Jason Tarpey of Eternal Champion kindly talks to us about hammers, hot steel, and good old American heavy metal… Hi Jason, 2016 has been a year of ups and downs. You and your mates in Eternal Champion have certainly given us one of the better highlights with The Armor of Ire. Thank you, it has […]
Read more "Interview: Jason Tarpey (Eternal Champion)"Well, it’s finally over! 2016 – an interesting year of ups and downs , but I think we can all agree it was another fantastic year for traditional metal. Here is my own humble offering of my five favourite albums of the year. Wytch Hazel – Prelude, Bad Omen Records Bad Omen, I doff my […]
Read more "2016 – The End"Sacred Blade – Of the Sun + Moon 1986, Black Dragon Records Time has been galloping along at a remarkable pace. It seems like just yesterday that I was lamenting the last birthday of my 20s, and all of a sudden, bam – it’s big coat weather, and in a blur of bike rides, work […]
Read more "Sacred Blade – Of the Sun + Moon"Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian 1986, Metal Blade Records So it happened more rapidly and with less pomp or excitement than I had imagined. Twenty-nine: despite the (not so) polite reminders of the soon to come big three-oh, I feel no older, and certainly no wiser. And somehow, as I begrudgingly accepted this, the […]
Read more "Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian"Metal Church – Metal Church 1984, Ground Zero Records For someone that wasn’t actually around at the time, I have mad love for 1984. This was the year of big hair, parachute pants and Like a Virgin. Bell bottoms were out, acid wash jeans were in, and Hollywood had given us Ghostbusters, Gremlins and […]
Read more "Metal Church – Metal Church"Jag Panzer – Ample Destruction 1984, Azra Records I’ve been a little blue. Lately, I’ve just been feeling so… heavy. Now this must in part be attributed to the fact that I haven’t been to the gym for a month, due to an unexpected and, frankly, debilitating bout of back pain, made worse by the […]
Read more "Jag Panzer – Ample Destruction"Keep It True XIX 29-30 April, 2016 Too long have I let my inability to organise a piss up in a brewery, much less my own life, get in the way of attending this festival. Although it had been on my radar for a while, it was KIT X’s staggering roster of bands that made […]
Read more "Keep it True XIX"Cirith Ungol – King of the Dead 1984, Enigma So, let’s just get this out of the way, so we can focus on the music: is this record really United States Power Metal? I think in order to answer that, we need to delve into the question that I struggle so hard to answer satisfactorily, […]
Read more "Cirith Ungol – King of the Dead"Crimson Glory – Crimson Glory 1986, Par Records Behind the most awkward, amateur artwork, so typical of the time, beats the heart of a real gem. One of the finest jewels in the crown of White Collar USPM, Crimson Glory’s self-titled is an exceptional showcase of the genre. Whilst their much lauded sophomore album, […]
Read more "Crimson Glory – Crimson Glory"Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King 1987, Atlantic Records Being a grown up pretty much sucks. I loathe dragging myself out of bed at 6AM, rushing to work, often for a long, gruelling shift, to come home knackered, in a ratty mood, worrying about the bills, the endless piles of paperwork, the ironing, […]
Read more "Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King"