Back catalogue: Metal

Review: Experimental death metal group Job For A Cowboy share their latest cosmic horrifier Moon Healer, forming the sophomore counterpart to their prior album Sun Eater. Don't be fooled though, as even this remedial cosmic entity has just as many sonic teeth as the prior record's solar galactus. After a short hiatus in which the band drifted from each other for a period of time, their primary focus with this record was an aggressive yet confluent return to form, centring on the titular lunar concept as a vehicle for rampant shreddings ('Etched Into Oblivion'), crystalline exhumings ('Into The Crystalline Crypts') and bleakly violent, yet still melancholic progressions ('A Sorrow-Filled Moon'). In frontman Jonny Davy's own words: - envision this as a death metal album born from the mystical confines of an alchemist's laboratory. The music acts as potent potions, inducing hallucinogenic journeys that unlock the secrets of the universe."

Review: RECOMMENDED
Let's face the truth, Judas Priest were and are either great or shite depending on which side of the heavy metal fence you fall. Those who actually appreciate the barroom-takes-on-stadia vibe will no doubt unanimously vote for tracks like 'Fever', with its dirty undertow and intimidatingly unapologetic march. Others might be too blinded by the riffs of 'Eat Me Alive'. Whichever Side of the fence you fall, at the end of the day, just like Tia Carrere, they wail.

50 Years of Heavy Metal Music really does emphasise that point. There's a pride and lack of repentance that comes with the formative-era heavy metal bands you don't see so much in the majority of other rock groups. One that simply says "this will bang", swills from a beer bottle, then resides itself to sweaty, heads down rhythms. This album may or may not define that for you, but that's besides the point. It's Judas Priest.

Review: Birmingham metal behemoths Judas Priest make their illustrious return on LP number 19; Invincible Shield. Serving as follow up to 2018's frenetic yet direct Firepower, the material this time around promises to hark back to the more loose, proggy edges of classic 70s cuts such as 'Sinner', whilst simultaneously eschewing the more grandiose experimentation found on the likes of 2008's symphonic Nostradamus. In essence, it's a victory lap of almost every sonic avenue the band have torn through during their multiple decades long tenure and although plagued by pandemic-related delays which then morphed into touring/scheduling conflicts, the six-year wait has been beyond worth it. Riffs = Check. Leather = Check. Rob Halford's sky-piercing vocals = Double Check.

Review: A mere 19 albums, not out. It's almost unfathomable how long Judas Priest have been making noise, with their first steps into heavy metal megastardom taken in the late-1960s, a time when the genre was really just a glint in the eye of hopeful upstarts, including this troupe. More than 50million LP unit sales later, and it's safe to say their legacy is more than written, yet the most defining aspect of their tenure - unstoppable, unflappable - is only really apparent in their continued output. Well, OK, this is the first we've heard from them since 2018's Firepower, but nevertheless, across five decades they've barely taken more than four years off before coming back with new material. In this case it's been six, but there was a 24 month pandemic in and among, meaning you can let them off. So, what does it sound like, this long-awaited 19th long form from the deities of power riffs and juggernaut rhythms? Well, Judas Priest, of course - as if there was ever going to be another answer.

Review: Giving some idea as to how much times have changed since Judas Priest played this monumental concert, the footage was originally released with the simple title Judas Priest Live, and was only available on laserdisc to begin with. A VHS arrived later, before the whole lot was redone as Live Vengeance 1982 on DVD and UMD, landing in 2006. Recorded on the first leg of a massive tour, in December 1982, it's been said before that this represents the heavy metal icons a their absolute peak, storming into the venue - and subsequent dates - off the back of Screaming For Vengeance, one of the group's landmark albums which arrived the same year. If you've even listened to one track from the group it should be pretty clear what that means: huge atmosphere, high energy, backs-to-the-wall stuff.

Review: Old school Wisconsin based thrash-inflected death metal mammoths, Jungle Rot, make their Unique Leader debut with, A Call To Arms; the follow up to their crushing 2018 self-titled effort. With seasoned, visceral chops honed throughout the seminal nineties era, the band are an ironic outlier residing on a roster of slamming deathcore acts who all owe retrospective credence. Invoking their moniker and artwork with images of voodoo occultism, the decrepit, Lovecraftian design shrouds the jagged riffage, guttural vocals and claustrophobic percussion in a cosmic, otherworldly atmosphere.