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.

  • Album of the Week 22-2019: Rammstein – Rammstein

    Rammstein’s first studio album in a decade was bound to cause some controversy. After all, controversy follows the band everywhere they go. Sometimes it’s their provocative – but often really funny – videos and lyrics, but their untitled seventh album may just cause a rift among their fan base. On…

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  • Album of the Week 20-2019: Amorphis – Elegy

    Perfection is hard to come by in music. More often than not, I refer to a certain aspect of an album being as close to perfection as it gets. In case of Amorphis’ third album ‘Elegy’, its atmosphere is just about as perfect as it gets. ‘Elegy’ was the second…

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  • Album of the Week 19-2019: Rammstein – Reise, Reise

    Rammstein is probably the most popular rock band that doesn’t sing in English. And yet, they are also one of the most misunderstood bands in the world. Not alone is the at times hilarious word play in their lyrics lost on people who don’t speak German, but their music is…

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  • Album of the Week 18-2019: Korol I Shut – Bunt Na Korable

    Korol I Shut is widely recognized as one of Russia’s best punk bands. And yet, labelling them punk is seriously selling them short. Sure, the songs are generally short and very energetic, but Korol I Shut’s music is too experimental and melodic to be considered “just” punk. Taking their inspiration…

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  • Album of the Week 17-2019: Black Sabbath – Mob Rules

    Black Sabbath completely reinvented itself when Ozzy Osbourne left and Ronnie James Dio took over. ‘Heaven And Hell’ turned out to be one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time and made Sabbath catch up with the blossoming NWOBHM scene with class and conviction. Its follow-up ‘Mob Rules’…

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  • Album of the Week 13-2019: NoGoD – Proof

    With the visual kei scene being as full of rather faceless soundalikes as it is, it’s good to have bands like NoGoD pop up every once in a while. While the band does not use any elements that are all that different from what most bands in the scene are…

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  • Album of the Week 12-2019: Anthem – Nucleus

    Some European label – Nuclear Blast, no less – finally has the balls to release Anthem’s music outside of Japan. Sure, the band needed a set of songs with English lyrics to accomplish an international record deal, but apart from the lyrics, Anthem was always easily one of the more…

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  • Album of the Week 11-2019: Kinniku Shojo Tai – Shinjin

    Making a worthy comeback is one thing. Releasing a comeback album that is as good as your classic material is rare though. And yet, that is exactly what Kinniku Shojo Tai does on ‘Shinjin’. The band had broken up somewhat unceremoniously in the late nineties after a string of enjoyable,…

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  • Album of the Week 10-2019: Kipelov – Zhit Vopreki

    Valery Kipelov’s name will forever be inextricably linked to the legendary Russian heavy metal band Aria, which he fronted until 2002. His current band, simply named Kipelov, is more than just a continuation of the Aria sound, however. In fact, Kipelov is much more in line with contemporary power metal,…

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