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 11-2023: The Answer – Sundowners
About five and a half years ago, ‘Solas’ completely blew me away. The Answer had always been a good rock band, occasionally great, but they outdid themselves by adding Celtic folk influences and surprisingly atmospheric rock elements to create something truly unique. It would have been difficult, if not downright…
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Album of the Week 03-2023: Onmyo-za – Ryūō Dōji
Onmyo-za usually releases a new album every year or so. ‘Ryūō Dōji’ is their first album in nearly five years, presumably largely due to health issues that affected the hearing and vocal cords of singer Kuroneko. Fortunately, she sounds incredible here, though that could also be the result of ‘Ryūō…
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Best of 2022: The Albums
Let’s start the introduction to the list of my favorite albums of the year by stating the obvious: 2022 was the greatest year for new music in a long time. It took a while before the music industry got there. For a while during the first half of the year,…
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Album of the Week 48-2022: İdil Çağatay – Ateşler İçinde
The powerful, emotional voice of İdil Çağatay was introduced to me through Istanbul-based all-female heavy metal band Kırmızı, of which she was the frontwoman and main songwriter. Unfortunately, Kırmızı slowly faded away after the release of their excellent album ‘İsyan’, but Çağatay fortunately is still active as a musician. Moreover,…
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Album of the Week 44-2022: Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings
Alter Bridge albums are always a careful balancing act between hooky modern rock songwriting and the crushing, precise riff work of contemporary metal. Too much metal and Myles Kennedy’s incredible voice doesn’t get the space it needs to soar, but too much rock makes the songs a bit too predictable…
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Album of the Week 40-2022: Erja Lyytinen – Waiting For The Daylight
Honorary monikers can be compliments for musicians. But they can just as easily be too limiting to properly describe what they are doing. Case in point: Erja Lyytinen. For a while now, she has been known as Finland’s blues queen. But if her new album ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ proves…
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Album of the Week 38-2022: Seikima-II – Bloodiest
Kabuki rock demons Seikima-II are back! In accordance with their silly mythology, the band split up on new year’s eve in 1999, claiming the world was conquered. Apparently there were more worlds to conquer, as there have been occasional reunion tours since and now there is a new album in…
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Album of the Week 37-2022: Daida Laida – Issen
Despite featuring musicians from prominent Japanese rock bands, Daida Laida always felt more like a hobby project than a record company sanctioned supergroup. Solid, fun, but unspectacular. In a way, their sixth studio album ‘Issen’ is exactly that, but the addition of former Gargoyle guitarist Kentaro to the line-up did…
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Album of the Week 33-2022: Living Colour – Stain
Back when Living Colour’s third studio album ‘Stain’ was released, critical reception was generally lukewarm. Stylistically, the band’s characteristic blend of hardrock, heavy metal, funk, alternative rock and hiphop-inspired rhythms is still going strong on the album. In hindsight, however, it seems like the album’s darker, more cynical tone failed…
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