In 1983, Ozzy Osbourne released Bark At The Moon, the album where he’s on the cover looking like a werewolf. That was awesome, and you couldn’t ask for a better twist on the whole Ozzy thing. Yesterday, the Montreal fuzz-pop auteur No Joy dropped a new track called “Barking At The Sun.” I don’t think she was necessarily trying to flip that Ozzy title, but the inversion still makes sense, at least to me.
The post No Joy & Fire-Tooz – “Barking At The Sun” appeared first on Stereogum.
Greatness can often follow a stern refusal to chase the latest trend, and in the case of German power metal veteran band StormHammer, it’s been business as usual for the lion’s share of their 3 decade career. Born out of the alternative rock-dominated wasteland of 1993, nonconformity was in this outfit’s blood from day one as they steadfastly stuck to their traditional heavy metal guns in a time when it was far from fashionable, paving the way for new horizons at the dawn of the new millennium.
Their 2000 debut Fireball would see them tied in with the then-exploding 2nd wave of European power metal, though stylistically speaking they were closer to the traditional template set by the likes of Grave Digger and Running Wild. Despite being continually subject to a revolving door of lineup changes that has found bassist Horst Tessmann as the lone founding member, they’ve continued to be an example of controlled evolution married to a firmly rooted traditional style, resulting in a consistently strong yet varied output, and their 9th studio LP Wrath Of The Hammer is no exception.
In many respects, this 10-part manifesto of hard-hitting metallic splendor could be seen as yet another rebirth of this longstanding power metal institution. Barring the aforementioned co-founder Tessmann’s integral work at the bass and lead vocalist M. Nox’s gravely wails reprising their role from the 2022 Never Surrender – 30 Years of Power compilation, the membership involved in crafting the sonic palace that rounds out this opus is comprised of new recruits.
The dual guitar assault of Phil Meyers and Christos Efstathiou bears a rather uncanny resemblance to the masterful riffing display put on by Mani Schmidt and Thilo Hermann during the late 2000s era of Grave Digger, with some occasional Helloween-inspired technical flourishes. Yet the glue that truly holds this kinetic blast of mid-80s Teutonic speed and thrash metal mayhem with a consonant melodic gloss together is the drum work of ex-Benediction kit man Ashley Guest, who channels the militant aggression that Thomas Stauch brought to Blind Guardian throughout the 90s and proves to be the lynchpin in this album’s unique approach of blurring the lines between thrash and power metal.
In a structural sense, Wrath Of The Hammer embodies all the elements of a classic early 2000s 2nd wave album, perhaps even more so than the material that StormHammer originally contributed to that era. Breaking the silence with a massive symphonic overture dubbed “Beware”, this album proceeds to hit the ground running at full speed and takes very few opportunities to catch its breath. Between driving earworm anthems with plenty of bite like the title entry “Wrath Of The Hammer”, “Ashes Of The Throne” and “Wheels Of Eternity”, the first half of this album presents an unrelenting dose of high-octane, riff-happy fury. Throw into the mix a rerecording of the 2022 crusher “Light In The Dark” off the last album, featuring the vocal talents of Grave Digger’s Chris Boltendahl and Primal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers no less, and this entry leaves a massive crater in the earth before it’s halfway through.
The latter half of this raging metallic beast is no less formidable, though it does take a few more occasions to allow nuance to coexist with unrelenting power. The mournful power ballad “Guardians Of The Night” recalls the lighter side of the coin with a folksy and symphonic gloss, yet ultimately finds itself kicking up the tempo and the heaviness factor considerably at key points. The closing hurrah “The Dune” opts for a pace that could be considered close to mid-tempo, but often digs deep into the thrashing abyss for a few biting segments and lays on the symphonic and epic elements pretty thick. Yet in the same manner as the earlier offerings of this berserker offering, the lion’s share of time is spent flirting with the more insane side of the mosh pit with pummeling riff machines like “Veil Of Fire” and “Shattered Dominion”, to speak nothing for the harrowing speed thrashing masterwork “Scars Of The Abyss”, definitely a brilliant blend of melodic triumph and raw aggression to rival the title song for greatest standout of the bunch.
Insofar as power metal originals that have stood the test of time, StormHammer has had the bizarre disposition of being one of the most qualitatively consistent purveyors of the style but also has been comparatively obscure in relation to their contemporaries. Wrath Of The Hammer is the sort of album that brings the same level of speed, intrigue, and staying power as the better-known works of Stormwarrior and Paragon; yet they remain a lesser-known quantity even next to said bands despite having respectable runs under such noteworthy labels as Massacre Records and Century Media Records.
Then again, their present endeavors under the banner of Reigning Phoenix Music might solidify them as the true dark horse outfit of the 2020s. Any power, thrash, or old school heavy metal junkie worth their salt will want to hear what this opus has to offer, particularly if mid-2010s entries Echoes of a Lost Paradise and Welcome To The End found favor in one’s speakers at full volume. Make ready for the storm and the thunder of the hammer’s mighty wrath!
Release Date: July 17th, 2026
Record Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Genre: Power Metal
1. Beware
2. Wrath Of The Hammer
3. Ashes Of The Throne
4. Light In The Dark
5. Wheels of Eternity
6. Guardians Of The Night
7. Veil Of Fire
8. Scars Of The Abyss
9. Shattered Dominion
10. The Dune
Order the album here.
The post STORMHAMMER – Wrath Of The Hammer (Album Review) appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
The press release for newly formed creative group silt. is elusive. They “exist between London and the inherited landscapes of the Lake District and Norfolk” and are not “a traditional band nor solo alias.” Hell, there aren’t even any names listed. But the fact remains, their new single “trauma porn” is eerie and gripping and intriguing.
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Bob Dylan has announced a run of UK shows for later this year. The 85-year-old will kick off a run of ten dates at the BIC Windsor Hall in Bournemouth on November 25, before heading to Birmingham, Sheffield and Blackpool. The schedule will climax with five nights at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank on December 3-8.
Promoter and venue presales begin on Monday (July 20) at 10am local time, with the general sale kicking off two days later at the same time.
The tour’s announcement follows some disruption in Dylan’s touring camp, with two established sidemen quitting. Guitarist Doug Lancio, who joined the band in 2021, left last month, and was followed a fortnight later by fellow axeman Bob Britt, who joined in 2019. They’ve been replaced by jazz virtuoso Julian Lage, Memphis-based R&B guitarist/vocalist Jad Tariq, and Chicago-based roots, jazz, and blues guitarist Joel Patterson.
Like the 2024 leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, the new run of shows is being promoted in partnership with tech firm Yondr, whose technology is designed to prevent fans from documenting live performances on their devices. Ticket holders will be required to insert smartphones and cameras into protective pouches that remain locked while the concert is in progress. Fans needing to use their devices during the shows will need to step outside the phone-free area to unlock their pouches.
The technology, which was launched in 2020, was famously adopted by Ghost on their 2025 world tour, and has also been used by Jack White, Guns N’ Roses and Alicia Keys.
Dylan is currently on tour in North America. His next show is this evening (July 16) at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA. Full dates below.
Jul 16: Boston Leader Bank Pavilion, MA
Jul 18: Gilford New Hampshire Bank Pavilion, NH
Jul 19: Bridgeport Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, CT
Jul 21: New York Queens Forest Hills Stadium, NY
Jul 23: Richmond Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, VA
Jul 24: Vienna Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA
Jul 25: Vienna Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA
Jul 28: Raleigh Red Hat Amphitheater, NC
Jul 29: Wilmington Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park, NC
Jul 31: Atlanta Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park, GA
Aug 01: Nashville Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater, TN
Nov 25: Bournemouth BIC Windsor Hall, UK
Nov 26: Birmingham BP Pulse Live, UK
Nov 27: Sheffield Utilita Arena, UK
Nov 30: Blackpool Opera House, UK
Dec 01: Blackpool Opera House, UK
Dec 03: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 04: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 05: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 07: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 08: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
(Wil Cifer has caught up to a debut EP by the British band Kill By Mouth, and enthusiasticaly recommends it in the following review.) The biggest hindrance to the thrash revival has been how tied to ’80s nostalgia it is, while the bands that defined the genre got the memo and progressed. This plays into […]
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See the photo credit up there? “Martin Sorrondeguy” — the same Martin Sorrondeguy, presumably, from Los Crudos and Limp Wrist. (I don’t think there’s two Martin Sorrondeguys.) That means that Ceremony got a DIY punk legend to take their press pictures. That’s fucking sick. It also makes perfect sense, since Ceremony are DIY punk legends themselves.
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The members of the East London trio Envie (pronounced on-vee) have been friends since school. They’ve been at it for a while — their Bandcamp page under former band name Dystopia was last active in 2020, and they featured on FKA twigs’ Caprisongs track “Which Way” — but it looks like they’re ready to reintroduce themselves. The first upload on a fresh YouTube account is a practice-space recording of “Violently Friendly,” a rock song with a bright, melodic immediacy.
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