“We are Forerunners. Guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun, towards which all intelligence blossoms… And the impervious shelter, beneath which it has prospered.”

Album Review: Battle Beast by BATTLE BEAST

Let’s conduct a thought experiment for a moment. Suppose you were to take the best riffs and lyrics and themes from great old-school 80s metal and hard-rock bands like: IRON MAIDEN JUDAS PRIEST W.A.S.P. MOTORHEAD SURVIVOR HELLOWEEN ACCEPT SAXON JOURNEY MANOWAR...

“Doing the laundry is tiring”

There are many good reasons to listen to NIGHTWISH: Floor Jansen Marco Hietala Floor Jansen The instrumental skill Floor Jansen The songwriting (when Tuomas Huolopainen doesn’t have his head stuck too far up his own ass, that is- see “Song of Myself”...

Album Review: Valkyrja by TYR

I don’t do very many album reviews- this is maybe my third so far- but I do try to listen to new albums by bands that I care about as often as I can. One of my favourite bands ever is the Faroese band TYR, whose music is an oddly eclectic and very...

Happy HELLOWEEN

Halloween is surely the most pointless, overdone, and historically inaccurate “holiday” of the lot. Fortunately, a band came along waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1986 with an album called Keeper of the Seven Keys that forever changed the nature and tempo...

So Much for SLAYER…

RIP Jeff Hanneman: According to a press release sent to BraveWords from management, SLAYER is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM PST this morning (May 2nd) near his Southern California home. He was 49....

Godspeed, Clive…

I still can’t quite believe it… Clive Burr is gone: Former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr passed away last night peacefully in his sleep at the age of 56. Burr joined Maiden in 1979 and performed on the first three albums Iron...

Bang Your Head!!! IRON MAIDEN EDITION

Let’s get one thing straight. IRON MAIDEN is the greatest band of all time. End of discussion. There is NO argument permitted, at all, ever, on this subject. With that in mind, here is a selection of the most eminently headbangable MAIDEN songs- and believe me,...

Music Review: Straight Out of Hell by HELLOWEEN

Power metal is a much-maligned sub-genre of heavy metal; it’s known for being ridiculously over-the-top, full of swords-and-sorcery themes, and cheesier than a Swiss fondue. This is unfortunate, because the progenitors of the genre are true innovators, legends...

Bang Your Head! – Winter Snowstorm Edition

Well, the Northeast just got hammered by its third major storm in about as many months, and right outside my window I can see about a foot of pristine, beautiful frozen snow… which is going to turn into hideous grey sludge before very long. Meanwhile, I’m...