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 42-2024: Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood
After 2021’s ‘Brighten’ showed a somewhat lighter take on Jerry Cantrell’s trademark sound, more often than not with an acoustic foundation, its follow-up ‘I Want Blood’ is a rock album first and foremost. And while the album does not quite reach the pitch black depths of Cantrell’s masterpiece ‘Degradation Trip…
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Album of the Week 35-2024: Stryper – When We Were Kings
Stryper’s latter-day streak of great albums that started with ‘Murder by Pride’ (2009) came to a screeching halt with the bland ‘Even the Devil Believes’ (2020) and the severely underdeveloped ‘The Final Battle’ (2022). Although ‘When We Were Kings’ doesn’t quite reach the heights of 2015’s ‘Fallen‘ – which might…
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EP of the Week 34.5-2024: Lovebites – Lovebites EP II
Just over seven years ago, ‘The Lovebites EP’ was released. Despite the history that some of the band members had in a couple of underground bands that gigged fairly frequently – Destrose most notably – it was the first introduction for many people to the music of the band that…
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Album of the Week 33-2024: Horcas – El Diablo
For veteran heavy metal acts, there isn’t much incentive to release something that is better than good enough to keep them touring for a couple more years. Not sure if it works quite the same in Horcas’ native Argentina, but it seems like it does. That is exactly why any…
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Album of the Week 28-2024: SkyEye – New Horizons
While the power metal scene in Western Europe is growing staler by the minute, with so much pop music with distorted guitars dominating the festival bills, there are fortunately plenty of other places to look for good bands. Slovenia’s SkyEye, for instance, has found a nice niche for itself with…
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Album of the Week 24-2024: Black Country Communion – V
Supergroups rarely make it past two or three albums. The fact that Black Country Communion has seems to imply that there is some genuine chemistry between these musicians. And while I think the band peaked on their first two albums, at least their new album ‘V’ has a bit of…
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Album of the Week 22-2024: Slash – Orgy of the Damned
While I consider Slash to be one of the least bluesy guitarists to come out of the Los Angeles rock ‘n’ roll scene of the late eighties, the influence was undeniably there. Releasing a blues tribute in the shape of ‘Orgy of the Damned’ isn’t without precedent either. He toured…
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Album of the Week 17-2024: Navarone – Coda
While I don’t want to make a habit out of reviewing live albums here, sometimes a release pops up that is notable enough to warrant it. ‘Coda’, after all, is the registration of the final concert Navarone, arguably my favorite Dutch rock band, ever played. And a mammoth set it…
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Album of the Week 13-2024: Blaze Bayley – Circle of Stone
Blaze Bayley’s post-Iron Maiden career has been one of ups and downs, though artistically certainly more ups than downs. He has consistently been able to find musicians who provide him with music that appears to be tailor-made for his deep voice, the last decade or so finding those partners in…
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