Unfortunately, Rob, Glenn, Ian, and management want the door to be closed for whatever reason. It’s not fair to me, the media, or the fans to close the door and not allow me to come out of retirement. I was certainly expecting a call when Glenn retired.
It’s becoming more and more common for a band to release a compilation album packaged with bits of new or previously unreleased material to keep longtime fans enticed. Usually, I’m not too interested in standard compilation albums, because I can easily just throw on any of a band’s previous releases if I want to hear a particular favorite, but this type of release holds extra interest, by offering up material that may be hard or impossible to find anywhere else, while still serving as a great introduction for new fans, by bringing a bunch of classic material together in one package.
After listening to the album several times, the insight arises that Accept has not lost any of their strength on this album. There are no real innovations, but all songs on ‘Too mean to Die’ are 100% Accept anthems with all the unique features the band has established over decades. This album fulfills all expectations. Not more but certainly not less.
During an interesting and rich of topics discussion with Joey Vera back in July 2019, the legendary bassist of Armored Saint and Fates Warning has promised me that the long awaited eighth album of Armored Saint will be amazing. After listening to “Punching The Sky”, I am extremely glad he has kept his word, even though I didn’t have any personal doubts on the matter. In a world that has been suffering from the tragic pandemic, the legendary five piece from Los Angeles, California has offered another great musical gift to the Heavy Metal world.
Encore comes at you with “No Sanctuary”, “Empire” and “Eyes of a Stranger” again if Tate had a little brother it would probably be Todd. But to be real here, I think Queensrÿche has managed to keep pushing forward in times of separation. We see it all the time when bands split, their famous vocalist leaves now what? You could call it quits, but to find a replacement, and start brewing your own ideas and just bring your sound more current is what was needed in the QR camp, I think most fans will agree with this.
Swiss Heavy Metal group Burning Witches are back with their third studio release “Dance With The Devil”. The female quintet has been established as a team of highly talented musicians with their self-titled debut album and “Hexenhammer” of 2018. These ladies have shown they can compose solid old school metal songs inspired by legendary bands of the genre, but on the other hand, they have managed to keep some musical individuality.
Twenty years ago, a collaboration occurred that set the Metal world ablaze. More collaboration than supergroup, Demons & Wizards featured the vocals of Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kursh and the guitar of Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer.
Hansi and I were very dear friends before we realized that we could write songs together. Writing together actually happened by accident.
“Rush Of Death” is the third album of Almanac, the project formed in 2015 by Victor Smolski after his departure from Rage, as a continuation of his work with the Lingua Mortis Orchestra. Smolski is known for being a wonderful guitarist, a multi-instrumentalist, a composer and a producer, but also a talented racing driver. The guitar wizard from Belarus is famous for his work on pairing heavy metal and classical music perfectly.