Blasts from the Past 2025: Echoes of the Eons!

Blast from the Past 2025 - Two skeletons with a horse cart full of electric guitars.

At first, nobody believed in a comeback of the Blasts from the Past series for 2025. The RMR crew found itself buried under a mountain of contemporary material after all. And nobody thought of switching off the faucet. Which is – come to think of it – a good thing. But that left relatively little room for that cartload of old ‘n’ torn notesheets to be read yet again after all these eons of nobody checking them out anymore. Boy, RMR himself even had to peddle some of his electric guitars to the local chapmen down at the market square … [...] Click to raid more!

Iron Maiden – The X Factor (1995) – Review

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Iron Maiden - The X Factor - Album Cover

Let’s blame it on Iron Maiden‘s Dickinson, shall we? Some time back in 2025, the man himself commented on the happy birthday of The X Factor and asked the wide audience for their favorite tracks.1 And my point was, truthfully, that there weren’t any. And there still aren’t. Or are there?

Olde is our memory after all these decades. And – perhaps – now is a good moment to revisit an ancient and possibly misunderstood record. This time, with the weight of 10 years of reviews behind us. Viewpoints overturned and ancient observations brutally squashed? Dusty pergament … [...] Click to raid more!

Paradise Lost – Draconian Times (1995) – Review

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RockmusicRaider Review - Paradise Lost - Draconian Times - Album Cover

The 5th studio album Draconian Times of British metallers Paradise Lost takes off to somewhere. Only we are not sure where this is all going. The tune they present often sounds like Heavy Metal, as in Metallica of the Load era during the mid-’90s, albeit at a slower pace of sorts. And this makes me wonder where the real Doom Metal element escaped to.

Further, for a doom album proper, the style thrown at us is almost too lively. So here we have a record that moves down this Gothic Metal road that became more and more important in the late ’90s and early ’00s. Draconian Times is – in this sense – a strange animal [...] Click to raid more!