Huck N Roll

Off you fuck, chief.

Kayak – Seventeen Review

By Huck N Roll on January 11, 2018 in 2018, Dutch Metal, InsideOut, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Progressive Rock, 54 comments

“I consider myself fairly well-versed on the subject of 70s prog. I’ve got scores of albums by dozens of bands, and what I don’t have I can usually recognize. So when something comes about that I haven’t heard of (like last year’s Sea Goat record), it’s gotta be for a good reason — like the band not recording anything, or sucking. So here we are with Dutch outfit Kayak, probably spelled backward, and their latest album Seventeen, which I have found out has nothing to do with Kip Winger strutting around partially clothed.” No Winger, no hairpiece!

Sinistro – Sangue Cássia Review

By Huck N Roll on January 2, 2018 in 2018, Doom Metal, Portuguese Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Doom Metal, 49 comments

“Two years ago, both Grymm and myself were fairly impressed by Portuguese doom outfit Sinistro’s sophomore album, Semente. The band laid down an ambient, unobtrusive foundation for Patricia Andrade’s haunting vocals, creating a mesmerizing, promising soundscape. Now here we are in 2018 and the band has taken a monumental step forward.”

Pristine – Ninja [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]

By Huck N Roll on December 18, 2017 in 2017, Hard Rock, Norwegian Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Things You MIght Have Missed 2017, Hard Rock, 45 comments

“It might not have been the best year for male vocalists, but the women in metal more than made up for it. Stellar performances from bands as varied as Royal Thunder, Sabbath Assembly, Chelsea Wolfe, Myrkur, and Diablo Swing Orchestra showed us that the women can bring it. But the best performance of the year came from a band whose album flew under our radar back in June, Pristine, and their fourth album, Ninja.” Women to the front!

Interstelar – Resin Review

By Huck N Roll on December 12, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Kozmik Artifactz, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Stoner Rock, 19 comments

“2017 is winding down. Let’s be honest: nobody really wants to read new reviews at this time of year. Just give us the damned lists and be done with it! But that’s not how we roll at Angry Metal Guy. We strive to provide until our last hollow breath. And so, I present Interstelar, a stoner rock band from Los Angeles that strives to take as much time recording as Sea Goat.” Lazy goats and space faring boats.

Hard Action – Hot Wired Beat Review

By Huck N Roll on December 7, 2017 in 2017, Finnish Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Retro Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Retro Metal, 9 comments

“Ah, December. Also known as the reviewer’s doldrums. Hardly anything good is ever released in December: it’s the time of year when our aggregate review scores take a bit of a tumble. In poring over the December releases, I found four albums that seemed marginally appealing. Hot Wired Beat, the sophomore effort from Finnish rockers Hard Action, wasn’t one of them. Nevertheless, I’m game for taking one more kick at the retro metal cat.” What did that retro cat ever do to you?

Sea Goat – Tata Review

By Huck N Roll on December 2, 2017 in 2017, German Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Swan Lake, Progressive Rock, 59 comments

“Now here’s a strange and interesting story. Imagine forming your band in 1973, naming yourself after a Pete Sinfield song from his Still album. Imagine working on your first album for forty-three years. Imagine playing and writing for nine years, then sleeping for two dozen. And imagine recording the songs you’ve been writing for all these years over a number of sessions scattered across eight years and five different locales. Clearly, time moves at a different speed for German progressive rockers Sea Goat.” Vote Goat.

Stälker – Shadow of the Sword Review

By Huck N Roll on November 29, 2017 in 2017, Napalm Records, New Zealand Metal, Reviews, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, 82 comments

“Last year in our EP edition of TYMHM, I waxed eloquent about a great little proto-thrash demo from some Wellington, NZ upstarts, Stälker. Their Satanic Panic cassette was such a nasty bit of early speed metal that it garnered the attention of Napalm Records, and this power trio was set to record their full-length debut this year. Enter Shadow of the Sword.” Only a big sword casts a shadow you can enter.

Perihelion – Örvény Review

By Huck N Roll on November 20, 2017 in 2017, Apathia Records, Hungarian Metal, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Reviews, Post-Metal, 51 comments

“After four long months, the moratorium on Huck N Roll reviewing albums with non-English singing has come to an end. And as luck would have it, this venerable reviewer managed to snag something from Hungary, AKA the Old Country. Perihelion isn’t a very Hungarian word, but the band makes up for that with a plethora of umlauts, accents, double acute accents, and other glyphs throughout their song titles. That automatically makes the band trve and is worth 0.5 bonus marks ” Umlat what your country can do for you.

Yer Metal Is Olde: Kiss – Love Gun

By Huck N Roll on November 19, 2017 in American Metal, Glam Metal, Heavy Metal, Yer Metal Is Olde, Glam Metal, Heavy Metal, 110 comments

“August 1977. A small boy is on vacation in the Big City with his family — once a year they make the eight-hour drive, to buy new corduroy pants and wide-striped shirts. But that’s not what is exciting the boy today in the shopping mall. He spent the summer picking bottles in the alleyways of his hometown and managed to save up seven dollars. And now he was in a record store, staring at a display on the wall that he could hardly get over. He knew he was looking at a record — after all, his parents had plenty of albums, from Neil Young to Engelbert Humperdinck — but he had never seen one that also looked like a comic book. And the price on it was $6.98: he had to have this.” Love is a battlefield, Kiss is the army.

Ram – Rod Review

By Huck N Roll on November 8, 2017 in 2017, Heavy Metal, Metal Blade, NWOBHM, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, 39 comments

“Back into the depths of traditional, olde-school, cheesy metal we delve, my friends, and what do we encounter but more Swedish goodness in the form of Ram, and their latest album, Rod. The band haven’t let the fact that their logo is perennially in the running for Worst in All of Metal slow them down: Rod is their fifth album over the last fifteen years, making these guys almost as old as the music they love to play.” If the rod don’t fit, Ram it!