Monthly Archives: November 2025

Classic Rock, Genre, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Progressive Rock

Iron Maiden – Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (Song Review)

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“Cold fusion of fury”

Iron Maiden’s 2006 album A Matter Of Life And Death proved that the British metal veterans were still an act to be reckoned with, delivering some of their most vital and creative material for years. No track illustrated this better than album highlight Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. Making great use of a churningly tense and ominous time signature, it’s one of Maiden’s proggiest and heaviest songs. Frontman Bruce Dickinson goes all Van Der Graaf Generator with dark, coded lyrics that depict the dawn of the nuclear age (and the influence is made crystal clear with a lyrical nod to the VDGG track Whatever Would Robert Have Said?) Musically there’s a Rush-like feel with the band twisting and turning through a range of moody, tricky sections. And Dickinson responds to the song’s dynamic shifts with a vocal performance that builds in intensity in a breathtaking and explosive way. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is a track that is stylistically uncharacteristic for the band but, in terms of theatrics and excitement, has all the spirit of Maiden at their most classic.

Black Metal, Genre, Song Reviews

Mayhem – The Freezing Moon: Live In Leipzig (Song Review)

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“I remember it was here I died”

Mayhem’s The Freezing Moon (or just Freezing Moon depending on which version you’re listening to) is one of the monumental classics of black metal. The opening E minor chord alone is the definitive example of the epic, frosty, and evil feeling the genre should evoke. There are a number of superb versions of this track but the most seminal version has to be this one from Live In Leipzig. Recorded crudely on a ghetto-blaster from a 1990 club gig in East Germany, by the time Live In Leipzig was officially released in 1993 the band’s Swedish frontman Per Yngve “Dead” Ohlin had committed suicide. At the time, this recording was one of the few available that featured his vocals. And the subsequent events surrounding the Norwegian band only added to its stature as a landmark recording. No song on the album lives up that stature more than The Freezing Moon: Dead’s introduction “when it’s cold and when it’s dark, the freezing moon can obsess you” is iconic; the raw and primitive sound puts you right in the audience; the band’s thunderous performance and Dead’s gravelly vocals are powerful and committed; and Euronymous delivers an incredible take of the track’s grippingly uneasy and unforgettable guitar solo. It’s an essential and thrilling metal document. Like Dead said… it’s cold, and it’s dark. And it will obsess you.

Album Reviews, Doom Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal

Type O Negative – October Rust (Album Review)

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Type O Negative – October Rust (Roadrunner – 1996)

I was incredibly excited when I first heard Type O Negative via the track Christian Woman. I loved the medieval vibe, Pete Steele’s fathomlessly deep voice and the rustic acoustic parts. I thought this was going to be the best band ever but their 1993 album Bloody Kisses proved to be a bit of a mixed bag with a range of doomier, poppier and angrier tracks that were more or less to my taste but never came close to fulfilling the promise of that beloved introductory song. The follow-up, 1996’s October Rust, didn’t have anything quite that good either but, by revelling in the beauty of nature, got closer to what I really wanted from Brooklyn’s Drab Four. Lovelorn, gothic ballads like Love You To Death and Die With Me feature memorable melodies and rich layers of instruments and although the mixed bag elements creep in on groovier tracks like Be My Druidess and My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend these songs don’t disrupt the album’s mood and add some welcome energy. The musical highlight, though, is the climatic pairing of Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthropic Paranoia) and Haunted. Vampiric vocalist Steele is at his sonorous best on these creepy, doomy and foreboding epics and they awaken some of that Christian Woman excitement. But the thing that really makes me come… back for more is the stunning autumnal soundscape and atmosphere the band created on this album. It all sounds so idyllic and magical that it feels more like you’re entering a woodland realm than listening to a record. And it’s the main reason October Rust is my favourite Type O Negative record. A mandatory listen every time the leaves start falling from the trees.