Steel Druhm

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Acerus – The Caliginous Serenade Review

Acerus – The Caliginous Serenade Review

By Steel Druhm on February 2, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, 31 comments

“The Chasm have been cracking skulls since 1994 with their riff-intensive, wildly creative death metal. Over the years they evolved from ass-scratching caveman death to technical insanity engineers, but skulls were always smashed just the same. Though I’ve been a fan forever, somehow I missed that The Chasm’s bassist/guitarist/vocalist Daniel Corchado had an epic/trve metal side project called Acerus and had been releasing albums since 2014. For this, I feel great shame and now I must make amends. The Caliginous Serenade is their fourth release and this one will be properly exposed to the AMG masses!” Ride of the Gorge Warriors.

Striker – Ultrapower Review

Striker – Ultrapower Review

By Steel Druhm on January 31, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 58 comments

“Canada’s heavy metal heroes Striker have been launching throwback volleys at the masses since 2009. Their style blends traditional metal ideas with power and thrash influences, often to good effect and they’ve always been capable of hooky songcraft. They also have a tendency to be tongue-in-cheek at times, refusing to take themselves too seriously. These are all admirable traits and make Striker easy to root for. Despite these pluses, they’ve struggled to craft consistently hard-hitting albums. Here comes seventh outing, Ultrapower, with a craptastic cover and an even worse band photo.” Power outage.

Show N Tell – The Ritual Has Begun Review

Show N Tell – The Ritual Has Begun Review

By Steel Druhm on January 25, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, 42 comments

“I’m a child of the maelstrom that was 80s metal. I was learning what I enjoyed musically during the embryonic days of MTV, and in those early years that channel force-fed me a steady diet of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Def Leppard videos. The 80s metal sound is encoded into my DNA and if you hit me hard enough, old fanzine ink leaks out. This makes me the demographic for what Phoenix Arizona’s Show N Tell are selling on their The Ritual Has Begun debut. This is 100% unabashedly retro metal with a carbon date of 1983-84, when American metal acts were taking the NWoBHM sound and speeding it up.” Show me the METAL!

Necrotum – Defleshed Exhumation Review

Necrotum – Defleshed Exhumation Review

By Steel Druhm on January 24, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, 33 comments

“I cannot claim familiarity or history with Romanian death metal act Necrotum, but the promo sump was shallow in January and an album title like Defleshed Exhumation was sure to catch the eye of Steel even in more target-rich environs. This is the band’s third full-length effort and it features a sound sitting at the crossroads of tech/prog/OSDM.” Right in the Necrotum!

Sovereign – Altered Realities Review

Sovereign – Altered Realities Review

By Steel Druhm on January 19, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 65 comments

“From the chilly fjords of Norway comes the full-length debut by retro prog-death-thrashers, Sovereign. Formed by members of black and thrash acts like Nocturnal Breed and The Konsortium, Altered Realities is prime Death worship mixed with a generous topping of Possessed, Sadus and Demolition Hammer granola. It’s technical as Hell, proggy enough to be unusual, and has the requisite amount of thrashery to kick some teeth loose. If pressed to explain the album’s sound in an elevator pitch, I would say it sounds like the album Death could have recorded between Spiritual Healing and Human.” Altering the future again?

Saxon – Hell, Fire and Damnation Review

Saxon – Hell, Fire and Damnation Review

By Steel Druhm on January 17, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, 89 comments

“Saxon is ageless. Saxon is inevitable. Saxon will be releasing albums when all of you are but musty tomb mold. This is the way of things and has been since 1978. In fact, Saxon’s been rocking and rolling so long, even Black Sabbath thinks their minds are gone. The elder statesmen of the NWoBHM movement, these crusty Brits just keep churning out the goods, and here comes their 24th album, Hell, Fire and Damnation.” Olde dogs, new bite wounds.

Scanner – The Cosmic Race Review

Scanner – The Cosmic Race Review

By Steel Druhm on January 12, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 38 comments

“It’s an early-year surprise to be graced with a new album by Germanic power/heavy metal semi-legends Scanner. Early adopters of the Euro-power style created by Helloween, Scanner released two seminal albums at the start of their career. 1988s Hypertrace and 1990s Terminal Earth were rough and ready takes on the slick Helloween style and Scanner made their version extra interesting due to their more unhinged, raw edge. After the very good Terminal Earth, however, it took them until 1995 to drop a follow-up and by then much of the metal market had moved on to more extreme sounds or given up metal entirely and gone grunge.” Olde tech.

Ruthless – The Fallen Review

Ruthless – The Fallen Review

By Steel Druhm on January 9, 2024 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, 42 comments

“Ruthless have ancient roots in the metal scene but haven’t been active enough to gain much notoriety. Their Discipline of Steeldebut was released way back in 1986 when a young undisciplined Steel was living for exactly the kind of US power they deliver, but tragically, our paths never crossed. Turns out they didn’t release a follow-up until 2015 and The Fallen is their fourth full-length.” Tough and Ruthless or rough and toothless?

At the Plates – Omnivore Review

At the Plates – Omnivore Review

By Steel Druhm on January 5, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, 78 comments

“2024 is off to an interesting start for Steel! I grabbed the promo for Virginia’s At the Plates because it promised adventurous death metal, and I mistakenly assumed the album had something to do with lifting and gyming due to the moniker. I was wrong. At the Plates is a novel little act pushing a healthy eating theme and advocating for smart food choices.” Food for thought.