009 in Leamington Spa - it was a fucking amazing gig for 17 year old me) would make this record see regular rotation from me out of all the albums in their catalogue then. It doesn't though.

Let me just say now that there is no such thing as a bad Cannibal Corpse album. Some are great, others are just good - but none of them are poor. So of course I find myself listening to certain albums of theirs over others. Evisceration Plague is one I played a lot around 2009/10/11, but haven't spun very much since. Why is that? What is it about this particular release that stops it being one of my favourites? Honestly, listening to it again for this blog post, I think I've just remembered why - it's the production and the tone of the drums. Kill is still the best-sounding CC record to me. Part of that thinking is likely due to bias, it being the first one I picked up of course. But I genuinely think it'd be difficult for someone to argue that Evisceration Plague is the better-sounding and produced album of the 2. Sonically (and songs-wise to be fair), Kill just owns. 'Nuff said. And then there's this follow-up, which is just kind of weird in that department. The guitar tones still sound good to me - they're crunchy, grinding and of course, heavy. Maybe a little too crisp, but nice overall. George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher's vocals are maybe a little upfront in the mix, but they never drown out the rest of the instruments so that's cool.

It's the drums though, that have always bugged me. I'm certainly not slagging off Paul Mazurkiewicz's actual playing - the man's a beast. It's the actual sound of the drums that has always sounded off to me. They're uber-dry and lacking any sort of human feel, if that makes any sense. Also, there's no real "oomph" to them! They're not tinny or clangy like Lars Ulrich's were on St. Anger or anything like that, but there's no real power to them despite the fact Paul pounds away at the kit in the same way he does on every CC album! It's really hard to describe without hearing this album for yourself!! And it's always been something I've taken issue with. Even though I listened to Evisceration Plague a lot within the first couple of years of it's existence, teenage me was still let down by the production somewhat. Pretty much every CC album that's been released since - and I'm feeling old now, because since Evisceration Plague we've had Torture, A Skeletal Domain, Red Before Black, Violence Unimagined and Chaos Horrific - has sounded better production-wise to my ears.

And yet despite all my whinging about drums and production, I'm actually finding it really difficult to call this one of their worst albums! I mean, the songs are still great! Even though I hadn't heard the album for such a long time, I instantly remembered tracks like 'Priests of Sodom', 'Evisceration Plague', 'A Cauldron of Hate' and 'Beheading and Burning'! Classics! And the riffing is as strong as ever - you're getting all the speedy, razor-sharp riffs, the big, chunky, crushing one's and even the occasional groove-laden one in practically every track within this record. And they all tie together seamlessly. Corpsegrinder himself is just Corpsegrinder being awesome as usual - grunting, growling and screaming when necessary. There's even layered vocals on 'Priests of Sodom', and it's great. Sounds almost inhuman, in a good way. And like I said, even if Paul's drums have sounded better, to fault his playing itself would be ridiculous. He's a well-oiled rhythm machine, and I can still put up with the drum tones here at the end of the day.

This album would be an easy 8/10 if it weren't for the production then. And although there's still plenty of George Fisher-era CC records that I think are stronger than this one (Kill, A Skeletal Domain, Torture, Violence Unimagined and Bloodthirst spring to mind), I'll stand by Evisceration Plague and say that songs-wise there's still weaker albums than this one too. Also, there's other albums in this catalogue that I don't listen to very often as well - for example, I can't remember the last time I heard Gallery of Suicide, Gore Obsessed or Red Before Black. I just chose Evisceration Plague because it was the first one I bought as a brand new release when I was still a teenager, and just happens to fit in with this theme of blog posts. Either way, this is an album that is still well-worth owning.

On a side note, I totally forgot about the sticker on my own copy. I dunno, but Cannibal Corpse touring with Children of Bodom just seems odd to me!
Adam's rating: 7.6/10

P.S. - Trying to get a fucking picture of this album with no reflection glare was damn near impossible without removing the booklet from the case!

Blast from the past albums #4: KARL SANDERS - Saurian Exorcisms (2009, The End Records)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

Well, I remember exactly when I picked this one up. It was when I saw Nile in Wolverhampton - almost exactly 16 years ago (16th December 2009 to be precise). The gig was awesome. 5 bands; Nile headlining of course, with both Grave and Krisiun supporting. We also got Ulcerate - these guys only had 2 albums out at the time, now they seem to have a devoted cult following (for good reason, and they were even my band of the night at the concert). Oh, and there was Hackneyed too, but I don't remember much of them. Anyway, since Nile were touring for their then latest album, Those Whom the Gods Detest, they were selling copies of said record at the merch stall. They were also selling Karl Sanders' solo CD, Saurian Exorcisms, Karl being Nile's lead guitarist of course. Saurian Exorcisms was selling for something like £5, while Those Whom the Gods Detest cost more than double that price if I remember correctly. Since I wanted both a Nile tour shirt and a CD, but was only 17 and couldn't afford the Nile album on top of the t-shirt, I went with Karl Sanders' album instead. And I know for a fact I'd made the wrong choice because I genuinely don't think I've heard this album since 2009!!

I've lived in 6 different houses in my lifetime. This CD has has lived in 4 of them, yet has only ever been spun in 2! The reason? Because as it turns out, Karl Sanders' solo work is not just Nile 2.0, which is effectively what I was expecting to hear when I was 17 and bought this disc home with me from the gig. No, Saurian Exorcisms is essentially an entirely instrumental ancient Egypt-inspired ambient record! Think of it as a full-length album of those little ancient Egyptian-styled interludes found on any Nile record, minus the technical death metal of course! Obviously I assumed this album would be death metal too. Or at least heavy metal/rock in some form, with that same ancient Egypt influence of Nile. But it's not. So naturally, I listened to it once and shelved it until I was nearly twice as old as I was when I bought it. 

Truth be told, this album is not bad at what it sets out to do - like, at all. In fact, if you're open-minded or just curious about instrumental/ambient music, then you're probably gonna love this. The album really does sound like the score to The Mummy, or some other ancient Egypt/Arabian-themed movie! Or even video game for that matter. Hell, did anyone play the game Exhumed (or PowerSlave as it was called in the US) on the original PlayStation/Sega Saturn back in the day?! You know, that awesome first-person shooter set in Egyptian Karnak ruins with all the platforming and secret areas? Anybody?! Nope, just me then! Either way, Saurian Exorcisms would make for perfect accompanying music to that game!!

If you were to blindfold me and play this album, I'd have guessed it was the soundtrack to a film. It totally nails that very specific niche sound that it's trying to pull off. And Karl even manages to impress me with his fretwork here too; in fact, it's not just acoustic guitars he plays, he's also playing the bağlama, glissentar (I had to look these up), synths and keyboards as well as all the percussion. That's pretty damn impressive for a bloke from South Carolina who normally brings the brutal riffage on his Dean ML!! Of course, you won't find any electric guitars, riffs, guttural vocals (just monk-like chants at times) or blast beat drumming on this album. Like I said, considering the whole point of this album is to expand on any of the brief ancient Egypt-inspired interludes you heard on Nile's records, it absolutely achieves this goal. And it does it really well.

I've been struggling to find any real negative reviews online regarding the album, so clearly people feel strongly about it. I just don't have much use for it myself. I don't really do the whole 'ambient' thing. I don't mind the odd ambient track within an album - it's fairly commonplace in black metal for example, and helps set the mood/tone for a record. But even when I just want to mellow out to something, I don't listen to ambient albums. I'll just stick some form of soft/folk rock on, like one of Neil Young's acoustic albums. Ambient instrumental music though, no thanks. I like Nine Inch Nails too, but I could never get on board with any of those Ghosts albums Trent Reznor put out. Same thing here too - well, 'sorta. I like Nile, but I don't know if I really need to listen to any of Karl's solo stuff at the end of the day.

So I guess this disc will remain on my CD shelves, but won't be spun again for god knows how long. Maybe forever. But if you have any sort of interest in ambient/instrumental/atmospheric kinds of music, then by all means check out Saurian Exorcisms. You're probably gonna love it.
Adam's rating: Not my cup of tea so I'm not sure!  

P.S. - Me and my friend actually met Karl Sanders at the end of that gig in 2009. Nice chap! He signed both our tickets and was happy to chat and meet fans. I played a lot of guitar when I was younger, and I owned a Dean MLX - basically a cheaper, entry-level version of what Karl plays (and Dimebag of course). I couldn't think of anything good to say to him other than "You were awesome and you play a Dean ML!", as if I had lots in common with the guy. I remember him simply replying "I do!". Oh how I cringe at 17 year old me!

Blast from the past albums #3: ICED EARTH - The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 (2008, SPV)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

I like Iced Earth. Even though I only consider myself to be a casual fan, Iced Earth actually hold more significance with me personally than you might think. For starters, they're technically the first metal band I ever saw live. When I saw Heaven & Hell (Dio-fronted Black Sabbath) in 2007, it was Iced Earth and Lamb of God who were supporting, and Iced Earth were the first band to play the stage that night. At the time they had Tim 'Ripper' Owens on vocals (who had of course sang with Judas Priest while Rob Halford went solo), and their latest album at the time was 2007's Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1. As far as I can remember, Framing Armageddon was one of the first power metal records I ever bought. I'm not sure if I picked it up before the Heaven & Hell gig or just after - either way, Framing Armageddon was still their newest album when I picked it up, and the Tim Owens-fronted Iced Earth is the era I discovered the band, even if the fans don't consider him to be their 'classic' vocalist. Less than a year after I first discovered these guys however, band leader and guitarist Jon Schaffer had already parted ways with Owens and rehired Matt Barlow.

Barlow tends to be regarded as the definitive Iced Earth vocalist, so when I first heard this news in 2008 I don't recall being disappointed - just surprised more than anything... especially considering the album I'm discussing in this post - The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 - was released just under a year later. Naturally then, this is a sequel to Framing Armageddon and a continuation of the whole 'Mankind were not the first people on Earth' story that album told. I've never cared much for concept albums - I'm not against the idea of telling a story throughout an entire record, but first and foremost the music itself has to be good. It could be the greatest story ever told lyrically, but I reckon if the music sucks then the whole, erm, concept of a concept album is redundant! Luckily I happen to like Framing Armageddon. The music was a nice mish-mash of the band's usual brand of power/speed metal and epic, melodic interlude tracks. I don't think it's their greatest album by any means, but I do still revisit it every once in a while. And I even kinda like the idea of the story too.

The Crucible of Man though, is not an album I revisit - like, ever. Hence why it's made this 'Blast from the past albums' post! Even though this album follows many of the same musical formulas and ingredients of Framing Armageddon, the songs weren't nearly as memorable this time to my ears back in 2008. I played it's predecessor a lot back in 2007/2008, so other than some of the short interlude tracks, I can still remember how most of the main songs from that record go to this day. Having just sat down and listened to Crucible again for the first time in, well, I genuinely DON'T KNOW how long (!!), I could only remember mere shimmers of these songs. It's not all bad news though - I do like the way Jon Schaffer trimmed the edges a little this time around. The album is made up of 15 tracks instead of 19 - so there's far less mini interludes to sit through, even if the songs do sometimes still make use of similar instrumentation. The melodic, mellow parts of the album are treated as introductions within the songs now rather than on their own, and as a result it makes Crucible feel a little more streamlined overall. 

Frankly, I think Crucible flows pretty well for the most part. In fact, I find the album actually gets stronger about halfway through - although I am particularly fond of the atmospheric ballad 'A Gift or a Curse?', track 5. Songs like like 'Harbringer of Fate', 'Crucify the King', 'Something Wicked (Part 3)', 'Divide Devour', 'Come What May' are powerful slabs of melodic yet heavy power metal - Schaffer's signature, almost galloping riffage is certainly present on them, but the music definitely has that epic feel in the same way Part 1 had. I don't own every Iced Earth album, but both parts of the Something Wicked story have a grandeur about them that earlier records such as Night of the Stormrider don't. Night of the Stormrider is punchier, less fancy and more attune to the classic US power metal sound by comparison. The Something Wicked Pts. 1 & 2 albums still sound like Iced Earth, just more operatic and dramatic! And even if I feel more personal attachment to the Tim Owens-era of the band, Matt Barlow is unquestionably just as suited to the music contained within this record. He sounds great! Different to Tim of course, but he still sings in a clean, powerful and distinct style that fits well with the direction of the songs. And that's a good thing of course, because of how similar this album is stylistically to Framing Armageddon. 

I guess some people could argue that Schaffer should have just released Something Wicked as a double album. Personally I think the way both parts were released as individual albums makes sense to me. Even if the music across both parts is similar, the fact one has Tim and the other has Matt kind of makes me want to listen to them separately and not both in a single sitting. It makes both records stand fairly strong on their own feet...

...but I guess this can also be a shortcoming. Even though I actually like both records, hearing both in 1 session is too much for me to handle. I'd get bored eventually because I don't think the music is really strong enough to warrant a 2 hour plus playing time. A double album has to be great for me to justify sitting through such a long tracklisting. And if we're being honest here, The Crucible of Man is still the weaker half in my books. Maybe that's partly due to bias in favour of Framing Armageddon, it being my first Iced Earth album... but I can't help but think the band essentially made the same record twice. Even the vocal structure in the chorus to 'I Walk Alone' sounds alarmingly like 'Setian Massacre' from Part 1! It'd be utterly pointless if it weren't for the fact it has Barlow singing instead of Owens. 

But you know what? I've listened to The Crucible of Man twice this week and not once did I get tired of it, or skip any of it's tracks. So it's definitely still a good Iced Earth album even if it's not a great one. I just don't need to hear it straight after listening to Framing Armageddon! I default to Part 1, basically - so that would explain why this second half has been sat on my shelf year after year untouched. Still, revisiting The Crucible of Man was kinda fun!
Adam's rating: 7/10

Blast from the past albums #2: EVILE - Infected Nations (2009, Earache)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

Infected Nations is Evile's second album, and one I remember being pretty psyched for back in 2009. I was a big fan of their first record, 2007's Enter the Grave. I still am. In fact, I still have my Enter the Grave t-shirt from when I saw them live in 2010 (even though it was the Infected Nations tour!)! That debut was, and still is a killer slab of modern thrash metal. I talked about Violator's Chemical Assault in my first 'Blast from past albums' post, and they totally nailed the '80s thrash sound and aesthetic on that album. Evile's take on thrash was still old-school enough musically and even lyrically to appeal to the older metal crowd, but the production values, album artwork etc. provided a modern twist in a way that was unique to the boys from Huddersfield, UK. They were bringing thrash metal to the masses but with their own trademark. And it was great. But this post is supposed to be about Infected Nations, not the debut!

So anyway, I felt they had a lot to live up to with Infected Nations. And when I finally got my hands on the album (it dropped in September 2009... in my head it was early '09, but apparently not!) I was... not disappointed with it as such, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting from them either. It's still Evile... but I guess when a band has only made 1 album prior, if they deviate from the sound of their debut with their follow-up, the changes are gonna be even more noticeable somehow. Infected Nations is still as heavy as it's predecessor (if not heavier in some ways), but the lyrics and overall approach to songwriting seems to have matured a little compared to Enter the Grave. The musicianship was still solid as a rock before, but the playing and instrumentation has gotten a little more technical, more ambitious and maybe even a little more progressive too in some ways.

Aye, most of the songs are generally longer and more complicated this time around. 'Genocide' and 'Metamorphosis' are 7 minutes plus in length. Hell, 'Hundred Wrathful Deities' is over 11 minutes long! So no, tracks from the debut like 'Thrasher' (which is about moshin'!) or 'First Blood' (which is about Rambo!) wouldn't have worked on the slightly more sophisticated Infected Nations! But I wouldn't call this album pretentious either; from what I can tell the lads were either well into their 20s by the time they recorded it, with bassist Mike Alexander (RIP) in his 30s at this point. Who can blame them for wanting to move away from lyrical thrash stereotypes? Not that there's anything wrong with thrash stereotypes - like I said, Enter the Grave is a killer album (and so is Violator's Chemical Assault, which is more stereotypical of the genre!) - but, there's only so much you can do with that sound and image. Somehow Infected Nations feels a little more serious in comparison.

And anyway, although many of these tracks are just as much mid-tempo as they are fast, the riffing is most definitely there. In fact, a lot of the time the approach to riffing reminds me a lot of Metallica's prog-thrash hybrid ...And Justice for All. Especially the songs 'Nosophoros' and 'Devoid of Thought' for some reason. Yep, the riffs are as tight as a drum, and they're almost endless in scope throughout every track. Ol Drake's soloing has only gotten better and the production, although a tad dryer this time around, is still crunchy and organic. The bass is kind of hard to make out even if it is still there, but that's my only real gripe with regards to the production. Matt Drake's vocals adapted too somewhat; he isn't as shouty this time around, and not as pronounced either. He kind of reminds me of how Slayer's Tom Araya subdued his vocals a little on South of Heaven after the barnburner that was Reign in Blood. I'm not sure I enjoy Matt's vocals as much this time around, but they're still suiting of the music for sure. 

Why is it then, that Evile's Infected Nations has even made this category of blog post if I actually like it a lot? Why has it sat on my shelves gathering dust for so many years? Well for starters, I still enjoy Enter the Grave more overall, mostly for sentimental reasons. I played the shit out of it in school and college. Of course it was gonna have an impact on me! I was fully embracing all the thrash stereotype tropes at the time and here was a new band from my neck of the woods (well, England anyway, not necessarily Huddersfield!) playing the music I was massively invested in! Because Infected Nations does things a little differently to the debut album I was obsessed with, it didn't hit me in the same way.

But the main reason is probably because the songs just aren't as memorable as they were on the first album - even though the music is just as intense (in a different way), there's a lot more to digest here, and a lot more going on in general. It's not as in-your-face or direct as it's predecessor. I mean, fuck, it ends on an 11 minute instrumental for crying out loud ('Hundred Wrathful Deities')! But guess what? That doesn't make the album any weaker per se. ...And Justice for All was a lot more demanding to listen to than Kill 'Em All, but I still prefer AJFA! Okay, so maybe this isn't the case with Evile, but I have a feeling that if I'd bought Enter the Grave and Infected Nations and heard both of them around the same time, then this follow-up album could just have easily have been my favourite of the 2. Because the songwriting is far more impressive here on a technical level, and I wouldn't argue with anyone if they said they liked this one better. It really is great stuff - it was just overshadowed by the debut and I think it always will be for me sadly. 

Strangely enough, I haven't bought any of Evile's albums after this one, yet I've been meaning to for many years. Oh, and on a side note, Infected Nations' album cover is cool. Kreator's 2012 album Phantom Antichrist looks alarmingly similar to me!
Adam's rating: 8/10

Blast from the past albums #1: VIOLATOR - Chemical Assault (2006, Earache)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

Brazilian thrash act Violator released their debut album, Chemical Assault, way back in 2006. In 2008 it was reissued by Earache, which is the version I have in my collection. I'm fairly certain I bought this CD at some point during my first year of college in 2008 (or possibly 2009) - either way, it was around the time this reissue appeared on the shelves. Speaking of which, I definitely bought it in a mainstream record store like HMV - we have 3 independent record shops where I live today, but when I was in school/college, the whole vinyl resurgence hadn't really taken off yet (at least not where I live) and HMV was all we had when it came to buying music in physical format. I'm only bringing this up because I'm surprised they even stocked this album in my relatively small town. It was quite rare to see somewhat obscure metal releases in the tiny metal CD section we had here; I used to get the train to Birmingham and scour the metal section of their massive HMV to find more underground releases. Either way I acquired this album around the age of 16!

Violator are one of the few 'thrash revival' bands I've heard that truly sound like they've been ripped straight from the '80s scene. We saw a lot of bands attempting to resurrect thrash metal of this ilk in the mid-late 2000s ('pizza thrash' as they're sometimes dubbed), but I don't think they always managed to completely replicate the style and image to a tee. And that's not a bad thing - there's plenty of thrash bands I really enjoy who emerged from the 2000s (Municipal Waste, Havok, Evile, Gama Bomb etc.) but factors such as more modern production values or detuning instruments to album covers and even band image often made it easy to tell it was a modern band. Like I said, not a bad thing - thrash doesn't have to come from the '80s to be good. All I'm saying is that Violator really nailed the whole '80s thrash style with Chemical Assault. The album cover and band logo is undoubtedly what made me pick this up, because I'd never heard of Violator before. There's no fucking way this album could be anything other than thrash. On the back of the jewel case are some live shots of the band members in battle jackets and bullet belts - how can this not be good, especially to a 16 year old who'd been obsessing over Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus, Annihilator and whoever else for the past couple of years!! Even the fucking font for the album title and tracklisting reminds me of Nuclear Assault's Survive!!

More importantly is the music itself. I played this a lot in my teens, and then I guess my ever-expanding metal collection made me play it less and less as the years went by. But hey, I'm 33 now and I've listened to Chemical Assault again 2 or 3 times over the past week, and I still get a thrill out of it! Is it better than I remembered? Maybe not. Is it as good as I remembered? Hell yes! The riffs sound like a mixture of early Exodus, Nuclear Assault and Sodom - not super technical, but suitably frantic and endless in scope. And the album is rarely - if ever - mid-tempo. Maybe the odd riff or breakdown can slow from time to time, but 95% of the time this album rips. And the guitars are played in what sounds to me like a more standard tuning (or maybe tuned half a step down) unlike 99% of metal bands these days! The drumming is maybe not as spectacular as some of thrash's biggest names behind the kit (Charlie Benante, Dave Lombardo, Paul Bostaph etc.), but it's serviceable. And they sound organic too.

Yeah, the production is great here in a vintage way - I'll echo the word organic because that's what it is. It isn't glossy and streamlined like so many albums these days. Again, there's nothing wrong with that either. But if you're intentionally trying to sound old-school, then replicating Andy Sneap's production style won't cut it! You need to get down and dirty like Violator have done here! But in a way that instruments are still audible. The guitar tones are beefy, chunky even. Maybe the bass is lacking a little, but overall the instruments and vocals have been mixed nicely where it sounds good to my ears. The vocals are my maybe my least favourite aspect of this record. Not that Pedro's vocals are outright bad or unsuitable for the music, he's just passable at best here really. He has this shrill, kinda high-pitched rasp that does totally suit the songs, but maybe a little more gruffness to them would've been good too. The good news is that the album is full of old-school gang-like backing vocals that really enhance the songs. They certainly boost the lead vocals a lot.

The fact the band have split up multiple times over the past couple of decades, as well as the fact they've only made 3 studio albums to date (1 of which literally came out this year!) is probably a large part of why I kind of forgot about Chemical Assault and Violator in general for a long time. It has nothing to do with the quality of the music - this is a rock-solid slab of thrash that almost effortlessly takes the listener back to 1986, yet was recorded some 20 years later! I've literally just stuck 'Atomic Nightmare', 'United for Thrash', 'Addicted to Mosh' and 'The Plague Returns' into my driving/gym heavy metal playlist! So yes, this album is as good as I remembered, and a fun 37 minute nostalgia trip for me. There's better thrash albums there of course - but as far as 21st century thrash goes, well, it's probably one of the stronger albums in my collection from a band that is essentially paying tribute to that style.
Adam's rating: 8.1/10

Good (or at least passable) albums from some of my favourite bands that I almost never listen to!

This subject came into my head the other day - albums from some of my favourite artists that I almost never listen to despite having a mostly decent set of songs. I'm not saying any of these are particularly great records, I'm simply saying that these are albums I do somewhat enjoy yet very rarely give them any spin time! I actually often find myself giving more attention to albums I don't necessarily enjoy in hopes that they will eventually win me over! And then you've got albums like the one's I'm listing here that are stronger, yet I still overlook for whatever reason!


AC/DC - Rock or Bust (2014)
Really not a bad album at all - in fact I appreciate Rock or Bust's compact 34 minute length, especially considering it's predecessor - 2008's Black Ice - was a little bit of a slog at 55 minutes long. And yet out of the entire AC/DC catalogue, Rock or Bust is likely the album I've listened to the least! Even if Black Ice had more filler, the singles on that album were great. Rock or Bust is just a solidly consistent record from start to finish - it sounds like AC/DC alright, and it's good. But in my opinion nothing on here is particularly great, and that's probably why I don't listen to it very often.


ANNIHILATOR - Criteria for a Black Widow (1999)
Ironically I actually consider Criteria for a Black Widow to be one of the more underrated albums from the Annihilator camp, yet I still manage to forget about it's existence more often than not! It saw the return of Randy Rampage on vocals... but in my head I often seem to think that Alice in Hell was the only Annihilator record he sang on! Plenty of good tracks on this one either way - I mean, 'Bloodbath' is absolutely one of the fastest and most frantic thrashers Jeff Waters ever laid down! I also really like 'Punctured', 'Nothing Left' and the throwback to Never, Neverland's 'Fun Palace' titled, erm, 'Back to the Palace'! You know what, this album's getting a full listen once I've finished writing this article!


BIOHAZARD - New World Disorder (1999)
The worst Biohazard album is still a somewhat decent one (in my opinion of course). But New World Disorder is still an album I very rarely revisit - I re-reviewed it this year when I rewrote my Biohazard page, and it was the first time in about 8 years I'd given it any sort of attention! The songs - although punchy and gritty as they should be - don't capture the same magic as their first 3 records. Thankfully Biohazard minus lead guitarist Bobby Hambel and performing on autopilot is still listenable to my ears, but it's difficult to pick any real standouts from this one.


BLUE OYSTER CULT - Spectres (1977)
I think a lot of fans would consider Spectres to be a classic album, but I always found it to be significantly weaker than any of BOC's previous 4 records. It still has plenty of strengths - for starters, 'Godzilla', 'Fireworks' and 'Golden Age of Leather' are tremendous - but there's a couple of tracks here such as 'Celestial the Queen' and the stupidly-titled 'R. U. Ready 2 Rock' (*facepalm*) that never quite settled well with me personally. There's something in the musical formula somewhere the previous 4 albums had, that Spectres doesn't. As it stands however, it's still far from one of their worst albums, but it's certainly one I don't turn to very often.


DEEP PURPLE - The House of Blue Light (1987)
The House of Blue Light might actually be my least favourite Purple record these days. For years and years I would've said either The Book of Taliesyn or Slaves and Masters, but both of those albums have gone up in my ranks a lot over time. Blue Light remains a fair, passable album at best for me. No terrible tracks to speak of, and even a couple of borderline classics did manage to crawl their way into the tracklisting ('Bad Attitude', 'The Spanish Archer', 'Black & White'...)... but this is largely just a semi-decent record for me. It came after 1984's amazing comeback, Perfect Strangers, and before the polarising Joe Lynn Turner-fronted Slaves and Masters. But hey, there is no such thing as a bad Deep Purple album in my world, and I still enjoy the bulk of Blue Light even if it's not a regular listen.


FAITH NO MORE - Sol Invictus (2015)
Despite having only made 7 studio records in total, I don't find myself listening to Faith No More's 2015 and still most recent album Sol Invictus almost ever. Generally the smaller a discography, the more likely I am to listen to each album semi-regularly, but Sol Invictus nearly always gets a pass from me - even though I still find it to be rather good overall. The problem is, I find every other album Faith No More's catalogue to be great. This one is a significant downgrade in my books, even if it is still decent. Every album prior had a personality of it's own; Sol Invictus feels a bit by-the-numbers in comparison. FNM were always full of surprises - but here, there aren't any. I mean, songs like 'Superhero' and 'Motherfucker' are playlist-worthy, and the rest of the album certainly sounds like FNM... but I can hardly call it memorable. Yeah, I think I'll just grab Angel Dust or even We Care a Lot instead.


GRAVE DIGGER - The Living Dead (2018)
I've been on a massive Grave Digger binge this year - I managed to finish off my collection and review the catalogue in full. 2018's The Living Dead seems to be the one I've heard the least, even though I wouldn't rank it at the bottom of the pile. It's my least favourite of the Axel Ritt guitar-era, sure, but either way the album is still a good'un from beginning to end. Other than the fun folk metal experiment 'Zombie Dance' at the end (which I still like), the album confidently continues the band's usual brand of speed/power metal. I suppose when you have such a large and often similar-sounding discography like Grave Digger's, some records just won't get the same attention as others... despite the quality of the music.


IRON MAIDEN - Senjutsu (2021)
Even though I re-wrote my Iron Maiden page last year, there's an album on that page that I didn't re-review - 2021's Senjutsu, which is still their most recent effort to date. My relationship with 21st century Maiden is a bit ropey - some of the albums I like (2015's The Book of Souls I'm a big fan of), others not so much. But one thing that's for sure is Maiden in the 21st century will never top anything they recorded in the '80s - for me anyway. I bought this double album within a few months of it's launch in 2021, yet didn't actually listen to it for at least a year! Like pretty much all their other albums of this century, it doesn't sound great from a production point of view and the tracklisting mostly consists of lengthy, proggy epics. Actual band performances/playing is impressive as always, but the songs take a lot of listens to really digest. I reviewed it in 2023, gave it a 7/10 and have barely touched it since. I guess the reason I didn't re-review it last year is because I still felt it was too soon for an update. Well, I still didn't bother listening to Senjutsu again last year, so maybe I'll finally revisit it in 2026?


MAGNUM - Breath of Life (2002)
When Magnum reformed in 2001 after a 6-year break, the first album they put out was 2002's Breath of Life. If you've read my Magnum review page, you'll see that I don't think they ever made a bad album. I gave this particular one a 7/10 - but out of all 23 of their studio records, it just happens to be the one I listen to the least. Similar to 1992's Sleepwalking, this is a largely very mellow Magnum album save for tracks like 'Cry' and 'This Heart', and that's probably why it isn't a go-to disc for me. But like I said, I think every Magnum CD is worth hearing - and this being one of the most mellow one's in their library isn't necessarily a bad thing. The music is as majestic as ever, it's just not one of my favourites! Still a good album either way!


MEGADETH - Th1rt3en (2011)
Th1rt3en sits between what is generally considered to be a modern Megadeth classic (2009's Endgame), and also what many fans claim to be their worst (2013's Super Collider, an album I actually liked!). And guess what? Th1rt3en is a mostly-solid, decent-enough Megadeth record with no real classics to be found - but also no turkeys either. 'Public Enemy No. 1', 'Sudden Death' and 'Never Human' are fine tracks, but far from legendary... too many mid-tempo songs let things down a bit. To be honest I find this thing to be almost interchangeable with 2007's United Abominations and 2005's The System Has Failed. But even those albums get more play from me because UA was the first Megadeth album I bought as a new release when I was at school and thus have more history with, while System is just about the strongest album of the bunch.


METAL CHURCH - Generation Nothing (2013)
Every Metal Church album is at the very least good, but 2013's Generation Nothing is maybe the most stale if I had to pick one. But like I said, it's still good. The punky opener 'Bulletproof' is very cool in particular, but overall this CD seems to get the least amount of spin-time from me. Simply put, there's just better Metal Church albums out there! And that includes all the other 3 Ronny Munroe records! Not much else to say about this one.


MOTORHEAD - The World Is Yours (2010)
Considering the first time I saw Motorhead live they were touring in support of this album, I really haven't listened to it much at all since it dropped in late 2010. It comes from the late stage Cameron Webb-produced era of the band, so it sounds very similar to albums such as Kiss of Death, Motorizer and Aftershock - and I'm a big fan of this period of Motorhead, so what exactly holds back The World Is Yours for me is difficult to say. Other than maybe March or Die, there's absolutely zero dodgy Motorhead studio records, and TWIY is certainly no exception. But I'm looking at it's tracklisting right now and other than maybe 'I Know How to Die' and 'Bye Bye Bitch Bye Bye', I'm struggling to remember any of these songs. This is going on in the gym at some point this week.


SAXON - Solid Ball of Rock (1991)
Other than the 2 covers albums (Inspirations and More Inspirations), 1991's Solid Ball of Rock seems to gather more dust in my Saxon collection than the rest. It's sandwiched between what is in my opinion their worst album (1988's Destiny), and an underrated one that I really like (1992's Forever Free). So I guess that's a big part of the reason why Solid Ball of Rock only gets a play every once in a blue moon for me. It doesn't really help that the band still couldn't decide if they wanted to go back to their roots or break the charts - so the music is a mish-mash of pure heavy metal thunder and arena rockers. The good news is that even the more accessible stuff like 'Requiem (We Will Remember)' and 'I'm On Fire' are still far better than what Destiny tried to pull off. And speed metal songs like 'Altar of the Gods' and 'Baptism of Fire' are pure Saxon classics. A decent, if flawed album. 


SLAYER - World Painted Blood (2009)
I'm a Slayer fan, really. I love the first 6 albums - yes, including Divine Intervention! And I also love the Haunting the Chapel EP and Live Undead live album. But everything after 1994 in my opinion has been mostly solid, if unspectacular. Naturally then, there's gonna be some albums that get less attention than others. 2009's World Painted Blood is the one I feel I've touched the least overall. I actually think the songs are pretty strong on this one, and certainly more Slayer-sounding in the traditional sense than the patchy Diabolus in Musica or God Hates Us All (which are still okay in my books to be fair). I'd even argue that the songwriting on WPB still comes out above their swansong, 2015's Repentless... but the dry production really lets this one down. It's a shame, because the tracks are as nasty as ever (save for maybe 'Beauty Through Order'). I still think WPB is a good album - like I said, I think the songs are actually strong overall - but I guess the sub-par production plays a large part in why my copy has been shelved for years at this point. 


SUICIDAL TENDENCIES - 13 (2013)
This album is essentially Suicidal Tendencies on autopilot - no duff tracks, but nothing really spectacular to speak of either. Only 'Slam City' makes playlists for me, but whenever I hear 13 in full it's still a largely enjoyable listen overall. More of the same hardcore-infused thrash metal that they're known for without many of the funk influences that seeped into their way into a lot of the '90s albums. I genuinely think the last time I listened to this disc in full was at the start of 2022 when I updated my Suicidal Tendencies page. I just listened to a few songs again from it as I type ('This Ain't a Celebration', 'Shake It Out' and 'Cyco Style'), and they're good! Maybe this one is simply overshadowed by 2016's World Gone Mad? I like that one a lot, so it makes sense.


UFO - The Visitor (2009)
In general I think the Vinnie Moore era of UFO has it's share of strong and underrated albums - Sharks, You Are Here, The Monkey Puzzle... these are all great in my books. As for 2009's The Visitor - this one's actually pretty good too, but there's a definite emphasis on blues-based rock songs... maybe a little too many blues-based tracks for my liking. Not that there's anything wrong with blues rock of course (and not every song is bluesy either) - in fact, I get strong '70s blues rock vibes from this album at times, and Moore's fretwork is superb as always (in a different way this time). But I don't often get strong UFO vibes from it either!! The songs don't excite me in the same way the hard rock-focused classic Michael Schenker era does, nor is the album delivered with the same levels of ballsy riffage that the Paul Chapman era had. It's my least favourite of the Vinnie Moore albums - apart from that covers record they made in 2017 anyway. Still a good album in it's own right though, even if I don't listen to it very often. Hence why it's made this list!


VAN HALEN - A Different Kind of Truth (2012)
It makes me happy that A Different Kind of Truth even exists - it was the first Van Halen album since 1998's critically-panned Van Halen III (an album I actually like!), and the first with their classic frontman David Lee Roth since 1984's, erm, 1984! And yet it's still the Van Halen record I listen to the least. Musically it's a competent beast - it does hearken back to their early works somewhat, and is certainly not trying to replicate the Sammy Hagar-era either. Eddie's guitar work is stellar as always. But I forget it even exists some days! I can't really pinpoint why exactly. It could be down to the fact I find it has less standout cuts than other Van Halen records despite being more consistently strong compared to say, Balance or Van Halen III. Perhaps the absence of Michael Anthony irks me? Maybe I'll give this one a listen again in the gym tomorrow. Or maybe I won't. 


VENOM - Storm the Gates (2018)
Still the most recent Venom album to date, and probably the one I've listened to the least overall. The music is as raw and ugly as you'd expect, and I actually like Storm the Gates' primal production job - but the songs aren't memorable enough to really make me want to revisit this one regularly. Certainly not bad, but it doesn't come close to the band's early run in the '80s nor is it even one of their strongest latter-period albums. It's Venom by the numbers, so it's fine. But that's also why I don't reach for it all that often.