Older albums
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KEN HENSLEY – BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY (MEMBRAN MUSIC 2007)
Ken Hensley, the mastermind behind classic hard rock group Uriah Heep’s heyday releases, always knew how to write good songs. It’s easy to say it’s greatly thanks to him that Heep ever rose to the classic status the band has held for years and years already. Although the guitars of Mick Box and legendary vocals…
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LION’S SHARE – EMOTIONAL COMA (AFM 2007)
Swedish Lion’s Share slams forward their fifth full-lenght release in the form of 2007’s ‘Emotial Coma’. The band has been delivering music since the late-80’s and the driving force in their engine has been traditionally-based heavy metal. The same formula is in use this time around as well though flavoured with some extra heaviness compared…
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RAINBOW – STRANGER IN US ALL (BMG 1995)
The sole survivor from the Rainbow’s short-lived reunion from the mid nineties stands it’s ground as one of hard rock’s and heavy metal’s finest releases. At the same time it remains as a monument for rock’s biggest missed chances as if being a beginning of an interesting story that somebody left unfinished. Who knows, maybe…
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FALCONER – CHAPTERS FROM A VALE FORLORN (METAL BLADE 2002)
Falconer are a Swedish five-piece with five albums behind them and sixth to be released very soon. The self-titled debut was a great metal album with some folk influences where they already proved being very good at what they do. This, their second album, took them further down the road towards folk metal. At the…
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CAGE – HELL DESTROYER (MTM MUSIC 2007)
Creating a concept album is a tricky business. Getting the story convincing and interesting, while at the same time keeping the songs strong enough to work also independently needs usually a whole lot more work than composing a ‘normal’ album. In the field of heavy metal, the puzzle of successfully getting a concept piece together…
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QUEENSRYCHE – TAKE COVER (RHINO 2007)
A lot of bands have that one record in their career that both elevates them to superstardom and enslaves them at the same time. In the case of Queensryche, in 1988 they released seminal “Operation: Mindcrime” – a concept masterpiece so grand and dangerous in delivery, it placed the band under lock and threw away…
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KING DIAMOND – THE PUPPET MASTER (MASSACRE 2003)
Since 1985 and the demise of Mercyful Fate, King Diamond has released a long string of theatrical albums, of course many remember indisputable classics “Abigail,” “Them” and “The Eye” 20 years back. But truth is the band continued making high quality records all the way through the difficult 1990’s, even when Mercyful Fate reunited and…
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STEVE GRIMMETT – PERSONAL CRISIS (METAL HEAVEN 2007)
As we reviewed the legendary heavy metal album See You In Hell by Grim Reaper last year, and deservingly branded it with a Steel Mill Klassik mark, the new release by ex-Grim Reaper frontman Steve Grimmett should prove an interesting view on what the singer’s been up to lately. As Grim Reaper the band disbanded…
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EMPIRE – CHASING SHADOWS (METAL HEAVEN 2007)
Albums and come to think of it, also bands like these are of the rare breed nowadays – good quality hard rock with supreme musicianship, lyrics and vocals. Of course credible albums are released continuously but truly great ones only appear maybe once or twice a year at the most. That most of them still…
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BROTHER FIRETRIBE – FALSE METAL (SPINEFARM 2006)
It’s time at the Mill to look back a couple of years and Finnish hard rockers Brother Firetribe’s debut album “False Metal.” The whole band actually started a as a bit of humorous side project for guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and vocalist Pekka Heino. The name originated from a Finnish tennis player Veli Paloheimo and title…