Music Reviews

Metal and heavy music album reviews for those that wish to rock

Music Reviews

Metal and heavy music album reviews for those that wish to rock

HM Album Reviews

ToddZero

Kid Heart

This solo artist has added much maturity and songwriting prowess to his repertoire since his last release (2011’s self-titled). Kid Heart sounds somber, sober, emotional and melodic – like...

HM Album Reviews

My Silent Wake

Silver Under Midnight

Released simultaneously with a European vinyl acoustic album titled Acoustic Collection, Silver Under Midnight is a CD release from My Silent Wake. The CD features nine songs of heavy...

HM Album Reviews

XINR

Beyond Woodward

This hard-working metal band from Oregon should have been one of the pioneers of Christian metal in the early ’80s along with Saint, Bride, Leviticus and Messiah Prophet. Instead,...

HM Album Reviews

Grace and Thieves

Shepherd of the Wolves

Equal parts hard punk, old school hardcore and crossover thrash, Salem, Ore.’s Grace and Thieves spits out a four-song EP (available on gatefold CD or 7” vinyl) that would...

HM Album Reviews

The Digital Age

Evening:Morning

There’s something mesmerizing about Evening:Morning, the debut album from The Digital Age, a quartet of former members of the immensely popular and eclectic worship ensemble, David Crowder Band. It’s...

HM Album Reviews

Dehumanizer

The Incomplete Man

Peruvian death metal band Dehumanizer was formed in 2003 by guitarist Cesar Gutierrez, so they’ve taken a decade to stabilize their lineup and refine their sound for their debut,...

HM Album Reviews

Trouble

The Distortion Field

Chicago’s doom masters Trouble have been always been of interest to the Christian metal audience due to the overt spiritual lyrical content of their early albums and a pre-Tourniquet...

HM Album Reviews

In-Graved

In-Graved

Victor Griffin, the riff master of such powerhouse doom acts as Place of Skulls and Pentagram, is back with a new band: Victor Griffin’s In-Graved. The trademark sound and...

HM Album Reviews

ReinXeed

A New World

Tommy ReinXeed calls his music “adventurous power metal,” but whatever you want to call it, we call it great stuff for fans of bands like Helloween, Hammerfall, Rhapsody of...

HM Album Reviews

Liberty 'n' Justice

4 All: The Best of LNJ Vol. 2

For years now, the guys behind Liberty n’ Justice have put out release after release of great melodic hard rock/metal, usually featuring a smörgåsbord of special guest musicians from...

HM Album Reviews

Thirtyseven

This is What I Want

One of my favorite things about music is how well it can capture the sounds of popular culture. When you listen to a song with extreme falsettos, screeching guitar...

HM Album Reviews

Least of These

Change Will Come

Least of These is the next iteration of the indie/post-hardcore style of music, and it’s easy to see where much of their influence comes from. Besides Christ (as highly...

HM Album Reviews

Strengthen What Remains

Turning a Blind Eye

Steamrolling and unforgiving in nature, Strengthen What Remains pounds out a litany of in-your-face crossover with its new release, Turning a Blind Eye. SWR is not for the weak...

HM Album Reviews

Daniel Amos

Dig Here Said the Angel

Daniel Amos’ latest album, Dig Here Said the Angel, finds the veteran band in fine form with a sound both vintage and modern. As usual, these songs offer the...

HM Album Reviews

O'Brother

Disillusion

O’Brother has been making a name for itself for a while now. It opened up for Thrice a few times, including during the band’s farewell tour. This year, O’Brother...

HM Album Reviews

The Tug Fork River Band

No Hope for Man

The Tug Fork River Band might be best known for their song “Ex-Wives,” having put out what some call “the greatest lyric video of all-time.” (It’s readily available on...

HM Album Reviews

The Ongoing Concept

Saloon

The Ongoing Concept is a four-piece rock and roll band you want to hear first, so you can be the ones to tell your friends about them. Saloon is...

HM Album Reviews

We Came As Romans

Tracing Back Roots

How audiences and fans adopt bands and make them figureheads for a genre is bizarre. (It’s not the first, it’s never the last and it’s always a tricky game...

HM Album Reviews

The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus

After the End

When The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus reared its head up from the Liverpool indieground in the late ‘80s with The Gift Of Tears, the critical lexicon to...

HM Album Reviews

The Great Commission

Cast the First Stone

Let’s play a game. I write only the most important words about the new The Great Commission album, deal? Cool. New Album. Cast The First Stone. Eleven tracks. Vulnerable...

HM Album Reviews

Norma Jean

Wrongdoers

On Norma Jean’s new Wrongdoers album, the midpoint track, “Afterhour Animals,” incorporates what sounds like a woman hypnotizing someone else by speaking calming words, sinking them into a “comfortable...

HM Album Reviews

Silence the Ocean

Changes

Silence the Ocean is a tide on the rise. With key elements and all the basic parts filled, the band is ready to explore and achieve new levels. Changes...

HM Album Reviews

Lessons

Five Points

Question: What does a metalcore band with members from Children 18:3, Planet Earth and Take Cover sound like? Answer: Like any other metalcore band. It’s always interesting to see...

HM Album Reviews

Shaken

Shaken

First impression: SOLID. For the fans of the first Shaken release, I have good news and bad news. Shaken is a solid songwriting band, and the production for the...

HM Album Reviews

Quiet! I'm Hunting!

The Fall, The Rise

Quiet! I’m Hunting! has an EP called The Fall, The Rise. Both the band’s name and the album’s title are enough to capture your interest. That is, until you...

HM Album Reviews

Decyfer Down

Scarecrow

Scarecrow, the third studio album from Decyfer Down, is the culmination of four long years of writing and recording, and for the fans, waiting. But this album is well...

HM Album Reviews

Islander

Pains.

Looking for some new tunes to rock out to this summer? Well put your hardcore dancing shoes on, because the search ends here, with Islander. This Greenville, S.C. band...

HM Album Reviews

Blessthefall

Hollow Bodies

Blessthefall’s fourth full-length studio record, Hollow Bodies, is another example of the group’s expert harmony of symphonicism and vicious instrumentals, and though the album isn’t an example of anything...

HM Album Reviews

Messengers

No Shelter

Messengers brings gives us a good time with fast-paced “circle pit” rhythms, and heavy, headbanging guitars that would please even the most violet-bandana-wearing hardcore mosher. No Shelter is a...

HM Album Reviews

Extol

Extol

Extol’s self-titled fifth album is a long overdue masterpiece. The Norwegian band is finally following up on their Norwegian Grammy nominated The Blueprint Dives – from 2005. Eight years...

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