Japanese power metal maestros, Lovebites dropped their latest album, Outstanding Power and certain AMG staffers decided it merited a double review. Let the love nibbles commence.
Symphony X
AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Empyrean Sanctum – Detachment from Reality
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.” Enter the Cyber Riff Arena!
Masseti – Odds and Ends Review
“When prog and symphonic metal meet in just the right way, they click together like puzzle pieces. Prog’s technicality and excess are balanced by the melody and atmosphere of symphonic metal. Symphonic metal’s penchant for straightforward structure and synth-reliance is buoyed by the dynamism and rhythm-bending of guitar wizardry. Tiago Masseti, the man behind his eponymous band, Masseti, is seeking to walk the line between these two styles on his debut album, Odds and Ends.” Blends and loose ends.
Insania – The Great Apocalypse Review
“One could be forgiven for thinking The Great Apocalypse was another nostalgia ride—a lovingly executed Stratovarius/Helloween tribute made by scene veterans committed to the bit. But the familiarity is a trap. Underneath the Europower surface is something more ambitious.” But is it fun? And does it work?
Cryptosis – Celestial Death Review
“When it comes to evolving past its lean, mean beginnings, thrash has had a rough go of it. Modern iterations shoot for a return-to-roots approach, which feels doomed to fall short in the shadow of the genre’s titans or augment the style with increasingly odd bedfellows (I’m looking at you Demoniac). Dutch trio Cryptosis fell firmly in the latter camp with their 2021 debut, Bionic Swarm, and they’ve continued to march away from their Teutonic roots with follow-up Celestial Death.” Thrash in a modern place.
Arion – The Light that Burns the Sky Review
“One of the multitude of European power metal bands flying relatively low to the ground, Finland’s Arion (pronounced like Orion or carrion?) have seen coverage just once previously at AngryMetalGuy.com. The late, great Huck n’ Roll opined that their third record was competent but generic, seeking hits rather than their own sound. 2025 has arrived, and with it comes a successor release entitled The Light that Burns the Sky. Pitched as a “highly anticipated symphonic masterpiece,” and with a growing well of experience underpinning the band, I set appropriate expectations as I hit play.” Expectations kill.
Queen of Dreams – Subnivium Review
“Here’s a fun fact for you: a subnivium is an ecosystem that thrives in the space between snow and ground. It’s a surprisingly dense topic, and my initial goal of summarizing it here was fully thwarted by just a few minutes of research. Suffice it to say, it’s surprisingly complex, and unexpectedly interesting, which makes it a great metaphor for this album of the same name, the second full-length release from the U.S.’s Queen of Dreams. Subnivium purports to be a work of progressive power metal inspired by European acts in similar genres—but like the system it’s named for, it is full of welcome surprises.” God save the Queen?
Athena XIX – Everflow Part 1: Frames of Humanity Review
“Before Fabio Lione rose to prominence with [(Luca) Turilli(/Lione)’s] Rhapsody [of Fire] and Angra, Athena—stylized now as Athena XIX—served as another potential vehicle into the growing European prog/power landscape. Wielding an of-the-time histrionic Dream Theater guitar-driven drama alongside the lightness of chorus-driven power metal, the low-fanfare Italian outfit never quite topped any charts despite respectable musicianship and Lione’s formative pipes on 1998’s A New Religion?. And after another swing at success, sans the Rhapsody-snatched Lione, with 2001’s equally unreceived Twilight of Days, Athena hung up its spurs to ride another day. And now, twenty-six years after Lione had debuted his only full-length recording with Athena, that same line-up has returned.” Lione in winter.
Paralydium – Universe Calls Review
“Prog was my metal gateway drug, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for its bonkers, over-the-top ways. It’s pretty hard to find this genre unclaimed since Dolph got that laser-targeting system for his half-birthday, so I waited until he jumped a few time zones and then snagged the first thing I could find. Perplexing cover art aside, Sweden’s Paralydium have been peddling their brand of finger-flying theatrics since 2015, but with only an EP and 2020 debut Worlds Beyond under their belt, they’re still young in their recorded career. It’s prog week for Iceberg, and I want gratuitous solos, 64th-note unisons, and multi-movement songs injected straight into my cerebellum. Can Universe Calls deliver the goods?” Galaxy brains and Yngwie strains.
Inner Strength – Daydreaming in Moonlight Review
“The face of progressive metal has warped and splintered and mutated since its origins in divergence from heavy metal. From the theatrical and rifftastical charm of Savatage to the pomp and groove of Psychotic Waltz to the emotional and shifting tug of Fates Warning, progressive music holds roots in complex narrative structures that range in tone from whimsical fantasy to deeply and painfully human. In the American arena, technicality flourished through Watchtower—and eventually Dream Theater—virtuosic elements, and intrinsic thrash pedigrees to give rise to a 90s and 00s movement that birthed bands like Zero Hour, Control Denied, and Nevermore, each ranging between these extremities of noodle-noting and tear-jerking. But before them all, Inner Strength stood at the cusp of these advents with their lone 1993 full-length Shallow Reflections making an underground splash, which contained all the aforementioned elements laced together with an of-the-time funk metal groove.” Long shadows on a longer island.
