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 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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Album of the Week 40-2020: Led Zeppelin – III
Led Zeppelin’s third album is usually not talked about with the same reverence as the rest of their first four albums. Admittedly, having an entire second side devoted to acoustic, folk-inspired songs would not be the most appealing idea in the world to me either, but somehow, the band managed…
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Album of the Week 39-2020: Fleetburner – Fleetburner
It isn’t often that debut albums manage to blow me away these days, but Fleetburner’s self-titled first album managed to do just that. Certainly, it helps that the musicians involved are no unexperienced amateurs, but ‘Fleetburner’ is simply an adventurous album that surprises its listeners more than once. The album…
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Album of the Week 38-2020: Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind
Not many hard rock and heavy metal bands in the eighties enjoyed the commercial success while not deviating an inch from what they wanted to do the way that Iron Maiden did. All of the albums they made in that decade are considered heavy metal classics, but the complexity was…
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Album of the Week 37-2020: Alice Cooper – Brutal Planet
It’s not often that Alice Cooper gets the credit he deserves for how varied his discography is. From the typical Detroit rock ‘n’ roll of the original Alice Cooper band to the more theatrical rock he made with producer Bob Ezrin later in the seventies and the surprisingly entertaining glam…
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