Ever since Amorphis first graced us with their presence back in 1990, Finland witnessed a slow but steady growth in its number of Heavy Metal bands, to the point that our beloved music is now in terms of popularity to the Finns what Lady Gaga is to the rest of the world! Throughout this process, the ‘land of the thousand lakes’ has enjoyed its own quite distinctive sound and scene so it is very strange to witness a new band such as Re-Armed looking towards neighbouring Sweden for inspiration. Anyhow, the fact remains that Re-Armed are about to release their debut album “Worldwide Hypnotize” through Massacre Records and what remains to be established is what this nine track album has to offer to Metalheads like you and me.   more »

Germany has for many years been the “breeding ground” for some of the most impressive Metal bands around and even though naming the most important Teutonic Extreme Metal band of all time may well be a matter of personal choice, only a fool would doubt the fact that Rage, the Power/Thrash trio with Herr Peter “Peavy” Wagner at the helm for the last twenty years, may well be the most prolific of them all! Why? Simply because there are not many bands that I know from this part of the world who are about to release the 20th studio album of their career! Riding on the success of last year’s truly impressive “Strings To A Web”, the power trio prepared yet another album full of passion and raw energy – an eleven track opus entitled “21”.   more »

When I was guided by Pain Of Salvation’s label rep to the band’s tour bus to do an already scheduled interview with mainman Daniel Gildenlow, I expected to find the tall Swede his normal energetic self, not downing a hot bowl of soup and medication! Daniel of course, being the chatty and accommodating interviewee that he always is, ensured that our latest encounter was once again an enjoyable one, explaining along the way how we ended up witnessing another line-up change in the band’s history, the difficulties that he had to battle through on both a personal and professional level these last couple of months and also explaining the reasons that lead him to fight on at times when most mere mortals would simply have given up. If you are already a fan of this great band, this interview will offer further justification for your support and, hopefully, if you have never even heard of the Eskilstuna-based outfit before, it will give you an incentive to catch up on twenty one years of soulful and highly skilful music!   more »