Metal Blade Records – Page 43

Labyrinth – Return To Heaven Denied – Review

June 1, 1999

Labyrinth are quite speedy and focused, rarely ponderous, and quite bent on hair-flipped heroics of a most axe-aggressive nature.

Prophanity – Stronger Than Steel – Review

June 1, 1999

Straight-forward post-Kreator thrash, old-school black metal, noisy evil filled with double-bass thunder, Carcassy vocals, and melodic fretboard flyings.

Spock’s Beard – Day For Night – Review

June 1, 1999

A live and bouncy power chord/keyboard hybrid that sounds like heavy Yes mixed with Kansas, popped fresh with the creative hippy spirit of Phish.

Hecate Enthroned – Dark Requiems – Review

June 1, 1999

Dark Requiems… is a real shame cuz I like Hecate Enthroned. So badly produced, it’s depressing.

Gwar – We Kill Everything – Review

June 1, 1999

There’s the usual goof rock, punk, and speed metal, but there’s hard rock, Iron Maiden, and, um, funk metal in here, too.

Manowar – Hell on Stage Live – Review

June 1, 1999

Even cool guys attending shows just for laughs have had to admit that they went to the lost and found after the show to see if someone had turned their ass in.

Sacred Steel – Wargods of Metal – Review

June 1, 1999

You don’t have to be a genius to spot an ’80s powermetal leftover, no better aged.

Bolt Thrower – Mercenary – Review

April 1, 1999

Bolt Thrower has perfected their own style of Medieval-ish melodic death metal, and they deserve to be heard because they do it better than anyone else.

Memory Garden – Verdict of Posterity – Review

April 1, 1999

Pure delight for fans of progressive metal. Memory Garden are a Swedish phenom who mix their convolution with a detectable trace of doom via Memento Mori.

Hades – $avior$elf – Review

April 1, 1999

The highlight is the dug deep groove of “To Know One,” which somehow combines Sabbath, Savatage, and Aerosmith funk and flips itself into a suicide dirge.