For a while I have been brainstorming ways to dedicate a month to heavy metal in the more traditional sense and being that May is my birth month it only makes sense that it should be dedicated to Heavy Metal, since it was the first genre of music I was into as a kid as my earliest beginnings as a music fant started with Kiss, Alice Cooper, Ozzy, Iron Maiden and Motely Crue. Yeah, I think it's fair to count the first two Motley Crue albums as metal. Granted, over the years, the definition of metal has changed from the 80s to now.
So for the first annual Maytal Month, I'm going to review every single Iron Maiden album that I have not yet reviewed here. Might not be as long a list as you think, since I have already reviewed these
So that is 6 of their 17 albums, and Hell, I might just throw somebody like Dio in as well, along with more traditional metal bands, which might include things more along the lines of thrash and power metal, which spawned from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Not saying that I am not going to continue my coverage of the more extreme sub-genres, I'm just not placing more focus on death metal, black metal and doom, since those all have their own month dedciated to them. I feel like there is a great deal of more traditional metal out there that gets overlooked since the focus seems to fall on those or the related sub-genres like sludge, which gets covered during our doom month in November. So I'm not just going to focus on the classics, but new music that falls into this more epic and melodic point from which the genre is rooted in.
Frozen Soul's new album starts off with a bigger, and marginally darker though things are mixed in a manner that does not convey the cavernous cold of the last album, but you can't fault them for growing, and they are not making the same album twice, which is more than you can say for most. Oddly Gerad Way from My Chemical Romance guest on this song. However, he is not bringing whiny emo vocals, but a more black metal rasp. So it's not that invasive of what they normally do. This album has several guest spots on it. The second song features Rob Flynn from Machine Head, who contributes his bark to this more deliberate stomp. It's a big, powerful guitar sound that works well.
"Absolute Zero" is a minute of big chug that speeds up into a blast of sorts. "Dreadnought" finds Devin from Sanguisugabogg joining them. There is a mean bass tone for this song, and it grinds into things with a more Bolt Thrower-like feel. The melodic guitar solos bring this out more. An impressive flow of double bass drives "Chaos Will Reign," which is also the first song with the kind of thrashing groove that empowered "Glacial Domination." This is the band at their most effective, commanding headbanging.
They step on the gas for "Eyes of Despair". But know how to temper the need for speed with grooving riffage. "Ethereal Dreams" makes me think of early Unleashed. The bulk of the album up until that point has been more deliberately paced, and they still manage to retain balance in a more Slayer-like fashion here. The songwriting here is some of the album's most dynamic. "Skinned by the Wind" is really a solid minute of mean riff, but it works for what it is. "Deathweaver" allows for more build-up. It also has one of the most melodic guitar lines on the album, but digging into the pummelling. "Frost Forged' finds the chug still moving your guts in the best way possible/
There is more of an Entombed to the rumble of the last song. The double bass speeds the song up, but they find their groove, and pretty quickly, the epitome of not letting your momentum take your feet out from under you. I will go ahead and round this up to a 10, as I think it will grow on me, and their fanbase will get another dose of the heavy slabs of sound that have been refined by staying on the road. This album drops on May 8th on Century Media.
The last album I spent much time with by these guys was "Symbol of Salvation", but this album does not find the band straying too far from what they worked there. The album carries a great deal of momentum with some unconventional sounds opening up "Every Man Any-man," but once this album gets going, that momentum causes some of the tracks to run into one another; the space Bush gets on the verses is key to their success here. The first song where I can hear a trace of the more classic metal band they once were is " Not On Your Life."
This is where one of their strengths this time around comes in, regarding the sound captured here, which is that they do not sound dated and feel vital in 2026, while still being true to the spirit of the band.In some ways, to a metal kid in 2026, this album might feel more rock n roll. "Hit a Moonshot" is a very high-energy take on rock, but has more in common with AC/DC than Slayer. "Buckeye" makes me think of Bruce Dickinson's solo work from the 90s. If he is being compared to Bruce, it means Bush's voice has held up well for 62 years young. "Compromise" has a more in-your-face metal groove while giving his vocals space.
I like the darker grunge feel lurking in the chord progression to "It's a Buzzkill". This is one of the album's strongest songs. "Throwing Caution to the Wind" finds them back on the more rock n roll side of the fence. There are a few heavier riffs in it, and the solos on all the songs are pretty blazing if you are into the old metal shred. "Ladders and Slides" has some of the best drumming of the album; it's subtle and feels like rock. But there is an almsot Zeppelin feel. There is a really cool grooving breakdown in it.
You can hear more Maiden influence in "Bottom Feeders." There is also a more traditional metal vibe to the last song. It works well enough even with some of the rock n roll excess, but I am not expecting them to be Radiohead, so that works for me. Overall, they prove to be vital in 2026, the album sounds great and not dated, John's voice shows little wear and tear, so I will give this album a 9.5 as it's all you can ask from them and they delivered. Out May 22nd on Metal Blade.
April has breezed by already, so let's get you abreast of new releases. This might help you, casual readers, with what you might have missed. I am not doing little blurbs on them, just linking the reviews. This helps me organize my lists for the end of the year by listing the album's genre. This does not mean that these albums have been released this month, but it is a list of new or upcoming albums I have enjoyed the most. I have albums in my in-box that won't come out until June, so I am normally way ahead of the curve in this regard. They are ranked in order of how much I have listened to them. This month, leaned more on heavy stuff ranging from Hardcore to Doom, so perhaps you will find your new favorite among them. Here are the Top 10 albums for April of 2026.
.jpg)
.jpg)