Ville Krannila
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
SANDALINAS – FLY TO THE SUN (METAL HEAVEN 2008)
Steel Mill’s first anniversary guests Sandalinas have just unleashed a strong second album to a genre that is nowadays actually extremely challenging for new bands. Same I guess as it has always been, although for completely different reasons. 10-15 years ago traditional heavy metal faced almost an universal ban, with every new release more or…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…