Old School – Metal Express Radio

THE HELLACOPTERS – Eyes Of Oblivion

April 12, 2022 Séverine Peraldino

Resurrection After a somewhat chaotic career, you did not expect The Hellacopters to come back with a new album. True enough, when a band does a farewell tour, it does not always mean farewell, but still, it kind of means things don’t look peachy for the future. While they did not produce an album for quite some time (not counting the cover album Head Off in 2008, the last one was the sombre titled Rock & Roll Is Dead in 2005), the Hellacopters took the stage again in 2016 and have been since touring the world and festival just to prove that perhaps Rock N’ Roll is not dead in fact. Is the Eyes Of Oblivion a metaphor for a hangover? Perhaps it is if you take a look at the album cover… There are only a few reasons why someone would wear sunglasses like those, and a hangover is one of them. Still, they kind of look cool with the lightning. A cure for hangovers As usual, The Hellacopters do not bother with frills and they deliver a mix of classic Rock N’ Roll and Hard Rock with enough energy to power up a medium-sized city. With a chorus, catchy as hell, “Reap A Hurricane” is an efficient opening for the album. Yet The Hellacopters are not content with just giving you classic fast and furious tracks, they also lean on the side of bluesy Rock N’ Roll titles, with “So Sorry I Could Die”. The piano will make you travel back in time with this one. While the production is top-notched and modern, The Hellacopters have elevated the old-school to art, as well as melodies. It just seems they plugged their instruments in the studio and started playing. The inevitable result: light headbanging, restless feet tapping and whistling along, …READ MORE

MINDLESS SINNER – Turn On The Power

April 26, 2021 Miłosz Mikołaj Nizioł

A lot of various articles get posted at Metal Express Radio on a daily basis. Many of them are album reviews, which in turn are mostly freshly released ones or ones awaiting their release. But sometimes it also happens that albums from rather distant past get to have their review done only just now. One of those albums needed to wait whole 35 years to have their debut album reviewed by Metal Express Radio. Here’s the bunch of old school Swedish metallers called Mindless Sinner with their 1986 debut album Turn on the Power, or, to be more precise: its vinyl rerelease. Considering how much of a rip-off quite many modern bands are (some have even been reviewed here at Metal Express Radio), the above fact did need to be pointed out. Because if one was listening to Turn on the Power and being convinced that Mindless Sinner are a new band, they wouldn’t have been much likely to approve of them. Rip-offs are generally nothing to be adored which is why such bands as Greta Van Fleet or Airborne are not taken too seriously by many of those who dig Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. One could think “Yeah, another bunch of 80s wannabees”. Wrong. Turn on the Power was released around the same time as Metallica’s Master of Puppets. So all those who do not like rip-offs can give a sigh of relief: this is a proper blast from the past! The album starts with a song titled “We Go Together”. It sounds very much like a mix of such Hard Rock legends as Scorpions or Savatage, with a nice hint of Judas Priest. Tight rhythm section, predatory riffs and the bass not being too low make it all sound very decent to say the least. This song is …READ MORE

BURNING WITCHES – Hexenhammer

November 26, 2018 Maxxxwell Carlisle

Hexenhammer marks the second album from Swedish Classic Metal act Burning Witches. It is a step forward in both execution and artistic impact and the band has further refined its sound and more clearly defined the brand and their place in the Metal genre. Fans of Ram It Down / Painkiller era Judas Priest will love the Classic Speed and Heavy Metal vibes of these songs. With fantastic cover art, a robust yet organic production, and well-honed chops, both in instrumentation and vocals, Hexenhammer will be an easy win with most standard fare metal fans. The classic, dueling lead guitar attack of Sonia Nusselder and Romana Kalkuhl fits this style like a glove and the vocal power of Seraina Telli has only increased since the band’s debut. Although some songs don’t live up to the same standard as their peers, and there are few truly new elements introduced by this band, the overall album is one that is enjoyable and thoroughly head-bangable. There’s even a DIO cover at the end of the album to close things out with a familiar and much loved song. Their rendition of “Holy Diver” is excellent and a fitting addition to the album. Modern metal fans may be left wanting, but Old-School metal heads will love the unapologetic promotion of tradition on Hexenhammer. TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!