A fantastic all-star musical collective featuring Alex Skolnick, Dave Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, founder Mark Menghi and a generous number of renowned guest vocalists, cannot certainly go unnoticed. Even if in the past many supergroups full of talented musicians didn’t leave a mark on this world, Metal Allegiance’s self-titled debut album deserves a thorough listening.
“Let Darkness Fall”, featuring Troy Sanders from Mastodon, starts with straight heavy guitar riffs but it truly holds a dark side rather palpable in the chorus style and instrumental breakdown. When the rhythm slows down, a smoothly languid guitar solo and flamenco style acoustic guitars create a sharp style change that surprisingly never clashes with the song’s main metal theme.
“Dying Song” features beloved icon Phil Anselmo who delivers a sincerely passionate raspy performance. This song has a quite melodic core filled with melancholic arpeggios that evoke a solemn gloomy atmosphere. Portnoy’s impeccable drumming and fierce lead guitars swiftly & intensely build a faster classic thrash metal vibe.
“Can’t Kill The Devil” featuring legendary Testament’s frontman Chuck Billy has the expected thrash old school catchiness that triggers immediate headbanging. Besides the energetic vocal performance, the guitar solos, also featuring Phil Demmel & Andreas Kisser, deliver a feverish dose of vibrant techniques that increase the powerful groovy core.
Devoted prog fans will be more than pleased listening to “Triangulum (I. Creation II. Evolution III. Destruction)”. This song is a triumphant instrumental orgasm where Skolnick truly performs all kinds of wonders on guitar going full blown virtuoso borderline neoclassical style. The whole song is simply outstanding featuring a classic metal oriented beginning with polished mellow lead guitar that smoothly evolves into gracefully dynamic tempo changes. As the rhythm gains speed in recognizable Portnoy’s style, a series of painfully technical, almost avant-garde, guitar solos (featuring additional lead guitarists: Misha Mansoor, Ben Weinman, Charlie Benante, Phil Demmel, Matthew K. Heafy & Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal) bring the listeners into a reckless sound vortex.
“Pledge Of Allegiance”, featuring Mark Osegueda from Death Angel, feels like an exciting anthem with an everlasting metallic groove that will immediately attract the listeners. While Osegueda delivers his signature powerful screams, lead guitars work relentlessly to create inspiring music evolutions to make everything more appealing than your classic metal tune.
With an intriguing variety of styles and the obvious high level musicianship, Metal Allegiance’s debut album is a delightfully entertaining piece of music.

The Gentle Storm, featuring the lovely and talented Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen and renowned Ayreon’s mastermind Arjen Lucassen, must be the most exciting music project of the year and certainly a very ambitious one. The Gentle Storm’s debut release entitled “The Diary” is a concept double album comprising of a Storm side progressive metal oriented and a Gentle side where the songs are re-interpreted in folk acoustic fashion.
With a melancholic and romantic concept revolving around the tale of two lovers in the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, “The Diary” intensely delivers a grandiose mix of elegant melodies and inner creativity.
“Endless Sea” can be easily labeled as a masterpiece where symphonic metal meets exquisitely graceful melodies. The Storm version has a bittersweet majestic feeling, never exaggeratedly overpowering, where Anneke’s passionate delivery is perfectly adorned by violins and polished guitars. The Gentle version shines for the delicate and precise strings arrangement floating into an ethereal dreamy mood.
“The Greatest Love” features an epic orchestration and a powerful rhythm. On the Storm version the rock vibe smoothly accompanies and enhances an exquisite neo-classical arrangement. The Gentle version has a stronger folk attitude beautifully carried on by violins and Anneke’s emotional performance.
“Shores Of India” will become easily a hit with the super catchy exotic harmonized melodies and the soothing chorus. On the Storm version prog-symphonic guitars have a more dominant presence that will certainly attract the attention of a metal fanbase. The Gentle version shines for higher complexity in terms of arrangements and the presence of different charming instruments, such as sitar and flutes, which brings additional harmonic variations and texture.
On “Cape Of Storms” the epic orchestration returns triumphantly to evoke the compelling feelings of a perilous journey while Anneke’s melancholic delivery adds a subtle dose of romanticism. While the Storm version features highly dramatic strong notes, the Gentle has a classical approach focused on the gracious purity of the strings arrangement.
“The Moment” has a deeply dramatic vibe genuinely reflected on Anneke’s multifaceted and flawless vocals. Both the Storm and the Gentle versions are filled with heartbreaking melodies effortlessly combined with rather exotic tunes. Also the acoustic arrangement of the Gentle version, featuring a fascinating array of instruments, will certainly conquer the heart of any listener.
“The Storm” is one of the most mesmerizing songs filled with slightly dark emotions and an irresistible crescendo of rich dynamic rhythms. The Storm version is particularly addictive because Anneke’s captivating vocals’ layers, combined with a solemn operatic choir, create incredibly strong harmonies well supported by prog-oriented guitar riffs. The Gentle version still holds a surreal strength created by exquisitely alluring piano and violin melodies.
In the end, it will be very easy to fall in love with both aspects of “The Diary” which truly is an eclectic work of art not to be missed.

We do not need to investigate and analyze the reasons why Max Cavalera comes back full of anger and darkness with Soulfly’s latest release entitled “Archangel”. At the very first listening, “Archangel” seems to endorse an old fashioned death metal brutality and to lack a fancy dose of tribal allegory but you could get used to all this.
“We Sold Our Souls To Metal” is all fast and furious with thundering drums and old school guitar riffs building a breathless rhythm. Only later on, you will notice some artistic details and real emotions emerging through the chaos.
On the title track, you can easily perceive the dark soul of this album in Cavalera’s performance with scorned powerful growls layered over a dizzy murky rhythm where the occasional technical guitar solo finds its time to shine.
“Ishtar Rising” has a distinguishable groove easier to follow without suffocating or enraging side effects. The guitar riffs are all about building the right exasperating wall of sound that will trigger a proper headbanging in the occasional listener.
In the midst of the ever-growing anger against all that is uselessly violent and relentlessly unjust, on “Shamash” the lead guitar works to create a transcendental atmosphere that could mitigate the rough brutality of the rhythmic section.
On “Mother Of Dragons” every bit of passionate wrath or mystical deluge is concentrated in a delusional fast groove where the creative guitar solo smoothly brings an adequate sense of solace.
Overall, “Archangel” delivers a compact musical narrative that often pays homage to the most primordial thrash metal elements but lacks the enticing variety that could attract a wider range of listeners.

With the latest release “Genexus”, Fear Factory attempts to carve a contemporary personal identity in the overcrowded metal scene and continues to explore a sort of cyber/technological evolution through a maze of industrial metal and artificially cold deliveries.
“Autonomous Combat System” features a promising foundation with a robotic atmosphere that grows into a faster rhythmic ensemble. As expected the chorus gains a melodic momentum with Burton C. Bell’s clean & catchy delivery supported by a metallic synth/keyboards arrangement.
“Anodized” follows the same musical pathway filled of sound effects that recall a crowded dance floor or a sci-fi movie. As a whole, the song structure is quite repetitive with android style drumming and riffs that diverge only for Bell’s clean chorus.
“Dielectric” acquires an almost epic feeling that gives way to death metal style tight riffing and raging growls. Even if everything has a certain catchy value, it feels like every instrument performs under strict control following the exact artificial blueprint of the other songs.
The titletrack feels like a polished machine internally regulated to produce a specific array of asphyxiating sounds that seems to leave no space for a blast of genuine creativity. The industrial vibe is quite strong in the programming and in the mechanically precise guitar riffing that relentlessly supports verses and chorus.
“Expiration Date” breaks the spell with a surprising change of scenario that leaves behind the anxiously tight guitar riffing and the extreme metal roots to produce a particularly atmospheric song. While Bell focuses on drama-free luminous clean vocals in poetic fashion, the artistic programming and arrangements effortlessly mix some classic industrial elements with an electrically generated melancholy that recall movies soundtracks.
On “Genexus” Fear Factory intensely pursues a modern/futuristic metal recipe that could grant them new followers, but the songs often struggle to deliver that consistently variegated structure needed to fully involve the listeners.

With thirty years of career and fifteen studio albums, Helloween doesn’t need any formal introduction. The latest release “My God Given Right” certainly doesn’t bring anything innovative to the renowned poppy power metal recipe fully embraced by the band, but if they don’t feel awkward about it why should we?
The title track surely sounds as catchy as you would expect with all the traditional power metal riffs but at the same time the overall structure and style feels weakened and monochromatic. Also, the pop style breakdown doesn’t bring a necessary dose of joyful excitement.
“Stay Crazy” might have a promising soothing arpeggio but the rest of the song relies too much on an average array of guitar riffs that create a standard frame for a very poppy chorus. The guitar solo features some lovely shreds but not enough to save the day.
“Russian Roulè” is a mid paced ensemble of power metal crunchy riffs and a much needed heavier attitude featuring less simplistic musical variations. This is probably the only compelling song you will find here and even the catchy chorus, as well as the energetic guitar solo, has a more serious straight forward attitude.
The attractive element on “The Swing Of The Fallen World” is undoubtedly the somber atmosphere which feels like a breath of fresh air erasing the overwhelming happiness that lingers throughout the album. Also, the harsh vocal delivery and the textured guitar solo seem to blend well with the main musical theme.
“Like Everybody Else” features a ballad style melancholy that creates an introspective mood. There is nothing extravagant or extremely creative here, but there are plenty of enjoyable peaceful harmonies.
“Claws” feeds off blasting rock energy with very dominant guitar and faster rhythm. The overall songwriting and style focuses on a heavier high impact metal approach while the vocals still lean toward a happier mood.
“You, Still Of War” starts with a dramatic atmosphere that gradually flows into heavier guitar riffs. The chorus fits the classic power metal structure while the melodic core relies on layers of epic keyboards and polished prog influenced guitar work.
Once again, it’s really hard to take Helloween’s music seriously but we can’t forget that this cheesy/kitsch style is what really symbolizes the band’s successful career. Therefore, “My God Given Right” is a safe collection of songs truly dedicated to Helloween’s fans who will probably find something to love and hold dear in every song.

With the brand new full length “Graveward”, a humble homage to Italian zombie flick classics, Japanese extreme metal act Sigh continues to embrace a controversial, or just bizarre, musical experimentation that seems to defeat any boundary.
The title track channels some ominous elements of black metal and an old school muddy production. Every instrument gets entangled in a chaotic wave of sound where epic arrangements and a melodic guitar solo manage to stand out.
On “The Tombfiller” there seem to be a clearer music vision when symphonic atmospheric keyboards naturally meet theatrical choirs stolen from classical operetta. Somewhere in the middle of all this, you can still find odd and confusing tempo/style changes.
“The Forlorn” appears to possess a range of melodies and rhythm easier to follow. The overall mood recalls the old school horror music scores with haunting keyboards effects and sinister, somewhat black metal, growls.
“The Molesters Of My Soul” sounds like the creepy decrepit carillon that might evoke unnerving paranormal presences, just like in horror movies. Again, the rhythm follows an odd cacophonic scheme but there is a hidden melody that sheds some light.
“The Casketburner” will grab your attention for the strong jazz incursion that truly brings a delightful dose of necessary melodic catchiness. The rest is all dark and brutal but it gets contaminated by clean guitar solos and the occasional trumpets.
“A Messenger From Tomorrow” showcases the decadently gothic aspect of Sigh’s strange musical pathway. The overall atmosphere is tinged of poetic melancholy that delivers a softer array of classical melodies with vintage keyboards, clean guitar solos and symphonic orchestrations.
Experimentation in all arts is always important but Sigh seems to exasperate and exaggerate this thirst for innovation that often results in a predictable form of chaos. For those who are familiar with Sigh’s work of music, “Graveward” might be another sweet treat but the average listener might not be ready to fully understand, and appreciate, this album.

We are all aware of Morten Veland’s many talents, especially as a composer. With the latest Sirenia’s creation, “The Seventh Life Path”, he tries once again to deliver a perfect album. The expectations are high and so much is at stake because it would be hard to say that Sirenia’s recent albums resemble some sort of masterpiece. But I still believe in Morten’s skills and in his undisputable hard work.
“Once My Light”, being selected as the first single, should be an unforgettable piece of art. But in reality is your standard mid paced gothic/symphonic tune that doesn’t bring any novelty to an over abused music recipe. So you get what the genre fanbase always expects: fragile female vocals, easy to follow tempo changes, loads of keyboards and some catchy guitar riffs.
“Elixir” offers a scheme variation since the atmosphere is more somber and male clean & growl vocals are the main focus. Even if the melodic core fits the symphonic style, the guitar riffs and the rhythm section definitely reminisce of old school gothic metal.
“Sons Of The North” begins with an icy cold metallic atmosphere well supported by Morten’s acidic growls and ominous choirs. This song is heavier and more intriguing that expected if you don’t consider the melodic simplistic chorus with female vocals that really doesn’t seem to fit such delightful darker vibe.
“Earendel” is another song that relies on a heavier Nordic approach but, once again, the chorus seems too predictably melodic while the folk breakdown and smooth guitar solo are definitely noteworthy.
On “The Silver Eye” Morten’s growls are full blown black metal as the feverish rhythm acquires speed and strength. The guitars tone has a vintage grim naturally embraced by gothic orchestrations but Ailyn’s vocals hold a sort of happy poppy feeling that has nothing to do with the surrounding gloominess.
“Tragedienne” is your must have ballad to mend broken hearts on a rainy day with all the proper mixture of strings, delicate piano melodies and tragically emotional vocals.
In the end, Sirenia releases another album consistent with the usual musical pathway, but the lack of enthusiasm and passion is getting more palpable and, considering Morten Veland’s musicianship and past glory, “The Seventh Life Path” doesn’t match his creative force.