Interviews

The Infidel: A Conversation with Ambush’s Oskar Jacobsson

Ambush stand out among their peers as one of Sweden’s new premiere traditional heavy metal bands. Due to personal struggles and line-up shuffles, it’s been five long years since we’ve properly heard from these Swedes. They’re now finally set to release another album! Infidel is set for a March 13th release via High Roller Records. It follows the same rough outline as the first two Judas Priest and Accept inspired albums, but Infidel features a bit more experimentation in terms of both music and themes. We interviewed Oskar Jacobsson, Ambush’s vocalist, about the journey to the new album and the themes behind it.

Features

The Ride Into Glory Halloween Special – Metal Tales of Horror

Hallows Eve is upon us, when people gather around and fable about scary stories of witches, undead monsters and The Headless Horseman, set loose on the streets instilling horror and fear to the hearts of their audience. Taking its origins from the Gaelic festival of Samhein, which signified the end of the harvest period and the start of the long, cold winter, Halloween is the time of the year that mankind explores its “strongest emotion – fear” as HP Lovecraft famously said.

Features

Follow the Wheel: The Story of Sword (Featuring an Interview with Rick Hughes)

When someone exchanges musical opinions within the heavy metal circle, it is not uncommon to hear expressions like “too rough” or “too melodic”, and more recently “very old school” or with a positive spin “very refreshing”. So if an album had exactly the correct ratio of melodic and rough riffs and sounds refreshing even it was released in 1986, that would mean that it will top the charts and everyone would speak about it right?

Features

The Voice of American Power Metal: An Interview and Career Retrospective with Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin

The world has changed a lot in the past 40 years. Empires rose and fell, cultural icons appeared and disappeared, music trends come and gone. The same is true for personal musical tastes. I’ve known people 20 years ago who grew out of metal as they say, or “evolved” musically.

There is a person who evolved as well this last 40 years without succumbing to trends, without looking for the ephemeral and forgettable success. The man who stayed true to the music and the people who are following him. That man is the Tyrant, and this is his story through his music.

New Releases

New Release Highlight: Crypt Sermon – The Ruins of Fading Light Review

It has been called the album of the year. Best epic doom release of the decade. A game-changer. Reviewers who were fortunate enough to acquire the album are praising The Ruins of Fading Light even months before the release, creating a sense of impending doom, as the day of the release is upon us. One thing is certain; The Philadelphian quintet created an almost unprecedented ruckus that surrounds their sophomore release, which comes four years after their debut Out of the Garden.

Demo Dungeon

Demo Dungeon: Candle Opera – Dream Theatre Review

Not long ago I was having dinner with a very good friend of mine discussing about all those demos that we wished to be reissued but we both knew that was only wishful thinking. And then he mentioned Candle Opera, an extremely obscure heavy/ power band from Canada that somehow he managed to get one track from their long lost 1992 demo to upload in his Youtube Channel. Little we both knew then that at the same time Cult Metal Classics was working on a release of their long lost demo titled Dream Theatre.