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 43-2023: Angra – Cycles of Pain
‘Cycles of Pain’ marks the first Angra album since 2006’s ‘Aurora Consurgens’ that was recorded with the exact same line-up as its predecessor. And while that doesn’t necessarily say anything about the quality of the material, it sort of shows. The album sounds like a logical progression of 2018’s ‘Ømni’…
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Album of the Week 41-2023: Morifade – Domination
Back when I was a teenager, the Swedish power metal scene interested me greatly. There were quite a few bands that were just as influenced by Helloween as their German counterparts, but put a different spin on it that, while not exactly progressive, was definitely inspired by the more crunchy…
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Album of the Week 39-2023: Miserable – Esclavo Miserable
Even the best newer thrash metal bands tend to sound so much like the classic bands from the eighties that they ultimately end up feeling like watered-down versions of those bands. Part of the problem might be that the parameters of what constitutes thrash metal are quite narrow. However, Peru’s…
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Album of the Week 37-2023: Contracara – 1307
Whenever I need the rebellious spirit that seems to have been middle-classed out of contemporary European and American heavy metal, my attention tends to quickly turn to Central and South America. Contracara is one of those bands that made me realize what it was that I needed to hear in…
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Album of the Week 36-2023: Ningen Isu – Shikisokuzekū
2021’s ‘Kuraku’ was as close to a median Ningen Isu album as we ever got. Solid, but unspectacular. Fortunately, the power trio from Aomori has a way of following lesser albums up with something amazing. The lackluster ‘Burai Hōjō’ was followed by the crusing masterpiece ‘Kaidan Soshite Shi to Eros‘,…
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Album of the Week 35-2023: Edu Falaschi – Eldorado
Edu Falaschi’s 2021 album ‘Vera Cruz‘ was a comeback of sorts. It was a ridiculously ambitious undertaking, from its concept seeped in Brazilian history right down to its massive arrangements, but somehow it worked really well. ‘Vera Cruz’ contained everything a contemporary power metal album should need: memorable uptempo riffs…
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Album of the Week 34-2023: Hamadría – Sesión de Estudio
For those of us outside Peru, ‘Sesión de Estudio’ is the release that introduced us to the element that made Hamadría an amazing band rather than “just” a great one: the hyper-expressive voice of Ingrid Castro. Her predecessors were all fine singers, but Castro’s clearer timbre, power, subtle vibrato and…
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Album of the Week 33-2023: Vandenberg – Sin
Three years ago, Adrian Vandenberg surprised the rock world by reviving the band that carried his name and releasing ‘2020’, an album that was arguably his heaviest up until that point. Enough of a sleazy feel in the rhythms to call it hardrock, but the riffs are heavy enough to…
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Album of the Week 32-2023: Gillman – Escalofrío
Paul Gillman will forever be a pivotal figure in the Venezuelan hard rock and heavy metal scene, having been a founding member of Arkangel, one of the first Latin American bands in the style. Personally, however, I think he released his best work after his departure from that band under…
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