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Putting on some weight.

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Album Review: Hippotraktor – Annihilist

Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez

Another band from Pelagic Records seemingly never ending pipeline of talent, Belgium’s Hippotraktor are on the eve of unveiling their third full length album, “Annihilist”. New blood and members alongside shifts in song writing philosophy were documented by the band. Though surely we can expect the same thunderous grooves and blistering intensity that has made the band a household name in the post metal scene? Let’s find out…

“Annihilist” kickass off with ‘I Breathe, I Am’. Bass and groove are the immediate standouts and most salient qualities, with bassist Jakob getting his time to shine for long stretches, holding the groove and being the focal point without the weight of the guitars. Especially during the early segments of the track. Vocalist Stefan demonstrates a calming resonance to his voice, and is joined by guitarist Kristof in the dual vocal approach. Though like flicking a light switch, the band can take a U-Turn and unleash unmitigated hell with crushing walls of distorted guitars and Stefan’s all-powerful growled vocals joining the attack! Hippotraktor will challenge you, that’s for sure, by being calm and introspective one moment, then full on corrosive and devastating the next!

‘Courageous Apathy’ follows in a similar suit, with an unshakeable rhythmic foundation that goes way beyond the standard 4/4 time signature, whilst providing a cocktail of soaring melodies and instantly memorable vocal hooks. Alongside some tasty neck snapping grooves, enhanced by the additional percussion instruments. Check out the video for ‘Manifest The Mountain’ to see how Stefan acts like an auxiliary percussionist alongside his lead vocal duties.

These are patterns you’ll see throughout the album; free flowing unpredictable song structures that will keep you on your toes. Though paradoxically, these shifts seem logical and avoid any random scatter gun style bursts. This also means the songs are longer than what most casual listeners will be used to, with complex non-canonical progressions being given the time they need to fully breath and grow.

Now returning to the theme of lead vocals, let’s examine the song writing approach. Stefan describes how himself and new member guitarist/vocalist Kristof wrote their vocal parts independently of one another, only collaborating and comparing efforts when they had finished their pre-production demo phase. As such, you can see examples of some syncopated vocal patterns and lyrics running completely different lines, rather than blindly copying one another. This leads to a much deeper overall texture to the music, with Stefan saying this created ‘one massive whole that is much bigger than what I could have by myself’. Check out ‘Oblivion Walker’ as an example of this vocal synergy. It’s interesting listening to Stefan perform in Hippotraktor, as opposed to his other band Psychonaut. It seems like he has more freedom to express himself and maybe doesn’t feel the pressure of holding down guitar and vocal duties simultaneously in the Psychonaut power trio.

Guitarist and chief song writer Chiaran expands on this collaborative approach, saying how he actively sought the input of the other members throughout the entire writing process, adding how he shared ‘half baked or less goods’ with the band. The approach seems to have worked as we’re seeing a much deeper and atmospheric sound in the already complex and avant-garde puzzle that is Hippotraktor.

If this is the future direction for Hippotraktor, then it’s exciting indeed! We’re looking at the future of not just Hippotaktor but the future of post metal! Hippotraktor hit the road this autumn, culminating with a set at the prestigious Damnation festival. The Bowlers Exhibition Centre better be ready!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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“And [I’m] not like saying it in a judgmental way.”

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Audrey Hobert, who is currently on tour for her 2025 album “Who’s the Clown?,” shares her approach to writing an album and how she’s feeling about the next one.

Audrey Hobert has been one of the defining new pop stars of 2026, rising to fame — gradually — with her 2025 album “Who’s the Clown?” after co-writing credits on some of her longtime friend Gracie Abrams’s biggest hits. In her interview with Popcast, Audrey Hobert discusses the relatable persona that’s been a through line in her songwriting, and why she identifies as “weird” but not “awkward.”

Damn, this has been a long time coming. Five years elapsed between 2011’s Worship Music and 2016’s For All Kings, but Scott Ian and co. have managed to double the wait time and taken a full decade to deliver this, their twelfth studio album. However, the drought has ended with a glorious tsunami of prime Anthrax.

Of course, there was the small matter of the pandemic to get through, plus chief riff writer/drummer Charlie Benante and lyricist/guitarist Scott Ian suffering somewhat from writer’s block. Now that it’s here and suddenly bludgeoning you about the ears, though, you realise what’s been missing from heavy music for the past 10 years. It feels more epic and more compelling because of the wait; the cryptic Latin poetry of the title – translating as ‘my journey ends here’ – encompasses the finality of its arrival.

Despite the title, though, this is definitely not the end, or even the twilight, of Anthrax’s career – they couldn’t sound more alive and metal-thrashing mad than this if they tried. Teaming up with producer Jay Ruston for a third time, the result is satisfyingly weighty, dense with ideas and packed with great riffs – a furious, playful, slammingly serious return to form.

Kicking off with the short introductory passage Persistence Of Memory, the album proper begins with The Long Goodbye, about Ian’s dad’s battle with Alzheimer’s. That emotional, grand, melodic, mid-paced opener is followed by It’s For The Kids, a straight-up Anthrax thrasher in classic style, complete with pounding mosh part.

The strong opening one-two merely hints at the riches to come: an imaginative blend of flame-throwing speed and more mid-paced but no less aggressive, melodic metal. There are full-on, breakneck thrash monsters like NYC 93, the lightspeed blur that is Watch It Go, the crushing Target On My Back (TOMB) and the thunderous technical bruiser My Victory. Everybody’s Got A Plan and Infectious – including a callback to Captain Trips from 1987’s Among The Living – duke it out for the album’s earworm prize, and the immense title track and The Edge Of Perfection compete with The Long Goodbye for sheer scale and drama.

The variety is hugely impressive, the delivery a hundred per cent on-point. Hopefully this album marks not just the end of one journey but the beginning of a latter-career renaissance. And let’s have the next in under a decade, please.

Album Review: Banks Arcade – Second Place Superstar

Reviewed by Dan Barnes

New Zealand metalcore outfit, Banks Arcade, are all set to issue their second full length album, Second Place Superstar, before the end of the month, four years after the Future Lovers debut and two following the EP, Death 2, which found the four-piece as tour support to King 810 exactly a year ago. Those shows were the Kiwi’s first forays onto British soil, with the summer of 2026 seeing them back in Blighty for a run of shows that cumulated at the 2000 Trees Festival where they shared billing with, among others, Cancer Bats, The Wildhearts and Funeral for a Friend.

Opening with Move, which was played back on last year’s King 810 tour, it introduces the record with an electronic eighties sci-fi vibe, built on a pulsing bass line, courtesy of Harlan Allen-Jones and a huge beatdown, it’s a precursor to what Second Hand Superstar is all about.

Banks Arcade is an example of modern metal searching further afield for inspiration; gone are the days when bands of the Seventies and Eighties would feed into the creative process, now it’s about crossing genres and styles: that’s why, here you’ll be greeted by the alternate/ electronics of Don’t Miss, the pop sensibilities of Severance, and the hip-hop rhythms of Know Me.

Yet those tunes are not without their biting guitars and gut-punch low-end. Yuck uses hip-hop beats and overlays a hefty stomp and crunching guitars, Last Time opens with fragile Oriental pipes, adding layer upon layer of heaviness as drummer, James Feekes, navigates his way around the maze of rhythms needed for this track.

Vocalist Joshua O’Donnell’s range is certainly put through the paces as he moves from sorrowful laments to full-on screams, often multiple times within the same song. His musical combination with guitar partner, Benny Canham, yields heavy riffs and uncompromising brutality on the connected Sweat and 000, while Joshua bleeds emotionally wrought vocals.

That juxtaposition is repeated on Wait, where the opening calm electronics build to a maelstrom of rage and ire. Rockstar – thankfully not a Nic****ack cover – features the lyric from which the album takes its name and feels like a deconstruction of modern metal in which the creative force takes those influential elements that has shaped their craft and fuse them into a new musical creation.

Mirror was aired at Trees in the summer, unveiling a hard-hitting low end and an ethereal, emotionally tortured vocal, and album closer, Have Faith, resists the urge to have one final blast and, instead, maintains the ambience to the end.

Second Hand Superstar is a confident blend of electronics, harsh urban beats, abrasive, discordant guitars and emotional introspection; throw into some grinding and emo-pop and you’ll get something of an idea of what Banks Arcade is about.

They follow in the footsteps of the likes of Architects, Bring Me the Horizon and Northlane, who see hard rock/ heavy metal as merely another arrow in their musical quiver, refusing to be wholly defined by the genre boundaries.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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B.B. King will be the focus of a new installment in The Montreux Years series featuring previously unreleased live recordings from the blues legend’s appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

B.B. King: The Montreux Years will be released November 20 via BMG. The collection draws from nine of King’s 23 appearances at the festival, with performances recorded between 1982 and 2000.

The CD and digital editions feature recordings from all nine selected appearances, while the vinyl edition includes material from eight shows. The collection will be available on 2LP vinyl with printed inner sleeves, a 2CD digisleeve with booklet, and HD digital formats.

The recordings were restored and newly mastered from the original tapes by Tony Cousins at Metropolis Studios in London. All but one of the recordings are receiving their first official release.

The first single, “Early in the Mornin’,” is out now. Recorded during King’s 2000 Montreux performance, the song pays tribute to one of his musical influences, Louis Jordan. An accompanying video features footage from King’s 2000 festival appearance.

B.B. King: The Montreux Years was created in collaboration with the B.B. King Estate and Montreux Jazz Festival team under license from Montreux Sounds. The release also features rare and previously unseen photographs along with liner notes from B.B. King biographer Daniel de Visé, assisted by King’s longtime bassist Michael Doster.

King, born Riley B. King in Mississippi on September 16, 1925, became one of the most influential blues musicians of the 20th century. With his distinctive guitar style and famed Gibson guitar Lucille, King influenced generations of musicians, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

During his career, King won 15 Grammy Awards and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Blues Hall of Fame.

King developed a long relationship with the Montreux Jazz Festival and its founder, Claude Nobs, eventually appearing at the festival 23 times.

The new collection includes “Guess Who” from King’s 1982 appearance, “Rock Me Baby” from 1984, “Caldonia” from 1987 and “The Thrill Is Gone” from 1990. Later performances include “All Over Again,” “Blues Boys Tune” and “Stormy Monday” from 1995, along with “Early in the Mornin’” from 2000.

The 2CD and HD digital editions feature four additional recordings, including a 1991 performance of “Let The Good Times Roll.”

The Montreux Years series launched in 2021 using recordings from the extensive Montreux Jazz Festival archives. Previous editions have featured artists including Nina Simone, Etta James, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Roberta Flack, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea.

Tracklisting:

2LP

Side A

1. All Over Again (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1993)*
2. Ain’t Nobody Home (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. Blues Boys Tune (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)

Side B

1. Blues In A (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)
2. The Thrill Is Gone (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. When It All Comes Down (I’ll Still Be Around) (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)

Side C

1. Early In The Mornin’ (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 2000)
2. Caldonia (Live at Casino Montreux 1987)
3. Guess Who (Live at Casino Montreux 1982)

Side D

1. Rock Me Baby (Live at Casino Montreux 1984)
2. Stormy Monday (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)

2CD

CD One

1. All Over Again (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1993)*
2. Ain’t Nobody Home (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. Blues Boys Tune (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)
4. Blues In A (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)
5. The Thrill Is Gone (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
6. When It All Comes Down (I’ll Still Be Around) (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
7. You Know I Love You (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)**

CD Two

1. Early In The Mornin’ (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 2000)
2. Caldonia (Live at Casino Montreux 1987)
3. Guess Who (Live at Casino Montreux 1982)
4. Rock Me Baby (Live at Casino Montreux 1984)
5. Stormy Monday (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)
6. Into The Night (Live at Casino Montreux 1991)**
7. Go On (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)**
8. Let The Good Times Roll (Live at Casino Montreux 1991)**

HD Digital: tracklisting as per 2CD

* Previously released ** 2CD and HD digital only

The post Never-before-heard B.B. King live recordings set for release appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

The band kicked off a string of hometown reunion shows this week.

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Album Review: Gåte – Sigil

Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez

Well, this was unexpected! In the best way possible though. See, upon hearing of the band’s sound as being ‘rooted in the intersection of Nordic folk tradition’, this conjured some anxiety. Surely not another Heilung wannabe or Temu version of Wardruna! Because the market is becoming more and more flooded everyday with bands who attempt to lean into this aesthetic but come up short.

Not Gåte! They’re different. “Sigil” is different.

This is classic contemporary meets tradition and the synergy between the two is remarkable. We see the traditional string instruments such as the mykelharpa and the fiddle to add a bit of Nordic folk spice. Fronted by Gunnhild, she sings in her native tongue and does so with such power and conviction her ancestors would be proud! In songs like ‘Strandvaskar’, we hear the deployment of cavernously deep percussive instruments too to add to this traditional vibe (though check out ‘Nokon’ for a real clinic in Pagan percussion!). Though these elements form a core of their identity, they blend seamlessly with contemporary music and the familiar tried and tested verse-chorus song structures. Staying with ‘Strandvaskar’, the electronic drum beats are hard to ignore. As is the thunderous roar of the distorted electric bass and the tremolo picked riffs on the electric guitar during ‘Oskorsreia’. This number also features one of the more memorable choruses and salient vocal lines on the entire album!

You’d think singing in their native language (Norwegian I’m assuming – feel free to correct me) would prove to be a barrier, instead this provides an infectious range of vocal sounds and inflections seldom heard by English speakers. ‘Bod Fra Djupet’ and ‘Songen’ are 2 more folk spiced numbers with the volume dialed right down and gives Gunnhild all the room her voice needs to truly shine. You’ll find yourself humming along to countless earworms and infuriatingly catchy vocal passages. This gives Gåte something unique for sure.

Whilst listening to this, a thought occurred; wouldn’t this sound amazing at Eurovision? Funnily enough, they have done this, competing in the 2024 edition! Though surely wanting to forget about the last place finish usually reserved for the United Kingdom! Maybe that wasn’t the right stage for them. This autumn, they’ll tour their native Norway on a headline tour where they’ll surely receive a hero’s welcome. “Sigil” is the debut record for their new home Season Of Mist too. With countless other bands with folk elements deep in their DNA – Saor, Nytt Land, and Heilung, to just a few – they seem right at home on this label. Just like anybody who craves something bold and exciting will be right at home with “Sigil” as Gåte breathes invigorating fresh air and impetus into the world that truly needs. Definitely no Heilung or Wardruna rip offs here!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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