You’ve waited years and now Kingdom Of Giants drop Burning Chrome like a nerve strike. Six tracks, about 20 minutes of visceral metalcore fused with synthwave sheen, and zero flash, just pinpoint aggression layered over electro-pulse atmosphere.
Tune Me Out opens with deceptive calm, then explodes into chugging riffs coated in neon haze. It hooks fast, clutching your attention like a headlock. Collide rides in next with industrial textures colliding with punchy breakdowns and a melody that sticks like static, intense and strangely poignant.
From there, Lead Me Back ratchets the tension higher and holds nothing back, balancing brutal technicality with emotional urgency. In “Cold Burn,” keyboards rise from the murk like a beacon, then are swallowed by thunderous breakdowns. It’s cinematic but never soft.
Taste Of Poison plays bait-and-switch. It starts moody, then smacks you with full-core force, complete with pick-scraped chaos and two vocal tones colliding with energy. And then the closer Digital Hell seals the deal delivering layers of glitch and grit, a chorus that soars and stings, and enough atmospheric weight to leave you unsettled but satisfied.
Production is clean-edged yet gritty, there’s no polish to dull the impact. Every beat lands, every synth pulse buzzes, every vocal crack bleeds intent. Put it this way: if your attention span is a goldfish, Burning Chrome nails you in the first minute, and doesn’t let go. Spacious enough to breathe, brutal enough to give you an audio kicking and smart enough to stick with you past the fade.
Tech-metalcore dialled to future shock. Kingdom Of Giants are back and they're burning in style. 8/10
Ambush - Evil In All Dimensions (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]
Stealing one of the NWOTHM bands to give Mr Black a rest, I'm taking the new one from Swedish metal band Ambush.
Formed in 2013 they have been delivering the heavy metal goods since then with three previous albums to their name, and it seems they aren't going down any strange new routes with album four. Sticking to their style of classic heavy metal inspired by Priest, Accept and Maiden (Maskirovka) packaged in very modern production techniques.
Now if you just heard Maskirovka with it's throbbing bass from Oskar Andersson, or Come Angel Of Night you'd think it was just a Maiden clone. However Ambush on the whole are more energetic with some Teutonic twin axes from Karl Dotzek and Olof Engqvist on Iron Sign, Linus Fritzson laying down the double kicks throughout this homage to the classic metal sound.
Evil In All Dimensions belongs to band founder Oskar Jakobsson, he gives his broadest vocal performance yet with be it the air raid screams on Heavy Metal Brethren or the more restrained passion on ballad I Fear The Blood. You can predict what you're going to get from Ambush but that doesn't stop it from being jolly good fun. 7/10
White Mantis – Arrows At The Sun (High Roller Records) [Spike]
White Mantis launch Arrows At The Sun with the elegance of a twitchy jolt. Ten tracks, just under 47 minutes, constructed like a thrilling sprint through a neon-lit wasteland. This is old-school thrash, tight as a trap, but keeping one eye on tomorrow.
They open with Nekrotornado a relentless riff cyclone prime to tear your ears off. It doesn’t wait, straight in, you’re hooked before you catch your breath. From there, the title track Arrows At The Sun lashes forward like a molten spear, buzzy guitars and drums that shatter time. It’s the kind of opener that demands attention immediately and owns its territory.
Pass The Torch and Divide And Kill keep the intensity sharp, riffs flying with razor syncopation while choruses land like adrenaline strikes. Atavistic Power digs deeper into rhythm with a primitive stomp under modern speed, anchoring the chaos with grounded weight.
Halfway through, Over Your Pale Bones is like a shock of cold air, short, blunt, and undeniably memorable. The pace never drops as Toxic Sniper and Roboticator rev back up, weaving machine-gun riffing with thrash-anthem grit.
The penultimate Reality Exists is the mood shift as it delivers melodic edge together with melodic menace, thoughtful but still snarling. Then closing with Altar Of Technology the band lock the salvo tight: a final punch of synthetic aggression and ripping leads, the digital and analogue colliding in one last exhale.
This is thrash recharged for the modern age, delivered with intent. A thermonuclear hit of thrash-metal adrenaline, ancient roots sharpened for now. 9/10
Syrinx - Time Out Of Place (Ocula Records) [Matt Bladen]
Canadian prog band called Syrinx, who wants to play everything as analogue as they can and features Moog, Taurus pedals, Minimoog, alongside drums, guitars and bass? So they sound like Rush? Well yes and no.
Musically there's a lot of Canada's favourite band here, from the band name, to the 70's influenced playing and a conceptual storyline, however vocally there's no Geddy nasalness and they are also a band who wants to explore heavier tones as they also have influences of Fates Warning, Queensryche and Tiles.
The second album from this Vancouver five piece is a rock opera which had been born from the mind of guitarist/founder/songwriter Graham McGee who also plays Moog Taurus/Little Phatty/Minimoog/Oberheim OB-X/Backing Vocals. His partnership with vocalist Jean-Pierre Abboud reaching back more than 10 years, originally in the gothic rock style and that's where the vocals come from, in fact JP has a delivery similar to Savatage's Jon Oliva, on the strutting 1875 and The Masters Host especially.
Before this album Syrinx were on a bit of break while McGee battled Lyme Disease, however they stirred, drummer Seth Lyon joined and the priests in the temple, rose again to create a second album. An album that almost fell apart due to the bassist leaving before it was supposed to be recorded however multi-instrumentalist Bobby Shock joined to bring fat bass grooves along with more Moog Taurus/Minimoog/Oberheim Matrix.
So two multi-instrumentalists in one band playing guitar and bass, but sharing all the synths, Taurus' both on record and live, they create sprawling sounds heavily influenced by Alex, Geddy and Neil, that middle section of A Waking Dream for instance but the US prog metal scene and NWOBHM on Unraveler. Speaking of A Waking Dream it features McGee's wife Lady Chanelle adding vocals as a harmonic counterpoint. Time Out Of Place is from a band Out Of Time, all gifts of prog are here within their walls. 8/10
Tune Me Out opens with deceptive calm, then explodes into chugging riffs coated in neon haze. It hooks fast, clutching your attention like a headlock. Collide rides in next with industrial textures colliding with punchy breakdowns and a melody that sticks like static, intense and strangely poignant.
From there, Lead Me Back ratchets the tension higher and holds nothing back, balancing brutal technicality with emotional urgency. In “Cold Burn,” keyboards rise from the murk like a beacon, then are swallowed by thunderous breakdowns. It’s cinematic but never soft.
Taste Of Poison plays bait-and-switch. It starts moody, then smacks you with full-core force, complete with pick-scraped chaos and two vocal tones colliding with energy. And then the closer Digital Hell seals the deal delivering layers of glitch and grit, a chorus that soars and stings, and enough atmospheric weight to leave you unsettled but satisfied.
Production is clean-edged yet gritty, there’s no polish to dull the impact. Every beat lands, every synth pulse buzzes, every vocal crack bleeds intent. Put it this way: if your attention span is a goldfish, Burning Chrome nails you in the first minute, and doesn’t let go. Spacious enough to breathe, brutal enough to give you an audio kicking and smart enough to stick with you past the fade.
Tech-metalcore dialled to future shock. Kingdom Of Giants are back and they're burning in style. 8/10
Ambush - Evil In All Dimensions (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]
Stealing one of the NWOTHM bands to give Mr Black a rest, I'm taking the new one from Swedish metal band Ambush.
Formed in 2013 they have been delivering the heavy metal goods since then with three previous albums to their name, and it seems they aren't going down any strange new routes with album four. Sticking to their style of classic heavy metal inspired by Priest, Accept and Maiden (Maskirovka) packaged in very modern production techniques.
Now if you just heard Maskirovka with it's throbbing bass from Oskar Andersson, or Come Angel Of Night you'd think it was just a Maiden clone. However Ambush on the whole are more energetic with some Teutonic twin axes from Karl Dotzek and Olof Engqvist on Iron Sign, Linus Fritzson laying down the double kicks throughout this homage to the classic metal sound.
Evil In All Dimensions belongs to band founder Oskar Jakobsson, he gives his broadest vocal performance yet with be it the air raid screams on Heavy Metal Brethren or the more restrained passion on ballad I Fear The Blood. You can predict what you're going to get from Ambush but that doesn't stop it from being jolly good fun. 7/10
White Mantis – Arrows At The Sun (High Roller Records) [Spike]
White Mantis launch Arrows At The Sun with the elegance of a twitchy jolt. Ten tracks, just under 47 minutes, constructed like a thrilling sprint through a neon-lit wasteland. This is old-school thrash, tight as a trap, but keeping one eye on tomorrow.
They open with Nekrotornado a relentless riff cyclone prime to tear your ears off. It doesn’t wait, straight in, you’re hooked before you catch your breath. From there, the title track Arrows At The Sun lashes forward like a molten spear, buzzy guitars and drums that shatter time. It’s the kind of opener that demands attention immediately and owns its territory.
Pass The Torch and Divide And Kill keep the intensity sharp, riffs flying with razor syncopation while choruses land like adrenaline strikes. Atavistic Power digs deeper into rhythm with a primitive stomp under modern speed, anchoring the chaos with grounded weight.
Halfway through, Over Your Pale Bones is like a shock of cold air, short, blunt, and undeniably memorable. The pace never drops as Toxic Sniper and Roboticator rev back up, weaving machine-gun riffing with thrash-anthem grit.
The penultimate Reality Exists is the mood shift as it delivers melodic edge together with melodic menace, thoughtful but still snarling. Then closing with Altar Of Technology the band lock the salvo tight: a final punch of synthetic aggression and ripping leads, the digital and analogue colliding in one last exhale.
This is thrash recharged for the modern age, delivered with intent. A thermonuclear hit of thrash-metal adrenaline, ancient roots sharpened for now. 9/10
Syrinx - Time Out Of Place (Ocula Records) [Matt Bladen]
Canadian prog band called Syrinx, who wants to play everything as analogue as they can and features Moog, Taurus pedals, Minimoog, alongside drums, guitars and bass? So they sound like Rush? Well yes and no.
Musically there's a lot of Canada's favourite band here, from the band name, to the 70's influenced playing and a conceptual storyline, however vocally there's no Geddy nasalness and they are also a band who wants to explore heavier tones as they also have influences of Fates Warning, Queensryche and Tiles.
The second album from this Vancouver five piece is a rock opera which had been born from the mind of guitarist/founder/songwriter Graham McGee who also plays Moog Taurus/Little Phatty/Minimoog/Oberheim OB-X/Backing Vocals. His partnership with vocalist Jean-Pierre Abboud reaching back more than 10 years, originally in the gothic rock style and that's where the vocals come from, in fact JP has a delivery similar to Savatage's Jon Oliva, on the strutting 1875 and The Masters Host especially.
Before this album Syrinx were on a bit of break while McGee battled Lyme Disease, however they stirred, drummer Seth Lyon joined and the priests in the temple, rose again to create a second album. An album that almost fell apart due to the bassist leaving before it was supposed to be recorded however multi-instrumentalist Bobby Shock joined to bring fat bass grooves along with more Moog Taurus/Minimoog/Oberheim Matrix.
So two multi-instrumentalists in one band playing guitar and bass, but sharing all the synths, Taurus' both on record and live, they create sprawling sounds heavily influenced by Alex, Geddy and Neil, that middle section of A Waking Dream for instance but the US prog metal scene and NWOBHM on Unraveler. Speaking of A Waking Dream it features McGee's wife Lady Chanelle adding vocals as a harmonic counterpoint. Time Out Of Place is from a band Out Of Time, all gifts of prog are here within their walls. 8/10
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