Reviews-Steel-Mill
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WHITESNAKE – GOOD TO BE BAD (SPV 2008)
One of the year 2008’s most anxiously awaited efforts: a brand new Whitesnake record; their first proper studio album in almost 20 years. After 13 successful years band leader David Coverdale originally put WS into ice in 1990 and worked briefly both solo and with Jimmy Page before reuniting the band in 1994. The “Restless…
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GRAND MAGUS – IRON WILL (RISE ABOVE 2008)
Sweden’s Grand Magus relies on the past. The thematics of their music draw influence from the days of ages past when the northern winters were long and cold and the folk resilient and stubborn. And not talking about your standard, corny tales of Vikings charging gloriously to fights with shining axes, in the world of…
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BOB CATLEY -IMMORTAL (FRONTIERS 2008)
Bob Catley needs very little introduction, of course he’s most known for his work as the lead singer of British rock legends Magnum, who are still going strong. The band have been around since the 1970’s, so Bob certainly has a lot of mileage behind him. Besides Magnum, during its down period in the late…
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MILLION DOLLAR BEGGARS – MILLION DOLLAR BEGGARS (SHADOW WORLD RECORDS 2008)
Million Dollar Beggars feeds off the glory days of 80’s hard rock and heavy metal – sleazy lyrics, cocky rock attitude, corny artist names and kerosene-dipped songwriting – the newcomer band has all the elements one could expect from a proper hair metal band a couple and a half decades ago. The band acknowledges this,…
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VANGUARD – HYDRALCHEMY (SHADOW WORLD RECORDS 2009)
Vanguard from Finland made their big breakthrough back in the year 2004, when they won a band competition held by the biggest heavy metal festival, Wacken Open Air. As a reward the band got a possibility to play a gig at Wacken in the same year and also twelve months later on the very exact…
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CRYSTAL EYES – CHAINED (METAL HEAVEN 2008)
Crystal Eyes are a power metal band hailing from Sweden. They formed in 1992 and were hugely inspired by Judas Priest. Guitarist Mikael Dahl is the only remaining original member in their line-up. The band is now onto their sixth effort and have slowly gained more reputation in both their homeland and all over Europe.…
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AC/DC – BLACK ICE (COLUMBIA 2008)
2009 and a brand new AC/DC studio album. Something special, something rare and definitely something to talk about. AC/DC are like the Rolling Stones or Motörhead, you know they must have started off somewhere but when you think about it, they have always been there, forever carved into the great books written of heavy rock’n’roll.
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HEAVEN & HELL – THE DEVIL YOU KNOW (ROADRUNNER RECORDS 2009)
So, here it is – the new Black Sabbath studio album since 1995’s “Forbidden” and the fourth one to feature the classic line-up of Iommi-Dio-Butler-Appice. The band surely bided their time before releasing the long-awaited new record, but since the mentioned foursome succesfully reformed for touring a couple of years back, the metal fans knew…
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CAGE – SCIENCE OF ANNIHILATION (MUSIC BUY MAIL 2009)
The first impression is almost scary. 2007’s “Hell Destroyer” was one of the highlights of that particular year but this album if possible even surpasses that and goes to become one of the strongest metal albums so far released in 2009. Hailing from San Diego, metallers Cage offer nothing earth shaking or new but once…
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SKYCLAD – IN THE… ALL TOGETHER (SCARLET RECORDS 2009)
The quintessential folk metal band Skyclad haven’t gotten their engines rolling on full throttle since the departure of vocalist/lyricist Martin Walkyier after 2000’s ‘Folkémon’ album. The remake album ‘No Daylights… Nor Heeltaps’ (2002) offered interestingly arranged, but lame remakes of the band’s old tunes and first proper studio album with new singer Kevin Ridley, ‘A…