CD Review: New Heavy Metal Music From Source, The Reticent, Northern Crown And Sacred Steel

From Boulder, CO comes the debut album titled "Return To Nothing" from the Progressive Metal band Source. Their new release has been three years in the making and it will finally be released on September 23rd through Pavement Entertainment. The new ten-song release begins with with the thunderous rhythm of the eight-minute epic rocker "Forgiveness." They add a heavier layer to "Memories Of Yesterday" as the musicianship within the band is undeniable as in the ten-minute, tempo-changing epic "The Essence." Source take a page out of Tool's songbook with the dark aggressive tones of "Complaisance," while the vocals are bold and powerful. The album closes with the ten-minute heavy metal attack of "Quadrant" and the mainstream metal appeal of "Veil Of Doubt." To find out more about Source and their latest release "Return To Nothing," please visit listentosource.com.

 

Next up is the return of the Grammy-nominated Christopher Hathcock, mastermind behind the progressive metal band The Reticent. The new album "On The Eve Of A Goodbye" will be released in October and is being described as an autobiographical concept album. The new fifteen-track release begins with dialogue, discussing the next "24 Hours Left." Hathcock's exceptional songwriting is immediately heard on the first song "The Girl Broken," which reaches close to the eight-minute mark. The tempo shifts in "The Hypocrite" from intense heavy metal head-banging to a Pink Floydian, prog-rock soundscape. The hardcore metal sounds of "The Confrontation" shows off the darker, more aggressive side of The Reticent, before finishing the album with hardcore power metal of "The Postscript" and quiet instrumental, "For Eve." To find out more about the latest release from The Reticent, please visit thereticent.net.

 

Doom metal band, Northern Crown are releasing their debut album titled "The Others" on October 14th. The band brings together their influences of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and add a deep, heavy rhythm as displayed in the opener "With Malicious Eye." Northern Crown pick the tempo up with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal feel of "Surreality (The Tell-Tale Mind)," then experiment with the electronic Gothic ballad "No One Came To Mourn Me." Their new six-song release finishes with the piano-based instrumental "A Pox Upon Your House" and the buzzing doom/prog metal journey of "Les Autres," which grinds past the eleven-minute mark. To find out more about Northern Crown and their latest release "The Others," please visit northerncrownband.com. 

 

Finally comes the arrival of the latest album from German metal band Sacred Steel. The new release titled "Heavy Metal Sacrifice" will be released on October 14th on Cruz Del Sur Music. Beginning with a short 65-second instrumental, Sacred Steel build up the intensity for the title song which carries a nostalgic heavy metal feel. They deliver a classic thrash metal sound on "Hail The Godz Of War" and keep the energy flowing with the crushing sounds of "Children Of The Sky." Sacred Steel switch tempos on the seven-minute battle cry of "Let There Be Metal," before closing the album with shout along chorus of "The Dead Walk The Earth" and the 41-second punk-like flurry of "Iron Donkey." To find out more about Sacred Steel and their latest release "Heavy Metal Sacrifice," please visit sacredsteel.eu