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 39-2025: Dolmen Gate – Echoes of Ancient Tales
Last year, Portugal’s Dolmen Gate completely blew me away with their incredible debut album ‘Gateways of Eternity‘. No 2024 release had as many melodies that got stuck in my head seemingly randomly, even though catchy choruses aren’t necessarily the focus of Dolmen Gate’s epic heavy metal sound. Clearly the mark…
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Album of the Week 37-2025: Sölicitör – Enemy in Mirrors
Out of all the American old school heavy metal bands that popped up over the last decade or so, Sölicitör is probably the one that appeals to me most. This is at least in part due to the fact that they don’t quite present themselves as a period piece as…
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Album of the Week 36-2025: Helstar – The Devil’s Masquerade
Anyone who thinks that Helstar’s post-reunion albums sound a bit too modern should definitely give ‘The Devil’s Masquerade’ a spin. While no one will mistake the album for one of Helstar’s earlier works, not in the least because it has a thick, beefy production job, it is notably less borderline…
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Album of the Week 34-2025: Helloween – Giants & Monsters
Helloween’s second album with their supersized all-star line-up is a fairly logical follow-up to what they were doing on ‘Helloween‘ (2021). ‘Giants & Monsters’ features a similar mix of a contemporary, bombastic take on the power metal sound the band pioneered in the eighties, and occasional AOR leanings, but it…
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Album of the Week 33-2025: Burning Witches – Inquisition
Burning Witches is at its best when they go one of two specific directions: either leaning fully into the more theatrical aspects of their sound, which is what made ‘The Witch of the North‘ their best album so far, or focusing on all-out aggression. The latter is exactly what makes…
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Album of the Week 32-2025: Onmyo-za – Ginrei Gozen
Onmyo-za has a clearly defined style, to the point where even bands that try to imitate them end up not sounding all that much like them. The exact balance between their traditional heavy metal and seventies hard rock riffs, their very accessible melodic sensibilities, their subtle folky touches, and the…
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Album of the Week 31-2025: Martyr – Dark Believer
Martyr will always be one of my favorite heavy metal bands from my own country. Back when nearly every Dutch metal band was taking their inspiration from various corners of the new wave of British heavy metal scene, Martyr adopted an approach that was notably more ambitious, melodically rich, and…
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Album of the Week 28-2025: Ashes of Ares – New Messiahs
For years, Ashes of Ares was a band that I should have liked, but could not really get into. Matthew Barlow is easily one of my favorite heavy metal singers of all time, and their original drummer Van Williams plays in Nevermore, one of my favorite bands. And yet, their…
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Album of the Week 26-2025: Fer de Lance – Fires on the Mountainside
Out of all the epic heavy metal bands that rose to prominence in the last few years, Chicago’s Fer de Lance might just be the one with the broadest stylistic palette. There is a cinematic quality to their music beyond the theatricality of their peers, while relatively pronounced folky leanings…
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