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Finland's back in the house, with the new release of Shear, offering a decent bunch of progressive (power) metal fronted by a charming lady.

This wacky Fuzz-Doom act was founded during the summer of 2009, when Clayton “Claytanas” Burgess (whom you might also know from Electric Wizard and Terraset) and a mysterious guitarist known only as The Ghoul indulged themselves on '60s Rolling Stones, Black Flag, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, the first High Tide LP, numerous B-type horror movies, and an undisclosed quantity of weed, to come up with music

This Wiesbaden (Central Germany) based quintet was founded in 2009, and went through two bassists and two drummers before settling to the current line-up consisting of singer Johannes Schöbinger, guitarists Yannick Zobus and Jonas Römhild, bassist Markus Straussner, and drummer David Willmes (the latter two joining the band during 2013), each bring in his own background and personal taste to the final product.

This New Jersey three-piece engage in stoner, grunge and seventies rock passages. They do show some hints of talent and rhythm during some of these bits, but they lack direction and they rarely flesh out any of their ideas. At best they sound like second rate Alice In Chains for a few moments or like Soundgarden without the depth or sense of direction. At worst they sound flat and clueless. Somewhere below the surface I think that Driven Rise generate some interesting tones, but just not enough of them and no real blueprint to go by.

Founded in early February 2009 with members from a diverse background of the Perth, Western Australia area, Reapers Riddle made such an impact on the local scene that the launch of their self-titled 10-track demo album caused the venue at which they offered their debut sold out of alcohol by 11pm!

Prong is an American metal band formed in 1986. Prong had two independent releases, Primitive Origins and Force Fed. The albums attracted the attention of Epic Records, who signed the trio in 1989. The group disbanded in 1997 after the Rude Awakening tour, but re-formed in 2002. Current members; Tommy Victor - lead vocals, guitar (since 1986), Tony Campos - bass guitar (since 2009) and Alexei Rodriguez - drums (since 2009) .

Barcelona based Heavy Psych Rock act Prisma Circus was founded only recently, and so we must assume that the stars were aligned just correctly to find the band binging out its debut full-length album merely 3 ½ years after the band's conception.

Hailing from Seattle, USA, Princess is another entry into the alternative metal field. Princess take sheer musical force and irritating but commanding hardcore vocals to new heights. Intricate guitar work collides with masterful tempo changes, the rhythmic patterns are furious yet inventive in their splendour. Sometimes Princess  gets pretty heavy, bluesy, sludgy, spacey, sometimes almost poppy. There are relatively simple parts but also some songs that are almost border-line experimental noisy rock.

Yet another great release from Danish band Pretty Maids.  They’ve kept on releasing good album after good album since 2010’s Pandemonium album.

However mind you, this is not a totally new album.  It consists of 12 tracks, 8 of whom are re-recordings of tracks they did in their period with Massacre records, and 4 are new tracks.  But it’s the four new tracks that steal the show.  Two of them are straight forward heavy metal songs, and the other two are very good ballads.

Pilgrim an American Doom metal band founded in 2010 in Rhode Island, NY. The current members are: Krolg Splinterfist, Slayer of Men (Drums) and The Wizard (Vocals, Guitars (formerly also bass)). This very young group made a reputation with their gigs and sound that sound a little like Reverend Bizarre.