Heavy Metal

Corey Taylor – ‘CMF2’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Pamela Littky After the success of Corey Taylor’s first solo album CMFT in 2020, it’s safe to say that those familiar with Corey Taylor’s work (whether it be Slipknot or solo) were excited about his next solo project. CMF2 is a sequel to Taylor’s first album and an improvement to its predecessor. One… Read more

Avenged Sevenfold – ‘Life Is But a Dream…’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Kameron Pollock California, Metalcore quintet Avenged Sevenfold has never been one to shy away from the dramatic. It’s evident even in their many morbid album covers and song titles (“Shepherd of Fire,” “Burn It Down”, “Beast and the Harlot”). On the band’s eighth studio album, Life Is But a Dream…, they really do turn the… Read more

Metallica – ’72 Seasons’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Tim Saccenti Most people already know the story up until this point: Metallica originally formed in Los Angeles at the beginning of the ’80s. In a decade with no shortage of heavy metal entities for headbanging fans to choose from, Metallica eschewed then-common practices of the genre, such as featuring scantily-clad women on… Read more

Disturbed – ‘Divisive’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Travis Shinn Chicago’s Disturbed is already one of the most successful heavy metal bands to debut (on record) in the twenty-first century, boasting among other accomplishments four consecutive studio albums going to number one in the U.S. since Believe in 2002 (even Immortalized topped the charts in 2015, despite the band taking an… Read more

Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Patient Number 9’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Ross Halfin After choosing several surprising (and potentially polarizing) collaborative partners on his last album, Ordinary Man (Elton John, Post Malone), heavy metal’s ultimate icon Ozzy Osbourne by and large revisits familiar territory on his new full-length release Patient Number 9. This is mainly in regards to the guitarists he’s recruited this time… Read more

Def Leppard – ‘Diamond Star Halos’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Anton Corbijn As part of the new wave of young heavy metal bands at the start of the ’80s, Sheffield, England’s Def Leppard (whose oldest members at the time were no older than twenty), managed two successful albums mostly through word-of-mouth and touring before releasing Pyromania in 1983, which became not just a massive chart… Read more

Ghost – ‘Impera’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Mikael Eriksson You have to hand it to the Swedes. They have a preternatural ability to craft pop songs, in English, across any genre you could name. This phenomenon began, of course, with Abba who was able to take the disco they heard coming out of the States and turn it into something… Read more

Crowbar – ‘Zero and Below’ Album Review

You can’t judge a book by the cover, except when you can. Look at these guys: Photo Credit: Zack Smith You KNOW what these guys sound like before you hear a note. If you’ve spent any time in New Orleans, and I do not mean Mardi Gras Bourbon Street, you know that it is a… Read more

Guns N’ Roses – ‘Hard Skool’ EP Review

Photo Credit: Paul Rovere Guns N’ Roses formed on the Sunset Strip in 1985, born from splinter factions of two local bands, LA Guns and Hollywood Rose. From their formation, GNR brought darker energy than the other bands on the strip, they sounded like a mashup of punk rock and glam. Dead Boys meets Queen… Read more