Black Sabbath was embroiled in a protracted legal battle with its former manager in 1975 when the band started recording its sixth studio album, SABOTAGE. The group felt sabotaged at every turn – hence the album’s title – but that feeling helped fuel the intensity of the new music they were making. In spite of the distractions, the band created one of the most dynamic – and underappreciated – albums of its legendary career.

Pure witchery: barely twelve full moons after the release of their third opus, Dance With The Devil, Burning Witches return steeled and superior with The Witch Of The North, their most fiery and thunderous work to date. An album equipped to become a modern metal classic, a work of reference for honest, true steel. It’s obvious: anyone who manages to deliver such a Witch Hammer after just one year has to have the magic touch. Black magic that is! But that’s exactly what this band have always possessed. For five years the Swiss witches have been putting their occult mark on the international metal world. Not only holding their ground in a male-dominated field, they are also initiating a desperately needed change of power. The triptych consisting of Burning Witches (2017), Hexenhammer (2018) and Dance With The Devil (2020) instantly brought them to festivals like Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze and Rock Harz Open Air, and the battle cries of these three records are still ringing.

The Lemmy Kilmister/Phil Campbell/Mikkey Dee Motörhead line-up spent decades cracking sound barriers, bending ears and decimating lawns worldwide, consistently delivering the Motörgospel to hundreds of thousands of fans. Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin is a thunderous performance from the band's 2012 Kings of The Road Tour, spanning fifteen classics across all four decades. This line-up was Motörhead's longest serving by a considerable distance, and throughout Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin their powerful synergy boots its way through the speakers with the raucous charm and dirty, dangerous, sweaty gusto that was the Kilmister/Campbell/Dee trademark.

Formed in 2008, the hard-rocking "supergroup" Chickenfoot features the talents of vocalist Sammy Hagar (Van Halen, Montrose), bass player Michael Anthony (Van Halen), drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. Formed out of a series of impromptu jams at Hagar's club, Cabo Wabo Cantina, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the band made its live debut at a 2008 Hagar solo show in Las Vegas before deciding to take its signature blend of high-energy rock & roll, funk, blues, and roots rock into the studio…

Condition Critical, Quiet Riot's follow-up to their number one, multi-million-selling commercial breakthrough Metal Health, is nearly identical to its predecessor. Not only do they repeat the hard-driving pop-metal hybrid to the last detail, they even throw in another Slade cover. Like on Metal Health, the Slade cover on Condition Critical ("Mama Weer All Crazee Now") is the finest moment on the record – it's the only time the riffs have a solid hook and the melody is memorable. However, the rest of the record is well produced and sounds good, even if the quality of the songs is somewhat poor.

Ventura, California-based heavy metal band Cirith Ungol will issue four-song EP Half Past Human on May 28th, 2021 through Metal Blade Records. The EP titled "Haft Past Human" is proof that 2020's Come Back album "Forever Black" was no flash in the pan.

British heavy metal legends Saxon release a brilliant cover album with the appropriate name Inspirations. Eleven brand new tracks that deliver superb rock classics that influenced Biff Byford & his band. From the melodic paperback writer from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix Stone Free, Saxon show their love and appreciation with their tribute, which are sometimes rough but always loyal to the original song. Constant focus was on the idea of the old school in which they worked with Marshall Cabs, Marshall Amps and a real drums. The whole thing was produced by Biff Byford with Jacky Lehmann, who accompanied and mixed the recordings.

Judas Priest's 18th studio album, FIREPOWER began under inauspicious circumstances. First, guitarist Glenn Tipton, diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a decade ago, found it necessary to retire from the road; second, they lost out to Bon Jovi for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and finally, former drummer Dave Holland passed on before this set's issue. But the sound of FIREPOWER remains unbowed. Its undiminished power and assaultive mayhem are somewhat tempered in its slower moments by slowly unfurling rage, loss, and menace. It was begun in 2016 by Rob Halford, Tipton, and new guitarist Richie Faulkner.

World exclusive 5-track CD for free with German "Rock Hard" magazine Juni 2021 Vol. 408.