Articles by Michael Lueders

Introducing the recent release EP Wound, by Melbourne industrial metal band Knife. Knife is a two-piece comprising Mark Jenkins on vocals and James Salter essentially doing the rest. Wound was released January 10, 2022, and […]

Rizon is a melodic rock/metal band from Switzerland formed in 1997, releasing five albums – ‘Evolution’ (2005), ‘Sudden Life’ (2008), ‘Masquerade’ (2012), ‘Power Plant’ (2016), and ‘Prime Time’, released in 2022. Rizon‘s duel male and […]

Incrypt is a thrash metal band from Australia formed in 1999 releasing four albums – ‘Masterpiece’ (2010), ‘The Victim Is You’ (2014), ‘Eyes Upon This World’ (2017), and 2022’s ‘Thrashing Extinction’. Known for their blistering […]

Serious Black is a German-based melodic power metal band formed in 2013, releasing six albums – ‘As Daylight Breaks’ (2015), ‘Mirrorworld’ (2016), ‘Magic’ (2017), the acoustic album ‘First Light’ (2017), ‘Suite 226’ (2020), and ‘Vengeance […]

Rather than an album you listen to and enjoy objectively, Cult of Luna’s “The Long Road” is a spiritual journey, from which you can’t detach and assess based on objective criteria. And I was surprised […]

Timeless Rage is a symphonic power metal band from Germany formed in 2012, releasing their debut E.P. ‘Forecast’ the following year. Performing with bands such as Battle Beast, U.D.O, Axxis, and Bonfire, Timeless Rage began […]

Midnite Hellion is a heavy metal band from the USA formed in 2011 releasing their debut E.P. ‘Enter The Unknown’ in 2012, and their debut full-length album ‘Condemned To Hell’ in 2017. The band’s sophomore […]

Martyr is a heavy/power metal band from the Netherlands formed in 1982, releasing five albums – ‘For The Universe’ (1985), ‘Darkness At Time’s Edge’ (1986), ‘Circle Of 8’ (2011), ‘You Are Next’ (2016), and 2022’s […]

Reviver is a heavy metal band from the Netherlands formed in 1997, releasing a number of demos before releasing their self-titled debut album in 2005. The band split shortly after – reforming in 2017 with […]

‘’Worship the Degenerate’’ centers on the central them of the needs of the superior and inferior. Hailing from Saudi Arabia this trio of prolific non-believers release their follow up to ‘’Wala’at’’ New Vocalist “Artiya’il” is […]

Returning from the abyss of time, Germanys duo Mystic Circle release their first full length since 2006, a self-titled release that pays homage to the style of the nineties bought blasphemously back to life. Literally […]

Introducing Ronin, which is the first full-length album from German outfit Shizzura. It’s hard to nail down exactly what genre to put this album into. There are influences of Nu-metal, Japanese metal, progressive metal, and […]

Sabaton began in 1999 in Sweden.  They have an impressive back catalog of releases, largely based on historic war events.  Listening to Sabaton is a history lesson in itself. They have had a few lineup […]

It would strike you as a surprise to see someone so inseparable from a certain entity go and do their thing alone, and so were I when I found out the mighty George Fisher announced […]

In the many varied worlds of heavy metal, there is an often overused descriptive, that is bombastic. Webster’s dictionary defines this as “ Writing that is given exaggerated importance by artificial means. Pompous, overblown” None […]

Tankard is a thrash metal band from Germany formed in 1982 and is recognized as one of the four pioneers of German thrash, along with Destruction, Kreator, and Sodom – better known as the Teutonic […]

Absolva is a heavy metal band from the UK formed in 2012, releasing six albums – ‘Flames Of Justice’ (2012), ‘Anthems To The Dead’ (2014), ‘Never A Good Day To Die’ (2015), ‘Defiance’ (2017), ‘Side […]

Kings Winter is a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 2018, releasing their debut E.P. ‘Forging The Cataclysm’ in 2019, and their full-length debut album ‘Edge Of Existence’ in 2021. A second E.P. ‘Sonic […]

Lesson In Violence is a thrash metal band from Germany formed in 2019, taking their name from a song by one of the greatest thrash metal bands of all time, Exodus. And the song ‘A […]

A short listen coming in under 20 minutes Hadal Mal has delivered a brutal and crushing death metal tape in the Oblique Order. With disorientating discordant riffs, dynamic drum work, and grizzled vocal work starting […]

Brisbane hardcore four-piece Headwreck delivers a competent entrance onto the scene with their debut EP ‘Glamorise Demise’. While labeled hardcore, the project has more sonic similarities to the metalcore wave of post-hardcore, think ERRA and […]

Emerging from the subterranean caverns where dragons dwell from the novel Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Brothers Lionheart) the prolific Swedish Karmanjaka release their third full-length the earthen Gates of Muspel. Taking their inspiration from both fiction […]

Romanian quartet Kultika returns after an eight-year absence with their new album Capricorn Wolves, a rich densely layered organic record that defies easy description. From the moment Capricorn Wolves begins with the epic yet unhurried […]

Death, Slavery, and the Pursuit ov Sadness is the fourth release from USBM duo Death Shroud that takes the primitive origins of the Virginia style and entrenches them in a seething cold dark aesthetic. This […]