Melodic Heavy Metal

Shining Black is a melodic metal band featuring vocalist Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire, Royal Hunt) and guitarist Ölaf Thorson (Labyrinth, Vision Divine). Their self-titled debut (2020) showcased cutting edge melodic metal songwriting techniques from Thorsen combined with the outstanding vocal abilities of Boals. Thorson and Boals now present “Postcards From the End of the World”, their sophomore album, which again highlights the outstanding collaboration between the two musicians. This album takes up where the debut left off, comprised of ten songs of modern power metal with the combination of Boals’ lung-busting vocals and Thorsen’s blistering guitar skills. Completing the lineup are Oleg Smirnoff on keyboards & piano, Nik Mazzucconi on bass, and Matt Peruzzi on drums. Shining Black's second album will once again delight power metal fans with its accomplished musicianship and empowering vocals… Euro-metal fans get excited!

When cooking up one of your favorite old recipes, sometimes adding different spices and/or ingredients to the usual mixture will excite your taste buds, and in the end, bettering the original formula. The same can be said for music, and CRYSTAL BALL is a perfect example…

Silent Waters is the eighth studio album by Finnish heavy metal band Amorphis. The lyrics are English translations of Finnish poems written by poet Pekka Kainulainen, who wrote them based on the character of Lemminkäinen in the Kalevala.

Thirty-one years after their inception, with uncounted global tours under their belt and fourteen albums deep in their career, AMORPHIS still proves to be the musical fountain of youth, an extraordinary band constantly reinventing itself without abandoning its mystical roots. With “Halo”, they deliver an astonishing album that deserves to be played everywhere, transcending the realms of metal and rock by its sheer profoundness and musicality.

Vikings and metal tend to go together very well, and the idea of combining the two has obviously been made popular by the likes of Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth and German power metal band Rebellion, and now a new challenger has arrived to prove themselves worthy of fighting for Odin. That band is Brothers of Metal, from Sweden, and they have unleashed their debut Prophecy of Ragnarok, which is not only an incredibly addictive power metal album, with varying influences from other genres and a ton of different exciting elements, but it also happens to be perhaps the very best Viking themed metal album I’ve ever heard, as the band takes familiar ideas and mashes them together perfectly, while also managing to create their own distinct sound that really has to be heard…

Skyforger is the ninth studio album by Finnish heavy metal band Amorphis. Like the previous album, the lyrics to Skyforger are English translations of Finnish poems based on the Kalevala and written by Pekka Kainulainen. Unlike the two previous albums, it is based on different parts of several episodes, but all told from a single character's point of view. In this sense it is a return to Tales from the Thousand Lakes which told stories from different parts of the Kalevala. The last two albums focused on Kullervo and Lemminkäinen, respectively, and this one focuses on Ilmarinen. The album's sound has been described as melodic death metal with influences from progressive metal, power metal and folk metal.