Category Archives: Album Reviews

Download Festival 2023 Sells Out In Record Time, Headlined by Metallica, Slipknot, and Bring Me The Horizon

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Download Festival 2023 has broken their own record this summer with weekend, day and camping tickets now completely sold out. Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot headline a remarkable year for the UK’s biggest rock festival. Download Festival’s 20th anniversary has become a double celebration, as today the festival sells out, marking 2023 as the fastest-selling year of all time. Day, weekend and camping tickets have been snapped up by fans eager to celebrate an incredible 20 years for the legendary festival. The special anniversary edition, taking place for the first time over four days on 8-11 June 2023 at Donington Park, will feature headliners Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot and Metallica, who will perform two headline sets with no repeat songs.

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Tool’s Debut Full-Length Album “Undertow” Turns 30

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Thirty years ago today, Tool released their debut album Undertow (Zoo Entertainment/Volcano). Following the industry buzz of their EP Opiate a year earlier, the band catapulted to mainstream success on the back of singles and disturbing videos and MTV staples such as “Sober,” “Prison Sex” and “Intolerance.” Check out this playlist of undertow content and read our retrospective review from its 25-year anniversary. Continue reading →


EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Faint On Call Shares a New Single – “Harpoon”

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Heavy Rock band Faint On Call are back with another anthemic single! Following up their last release and music video for “Pearl” – the band has teamed up with Ghost Cult to share their latest track, “Harpoon!” Starting off like a whisper, the track slowly boils over with emotions! With a huge, earworm of a rocking chorus, this track is deifnitely making our “staylist!” Check it out here at the site, before you can stream it on all DSPs tomorrow!

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The Weekly Ritual Rock and Metal News Show 9-30-22 – All Rise Edition

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Check out our weekly news show! ? We cover the major stories of the week in heavy music, rock, and metal news, tour dates, and festivals, New Music Friday, and more!

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ALBUM REVIEW: Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness And Light

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Not content to just let the sludgy boi/spooky girl pairings have all the fun with multi-artist collaborations in Doom, A Story Of Darkness And Light (Stickman Records)features the coming together of Elder and Kadavar as Eldovar (I don’t know where that ‘o’ comes from either). The two groups certainly make for interesting bedfellows; while both are arguably rooted in Seventies Rock traditions, Elder has evolved to Heavy Prog splendor while Kadavar largely subsists on off-the-cuff Stoner Blues. However, their shared interest in various genre experiments as well as established track records of high quality material gives plenty of fertile ground for such a union.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Temptation’s Wings – Marauders of the Killing Moon

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If Black Label Society was influenced by Classic Metal and Doom instead of Southern Rock, they would probably sound a lot like Temptation’s Wings. The Asheville, North Carolina-based group features delightfully Ozzy-esque vocals with extra Zakk Wylde gruffness, guitars rooted in beefy bottom-heavy tones with playing that consists of steady gallops and melodic leads, and rhythms with a certain Southern Metal swing. All presented with a barbarian attitude that lends itself well to tales of drinking and mythological conquest.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Failure – Wild Type Droid

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Failure’s sixth album and third since their 2014 comeback is considerably scaled back compared to their previous outings. At just under forty minutes long, Wild Type Droid (Failure Recordings) is their shortest full-length since their debut, 1992’s Comfort, and a far cry from the hour-plus ventures that have come to define them since the classic Fantastic Planet. This setup suggests a more casual approach than usual but instead results in one of their most focused releases to date.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Of Mice And Men – Echo

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Of Mice & Men’s Echo (Sharptone Records) exemplifies exactly how a band should sound by their 7th album. It doesn’t even matter what song you start with—It’s blatant you’re hearing a band that knows their identity and is confident in it. At the topic of identity, nearly 6 years later, it’s still hard to ignore how deeply rooted Of Mice & Men’s previous frontman was to their image. However, Echo stands as a testament to how wonderfully they’ve evolved under Aaron Pauley’s leadership. Though Echo is Pauley’s third album serving as a vocalist, it marks the band’s first full-length release under Sharptone Records, effectively forging a new era for the metalcore titans.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Volbeat – Servant of the Mind

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At what point do we (I? Is it just me by now…? in which case, I’ll get with the programme asap!) change our default position that bands twenty years deep into their careers shouldn’t be producing their best stuff in a heavy music arena? Cos it’s bollocks. Our staff voted-for album of the year top 3 picks for this year to prove it. The last ten years of evidence proves it. A whole plethora of written-off bands pushing well into their second, third, even fourth, decade with career best releases prove it. There’s a pervading feeling that age dilutes quality and / or heaviness, yet nothing could be further than the truth. Particularly in the Volbeat camp, because, Servant of the Mind (EMI), their twentieth anniversary and eighth studio release, is their best to date. Form is temporary when class is permanent.Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Obscura – A Valediction

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The talent is evident and the production quality ever-present.

There are shining moments with songs that develop character and identity.

But the abundance of what comes off as shredding for the sake of it, and apparent filler shoe-horned in, tamps down the overall significance of Obscura’s A Valediction (Nuclear Blast).

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