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Now, finally, the second iteration of my top albums for 2006. I remembered more albums and shifted the places a bit. So now here are my top 10 for 2006. I will only comment on the new entries. Positions that shifted are due to rethinking or inserting other entries.

While one of the worst winter storms of the last 10 years blows over our roofs, it’s time for an appropriate playlist:

On the Redemption website, you can already hear the excellent new song “The Suffocating Silence” of this Progressive Metal outfit.

I hardly look at previews of album artworks, but the announcement of the new Threshold album cover made me curious, as no other band has more beautiful artwork. And again, it is a magnificent cover, and I’m already jumping up and down in excitement waiting for the new CD!
And they had Dan Swanö for some […]

I love Gentle Giant. They are an old progressive rock band from the 70s that I like way more than somparable bands like Genesis or King Crimson. They have their own, quiet way of creative outbursts. Multi-instrumentalists, when I hear their music I somehow get the mental image of band members that all look my […]

Back to US Power Metal, and to the singer in half of the bands: James Rivera. He sang in Helstar, Distant Thunder, Destiny’s End, Seven Witches, Killing Machine and whatnot. Currently in Vicious Rumors, but the band I enjoy most of these is Destiny’s End, especially their first album, Breathe Deep the Dark.
It combines a […]

Even for the most ardent Metal fan, there should be some CDs he should know, and “Pet Sounds” is certainly one of them. You probably will not find a list of the best albums of all times without The Beach Boys showing up. And its not surprising, Pet Sounds is so great! It’s sad and […]

On the first two Space Odyssey albums, band leader and keyboard wizard Richard Andersson (no, not the MacGuyer guy) brewed a fantastic symphonic power metal mix in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen in his good times. But since he has another band (besides the 12000 other bands he used to have or used to play […]

If there is an exact opposite to Easy Listening music, it’s probably Mathcore. Rhythm pattern deducted like complex mathematical structures, lots of noise and screaming. The Dillinger Escape Plan manage that, at least on their Miss Machine album, in a way that is at least bearable. But what happens if musicians that talented concentrate their […]

Back to Metal, we take a trip to a subgenre I like to call US Power metal; which encompasses bands like Jag Panzer, Helstar or Destiny’s End. Typical symptoms of US Power Metal are songs heavily filled with multiple guitar lines, a powerful singer and often somewhat strange song structures. Mostly medium to midly fast […]