Black Knight – The Tower Review

By Steel Druhm

It’s always an interesting experience to seize a promo by a band that’s been around for decades, yet you’ve never heard of them. Thus did I come to discover Dutch traditional metallers, Black Knight. Formed way back in the 80s, they didn’t release an album until 1998, and since then, they’ve only managed 2 other releases, the last being in 2020. Badly delayed by COVID lockdowns and lineup changes, it’s only now that we get 4th album, The Tower. With a sound that borrows mightily from Accept, Primal Fear, and Brainstorm, they bring exuberantly old school antics to the table with slight traces of power metal decorating the edges. It’s not fancy, it’s not new or innovative, but these chaps know what they are doing and how to push a metal song into your ears through brute force. But is there a reason why Black Knight is so little known after so many years in the game?

After the requisite intro that adds nothing at all to the album, things get extra spicy on “Tower,” where they throw all their traditional/classic metal bona fides at you like pocket sand, leaving you vulnerable to the brutal stun. It’s a burly, baddass, fist-pumping gem not far from what Primal Fear churn out on a good day, and it has that big, anthemic sizzle that makes you want to throw cars at disfavored locals. “Survive” comes out with a heavy battering ram riff before shifting gears to a more Brainstorm-esque macho metal style that suits them well. Black Knight have a real gift for crafting classic metal hooks that dig deep and get you on board. Shockingly, they deliver 7 ball-busting metal chestnuts in a row with nary a dip in quality. You get a grinding, moody power ballad like “Misery,” and then they just as easily bludgeon you with an Accept-meets-Mystic Prophecy steamroller like “Die.” This stuff puts you between the hammer and the anvil and irons your shit out good and proper.

Considering I never heard of these guys, I was quite shocked by how consistently good to great these songs are as they kept piling up like an epic car wreck in the consciousness of Steel. The slick songwriting heard on a heavy metal cut like “Deceivers” doesn’t grow on trees, and damn is it sticky like hot tar on a cold day. Not many bands can string together seven sick bangers like these on any given album. So what are the downsides? Well, as impressive as things are for the bulk of The Tower’s runtime, the last few songs seriously undermine their run of luck. “Fire” is a standard, stadium-ready rocker that doesn’t do a lot for me, but the real problem is how things end bizarrely with a German language soft rock ballad called “Im Dunkein.” This thing fits with the rest of the album about as well as steamy rhino shit does on a pricey porterhouse steak. It’s not a good song regardless of genre, and it has no business being the conclusion to a balls-to-the-walls metal album. It’s the kind of song you promptly delete and forget it ever existed, and it’s greatly perplexing why the band thought it fit here. Once this thing is removed, repudiated, and scorned, The Tower makes a Hell of a lot more sense!

GertJan Vis and Ruben Raadschelders are able axe slingers and deliver an effective collection of jackhammering riffs and earwormy harmonies as they crunch and crack along. There’s a definite Accept-on-roids vibe to much of what they do, along with flashes of salad days Annihilator. This blend works well with the kind of songs they serve up. New frontman Henk Overbosch delivers classic metal vocals with poise, power, and enough versatility to move from mood to mood without sounding forced or out of place. He has the right amount of grit and hoarsepower to convince, and the guy has legit pipes too. This is a seasoned, talented crew, and they have serious songwriting chops, which makes it even more completely baffling why they opted to end The Tower with such an ill-advised whimper.

The Tower is a very good traditional metal album with enough piss, vinegar, and pruno to make you even more of a beefbrained barbarian than you already are. It’s entertaining enough to have me sorting through their back catalog, and even with a disaster of a closer, it’s still got serious legs. If you need a classic metal fix with raw power and hooks, Black Knight will be your huckleberry. Sometimes the obscure side is the fun side.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: Fucking Stream!! Stop with the streams!!
Label: Pure Steel Records
Websites: blackknight.nl | facebook.com/blackknightNL/# | instagram.com/black_knight_band
Releases Worldwide: July 4th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Accept #BlackKnight #Brainstorm #HeavyMetal #Jul25 #MysticProphecy #PrimalFear #PureSteelRecords #Review #Reviews #TheTower

Brainstorm – Plague of Rats Review

By Steel Druhm

Another Brainstorm album is upon us, and that means another opportunity for me to blather on about how they’re the most consistent heavy metal band out there. Since I found them back in 2000 by stalking frontman extraordinaire Andy B. Franck from his Ivanhoe and Symphorce projects, they’ve regularly impressed me with their hyper-hooky and punchy take on the classic heavy metal formula. Their sound is similar to Primal Fear and Mystic Prophecy with nods to Tad Morose and the catchier eras of Iced Earth, and albums like Ambiguity, Mentus Mortis, Soul Temptation, Firesoul, Midnight Ghost and 2021s Wall of Skulls offer so much catchy, beefy metal with such high levels of replay addiction, it almost seems unfair. Even their “lesser” albums are stocked with huge high points. That brings us to the 14th album, Plague of Rats. Brainstorm are seasoned and savvy enough to know they shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken, so this is another platter full of Andy’s powerful vocals soaring forcefully over crunchy riffs. They always possessed a supernatural ability to craft huge choruses and that crucial skill continues to bear juicy fruit with a collection of large and in-charge tunes designed to jack you up like a honey badger on diesel meth. Ready to brave the Ratnado?

As per usual for Brainstorm, they come out swinging after an obligatory intro. “Beyond Enemy Lines” is a big song with an epic chorus that you’ll remember after just one exposure. It’s got everything Brainstorm is known for, namely Andy’s huge voice and Torsten Ihlenfeld’s and Milan Loncaric’s ace riffs that pave the road and flatten resistance. It also has that feeling of BIGness that Brainstorm always delivers, getting your blood up and angry. “Garuda (Eater of Snakes)” finds the band revisiting their love of Indian culture and mythology as they did so famously on Soul Temptation, and they’re once again blessed with massive success by Shiva and Company. This is such a simple song structure-wise but it’s just so damn badass and Andy sells it like he just heard the motivational speech from Glengarry Glen Ross. You simply cannot hear this and not love it. “The Shepard Girl (Gitavoginda)” is another massive tune with more hooks than a Bass Pro Super Shop and it’s everything I love about Brainstorm in one sharp 3-plus minute explosion with a chorus you can’t unhear or forget.

Song after song arrives, delivers, and departs, and though not every selection has the scope and power of the high points, nothing falls flat. “Masquerade Conspiracy” is all about the thick, beefy riffs and a Primal Fear-esque attack, and “The Dark of Night” inspires the spirit with an ever so slightly Gothic shade and a ginormously epic chorus that stabs your brain like an ice pick. What are the downsides? The back half is less titanic than the front, though no song feels unworthy of inclusion. At a crisp 45 minutes, Plague of Rats is a dynamic ride, and if forced to pick a song to drop, I’d go with “From Hell.” It’s a solid enough cut with decent death metal guest vocals by Alexander Krull, but it’s the weakest monkey in the barrel of greater apes. One could also argue there are traces of self-plagiarism creeping in at times, and several riffs do sound a lot like those from the Ambiguity and Mentus Mortis platters. These are small concerns though when an album is as entertaining as Plague of Rats.

Every few years I go on a rant about how underappreciated Andy B. Franck is among metal vocalists, so here’s the next installment. Andy is one of the very best vocalists in all of metal and he’s aging like the finest of expensive vintages. He’s not a high-pitched wailer and bases his delivery around a burly mid-range but the man can stretch to great heights when needed and knows exactly how to place his vocal lines for maximum effect. I’ve been a huge fan since I heard him on the old Ivanhoe albums and he’s still blowing my mind 27 years later. Give this man some love already! The rest of Brainstorm are masters of their craft too. Torsten Ihlenfeld and Milan Loncaric are one of the best guitar tandems in metal, consistently churning out fist-pumping, ass-kicking riffs to drive songs through the wall like an Adamantium Kool-Aid Man. They bring power and poise to the game and know how to keep interest levels high. Dieter Bernert’s been there since the beginning bringing down the thunder with furious anger, creating the stable foundation for the larger-than-life songcrafting.

Another Brainstorm release and another victory for this hard-working crew of Teutonic Titans. You need never worry about whether they’ll deliver the goods and you always end up loving what you get. Plague of Rats is another in a long line of Brainstorm albums I’ll be playing and replaying for years and maybe decades. If you haven’t gotten into this band yet, you’re a daft punk. Be like Brainstorm and do the right thing. Even the rats know the deal.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Reigning Phoenix
Websites: brainstorm-web.net | facebook.com/officialbrainstorm | instagram.com/official.brainstorm
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Ambiguity #Brainstorm #Feb25 #GermanMetal #HeavyMetal #IcedEarth #MentusMortis #MysticProphecy #PlagueOfRats #PrimalFear #ReigningPhoenixMusic #Review #Reviews #SoulTemptation #WallOfSkulls

Asenblut – Entfesselt Review

By Steel Druhm

Steel Druhm Himself and Holdeneye see eye to…eye on many metal-related issues. We gravitate toward the same styles and share an appreciation for plenty of bands across the metal spectrum. It’s not all Kumbaya though, no Sireebob. I could not have agreed less with his loving review of cheese-tastic faux-Manometal act All for Metal. They’re like an even more ridiculous version of the already super ludicrous Brothers of Metal, and I couldn’t stomach the lactose overload their music flung in all directions like cheap beer at an 80s thrash-fest. Imagine then my primal shock when I grabbed the latest album from German battle metal purveyors Asenblut only to find it’s helmed by one of the vocalists of All for Metal. Yep, Tim “Tetzel” Schmidt is the main mountain of power here, delivering course, rough death vocals over a churning sea of very familiar riffs and gallops. You see, Asenblut are like a big ole’ bucket-load of recycled Amon Amarth riffs propped up with the occasional use of traditional metal muscle and power chugs. Turns out they’ve been doing this for a long time too, as Entfesselt is their fifth album, and the second we’ve reviewed here.1 So how much real raiding can a knockoff act like Asenblut pull off in a marketplace saturated with similar, better-known battle metal acts? Let us test their metal then.

The Amon Amarth-isms hit the shores fast and hard on opener “Das Ende der Götter,” which sounds like something from With Oden on Our Side, but the early, roughed-out pre-studio version before all polishing and tweaking. Burly battle riffs pump away as Mr. Tetzel does a remarkable job imitating Johan Hegg’s rough death roars and higher-pitched screeching. It’s completely serviceable to get your blood up and your battle face on, but it’s derivative enough to be unsettling, and that’s all of Entfesselt in an elevator pitch. The title track is so AA it actually dares a lawsuit from the angry Swedes. It’s anthemic and just epic enough to trigger pec flexage and sword hand cramping and it’s not bad. “Unbesiegbar” introduces some welcome Brainstorm / Mystic Prophecy influence courtesy of big, meaty riffs, and these pair well with the shameless Swede pillaging.

Tracks like “Wölfe des Meeres” and “Blut und Sand” are solid, steeped in macho bravado and barbarian rage, heavy enough to get you hostile but memorable too. Closer “Nox Nostra Est” is extra blackened and blast-happy with an epic vibe carrying the chest-thumping machismo to a higher plane. While Asenblut clearly love the sound and style laid down by their favorite act and prove quite adept at imitating them, an album’s worth of such flattering imitation can offer challenges for the listener. You start to hear bits and pieces of their target influence’s work product and wonder if the similarities are intentional or happenstance. “Arm in Arm” sounds a lot like AA’s “Victorious March,” and while I dearly love that song, this offshoot time line is less endearing. “Hexengericht” reminds me of sillier AA fare like “Raise Your Horns,” fun but throw-away. It’s nearly impossible to listen to this album and not make these mental comparisons, and I really tried. And that’s a shame since a lot of Entfesselt is enjoyable enough. Nothing Asenblut do has a trace of their own unique identity, but they sure are good mimics with impressive bench stats.

Guitarists Alex and Chris do a solid job crafting bruising battle riffs to stir the loins and put you on the the warpath. Yes, they are following a specific blueprint not their own, and sometimes their creations veer too close to their progenitors, but they get the job done nonetheless. Big Time Tim Tetzel has a respectable death roar, more raw and rough-around-the-edge than Johan Hegg, yet still similar. He provides the berserker energy and muscle, and he’s convincing as he screams of battles and glory (the lyrics are all in German so I’m making an educated guess here). The band has enough talent to pull off this style, though the compositions often feel like washed-out versions of songs you already heard on some forgotten battlefield.

As much as I hate All for Metal, I can’t bring myself to feel the same way about Asenblut. The individual parts work well enough and the songs are mostly entertaining if often rote. The real issue is whether the world needs such a blatant copycat of a better-known act. If you want more battle metal in your life and aren’t picky how much it sounds like someone else, you’ll likely get Longship mileage from Entfesselt. All others may want to wait for an authentic Viking cruise.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre
Websites: asenblut.de | facebook.com/asenblutband
Releases Worldwide: August 2nd, 2024

#25 #2024 #AllForMetal #AmonAmarth #Asenblut #Aug24 #Brainstorm #Entfesselt #GermanMetal #MassacreRecords #MelodicDeathMetal #MysticProphecy #Review #Reviews