Kev Rowland It seems like Jag Panzer have been around forever, but given that John Tetley (bass), Mark Briody (guitars, keyboards) and Harry Conklin (vocals) formed the band more than 40 years ago, I guess they have. Drummer Rikard Stjernquist joined in 1987, and it is only new lead guitarist Ken Rodarte who has not been there for any length of time. This is their first album in six years and follows the conceptual storyline of the band's comic book of the same title which came out in late 2022. This means it is probably best to have a physical copy of the album to be able to understand the storyline a little more, as I am sure it will be in the booklet or inner sleeve. Briody has even created a lyric video to go with the track “The Dark Descent” and he says it, “can be interpreted as literal or metaphoric. In this part of the storyline, the group are descending down a cliff amongst the old city ruins. The group are also descending towards the final outcome of the story. Although at first glance it seems like a basic heavy metal song, those who breakdown the music will see that it is one of the most musically complex songs on the album.”

Jag Panzer have always concentrated on American style power metal, and this is no different, although there are times when they come across as quite similar to Sabaton, yet with more theatricality and not quite so much drive. Conklin still has a superb voice which has more baritone elements than many, while he also subscribes to the Dickenson style of providing loads of power. This album is being viewed by many critics as nothing short of absolutely essential, and there is no doubt there are some good performances here from a band who are totally tight and locked in. However, the songs are not always as dramatic and interesting as they might be, and the result is something which is undoubtedly something of a standout within the American power metal scene, but there are often times when it feels like the soul is missing. When they get it right, with the band blasting beneath Conklin as he reaches for the heights then it is very special indeed, and Rodarte is a superb shredder, yet there are too many instances when I found my attention wandering as they repeated a bridge, or the verses just were not dynamic enough.

It has been six years since ‘The Deviant Chord’, which in itself was six years from ‘The Scourge of Light’, neither of which are judged to be classics, and for me the jury is very much out on this one. There is little here to make me wish to return, but fans of the band may well disagree. Best to try it out for yourself.

UMUR "World Builder" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Texax based post-metal/progressive death-doom metal act Stillbeing. The album was independently released in July 2023. Stillbeing formed in 2021 under the AEGOS monicker and released the April 2021 "The Great Burst of Light" album, and the November 2021 "The Current" single under that monicker before changing their name to Stillbeing.

As Stillbeing is essentially the same project moving forward under a different monicker, "World Builder" is not really a debut album, or at least it´s not a newbie type debut album. If you´re familiar with "The Great Burst of Light" it´s obvious it´s a blueprint for "World Builder", although AEGOS and Stillbeing are slightly different (or maybe more correctly Stillbeing have evolved). Jei Doublerice (Despite Exile, Abiogenesis) again handles the growling vocals, but "World Builder" also features clean male- and female vocals (and spoken word sections).

Featuring four tracks which are all over 10 minutes long, the material on "World Builder" is quite creative and rather eclectic too, drawing influences from all sorts of musical genres. The basis of the band´s music is heavy riffs and rhythms, but the tracks are also greaty atmospheric (often created with keyboards or lead guitars) and at times even epic in scope. The tracks can rightly be called progressive in structure and they feature many intriguing ideas and elements.

"World Builder" features a well sounding production job, and even the programmed drums (I assume they are programmed because that´s how they sound) feature an acceptable sound production. They are sometimes a bit too simplistic though and to my ears the music could have prospered from a human drummer playing the drums. I wouldn´t be surprised if "World Builder" is actually a bedroom project created by one man, with guests handling the vocals.

Upon conclusion I´d say that "World Builder" is a step up from the previous AEGOS releases, although I wouldn´t call it a giant leap. The riffs are little sharper and more memorable, the atmospheric sections have more impact, but the tracks still feature sections here and there, which aren´t that interesting. If Stillbeing can eliminate the stale sections, and write slightly more memorable parts instead (and have a real human drummer play on the next release), they could well produce something spectacular in the future. For now a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Upon The Anvil" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Minnesota based death metal act Moloch. The album was independently released in January 2023. Moloch formed in 2012 and released the "Cleansed by Fire" EP in 2015. Other than a very early change on the drummer position Moloch have had a steady permanent trio lineup since 2012.

Stylistically this is technical and relatively brutal death metal. The material is played at an extremely high pace throughout the album, and you´ll hear very few slower parts on "Upon The Anvil". While the tracks are arguably well composed and very well performed (these guys are incredibly skilled musicians), it doesn´t take more than a few tracks before a lack of variation within the songs and between the songs sets in. 9 tracks and a total playing time of 37:24 unfortunately feels much longer, because the album is one-dimensional in nature. A few surprises and more variation wouldn´t have hurt.

But while I may sound a little negative, lack of variation isn´t the worst crime on a technical death metal release, and if you want your death metal delivered at a frantic pace, great intensity, skill, and brutality, this album certainly applies. There´s also a couple of more abstract moments, which remind me a bit of Morbid Angel´s abtracts ideas (twisted riffs and solos), and the demonic double growling/high pitched screaming sections provide a whiff of Deicide, so Moloch certainly know the classics and how to imitate them (be influenced by them).

The sound production is professional and overall well sounding, although I could have wished for a more distinct snare tone, because often the snare and the bass drums sound the same, which means the drums become a slightly chaotic listen. I still enjoy it, but it´s a feature I would look into changing on future releases. Upon conclusion "Upon The Anvil" is a good quality death metal release by Moloch, and although it´s not without a flaws here and there, it´s still an album loaded with great assets and qualities. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland I first came across Avenged Sevenfold at the time of ‘City of Evil’ and soon went back and grabbed the earlier albums, loving their sound and approach. However, for some weird reason I lost track of what they were doing after 2010’s ‘Nightmare’ and this is the first album I have heard since then. We still have the same core quartet of M. Shadows, Johnny Christ, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance along with drummer Brooks Wackerman who joined the band in time for their last album, “The Stage’, and who is probably best known for his long tenure with Bad Religion. Seven years between albums is a long time for any band, but of course there was the small matter of a worldwide pandemic which impacted everyone on the planet. This has also allowed the band to reflect and ensure they have delivered exactly what they wanted. and the result is something which is far more expansive and simply bigger than I would have ever have expected from them. We also have a nod to the past with some lyrics and a bridge included on this which were written by The Rev.

This is a modern metal album which is a long way from their roots, but somehow is also tied to them. There is a passage on “We Love You” which is pure Freddie Mercury and Queen, but it soon switches into Nine Inch Nails and some blistering riffs. I mean, they worked with the 78-piece San Bernardino Symphony orchestra, there is also acoustic guitar, but also plenty of the riffs and attacks we have come to associate with them over the years. To me this is an album where the band have massively changed yet somehow have kept tied to their roots so while the sheer breadth is quite astonishing, they have also ensured older fans will still find plenty on here to enjoy. M. Shadows is singing the best I have ever heard from him, no strain whatsoever and a wonderfully emotional performance which is perfectly suited to the arrangements behind him, although when they decide to go hard, they do just that. In some ways this is reminiscent of the latest Slipknot album in that they also have refused to be pigeonholed and only time will tell as to which will have the biggest impact in the long run. Given that the core quartet have been together since 2002, they are solid in what each of them can achieve and have grown and changed organically, growing up along the way and there is no doubt in my mind that this is their best release to date which should both satisfy old fans and gain them many new ones.

lukretion Swedish prog rock/metal heavyweights Soen are back with their sixth studio album, Memorial – and it’s yet another masterpiece in a catalogue that is growing to be one of the most impressive and consistent in the whole genre. With Memorial, the Swedes continue the subtle evolution of their sound towards heavier modern metal territory they started with their previous LP Imperial, merging a harder American alt-metal edge with the unmistakable Scandinavian melancholy and majesticness that has always characterized the band’s output.

The contrast between these two aspects of Soen’s sound has never been starker, which is part of what makes Memorial such a splendidly dynamic and wholly entertaining record. There are very few traces left of the mid-paced songwriting and mild-mannered delivery that have characterized much of the band’s pervious records. These have been instead replaced by a fury and raw energy that pervades nearly all aspects of the new songs. Martin López dispenses with much of his signature syncopations and polyrhythms to instead favour a steadier and more direct drumming style, providing a mighty solid backbone to the arrangements. Meanwhile, Joel Ekelöf injects tons of rasp and distortion in his normally silky and restrained vocal delivery. The melodies he sings on the new songs are also more direct and rudimental than what he has used us to, which suits perfectly his harsher signing style. Perhaps even most notably, many of the songs are fast-paced and infused with a cornucopia of very headbangable riffs that give the guitars a dominant role in the arrangements (“Sincere”, “Unbreakable”, “Fortress”, “Incendiary”, “Icon”). Even Cody Ford’s solos often stray away from his typical Gilmouresque approach and towards more uptempo and dissonant playing.

Against this backdrop, the sparse moments of melancholy and mellowness acquire an even stronger and more spellbinding presence. “Sincere”, “Unbreakable”, “Fortress”, and “Incendiary” all contain sudden drops in volume and intensity, as the fury of the songs’ verses and choruses gives way to delicate, semi-acoustic passages in the bridges. Meanwhile, songs like “Hollowed”, “Tragedian” and “Vitals” slow down the tempo to ballad-speed, providing cleverly-placed changes of pace to the album as a whole. The progressive and experimental elements of the music also gain prominence in the context of the generally heavy and hard-hitting songwriting, like the sinister and dissonant instrumental bridge of “Icon”, the computerized vocals on the verse of “Violence”, or the majestic use of synthetized strings in the title-track that provide a chilling throwback to the use of Mellotron in classic prog rock (King Crimson).

Memorial is a phenomenal album that works on many different levels. It’s lot of fun to listen to, by virtue of the sheer energy of its songs. But there are also tons of different layers in the music, which get better and better with each new listen as one uncovers new depths in the arrangements and songwriting. The first six tracks, in particular, are among the best the Swedish band has ever penned, with the title-track and the emotional ballad “Hollowed” (featuring a beautiful cameo by Italian pop singer Elisa) deserving special mention. The album’s second half may be a touch less compelling, as tracks like “Incendiary” and “Tragedian” cannot perhaps reach the level of awesomeness of earlier songs. But the progressive tour-de-force “Icon” and the incredible soul/jazz ballad “Vitals” close the album in a spectacular way, almost compelling the listener to press “PLAY” again. In fact, I am finding it nearly impossible to put this record down: it has been haunting my CD player for weeks now, with no intention to leave any time soon. Album of the Year? Very, very possibly so.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

Warthur This is one of several live releases which capture Porcupine Tree performing in the wake of Fear of a Blank Planet, perhaps the height of their 2000s powers before 2009's The Incident split opinions and took a little of the shine off the band.

As the title implies, it's taken from their appearance the Isolaarirock Festival in Finland, and as is often the case with festival sets that makes it a somewhat different beast from live releases sourced from a concert where the act in question is headlining. The necessity to stick to a festival running time prompts Porcupine Tree to pick out a setlist tightly focused on more immediately gripping songs, and whilst it also limits the extent to which they can zoot off on flights of fancy, this nonetheless is a capably performed set performed for a clearly appreciative crowd.

Save for Lightbulb Sun, only songs from In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet are included, and on the whole the setlist makes a good case for the band's 2000s-era output.

Warthur Nil Recurring is a fairly simple EP to review in some respects. Did you like Fear of a Blank Planet? Would you like more Porcupine Tree in that particular vein, consisting of a brace of songs (some devised in those sessions, some only coming together afterwards)? Does the idea of Robert Fripp paying a visit to lend his guitar and some blessing to a band as important to progressive rock in the 2000s as King Crimson was in their heyday appeal to you? Then you probably already have listened to Nil Recurring - but if you haven't, don't snooze on it, because whilst some secondary Porcupine Tree releases are a little ancillary (Metanoia, for instance, is an acquired taste), Nil Recurring is of much the same standard as the album that preceded it.

Or do you think Fear of a Blank Planet was rubbish? I don't agree with you... but Nil Recurring won't persuade you to like this phase of Porcupine Tree any more than you already do.

UMUR "The Current" is a one-track single release by US, Texas based post-metal/progressive death-doom metal act AEGOS. The single was independently released in November 2021 and it was the last release by AEGOS before they changed their name to Stillbeing (in 2022). AEGOS formed in 2021 and released "The Great Burst of Light" debut album in April 2021.

Stylistically "The Current" opens with a relatively fast-paced death metal section, which isn´t something you´ll encounter on "The Great Burst of Light", so that particular section of "The Current" stands out from the material featured on the debut album. However AEGOS soon takes the pace down to more well known heavy territories and the middle section of the track is in an atmospheric and melancholic post-metal style. Overall "The Current" is a perfect example of the eclectic nature of AEGOS music.

The single us well produced, featuring a heavy, powerful, and detailed sounding production job, and upon conclusion it´s a good quality release perfectly complimenting the material on "The Great Burst of Light". A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Great Burst of Light" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Texas based post-metal/progressive death-doom metal act AEGOS. The album was independently released in April 2021. AEGOS formed in 2021, released "The Great Burst of Light", and "The Current" single in November 2021 before changing their name to Stillbeing in 2022.

The album features 5 tracks and a total playing time of 48:44 minutes. All tracks are at least 6 minutes long, and four of them are around 10 minutes long. It´s slow building, atmospheric, and very heavy post-metal/doom metal with both male- and female clean singing and death metal growling (courtesy of Jei Doublerice from Despite Exile, Abiogenesis). The songs are quite adventurous in sound, structure, and style, and they move through several different timbres, dynamics, and moods. A good example is "Qualia" which features both female singing and saxophone playing on top of a heavy doom metal bottom and a cold almost epic black metal styled atmosphere. "Gravity Bending Light" is another example of the eclectic nature of AEGOS music, as it features a longer middle section featuring cello, which provides that part of the track with an almost chamber like (classical music) atmosphere.

The sound production is powerful, heavy, and detailed, and upon conclusion "The Great Burst of Light" is a good quality debut release by AEGOS. It´s an album for those who crave a little more than just heavy riffs and rhythms when listening to doom metal, and if you prefer a more creative and eclectic take on the genre, this album certainly applies. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Maniac Psycho Abyss" is a split release between Japanese death metal act Hellchild and Japanese thrash metal act Gigantic Khmer. The Split was released through Strange Records in 1990. Gigantic Khmer has a relatively short career existing from 1988-1992 releasing the 1989 demo "A Fetus" and this split before disbanding. Hellchild existed a little longer with more releases under their belt and didn´t end their original run until 2001.

Hellchild is represented here with one track while Gigantic Khmer have two tracks featured on the split. The Hellchild track is a thrash infused old school death metal track. It´s actually only the raw growling vocals which point in a death metal direction as the riffs and rhythms of the track are clearly in thrash metal territory. Gigantic Khmer is a more straight thrash metal act, influenced by the US scene. They have slightly better production values than Hellchild, and their material is generally a bit more powerful and intense, although I do enjoy the odd melodic moments on the Hellchild track.

So upon conclusion "Maniac Psycho Abyss" is a nice little split release from the late 80s/early 90s Japanese underground. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

Warthur Hailing from a live performance originally broadcast on German television, this hails from the Deadwing tour, coming a month or so after the material captured on the Arriving Somewhere live release. For the most part the setlist concentrates on recent material from In Absentia and Deadwing (and non-album tracks from the same era), though The Start of Something Beautiful and Radioactive Toy pop up to offer something from Up the Downstair and On the Sunday of Life respectively. As one might expect from performances recorded professionally for TV, the sound quality is decent, and overall this is another fine live release, though if you are not a big Porcupine Tree you may find this is a little redundant next to Arriving Somewhere, which draws on a somewhat wider range of their back catalogue at that.

lukretion Hate them or love them, Manowar are one of the most well-known (and talked about) metal bands on the planet. Warriors of the World is the Americans’ 9th full-length album, released in 2002 after a gap of 6 years from their previous LP, Lounder Than Hell. And if that record had already started to show a worrying involution in the band’s sound, Warriors of the World continues the inexorable decline, marking a new low in Manowar’s discography.

The band’s sound has not changed much over the years – forging that epic, loud brand of traditional heavy metal that has served as template for countless bands since the 1980s. While not very different from the rest of their discography, the tracks on Warriors of the World resemble more a faded photograph of Manowar’s sonic prototype than a 2.0 version propelled in the new millennium. The tracks have all the right ingredients – loud, steady drum beats, powerful bass and guitar riffs, epic vocal melodies -, but it is hard to shake the impression that we haven’t heard all this before already, but better. A ballad like “Swords in the Wind” pales in comparison to masterpieces such as “Master of the Wind” or “Heart of Steel”, lacking in pathos and delivery. The more uptempo and aggressive songs (“Hand of Doom”, “House of Death “, “Fight Until We Die”) fare somewhat better, but they too show the signs of time: Eric Adams’ roar, while still respectable, is just a tiny bit less commanding than on previous records; the guitar and bass riffs feel slightly recycled; and the arrangements are somewhat less vivid. In sum, it’s hard to see why one would prefer to listen to this over any of the band’s previous 8 records, if free to choose.

Of course, the fact Manowar might have written better songs and albums before, is no reason to consider Warriors of the World a bad record per se. However, it is hard to ignore some glaring issues it presents. First and foremost, the album contains a lot of fluff. And when I say “a lot”, I mean more than 50% of the material included here. This is mostly concentrated in the album’s first half, where we have two fairly insipid balladish songs (“The Fight for Freedom” and “Swords in the Wind”), two frankly improbable covers (a snippet of Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” and Elvis Presley’s “An American Trilogy”) and two pointless, keyboard-driven instrumentals (“Valhalla” and “The March”). That’s a total of six slow, fairly pompous, slightly lethargic songs in a row! It would be enough to sink even the strongest of albums and, alas, the remaining five tracks of Warriors of the World fare just above average. The concluding lot of songs, from the title-track to “Fight Until We Die”, is by far the best the LP has to offer, although it’s hard to ignore the fact that “Hand of Doom”, “House of Death” and “Fight Until We Die” are essentially cut from the same cloth and have their own issues too (for instance, the ending chorus of “Hand of Doom” drags on way too long and “Fight Until We Die” really feels like a mere appendix to “House of Death”).

Overall, I cannot say I enjoy listening to Warriors of the World much. The first half is highly inconsistent and boring. The second half is better, but seems to have been written on autopilot, recycling familiar riffs and melodies (and lyrics, of course). Maybe Manowar should have tried to condense this material into an EP (with the covers + instrumental a b-sides, possibly). Either way, I cannot see myself playing this one very often, unless someone steals all previous Manowar’s albums from my collection.

Warthur This is the followup to XM, and is another live-in-the-studio recording by Porcupine Tree for XM radio in Washington D.C., this time from 2003. The original XM leaned very strongly on material from In Absentia, recorded as it was early in the process of touring and promoting that album.

This album ends up being a somewhat more varied prospect, as well as a highly interesting one - because the first XM used so much In Absentia material, here they go lighter on it (though it's not absent - there's a nice version of Trains here) but fill out the setlist with tunes from a more diverse range of releases. These go as far back as Up the Downstair, but the band also lean heavily on Lightbulb Sun for these performances.

What really gets interesting is that the band are still very much in In Absentia mode when they are playing this material - adding an extra dose of edge and heaviness to the proceedings, with the result that you get a somewhat fresher take on familiar stuff here.

The end result is a rather unique setlist - certainly not something the band would have put together if they'd had a completely free hand in song choice, but because so much of their recent material had been already used on the first XM session and they wanted to avoid redundancy, we ended up with this intriguing, one-of-a-kind performance.

Warthur As the title implies, Porcupine Tree's XM is a live-in-the-studio session for XM radio in Washington D.C. - as such, it doesn't have the ambience of a live album, but it does showcase the capacity of the band to pull off this material in person. As one might expect from a November 2002 session, material from In Absentia features heavily - in fact, six of the titles here come from it, with the remaining tracks all coming from Stupid Dream. We're quite far away here from Porcupine Tree's space rock roots, as a result, and more in the realm of the heavy prog music that they made the focus of their work for the 2000s, with touches of the indie rock-influenced prog of their late 1990s era adding an extra dose of variety here and there. It might not offer a whole lot that In Absentia and Stupid Dream didn't already offer, but when you are dealing with albums that are as good as those two, "more of the same" doesn't sound half bad.

Warthur In between their early space rock albums and the hard prog direction they took on In Absentia, Porcupine Tree put out a brace of albums in what I call their "indie-prog" styles - a mashup of their early spacey style with influences from then-current British indie rock. Marillion were plumbing similar territory at the time with the run of albums beginning with Brave - indeed, Steven Wilson would lend a hand on the marillion.com album, which perhaps represents the closest the two groups ever came to each other sonically - but Marillion and Porcupine Tree took somewhat different approaches and took different lessons from UK indie rock, in part because they were coming from different directions in the first place (what worked to evolve Marillion's neo-prog sound wouldn't necessarily have been right for developing Porcupine Tree's space rock, after all).

Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, and the (remarkably good) odds and sods collection Recordings are the studio fruits of this era of Porcuoine Tree's history - but if you want a live taste of this sound, then you want to check out Warszawa, which captures an April 2001 performance with the band in fine form. Selections from Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun dominate the track list for the most part, though Voyage 34 and Signify get a look in towards the end.

Perhaps more significantly, there's a slightly heavier edge to the performances here than we got on the studio renditions of many of these tracks - not as heavy as In Absentia, but we are less than a year away from them entering the studio to put that career-transforming album together, and you could certainly see this as a missing link between the "indie prog" era and the heavy prog stylings that would follow, albeit one leaning more towards the former period than the latter. The end result is steeped enough in the late 1990s sound of Porcupine Tree to be interesting to those who enjoy it, but is just different enough that it feels like a missing piece of that era slotting into place - and you could argue that providing a different slant on a band's work is the best thing a live album can offer over its studio predecessors.