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 15-2022: Merry – Strip
What would Merry sound like without their founding guitarist Kenichi, who quit the band about two years ago? As it turns out, not all that different. Given the fact that he wrote increasingly fewer songs on the Tokyo band’s recent albums, that should not be all that much of a…
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Album of the Week 11-2022: The Black Crowes – Lions
Upon release, The Black Crowes’ sixth studio album ‘Lions’ was met with reviews that were significantly less positive than the ones its predecessors received. Being fifteen years old and not having a lot to spend, I ignored it at the time, thinking there had been an unwelcome stylistic shift. Years…
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Album of the Week 02-2022: Loudness – Sunburst ~ Gamushara
For a second, I thought that Loudness had gone the Iron Maiden route by releasing an unnecessary double album. And on the surface, it may seem that way. ‘Sunburst ~ Gamushara’ is barely eighty-five minutes long and could easily have been an even better hour-long album. However, Loudness did go…
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Album of the Week 52-2021: Slash – Living The Dream
Upon release, ‘Living the Dream’ sort of flew under my radar, because the previous album that Slash released with Myles Kennedy and his backing band, ‘World on Fire’, wore out its welcome a little too quickly. The album was not without its strengths, but it was much longer than it…
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Album of the Week 45-2021: Mary’s Blood – Mary’s Blood
‘Confessions’ was a pretty divisive album among Mary’s Blood’s fan base. It saw the band moving towards modern hardrock in a significant number of songs with a production style focusing on the band’s biggest asset: the voice of singer Eye. Its follow-up, a self-titled release no less, takes a U-turn…
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Album of the Week 44-2021: Kinniku Shojo Tai – Kimi Dake Ga Oboeteiru Eiga
Only a band with a core sound as weirdly unique as Kinniku Shojo Tai’s would be able to drop two prominent elements from it and still sound like nobody but themselves. Fumihiko Kitsutaka’s classy melodic speed metal guitar work, which was front on center on most post-reunion Kinniku Shojo Tai…
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Album of the Week 42-2021: Tygers Of Pan Tang – Majors & Minors
While I don’t want to make a habit out of reviewing compilation albums, ‘Majors & Minors’ was exactly the album I was hoping Tygers Of Pan Tang would release for a couple of years now. Ever since their current singer Jacopo Meille joined the band, I feel like their sound…
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Album of the Week 39-2021: KK’s Priest – Sermons Of The Sinner
When KK Downing left Judas Priest, something about the wording of his statements made me think he was retiring for good. Ten years later, we are treated to ‘Sermons Of The Sinner’, the debut album of his own band KK’s Priest, which also features singer Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, who fronted…
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Album of the Week 33-2021: Aion – Absolute
No, ‘Absolute’ is not the best Aion album. ‘Aionism’ will probably forever hold that title for me. Given the time it came out, however, it is quite surprising how good the album is. It came out on the heels of their far too upbeat self-titled album and the rather plodding…
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