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Songtitles aren’t always meant to be taken literally, but when four big, hairy blokes from the Midlands call their opening track Epic Doom you kind of expect it to do what it says on the tin. What transpires instead is a half-baked tribute to Godsmack. Intentionally ironic? Probably not. Temple Of Lies want to be Monster Magnet and Mastodon, but miss all of the elongated, unexpected twists. Their potential sneaks through on Illusion Of Choice, where Si Shaw snarls a good ‘Look in my eyes!’ Sleep slings around a dose of grunge melody, Dark Energy actually does reflect its foreboding title and Face Of SOFTWAREmark” gingersoftwareuiphraseguid=“e99fd0c2-214a-4f28-bffb-5fb6fd31470a” id=“fcbdb15a-3f45-4927-80f4-ad9ad05fd916”>Grey teeters on the edge of inventiveness, while Symbiotic Parasite has the catchiest hooks. But in a saturated genre and with 12 attention-waning tracks, The Serial Killer Suite falls short. Their new bassist, Jags, has supposedly added a new heavy bottom to their sound but the best bottom can be found in their saucy video for lead track Skin – and don’t worry, it doesn’t belong to a hairy bloke.

With over 10 years’ experience writing for Metal Hammer and Prog, Holly has reviewed and interviewed a wealth of progressively-inclined noise mongers from around the world. A fearless voyager to the far sides of metal Holly loves nothing more than to check out London’s gig scene, from power to folk and a lot in between. When she’s not rocking out Holly enjoys being a mum to her daughter Violet and working as a high-flying marketer in the Big Smoke.