Metal and Prog tops triumphantly returns, to count down the 41 best and brightest albums in its favourite genres. Expect the first entries to come soon!
Saturday 22 December 2018
Sunday 14 October 2018
The Best of Hard Rock 2010-18 (Part 2)
In the second part, we will be counting down the truly BEST ten albums out of....
The TOP 21 Hard Rock Albums of 2010-18
Uriah Heep have been critised at times for being unapologetically the same band since their early days till recent times. However it is this timeless quality of the band that results in exellent records time after time. In fact if you heard songs from their early days and from this album you would be at a loss to tell which song belongs to which era. The band has huge amounts of energy still, and this is very well recorded into the opener "Nail to he head" but at the same time shows willingness to express itself in more epic forms such as the awesome "Trail of Diamonds" and the anthemic "Southern Star". Worth checking out by all fans of classic hard rock.
The hard rock Swedes, Spiritual Beggars, have released another great album in 2016. With the amazing Apollo Papathanasio, as the lead vocalist for this record, "Sunrise To Sundown" is packed with great guitar riffs and great vocals making it an awesome addition to any playlist. You can find the full review here.
Hällas is a very interesting and less known melodic rock band with great retro elements. Their self-description as an adventure rock band perfectly describes their atmospheric music. A more detailed review can be found here.
The Grammers is a feel-good AOR band, true veterans of the genre. Their "Dream In a Minor Key" is bound to make your day with their catchy music and sing-along choruses! The full review can be found here.
This hard rock from California is definitely a great breakthrough act of this decade with groovy riffs and southern vibes, worthy of its position in the top 10. You can find a review of the "Great Western Valkyrie" here.
Another excellent release by the melodic rock legends which is an instant classic record. How can it go wrong with Bob Catley on the lead vocals? "Sacred Blood Divine Lies" is a great addition to their lengthy streak of amazing records. You can find the full review here.
Michael Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater, Sons of Apollo etc.) is back with another project, this time with a hard rocking twist. The Winery Dogs released a great album in 2013 full of groovy vibes and of course impeccable drumming. Read more here.
If you are looking for a great hard rock record that you can use as an allure to the dark side of 80s, this is the one! "Amber Galactic" is packed with catchy tunes straight from the disco. You can find more about the album here.
The Soulbreaker Company released a unique psychedelic rock album in 2014 that succeeded in taking the listener on a chill-out musical journey of amazing tunes that are perfectly blended with melancholic vocals. Read more here.
Blues Pills definitely are a surprise entry at the first place of the list for those who have not heard them. The band succeeds in combining a 70's retro vibe with psychedelic and blues elements creating an amazingly catchy and feel-good hard rock album! Read the review of the "Blues Pills" here. They followed this up with another great record, "Lady In Gold", in 2016 sticking to their great formula and making us hope for amazing things to come from this band in the future!
==========================================================
10. Uriah Heep - Into The Wild (Frontiers - 2011)
Uriah Heep have been critised at times for being unapologetically the same band since their early days till recent times. However it is this timeless quality of the band that results in exellent records time after time. In fact if you heard songs from their early days and from this album you would be at a loss to tell which song belongs to which era. The band has huge amounts of energy still, and this is very well recorded into the opener "Nail to he head" but at the same time shows willingness to express itself in more epic forms such as the awesome "Trail of Diamonds" and the anthemic "Southern Star". Worth checking out by all fans of classic hard rock.
93.5/100
==========================================================
9. Spiritual Beggars - Sunrise To Sundown (InsideOut - 2016)
The hard rock Swedes, Spiritual Beggars, have released another great album in 2016. With the amazing Apollo Papathanasio, as the lead vocalist for this record, "Sunrise To Sundown" is packed with great guitar riffs and great vocals making it an awesome addition to any playlist. You can find the full review here.
94/100
==========================================================
8. Hällas - Excerpts from Future Past (The Sign Records - 2017)
Hällas is a very interesting and less known melodic rock band with great retro elements. Their self-description as an adventure rock band perfectly describes their atmospheric music. A more detailed review can be found here.
94.3/100
==========================================================
7. The Grammers - Dream In a Minor Key (VR Label - 2017)
The Grammers is a feel-good AOR band, true veterans of the genre. Their "Dream In a Minor Key" is bound to make your day with their catchy music and sing-along choruses! The full review can be found here.
94.5/100
==========================================================
6. Rival Sons - Great Western Valkyrie (Earache - 2014)
This hard rock from California is definitely a great breakthrough act of this decade with groovy riffs and southern vibes, worthy of its position in the top 10. You can find a review of the "Great Western Valkyrie" here.
94.7/100
==========================================================
5. Magnum - Sacred Blood Divine Lies (Steamhammer - 2016)
Another excellent release by the melodic rock legends which is an instant classic record. How can it go wrong with Bob Catley on the lead vocals? "Sacred Blood Divine Lies" is a great addition to their lengthy streak of amazing records. You can find the full review here.
95/100
==========================================================
4. The Winery Dogs - The Winery Dogs (Loud & Proud Records - 2013)
Michael Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater, Sons of Apollo etc.) is back with another project, this time with a hard rocking twist. The Winery Dogs released a great album in 2013 full of groovy vibes and of course impeccable drumming. Read more here.
95.5/100
==========================================================
3. The Night Flight Orchestra - Amber Galactic (Nuclear Blast - 2017)
If you are looking for a great hard rock record that you can use as an allure to the dark side of 80s, this is the one! "Amber Galactic" is packed with catchy tunes straight from the disco. You can find more about the album here.
96/100
==========================================================
2. The Soulbreaker Company - Graceless (Alone Records - 2014)
The Soulbreaker Company released a unique psychedelic rock album in 2014 that succeeded in taking the listener on a chill-out musical journey of amazing tunes that are perfectly blended with melancholic vocals. Read more here.
97/100
==========================================================
1. Blues Pills - Blues Pills (Nuclear Blast Records - 2014)
Blues Pills definitely are a surprise entry at the first place of the list for those who have not heard them. The band succeeds in combining a 70's retro vibe with psychedelic and blues elements creating an amazingly catchy and feel-good hard rock album! Read the review of the "Blues Pills" here. They followed this up with another great record, "Lady In Gold", in 2016 sticking to their great formula and making us hope for amazing things to come from this band in the future!
99/100
Saturday 15 September 2018
The Best of Hard Rock 2010-18 (Part 1)
As autumn leaves fall, we continue the Best of Lists with Hard Rock and AOR bands. This excludes psychedelic/retro bands that will be featured in another future list seperately. As a quick reminder, for variety, only one album per band was chosen, but if you like something, assume the rest of their catalogue is also worth exploring (unless otherwise noted). So without further ado:
The TOP 21 Hard Rock Albums of 2010-18
==========================================================
21. Lugnet - Lugnet (Pride and Joy - 2016)
Straight from the first notes of the opener "All the Way" you know what the band is about: Straightforward and uncompromising hard rock. There are elements from Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and Spiritual Beggars in the sound of the band, but the songs themselves do not sound or feel derivative but rather the bands has developed a personal take in the aforementioned type of sound and mastered it as to make it truly personal. Highlights of a very promising debut include the aforementioned opener as well as "It ain't Easy", "In the Still of the Water" and the more epic closer "Into the Light".
87/100
==========================================================
20. Three Lions - Three Lions ( Frontiers - 2014)
Three Lions are a band formed from well known guitar player Vinny Burns (Asia. Bob Catley, Ten, Dare) along with drummer Greg Morgan (Dare, Ten) and newcomer vocalist Nigel Bailey. This is a pure 80s hard rock/ AOR album featuring songs characteristic of that scene with opener "Trouble in a red dress" being in an exemplary song of the scene, while "Hold Me Down" acts as an equally great follow-up. The guitar work of the album is superb and oozes with nostagia while a modern production keeps it fresh at the same time. An awesome album through and through with power ballad "Don't Let Me Fall" acting as a highlight to the high school dance that never was.
88.5/100
==========================================================
19. Dee Snider - We are the ones (earMusic - 2016)
This is one of the 3 releases of Dee this decade. The first one was a rendition of musicals in 2012 ("Dee Does Broadway") and the newest one ("For the Love of Metal", 2018) is a more straightforward heavy metal release in a sound more typical of Dee Snider. However in "We are the Ones", Dee tries new things in his music with very interesting results! Songs like "Rule the World", "So What" and the eponymous "We are the Ones" show that there are more things this very talented legend can do beyond rehashing old formulas.
89/100
==========================================================
18. The Temperance Movement - The Temperance Movement (Earache - 2013)
Being hailed as the "new Rival Sons", the band delivered in its debut album an excellent release of southern hard rock, with its own personal distinguished sound that is not comparable to rival sons; these British guys are their own beast, releasing a further two great albums afterwards and cementing their place as one of the best southern/hard rock acts of the decade. Highlights of this album include "Midnight Black", Only Friend" and "Know for Sure", but their whole catalog is worth checking out for great rock tunes.
90.1/100
==========================================================
17. Black Country Communion - Black Country Communion 2 (Mascot - 2011)
The best output from from the collaboration of rock legends Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Sherinian and Jason Bonham. More about the excellent result of this super-project can be found here.
92/100
==========================================================
16. Sixx:A.M. - Prayers for the Blessed (Eleven Seven Music - 2016)
A very different release from Nikky Sixx (Motley Crue), which combines more traditional elements in a modern framework. You can find more information here.
92.3/100
==========================================================
15. WolveSpirit - Free (Spirit Stone Records)
An old-fashioned rock release featuring unique female vocals and a genuine feeling of early rock. You can read more here.
92.5/100
==========================================================
14. Stonerider - Hologram (Audiam - 2016)
An exciting independent release which seemlessly blends blues and psychedelic rock. The album was also featured among the best albums of 2016. Read more here.
92.5/100
==========================================================
13. The Order of the Solar Temple - The Order of the Solar Temple (I, Voidhanger -2014)
This completely obscure gem from Canadian occult rockers is in number 13 of the best rock albums of this decade. This is truly an unknown album worth your time, which you can hear in its entirety below. Then you can read a more extensive piece here
92.6/100
==========================================================
12. Mountain Witch - Burning Village ( This Charming Man Records - 2016)
German doom/hard rock band Mountain Witch are at number 12 with their excellent 2016 abum "Burning Village", combining epic slow riffing with a retro 70s feeling. Read more here.
93/100
==========================================================
11. Green Fairy - Wasted Land (Hungry Ghost- 2013)
Just a breath away from the top 10 of the best rock albums of the decade so far is the second album from the Swiss folk/hard rock act. For more information about "Wasted Land" you can click here.
93.4/100
==========================================================
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2...
Tuesday 4 September 2018
The Best of Epic Metal 2010-2018 (Part 2)
In the second part, we are counting down the BEST ten albums out of...
THE TOP 21 Epic Metal Albums of 2010-18
==========================================================
10. Arryan Path- Terra Incognita (Pitch Black Records - 2010)
93.5/100
==========================================================
9. Ensiferum - Unsung Heroes (Spinefarm - 2012)
Ensiferum have been described as "Viking Folk Metal", but that did not stop them from releasing an epic and very emotional album with "Unsung Heroes". You can find the full review here
94/100
==========================================================
8. Mausoleum Gate - Into a Dark Divinity (Cruz del Sur - 2017)
This is the second album from finnish heavy metal band Mausoleum Gate that while more on the heavy metal side has enough epic moments to warrant inclusion in this list. You can read a more detailed review here
95/100
==========================================================
7. Doomsword - The Eternal Battle (Dragonheart - 2011)
Italian Epic Metal giants Doomsword released their latest album in 2011 and after a hiatus, their recent appearance in Up the Hammers 2018 and subsequent interviews leaves hope for a new record soon-ish. In the meantime, you can find a review of "The Eternal Battle" here.
95/100
Italian Epic Metal giants Doomsword released their latest album in 2011 and after a hiatus, their recent appearance in Up the Hammers 2018 and subsequent interviews leaves hope for a new record soon-ish. In the meantime, you can find a review of "The Eternal Battle" here.
95/100
==========================================================
6. Sorcerer - The Crowning of the Fire King (Metal Blade - 2017)
Sorcerer's second album featuring more epic elements than their more doom-oriented debut gets picked as number 6 on this list. You can find the full review here.
95.3/100
Sorcerer's second album featuring more epic elements than their more doom-oriented debut gets picked as number 6 on this list. You can find the full review here.
95.3/100
==========================================================
5. Eternal Champion - Armor of Ire (No Remorse - 2016)
This Moorcockian/Howard hybrid debut took everyone by surprise 2 years ago and remains a great epic metal choice. Read more here.
96/100
==========================================================
4. Battleroar - Blood of Legends (Cruz Del Sur - 2014)
Having established themselves among the leaders of their scene in Greece, Battlroar returned with their 4th full-length release featuring new vocalist Gerrit Mutz (Sacred Steel). You can find out more about the album here.
96/100
==========================================================
3. Sons of Crom - The Black Tower (Nordvis - 2017)
This is a truly epic second album from the Bathoresque metallers Sons of Crom, rightfully being selected among the top three EPIC albums of the (near) decade. Read more here
97/100
==========================================================
2. Visigoth - The Revenant King (Metal Blade - 2015)
Rising from Salt Lake City, the Iron Brotherhood of Visigoth forged a perfect debut album in 2015 with an equally amazing follow-up ("Conqueror's Oath") released earlier this year. Read the review for "The Revenant King" here.
98/100
==========================================================
AND AT NUMBER ONE ....
1. Grand Magus - Hammer of the North (Roadrunner Records- 2010)
Having released 4 albums in this decade, it was difficult to decide which one would be a better fit for this spot. Ultimately, the latest 2 releases ("Triumph and Power", "Sword Songs") were great, but more heavy and less epic, so "Hammer of the North" ultimately triumphed over the equally epic "The Hunt", purely on the number of memorable anthems in it. At least 4 songs from the album are still mainstays in the band's touring setlist while the rest of the album still features great moments. Overall, the album is not just "epic", it is the epitome of modern epic metal music.
100/100
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)