Dream Theater finally released their first official live album, the double-disc Once in a LIVEtime (recorded June 1998 in Paris). Granted, the 1995 release A Change of Seasons contained a wealth of live material, but they were all cover songs, and 1994's Live at the Marquee was only available as a European import. With material spanning their entire career, the many die-hard Dream Theater fans will love Once in a LIVEtime, but it won't win over disbelievers to their highly technical, sometimes cold style. There's no denying that the band's musicianship is top-notch, but the songs often get repetitious and start sounding similar. But Once in a LIVEtime may be a breath of fresh air if you've had it with smug alterna-wannabes who can hardly play, or if you long for the glory days of Yes or ELP (in other words, the music punk rock tried to annihilate). Highlights include their instrumental tour de force "Ytse Jam," as well as the fan favorites "Pull Me Under," "Lie," "Metropolis," and certain portions of their lengthy "A Change of Seasons" composition. Also released in conjunction with Once in a LIVEtime was the home video Five Years in a LIVEtime.

The fifth studio album by the Finnish melodic doom/death metal band is being released on CD and turquoise vinyl by German label Noble Demon! “The Bereaved” is the band's fifth studio album and their first release on the German label Noble Demon. The album deals with themes of death, loss, and the question of which fate is worse - that of the deceased or that of the bereaved. Musically, the band once again proves itself to be a master of emotional depth: Jaakko Mäntymaa's powerful, desperate vocals, Aapo Koivisto's ghostly keyboard pads, and Nico Mänttäri's melodically precise guitar work create an intense sound spectrum that ranges from oppressive slowness to eruptive aggression and Nordic clarity. For listeners of Swallow the Sun, Paradise Lost, Ghost Brigade, or Sentenced, The Bereaved offers a stylistically precise yet independent work…

Known for their memorable riffs, infectious vocal melodies and dueling guitar attack, internationally acclaimed rock quartet Alter Bridge - comprised of Myles Kennedy on vocals/guitars, Mark Tremonti on guitars/vocals, Brian Marshall on bass and Scott Phillips on drums - have garnered themselves massive critical and fan praise around the globe. The band looks to continue that trend as they release their self-titled, eighth studio album, Alter Bridge via Napalm Records. The album follows 2022’s massively lauded Pawns & Kings (#1 US Hard Music Albums, #2 US Billboard 200 With Hard Rock Genre, #3 US Current Rock Albums).
Alter Bridge is comprised of 12 all new tracks from the band and features some of their most iconic moments on record. The band kicks down the door with the opener and single “Silent Divide”…

Dutch Progressive giants Textures arrive on Kscope with their first new album in six years.
When Textures announced their disbandment in 2018, it marked the end of an era for progressive metal. Their absence was felt across the world - by fans, by peers & by a scene they helped define. Now, six years later, the Dutch innovators return with ‘Genotype’ - a monumental resurgence to the forefront of modern progressive music & a powerful reaffirmation of everything that made them a force in the first place.
Serving as the conceptual counterpart to 2016’s acclaimed ‘Phenotype’, ‘Genotype’ is not a continuation but a rebirth. For nearly a decade, fans speculated about its existence, but what arrives now is not a relic of unfinished ideas - it’s something entirely new, written from scratch & self-produced…

Easily one of the most important heavy metal albums ever released, Stained Class marks the peak of Judas Priest's influence, setting the sonic template for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal more than any other single recording. This is the point where Priest put it all together, embracing their identity as the heaviest band on the planet and taking the genre to new heights of power, speed, musicality, and malevolence. Not until Painkiller would the band again be this single-minded in its focus on pure heavy metal. Their blues-rock roots have been virtually obliterated; largely gone, too, are the softer textures and gothic ballads of albums past. The lone exception is the morbid masterpiece "Beyond the Realms of Death," on which the band finally finds a way to integrate the depressive balladry of songs like "Epitaph" and "Last Rose of Summer" into their metal side…

This early live set by Purple Mark II, complete on two discs, was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970, and it showcases the band at its most extended. The jams on "Wring That Neck" and "Mandrake Root" clock in at around half an hour apiece. An instrumental version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" leads into the requisite drum solo, and also included is the longest-ever recording of "Child in Time." Some of this (especially "Mandrake Root") can be trying to the patience of someone who wasn't there. But this was the era when hundreds of bands were stretching out every night, and Purple, with the skills and imaginations of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore to call on, did it better than many, at its climaxes reaching a fiery intensity matched by few others.

For more than 25 years, Black Label Society has stood as one of heavy music’s most unshakeable pillars, delivering album after album of blues-soaked grooves, hard-hitting riffs, and soul-baring ballads. “Engines of Demolition” makes no exception to the steady rule of unrelenting commitment to pure, uncompromising, hard rock.

Official re-recording of Deep Purple’s seminal Machine Head album by the biggest names in rock music, complete with the ultimate behind-the-scenes Classic Rock tribute magazine. Listen to the classic songs of Machine Head re-interpreted by such genre masters as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Chickenfoot and the Flaming Lips in addition to legendary guitarists Joe Bonomassa, Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai and Carlos Santana. The fanpack also comes with an in-depth, official, band-endorsed 124-page magazine which includes exclusive new interviews with world-class guitarists Joe Bonamassa and Steve Vai and the members of Metallica, Iron Maiden and Chickenfoot amongst others talking about recording these classic songs, plus brand new interviews with Deep Purple one of the last interviews with the late Jon Lord on the making of their most well-loved album and exclusive and previously unpublished photographs and artefacts from the Purple archives.

Chaos A.D. was the record where everything came together for Sepultura, when they graduated from being an excellent, if derivative, band into one of metal's most unique voices. Their strident political dissidence is more focused than ever, referring explicitly to injustices in their native Brazil. The band's thick, chunky guitars, busy percussion, and hoarsely shouted vocals may be rooted in death metal, but it was often hard to call Sepultura a true death metal band, even if they flirted heavily with the style by way of Slayer; Chaos A.D. is rooted just as much in hardcore punk in its lean, stripped-down assault, featuring a cover of New Model Army's "The Hunt" and a collaboration with Jello Biafra on "Biotech Is Godzilla"…

Three years after their smash hit album Congregation of Annihilation, metal veterans Metal Church present their follow-up album, Dead to Rights, which picks up right where Congregation of Annihilation left off in terms of quality and catchiness.
All songs on “Dead To Rights” were written by Kurdt Vanderhoof, continuing his role as the creative backbone of Metal Church. The album was mixed and mastered by Zeuss at the legendary Planet-Z Studios, ensuring a massive, modern, and crushing sound. Sonically, “Dead To Rights” showcases Metal Church at their most intense: sharper riffs, relentless grooves, and an uncompromising heaviness that reflects both the band’s classic roots and their modern power. The first single, “F.A.F.O.”, already sets the tone with its raw aggression and unstoppable drive…

Probably the first album to successfully merge the seemingly disparate sounds of rap and heavy metal, Rage Against the Machine's self-titled debut was groundbreaking enough when released in 1992, but many would argue that it has yet to be surpassed in terms of influence and sheer brilliance - though countless bands have certainly tried. This is probably because the uniquely combustible creative relationship between guitar wizard Tom Morello and literate rebel vocalist Zack de la Rocha could only burn this bright, this once. While the former's roots in '80s heavy metal shredding gave rise to an inimitable array of six-string acrobatics and rhythmic special effects (few of which anyone else has managed to replicate), the latter delivered meaningful rhymes with an emotionally charged conviction that suburban white boys of the ensuing nu-metal generation could never hope to touch…

Neurosis built their reputation on - to put it one way - long-winded compositions, making their albums a challenging listening experience for even the most dedicated fans. And their fifth album, Through Silver in Blood, doesn't buck the trend, diving headlong into the group's entirely unique experiments in ambient, progressive death metal with the mesmerizing 12-minute title track. With the exception of two minute-long interludes, much of the remaining material follows this blueprint, with abnormally long tracks like "Aeon" and "Purify" gradually building from simple melodies into trance-inducing epics. Conversely, other songs take an unbearably long time to develop, crawling toward their climaxes so slowly (see "Strength of Fates") - or toward no climax at all (see the tortured screaming of "Enclosure in Flame") - that one's attention span is severely tested. It is therefore of little wonder that Neurosis' appeal remains so selective.

Megadeth guns for arena thrash success and gets it on Countdown to Extinction. Following the lead of 1991's Metallica, Megadeth trades in their lengthy, progressive compositions for streamlined, tightly written and played songs more conducive to radio and MTV airplay. Cries of "sellout" seem pointless when the results are artistically (as well as commercially) successful; songs like the mega-hit "Symphony of Destruction," "Skin O' My Teeth," "Foreclosure of a Dream," and "Sweating Bullets" are among the band's best.

The follow-up to the masterful Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman was rushed into existence by a band desperate to finish its next album before an upcoming tour. As a result, it doesn't feel quite as fully realized - a couple of the ballads are overly long and slow the momentum, and Randy Rhoads' guide solo on "Little Dolls" was never replaced with a version intended for the public. Yet despite the fact that some songs could have used a longer gestation period, there are numerous moments of brilliance on Diary of a Madman - at least half of it stands up to anything on Blizzard, and the title track is a jaw-droppingly intricate epic that represents the most classically influenced work of Rhoads' all-too-brief career. But even if parts of the album don't quite live up to the band's previous (and incredibly high) standards, they're by no means bad; moreover, the production is fuller, and the instruments better recorded this time around…

Full Dynamic Range Remastered edition of At The Gates fourth studio album.
When it was first released, At the Gates' Earache debut Slaughter of the Soul was regarded as a generally excellent example of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, and certainly the band's best and most focused album to date. But the commonly held view was that it wasn't anything all that special, either. After all, it lacked the intricate twin-guitar leads of In Flames, the complex song structures of Dark Tranquillity, the progressive artistry of Edge of Sanity, or even the rock & roll underpinnings of latter-day Entombed. Slaughter of the Soul was more obviously rooted in American thrash (especially Slayer) than its peers, and didn't seem to be consciously trying to break new ground. It was simply a stripped-down, no-frills melodic death album that hit all the basic points of the style…