Author: Rick

I’m a married father of 2 humans, a rescue cat and a royal python. Not nearly enough tattoos or piercings, enjoys reading, Marmite and lots of coffee.

After nearly two decades, author, pilot, brewer, and, personally, my vocal gateway into heavy metal three and a half decades ago via Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson returns in a solo capacity with his latest album, The Mandrake Project. The opener, "Afterglow of Ragnarok", manifests something that has been on the back burner for a while. … Continue reading Album Review: Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project

The progressive metal champion, Ihsahn, returns with a double conceptual album, weaving familiar nightside eclipses on his latest self-titled work, Ihsahn. Fitting the magnitude of the type Ihsahn has constructed in the past, the album's instrumental opener, "Cervus Venator", serves up a nice atmospheric build-up with splashes of woeful tones before swooping into "The Promethean … Continue reading Album Review: Ihsahn – Ihsahn

Lucifer bring their 70's occult infused doom to a new home. 's Nuclear Blast is now responsible for further eerie landscapes for the band's fifth studio album - Lucifer V.  Opener "Fallen Angel" is certainly a monumental mass of electrifying rock n' roll, led by charismatic singer Johanna Platow Andersson whose melodies really lean into … Continue reading Album Review: Lucifer – Lucifer V

Forty five years on from their debut, NWOBHM royalty Saxon, show they are still very much leading the charge with their twenty fourth studio album Hell, Fire and Damnation. Entirely fitting the aesthetic and tone-setting introduction, "The Prophecy" is made all the more encapsulating with added narration from the one and only Brian Blessed, which … Continue reading Album Review: Saxon – Hell, Fire and Damnation

Belgian death metal outfit Carnation return with a new look and sound casting the band into a deeper and darker light for third album Cursed Mortality. Opening track "Herald of Demise" is full of gloomy synths but don't let this fool you as it also is quite possibly the heaviest track the band have released … Continue reading Album Review: Carnation – Cursed Mortality

The lone self-professed "talentless idiot" behind Foul Body Autopsy returns will an impressive line up and gory artwork (from none other than Dan Goldsworthy) to really hammer home this Halloween offering inspired by the acid bath murderer John George Haigh - Crucifix Dreams.  The Nightmarish title track opens with a chilling spoken word contribution from … Continue reading EP Review: Foul Body Autopsy – Crucifix Dreams