For fans of Helloween, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian

Released December 17, 2020

Gaia Epicus hails from Norway and released it’s 7th album called “Seventh Rising” the 17th. December 2020. The “band” or project if you will since it’s not been a full band in the last 10 years or more, has played concerts, festivals and toured in the following countries Norway, Sweden, UK & Scotland, USA and Spain.

The band was founded by Thomas Chr. Hansen back in 1992 and he is the only original member left. Throughout the years the band changed music style, name and members several times, only to finally back in 2001 land on the style that he still plays today. The band goes under the Power Metal genre but according Hansen himself he calls it just Melodic Metal. (with elements of power, speed, thrash and prog)

After being ripped off by the first label who released their two first albums, Hansen then decided to form his own label. Epicus Records is the name of his label and he has released five Gaia Epicus albums pluss re-issued the first two. As it stands Hansen has been offered deals on other labels but turned it down, but he is looking to strike a deal with a bigger label so if anyone interested please get in touch with him.

Some of the people that has been special guests on albums:-

Mike Terrana (Rage, Vision Divine, Yngwie Malmsteen)

Tim Ripper Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth)

Michael T. Ross (Lita Ford)

Roland Grapow (Helloween, Masterplan)

Dominique Leurquin (Rhapsody)

Andreas Olsson (Royal Hunt, Rob Rock)

Michael Troy (Yngwie Malmsteen)

Ola Halén (Insania)- Morty Black (TNT)

Watch This Music Video!

LINKS:

www.gaia-epicus.com

www.facebook.com/gaiaepicus

www.instagram.com/gaiaepicusofficial

www.youtube.com/gaiaepicus

www.twitter.com/gaiaepicus

Reproduced with permission from Metal Devastation PR

For fans of Amon Amarth, Behemoth, Deicide, Dark Funeral

The brainchild of Vernon Boward III and Michael Goguey Jr . Hierarchy was formed in 2002 and went through numerous lineup changes before going on indefinite hiatus in 2010. But as the gods would have it, the stars and planets aligned and Hierarchy was reborn once more in 2018! This band is now poised to conquer the world!

The long awaited debut album of Long Island’s own melodic blackened death metal band Hierarchy is here. 15 years in the making!

Track List:
1. Everything Burns (intro)

02:172. Light ov the Morning Star 04:56

03. The Spectacular Sin 05:39

04. Faithless 05:00

05. Ave Satanas 03:43

06. Death to the Vatican 04:26

07. Fire and Blood 03:08

08. Legion 04:04

09. Suicide Ceremony 04:32

10. Ravenous 01:51

11. From Aeons Came 06:30

12. Through the Fires of Moloch 04:06

13. Blessed Be the Fallen 04:02

Released December 1, 2020

All Songs Written By Tabotan and LucithorRecorded and Mixed by Lucithor at Odinson Studios

Watch this video!

Follow the band at these links:
https://hierarchyband666.bandcamp.com/music
https://twitter.com/HierarchyOffic1
https://www.facebook.com/hierarchybandny
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHYhKs2aRClttyw8XmSk4Sw
https://metaldevastationradio.com/thebeast/blog/11772/new-promo-hierarchy-hierarchy-blackened-death-metal

Reproduced with permission from Metal Devastation PR

For fans of OVERT ENEMY, POWERHOUSE, MILITIA

‘The Band Repent‘ is a high energy thrash metal band from Casper, Wyoming. The band was officially formed August 1, 2019 when guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Amack and drummer Shawn Hill held their first practice. A few months later the duo was playing their first show. Next, the pair went straight to the studio and tracked their first single, ‘1,000 Years‘. The song was tracked by Marc Felten and mixed/mastered by Kevin George. After the show and the release of their debut song guitarist Steve Thomas joined the band in early December 2019. The band quickly began rehearsal as a three piece and played another show to their biggest crowd yet! Next, after trying out a few bassists, the band recruited Joe Rodriguez in February 2020.

They are now playing as many shows as possible as they write more singles and track their debut EP ” WRITTEN IN BLOOD “

The band has grown so fast in such a short period of time with their rapidly expanding social media presence as well as promoting their single ‘1,000 Years‘ which at the time of this writing has been spun on 60+ radio stations around the world!

With COVID halting several of their shows, the band went into the studio again to track ‘WAR‘, which released January 23, 2021 to massive fan fare. The band recorded and mixed this song themselves with Aaron Hanson mastering the single.

With an EP coming out in early 2021 ‘The Band Repent‘ is now focused on touring opportunities, radio station airplay, record label interest, and world wide success.

Check out this lyric video from the upcoming record! 

Follow the band at these links:
https://www.facebook.com/thebandrepent/
https://instagram.com/the_band_repent?igshid=1pm018llp196k
https://youtube.com/channel/UCNYfGdXqsdjHZ94X38iqcaw
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7me36FVJVZFdslnLXg8cdj?si=xpr6wJqIRN67ijGQWDupow

Reproduced with permission from Metal Devastation PR

Here is the playlist for the show aired on Sunday 31st January 2021. This week we had a triple play of triple plays…a new release segment, The Time Tunnel and The Death Metal Dungeon. Enjoy \m/

• Seven Witches – Metal Asylum
• Van Halen – Somebody Get Me A Doctor – for Eddie Van Halen who would have been 66 on 26th January
• Thin Lizzy – Killer On The Loose – for Brian Downey who was 70 on 27/01/2021
• Slayer – South Of Heaven – for Jeff Hanneman who would have been 57 on 31/01/2021
• The Animals – House of The Rising Sun – for guitarist Hilton Valentine who passed away on 29/01/2021 aged 77
• Deicide – Dead By Dawn (Deicide – 1990)
• Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nevermind – 1991)
• Godhead – Sinking (2000 Years of Human Error – 2001)
• Gravehuffer – Sights To The Sky (Necroeclosion – 2021)
• Megadeth – Tornado of Souls (Rust In Peace – 1990)
• Diabology – Ember To Ash (Nobody Believes Me – 2020)
• Skyliner – Night Gypsies (Dark Rivers, White Thunder – 2021)
• Speedkiller – Midnight Vampire (Midnight Vampire – 2020)
• Sacrilege – I Can’t Die (Sci Fi Version 2021)
• Steelheart – I’ll Never Let You Go (Steelheart – 1990)
• Municipal Waste – Sadistic Magician (The Art Of Partying – 2007)
• UDO – One Heart, One Soul (Steel Factory – 2018)
• Gravedigger – Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching) (Tunes Of War – 1996)
• Pretty Maids – Walk Away (Scream – 1994)
• Piledriver – Metal Inquisition (Metal Inquisition – 1985)
• UFO – Young Blood (No Place To Run – 1980)
• Redline – We Came To Rock (Vice – 2012)
• Paradise Lost – True Belief (Icon – 1993)
• Savatage – Edge Of Thorns (Edge Of Thorns – 1993)
• Aerosmith – Eat The Rich (Get A Grip – 1993)
• Nuclear Assault – Critical Mass (Handle With Care – 1989)
• Alice Cooper – Step On You (Raise Your Fist And Yell – 1987)
• Evergrey – Forever Outsider (Escape Of The Phoenix – 2021)
• Anthrax – Caught In A Mosh (Among The Living – 1987)
• Hellyeah – Black December (Blood For Blood – 2014)
• Collibus – Burn Out (The False Awakening – 2014)
• Bloodbath – Eaten (Nightmares Made Flesh – 2004)
• Decapitated – Earth Scar (Anticult – 2017)
• Pestilence – Out Of The Body (Consuming Impulse – 1989)
• Wolf – Venom (Black Wings – 2002)
• Angels Of Babylon – King Of All Kings (Thundergod – 2013)
• Helstar – Defy The Swarm (This Wicked Nest – 2014)
• Twisted Sister – I Am (I’m Me) (You Can’t Stop Rock n Roll – 1983)

This show aired on Metal Devastation Radio on Sunday 31st January 2021

We are back with three hours of awesome metal tunes. This week we had a triple play of triple plays…a new release segment, The Time Tunnel and The Death Metal Dungeon. Enjoy \m/

Aired on Metal Devastation Radio on Sunday 31st January 2021

After not having reviewed anything for a while due to personal circumstances, I needed something with a bang to come back to. I let Rick decide what to give me and boy does that guy know my taste in music. Enter Ragenheart and their new album The Last King!

Ragenheart are a Greek power metal band, forming in 2003 and composing their name by combining the phrase Rage In Heart. Founding members were Angel Priest on guitars and John Koronaios on vocals and they soon enlisted “Speedy” Nick on drums. The addition of Nikos Michalakalos on bass in 2004 and Stavros Papazoglou on keyboards in 2006 completed the line up and they soon released a five track demo.

Kostas Athanasoglou (Steel Gallery Records) and Greg Varsamis (Eat Metal Records) listened to the demo and decided to help the band, offering them the chance to open a gig for the legendary Hair Apparent. With their continued assistance, the band had several support shows for bands like Cloven Hoof and Leatherwolf.

2010 saw the release of their successful debut, Ragenheart and now in 2018, they release their second full length album The Last King.

So what can I say about this album? Well, a few words spring to mind….fantastic, great, awesome to name some but the best I can come up with is that this is a true power metal album in every sense of the word.

This is a stunning album with songs combining influences from the whole range of power metal from early Queensryche, to Dio, Riot, Savatage  and Warlord. The vocals from John Koronaios are superb, the melodies and composition are fantastic and the production is bright, clear and powerful.

The tracks are full of crunching, heavy guitars and harsh drums, but with the obligatory power ballad or two. There are no bad songs on the album and none that could be considered fillers.

I had this in my car for weeks and didn’t want to take it out again. Stand out songs for me were, amongst others, title track The Last King, Fear and Metal Rules The Night (The 80’s Outcast), which really does sound like it came straight from the 1980’s.

In my opinion, no one does power metal than the Europeans and I absolutely adore the little twang that appears in European singers vocals at times. Koronaios is an awesome vocalist and he sings English almost perfectly but the little accent that appear every now and then just gives him, in my opinion, that little bit of an edge.

If you are a power metal fan, like me, you will love this album. Even the cover has that typical power metal feel! But, even if you are not a power metal fan, this album has element of lots of genres of metal thrown in, so there should be something for everyone!

I had never heard of Ragenheart before I had reviewed this album, but I will definitely go back and check out there previous album and also will be keeping an eye and an ear out for any new stuff they release in the future.

TRACK LISTING:

1. A Thousand Years Empire

2. The Last King

3. Fear

4. Echo

5. Mirror

6. Metal Rules the Night (The 80s Outcast)

7. Dreamer

8. Blind Alley

9. Forever Rain

10. The End

11. Our Mighty Past

Originally posted on Ever Metal

I always knew that I was going to enjoy this album as I have been a fan of Primal Fear for as long as I can remember, the question was HOW MUCH was I going to like it?

Billed as “for fans of Judas Priest, Accept, Helloween, Gamma Ray and Iced Earth” (I don’t know about anyone else but that would sell it straight away for me), Primal Fear were first formed in 1997 but two of Germany’s most respected metal musicians; Ralf Scheepers, former Gamma Ray vocalist and bassist/vocalist Mat Sinner.

Their first self-titled album was released in March 1997, and in the following 21 years they have released a further 11 albums, becoming one of the most beloved and respected heavy metal bands around the globe.

Their last two studio albums, “Delivering The Black” and “Rulebreaker” saw them climbing the charts and earning even more critical praise than before and with the release of their new album “Apocalypse”, they have once again raised the bar in heavy metal to even greater heights.

Produced by Mat Sinner and recorded, mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios, “Apocalypse” brings together German power metal, elements of pure thrash metal and traditional heavy metal along with some 1970’s European hard rock.

Primal Fear had kind of fallen off my radar in the last few years. Reviewing newer bands, a lot of the time meant that a lot of the older ones had been temporarily resigned to the back seat, but I was glad this one dropped in my inbox.

So, the question that needs to be asked is, did this album live up to my recollection of them from albums gone by?

Simple answer is, YES AND THEN SOME!

The album opens with the atmospheric and apocalyptic title track, with its bell tolls and choral, almost chanting, vocals before it launches you headfirst into the rest of the album, which has a severe ‘in your face’ rock and roll attitude.

The album is classic Primal Fear, the galloping riffs, the frantic double pedals that add a sense of urgency and speed and Scheepers piercing high screams. Everything that got Primal Fear noticed in the first place.

This is hard, driving speed metal at its best, but has that Teutonic power/heavy metal sound that the Germans do best.

Stand out tracks for me include “Blood, Sweat and Fear”, “Hounds of Justice” (which I am aware that some reviewers did not like! But hey, we can’t all agree on everything can we?” and “The Beast”.

“Supernova” is the albums power ballad and shows the more theatrical side of Scheepers singing and “Eye of the Storm”, although not technically what I would class as a ballad, is a slower, more melodic offering, showing just what these guys are capable of.

“King of Madness”, the album’s first single, is probably the most radio friendly and is an absolutely stunning track. I would have bought the album purely based on this one track if I hadn’t received it for reviewing purposes. It’s a great advert for an awesome album.

We all know the story that Scheepers tried out for the Judas Priest job after Rob Halford left (the gig eventually going to Tim “Ripper” Owens!) but I, for one, am glad he didn’t get the job. Just think, if Ralf had joined Judas Priest, we might never have had the pleasure of a band like Primal Fear over the past 21 years!

The more I listen to this album the better it gets. I only wish I could have made it to the gig in London on 11^th October, but maybe I’ll catch them next time, where I will definitely be down the front!

TRACK LISTING

Apocalypse

New Rise

The Ritual

King of Madness

Blood, Sweat and Fear

Supernova

Hail to the Fear

Hounds of Justice

The Beast

Eye of the Storm

Cannonball

Originally posted on Ever Metal

On 27^th July 2018, Ever Metal had the privilege and the honour to premier Pelugion’s video for track ‘Bane of Humanity’ and now we are proud to review their debut EP “I”.

Pelugion are a three-piece rock/metal outfit from Coventry, England and the trio, Andy Sweeney, John Pittaway and Brandon Balou, first met at college in September 2012 while they were studying music performance. They started off by doing Black Sabbath and Metallica covers at college gigs, but once the college days were over, they found new rehearsal rooms and wrote their first original track.

It was then that Pelugion was born!

The threesome gigged heavily around England, they won a slot playing the Godiva Festival, which is the UK’s biggest free family festival, and signed a management deal with FAT Angel Management and PR, as well as released a music video for the track ‘Serpent’s Mistress’. This extensive gigging gained them recognition for their energetic performances and massive sound.

In 2016, they released the song ‘Bide My Time’, which was produced, mixed and mastered at Woodworm Studio by Mike Exeter, who has worked with legends such as Black Sabbath, Dio and Judas Priest, and this grabbed the attention of Wildfire Festival in Scotland, where they performed later that year.

2017 was a busy year for them. They played at the sold-out HRH Metal at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, were a special guest performer at the Mosh Against Cancer in Coventry, performed their first acoustic set at Uprising Festival in Leicester and embarked on a tour with Welsh heavyweights, Lifer!

2018 saw them head back to Wales for the popular Dementia Aware Fest and they once again appeared on the bill at Uprising. They also gained a spot at Bloodstock Festival in Derby after winning the Coventry Metal 2 The Masses and receiving worldwide radio airplay is helping them on their way to becoming an international band!

So, what of this fantastic EP? Well, I think I just said it. It’s fantastic! From the opening basslines of first track ‘Monster’ I knew this was going to be a killer EP. With influences such as Black Sabbath, Metallica, Megadeth, Soundgarden, Alterbridge, Black Label Society, Kyuss and Down, they have added their own unique twist on things to produce what can only be described as a stonking sound. Heavy, sometimes sludgy yet melodic and upbeat, if this EP doesn’t have you banging your head and throwing the horns then nothing will.

The EP is a collection of the band’s recordings to date, put together over a period of three years! Some of it has never been heard before, while some of it had only been available on digital format, but now for the first time it has all come together on CD, and really is a must for fans old and new.

This has everything a great EP should. Groove-laden, chunky riffs, melodic, powerful vocals with just the right amount of grit, funky bass lines and frantic drumming. They can seemingly turn their hand to anything, from the slow-tempo’d Sabbath-esq tracks to the speed of the more thrashier ones.

We recently set up a page on the Ever Metal site showcasing bands we support and Pelugion were one of the first to be added to the list. This was due to their extreme capabilities, talent and hardworking ethic.

It may have taken three years to get this EP out, but if this is an indication of what is to come from this group of lads, then we all should be very excited about the future of metal.

Just don’t let it take three years for the follow up!

TRACKLISTING:

1. Monster

2. Bide My Time

3. Desire

4. Bane Of Humanity

5. Remedy

6. Bury Me

7. Serpent’s Mistress

8. Believe

Originally posted on Ever Metal

Before I crack on with the review of this album, I would just like to thank the band for their amazing patience in waiting for this. At Ever Metal, we receive hundreds of albums to review and, still only being quite small, we cannot review everything. That being said, we promised these guys we would take a listen to their album and we always try to deliver on our promises.

I received the album a good few weeks ago but, due to personal circumstances and illness, it took me a while to get around to actually listening to it. And boy, should I have done it sooner!

Party Of The Sin are a Chilean band from Santiago and, to be honest, that is about the extent of my knowledge of them. I spent ages scouring the internet looking for information and there really is not much to find! Is this a band who like to keep themselves to themselves or are they SO new, that even the internet doesn’t know much about them? Whichever is the case, this is a band who should be promoting themselves EVERYWHERE and getting their name out to the many people who have yet to hear about them.

From the very first track, single ‘Explode’ I loved this album, and near on two weeks in my car is testament to that. Their Facebook page states they are “psychedelic Anglo rock” but this is not something I would necessarily agree with. Why we are still in an age where we must categorise and pigeon-hole music I don’t know, but seeing as we are, I really don’t know where they would be placed on the rock / metal spectrum.

At first, they come across as a rock band, in the vein of Def Leppard or Inglorious or Alterbridge. But after a while, you can also hear a hint of grunge creeping in. I was big into the grunge era in the early 90’s, and I can definitely hear influences from bands such as Pearl Jam, who were one of my favourites. Whether this was done deliberately I don’t know but it seems to work.

This is a band who are full of talent and really should be heard by a lot more people, which is where me and my review come in! If I can turn one more person onto their music, then I have done my job!

The band is made up of four guys and they are shown on their Facebook in the following manner: Crazy Drums – Pablo Stagnaro, Groovy Bass Guitar – Zack Arnstein, Magic Lead Guitar – Fernando Cordero and Emotional Vocals – Gabriel Sara, and I can’t personally think of a better way to describe them! Each one has something unique to bring to the table and together they mix extremely well, almost sounding as if they have been playing together for many years.

The album has a bit of a feel-good vibe to it. In terms of originality it doesn‘t bring anything new and much of it has, and to coin an over-used phrase, already “been done before!” BUT how many bands these days actually come up with anything totally original. These guys play great music, and they love what they do! They are passionate, ambitious and, above all, they believe in themselves! In this day and age, with too many bands being shot down before they have even started, to see a band who believe in what they can do, and seemingly not giving a stuff what anyone else thinks, is great.

Right from the offset, I was always going to give this album an 8 out of 10. I love the mix of rock songs with the more ballady types (I’ve always been a sucker for a ballad) and there really is not a bad song on the album (again, I know that is probably another over-used cliché.) Stand out songs for me also happen to be the singles released, ‘Another Sun’, ‘Explode’ and my absolute favourite on the album ‘My Head.’

But, after a few run throughs though, I changed this to a 9 out of 10. I loved it right from the start, but it grew on me a LOT more too, and no doubt, it might have even made its way up to nearly a 10 (and I don’t give those out that often!)

If you have never heard of these guys before, please go out and give this an album a listen. You will not be disappointed!

TRACKLISTING:

Explode

She Stole

My Head

One Way Love

Another Sun (Short Version)

Falls

Live Forever

Celebration

Streets Of Man

Weaker

Another Sun

Originally Posted on Ever Metal

I don’t know if this is true for everybody, but there comes a time every now and then that I get bored of listening to the same ol’ music and want to find something “different.” Well, you can’t get much different than Oh.

Oh. is Greek progressive metal multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Olivia Hadjiioannou who arrived onto the international music scene in 2013, with her award-winning debut EP, “Sleeping World”. She has since released a prog-metal album “Synemotion” on vinyl and four avant-garde progressive ballads and her latest project is this album “Metallia” released in July of 2018.

Since her appearance on the music scene, she has accumulated many honours including, but not limited to, three international music video awards, most recently at the London Greek Festival for single ‘Deserted Eyes’, semi-finalist in the 2017 International Songwriters Competition and she had been added to the Prog Archives in the Crossover Prog Category.

Driven by a passion to musically reveal an “inner-story”, she can play the guitar (electric and acoustic), bass, drums, violin, piano and percussion and her voice has been compared to the likes of Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Happy Rhodes, Céline Dion, Melissa auf der Maur, Sharon den Adel and Anneke van Giesbergen (impressive list eh?). She composes, produces, mixes and masters her music in Athens, Greece.

Playing all those instruments, Oh. is a true do-it-yourself artist but she says; “I never felt as if there were a question of whether I can play music or not. Music is always a question of whether you have something to say.”

And she certainly does have something to say. Her music “evokes intense imagery, entices the listener to journey into epic sonic landscapes and finally escape into intense ecstatic oblivion!” She wants to touch the soul with her music, whether that be in “the dark recesses of sorrow or the heights of elation.”

But you need to listen carefully to her music because there is so much more to her than first appears. Combining frenetic, harmonic guitar solos, multi-layered vocals, head-banging riffs, fantastical violins, groovy bass lines and furious drumming, there are many twists and turns to her progressive rock and metal style. And let’s not forget, this lady plays ALL of the instruments herself!

Since its release in 2018, the album has had 32 different reviews from thirteen countries worldwide, was in the top 10 of the 2018 Progressive Metal EP Chart and was listed as one of the best albums of the year in 2018 by Metal Nation Radio!

Described by the lady herself, the album is an “epical prog-metal compilation in 6 parts – a multi-layered sonic piece of ravishing solo electric guitars, time-bending tempo shifts, grooving bass lines and deranged drums” and she is not far wrong!

Featuring just six tracks and lasting a little over 25 minutes, this album goes against everything that should be considered ‘epic’ but that is the only word I can think of to describe it. It is eccentric (I can see where the Kate Bush and Tori Amos references come in!), atmospheric and really does conjure up all sorts of images in your head while you are listening to it. The guitars whisper of Satriani and Vai and there is a whole host of musical sounds (wails, screams, bongos to name a few) to take you on your journey which Oh. describes as a spiritual one that will “transmute your subliminal mind map.”

‘Experimental’, ‘eclectic’, ‘strong’, ‘packs a punch’ are just a few of the words and phrases I have seen to describe this album and I would agree with every single one of them. Although instrumental (how the album is described by Olivia herself!) prog-metal is not really my thing, I can recognise talent where I see it. And this is one extremely talented woman!

This album won’t appeal to everyone, but anyone with a love of progressive music in general should really check it out!

But be prepared to be gob-smacked, bowled-over and totally amazed all at the same time!

TRACKLISTING:

1. Red Lion

2. Bee

3. Androgyny

4. Resurrection

5. Dragon’s Kiss

6. Triumph

Originally posted on Ever Metal