Grand Magus is one of those bands you expect a lot from. They’ve released a series of top-notch traditional metal albums with elements of doom, and their past few albums were some serious masterstrokes, loaded with catchy, classy tunes. Their style is like a mix of Dio era Black Sabbath and Candlemass with hard rock bands like Fireball Ministry, and they have the knack for writing killer riffs that rattle around in the cranium for days.
Steel Assassin is a mighty obscure act by anyone’s reckoning. They were knocking around all throughout the 80s and 90s but could never get a proper album released. Then, quite out of the blue, they released War of the Eight Saints in 2007 and totally blew me away with their ballsy, aggressive take on American power metal and NWOBHM. It was one of the best albums of that year, but didn’t bring them as much attention as it deserved.
Furyon sounds rather huggable and bad for asthma-prone people, but this rising UK band have concocted a decent debut full-length album here, which will make those asthma-prone people catch their fleeting breaths.
I feel like I spend a lot of time discussing and reviewing musical projects helmed by Tuomas Saukkonen. Not that I’m complaining mind you, since I love the guy’s work.
Incoming! Incoming! It’s a bad album cover!
Raise the sails and fly the black mark, the original metal pirates are back to plunder your booty (in a strictly platonic way, of course).
It’s been said by some (one) that all we do at AMG is review death metal. Well, this here certainly ain’t death metal!
Overkill is the king of the B level metal bands.
Ah, 3 Inches of Blood. I’ve had a very dysfunctional relationship with them, filled with dizzying highs and crushing lows. I’ve alternated between enjoying them, questioning the reasons for their existence and dismissing them as a gimmick.
I’m a Russell Allen fanboy. I sing his praises every chance I get because he’s one of the best vocalists to ever grace the metal genre. Whether its his work with Symphony X, Allen/Lande or Star One, his vocals make good music great and great music stupendous. It was only a matter of time however, until we found out what his vocals could do for average or bad music.
