Hard Rock Reviews
As much as I like to call myself and this site Kevy Metal, my journey into music actually began with hard rock. Seventies and nineties hardrock – plus contemporary bands inspired by these styles – are still a significant part of what I listen to, and therefore, Album of the Week reviews on hard rock bands are published frequently. You can find all of them right here. Overlaps with my heavy metal reviews inevitably exist.
Looking for something specific, but can’t find it by browsing the reviews? Searching by artist name or release title using the search bar might bring up some Album of the Week reviews I have written before I started tagging my reviews properly.
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Album of the Week 01-2021: Arouge – Arouge ~Bogyaku No Kikoshi~
Arouge started out as the high school band Sleazy Luster when the members were still in their mid-teens. Kitsutaka and bassist Jun Fukuda quickly proved to be extremely capable songwriters. Their debut album offers more than enough evidence for that. Somehow, Arouge managed to combine the powerful, riffy bottom-end of…
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Album of the Week 52-2020: Merry – Modern Garde
By its title alone, Merry’s second album ‘Modern Garde’ already serves as a bit of a mission statement for the Tokyo-based band. Even in their early days, Merry was a band that stood out among their early twenty-first century visual kei peers by having some thought behind their concept, alluring…
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Album of the Week 51-2020: Aria – Noch’ Koroche Dnya
‘Noch’ Koroche Dnya’ was Aria’s first release after their string of classic albums (‘Geroy Asfalta’, ‘Igra S Ognëm’ and ‘Krov’ Za Krov”) and arguably their last great album with singer Valery Kipelov. Given the circumstances under which the album was recorded, it is a small miracle that the album came…
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Album of the Week 50-2020: Ningen Isu – Mandoro
Ningen Isu has been around for over thirty years. But even in their native country of Japan, they did not really get the audience they deserved until a few years ago. In a way, I can understand their cult status. Their heavily Black Sabbath-inspired music is a bit of an…
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Album of the Week 49-2020: Anthem – Burning Oath
Unlike many of their contemporaries, Anthem never actually released any bad albums. They just laid low for a while when the nineties inevitably ruined the music business for traditional heavy metal. They did, however, struggle a little bit with how many productional traits associated with power metal they should incorporate…
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Album of the Week 47-2020: XYZ→A – Wonderful Life
Hidden behind this atrocious album cover – admittedly, I really don’t like dogs – is one of the most pleasant musical surprises of the year. It should not be too surprising that a record featuring an all-star line-up of sorts, including Fumihiko Kitsutaka on guitar, recorded something I like, but…
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Album of the Week 46-2020: Kinniku Shojo Tai – Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)
After crazy eclectics Kinniku Shojo Tai reunited about a decade and a half ago, they decided to focus on what they did best. Melodic power metal, muscular funk rock, Queen-ish layered bombast and proggy weirdness. If that already sounds quite eclectic to you, you would not be wrong. Post-reunion Kinniku…
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Album of the Week 45-2020: Aria – Kresheniye Ognëm (2020)
Licensing issues prevented Aria from releasing their two albums with Artur Berkut internationally or even including tracks from them on compilations for years. As a result, the band simply decided to re-record the albums with their current – and best – singer Mikhail Zhitnyakov this year. Not a bad idea,…
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Album of the Week 44-2020: Seikima-II – News
In the nineties, Seikima-II basically released two types of albums: distinctly old school heavy metal albums and poppy hardrock albums with a glossy production. The former tend to be more to my liking, but both sides of the aisle have one notable exception. ‘Kyofu No Restaurant’ is easily the most…
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