Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genres: Heavy Metal, Power Metal
Label: Frontiers Records

It’s a boring Holiday Monday here at FRZ HQ as I type this, and to bust up the boredom, Benedictum come crashing in with some great heavy metal with good amounts of power thrown in for measure.
The guitars of Pete Wells are shredtastic riffs and Veronica Freeman’s vocals are stellar. Chris’ five string bass and Mikey’s drumwork form a solid spine to support everything else, along with Tony’s keys (which I wish were a little more present).
This stuff rocks, perfect for fans of Judas Priest, Armour, and Iron Maiden. They’ve been noticed by metal god Ronnie James Dio and worked with George Lynch and Jeff Pilsen, and this album, their newest, hold much promise to bring Benedictum to the fore of American traditional metal.
7 out of 10.

Benedictum on Facebook.
Benedictum Official Site.

Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Hell’s Headbangers

Keeping the metal flame alive is no easy feat nowadays. A lot of people look at classic 80′s sounding metal as something that should not be revisited, but that is not stopping Finland’s Armour from doing what they want. And judging from this fucking awesome sounding album, they want to “Rock’n'Roll Tonite”.
Riffs are a little bit more technical than the modern ‘classic’ metal most people are getting exposed to at times, which is a nice change. Mind you though, they’re still designed for optimum headbanging. The tone reminds me of a colder sound too, which might be the Finnish in the band getting shown off. It’s like Accept or U.D.O. with more of a slow burning anger underneath.
Favorite tracks are “The Time is Right”, “Sex Demon”, and “Heavy Metal Drinkers”.
7.5 out of 10.