Roar Rock of Angels Records

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.

Diviner – Avaton Review

By Steel Druhm on November 10, 2023 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, 37 comments

“In a year steeped with excessive amounts of death metal and the unspeakable depravities that go with that, I’ve been without my normal dosage of sword-swinging traditional and trve metals. Luckily, the Hellenic warriors in Diviner are out to remedy that situation with their mammoth third opus, Avaton. Since their founding in 2015, Diviner made it their business to bring burly, machismo-laden classic metal to the masses on quality platters Fallen Empires and Realms of Time.” Divine interwention.

Stray Gods – Olympus Review

By Steel Druhm on June 27, 2023 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, 40 comments

“The line between a homage act and a band heavily influenced by a more established outfit is a fine one. Greek metal warriors Stray Gods are located about 500 miles to the former side of that line. Beginning with their 2022 debut Storm the Walls, they showed that they loved one band above all others and that band was… Iron Maiden. The album was like an obsessive love letter to those elder warriors of NWoBHM and it worked well despite being Maiden fanfic. Just over a year later we get the follow-up, Olympus, and little has changed with Stray Gods’s predilections.” Re-up the Irons.

Mystic Prophecy – Hellriot Review

By Holdeneye on May 17, 2023 in Reviews, Groove Metal, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 73 comments

“I love Mystic Prophecy. What do I love about them? Everything. I love the excessive machismo of their aesthetic, the over-the-top badassery of their album artwork, their delightful ESL lyrics, and the way the band shoehorns the words “hell,” “devil,” “demons,” “Lucifer,” and any number of similarly sinister subjects (not to mention album titles from their own past and classic album titles from other greats) into said lyrics. But most of all, I love that Mystic Prophecy is hell-bent on keeping heavy metal fucking heavy.” Wicked Mystic.

Ashes of Ares – Emperors and Fools Review

By Holdeneye on January 21, 2022 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 84 comments

“Barlow’s time as the classic Iced Earth vocalist solidified him as one of these legendary figures in my personal mythology, and that legend was only strengthened when I learned that he’d left the band to pursue a career as a police officer after the events of 9/11. His return to the mic with Pyramaze was a pleasant surprise, and I really enjoyed the 2013 self-titled debut from Ashes of Ares, the project he formed with former Iced Earth bassist Freddy Vidales. For whatever reason, I missed Ashes of Ares’ 2018 sophomore platter Well of Souls, but when I saw follow-up Emperors and Fools had found its way into the January promo bin, I threatened violence against any reviewer who might try to take it from me.” War arts!

Hellryder – The Devil Is a Gambler Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on June 2, 2021 in Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, 18 comments

“There are castles and dragons, maidens and jesters, kings and queens. But genres have mixed. Instead of shiny armor, the knights are clothed in black leather. The queen serves as a groupie to the local tale spinners. And, the womenfolk have hair bigger than the menfolk’s broadswords. This is a place where stories of love are equally as common as those of war and mythology. It’s a strange time. Conformity and individuality struggle daily. Can members of this society compromise? Evolution is inevitable. Can they combine their best traits and push on to build something greater than their two parts? Lo and behold, this world exists—for better or worse. It’s the world of Hellryder, and according to them, The Devil Is a Gambler.” Gamblor will break you.

Fireforce – Rage of War Review

By Holdeneye on January 13, 2021 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 45 comments

“Belgium’s Fireforce graduated from the same military academy that produced beefy power and/or heavy metal war machines like Dream Evil, Mystic Prophecy, and Sabaton, and apparently these guys graduated somewhere near the middle of their class.” Fire drilling.

Synthetic – Clepsydra: Time Against Infinity Review

By GardensTale on October 1, 2020 in Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, 18 comments

“Well, the promo claimed Clepsydra to be symphonic progressive metal, which did not fill me with hope. Thankfully, this claim was wrong. It’s not very symphonic; it just overuses keyboards a lot. It admittedly has that in common with actual symphonic bands, but at least the synths in Synthetic are more earnest in their synthetic sound rather than trying and failing to imitate an actual orchestra. Nor is this record very progressive at all; most of the songs have a basic verse-chorus structure and rely on direct hooks of a pretty tried and true style. The style in question is more along the lines of metalcore and melodic death, winding up somewhere in between Killswitch Engage, Soilwork and In Flames, just with a lot more keyboards.” Corephobia.

Course of Fate – Mindweaver Review

By Twelve on May 14, 2020 in Reviews, Progressive Metal, 15 comments

“I’ve always been interested in bands that have long histories and comparatively brief discographies. Course of Fate is a Norwegian sextet that formed back in 2003, but their debut full-length album Mindweaver is just now releasing, seventeen years later.” Time is the mindweaver.