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 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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Album of the Week 31-2021: Ningen Isu – Kuraku
The harshest thing I can say about ‘Kuraku’, the twenty-second album by Japanese power trio Ningen Isu, is that it is another Ningen Isu album. It does not quite set the world on fire like its predecessor ‘Shin Seinen’ did, but it simply features guitarist Shinji Wajima, bassist Kenichi Suzuki…
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Album of the Week 26-2021: Deep Purple – Come Taste The Band
Hardcore fans of Deep Purple’s Mark II line-up are quite doubtful whether or not they should even consider ‘Come Taste The Band’ a Deep Purple album. It was the first album released after the departure of Ritchie Blackmore and most of the material has been written by newcomer Tommy Bolin…
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Album of the Week 25-2021: Helloween – Helloween
It would be tempting to compare Helloween’s first album after the return of singer Michael Kiske and founding guitarist Kai Hansen to the reunion that made Iron Maiden a three-guitar band. A better comparison would be Testament’s reunion with Alex Skolnick and Greg Christian. Maybe a weird comparison, but like…
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Album of the Week 17-2021: Gamma Ray – Sigh No More
Gamma Ray’s second album ‘Sigh No More’ is generally considered the black sheep of their discography. That probably has to do with the album’s relatively dark, somewhat cynical tone rather than with its actual musical content. No one will ever hear me say that ‘Sigh No More’ is the best…
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Album of the Week 12-2021: Smith/Kotzen – Smith/Kotzen
From the first notes I heard from the project of Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and multi-genre guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen, I was looking forward to their self-titled debut album. It is always interesting to me that Smith’s side projects generally tend to sound nothing like Iron Maiden and Smith/Kotzen…
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