Neither snow, holiday hangovers nor lackluster apocalypses can keep Steel Druhm from showcasing his picks for Top Ten(ish) of the year in metal. He did all the work, you just need to read carefully, nod approvingly and give some harrumphs to the Steel One.
It’s the holiday season and Steel Druhm is here with the gift of “best of” lists! This time it’s the best songs of 2012. There’s some great stuff here so reflect on the year, fill yourself with holiday cheer and let the tunes kick you in the rear. Pat. Pending.
More power metal reviews by Steel Druhm? When is enough really enough? Rebellion rocks the classic Grave Digger style of Germanic power metal and with several ex Digger members onboard, they usually get it right. This time though? Tricky question.
We’re now into July! Impressive as it is, this year has been one hell of a year: like the year 2011 was supposed to have been but really, really wasn’t. On a personal note, I can say that I wasn’t expecting 2012 to be good at all. However, there haven’t even really been any major […]
As Angry Metal Guy, He Who Needs No Titles but Has Them Anyway, Angry Metal Emperor of Angry Metal Internetia, I take it upon myself to give a single recommendation of the best album that was released in a single month which I put up on the sidebar. However, May has been a particularly good month. So while I am going to recommend a single record and stick it on the sidebar, I believe that it is important that we actually tell you about four records that deserve your attention. So let me get to it.
Stones Grow Her Name always stood to be a controversial record because they don’t have a single song called “FullMoon” on it—but where would the band wander now that it had lost its mooring in EuroPower?
A mighty double review from both Angry Metal Guy and Steel Druhm for a mighty release Sabaton’s Carolus Rex.
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.
German power metal/freak show act Powerwolf have been perplexing me since their 2005 debut. All corpse painted up and evil looking, they look like a black metal band but actually play sub-par power metal with traditional metal elements and coat the whole thing with cheesy theatrics and goofball pomp. I attempted to get into what they were doing on several occasions due to the buzz they were receiving but aside from a few scattered tracks, it was rough going. To me they always seemed generic and silly, though I appreciated their zest and zeal for entertaining. With this back-history, I naturally chose to approach their fourth album, Blood of the Saints with muted expectations. As usual, Steel Druhm is proven wise indeed. Blood of the Saints is arguably Powerwolf’s best release thus far and packs several amusing and respectable songs, albeit, still laden with cheese and cheap theatrics. However, as a whole, its still the same Powerwolf product and that can’t lead too far down the road to the land of 5.0. For every decent song, there’s an equally painful one and a few are just laughable. While I know they don’t take themselves too seriously, sometimes silly is too silly and that’s the case here more often than not.
Sabaton // Coat of Arms Rating: 3.0/5.0 – These arms are getting tired Label: Nuclear Blast (US | EU) Websites: sabaton.net | myspace.com/sabaton Release Dates: EU: 21.05.2010 | US: 06.29.2010 Like a deranged history teacher who converts the chapter on World War Two into a classroom metal show, Sabaton blasts away about war, war and […]
