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Goodness grief...it's been a while since the editor-in-chief dropped a nice Crust Grindcore Metal act into my to-do box, but with P.L.F. he sure handed me quite a job!

This Zagreb based Croatian Groove Thrash act was originally founded in 2006 as a power trio consisting of guitarist Daniel Badanjak, bassist David Vukusic and drummer Frane Velvic, but what with the latter still living outside Zagreb, where the band had its rehearsal space, the material played by the band consisted mainly of covers by such bands as Iron Maiden, Metallica and Judas Priest, and very little work was undertaken to develop original music.

Madball is a New-York hardcore band founded in the late 1980s as a side project of Agostic Front. After 8 different drum players 1 bassist en 2 guitar players are this the current members; Freddy Cricien – vocals (1988–2001, 2002–present) / Hoya Roc – bass (1993–2001, 2002–present) / Mitts – guitar (2002–present) / Mike Justian – drums (2011–present).

To be honest I thought this was yet another rerelease of an obscure NWOBHM band, something HRR has somewhat built up a reputation with…. But no as it turns out High Spirits is the project of a certain Chris Black… it seems Mr.Black  must have a deep love for the early 80’s hardrock and metal scene as “You are here”, is 9 tracks of pure  nostalgia, at least if lIke me you’re well over forty, closer to 50…..

Before getting to the band at hand, let's make it clear from the go, that this is NOT about the US Heavy/ Thrash Metal act founded in Buffalo during the year 2000, which up to day delivered a 2001 demo, a first full-length entitled Execution Protocol on Too Damn Hype Records in 2002, two ensuing full-lengths (2004's For Whom The Gods Would Destroy and 2006's Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Fight) on Lifeforce Records, and whose last “sign of life” came with the 2009 5-track EP The Curse Of The King, issued th

There was a time that Victory Records was at the fore front of the hardcore and punkrock scene…. Since a while now the label is also home to a vast number “modern –nu- metal “ bands,  Emmure being one of the bigger names in the genre…. Eternal nightmare is the 4 full length of this NY Queens based band. So what’s on offer…. Not a lot I dare say, just as many other bands in the same niche, there  is the stop and go riffing, the samples, the obligatory distorted vocals and a solid production.

Diesel are a brand new British band, despite the fact that the founding members have already earned their trademarks in the rock music business.  The band consists of Robert Hart on vocals (Bad Company/ Manfred Mann’s Earth Band), Jim Kirkpatrick on guitars, percussion, backing vocals and finally additional keyboards (FM) as backbone assisted by Jimmy Copley on drums, and finally Pat Davey on bass.

Crystal Eyes  were formed in 1992 in Sweden, and despite already having released six albums before this one, have gone by pretty unnoticed I guess.  It has taken them six years since their previous album ‘Chained’ to bring out new work, on the Massacre label this time. Not only are they on another label, but former guitarist: vocalist  Mikael Dahl has also rejoined the band, to replace Søren Nico Adamsen.

I seem to have missed  the two albums that were released between ‘End Of Eden’ and this album, those albums being ‘Circus Black’, which apparently was a concept album, and ‘Re-Evolution’, an album featuring existing Amberian Dawn songs, but re-recorded with their new vocalist Päivi  “Capri” Virkkunen, who has replaced Heidi Parviainen.  Together with the old vocalist, the drummer Heikki Saari and guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen also left the band.  These were replaced by two ex-members of the band, Joon

Yes is another one of those rock dinosaurs, who seem to be able to continue forever. Formed in 1968, Chris Squire is the only one of the founding members that is still in the band,although both Alan White and Steve Howe also have a considerable mileage in this band.