Dec19

Luca Sellitto – The Voice Within Review

Luca Sellitto – The Voice Within Review

“As I look back upon the strange and unwieldy mess that we’ve been calling “2019,” I feel like something has been missing. Something uplifting; something powerful. And I’m already short on word count, so, long story short, it’s power metal. In fact, I’m in such a slump for the stuff that seeing The Voice Within, the debut solo album from Luca Sellitto, the guitarist from Italian act Stamina, described as “neoclassical power metal” in the promo bin caused me to grab it so fast I hadn’t even registered the glowing electric guitar on the cover.” Power outage.

Human Fortress – Reign of Gold Review

Human Fortress – Reign of Gold Review

Human Fortress has had a strange and somewhat tragic career. I bought their 2001 debut Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir on a whim and was blown away by the classy, high-quality power metal the band delivered. Aided by the exceptional vocals of Jioti Parcharidis, the band crafted some excellent songs that have stuck with me over the years, and while the album wasn’t perfect, it was a rousing and polished slab o’ Euro-power with tons of hooks. In 2003 they took a big step forward, topping their debut with Defenders of the Crown, which has gone on to become one of my favorite power metal albums of all time and one I still play with great regularity. After this, things began to fall apart.” All that sparkles….

Hellsodomy – Morbid Cult Review

Hellsodomy – Morbid Cult Review

“I’m willing to bet Voidhanger’s Working Class Misanthropy is a legal means of execution in some countries and Goatwhore’s live performance remains the only thing that has caused me to piss my pants in my adult life. Hellsodomy don’t sound too much like those bands, but the raging energy this Turkish quartet exudes with their whirlwind of blakk, thrash, and death is enough to make me consider shoving their second album Morbid Cult right into the flabby folds of my Year End List.” Are you cultish?

Witchbones – The Seas of Draugen Review

Witchbones – The Seas of Draugen Review

“Only in existence since 2018, the one-man black and death metal project has, so far this year alone, dropped three EPs, two compilations and a debut album, May’s We Haunt Ourselves. And now we come to December and Witchbones’ second album, ,i>The Seas of Draugen. This is not blackened death as you picture it in your head. Unless, that is, you are familiar with the type of records that Iron Bonehead tends to put out.” Roll the bones.