Masterplan – Time To Be King (2010)

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Power Metal’s super group (yes, another one) Masterplan is back after keeping us waiting for a follow-up to their acclaimed “MK II” album. With “Time To Be King” the band is poised into becoming one of the premier Power Metal bands, and they surely have the correct personnel to achieve this feat. We think the album is aptly titled for what Masterplan is set to do with this great release.

With the return of Jørn Lande, the band again has a very strong and versatile vocalist. And featuring legends Roland Grapow and Mike Terrana, on guitars and drums, you can’t ask for a more experience and overall excellent musical foundation for Masterplan. After the hype created by their single “Far From The End Of The World”, the full-length release is even better than the small sample with got with this single.

Kissin’ Dynamite – Addicted To Metal (2010)

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The current revival/rehashing of ‘traditional’ metal genres such as Trash Metal, old-school Black Metal, and old-school Heavy Metal, has been reaching the point of being extremely ridiculous. Every four out of ten releases we get have to do with some kind of new band playing old-school music. Now, it’s surprisingly shocking to us when we actually get a band trying to do something new and exciting.

Kissin’ Dynamtie hails from Germany and they formed back in 2002 to play… ‘traditional’ Heavy Metal, what a shocker. The band actually is very good at what they do and they capture the old-school sound perfectly. Some people are calling this band the next-best thing after Edguy (for German Heavy Metal), and while we can agree that musically this band is pretty solid, they have no originality at all.

Big Ball – Hotter Than Hell (2010)

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Who ordered and nicely cooked AC/DC clone?, apparently AFM records did with Big Ball. While the band never denies, and even encourages, the label of AC/DC clones, we find them to be good at capturing AC/DC’s sound and essence and providing a tiny-little-bit of their own into “Hotter Than Hell”, the band’s first full-length release.

As the band states, if you hate AC/DC you will hate us, so if you do then stop reading and move on to the next review. Big Ball is a pretty decent clone/tribute band to AC/DC and even the vocals sound strikingly similar to earlier the earlier style of Brian Johnson, but sometimes get a bit raspier and sound more like Udo Dirkschneider, still not bad.

Scuffproof – Demonstration Of Strength (2010)

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Hailing from the small town of Tübingen, Germany, today we have Suffproof with their four songs EP. The band plays traditional neck breaking Death Metal. While they do not provide anything original or super brutal to the genre, “Demonstration Of Strength” is a pretty solid first release for the band.

Kubo, the band’s vocalist, kicks off the release with a very ‘nice’ message to all the special people in his life, and jumps straight into a crunchy DM riff and some growls. Immediately you can notice some issues with the recording quality of this release since the vocals standout WAY too much as the guitar fills the background and the drums are just a distant banging sound.

Vomitor - Devils Poison (2010)

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While Hells Headbangers is known for releasing very retro (and good) sounding releases, with Vomitor’s “Devils Poison” they have dropped the ball immensely. This Aussie band had done a great job with “Bleeding the Priest”, a very worthy debut album that gained them well deserved comparisons with Sodom, Celtic Frost and the all mighty Hellhammer. But with “Devils Poison” they sound like they should be heading back to their garage and record a few more demos.

“Devils Poison” is a very chaotic release that has pretty much nothing going for it, the album gets boring right after track number one. We are not complaining about the raw and primitive sound the band has (which is characteristic of the early Sodom, etc albums), but we complain about the lack of creativity and even musicianship behind this release.

Canvas Solaris - Irradiance (2010)

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Hailing from the USA today we have Progressive Metal wizards Canvas Solaris. “Irradiance” marks the band fifth full-length album, and a very impressive one we might add. For over 40 minutes we are taken through a brilliant exercise in execution and composition skills, “Irradiance” is one of the best Progressive Metal albums we have reviewed this 2010.

With their heavy influences from Cynic, Yes and Dream Theater, we can quickly notice why Canvas Solaris has been around for a while and are serious about making brilliant Progressive songs. The songwriting quality behind “Irradiance” is top notch and will immerse you into the band’s powerful sound.

Delain – Lucidity (2010)

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Four years have passed since this album’s original (and European only) release. During this years Delain, which started as a project of Martijn Westerholt, has gained worldwide acclaim and recognition. Martijn then decided to make this a full-time touring band and has since released “April Rain”, the band’s second full-length album. Going back in time when Delain only consisted as Martijn and Charlotte Wessels as the permanent members, they recorded “Lucidity”, a majestic Gothic Metal masterpiece.

“Lucidity” features guest appearances from some of the most celebrated musicians in the Gothic Metal scene. We have Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) on vocals and bass guitar, we also have the appearance of Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Liv Kristine (Leaves’ Eyes), and George Oosthoek on growling duties in some of the tracks. As you can expect from this impressive lineup, “Lucidity” is a pretty strong first-release for a band.

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