Here’s a link to an album review I did for for Metal Army America. The group is called Serenity Dies, their from the Maldives, and their album is called Hacksawcracy. The album features Rob Caggiano from Anthrax. You can read the review here:

Much like Trent Reznor is to NINE INCH NAILS, or Al Jorgensen is to MINISTRY, REVOLTING COCKS, etc. Peter Tagtgren is the mastermind behind PAIN. He is also the lead singer of the Swedish band HYPOCRISY.

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Here’s a link to an album review I did for for Metal Army America. The group is called Lifeless, the band’s sound is a kin to their name, well just plain lifeless! You can read the review here:

SABATON hails from Falun, Sweden, for those of you that don’t know, they’ve been around for over a decade, since 1999 to be exact. They are known for their war themed lyrics, taking their inspiration for various battles, and wars. That being said, they tend to focus on World War II the most.

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Over at Metal Army America you can find two reviews that I did one of each of the aforementioned bands.

Svarsot is a pagan metal band, you can find the review of their album here.

While you can read about The Ghost Inside’s Returners here.

HEIDEVOLK is a Pagan Folk Metal band that comes from Holland and sings in their native Dutch language. Twenty years ago this may not have been accepted, but with the advent of groups like Rammstein, the growth of various forms of Scandinavian metal, etc., things have slowly changed. As a result various forms Pagan Metal has begun to take off.

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Dio’s Holy Diver Released 27 Years Ago Today
Such a monumental album was released 27 years ago today. I did a write up on the album for Metal Army America celebrating the released of this album. To check it out go here:

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This past Saturday (the 10th), I went to La Sala Kimbara here in Santander, Spain to see a bill that consisted of local acts A.R.D.E.N., TOUMAI, the UK band The EYES OF THE TRAITOR, and IWRESTELEDABEARONCE (IWABO) and THE CHARIOT. Now let me set all of this up for you, sometime in February I interviewed MANU GALLEGO, lead singer of TOUMAI for my Spanish Language podcast Fusion Sonica. At the time I asked if TOUMAI would be doing any shows. At the time he gave me the “don’t tell anyone, cause it’s not 100% confirmed, but we’re playing with THE CHARIOT and a band from Louisiana (IWABO), on April 10th”. He kept telling me how great The CHARIOT was live, and that I had to reserve the date. Being a man of my words, I did.

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Interesting that the first words mentioned on this album are “and here we are again”. It was as if lead singer RAY ALDER knew there would be a reissue one day! I have to mention that I wasn’t the biggest FATES WARNING fan back in the day. I had a considerable amount of friends that were into them big time, but I could never get over how much they sounded like QUEENSRYCHE. lead singer RAY ALDER at times sounds like a carbon copy of GEOFF TATE, while JIM MATHEOS and FRANK ARESTI’s dual guitar attack sounded almost identical to CHRIS DEGARMO and MICHAEL WILTON. The rhythm section of JOE DIBIASE and MARK ZONDER also do their best to sound similar to SCOTT ROCKENFELD and EDDIE JACKSON. The comparison is most notabe during the opening track “Leave The Past Behind”.

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Another One of my reviews has found its way to Metal Army America. This time its for Sick Of It All’s Based On A True Story, he’s an excerpt:

Heralded New York hardcore veterans SICK OF IT ALL return with Based On A True Story. This is a band that helped bridge the gap between hardcore legends like BLACK FLAG, MINOR THREAT, and dare I say the DANZIG led MISFITS (check out Earth A.D.), and modern day stalwarts like HATEBREED. Perhaps SICK OF IT ALL were the catalyst that took that classic hardcore sound, and injected it with additional amounts of RAMONES/BAD RELIGION/MISFITS (there’s that band again) like choruses that is standard in today’s hardcore scene.

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