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November 2023

• High Spirits: Safe On The Other Side
• Signum Regis: Undivided
• DGM: Life
• Soledriver: Return Me To Light
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• Secret Sphere: Blackened Heartbeat
• Seventh Crystal: Infinity EP
• Angra: Cycles Of Pain
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• Ignescent: Fight In Me

October 2023

• Pattern-Seeking Animals: Spooky Action At A Distance
• Overland: S.I.X
• Vitalines: Wheels Within Wheels
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• District 97: Stay For The Ending
• Lalu: The Fish Who Wanted To Be King
• Entierro: The Gates Of Hell
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September 2023

• Rockett Love: Galactic Circus
• Kerrigan: Bloodmoon
• Taz: Shipwrecked, Vol 2
• Taz: Wake Up & Sweat, Vol 1
• Ronnie Romero: Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters
• The Flower Kings: Look At You Now
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• Blackbird Angels: Solsorte
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• Eclipse: Megalomanium
• Seventh Wonder: Mercy Falls (Reissue 2008/2023)
• Seventh Wonder: The Great Escape (Reissue 2010/2023)

August 2023

• Hurricane: Reconnected
• U.D.O.: Touchdown
• Streetlight: Ignition
• Sarayasign: The Lion's Road
• Neal Morse: The Dreamer - Joseph - Part One
• Rian: Wings
• Icon Of Sin: Legends
• Lancer: Tempest
• King Kobra: We Are Warriors
• Dark Sky: Signs Of The Time
• Hell In The Club: F.U.B.A.R.
• Kent Hilli: Nothing Left To Lose

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Chainreaction: A Game Between Good and Evil

Heavy Metal

4.0/5.0

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Pure Underground Records
Words by Craig Hartranft,  08.05.2014

Now for something completely different, at least different from what's been pitched to me from the field of female-fronted metal. Hamburg's Chainreaction is a female-fronted band, but not a symphonic, melodic death, or power metal band, and without operatic vocals. Gasp. What's happening here. After a trio of EPs, Chainreaction delivers their first full-length album, A Game Between Good and Evil.

Chainreaction: what's with the short hair?

To be truthful a listener will likely hear some power metal elements as the band can get speedy at times, but it's not always galloping double bass drums. (If recollection serves, drummer David Flenner doesn't even us two bass drums.) Mostly Chainreaction's metal comes in the form of classic heavy metal, mixed at times with speed metal, making their metal the 'keep it true' variety.

As for Conny Bethke's voice, she sings more like a traditional male metal singer, rather than as an operatic singer. She's rather straight forward voice, and never goes screamo or attempts to get out of her range. At times the music seems to over power her, but she holds her own. The music, once more, is also rather straight forward heavy metal. Songs like Angels Never Die and Warrior take a moderate pace, others like Where Is God or Be Honest can race along. What you do get is powerful guitar leads and lots of them driven by an equally powerful and thundering rhythm section. The mix was handled well bringing up Christoph Quant's bass line. While I'm not always keen on female-fronted metal bands, especially in the traditional metal genre, Chainreaction won me over simply because their classic heavy metal is quite good and so makes their vocalist sound good too. Recommended.

As opposed to the complex field of female-fronted symphonic metal bands, Chainreaction goes for more traditional heavy metal, and they're quite good at too.

Alphabetical Index

We haven't had a new studio album from Brazil's Angra since prior to the COVID pandemic, 2018's Omni. But the quintet has been busy. In 2021, they released Omni Live in Japan where they have a huge fan base ... [ Read More ]