Lollipop Magazine

Stormtroopers of Death – Rise of the Infidels – Review

August 10, 2007

Four unreleased studio tracks, with 20 live cuts. Sub-standard S.O.D. (two originals, two covers) with crap production, like ProTooled Pro-Pain out-takes.

Quiet Riot – Rehab – Review

August 10, 2007

The band settles into a personal, raw record of bluesy metal, with Kevin’s voice an instrument of beauty and persona, delivering with passion and dimension.

Mondo Generator – Dead Planet – Review

August 10, 2007

A bright and expensive-sounding recording with juiced electricity at the guitars, crafted o’er an upbeat punk-charged collection of songs with shouty vocals.

Cornerstone – Two Tales of One Tomorrow – Review

August 10, 2007

It lacks of urge to be heavy for heavy’s sake, oddly mirroring the Violent Storm record experience, from Doogie White’s erstwhile Yngwie bandmate Mick Cervino.

Shark Island – Gathering of the Faithful – Review

August 3, 2007

Like Van Halen and the Crüe, they were the house band at L.A. hair metal haven, Gazarri’s, albeit only crafting one major label record, making them a footnote.

Chris & Rich Robinson – Brothers Of A Feather – Live At The Roxy – Review

August 3, 2007

Either America’s greatest living bluesmen, or fakes. On an acoustic record, with black girls singin’ and Chris stylin’, I settle, in disgust, in fake.

Amorphis – Silent Waters – Review

August 3, 2007

Like Paradise Lost, Amorphis seems bent on encompassing their catalogue and compressing it into diamonds of progressive, note-dense, mostly quite heavy tracks.

Samael – Solar Soul – Review

July 27, 2007

Beginning life as a poisonous black metal cabal, moving through luminous, magical industrial metal, through too much techno, and now, back to a heavy medium.

Paradise Lost – In Requiem – Review

July 27, 2007

Sung and recorded better than a Sentenced album, but every time the verse starts, you’re bored. Stodgy, oppressive songs which, in the end, aren’t that heavy.

Sonata Arctica – Unia – Review

July 20, 2007

Emotion worn on the hearts of their white, frilly sleeves, Sonata Arctica sometimes get too close to maudlin. On the more orchestral side of the catalogue.