My favourite extreme/black metal release of all time, of any description, is Dimmu Borgir’s Death Cult Armageddon. The sheer monumental majesty of that record cannot be touched, in this humble writer’s opinion. So it’s difficult to be...

Australia has had a rash of classic alternative and progressive bands making comebacks in recent times, and none are more welcome than Brisbane’s The Butterfly Effect. They have bought their Brissie buddies Osaka Punch along on this...

If you love progressive heavy music, and more specifically djenty progressive and instrumental music, there is a veritable smorgasbord of fabulous releases from excellent bands coming out at regular intervals (pun intended) across the course of any...

This was one of those albums where I had to stop for a beat or two, ingest and get my head around it a little more, before I set proverbial pen to paper to review it. There...

Sometimes a band bobs up out of seemingly nowhere and catches you unawares. Metal Obsession’s editor flipped this EP recommendation to me on Facebook, and from the moody, percussive opening strains of first track Sunflower, I was...

When a band releases a debut that becomes an instant classic, the sophomore effort also instantly becomes an issue. How do you follow up something that was just about the best representation of what a band can...

Live albums have long been out of favour with the music industry and audiences, so when one comes along that sounds alive, fresh and powerful and captures a great live band in their element, as well as...

Give any new album at least three or four listens before you truly judge it. That’s a lesson I have learned over the years, and I always stick to it. Especially when reviewing. I am an unabashed...

Australia, and indeed the world, is awash with superb all-instrumental acts, and you can add the name Scoredatura to that illustrious and ever-growing canon of artists. One of the band members, six-string slinger Jake Howsom Lowe, also...

I personally adore bands that juxtapose heaviness with orchestral bombast, and this Sydney band proved they very much had the goods in this area of musical expression on their last record, 2013’s superb L’Appel Du Vide. Could...