Avantasia charmed me with their first two opuses, The Metal Opera series of albums. With The Scarecrow, the band moved to a more hard rock direction, and the previous double-album release, The Wicked Symphony and Angel of Babylon were complete disappointments. Invoke the Machine, coming off the band’s upcoming The Mystery of Time fortunately sounds much better, sounding more like The Scarecrow …
Tag Archive: Hard Rock
Jan 21
Album Review: Steve Harris – British Lion
Steve Harris [UK]
British Lion
2012
Full Length
EMI
Hard Rock
I’m quite a big Maiden fan, so whenever there’s a new band/project that features any of the Maiden members, I would definitely look forward to checking them out. Unfortunately, the recent Adrian Smith’s Primal Rock Rebellion was quite a disappointment, though Bruce …
Apr 24
Album Review: Old Head – Maximum Rock
Old Head [USA]
Maximum Rock
2012
Full Length
At War With False Noise Records
Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
American heavy metal/hard rock band Old Head promises to bring back the attitude of 70s heavy metal and thrash metal with their debut full length album, Maximum Rock, a promising title indeed, despite the responsibilities and expectations that come …
Apr 04
Album Review: Edguy – Age of the Joker
Edguy [Germany]
Age of the Joker
2011
Full Length
Nuclear Blast Records
Power Metal/Hard Rock
With the recent spate of weak releases under Tobias Sammet, including 2008′s Tinnitus Sanctus and the recent Avantasia double album – The Wicked Symphony and Angel of Babylon, each album marking his move towards AOR and mainstream hard rock, expectations were pretty low …
Mar 28
Album Review: On Top – Top Heavy
On Top [USA]
Top Heavy
2011
Full Length
Horror Pain Gore Death Productions
Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
On Top‘s debut full length album, Top Heavy features a cleavage-baring woman in the foreground, leaving me with an almost negative first impression, and the band name and album title didn’t do much to help either. While bands like Edguy tend …