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 37-2014: Slash – World On Fire
Despite being promoted as Slash’s third solo record, ‘World On Fire’ is technically the second album by the band lead by him and singer Myles Kennedy. Very little bands in recent Rock history have such a tight band dynamic as Slash, Myles and The Conspirators, the Canadian rhythm section of…
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Album of the Week 36-2014: Queen – Live At The Rainbow ’74
While it’s easy to dismiss Queen for the musical identity crisis that butchered most of their eighties output, we must not forget that their carreer was bookended by a group of incredible. Being a fan of bombastic music, I can’t help being captivated by especially the part tribute to, part…
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Album of the Week 35-2014: Dir En Grey – Gauze
Dir En Grey’s debut album is the hidden gem of the Visual Kei scene. This may sound a bit weird, figuring that the Japanese quintet is probably the most popular band in the Metal scene with non-English lyrics after Rammstein, but ‘Gauze’ stands out stylistically in a discography that is…
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Album of the Week 29-2014: Judas Priest – Redeemer Of Souls
There are so many reasons why this new Judas Priest album shouldn’t work. Guitarist KK Downing retired, not willing to await how much longer the band’s farewell tours were going to take. The band members’ age is starting to take its toll, especially on Rob Halford, whose voice has been…
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Album of the Week 26-2014: Mastodon – Once More ‘Round The Sun
Mastodon never ceases to surprise me. Despite the inaccessible nature of their psychedelic, progressive Sludge Metal, they’ve become one of the biggest name in the current Metal scene and – even more surprisingly – a welcome guest at many festivals. What is most amazing about them is that every album…
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Album of the Week 23-2014: Blue Öyster Cult – Secret Treaties
At the beginning of their carreer, most notably around the time of their first three “black and white” releases, Blue Öyster Cult was often hailed the American Black Sabbath. Personally, I have always viewed this comparison as somewhat unfair. It’s also the direct cause that Blue Öyster Cult has always…
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Album of the Week 22-2014: Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Explaining why ‘Physical Graffiti’ is my favorite out of all the amazing albums that Led Zeppelin recorded is quite easy. First of all, there’s the quantitative argument: it’s a double album, so there’s twice as much Zeppelin to enjoy. But even when you look at the quality of the material,…
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Album of the Week 16-2014: Warlock – Triumph And Agony
While each of the four albums that Germany’s Warlock has recorded is worth hearing for fans of traditional Heavy Metal, two of them stand out. ‘Hellbound’ is one of those because of its energetic NWOBHM worship, fantastic songwriting and spectacular guitar work by both Rudy Graf and Peter Szigeti. By the time ‘Triumph…
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Album of the Week 10-2014: Warrior Soul – Salutations From The Ghetto Nation
While debut album ‘Last Decade Dead Century’ is generally considered the definitive album for New York’s Warrior Soul, I have personally always seen their third record ‘Salutations From The Ghetto Nation’ as the band’s crowning achievement. It’s on this release that the unlikely, but surprisingly successful combination of huge Black Sabbath…
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