Heavy Metal Reviews
Heavy metal in all its varieties, and from all eras, is the bread and butter of Kevy Metal, if the name of the site had not given this away yet. All Album of the Week reviews about heavy metal albums published on Kevy Metal can be found right here.
Since I didn’t start properly tagging my reviews until a couple of years in, these aren’t all the heavy metal reviews I have done over the years. If you are looking for something specific, you can always search by band name or release title using the search bar at the bottom of the page.
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Album of the Week 45-2022: Xentrix – Seven Words
Not many thrash metal bands from the eighties can claim they release their best work in the twenty-first century. Plenty of them released “best since” albums, which often lack what made the bands in question special in their heyday. Xentrix appears to be one of the exceptions to that rule.…
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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 41-2022: Queensrÿche – Digital Noise Alliance
Ever since Todd La Torre took over as their lead singer, Queensrÿche returned to being a good metal band. Great news for people who, like myself, think that ‘The Warning’ is the best Queensrÿche album, but there have been some grumbles about the band not being as progressive as some…
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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 36-2022: Pentagram – Makina Elektrika
‘Makina Elektrika’ is the first album of new material by Turkish heavy metal giants Pentagram in a decade. But the band hasn’t been sitting still in the intervening years. Most notably, they have reunited with former singers Murat İlkan and Ogün Sanlısoy, as well as guitarist Demir Demirkan, to form…
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Album of the Week 34-2022: Megadeth – The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!
Dave Mustaine is the only musician from thrash metal’s heyday who can occasionally still write material that is just as good as his classic work. And given the strength of the first two singles of ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’, Megadeth’s new album instantly became my most anticipated…
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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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Album of the Week 31-2022: Pokolgép – Metálbomba
Pokolgép was one of Hungary’s first heavy metal bands, having started in 1980 and still roughly playing the same style of music these days. Sure, there is a contemporary power metal edge to Pokolgép these days, but that probably would have happened anyway, as the first seeds of it could…
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