Wings of Steel – Winds of Time (2025) – Review

Wings of Steel - Winds of Time - Album Cover

Clichés rule! And that is specifically true for well-established metal genres. Heavy Metal is one of them for sure. Long past its heyday, you’ll still find bands wanting to go down this well-trodden path. They’ll make you experience that delicious devil’s music the old masters started once upon a time. And it’s a surprising number of them newbies tilling the ancient fields that their oldish brethren already visited eons ago.

Meet Wings of Steel. A surprisingly young Californian Heavy Metal band that seems to step right out of the tired remains of the Sunset Boulevard movement and the early … [...] Click to raid more!

Faun – Hex (2025) – Review

Faun has been a frequent ‘guest’ of this zine over the years. The RMR crew got to know them once Von Den Elben took some more mainstream undercurrents by storm. The record was a revelation, unlike the forced Wardruna copycat feel that their previous pieces always induced. This drew a total shitstorm of ire from their hardcore fans and led the band to start pulling back from their newfound freedom after a while. Fast forward to Pagan of 2022, Faun‘s fare started to center yet again in the more esoteric form of Pagan Folk. It was interesting to see

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Helloween – Giants & Monsters (2025) – Review

Helloween - Giants & Monsters - Album Cover

It happened at last. Helloween‘s newest concoction, Giants & Monsters, successfully made it onto our review pipe after all those years. The grandads of the Metal o’ The Light finally obtained lamestream n00b status over at the RMR Review Desk. Meaning, despite their verified existence since 1983 and their undisputed influence on the shaping of Ze Art ov Power Metal in general, the band never officially landed a review over at the office tower. The culprit holding us back usually was those slippery, pinkish, sugar-laden surfaces slathered in molten cheese that got in the way. But things changed, and

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Castrator – Coronation of the Grotesque (2025) – Review

Castrator - Coronation of the Grotesque - Album Cover

Castrator. The Death Metal band that didn’t quite make it onto our roster back in 2022 with their dime-a-dozen Extreme Metal regurgitation, Defiled in Oblivion. ‘Lost in the boonies, way too far into the mainstream, not much to see here..’, the old geezers at the review desk screamed. And for cause. In the run-up to this here review, the RMR crew listened to their debut record all over again. Old opinions duly confirmed.

Bears the question: Will their newest concoction, Coronation of the Grotesque, move past the sophomore slump AND excel in extended abject brutality? Down-in-the-pit … [...] Click to raid more!