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| ASTRONOMIKON – Dark Gorgon Rising (CD) | Cyprus | April 2013 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Heavy / Power Metal | Running time: 52:15 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| Ever laid your ears to metal from Cyprus ? Neither did I, so let's take this chance to hear what they're up to. Formed in 2008 and having released a demo tape in 2010 this Dark Gorgon Rising is their debut. Almost one hour of powerful metal in it's truest form is what they present and I must say it's a more then pleasant surprise. It's all splendid. The sound, the music, the skills, the vocals, the artwork by Markus Vesper, the compositions that tell the tale of Perseus and Medusa, it's all simply splendid. Earcatcher are the vocals of Nicholas Leptos who's a true accession to the power metal scene. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.astronomikon.com
Recordlabel: http://www.purelegend-records.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/astronomikon MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/astronomikon |
78/100 |
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| AXEL RUDI PELL – Live on Fire (CD) | Germany | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Heavy Metal | Running time: 1:50:56 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Axel Rudi Pell's last studio opus was the subject of my review last year and my prediction came true, "Circle of the Oath", released in March 2012, sold very well, peaking in the German and Swedish charts in particular.
Axel toured shortly after the release, the tour even got a second leg and the band staged the great festivals in Europe. 2012 was a very successful year for Axel and to please and say thanks to the fans of his music, Axel and SPV will release a live CD/ DVD called " Live on Fire".
This opus has various packages: a 3LP set, a double CD format, Double DVD and a Limited Digipack containing two DVD's and two CD's. Axel Rudi Pell used recordings of the second leg of his last year's tour to capture the impact of his concerts, the Cologne Essigfabrik concert of October 18th and the concert at Seebronn, home of the Rock of Ages festival on July 28th. From Mario, our editor-in chief, I received a review download of the double cd set, capturing the Cologne concert. What can I say? Axel Rudi Pell has released a lot of live albums and live DVD's, in a ten year's period fans were gladdened by two double CD's and four DVD's of the man and his band on stage. As a fan I have all his live stuff already, is it a possible overload? No, it is not the overstock on live registrations. And yes, " Live on Fire" is another killer performance, great songs, a superb backing band, fabulous guitar work and the best vocalist of the rest! From " The guillotine suite" to the closing chapter of this concert, a great rendition of "Rock the nation" this live set will please a lot of fans the melodic hard rock Axel Rudi Pell delivered last October. I think the DVD has more to offer: atmosphere, 3D, Technicolor, some beautiful extras to the concert of this giant artist!. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.axel-rudi-pell.de
Recordlabel: http://www.spv.de Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/axel-rudi-pell-official-site MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/axelrudipellunofficial |
85/100 |
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| BOIL – aXiom (CD) | Denmark | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Progressive Metal / Rock / Alternative | Running time: 49:07 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| From Denmark comes BOIL, a five piece Progressive Metal/Rock band which was formed in 2004. BOIL exists of Jacob Løbner (vocals), Stig Nielsen (guitar, vocals), Bjørn Bihlet (guitar), Brian Stilling (bass) and Mikkel Ib (drums). After releasing the albums "Vessel" (2007) and "A New Decay" (2010), "aXiom" is the band's third studio album. And what an album it is, fantastic. Personally I am not familiar with the first two albums, but with "aXiom" the band really surprised me. The band reminds me of a mixture of bands such as TOOL, PINK FLOYD, DISTURBED and VOIVOD to name a few. Even the vocals of Jacob Løbner, who sings very varied, sounds on a few songs like Maynard Keenan of TOOL/A PERFECT CIRCLE. There's just one instrumental track on "aXiom", which is the short "Ashes" (1:41). Really, songs such as "At The Centre Of Rage" (3:57), "Moth To The Flame" (3:36), "In A Blink Of An Eye" (3:28), "Equilibrium" (5:16), "Heretic Martyr" (3:54), the superb "Vindication" (7:51) and "Sunbound" (3:28) are all fantastic compositions, are catchy and most of all very addictive. This is absolutely an album that will often find its way to my CD player. The production of the album sounds marvelous, and the art work of this CD is fantastic as well. In fact, everything is just perfect about this album. I'm sure, not only the older generation will like this album very much, but also the younger generation. I would say, if you like the above mentioned bands, you absolutely should check this band out. Brilliant album of a very interesting and modern Metal/Rock band. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.boilmusic.com
Recordlabel: http://www.vicisolum.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/boilmusic MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/boilmusic |
90/100 |
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| BUCKCHERRY – Confessions (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Hard Rock / Sleaze Rock | Running time: 50:49 (Tracks: 13) | ||
| BUCKCHERRY is a fantastic Sleaze/Hard Rock band from Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., which was formed in 1995. They dissolved in the summer of 2002, but reformed again in 2005. Since the reformation BUCKCHERRY has a steady line-up, which still exists of Josh Todd (vocals), Keith Nelson (lead-, rhythm guitar), Stevie D. (rhythm-, lead guitar), Jimmy Ashhurst (bass) and Xavier Muriel (drums). Well, I've seen the band once live, when BUCKCHERRY were opening for KISS on their European "Psycho Circus" tour, in the Prins van Oranjehal, Utrecht, Holland on March 13th 1999. Anyway, the albums which I have of BUCKCHERRY are the self titled debut album "Buckcherry" (1999), the third album "15" (2006) and their fourth album "Black Butterfly" (2009). Now BUCKCHERRY have released their sixth studio album, entitled "Confessions", and it's again a great album. The whole album goes about the 'seven deadly sins'. To me, BUCKCHERRY has a very recognizable sound. If you are familiar with albums of BUCKCHERRY, you'll now the band always treats us on fantastic sleazy rock songs and beautiful ballads. And their songs are always very catchy, which makes their albums very accessible. Since I bought this album on February 20th, it already has made many spins in my CD-player. "Confessions" starts with "Gluttony", which is the first single of the album, and it's a great song. But in my opinion, there are more fantastic songs on "Confessions" which could be great singles (especially in the US). The ballads on "Confessions" are "The Truth", "Sloth" and "Dreamin' Of You", and of those ballads, "The Truth" is my favorite one. The album was produced by guitarist Keith Nelson and Marti Frederiksen, and sounds great. Although I like all songs on "Confessions" very much, my favorites of this sixth BUCKCHERRY album are without a doubt "Gluttony", "Wrath", Nothing Left But Tears", the killer ballad "The Truth", "Water", "Seven Ways To Die", "Envy" and "Lust". "Confessions" is again an excellent album of BUCKCHERRY, and is a real recommendation for anyone who likes good and high quality rock music. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.buckcherry.com
Recordlabel: http://www.elevensevenmusic.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/buckcherry MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/buckcherry |
90/100 |
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| BUCKCHERRY - Confessions (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Sleazy Hardrock | Running time: 50:44 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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The LA rock band Buckcherry was formed in 1995. Buckcherry is the spoonerism for Chuck Berry, but the real person behind the bandname is Buck Cherry a.k.a. Jon Armstrong, the drag queen guitar player for The Modernettes and a good friend of the original members of this rock band. Their self-named debut album in 1999 was a real fire cracker, providing a solid cross over between Aerosmith on acid and AC/ DC. The album sold very well, provided a tour as a support act for Lenny Kravitz and a performance on the Woodstock 99 Festival. The future seemed right for these guys, but the follow up album, Timebomb (a reflection to the personal issues behind the curtain), released on Dreamworks in 2001, was a real disappointment. The band went on tour again (with AC/DC as a headliner), but internal changes put the band on hiatus in 2002. Singer Josh Todd brought the band back together in 2005 and the new albums gained commercial and critical successes. Exhausting tours with Kiss and Motley Crue a.o. augmented their popularity and their sixth album ' Confessions', released in February is spinning in my cd player. The album, brought to you by Century Media and Eleven Seven Music, is a fifty minute musical journey through the ' seven deadly sins' . The band has more adult-like songs, but the big, hard-edged party anthems have their impact as well. I like the driven vocals, telling the very personal stories and issues of the lead singer, the energetic riffola and solos of lead guitarist Keith Nelson and rhythm guitar player Stevie D. . And what about a thick platform, drummer Xavier Muriel and bass player Jimmy Ashhurst, you won't find any better sleazy rhythm sections these days. Of course there are hints of Guns and Roses, Velvet Revolver, Motley Crue, fast Aerosmith, the punky attitude of many glam rock bands, but the themes and the lyrics make this band very special. Their comeback album ' 15' was my absolute Buckcherry favourite, but these' Confessions' are more heavy, haunting and the album has even more ' attitude'.Very good album! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.buckcherry.com
Recordlabel: http://www.centurymedia.com MySpace: http://www.facebook.com/buckcherry |
87/100 |
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| DEATH TYRANT – Opus De Tyranis (CD) | Sweden | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Black Death Metal | Running time: 45:00 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| Death Tyrant from Sweden brings you black death metal since 2010. This band is new but the members are well known because of their previous and other bands (Lord Belial, The Cold Existence, Sacramentum, etc.). So the hope of a good album was big by me. But I have to be honest and must say that this is a bit disappointing for me. This album contains 9 tracks of death black that brings nothing new and sounds really standard for this genre. The guitar riffs are heavy technical and even melodic. The drums are furious and filled with progressive and old school beats. Then you have the vocals that are also well executed screams/grunts. After reading this you will probably think, hey everything well executed so what's the problem? The composing and variety in the songs is very standard and even a bit doll (in my opinion). Normally I always get happy from Swedish metal bands but this band misses power and raw energy in the songs. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.death-tyrant.se
Recordlabel: http://www.non-serviam-records.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/deathtyrant MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/death-tyrant.se |
60/100 |
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| DEHUMANIZED – Controlled Elite (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 24:57 (Tracks: 11 ) | ||
| If it wasn't for the fact that Dying Fetus decided to record an EP full of covers, the new Dehumanized record 'Controlled Elite' might not even exist. However, this renewed attention was reason enough to inject Dehumanized one more time. The band was originally formed in 1997 and released and absolute death metal classic with the 'Prophecies Foretold' album. To this day, the album is an inspiration to death metal bands as well as their fans. No wonder that Dying Fetus chose 'Fade into Obscurity' as the opening track for their covers EP. So now, after more than fifteen years (!) another full length album has seen the light of day. How does it sound? Unmistakably like Dehumanizer, along with the likes of Cannibal Corps and Suffocation. The band has maintained their brutal sound and ability to write songs that are in your face with the use of all the traditional ingredients. The overall quality is good, but not special. Fifteen years ago this might have made a huge impact, but times have changed. In 2013, it is just a very decent death metal record. For fans of Dehumanized and the aforementioned bands, 'Controlled Elite' might be very interesting. The band has disbanded quite a few times over the years. Let's hope that this will not happen again very soon, so that the band can take their music to the next generation. | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.comatosemusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dehumanized.ny MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/dehumanized |
70/100 |
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| DE LA CRUZ– Street Level (CD) | Australia | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Rock | Running time: 45:45 (Tracks: 12) | ||
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In 2007 Casey Jones, a guitar player from Australia's Gold Coast and a Kramer Guitars' endorser decided to leave the YouTube- environment of the clips with his fretwork as the protagonist and he wanted to search for a real band playing his favourite style of music: Eighties rock.
He travelled more than 2000 miles to find a singer in Auckland, New Zealand, Roxxi Catalano, sharing the same musical passion.
During the process of song writing, demoing, the two Aussies landed in , Melbourne, Bendigo and Brisbane to find their drummer, bass player and a rhythm guitarist. In October 2011the band released an EP De LaCruz, filled with heavy party rock with anthemic hints of Def Leppard, early Dokken and Winger. The mini album drew the attention of many European music fans, labels and reviewers, clocking up over 50.000 downloads worldwide. AOR Classic Rock Magazine had a full page article on the guys, a song of the EP appeared on a heavy rock sampler and another song featured an episode of Dexter on national TV, the popularity of the band augmented. Frontiers Records from Italy signed the band and just a few months later, the first full album of the band is in my media player right now, spinning a few days. During my listening sessions my wife said:" Huh, new Def Leppard? Are they on steroids now?" I couldn't have said it better, yes: this new De La Cruz record is just as Pyro as Pyromania, just as Hysteric as Hysteria. But I hear a lot more influences: Skid Row, Tesla, heyday White Lion, Lynch Mob, Trixter and new glam rock like Steel Panther and Hardcore Superstar. I like this record very, very much. It's kind a stereotype, archetype '80's big hair rock, but it's done with pleasure, musical devotion, class and attitude. The screaming vocals, the choruses, the big guitars, the tight rhythm section, this band grabs you by the balls and tits( as many lyrics have that female issues) and they never let go! You want an amazing mid- and end-eighties' rock flashback? This "Street Level" is the record providing it all. Good stuff! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.delacruzofficial.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/delacruzaustralia |
88/100 |
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| EMERGENCY GATE – You (CD) | Germany | April 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Metalcore / Modern Metal | Running time: 46:00 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| I did not know this band before I received the promo for “You” which is Emergency Gate's fifth full-length album. Apparently, they have been active since 1996. The band consists of Matthias Kupka (vocals), Udo Simon and Vladi Doose (guitars), Mario Lochert (bass), Daniel Schmidle (keyboards), Chris Widmann (drums), and they play music that is a mix between metalcore and modern metal. “Mindfuck” has a beautiful quiet keyboards/piano-intro, but not for long as Emergency Gate's true colours are revealed right away. What follows is Kupka screaming and the band playing a true piece of metalcore. On the next track, “Force United” they take it a step higher as there is plenty of double bass drums and some real nasty growling. There is also space for clean vocals and, almost poppy, keyboards. The track ends with a big bang. The third track, “Moshpit” is introduced clearly, as the song starts with the words: “let's get them moshpit started”. According to the intensity of the track, this will be one of the highlights when Emergency Gate plays a gig. “Feeling Inside” combines very clean vocals, brutal screaming with heavy guitars and lots of keyboards giving it a modern touch. “Liar's Truth” starts like a Sabaton song. The singing on “Breathless” is mainly very modest with some screaming vocals and some double bass drumming but overall this is a less heavy song. “Revolution” has more screaming vocals but also a news-fragment inside the song accentuating the title. Next one is the title-track that has a flying start and is yet another example of the great mix between aggression and several other vocal styles. “Lean on Words” has a very quiet intro and all through the song there is plenty of space for slow and modest vocals. The speed and aggression are back on “Regret” as this is typical example of a metalcore-track although the keyboards give it an odd feeling. What to say about “Back From The Grave” as this is a combination of more traditional and power metal. It also has a catchy vibe to it. The last track with the appropriate title “Say Goodbye” starts with some thunder and lightning, the sound of a police car and someone searching for channels on his radio. Then Emergency Gate kicks off heavy for the last time although the first three tracks remain the heaviest. Especially the very clean soft vocals point this track more into modern metal. This promo was a nice surprise to me. I think I will have to watch the concert-guide carefully to see if there are chances to see Emergy Gate perform these songs live. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.emergency-gate.de
Recordlabel: http://www.zyxmusic.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/emergencygate MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/emergencygateonline |
79/100 |
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| EXECRATION – The Acceptance of Zero Existence (CD) | USA | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Brutal Death Metal | Running time: 37:30 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| Execration is a brutal death metal band from the US that started spreading their torment since 2007. They released a demo in that year and their debut album saw the light in 2008. This is their latest release “The Acceptance of Zero Existence” released in 2012. This album contains 10 tracks of pure and furious hatred and an intro (instrumental). The guitar riffs are very technical and heavy. The drums are also very progressive and filled with blast beats. The vocals are brutal growls that sound massive. The production and composing are also straight in your face. This band has influences of all kind of brutal bands (Cryptopsy etc.) and use that in a very good way. If you like brutal death metal then you will enjoy this album! | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.comatosemusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/execrationbrutality MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/execrationbrutality |
75/100 |
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| GRIEF OF EMERALD – It All Turns to Ashes (CD) | Sweden | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Symphonic Black Death Metal | Running time: 40:31 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| Grief of Emerald is a band that clearly does not need an introduction. They are active since 1990 and only released good and solid metal albums. This is their 5th full-length and it sounds ravaging. The guitar riffs are progressive and melodic but also have some heavy and fast black riffs. The drums are furious blast beats combined with up tempo grooves. They also use keyboards that gives the music an atmospheric dimension. And then you get the vocals, screams combined with grunts (both well executed). The variety of the songs is straight in your face and the composing is also very bang-able. This album starts with a great groove of melody and brutalness and that is also how they end. If you like black death metal then you are going to enjoy this masterpiece. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.griefofemerald.se
Recordlabel: http://www.non-serviam-records.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/grief-of-emerald MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/griefofemerald |
80/100 |
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| GUNS OF GLORY – On The Way To Sin City (CD) | Finland | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Hard Rock / Sleaze Rock | Running time: 29:56 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| GUNS OF GLORY is a four piece Hard Rock/Sleaze Rock band from Finland that was formed in 2010 and exists of Petri Puheloinen (vocals, bass), Riku Lepistö (guitar), Oskari Hurskainen (guitar) and Jon Takalo (drums). In 2011 they released their first demo in a limited edition of only 300 copies. Now, GUNS OF GLORY present their full length debut album "On The Way To Sin City", which is released on Pure Rock Records, a division of Pure Steel Records. The CD has a very nice album cover, and it features 9 excellent kick ass Rock 'n Roll songs. In that case, this debut album is a very nice acquaintance with GUNS OF GLORY, because I like the entire album very much. The songs really kick some ass, are very catchy and are excellent to build a party with, playing air guitar with your friends and drink lots of beer. Okay, it's not sounding very new, but what these guys do, they do it very good. "On The Way To Sin City" has already made a lot of spins in my CD-player, and it will visit my CD-player many times more, because it's a really addictive album. I can't get enough of it. So, I really hope the band will go on tour through Europe, to promote this great album. Believe me, "El Savior", "I'm Glad You're Gone", "Drive-By Lover", "Whiskey Girls", "Sisters Of Sin", "Rock 'N Load", "Don't Fool With The Guns", "Load Your Guns" and "Never Stop (That's Rock 'N Roll)" are all sounding great. There isn't any weak song on this debut album. And the production is very good as well. If you like bands such as AC/DC, ROSE TATTOO, NASHVILLE PUSSY, AIRBOURNE, HELLACOPTERS, GLUECIFER, I'm sure you will like this album as well. Fans of Hard Rock/Sleaze Rock really have to check this debut album out, because it's a fantastic album. Great band. Well, let's 'Rock and Roll all nite and party every day'. | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.purerock-records.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gunsofgloryofficial MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gunsofglory |
83/100 |
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| HARDREAMS – Unbroken Promises (CD) | Spain | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic European Hardrock | Running time: 50:11 (Tracks: 11) | ||
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Hardreams is a band from Barcelona, Spain providing melodic rock with traditional rock hints. The band debuted on Vinny Records, the Santander based rock and distribution label, with " Calling everywhere" in 2004. It took four years to come up with a successor, this time on the Houston Perris Records label, a label specialized in releasing albums in the spectrum of sleazy and glammy rock. This second release " The road goes one" was quite good, with anthemic traks like " Rebel heart" and " My last desire". The instrumental musicianship was very stable and strong, but the vocal-lines of Manu Esteve and his European accent recieved some critcism. On the next two releases on Perris Records, "Calling everywhere( a reissue of their first album with a couple of bonus tracks)" and " Live on a dreamer's night ( a live album recorded in November2009 in Salamandra, when the band opened for Jimi Jamison) the sound and the pronounciation were improved and in 2012 the band went in the Grabaciones Silvestres Studios in San Quirze de Safaja and the Boo-Boo's Music Studios in San Joan Despi with Tomi Perez, the man behind all their past records, taking care of the recording, mixing and mastering. Their new collaboration is called " Unbroken promises" , I've received a review download from the editor-in-chief Mario a couple of days ago.
The albums opens very strong with the harmonic" Count on me", the fast " A high mountain to climb", the light " It's only love" and the very strong and melodic " The war is over". " The woman in black" is a light melodic song again and the first ballad" Now you're mine" divides the album into two parts, this ballad has a short but very nice guitar solo of David Arguera. " The land inside our souls" is a speedy track again. And " Going fast" is a fast track with a"Radar love"-stigma (yes, the Golden Earring classic opus has set his roots in this song) and a good guitar solo. The title track of this record is filled with melodies of the light Scandi-rock scene. " Cross the line" is powerful with great keyboards of Sergi Segarra. " All and now" is a closing ballad with a seventies frame, well done. I think the guys of Hardreams have evolved their music into light melodic rock, with influences of Scandinavian and German bands playing a ' lighter brand' of adult orientated rock ( like new era Stage Dolls, Chris Antblatt, light-Michael Bormann and early Jaded Heart, MadMax, Big Talk, Andy Baum, Ochsenknecht, Clark Kent, and many other acts). The music is quite good, with nice melodic ideas compiled in eleven songs, the rhythm section (Sergi Hormigo on drums and Victor Muinoj on bass guitar) is tight and fat, I like the guitars and the keyboard parts, and many chorusses have more layers to prevent ' thin vocal lines' . But the music is also too mediocre to stand out in the genre, to deliver something really special, too bad. Collectors of Aor and melodic rockers will welcome this fifth record from the sympathic Catalans, that's for sure. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/hardreams
Recordlabel: http://www.perrisrecords.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hardreams |
79/100 |
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| HEAVENWARD – Within These Dreams (CD) | Germany | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Heavy / Power Metal | Running time: 67:47 (Tracks: 13) | ||
| This album of German Heavy Metal band HEAVENWARD is a re-release on Pure Underground Records, because originally "Within These Dreams" was released in 1991 by Rough Trade. I have to admit I didn't know the band and this album from that time. Anyway, I'm glad Pure Underground Records has re-released this debut album of HEAVENWARD, because it's a fantastic melodic Power Metal album. Besides the original 8 tracks of the album, this version features also the four songs ("Remember – At First Nature", "Dreams In Disguise", "Hell On Earth" and "Holding The Key") of the band's second demo "At First Nature", which was released in 1989, and one brand new track "System Going Down" (recorded in September of 2012) where this re-release starts with. HEAVENWARD was formed in 1986, did have many line-up changes, and released their first demo "Into The Light" in 1988, and their second demo "At First Nature", as you can see above, in 1989. After the release of the band's debut album "Within These Dreams" (1991), the band broke up. But singer Stefan Kessel reformed the band again with a complete new line-up, so the band's second album "A Future Worth Talking About" was released in 1992. One year later, in 1993, each member of the band went its own way. After some short lived reunions, the band recorded in 2010 a new full length album again, but during the production of it they separated again. And since the end of 2011, after 4 original founding members played together again, HEAVENWARD is back to life. Well, about this album, it's a brilliant one with all excellent Heavy Metal/Power Metal songs of a high quality. The band exists of very talented and technical musicians, and man, what a great singer Stefan Kessel is. He sings as well as clean as with high-pitched vocals…..superb. Only, although this re-release is completely re-mastered, too bad the sound quality of the original 8 tracks of the album is a bit less. Nevertheless, the songs are really fantastic, of which "System Going Down" (6:56), "The Sky" (5:33), "Dreams In Disguise" (5:20), "Their Eyes" (6:18), "Remember – At First Nature" (5:56), "Within These Walls" (4:45) and "Holding The Key" (3:01) are my favourites of the album. And the demo versions are fantastic as well. So, if you like bands such as FATES WARNING, QUEENSRYCHE, CRIMSON GLORY, BLIND GUARDIAN or HELLOWEEN, then you will like HEAVENWARD as well. The band also reminds me of our own Dutch metallers of MARTYR. Anyway, this album is a real recommendation to anyone who likes fantastic and technical Power Metal with high pitched vocals. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.heavenward.de
Recordlabel: http://www.pureunderground-records.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Heavenward.de MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/heavenward2006 |
86/100 |
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| HELKER – Somewhere in the Circle (CD) | Argentinia | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 52:46 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| The South American countries have flourishing metal scenes( with great bands like Coda, Hibria, Soulfly, Sepultura,Tercer Acto, V8, Rata Blanca, Hermetica, Malon, Almafuerte, a.m.), but just few bands reach the European, Asian and the North- American heavy music market. Quality aspects are the main reasons for this, but crossing the language barrier is certainly an important step these bands have to take to get a wider recognition. Argentinian band Helker has released a fourth album in their native tongue(i.e. Spanish) and also in the English language. The German rock label AFM, attracted by the first three albums, the Helker track on the Argentinian Iron Maiden tribute album ("Piece of Madness",2003) and the vocal exposure of singer Diego Valdez(Helker's vocalist since their " Resistir -album on Blackstar Records in 2008) on the Tarja Live-DVD, took care of the distribution in mid-February. The guys from Buenos Aires are lucky, Mat Sinner and Achim Kohler sat behind the production and mixing desk and power vocalists Ralf Scheepers and Ripper Owens lend their fabulous voices to the bulky " Begging for forgiveness", the fourth song of "Somewhere in the circle" . Helker mixes European (I could say German) power metal with traditional heavy metal hints. I hear comparisons with Primal Fear, fast Dio, Cage (the American metallists), Gamma Ray, classic Helloween, Hammerfall, Judas Priest, Accept, Maiden-harmonics and (nineties)Sinner. The musicians of Helker stand their ground, the guitar work of Mariano Rios (co-founder of the band in 1998) is even very good. The singer of the band is blessed with a timbre like Ronnie James Dio, Jorn Lande and Ripper Owens, quite remarkable and impressive. The songs are good, but not that spectacular and I miss a little bit of variety. The flow of the first three songs (Modern Roman circus, Just be yourself, No chance to be reborn) slips away a little bit and many structures repeat themselves, too bad, the album loses a bit of attention. From the second half of the cd I like " Wake up", "Ghosts from the past" and the melodic closing track" Dreams" with its great harmonics. Helker has delivered a fine record, good playing, great production and quite good songs, I hope this album will be the catalyst for a European adventure.! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.helker.net
Recordlabel: http://www.afm-records.de Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HelkerMetal MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/HelkerMetal |
80/100 |
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| INFECTED FLESH – Concatenation of Severe Infections (CD) | Spain | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Brutal Death Metal | Running time: 43:18 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| Infected Flesh is a brutal death metal band that started in 1997. They released their debut album in 2002 and that was well accepted. In 2006 the band was reformed as a one-man band (Roger Borrull also from Christ Denied). 2008 gave light to the second album and after that there came 2 split albums. In 2012 his latest release “Concatenation of Severe Infections” came to life. This album is so fucking straight in your face and brutal in every way that you can think of. This album is done by two instead of one-man. Our very own Seth Van de Loo (known from Severe Torture ,Nox ,Centurian (NL) and Voodoo Gods.) on drums and backing vocals. The album starts with an intro of torment and torture and then the chaos begins. Brutal riffs that are fast and furious ,combined with extreme aggression. The drums are straight in face blast beats and a constant wall of aggression. Then you got two kind of grunts on it, the first one is deep and sounds like it is pulled out of a gutter and the other they also found in the same gutter, man that's sick and brutal!. The variety and composing are straight in face and brings you almost no melody or variety...but that is definitely what you expect and get from this band. This album is a must have for brutal death metal fans because it is a costant train that stops for no one! | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.comatosemusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fleshinfected MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fleshinfected |
77/100 |
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| INFINITE TRANSLATION – Masked Reality (CD) | France | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 39:05 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| INFINITE TRANSLATION is a French Thrash metal band which was formed in 2004, and started as a Heavy Metal/Thrash Metal band. But the band became more and more a pure Thrash Metal band. INFINITE TRANSLATION exists of Max Maniac (vocals, guitar), Gui Haunting (guitar), Jon Whiplash (bass) and Fishkiller (drums). In 2008 the band released together with MASS GRAVE a split demo called "Scream From Underground", and in May of 2010 the band's debut album "Impulsive Attack" was released on Emanes Metal Records. Now, INFINITE TRANSLATION is back with their second album, "Masked Reality", which was released in September of 2012. Notable is that the album cover is done by the famous and legendary Edward J. Repka (DEATH, MEGADETH, TOXIK, ATHEIST, MUNICIPAL WASTE, TOXIC HOLOCAUST, LUDICHRIST, SANCTUARY, and lots more). Anyway, this second album is my first acquaintance with INFINITE TRANSLATION, and I have to say that, although I like this album, it sounds far from original. In fact, it all sounds very predictable, because the guitar riffs, the vocal lines etc., we've heard it all before many times. You can hear influences of EXODUS, SLAYER, early SEPULTURA to name a few. But besides that, the band also reminds me very much of GAMA BOMB and BONDED BY BLOOD, two bands of the new generation of Thrash Metal bands. It's absolutely not bad, what these guys do, only it sounds not that original. Nevertheless, I'm sure I will listen to "Masked Reality" so now and then, because it's, if you are into Thrash Metal, an enjoyable album to listen to. In that case, I have heard Thrash bands who are much worse. INFINITE TRANSLATION is a band which exists of good musicians, and the vocals of Max Maniac fits perfect. My favorite songs of "Masked Reality" are "Destined To Death", "Killing Solution", "Life Of Submission" and "Masked Death". All I can say is that "Masked Reality" is just a nice Thrash album, nothing more, nothing less. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.infinitetranslation.com
Recordlabel: http://www.emanesmetalrecords.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/infinite-translation/187598204626140 MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/infinitetranslation1 |
73/100 |
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| INMORIA – A Farewell to Nothing (MCD) | Sweden | April 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Power Progressive Metal | Running time: 15:37 (Tracks: 4) | ||
| Tad Morose is one of my favourite Swedish power metal bands. So everything related to them immediately catches my attention. Inmoria is a band featuring 4 Tad Morose members so it's not hard to imagine which genre they are serving. From the beginning of its career the band could not find a steady member to fill the vocalist shoes. The debut album was recorder with Charles Rytkonen (Morgana Lefay) and the second one with Soren Adamsen (Artillery). This promo is actually comprised of 4 songs of the second album, sung by the new vocalist Ronny Hemlin (Steel Attack) since the band is trying to give the world a flavour of the new line-up. The band delivers contemporary power metal pumped with some prog elements, a cross between Tad Morose and Firewind. Ronny is perfect for the job and I wish the band will stabilize its line-up and give more quality material to the fans. | |||
| Visit their website: http://www.inmoria.com |
80/100 |
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| INTRACTABLE – Inner Decay (CD) | Switzerland | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 55:52 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| This Swiss Thrash Metal band INTRACTABLE was formed in 2006. In the spring of 2010, these guys released their first self recorded Demo CD "First Eruption". Now, in front of me I have the band's full length debut album, entitled "Inner Decay", which was released in December of 2012 by the band themselves. INTRACTABLE exists of Benjamin Kottmann (vocals, drums), Markus Hospenthal (guitar), Dominik Meier (guitar) and Michael Schuler (bass). The album, which features twelve brilliant songs, was produced by guitarist Hospenthal and sounds fantastic. Believe me, this is GREAT stuff. Well, I am highly impressed. Songs such as "Captured" (4:20), "No Tomorrow" (3:40), "That's Me" (3:47), "The New Belief" (5:50), "Solve The Pain" (6:03) and "Scream For Me" (3:32) are all sounding awesome. Not only both guitarists and the bass player are very technically, but man, what a great drummer Kottmann is. And besides drumming, he's doing the lead vocals as well. All songs do have great guitar riffs, and of course brilliant drum work. Vocally Kottmann reminds me of a mixture of Randy Blythe of LAMB OF GOD and Gary Meskil of PRO-PAIN. And even on "That's Me", Benjamin sounds also a bit like Nick Holmes during the early days of PARADISE LOST. What else can I say, INTRACTABLE is a great band with a lot of potential, and "Inner Decay" is an excellent debut album. This is HIGH QUALITY Thrash Metal with brutal vocals. No need to say it's highly recommended. For fans of SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, PRO-PAIN and EXODUS to name a few. Aaaarrggh, this is just a KILLER album. Thanks guys, GREAT WORK, and I hope to see INTRACTABLE real soon in Holland. A show in the Little Devil, in my hometown Tilburg would be very nice. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.intractable.ch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/intractableofficial MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/intractable |
90/100 |
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| ION VEIN – IV v 2.0 (MCD) | USA | April 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Progressive Power Metal | Running time: 11:25 (Tracks: 3) | ||
| This is the second release in the DR (digital release) series. In 2011, Ion Vein digitally released three tracks under the title “IV v 1.0”. This is just another modern way of releasing songs. After the completion of all tracks, they will be available as a physical CD. The last full-length release that Ion Vein put out was “Reigning Memories”, back in 2003. After some line-up changes Ion Vein nowadays consists of Chris Lotesto (guitars, vocals), former Enertia vocalist Scott Featherstone , former Twelfth Gate bassist Rob Such and Chuck White (drums). The songs were produced, engineered and mixed by Neil Kernon. The first track, “Seemless” has some sturdy guitar riffing and Featherstone's powerful voice as the main features. It is a very powerful song with many great guitars-parts that rocks big-time. “Fools Parade” is a very fast track that suites Featherstone's voice perfectly. On this one, the band puts down a great piece of music, as there is plenty of space for all instrumentalists to take their moment to show their musical qualities. The last track, named “This Is me”, has a slower start with some groovy guitar riffing. It turns into a heavy pounding track. The idea of this way of releasing music is perhaps the way it is going to be in the near future, but I would like to be able to listen to more tracks at once. Listening to these three tracks made me want to play the first two Ion Vein's albums from my collection. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.ionvein.com
Recordlabel: http://www.mortal-music.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ionvein MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ionvein |
85/100 |
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| IRON KNIGHTS – New Sound Of War (CD) | United Kingdom | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Heavy Metal / Power Metal | Running time: 41:13 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| IRON KNIGHTS are a traditional Heavy Metal band from London, England and exists of Duke Fang Begley (vocals), Gravedigger Cox (guitar), Count Carlos Montoya el Foxico (guitar), Bomber Beam (bass) and Baron Von Hammerstein (drums). "New Sound Of War" is the debut album of the band and is released on Metalbox Recordings. Well, I have to say that while I was listening to this CD for the very first time, it was clear to me that IRON KNIGHTS are influenced by IRON MAIDEN. It all reminds very much of MAIDEN during their "Powerslave" era. Also Duke Fang Begley sounds a bit like Bruce Dickinson, only he absolutely can't compete with Bruce, because if you listen carefully you can hear that Duke is not always singing in tune. So, to me he is just a moderate singer. "New Sound Of War" opens very good with the more Power Metal song "Jericho" (4:36), and is in my opinion the best song of the album. The short instrumental "Immortals" (1:26) and "Afterwrath" (1:36), which is more an intro with spoken words, are in my opinion both superfluous. And although most of the songs remind of IRON MAIDEN, I can't say that the compositions are very strong. Altogether, the moderate songs, the not in tune vocals of Duke, makes of "New Sound Of War" a moderate album to me. Anyway, IRON KNIGHTS will be supporting US Metalheads of VICIOUS RUMORS on their upcoming European tour in May. They will be doing three shows in Holland. On May 26th, 2013 IRON KNIGHTS and VICIOUS RUMORS play in my hometown Tilburg in the Little Devil (presented by MMM). I'm looking forward to see VICIOUS RUMORS again in the Little Devil, because last year (on August 26th, 2012) they played an unforgettable great show. Well, and about IRON KNIGHTS, I am very curious about how Duke Fang Begley will sing live. I hope he is not that much singing out of tune then. We will see. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.ironknightsband.com
Recordlabel: http://www.metalboxrecordings.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ironknightsband |
65/100 |
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| KROSSBREED – The Art Of Suffering (CD) | Belgium | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Metal / Thrash | Running time: 63:06 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| KROSSBREED is a four piece metal band from Antwerp, Belgium, that was formed in 2003. The band, which exists of Michel (vocals, rhythm guitar), Stefan (lead guitar), Kornee (bass, backing vocals) and Tom (drums), recorded the demos "Down To The Core" and "Enjoy The Rage" in search of their own sound. In 2007 they won the competition "Belgian Wacken Open Air metal battle", so they could play on the German Wacken Open Air Festival in August of 2007. In 2008 KROSSBREED recorded their EP "Carved In Stone", and in August 2010 the band released their debut album "3 Cheers For The Misery" by themselves and was released world wide a year later on Casket Music. Well, "The Art Of Suffering" is the band's second full length album and features twelve songs. It's my first acquaintance with these Belgian guys. I have listened several times to this album, but I can't say that I really could get impressed. There are some songs and some parts on the album which I like. But if I have to be honest, to me, the weakest link within the band are the vocals of Michel. He isn't that great as a singer, especially in the clean parts. The album starts with the title track "The Art Of Suffering" (7:48), and takes, in my opinion, a bit too long. I don't like that song that much. The next two tracks, "Dying King" (4:53) and "Fall From Grace" (4:49), are songs which I like, just as "Defy Gravity" (5:38). "Disfigured" (5:11) is a song which sounds very boring to me. All with all, "The Art Of Suffering" is, especially because of the weak vocals, an album which I won't listen that much. Sorry guys, but maybe it's a solution to keep Michel as a rhythm guitarist and to go look for a good singer. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.krossbreed.be
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/krossbreedmetal MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/krossbreed |
60/100 |
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| LA VENTURA – White Crow (CD) | The Netherlands | April 2012 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Rock / Metal | Running time: 40:05 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Three years and a lot of money the band put in this effort to make their dream of a real classic album come true. Their debut “A New Beginning” was a nice and good album with melodic and catchy songs. This one however certainly shows a lot of progress. “Falling Down” opens with a heavy, crunchy groove till the amazing pure vocals of Carla van Huizen take over. It sets the tone for the rest of the album; high class stuff in the best Evanescence style. The album grooves and chops in the best metal tradition with a high standard production. A very professional release which has to open doors for a contract. And that's certainly possible. Don't expect dreamy ballads or classic choirs, no this band shows the more threatening, dark, lingering kind of rock all the way. It bites, it grooves, it's got balls. One track really stands out and that's “Song For An Idiot” which also has a very high radio potential. The rest of the album is good, although overall they have the same structure. Here they can make some progress in variation but that's a bit nagging. Again a fine album from us Dutch, again one that makes us proud. Firm statement from a band with a lot of potential. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.la-ventura.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com//pages/la-ventura |
81/100 |
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| MAGGOTOR – Maggotor (CDemo) | Germany | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Old School Metal | Running time: 12:37 (Tracks: 3) | ||
| MAGGOTOR is a German four piece old school Metal band, existing of Deniz (vocals), Felix (guitar), Max (bass) and Franz (drums) and started in 2007. Well, more info about the band I can't tell, because as well as on their MySpace page as on their Facebook page, there isn't much info about the band to find. On their MySpace page I have listen once to the demo songs "Nightmare" (4:08), "Regiment Of Death" (2:36) and "Unholy War" (4:08), which were recorded in 2009. So, I assume that this 3-track demo is the second one of the band. The three songs on this demo are titled "Break The Chains" (4:18), "Death Row" (4:21) and "Mistress Of Hell" (3:57). Okay, the titles are very cliché, and it all sounds not very original. The best songs of this demo are in my opinion "Break The Chains" and "Death Row". In that case "Mistress Of Hell" is a bit more a less song. So, this demo sounds nice, but it's all not very spectacular. Metalheads who are only into old school Metal, should check this band out. Well, I think this demo would do it well especially among the Metalheads in the German underground scene. | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maggotor
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/maggotor |
68/100 |
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| M.I.C. – 5th Avenue (CD) | China | April 2012 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Rock | Running time: 36:30 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Rock from China! First time for me, but this band M.I.C., which easily stand for Made in China, releases already it's 5th album filled with radio friendly rock. (see all other reviews on Archive CD/DVD reviews). It's all nice but not really convincing. It never makes my body shake. The voice of mastermind Yvon Serre isn't always acceptable and in several tracks (“What do you mean to me”, “Back in time”) even annoying. The production is flat, so it doesn't light the fire. With a special guest like Steve Skingley on bass (Rick Emmet Band, Triumph, Allanah Myles) you expect much more. I don't understand that this band has already has 5 albums behind their name. I think he is a fortunate man so he can finance these products himself because for me it's hard to imagine that the money comes from the profit of their former releases. This first time China rock is a real disappointment for me and any word written further on is a waste of letters. Sorry to say. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.yvonserre.com/mic
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/madeinchine |
42/100 |
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| MIKE TRAMP – Cobblestone Street (CD) | Denmark | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Acoustic Rock | Running time: 42:35 (Tracks: 10) | ||
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Mike Tramp is a living legend. The Danish born singer songwriter was a teeny popstar, lending his voice to Mabel, a vocal group that represented Danmark in the Eurovision Songcontest in 1978. In the United States ( Mabel moved to this country in 1979) Mike joined Studs(a spur of Mabel) and later on he formed his own band,White Lion.
White Lion became very big in the US between 1985 and 1991, providing commercial heavy rock with big hair, big attitude, big rhythms and fabulous guitar work. After White Lion's last roar, Mike found co-musicians of his home country to form " Freak of Nature" , a hard edged rock group with modern, darker commercial touches. Too bad their triple album discography didn 't reach more rock fans. Disappointed about the lack of successes and reflecting on the meaning of his life as a father and a husband, Mike moved to Australia, to take a rest from his busy musical activities. From this county his musical career got another direction. It took him five years to make three solo-albums, providing a midwest rock -brand of music with strong, personal lyrics. Mike became interested in the big songwriters of the sixties and seventies, their themes, their approaches, their lives and their music. A new White Lion line-up brought Mike into Europe and Japan and his solo offspring (as Mike Tramp's Rock and Roll Circus) gave proof of a rocking, vital and passionate singer again. An acoustic solo tour in 2012 set the base for his new album, Cobblestone Street, to be released by Target Records in April 2013. The record was recorded in one week in the Medley Studios in Copenhagen. Mike took care of almost all the vocal and instrumental parts. His friend Soren Andersen co-produced and engineered the album, providing little instrumental parts as well. I like the songs and Mike's vocal style. The album is very laid back, it has that shady, dark, cafe-bar approach, Mike has wanted to share with us and the songs have that acoustic Springsteen, Mellencamp, Neil Young-attitude. Very well done. The acoustic Cobblestone Street doesn't have the impact of the non-electric Tesla or Firehouse album, legend acoustic approaches in my opinion, but the fair and honest setting, the songs and the voice are fabulous and intimate as well. Mike is planning an acoustic tour and he will be supporting Beth Hart during her French Tour in March. Who knows what the future will bring this singer with nine lives. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.miketramp.dk
Recordlabel: http://www.targetrecords.dk MySpace: http://www.facebook.com/pages/mike tramp-official |
80/100 |
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| N.O.W – Bohemian Kingdom (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Hardrock | Running time: 49:59 (Tracks: 10) | ||
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N.O.W. Is the vehicle for bass player Alec Mendonca and his musical friends Juno Moraes (lead and rhythm guitars), Brazilian musical mastermind Jean Barros ( on keyboards and pianos) and Diogo Macedo (drums). Few people will know these guys, but I didn't mention the singer of this band thus far, Philip Bardowell, the Kingston, Jamaica born singer, who's a known singer (by many fans of the melodic rock and AOR genre) with a gigantic reputation. Philip was the vocal star of many Christian projects (just listen to the fantastic Magdallan), he was the sideman of The Beach Boys, the third singer of Unruly Child ( the successor of Mark Free and Kelly Hansen) and in the mid eighties of the former century Philip fronted a band with Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, just after they had left Kiss. And Philip has plans for a solo album, the gospel album " To the ends of the world" , reflecting his life as a Christian artist in quite amzing vocal stuff. Quite a track record. " Bohemian kingdom" is N.O.W.'s second opus. The first " Forces of nature" was a nice record, released by Escape Music in 2010. The music sounded good, melodic and tight. The voice of Philip was the icing on the cake, warm, powerful, melodic and very diverse. This new record is crystal clearly produced and mixed by Swedish mastermind Lars Chriss and the vocals were engineered by Mike Wallace. The songs are full of surprises again, providing a great variety of melodies with various hints of (new Millenium)Foreigner, Hardline,Steve Augieri, -period-Journey and Kansas. Very good songs, superbe musicianship (just listen to the musical prolude of “Tonight is the night”, “Cassie's dream” and “Leon's going soft”) and the stunning lead vocals, one of the absolute surprises of this year so far! Escape music will release this record in the third week of March. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.philipbardowell.com
Recordlabel: http://www.escape-music.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nowrockband |
88/100 |
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| OBSCURITY – Obscurity (CD) | Germany | April 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Black Metal | Running time: 51:13 (Tracks: 5) | ||
| Obscurity in a rather productive metal act from Germany, delivering an album every two years for the last decade. The music can be described as Black/Pagan metal with German lyrics. As known in the genre, lyrically the band handles about the history of their country or area, accompanied by a suitable atmosphere. At times, listening to such an album can be dull. Luckily that is not the case on 'Obscurity', the fifth full-length of this band with the same name. As the members can be labelled as veterans by now, they should know how to create a well-balanced Pagan album that keeps the attention of the listener. In my opinion, they succeeded. A song like 'Blutmondzeit' is a rather fast one, combining perfectly with the slow and epic 'Ensamvarg' that comes before. The songs are melodic, diverse and even catchy at times, without losing the feel of darkness that surrounds the music. with 'Obscurity', the band delivered and album that will go well with the fans of their music. As always, you will have people that would call this mediocre, but I would say that this is an album of good quality, with songs that are well crafted. The material is also very suitable for live performances. We'll probably hear about them in a year or two…nice record! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.obscurity-online.de
Recordlabel: http://www.smprecords.de Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/obscuritybergischland MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/obscuritybergischland |
75/100 |
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| OMISSION – Pioneers Of The Storm (CD) | Spain | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 45:33 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Well, I never had heard of Spanish Thrash Metal band OMISSION before. When I got this album "Pioneers Of The Storm" from Mario to review for MMM, and looked at the pictures of the band in the booklet, they immediately reminded me of legendary bands such as CELTIC FROST, VENOM and DESTRUCTION. These four guys have the same looks (all dressed in leather and spikes, having their faces painted), and indeed, when I looked at the band's MySpace page for some more info about the band, I saw that they are influenced by VENOM, POSSESSED, DESTRUCTION, CELTIC FROST, BATHORY, KREATOR and SODOM. The line-up of OMISSION exists of Patillas (vocals, guitar), Marco (lead guitar), James Surt (bass) and Daviti (drums). So far, the band has released the following three demos "Day Of Your Death Arrives…." (2005), "Yells That Destroy" (2007) and "V.P.A." (2008), a compilation album "Satanicspeed Thrash Metal" (2008), a split album "An Unholy Thrash Metal Night" with OLD in 2009, and the albums "Thrash Metal Is Violence" (2009) and "Merciless Jaws From Hell" (2011). So, this album "Pioneers Of The Storm" is the band's third album, and the first one on French label Emanes Metal Records. "Pioneers Of The Storm" features 10 songs of which "Deathwish" is a cover version of Gothic/New Wave cult band CHRISTIAN DEATH. Anyway, the fast Thrash/Speed Metal songs (which have a slight Black/Death Metal touch), on "Pioneers Of The Storm" really do sound nice. But to tell the truth, it's not that spectacular. Nevertheless, I can't deny the band exists of good musicians, and also the vocals of Pattilas are just perfect for this satanic influenced Thrash Metal. The last track of the album, "Attack Of The Living Dead", has a running time of 8:28, but from 3:15 till 6:05 there's a silence and then you'll get some percussion work with a voice to create some satanic atmosphere. I still don't get it, why bands use a long silence in the last song on their album? I'm sure nobody likes those fucking silence parts, and besides that it's also so superfluous. Anyway, old school Thrash- and Speed Metal fans will absolutely enjoy this album. My favorite tracks are "The Slaughter Hour" (5:16), "I Am The Devil Scythe" (4:41), "In Mourning We Dwell" (3:29) and "Crushing Defeat" (4:25). Like I said, not very spectacular, but nice enough. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.omission.es
Recordlabel: http://www.emanesmetalrecords.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/omission.es MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/omissionthrashmetal |
73/100 |
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| PAGANLAND – Wind of Freedom (CD) | Ukraine | April 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Black / Pagan Metal | Running time: 37:49 (Tracks: 8) | ||
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You kind of know what to expect when a band is called Paganland. So no surprise there. What is surprising though, is the fact that this album has seen the light of day at all, since the band is already active for over fifteen years. Previously, Paganland released two demo's in the late nineties and a split-cd in 2008. Now, in 2013, the first full length is released through Svarga Music, who has a lot of faith in this band. Lyrically, Paganland handles about the Ukrainian history, nature and long forgotten stories. Musically, the band makes good use of several Pagan ingredients such as flutes, sounds of nature and keyboards, providing an suitable atmosphere for the lyrical aspect. This makes the album interesting, offering a great deal of variation. The compositions are from a good quality, which makes it easy to listen to 'Wind of Freedom' in it's entirely. This album will not change the face of Pagan Metal. In fact, it won't stand out among most other acts in the genre, but you can feel the passion the band has put in creating this album. They are proud of the Ukraine history, and they can also be proud of this debut album. O yeah, and thanks for printing the lyrics in the English language as well! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.svarga.eu/en/paganland
Recordlabel: http://www.svarga.eu Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/paganland.ua MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/paganland.ua |
65/100 |
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| PERTNESS – Frozen Time (CD) | Switzerland | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 47:14 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| This Swiss Power Metal band PERTNESS was formed way back in 1993. According to the info sheet, PERTNESS had recorded two demos, which I assume were recorded in their early days. Although the band is active since 1993, their debut album "Seven Times Eternity" was released fifteen years later in 2008. On that album the line-up of PERTNESS existed of Tom Schluchter (vocals, guitar), Tom Zurbrügg (guitar), Pet Biedermann (bass) and Märs Hari (drums). In 2010 the band released their second album "From The Beginning To The End", and on that album drummer Hari was replaced by current drummer Chris Gutknecht. As well as "Seven Times Eternity" as "From The Beginning To The End" were both released on Karthago Records. Now, PERTNESS is back with their third studio album, entitled "Frozen Time", and is the band's first album on Pure Legend Records. On this third album, which was released in November of 2012, bass player Pet Biedermann has been replaced by Marcel Bühler. Personally I am not familiar with the two previous albums of PERTNESS, so "Frozen Time" is my first acquaintance with the band. PERTNESS plays Power Metal with some Thrashy influences, but also with some Folky influences ("No More Messiah", "I Sold My Remorse", "Lost In Time", "The Star Of The County Down"). So in that case, this is a varied metal album. The band reminds me a bit of BLIND GUARDIAN. Anyway, PERTNESS exists of very good musicians, only personally I do not like the vocals of Schluchter very much. The production was also done by Schluchter and sounds good. I don't like all of the tracks very much, because songs such as "No More Messiah" and "Lost In Time" are sounding boring to me. In my opinion, the best tracks on "Frozen Time" are the fast title track "Frozen Time" (great riffs and solos), "My Will Is Broken", "Cold Wind Of Death", "I Sold My Remorse", "The Last Survival" and "Shadow Knights". All with all, "Frozen Time" is not a real bad album, in that case I have heard many albums which are worse. If you are already familiar with the two previous albums of PERTNESS, well then I guess you will like this third one as well, and if you don't know the band, but are curious….then check this album out. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.pertness.ch
Recordlabel: http://www.purelegend-records.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pertness MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pertness |
72/100 |
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| PRETTY MAIDS – Motherland (CD) | Denmark | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Heavy Metal | Running time: 52:56 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Last year I reviewed the Live in Switzerland-album of the Danish band Pretty Maids. A good live album celebrating that the band had a thirty year anniversary in 2012. Frontiers Records, the Italian rock label and the label for this band since 2006, will release a new Pretty Maids record" Motherland" at the end of March 2013, it this review download I'm listening to and writing about. The last record on Frontiers before this new opus was" Pandemonium" , a great record released in 2010, where the band showed they were on the top of their game, changing their sound into a melodic metal approach, leaving the more traditional hard rock structures behind. Pandemonium held great songs( I.N.V.U., It comes at night, Little drops of heaven, One word one truth, Old enough to know! a.m.),a lot of variety and a very thick production by Jakob Hansen. Hansen produced "Motherland" again, giving it a warm sound, a bit moodier, darker approach than its predecessor. Overall this darker sounds characterize this record. Another remarkable thing is the addition of keyboard loops and synths in almost every song, sometimes as a background motive, but sometimes they're at the front of a song structure as well. It's new, the listener will have to get accustomed to this. The songs are catchy, strong and well performed, but a few songs lose their tension and their strength. Too bad, because rockers like" Hooligan", "Bullet for you" , "Why so serious" , Mother of lies( the first single of the album)", "The Iceman and the title track show the band on the a-level in musical, lyrical and sound wise aspects. The other songs are good, but they take more time to get into them, more spins to like or appreciate them. It's a feeling that reflects the music, that kept me busy in this review. Overall "Motherland" is a good and firm follow-up to "Pandemonium". Good songs, great atmosphere and production, good performances, but less surprises. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.prettymaids.dk
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/prettymaids MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pmaids |
84/100 |
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| ROGER DeCARLO – Lost Horizon (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Instrumental Rock | Running time: 43:14 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| I didn't get any information about this album "Lost Horizon" of American guitarist ROGER DeCARLO, so I can't tell you much about him. All I know is that DeCarlo comes from Portland, Oregon, USA, and I guess he's in his early 50's. But I don't know if "Lost Horizon", which was released in 2012 by DeCarlo himself, is his first album or his second or third one! And I also don't know in which bands he has played before. Well, "Lost Horizon" is a complete instrumental album, and while listening to it, you can hear that Roger DeCarlo is influenced by master guitarist JOE SATRIANI. Only, after I had listened to "Lost Horizon", I wasn't that impressed. The only two songs which I like are "Spanish Fly", which sounds like a mixture of JOE SATRIANI and FRANK ZAPPA, and "Tripping On A Cloud". What noticed me is that on this album DeCarlo falls into many repetitions. Songs like "Deep Freeze", "Aftershock", "Lizz" and "Colleen" are sounding pretty boring to me. In that case I like the album "Rock Meditations" (which I reviewed in April of 2012 for MMM) of Italian guitarist SIMONE TERIGI (from LUCID DREAM), who is also influenced by SATRIANI, much more. The drums on this album are done by Charles Nelson. Anyway, fans of instrumental guitar albums should check "Lost Horizon" out. I'm sure there will be guitar freaks who will like this album more than I do. | |||
| Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/roger.decarlo.5 |
55/100 |
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| SAFFIRE - From Ashes to Fire (CD) | Sweden | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic metal with seventies' rock overtones | Running time: 1:07:43 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Gothenburg is the second largest city by population in Sweden and the fifth in the Nordic countries. It is the largest seaport in the Nordic regions and the city is the home of many students visiting the many schools or the two universities of the city. Gothenburg is also the' event city' of the Scandinavian countries, the cultural festivals, music bands, films, sports, are countless.
Needless to say that the Gothenburg music scene is very rich providing many bands and a broad variety of music.
A lot of Gothenburg bands did reach ' Mario's Metal Mania' and other websites specialized in heavy rock music. Saffire is one of these new bands. Their new album,
" From ashes to fire", is in my media player now, ready to be reviewed.
And what an album this is! Saffire was founded in 2006. Founders Victor Olsson and Dino Zusic played funk covers at first, but the duo wanted a heavier course. During the years they found musical friends and Saffire gained a good live-reputation. A 2011 demo was picked up by Inner Wound Recordings, the label will release Saffire's debut album in May. The album was produced and mixed by Fredrik Nordstrom and Henrik Udd at Studio Fredman (a studio relocated in Gothenburg in 2009, also home studio for Opeth, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, In Flames, a.o). Jens Bogren took care of the mastering in his Fascination Street Studio in Orebro. The artwork of the album was done by Anders Fastader at A Trailermade Production in Vastra Frolunda, a township in the Southwestern region of Gothenburg, this company has made artwork for releases of The Poodles, Hardcore Superstar, Kee Marchello, HEAT, many companies and artists as well. And what about the songs, the music? Well this is a very, very good album! Saffire stands out in this genre of the Gothenburg scene, providing melodic metal with a nod to the late seventies of the former century ( you can hear overtones of early Van Halen, Rainbow, Whitesnake and later Black Sabbath) and the music of Saffire has light progressive overtones, many songs have beautiful proludes (just listen to " Modus vivendi" or " She remains a mystery"), keyboard backgrounds and a rich variety of vocal and instrumental effects. I like the songs, metallic, heavy but melodic, full of surprises and performed by great musicians. From the furious opener" Magnolia" to the moody, complex closing track " Stormy waters" , this albums will grab you! One of the surprises of the year from the rich Gothenburg scene! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.saffire.se
Recordlabel: http://www.innerwound.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/saffiresweden MySpace: http//:www.myspace.com/saffire |
88/100 |
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| SEBASTIAN BACH – Abachalypse Now (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Heavy Metal | Running time: 1:42:47 (Tracks: 19) | ||
| Everybody who likes rock music knows Sebastian Bach. The guy fronted Skid Row at the top of their game, but his after-big hair-adventures were great as well. Bach has had quite a peak in his solo career as a singer, as an actor on various stages ( Bach played roles in Jekyll and Hide, The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar), as a TV- personality in episodic television and a radio-host. His looks, his presence and his voice gave him many opportunities to give his career more depth, to stay in the spotlights, to surprise many fans. And it brought him fame and fortune, selling over 22 million records worldwide.. After the heydays with Skid Row(1987-1996) he released a live album in 1999. Four studio albums later, that were quite successful, Sebastian Bach (his real surname is Bierk) returns with another live double CD/ DVD recorded on stage at The Hellfest 2012 in France, The Graspop Metal Meeting 2012 in Belgium and The Club Nokia 2012 in Los Angeles, a show that was broadcasted on AXS TV in the West coast region of the USA. I can say that the music on this album sounds great. Raw, straight in the face and backed up by great musicians (Bobby Jarzombek on drums, Jason Christopher on bass, two great guitar players: Berklee graduated Johnny Chromatic and mastermind Nick Sterling) Sebastian Bach sings his heart out in many live classics! The concerts recorded in June 2012 and August 2012 have similarities in the track list, but I don't mind. I like the atmosphere, the great anthemic musical setting and the power of his band. Sebastian sounds fabulous on disc and he has to scream more than he wants to stay high-pitched, but the classic rock environment is felt in every song, in every bar that's played at these concerts. Frontiers Records will release this live record in March 2013 .The package will be available in two different formats (CD ( featuring the concerts in France and Los Angeles) /DVD (with 160 minutes of live footage and three bonus videos) or a stand-alone DVD). Great stuff! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.sebastianbach.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbach MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sebastianbach |
83/100 |
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| SIN STARLETT – Throat Attack (CD) | Switzerland | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Heavy Metal | Running time: 52:14 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| From Lucerne, Switzerland comes five piece band SIN STARLETT and was formed in 2005. The band, which exists of Elias Felber (vocals), Jan Horat (guitar), Reno Meier (guitar), Pascal "Bigger" Werth (bass) and Elias Burri (drums), plays traditional 80's Heavy Metal (N.W.O.B.H.M.). SIN STARLETT released their debut album "Call To The Punisher" in 2008, and now they are back with their second album "Throat Attack", which was released in December of 2012 by Emanes Metal Records. "Throat Attack" is my first acquaintance with SIN STARLETT, and I have to admit that, when I put this album in my CD-player for the first time, I had to get used to the vocals of Felber. And that's because they regularly reminded me of Mark Shelton of MANILLA ROAD. Musically I liked this album immediately. In the meantime I have listened several times to "Throat Attack", and now I am used to the vocals of Felber as well. In fact, he fits perfectly in the band. Nevertheless "Throat Attack" is really a delicious album, which brings you back into the 80's. Not all the songs are even strong, but that doesn't mean "Throat Attack" isn't an enjoyable Heavy Metal album. To me, the best songs on "Throat Attack" are the opener "Headed By The Hexx", "Relentless Assault", "Just When The Riot Begins", "Blood In The Streets" and "Knights Of The Past" (with some DIAMOND HEAD influences). The short instrumental "Crystal Elegy" (1:59) is superfluous to me, and "Rockin' Through The Night" sounds to simple. Anyone who's into traditional Heavy Metal and N.W.O.B.H.M. should check this album out, I'm sure you will like it. My conclusion is that "Throat Attack" is a pretty good album. | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.emanesmetalrecords.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sinstarlett MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sinstarlet |
82/100 |
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| SNOWFALL – Cold Silence (CD) | United Kingdom / Norway | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Hardrock | Running time: 52 : 29 (Tracks: 11) | ||
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British singer Lee Small started his vocal career in 1990 after a three years' period as a bass player in local coverbands. At the end of the former century his vocal style gained popularity and Lee lended his voice for the” Primitive Soul”-record of Native Cain. Shortly after that Tom Galley's Phenomena contacted Lee for the vocal parts of their “Psycho Fantasy”-record, released in 2006, it was this record that gained rave reviews and a real fanbase for Lee's vocals. Lee became the successor of Tony Mills in Shy making a fantastic record with these guys in 2011. Lee wanted to make a bluesrecord as well, a vocal tapestry for his bluesy roots, his bluesy vocal approach. This record" Jamaica Inn" was recorded with Swedish star Martin Kronlund and some musical friends from Gypsy Rose, Don Patrol and Saracen. It was a fine record, with bluesy Glenn Hughes-like style vocals, dynamic instrumental parts and great guitarwork of Martin Kronlund himself.
But Lee's musical journey went further, he collaborated with former members of the Norwegian rockband Winter Parade,Tore Meli (on guitar) and bass player Peter Riise and Coldspell drummer Perra Johnson. A demo was the vehicle for a contract with Escape Music, the Durham (UK) based label for many melodic rock acts. The new record of Snowfall, the name of this collaboration, called " Cold silence" , is spinning round in my mediaplayer and it is a fine record! The music is melodic, but very strong! It has that typical Scandi-rock approach, but the melodies and music stick like glue and the production, the mix ( by Martin Kronlund)and the vocals give these songs a commercial Whitesnake feel with touches of Voodoo Circle, John Norum (with singer Goran Edman), David Readman, DC Copper, Giant and Bad English. The album starts furious with" Don't drive me home tonight" and the riffs, hooks and musicianship grab you by the balls untill the last song, " The Vesper Bell, lasting more than six and a half minutes. Absolutely a record to look out for. Escape Music will release this gem in the third week of April. The artwork is done by Swedish artist Carl-Andre Beckston, who has made artwork for artists like Bloodbound, Mind's Eye, Lars Eric Mattson, Fatal Force, Decoy and Book of Reflections. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.snowfallcoldsilence.com
Recordlabel: http://www.escape-music.com |
87/100 |
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| SOLDIERFIELD – Bury the Ones We Love (MCD) | United Kingdom | April 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 24:57 (Tracks: 5) | ||
| The progress that UK based metal band Soldierfield has made in the past year is admirable. Formed in late 2011, the band already put out an EP, managed to get signed with Metalbox Recordings and is working on their debut album as we speak. On top of that, the band raised expectations when they announced the addition of drummer Jeff Singer, who you might know from this time with Paradise Lost and Blaze. Truthfully: it is actually the band itself that is trying to create the buzz, but based on what I've heard on their 'Bury the Ones We Love' EP, it is indeed a band to watch. On this EP, the band showcases their capability on five compact, catchy and very well written songs. The traditional feel of thrash metal is never far away, but combined with some modern hooks and varied vocals, making the band sound far from dated. Also a band like Alice in Chains comes to mind at times, underlining the gift of creating well-balanced songs that demand your attention. 'Bury the Ones We Love' could be interesting for pretty much any enthusiast of modern heavy music. It's brutal, but accessible at the same time. Listen to the title track and 'Leave you in dirt' for an impression of what this band has to offer. In fact, the entire EP is from a very high quality. Very much looking forward to their debut album. More of this please! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.soldierfieldband.co.uk
Recordlabel: http://www.metalboxrecordings.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/soldierfieldband MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/soldierfieldband |
85/100 |
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| SOME CALL THIS TRAGEDY – No Man Without A Ghost (MCD) | Finland | April 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Metalcore | Running time: 15:00 (Tracks: 3) | ||
| This 5-piece from Tampere, Finland was founded in 2010. SCTT consists of Ville Ylimartimo (vocals), Ville “Väiski” Väisänen (guitars, vocals), Niklas Kurra (guitars), Jyry Reiman (bass) and Kristian “Feather” Vilpakka (drums). This debut-EP is filled with American metalcore. The opening track, “Burning Paris”, has some symphonic samples at the start of the song. The vocals change from clean vocals to aggressive screaming and there is quite some variation in the pace. The drumming and the bass playing are very prominently present. “Watershed” is the title of the second track. This track is packed with double-bass drums and really aggressive vocals whilst the guitarists built walls of sound with their superb riffing. There is so much action going on in this almost five minutes that I kept on listening to this song. The last track is “The Last Fantasy”, which has a very strong bass-piece at the beginning of the song. In the middle of the track there is also some spoken word, but the bigger part of the song speed and aggression rule. SCTT deliver a great piece of work with only one disadvantage and that is the length of this release. I am sure that SCTT will come up with a full-length album that will kick your ass. For the moment being let us just enjoy this EP. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.somecallthistragedy.com
Recordlabel: http://www.inverse.fi Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/somecallthistragedy MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/somecallthistragedy |
84/100 |
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| SPACE VACATION – Heart Attack (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Heavy Metal | Running time: 44:50 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Space Vacation. What a strange name for a Metal band. Yet the name gathers the desired attention and curiosity for one to look further and explore the band's style and work. These guys were formed in California at the twilight of the past decade and debuted in 2009. This is their second album, featuring Kyoshi Morgan of Vicious Rumors fame. The band's style is classic heavy metal enriched with lots of NWOBHM elements. I can easily put them under the same roof with bands such as White Wizzard, High Spirits and Widow (the North Carolina ones). The timing is good for bands like Space Vacation. There seems to be a revival of the classic metal sound with tons of new bands. I believe they have the potential to make it and Pure Steel is an experienced label who can help them with their goals. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/spacevacationmusic
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/spacevacation |
75/100 |
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| STEELRAISER – Regenerator (CD) | Italy | April 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 43:08 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| This is the second album for Italian power metallers Steelraiser after a 5 year period. The band delivers power metal in the vein of Judas Priest and Halford. There are also some keyboards that give the songs a europower feeling. Vocalist Antonio Giordano is also known from the power metal band Noble Savage and is a high pitched siren. This is an enjoyable album but nothing more. The musicians are good but the song writing is typical. I had a good time listening to it but wasn't compelled to give it more spins. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/steelraiserofficial
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/steelraiser |
70/100 |
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| STRIKING DEATH – Live At The Italian Metal Invasion (CD) | Belgium | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal / Crossover | Running time: 21:34 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| In October of 2012 I reviewed the CDemo "Represent S.D." of Belgium Thrash/Crossover band STRIKING DEATH. On August 10th, 2012 STRIKING DEATH played at "The Italian Metal Invasion" (with the other bands EVIL INVADERS, LAST REBELS, OVERNATION and H.O.S.) at the Little Devil, Tilburg, Holland. I was there as well, because I was the DJ that evening. Anyway, the show of STRIKING DEATH was completely recorded, and is now released as an un-official bootleg in a limited edition on Headbangers Records. The band played, besides the songs "T.D.T.S.D.", "Riot O'Clock", "Team Shitfaced" and "Save A Skater Drain A Pool" from their demo, also a cover version of the EXCEL classic "The Joke's On You" and of S.O.D.'s "United Forces". In my opinion "A Song For A Special Girl" and "Where The Fuck Is Enzo?" can't be seen as really serious songs. Nevertheless, the sound quality of this live recording is good. This un-official bootleg is just nice, but to be honest I am more looking forward to the band's next studio release. Anyway, if you want to have a copy of this live recording, you can get it through headbangerszineandgigs.com. | |||
| MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/strikingdeathband |
70/100 |
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| STRYPER – Second coming (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Christian Hardrock | Running time: 1:09:53 (Tracks: 16) | ||
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Stryper is one of the most successful Christian acts on the planet. The Orange County, California based band started as Roxx Regime with guitaristic input of C.C DeVille, Doug Aldrich amongst others. In 1983 the band changed their name into Stryper and the band choose a musical and lyrical concept to reflect their life as a Christian.
The record label Enigma signed Stryper and an EP followed a year later. The mini album had quite an impact, providing small tours as an opening act for Ratt and Bon Jovi. In May 1985 the first full album" Soldiers under command" was released. The album went gold and Stryper's status was firm, despite their imago and evocative message.
The mini album got a re-release and a new album" To hell with the devil" was the catalyst factor for a huge world tour, selling more than 2 million copies. The successes went on and a new album" In God we trust" went gold as well. In the nineties of the former century Stryper's musical and visual concept changed. They distanced from their biblical image and a new record on Hollywood Records (Against the law) had nothing to do with their Christian background. The album didn't 't get many support and it sold poorly. A compilation album was released to prevent a decline, but it was too late, singer and guitar player Michael Sweet left the band due to musical and conceptual differences. He made a solo album with the help of Gregg Fulkerson and members of the band Blue Tears, being vey successful in the Christian market. Stryper went on tour with Bride as a trio, but the other members realized it was over. The band stopped their musical activities in 1993. A reunion however took place in 2003 and the band released a live album, two studio albums and a great cover songs album on Big3Records. In 2012 the Italian label Frontiers Records signed Stryper and their first album on this label is" Second Coming" a record with rerecorded songs of their favourite musical peak period, 1983-1986. The sixteen tracks' record ( fourteen songs from their first three albums, two new songs) has a modern production and a superior technical approach and most important it is a feast of recognition. I hear some added guitars, slight pitch changes, extra drums fills, the songs however didn't change dramatically. I like this record and yes, although being very fond of the original versions, sounding rawer, highly pitched, more diverse, this Stryper record is the best possibility to get acquainted with their music. The two new songs (Bleeding from the inside out and Blackened) are both heavy riffed rock monsters that fit perfectly into Stryper's back catalogue! . | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.stryper.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stryper MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/stryper |
86/100 |
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| SYN:DROM – Iconoclasm (CD) | Sweden | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 39:02 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Syn:Drom from Sweden brings you death metal in all its sense. These guys started in 2002 under this name and released their first demo 2004, 2005 there second and 2004 an EP. Their debut album “With Flesh Unbound” (nice one!) was released in 2010 and their new one “Icocnoclasm” in 2013. This album contains 10 tracks of ravenous death metal. The guitar riffs are technical and progressive and not the standard Swedish metal sound. The riffs reminds me a lot of bands like Suffocation and Malevolent Creation. The drums are also brutally fast and filled with blast beats but also progressive grooves. The vocals are growls that are very deep and brutal, backed up by light screams (both in good balance). The production of this album is also massive. Everything is well listenable (which I can't say for all technical death metal bands). The only thing that I miss is a bit more variety in the songs. This album is a constant blast beat with no bullshit. If you expect old school death metal then this is way too fast but if you like technical death metal in vain of the bands that I mentioned then you are going to like this album. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.syndromweb.net
Recordlabel: http://www.vicisolum.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/syndromweb MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/syndromweb |
71/100 |
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| THE BEYOND – FrostBitePanzerFuck (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Black 'N Roll Metal | Running time 28:25 (Tracks: 8) | ||
| This is the debut album of THE BEYOND, formed in 2010 from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. No doubt inspired from Lucio Fulci's movie they named themselves THE BEYOND. Unaware what to expect, the title of the album 'FrostBitePanzeFuck' gave a hint, this must be blacker than black metal...but not with THE BEYOND. A look at the song titles 'Roto-Cunt', 'Goat Sodomizer' , 'Attack of the Zombie Brigade' to name a few, tells you a bit more what this is about, concerning the lyrics, you must have a scence of humor and not a weak heart. Everthing is done in true G.G. Allin tradition, lyric wise that is, there is even a tribute to him in the form of 'Cunt Sucking Cannibal'. Musically this is more of a punk n roll with blackened attitude metal album, a crossing between Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and Darkthrone, or even Misfits mixed with Marduk, as I like all mentioned bands, I'm also surprised by this album from THE BEYOND and like it very much. These guys have written some catchy tunes on this album, which has a lot of variation, besides the catchy humerous punk N roll tunes, they also have some songs more on the blackened route by adding searing blackened screams and blistering black metal riffs, for instance 'The Splatterhouse Maniacs' which made me instantly thinking of Marduk, and even some black doom on 'Exterminate Humanity'. The band succeeded in making a perfect mix of punk, black, thrash n roll all in one. This album is guaranteed for a FrostBitePanzerFucking good time, although too short with a little half an hour, but enough to enrich your vocabulary here, no shortage of sleazy violation! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thebeyond666.bandcamp.com
Recordlabel: http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.tk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thebeyond999 MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thebeyond666 |
83/100 |
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| THE NEW BLACK – III Cut Loose (CD) | Germany | April 2012 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Heavy Rock | Running time: 43:37 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| The New Black doesn't offer anything really new on their third attempt. A cocktail of heavy rock, stoner, blues, southern, modern metal etc. But whatever they do, they do it right. So also on this one. “Innocence & Time” opens like a sordid Motörhead track and kicks ass like a descent rocker should be. “Count Me In” grooves like hell and hasn't been chosen for nothing to be the lead single/video. The band can be seen as a metal version of Nickelback for example and writes down damn fine tracks which easily can fill stadions. Normally I'm not to fond of this kind of stuff, but damn, there are some really good tracks on this one. The band hits hard with already classics like the formerly mentioned two openers and songs like “Superhuman Mission”, “Cut Loose” (with mondharmonica and the Metallica feel of the Load/Reload era), and the ûbercrackers “Sharkpool” (what do you mean cool …), “Burning D” and the awesome “Any Colour You Like (As Long As It's Black). Unfortunately not all the songs are from this high level (“Antidote”, One Thing I Know”) so it doesn't reach the ultimate score, but if you are ready for a band that is coming out of the shadow of, for example, Volbeat and represents themselves as the next big thing, then there's nothing that should hold you back not ordering this third piece of rock'n metal. It may be too “nice” for the true metal adepts, but it certainly rocks and grooves enough to get the party started and keep it going. Damn fine record gentleman ! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thenewblackofficial.de
Recordlabel: http://www.afm-records.de Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thenewblackofficial MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thenewblackofficial |
82/100 |
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| THRUSTOR – Abysmal Fear (CD) | USA | April 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time 49:52 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| This is the second release of extreme thrash metal by THRUSTOR, the band of brothers Phil (vocals/guitars) and Tony (bass/backing vocals) Sardo (Sceptre/Sardo), accompanied by Tomasz Pilasiewicz on drums. Their second album 'Abysmal Fear' goes on where their first one 'Night Of Fire' (2008) stopped, pure and aggressive thrash metal. 'Äbysmal Fear', as described by Phil Sardo, was written with the underlying theme of the human soul in a desolate place, being forced to submit to powers beyond its control, in fear of the abyss. The music of THRUSTOR can described as an insane, technical and aggressive thrash metal attack. Songs like 'Brutal Assault', 'Shroud of Blasphemy' or 'Tormented Contradiction' show the skills of these dedicated musicians. The production of the album sounds perfectly heavy, and is recorded by Neil Kernon and mixed and mastered by Mathew Prock for Area 44 Music. Most of the album is high speed riffing, with amazing fast drumming, yet technical and diverse, with two instrumentals on there, 'Tormented Contradiction' and 'Sçrews to the Skull'. 'Burnt Offerings' and 'Abysmal Fear' are both songs with a lot of variation in them, so its not all super fast all the way, but also epic, traditional metal. These guys have metal running through their veins, and are totally dedicated to it! This album is a totally refreshing surprise of how thrash metal sounds today, uncompromisingly heavy and undeniably brutal all the way, support these true pioneers! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thrustor.net
Recordlabel: http://www.emanesmetalrecords.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thrustor MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thrustor |
81/100 |
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| VANDERBUYST – Flying Dutchmen (CD) | The Netherlands | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Hard Rock / Heavy Metal | Running time: 39:47 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| I was under the assumption that this third album "Flying Dutchmen" by VANDERBUYST would be reviewed as a download by a colleague reviewer. Only, with the February update of MMM, I saw that "Flying Dutchmen" wasn't reviewed. So, although I am not of the downloading stuff, I decided to write a review of the album, which I bought at the concert the band did in the Mezz, Breda, Holland on December 20th, 2012. And so far I have reviewed all releases of VANDERBUYST for MMM (the self titled 3-track EP (2008), the debut album "Vanderbuyst" (2010), and the in 2011 released second album "In Dutch"). Well, we are a couple of months further now, and this fantastic third album "Flying Dutchmen" already has made a lot of spins in my CD-player. Jochem Jonkman (vocals, bass), Willem Verbuyst (guitar, backing vocals) and Barry van Esbroek (drums, backing vocals) again delivered an excellent album full of classic 70's Hard Rock and 80's Heavy Metal. From the first track "Frivolous Franny" until the last one "Welcome To The Night" I enjoy this album very much. I even like the ballad "Give Me One More Shot", which is the third track of the album, very much. In addition to the by Willem Verbuyst written songs (only "Welcome To The Night" is written by Jonkman, AvO), the band also recorded a very nice cover version of HERMAN BROOD's classic "Never Be Clever". Just as the aforementioned EP and two previous albums, also "Flying Dutchmen" was produced by Pieter Kloos, and sounds once again fantastic. And in my opinion singer Jochem still makes progress with his singing. Although I like the entire album very much, my favourite tracks are "Frivolous Franny", "Waiting On The Wings", "The Butcher's Knife", "Tears Won't Rinse", "In Dutch", "Lecherous" and "Welcome To The Night". "Flying Dutchmen" is a real recommendation to anyone who's into traditional classic seventies Hard Rock and eighties Heavy Metal. Well done guys, thanks again for releasing an excellent album. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.vanderbuyst.com
Recordlabel: http://www.van-records.de Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/vanderbuyst/100980883276480 MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/vanderbuyst |
88/100 |
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| VINDICTIV – Cage of Infinity (CD) | Sweden | April 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Metal | Running time: 46:52 (Tracks: 11) | ||
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Vindictiv is one of the many bands coming from Gothenburg, Sweden. The band has completed a third album, called "Cage of Infinity" on Escape Music to be released in May. Eye catchers of the previous releases were the vocals of Goran Edman, former vocalist of Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum, Kharma, Glory, Edman and Corin, Xsavior and many other projects and the atmospheric hard rock with progressive overtones. On the second Vindictiv album, 'Ground Zero', singer Oliver Hartmann also provided his great voice to three songs, a great addition to the melodic vocal lines of Goran Edman. 'Ground Zero' had almost the same amount of songs as the debut album, it lasted almost thirty minutes longer because of the great instrumental parts, airier interludes and progressive solos, a truly great album.
It all made the expectations for this third album very high and after many spins I can say that Vindictiv's third has surprised me in many ways, from many perspectives.
Vindictiv has set another course: direct, open themes are the mainframe and the band has left the complexity of the structures. The ' in your face' approach sounds metallic, heavy, song-based. The songs remind me of a heavy Eclipse with a lot of power metal overtones of German and Scandinavian power metal bands. Second change is the vocal approach. The vocal lines are rawer, more direct. Indeed, there's another star behind the microphone and the Portogruaro, Italy, based Eden's Curse' singer Marco Sandron is the man to listen to. He has a Russel Allen, Jorn Lande- like timbre and his power is immense. Great vocalist! Third change is the productional perspective. Producer Stefan Lindholm (guitar player extraordinaire for Vindictiv as well) and mixer Lars Chriss have emphasized on the power metal riffs and the thick rhythm section (Nalley Pahlsson on bass, many fans of the genre will know this guy from Treat, Last Autumn's Dream, Zan Clan and Therion, and newcomer Hendrik Hedman on drums, also drummer of Celestial Decay and Raven Lord). The production is fair and open, but less surprising than the productional output on the albums with Goran Edman. The keyboards of Pontus Larsson have more background accents, fitting well in the new Vindictiv forthrightness approach. " Cage of Infinity" is a new giant leap for Vindictiv, giving away their progressive hints, but bringing in their power metal challenge! Good stuff! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.vindictiv.com
Recordlabel: http://www.escape-music.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vindictiv MySpace: http//:www.myspace.com/vindictivmusic |
81/100 |
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| WARCKON – The Madman`s Lullaby (CD) | Belgium | April 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 45:18 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Warckon from Belgium brings you thrash metal in vain of the 90's. This band started spreading their rage since 2007 and are very young. This is their debut album and I must say that it sounds good. I waited with listening to this album because I new that they were going to play in our local rock/metal pub (called Little Devil) on Sunday the 31st of March. But I will get back on that issue haha. First the album! This album contains 10 tracks of furious thrash metal with sharp guitar riffs filled with solos and bang your head riffs that bring you right back to the old school times. The drums are also very furious and sound really typical thrash mode haha. The vocals are light grunts/screams that also reminds me of several old school bands. The composing and variety of this album is also straight in your face. But then you get the production of this album that sounds really way to nice for a thrash metal band. It misses power and aggression. That power and aggression they do have on stage! And live some of the songs sound a lot better and more convincing. This is a band that we will probably hear more of in the future. If you like thrash metal then give these guys a change! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.warckon.com
Recordlabel: http://www.emanesmetalrecords.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/warckon MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/warckon |
71/100 |
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| WILDHUNT – Scenting The Prey (CDemo) | Austria | April 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal / Speed Metal | Running time: 24:08 (Tracks: 5) | ||
| WILDHUNT is a pretty young Metal band from Austria, which was formed in 2011. This 5-track demo "Scenting The Prey" was recorded in the summer of 2012 by Wulfgar (vocals, guitar, bass) and Luki (drums, backing vocals). After the recording of this demo, Benjyi Breeg joined the band as their bass player in September 2012. Now, these guys are still searching for a second guitar player. About this demo, well, the first time I listened to it, I heard a lot of early METALLICA influences. Altogether, musically there are some nice moments, but that's all. And to be honest, the vocals of Wulfgar are terrible. As you can read, they are searching for a second guitar player, maybe they can also search for a good singer, hahaha. I've listened several times to this demo, but every time I couldn't get impressed by it. In fact, I got a bit tired of it. Anyway, after the short intro "Intro" (0:47), you'll get the songs "Lifeless Birth" (5:33), "Death Spares (N)one" (6:15), "The Wild Hunt" (4:32) and the seven minutes lasting "History Deletes Itself". Next band please, because to me, this is just a waste of my time. | |||
| Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wildhuntaustria |
52/100 |
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| 3RD MACHINE – The Egotiator (MCD) | The Netherlands | February 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Sympho / Heavy Metal | Running time: 18:32 (Tracks: 3) | ||
| In the mid-nineties, Dutch bands like The Gathering and Orphanage were pioneering with the so-called sympho-metal sound, which ultimately resulted in the success of following bands like Within Temptation, After Forever and Epica. 3rd Machine, also a band from the Netherlands, continues this tradition in the style of the first two bands I've mentioned. The band has just released their third studio effort. A three track EP that goes by the name of 'The Egotiator.' Based on the quality of this EP, the comparison with the aforementioned bands, who each have released one or more classics throughout their career, is not that far-fetched. Is 'The Egotiator' that good? Yes, I think it is. The EP starts with the title-track of which the quality easily matches the best in the genre. After the synthesiser and spoken word intro, the band comes in with a bang. And what a bang it is. The brutal riff, accompanied by subtle synths and a melodic guitar line really strikes you. The band creates a doomy atmosphere in which vocalist John Ruiter can outshine with both clean and brutal vocals. The more you listen to it, the more addictive it gets. It's hard to follow a song like this, but 'Ditch the Hollow' and 'Void of Fate' are both songs with a lot of variation, excellent musicianship and of a very high quality. Aside from that, the EP contains a clear production and the artwork looks great! I don't know if 3rd Machine is unsigned by choice, but if not, I surely hope they will gain some label attention. 'The Egotiator' is begging to be heard by a large audience. If the band takes the time to create an album of the same quality, a larger audience WILL follow! With the potential of this band, it's only a matter of time… | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.3rdmachine.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/3rdmachine |
90/100 |
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| ABSENTIA – Our Bleeding Sun (CD) | Spain | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Black / Death Metal | Running time: 42:33 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| Absentia from Spain is a well known band for me. I saw those guys playing in my local pub (Little Devil) together with Kaos (also on Malevolence Records). And I must say that I really liked those guys and their music. Absentia started spreading their rage since 2007 and released their debut “Heaven Still Burns” in 2009 (I also have that album, really nice). This review is about their second album “Our Bleeding Sun” released in 2011. This album contains 9 tracks of well executed death/black metal with a big dose of melody. The guitar riffs are straight in your face and melodic. The drums are progressive and filled with a stewing groove. The vocals are light screams and grunts. This album contains keyboards and they really give the music a great dimension. The production of this album is straight in your face and the composing of the songs are also very good and filled with variety. If you like bands like the new Samael or Moonspell then you are going to enjoy this album. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.absentia.es/
Recordlabel: http://www.malevolence-records.us MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/absentiaasturias |
78/100 |
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| AEON ZEN – Enigma (CD) | United Kingdom | February 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Progressive Metal | Running time: 46:47 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| Aeon Zen is a productive progressive metal band from the U.K. After releases in 2009 and 2010, this is their third release. Aeon Zen consists of Rich Hinks (guitars, bass and vocals), Andi Kravljaca (vocals), Matt Shepherd (guitars), Shaz (keyboards) and Steve Burton (drums). There are also three guest vocalists, namely Nate Loosemore (Lost in Thought), Atle Pettersen (Above Symmetry) and Jonny Tatum (Eumeria). The first track, “Enter the Enigma”, is an instrumental lasting just over three minutes. The sound builds up and keeps the listener attracted as it has something addictive to it. The different vocalists sing beautifully on “Artificial Soul”, which is a great progressive rock song. Musically it is mainly a slow song with plenty of power pieces and the band showing their musical teeth. The lyrics are sung very passionately. “Divinity” has a plenty of growling vocals, as there is a lot of intensity in this song. The track is filled with fast progressive metal like double bass drums, screaming guitars but also some clear vocals. The contrast is big as “Seven Hills” is a very quiet but also very beautiful piano ballad. The vocals again are really stunning. “Warning” lasts just over seven minutes and is the longest track on the album. It begins very slow and quietly with some church bells chiming but then the music builds up and the song explodes with some fast keyboards towards the end. Along the track, there is space for heavy guitar riffing combined with great vocals on this beautiful composition. “Turned to Ash” has a mesmeric feeling as the rhythm section keeps the song moving on. The music varies from very modest to some really heavy parts with a monstrous guitar solo towards the end. “Still Human” has some fantastic keyboard playing and a heavy guitar groove combined with some pounding bass and drums. “Eternal Snow” has a piano intro whilst the lyrics are sung in a sensitive way. This remains so until halfway as the growling vocals set in and the tempo goes up, as is the volume. Aeon Zen really know how to switch from soft and sensitive to loud and brutal within a track, whilst they keep everything under control. The album closes with “Downfall” that includes some computer-like choruses. It is a great progressive metal track with many musical highlights by all band members included in the composition. Aeon Zen makes a very strong impression on this album. They have made a very mature album with plenty of diversity but still the tracks breathe unity. On the CD, there are also two bonus-tracks included called “Survival” and “Time Divine 2.0”. For me, I think I am going to check their other two releases. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.aeonzen.com
Recordlabel: http://www.nightmarerecords.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/aeonzen |
87/100 |
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| AETHERIUM MORS – Drenched in Victorious Blood (CD) | United Kingdom | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Melodic Black / Death Metal | Running time: 34:24 (Tracks: 7) | ||
| Aetherium Mors from the UK was formed in 2004 with the intention of making extreme metal in vain of Carcass, Death, At the Gates and Dissection. Well what can I say...the effort I dig. Seven tracks of well executed “Extreme” metal (for us it is simply told great music but they like to call it like that). The music is very technical and filled with solos. The drums are straight in your face and progressive. The grunts sound exactly as Carcass but way to pushed and forced. The composing of the songs is great and really melodic and grooves like hell. The production of this album is good but the vocals are really too loud in the mix. It is so loud that even I am getting a bit bored by it. But never the less this band likes old school and that is what they play! | |||
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aetherium-Mors/196329630411544
Visit their website: http://aetheriummors.bandcamp.com |
70/100 |
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| ALLTHENIKO – Back in 2066 (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 49:23 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| Alltheniko is a relatively new band but has already four albums under its belt. European power metal is the game, primarily influenced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept and Helloween. The album is enjoyable but nothing more beyond that. You will have a good time listening to the cd but I doubt you will remember anything after it's done. If I had to compare them to a contemporary band in the same style I would choose Hibria but the Brazilians are miles ahead. I bet you get the picture. Decent metal from solid metalheads. The intentions are great but the compositions cannot elevate the result past a certain point. The cd also contains the videoclip for the song “Dance of Mutant Knight”. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.alltheniko.it
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/alltheniko |
68/100 |
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| ANGER AS ART – Hubris Inc. (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 47:25 (Tracks: 14) | ||
| This is the fourth album of Anger As Art, and follow up to predecessor 'Disfigure'. This album offers everything what Anger As Art do so well, and that is vicious thrash speed metal, and with their roots in the eighties, this band knows how to do this! Founded by Steve Gaines, who earned his stripes with bands like Abattoir, Bloodlust, Tactics, Bitch, Dreams of Damnation and Pagan War Machine, this is the real deal, honest, true thrash metal from the heart, more vicious than ever! On this album you will also find a range of special guest appearances, like Betsy Bitch on vocals on “Rage and Retribution”, Jim Durkin (Dark Angel, Dreams of Damnation) on lead guitar and Timothy Gaines (Stryper) on bass. Steve Nelson (Evil Dead) contributes backing vocals on “The Evil You Create”, and also Mark Caro (Abattoir) on lead guitar on “Speed Kills”, a song which was actually written for Abattoir back in 1984 and is performed by all Abattoir members. As they say, it's the last opportunity to ever hear a new Abattoir song! This album proves that thrash metal is still alive, with the same feel as in the eighties but with an up to date sound, production and still vicious as hell! Songs like “Time Devours Life”, which is also just released as a promotional video, “Gods of Hate”, “Head of the Snake” are all devastating thrash metal attacks on your ears! Speed Kills! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.angerasart.com
Recordlabel: http://www.osmrecords.net MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/angerasart |
86/100 |
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| ASSASSIN – Chaos and Live Shots (2DVD) | Germany | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: over 3 hours!! (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Assassin was formed around 1982/1983 and was influenced by bands like Metallica, Venom en Slayer. During all these years the band only released 4 albums and their latest was “Breaking The Silence” from 2010 (see Archive CD/DVD Reviews March 2011). During the following tour the band recorded a show on 27 March 2010 in Osaka, Japan with 8 cameras and this resulted in this nice DVD. Okay, not all the shots are that great but it fits perfect to the bands attitude! Disc 2 contains the entire show WITHOUT the special features….Disc 1 is WITH all kind of features like backstage shots, singer Robert Gonnella playing soccer and the drummer crashing a car as a kind of superhero…. Assassin is a band with faithful fans and this DVD is especial for these guys (and girls) a MUST!! Other people that like German thrash will better watch some Kreator or Destruction DVD's….. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.assassin-online.de
Recordlabel: http://www.spv.de MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/assassinthrashmetal |
75/100 |
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| BLIKSEM – Face The Evil (CD) | Belgium | February 2013 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 38:06 (Tracks: 8) | ||
| Lightning is one of the most spectacular displays in nature. Bolt temperatures hotter than the sun. Shockwaves radiating out in all directions. In Dutch, this deadly natural phenomenon is called “bliksem.” A fitting name for an electrifying five-piece thrash band from Antwerp, Belgium. Above their own and only good description of this terrific Belgium band. Formed in 2007 by Jeroen De Vriese (guitar), Toon Huet (guitar), Rob Martin (drums and backing vocals) and Jan Rammeloo (bass) they began to forge their dynamic thrash attack. In 2008 Peggy Meeussen completed the band on vocals and world domination can begin. This domination took off with their well-received self-titled 2010 ep “Bliksem”, which contained 5 razor sharp thrashers with surprising melodic and grunchy interventions. Next to the high musical skills, also the raw, energetic but clean and understandable voice of Peggy Meeussen, that reminds me most of Nicole Lee (Znöwhite, well, who still knows this awesome band) impressed a lot. This new 8 track attack (way to short, but real classics seem to need no more) improves even more. Filled with full force energy, cool drives, catchy riffs and surprising breaks this album is like a real tornado. Just listen to the new trash diamonds like the slightly re-arranged new version of “The Life On Which I Feed”, “These Tales Of Tragedy”, “Dead End Road” and the awesome, “Insanity's Curse” and you know this band has a great future in front of them. Thrash that is drilled easily into your brain, waiting to let it all out while catching them live. First chance to that is the releaseshow of this killer album which will take place on the 2nd of March @ Trix Club in Antwerp. As we way in Dutch: “Bliksem is gewoon Bliksem's goed”. For those who like their music fast, furious and energitic filled with catchy chorusses, double bass, fine solo's and powerfull vocals (well, all who like descent metal) a must have! Bliksem is the name, just catch them live or on cd, you won't regret it. Bliksem is as bold as lightning! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.bliksemmusic.com
Recordlabel: http://www.the-stone-music.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bliksem666 |
90/100 |
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| CORPUS MORTALE – Flesh Craft (CD) | Denmark | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 41:23 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Corpus Mortale from Denmark is a well known band for me. Their 2 previous albums (released by Neurotic Records) are a masterpiece. This is the fourth album of this band and it sounds massive! 10 tracks of ravenous and aggressive death metal in vain of bands like Morbid Angel / Morta Skuld. But first thing first. Corpus Mortale started spreading their rage since 1993. They released their debut album in “Spiritism” in 1998. In 2003 they signed with Neurotic Records and released their second album “With Lewd Demeanor” and 2007 they released their third album “A New Species of Deviant”. This is their third album and it kicks as! 10 tracks of pure and technical death metal. Sharp and brutal guitar riffs that reminds you of the bands that I mentioned. The drums are filled with progressive parts and up tempo groove. And then you got the vocals that are grunts that are heavy and sounds like they are pulled out of the gutter. There is one instrumental on it that sounds great but brings nothing special in my opinion but the rest of the album is masterpiece. If you like bands that I mentioned then this album is exactly what you need! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/corpusmortale
Recordlabel: http://www.deepsend.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/corpusmortale |
82/100 |
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| CORROSIVE CARCASS – Composition of Flesh (CD) | Sweden | February 2013 | Dennis van Dommelen |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 41:28 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Old school death metal from Sweden has always been my favourite death metal style. Even now when this type of Death Metal is played by numerous bands also from outside of Sweden. The trademark buzzsaw guitarsound is still something I really like. So I will give most of the bands a try when I get the chance to hear them and while most of them sound the same bringing nothing new to the table. Corrosive Carcass is a band which has something to say! This Swedes are much heavier mostly by playing their “jumping” drumparts which makes that this band often sounds as Autopsy in their slower parts but on the other hand sound as Nihilist in their hay days. It's sloppy and creepy most of the time. Just the way I like it. To summarize, let's enumerate the album qualities : awesome guitar tone, crushing riffs mixed with creepy melodies. There's a few leads here and there but nothing too much. Sjobloms performance on the mic is absolutly great and different from most other Swedish vocalists. I also love the tempo of the album. It's fast, in your face death metal. But not fast like Nile or Cryptopsy, which tends to be too much for my taste. The songwriting is also good, considering the 2 to 4 minutes straight to the point format. So if you like Nihilist combined with Autopsy this is defintely something for you! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.corrosivecarcass.com
Recordlabel: http://www.officalabyssrecords.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/recreation666 |
87/100 |
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| CRASHDIET – The Savage Playground | Sweden | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Sleaze / Glam Rock | Running time: 59:00 (Tracks: 14) | ||
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Crashdïet is a Swedish Stockholm based band of the New Wave of Swedish Sleaze, releasing their fourth album through Frontiers Records in January 2013.
" The savage playground" is the successor of the great album" Generation Wild" . That album sold well and support tours with Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, The 69 Eyes and Hardcore Superstar provided a great fanbase.
“The savage playground”is the second album with singer Simon Cruze (Simon Sörderström) and he did a fine job, providing strong chorusses and great melody lines. The rhythm section, bass player Peter London (Peter Lunden) and drummer Eric Young (Erik Gjerdrum) is heavy, on steroïds, providing that thick sound like Motley Crue and their stylistic musical acts. And the guitars by Martin Sweet (Martin Hosselton) are thick as a brick! Still the music is melodic, the band and their co-writers (Johan Renström and Patrick Magnusson, also known als Rampac) know how to write solid songs. From the opener " Change the world"' the first single " Cocaïne cowboys" , the fury of " Anarchy" , " California" , " Lickin' dog" , "Snakes in Paradise", "Damaged kid", " Excited" , " Circus" and " Sin City" the powerful songs, the glammy and sleazy flashes will keep you awake! The band has planned an extensive tour that will bring them to South America, Japan,The States and the European continent with guest acts like JetBlack, Sister and Sleekstain. If you' ll get the chance to see this great quartet, check them out! " The savage playground" is a good album! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.crashdiet.org
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/realcrashdiet |
82/100 |
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| CUSTARD – Infested by Anger (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 62:33 min (Tracks: 15) | ||
| CUSTARD are already active since 1987!! But have never really made it out of the underground. They have made four studio-albums between 1999 and 2008, 'Kingdoms of your Life' (1999), 'For my King' (2000), 'Wheels of Time' (2005), 'Forces Remain' (2008) and their fifth album is out now on Pure Steel Records. CUSTARD is influenced by european power metal like Helloween and Gamma Ray, but nowadays they shifted their sound more towards US metal, with high pitch vocals. Well this album is packed with lots of double bass, and harmonic twin guitars, of which one of them is handled by newest and first female band member Anna Olejniczak. Although the band claims to sound more like US metal, I still think it all sounds very German, nothing wrong with that, heavy power metal on a reasonable fast pace, with some nice guitar work. The album has a powerful production, which makes it all the more enjoyable. Fast and powerful songs like 'Gods of War', 'Death from Above' or even on a somewhat slower pace 'Black Friday', are all very true and heavy powermetal tracks, thundering bass and furious twin guitars make this album a very good and enjoyable listening experience. Also some mid paced, almost ballad like songs, like for instance 'Endless Pain' (No not the Kreator song), with some female vocalities added to it. I do really like their fast paced power metal songs, but the midpaced songs with added female vocals a little less, but that's personal I guess, lots of twin lead harmonies in the likes of old Maiden/Priest, with a singer who holds the middle between Rob Halford and Tobias Sammet, melodic power metal from the upper shelve. If you like your heavy (power) metal the classic way, and don't expect anything totally new, this could be your kinda band! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.custard.de
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/custardmetal |
82/100 |
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| DARKTHRONE - The Underground Resistance (CD) | Norway | February 2013 | Jordy Brouwers |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 41:44 (Tracks: 6) | ||
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When I saw that a new album of Darkthrone was announced, I was immediately interested. I got familiar with their music in the mid 90`s when the band released the excellent black metal albums “A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992)”, “Under A Funeral Moon (1993)” and “Transilvanian Hunger (1994)”. These albums are, in my opinion, still a must for every self-respecting black metal fan. The band is one of the founders of the true black metal scene in Norway and they deserve a lot of respect! The music on these albums can be characterised as pure, very raw and intense black metal. The band has undergone several line-up changes, but two members are the “red line” in the band: Fenriz (drums, voice, lyrics, composer) and Nocturno Culto (guitar, voice, lyrics and composer). Now, there is a new album and I was very curious about what to expect. Darkthrone started in 1986 in Oslo as a death metal band. However, after the release of their first album (Soulside Journey), the band started to play black metal in the early nineties at record label Peaceville. In 1994, the band left Peaceville, they switched to Moonfog from Satyr (Satyricon). In 2004, the band released their last black metal album, Sardonic Wrath. In 2005, the band announced that they went back to Peaceville, but this meant also a change in their music style. Darkthrone released their eleventh album, The Cult Is Alive, during early 2006. While Darkthrone's black metal roots were still quite evident, their shift from the genre's typical sound was more noticeable. The albums that followed showed a mixture of heavy metal, speed metal and thrash metal with some punk influences. This counts also for Darkthrone`s new album, The Underground Resistance. When I am honest, I have to say that I first had to listen the album several times before I could form a quite good opinion. It has become clear that you cannot compare this album with their famous black metal trilogy. The style is mainly too different. But if you take this point of view, I have to acknowledge that The Underground Resistance is a nice album. I am nevertheless glad that the riffs of this album are still sometimes quite sinister and occult, that gives it some sort of unique character which belongs to Darkthrone. The new album contains six songs and it is a mixture of all the styles mentioned above. For example, the first song (Dead Early) has a quite sinister character with heavy riffs, while the second song (Valkyrie) is more punk orientated with clean (!) voices. This shows the variety. At this moment, I awarded 78 points to this album, but I am sure that this album will not disappear soon out my cd player, it still attracts me and I have the feeling that I have to discover more. Give this album some time, and you will like it! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.darkthrone.no
Recordlabel: http://www.peaceville.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/officialdarkthrone |
78/100 |
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| DEEP MACHINE - Whispers in the Black (MCD) | United Kingdom | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: NWOBHM | Running time: 11:29 (Tracks: 3) | ||
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Deep Machine are a heavy metal group from the east end of London that first came into existence in 1979. Throughout the 1980s they were part of the NWOBHM. Founded by lead guitarist Bob Hooker, the band's music was influenced by other NWOBHM bands such as Iron Maiden and in particular, Judas Priest. Various early line-ups existed but eventually Hooker recruited John Wiggins on guitar, Dave Orton bass, Rick Bruce drums, and Roger Marsden vocals. [This line-up recorded some now much sought-after demo tapes including songs such as Demon Preacher, Asylum, Witchild and Deep Machine. Dave Orton then left and was replaced by Andy Wrighton on bass. Despite developing somewhat of a cult following, and having an impressive reputation for their energetic live performances, Deep Machine were unable to secure a record deal. Eventually Bob Hooker left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Angel Witch guitarist and vocalist Kevin Heybourne. This line-up proved unstable with Heybourne, Marsden and Bruce parting company with the others to form a new line-up of Angel Witch. Marsden later went on to join the EF Band. Wiggins and Wrighton quickly recruited former Minas Tirith vocalist Tony Smith and were looking for other band members when Wiggins was invited to join Paul Di'Anno's Lonewolf (later to become Di'Anno). Wrighton was later to join Andy Boulton's Tokyo Blade. In 2009 Hooker, Wiggins, Marsden and Wrighton decided to jam together for the first time in almost 30 years, together with former Slam drummer Chas Towler. This eventually gave rise to a new line-up of Deep Machine, including Hooker and Towler with Lenny Baxter (vocals), John Riley (bass) and Nigel Martindale (guitar) which started to gig in 2010.[4] In February 2012 Martindale was officially replaced by guitarist Nick 'The Beast' East. Well this is a small bio according Wikipedia; Deep Machine was almost as popular and well-known as Samson, Angel Witch, Praying Mantis and the early Iron Maiden. Numerous live tapes were circulating among fans, adding to their “mystique”. There was only one tiny detail missing to complete the puzzle: They never signed a record deal. Whereas Samson, Angel Witch, Praying Mantis and above all Iron Maiden went on to endure more or less healthy recording careers, Deep Machine remained probably the “most prominent unsigned Metal band in the universe”. Until now, that is! The band has just signed a deal with High Roller Records. This EP is still a self released “demo” and features 3 great songs in the real NWOBHM style. To be honest: I did know the band from name but never listened to their music till now….well this is real NWOBHM in a way I like it most; raw, up-tempo metal like only bands from that period can write and play! On this EP Tokyo Blade Axeman John Wiggins is participating (on all three songs)! The band will release a full album later this year on High Roller Records; look out for this one! If you're to curious than you can better check out the band live on the 5th of April during one of Mario's Metal Mania parties together with Dutch cult-legends Red Dragon. Place of happening; Little Devil bar, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Check this website for more info and don't miss these guys!!! | |||
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Visit their website: http://deepmachine.co.uk
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/deepmachineofficial Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeepMachine#!/deepmachineuk |
80/100 |
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| DIAMOND DAWN - Overdrive (CD) | Sweden | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Rock | Running time: 51:30 (Tracks: 11) | ||
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The Swedish melodic rockscene is full of surprises. The past few months many Swedish acts surprised me and many listeners with their offspring: Edge, State of Shalazar, Impera, Lover under Cover, Eternal, Rose, Wigelius, all acts that prove that melodic (Scandi)rock isn't dead. The ingredients of the musical recipe are quite obvious: compact hookladen, infectious songs with a heavy and strong backbone, the Swedes do know how to write them and how to play them! Diamond Dawn, melodic sextet from Gothenburg is a new act on the Walhalla for melodic acts, the Napoli based Frontiers Records, and what a fine band this is! These guys can write and play melodic rock songs like the best. Diamond Dawn was founded in 2011 and a demo track
" Standing as one" (the songs is on this new album as well) created a lot of buzz about the band and their capabilities. Serafino Perugino and his Frontiers staff signed the band and the new record, produced and mixed by two times Grammy Award winner Tobias Lindell at the Bohus Sound Recording Studios in Stockholm, is about to be released. I definitely like this record: the songs are rocking, anthemic, pompy, full of contagious hooks and surprises and the bandmembers show their skills. Comparisons with acts like Treat, Talk of the Town, T'Bell, commercial Europe Prisoners in Paradise-era, melodic acts from the nineties like Intruder and Shotgun Symphony, classic Prophet, Red Dawn, Rox Diamond, and new melodic rock acts like Wigelius and Edge are above surface, but Diamond Dawn bundles all these influences into a listenable and forceful package. From the opener " Into overdrive" with its thick keys by Niklas Arkbro, to the closing track " Powergames" with that strong backbeat and an approach Prophet came up with in the eighties, it's pure class these guys deliver. I like the guitars of Jhonny Goransson and rhythm guitarist Olle Lindahl, the driving force of the rhythm section Efraim Larsson (drums) and Mikael Planefeldt (bass guitars) and the vocals of Alexander Strandell are also very good. The production is dry and fair. Superband! Great release from Frontiers Records. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.diamonddawn.rocknytt.net
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/diamonddawnswe |
88/100 |
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| EVIL INVADERS – Evil Invaders (MCD) | Belgium | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: Thrash / Speed Metal | Running time: 27:14 (Tracks: 6) | ||
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Evil Invaders is a relatively new upcoming band from Belgium which has done a bunch live shows during the start of their formation. The band is formed by a bunch of metal-lunatics that listened to a lot of 80's metal and got all their influences from this period. Funny because most of them where not even born in the 80's… Ive seen the band a couple of times and they even played at my own Mario's Metal Meeting in 2012. This band is really a recommendation to see/hear and if you have the chance to be a part of their regular mosh-pit; grab it!! This 6 tracks MCD is very well produced and contains 1 instrumental song “Speed Invasion”. All the other songs are in the typical 80's thrash/speed style; full speed ahead and with high pitched screams from singer Joe Anus (whats in a name??). The amount of shows these guys already did are a plus to the sound they have these days and are also a sign of their good attitude! Check these guys out if they play near you! For fans of: Exciter, Raven, Razor, Anvil & early Metallica (Kill 'm All era). Great debut CD guys! Congratz !!! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.evilinvaders.be
Recordlabel: http://www.empirerecords.be Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Evil-Invaders-OFFICIAL/154641011249376 |
92/100 |
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| EYEFEAR – The Inception of Darkness (CD) | Australia | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Dark Power Metal with progressive hints | Running time: 58:32 (Tracks: 11) | ||
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Eyefear was founded in 1994. The Melbourne based quartet had a fierce and good live reputation and their prog-infused power metal was brought to the metalheads / metalears on their debutalbum " Edge of existence" in 1995. But just before the new millennium internal musical and personal problems escalated and the band had to find some new members and a new musical concept. It took some hard years to deliver new material. Andy LaRoque, the Gothenburg (Sweden) guitarist, songwriter and producer for King Diamond, EF Band, Death, At the Gates,and many other bands, helped the band producing their new albums in the 21st century. It was Andy who was the driving force behind contacts with the European, Asian and American market as well. Dockyard 1, the Hamburg (Germany) music label runned by Piet Sielck and former Sanctuary Record members, took care of their albums in that period. It did the band good. They shared the stage with Queensryche, Jon Oliva, Blind Guardian, DC Cooper (singer for Royal Hunt) and their music evolved into a dark and aggressive power metal with fierce and heavy, wide-ranged vocals, changes in speed and rhythm, great guitar solos and special, deeply structured songs. But the bad luck haunted Eyefear in the second decennium. Dockyard 1 stopped their actvity and the band had no record deal. The Aussies didn't give up and started writing songs for a new album, pre-producing songs and trying to find a new record deal. In 2011 the Limb Music label added Eyefear to their roster and " The inception of darkness" is their newest, fifth full-length opus, their new offspring in my cd-player. And what a fierce record it is! Almost an hour of very powerful metal, eight very good tracks and three bonusses mixed, produced and mastered by Tommy Hansen in his Jailhouse Studio in Horsens (Denmark). I like the vocals of Danny Cerati (former Pegazus-singer, band member since 2000), but his fellow musicians (especially the guitarists) stand their ground as well! What a tight, ass-kicking band this is. The music has references of German metal bands, complex and heavy Savatage, early and ferocious Dream Theater, Queensryche and stylewise bands. Are there any critical remarks? Yes, the keyboards by Seb Sébastien are pushed away in the background a little, the drum approach is a bit one-dimensional and I'm not very fond of the guest vocals of Sarah Parker and George Kosma. But it's still a fine record, that will please a lot of fans of the genre. Eyefear will be the tour-support-act for Nightwish in Australia. I hope the band will get a tour-support-deal for the European continent as well. These Aussies deserve it! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.ozzyfrank.com/eyefear
Recordlabel: http://www.limb-music.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/eyefear |
84/100 |
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| FASTER PUSSYCAT – The Power and The Glory Hole (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Sleaze Rock with industrial rock hints | Running time: 51:05 (Tracks: 12) | ||
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Westcoast Hair metal bands from the eighties of the former century, they 're still returning to the music business and the stage playing their songs from way back. Motley Crue, Ratt, Firehouse, Bang Tango,Trixter, Little Caesar, Tesla, Winger, Poison, Warrant, Cinderella and their stylewise colleagues keep making records, doing small tours and although the prosperity and the bright forecasts have gone, they're still going strong. From our chief editor Mario I received a promotional download copy of the new offspring of the City of Lights Record label ( the label for Eye, Sanchez, Toxic Rose, Osukaru and many new acts playing glam rock and sleaze rock):The Power and the Glory Hole by Faster Pussycat. I recognized this record and many readers on this board will have the same feeling. This album isn't new, it's a reissue of an album from July 2006. I have got the original release as well.
Faster Pussycat was founded in Hollywood in 1986. The band, named after a big breasted Russ Meyer cult movie from 1965, gained popularity with their second album from 1989 (called "Wake me when it's over") . The second single from this album" House of pain" catapulted in the US Charts and it is still a hair band classic. The third album " Whipped" was a commercial success as well, but in 1993, after their musical and commercial peak, after touring with Alice Cooper, David Lee Roth, Kiss and Motley Crue, it was over. The musical climate had changed and lead vocalist Taime Downe started a new project with dark industrial music, The Newlydeads, featuring members of Faster Pussycat(Greg Steele and Brent Muscat, guitarists of this band joined forces with their former band mate), Bang Tango, LA Guns and Pigface. After two albums(both quite good releases, check them out), a remix-album and a compilation album this collaboration stopped and Faster Pussycat reunited. The band had evolved, sounded more dark, experimental and lyric wise the band had more current awareness, with themes about sex, love, death, social inequality, street life, etc. An inner conflict about the name rights was the reason for the lack of new releases from this band, but in 2006 " The Power and the Glory Hole " saw the light on Full Effect Records. It's this release I'm listening to now and after many spins of this opus I was glad hearing this band again. The songs on " The Power and the Glory Hole" are short, heavy and intense. The mix of glam metal and industrial rock is very good. The guitars are raw and crunchy, paving the way for the harsh vocal lines of Taime Downe. The rhythm section ( Danny Nordahl and Chad Stewart, both former members of LA Guns and The Newlydeads) is very tight and haunting. And I like the songs, from the opener " Number one with a bullet" to the closing song " Bye bye Bianca" (a tribute and farewell song to singer and Taime Downe's friend Bianca Halstead, bass player and lead singer of Betty Blowtorch(an all-female glam rock band with a lot of street credibility) who was killed by a drunken driver in New Orleans in 2001), the album will grab you by the balls. It's a perfect crossover for the fans of evolved, mature glam or sleaze rock and metal. The 'new' album has an extra song on it, a blistering live version of the first track. The two cover songs on the original 2006 release: " These boots are made for walking (by Nancy Sinatra)" and " Shut up & Fuck ( a Betty Blowtorch cover)' are kept alive in this second-life-release. Check them out, the band has plans for a short European summer-tour. Great hearing this band again! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.fasterpussycat.com
Recordlabel: http://www.facebook.com/cityoflightsrecords MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fasterpussycat |
83/100 |
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| GAME OVER – For Humanity (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: Oldschool Thrash Metal | Running time: 35:33 (Tracks: 10) | ||
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GAME OVER was born in the spring of 2008 thanks to the will of three musicians to put up a Thrash Metal band. So Renato "Reno" Chiccoli (also member of the awesome ASGARD), Luca "Ziro" Zironi and Alessandro "Sanso" Sansone with Marcello "Med" Medas on drums started their activity playing covers of their main influences.
During the last months of 2008 the band began the live activity and started writing the first original material. The following year their first four-tracks Demo CD was released and few months later they released also an EP called "Heavy Damage" with six tracks of strong American-styled Thrash Metal that gathers positive acclaims by fans and critics. The live activity continues for the whole 2009 and 2010. During the 2011 the band signs for the label "My Graveyard Productions" and in the summer of the same year Game Over entered the studio to record their first debut Album with the supervision of Simone Mularoni.
In January 2012 their first Full Length called "FOR HUMANITY" has been released and Anthony "Vender" Dantone enters the band as new drummer replacing "Med". Well nearly a year later I received the album for a review on MMM; but I don't care; this is full speed ahead oldschool thrashmetal in a way I like it a lot; it is reminiscent to anything that came out in the 80's Bay Area style. But still with originality and an acquired sound!!! This is great thrashmetal and this album is nearly as good as the album of their labelmates Asgard!! Need to get this band over to The Netherlands someday!!!! Check it our if you're into oldschool thrashmetal!! You wont regret it! | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gameoverthrashmetal
Recordlabel: http://www.mygraveyardproductions.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gameoverthrash |
95/100 |
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| GIANT X – I (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Metal / Hard Rock | Running time: 46:28 (Tracks: 13) | ||
| GIANT X is a new band (or is it a project?) of singer and guitarist "Rocking" Rolf Kasparek and guitarist Peter Jay Jordan. Kasparek is the founder of German metal band RUNNING WILD, and Jordan joined the band in 2005. Well, I have to admit that I never had much with RUNNING WILD. I don't have any album of RUNNING WILD, and I never have seen them live as well. Anyway, "I" (read "One") is the debut album of GIANT X, and features 13 tracks. Because of the fact that I am not familiar with any material of RUNNING WILD, I can't compare this album of GIANT X with albums of RUNNING WILD. All instruments on this album are done by Kasparek and Jordan, and the production was done by Jordan. Musically, this album is very varied, it features up-tempo power songs, some bluesy songs and melodic rock songs. For example, "Don't Quit Till Tomorrow" ….okay, in fact it's a catchy melodic rock song, but to me it sounds a bit too commercial. "Nameless Heroes" is just a cliché ballad. "Go 4 It" and "Let's Dance" are two real party rockers. Bluesy songs on "I" are "Badland Blues" and "Rough Ride". Conclusion is, I can listen to this album, but I think I would never buy it easily myself. In that case this is just a too moderate album to me. Well, I think this album will do it very well especially in Germany, and among the die-hard RUNNING WILD fans in and outside Germany. And as you will understand, I don't belong to the category RUNNING WILD fans. Anyway, the songs on this album which I like the most are "On A Blind Flight", "Badland Blues", "Now Or Never", "Go 4 It", "Rough Ride" and "Let's Dance". It's not really bad, but also not very spectacular. So, if you are interested in this debut album of GIANT X, check it out yourself. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.running-wild.de
Recordlabel: http://www.spv.de |
68/100 |
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| GREAT WHITE – Thirty Years – Live from the Sunset Strip (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Bluesy Hard Rock | Running time: 1:16:48 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| The LA-based rockcircus of Great White has separated into two factions since September 2012: Great White (holding the majority of the origina lmembers with former XYZ- powervocalist Terry Ilous) and Jack Russell's GreatWhite (a new band formed by Great White's original singer). A few months ago Great White, the faction with Terry on vocals, released Elation, an album with nice songs forming the vehicle for the good, tough vocal cords of the new singer. The album had a slow start, but the third single of this album "Hard to say goodbye" is doing very well on the Classic Rock Mediabase Charts. In the last week of February Frontiers Records will release a live-album of Great White " Thirty years- Live from the Sunset Strip" celebrating the three decades of Great White on stage at the Key Club in West-Hollywood, California. It's not the first Great White live-album capturing the band's strongest side and focus. " Recovery Live( 1988, an album with lots of covers), "Live at The Marquee" (1990), "Stage" (recorded at The House of Blues a.o. in 1994, their best live record in my opinion), "Thank you and goodnight" (2002, their farewell live album), " Extended versions" ( a partial reissue of the Stage-album in 2004) and " Once bitte, twice live" ( a reissue of their farewell live album by Sidewinder Records in 2006) gave away the band's livestatus. And again this new album holds the strongest and most classic Great White anthemic songs:" Face the day", the beautiful " House of Broken Love", the haunting " Rock me", "Can't shake it", the bluesy " Back to the rhythm" , "Mista Bone" (bonus track on the Sail away-album) with an excellent Mark Kendall, the closing "Once bitten twice shy" , great tracks and great performances. I was very keen on Jack Russell's vocals, but Terry Ilous has more power, more attitude fitting very well in this bluesy, ballsy environment. This new record is very interesting getting to know what Great White is all about these days! I hope the LA-rockers will tour in Europe someday! It will be quite a party! And I will be there! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.greatwhiterocks.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.terryilous.com |
82/100 |
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| HELDREIDH - Fragmenta (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Jordy Brouwers |
| Style: Progressive Metal | Running time: 45:24 (Tracks: 8) | ||
| With the release of Fragmenta, Helreidh is back in business in the progressive metal scene. This Italian band was active in the second half of the nineties, releasing a couple of albums. With the albums “Memories” (1997) and the EP “Fingerprints of the Gods”, Helreidh made a promising start in the progressive metal scene. However, some internal issues tore the band apart before the band had finished their second full length album. Now, approximately 13 years later, Helreidh is back with the new album Fragmenta. The release of this album is a new start for the band. There is a strongly renewed line-up: aside founding members Yorick (guitars) and Luca Roggi (drums), Helreidh feature as well as Max Bastasi (vocals), Aligi Pasqualetto (keyboards) and Franscesco de Paoli (bass, ex-Raising fear). Besides this new line-up, the band has slightly changed their musical spectrum. Their progressive roots still play an important role, but elements of the classic rock, hard rock, and progressive rock are implemented. The band write on their website that “Fragmenta is a collection of fragments, individual stories which have to be told.” The stories of the single tracks are pretty different: the album contains songs of the early days, musical ideas derived from other projects and brand new songs. I heard some old songs on the internet, and it has to be said that the band has renewed their style in a positive way. The music is sometimes heavier and more complex, but of course there is also space for a catchy ballad (Orfeo`s Lament for example). The album starts with an instrumental (mainly Keyboard) atmospheric song. The second song characterises the album best: it's a well composed song with heavy guitar parts and nice keyboard elements. Also Bastasi is in a good shape, his voice fits good to the music. I my opinion, Helreidh is a good band, fans of bands like Rhapsody, Kamelot and Symphony X will like this new album of Helreidh. I am quite enthusiastic! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.heilreidhband.com
Recordlabel: http://www.pureprog-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/helreidh |
75/100 |
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| IN AEVUM AGERE – The Shadow Tower (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Doom Metal | Running time: 54:02 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| This is the first time I come across the Italian band In Aevum Agere. It is a relatively new band and this is its first full length release. The press kit describes the band as epic doom metal in the vein of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus and there is a great deal of truth in this statement. Personally I would extend the similarities to bands like Krux and Abstract Algebra, both Leif Edling related, but I don't think that the word epic defines the entire album. I was pleasantly surprised by “The Shadow Tower” and the last time I was this excited with a doom metal album it was almost two years ago with the Dark Covenant debut. The vocals reminded me of the Thomas Vickstrom approach on the Candlemass – Chapter VI album. I definitely recommend this one to all the true doomsters. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.reverbnation.com/inaevumagere
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/inaevumagere |
80/100 |
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| INVADER – Invader (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Kostas Kounadinis |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 45:27 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Invader is a cult metal act from Seattle. Formed in the early 80s, the band managed to release only two demos and a full length album. Pure Steel Records presents the remastered reissue of this album, 20 years after its original release date. Invader delivers classic U.S. power metal in the vein of other local heroes like Heir Apparent and Culprit and with a bit of early Queensryche and Sactuary. I am pretty sure the band interacted with these four U.S. metal heroes back in the day. I recommend this release to all the U.S. metal freaks and since the original pressing is very hard to come by, this re-release is the ideal opportunity for you to own an important piece of the Washington State metal history, the State which spawned such great metal acts. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/invadermetalusa
Recordlabel: http://www.pureunderground-records.com |
78/100 |
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| IZAH / FIRE WALK WITH US - (Split CD) | The Netherlands | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Doom / Instrumental / Sludge | Running time: 23:52 (Tracks: 3) | ||
| Izah and Fire Walk With Us joined together and made a split album that takes your mind away of everything that matters in life. Izah only has one song on this album but it takes 11 minutes to get through it and it sounds ravaging. Think of progressive doom with a lot of groove and melody and even some post rock in it. And a vocal that does desperate screams and torture in his voice that gives it an empty feeling of despair. A fantastic song that keeps hanging in my head (well done). The next two songs on this album are for Fire Walk Amongst Us. And they make progressive and instrumental stoner/rock combined with all kinds of elements. It is really difficult to say what they look like but it sounds breath taking! They also did some release shows together and at one of the shows I went to check them and I got home with a big smile on my face because of the great music that these bands bring you! This album only has three songs but it is well worth your money! | |||
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Visit their website: https://www.facebook.com/FireWalkWithUs Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/IZAHband |
82/100 |
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| JORN - Symphonic (CD) | Norway | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Bombastic symphonic metal | Running time: 59:00 (Tracks: 14) | ||
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Huh? Another Jorn album again? My first thoughts when I saw this review copy in my mailbox were full of questions. I wasn't that keen on the latest Jorn releases to be honestly. It felt like he was copying himself, hiding and diminishing the greatness of his vocal range and superb qualities (and the qualities of his fellow bandmembers). Overseeing the tracklist I recognized no new tracks and indeed, this new album of Jorn is a compilation, but not an ordinary one, not a best of, compiling the well-known tracks of this Norwegian tonsil troubadour.
No, "Symphonic" offers special chosen tracks by the singer. Jorn has asked the Danish piano and keyboard magician Lasse Jensen to compose classical arrangments to the songs.
Lasse has done his job very well, but Jorn has kept the focus on his band to. Some songs were remixed and other songs were enriched with classical overtones. And the result: Wow! This is symphonic and bombastic music of the premier league of metal! The classic arrangments stick like glue to the songs of Jorn and even the two covers on this album (Jorn's hommage to the late and great Ronnie James Dio is represented by “Rock 'n roll Children” and “The Mob Rules”, an unforgettable Dio- Black Sabbath classic) sound powerful and mighty. This album has stylistic nods to Purple with orchestra, Metallica's S&M, The Scorpions with orchestra, Savatage and Trans Siberian Orchestra and it has the bombastic point of view of Yngwie Malmsteen's instrumental classical album with the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra, playing classical arrangments of David Rosenthal. I like this album, it is surprising, it is good, it remarks a bombastic era for Jorn, his music and his musical friends! Frontiers Records, the melodic rock label from Italy, will release this firecracker in the last week of January. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.jornlande.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/realjorn |
85/100 |
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| KAOS – Validated in Blood (MCD) | USA | February 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 24:11 (Tracks: 5) | ||
| New works from KAOS, they have been around since 1987, from whom I also reviewed their 'Kaos Among Us' album from 2003. This band only released 3 full lenght albums in their long time existence, debut album 'Vision Beyond'(2000), forementioned one, and third album 'The Pits of Existance' (2010), and now there's a new 5 song EP 'Validated in Blood'. KAOS plays old school Bay Area Thrash metal, without sounding out of date, real furious thrash metal with some modern influences, they can keep up with the big ones of thrash like Testament or Exodus! Why they are not as big or well known, don't ask me I don't know, I do know it's not due to their music, it just rages! All songs on this release are fabulous pearls of thrash, among them also a cover of 'Kill On Command' from Vio-lence which is very well done! Titles vary from 'United We Kill', 'Internal Bleeding', 'Alive To Die' to 'Blood Red Eyes' and each one makes my blood run faster, hopefully soon a new full lenght from these Bay Area thrashers, where once Kevin Albert (son of...) was a member of. This band must be heard by every thrash fan, cause these guys are the real stuff, true old school bay area thrash with a modern sound and production, hell, they even give Slayer a run for their money! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.kaosamongus.com
Recordlabel: http://www.malevolence-records.us |
94/100 |
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| KRYPTS – Unending Degradation (CD) | Finland | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 39:36 (Tracks: 8) | ||
| Krypts from Finland is a new band that started in 2008 and released their demo in 2009. Their first official release came in 2011. In the form of an EP called “Krypts” (very good EP). So finally and full length of these guys! This album is released by Dark Descent Records so that says almost enough if you are into old school death metal (almost all there releases are good). Eight tracks of pure old school death metal that kicks of with an instrumental and then takes you right back to the 90`s. Guitar riffs that up tempo and not to difficult to follow. And the drums are also very groovy and up tempo, think of bands like Grave or Undergang. The vokills are deep grunts that finishes it all and makes this album exactly what you want to hear in a old school death metal band, raw production, no bullshit riffs or high-speed blasts but chill out music in the death metal! If you are into old school death metal then this is a must have in your collection! | |||
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Visit their website: http://krypts.wordpress.com
Recordlabel: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com |
86/100 |
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| LIFELESS – Godconstruct (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 48:25 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Lifeless from Germany brings you death metal in old school style and they do that really well. I know this band from their first album and that is a killer record. This band started spreading their rage since 2004. Their debut “Beyond the Threshold of Death” war released in 2008 (really good album!). After that they did a split album with Chapel of Disease. This is their new masterpiece released this year. 12 tracks of pure and ravenous old school death metal in vain of bands like Entombed and Dismember. This is a relatively new band but they play a really typical old school style that we call Swedish death metal. Groovy guitar riffs filled with solos. Drums that keep pounding in a up tempo that will keep shaking you head. And a killer grunt. The composing of the songs are great and filled with variety so it doesn`t get boring. The production is also straight in your face. If you like bands like Entombed, Dismember, Entrapment then you must have this album in your collection. | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lifelessofficial
Recordlabel: http://www.fda-rekotz.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lifelessdeathmetal |
84/100 |
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| MASSACRE – Condemned to the Shadows (MCD) | USA | February 2013 | Dennis van Dommelen |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 8:03 (Tracks: 2) | ||
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Aha! The legend is back and this time with new material but without primal grunter and founder Kam Lee. Massacre reunited for "The-Re-Animated" tour in fall 2007, the band split up and reformed multiple times between this period and late 2008. In early 2009 Kam Lee stated he would attempt to resurrect Massacre again and release an album in 2010, but once again claimed to shelve the band in May 2009 via a message on the band's Myspace page.
Rick Rozz and Terry Butle are only surviving members of the classic line-up that recorder the alltime classic “From Beyond”. So this little EP on Century Media is -after all the bullshit- the sign that Massacre is still alive. First question would be has this version of Massacre something to say in the overcrowded Death Metal scene of the moment. I would surely say: “Yes!” On the two new heavy songs the trademark guitarsound of Rick Rozz can be heard. For example listen to the solo of the song “Succumb to Rapture” which would not have been misplaced on the “From Beyond” album. The new vocalist does a good job with a deep but not too gutteral voice which fits this old school band. This little EP is a sign that Massacre still exists even without Kam Lee. You can all discuss this matter, fact is that I would love to hear more material composed by this four people! | |||
| Recordlabel: http://www.centurymedia.com |
80/100 |
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| MICHAEL SCHENKER – Temple Of Rock: Live In Europe (2CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Classic Hard Rock | Running time: CD1: 64:38 (Tracks: 13) & CD2: 57:35 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| Well, MICHAEL SCHENKER belongs to one of my all time favorite guitarists since 1979, and that's because Michael Schenker has a very own and recognizable guitar sound. In 1979 I was a 14 year old kid, meanwhile already two years into Hard Rock music, still investigating and discovering Hard Rock bands. So, that year I also bought SCORPIONS' "Lovedrive" (1979) and UFO's "Strangers In The Night" (1979) on vinyl. These two albums were my first acquaintance with Michael Schenker as a guitarist. One year later, in 1980, I bought the debut album of Michael's new band MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP (a.k.a. M.S.G.) "The Michael Schenker Group" (1980), which in my opinion is still his best studio album of M.S.G. ever. Anyway, so far I've seen Michael Schenker three times live, and the last time was on May 13th, 2012 in my hometown Tilburg, Holland, when he did a great show in venue 013. That show in 013 was completely recorded and filmed, and is now eventually released on November 30th, 2012 as a double CD and DVD/Blueray on Inakustic Records, titled "Temple Of Rock: Live In Europe". The line-up in 013 existed, besides Michael Schenker on guitar, of Doogie White (vocals), Wayne Findlay (keyboards, guitar) and ex-SCORPIONS members Francis Bucholz (bass) and Herman Rarebell (drums). And Doogie White is a fantastic singer, who's voice reminds me very much of Biff Byford of SAXON. The set list that evening was just awesome. Although, this was the "Temple Of Rock" tour, Michael only played two songs of his latest solo album "Temple Of Rock" (2011), namely "Hanging On" (with guest vocals of Michael Voss) and "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead". All other songs during the show existed of classics of M.S.G. ("Into The Arena", "Armed And Ready", "Cry For The Nations", "Let Sleeping Dog Lies", "Assault Attack" and "On And On"), SCORPIONS ("Lovedrive", "Another Piece Of Meat", "Coast To Coast", "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "Holiday" and "Blackout") and of course of UFO ("Lights Out", "Let It Roll", "Shoot Shoot", "Rock Bottom" and "Doctor Doctor"). As a bonus concert on disc 2, you'll get 5 songs recorded live at the High Voltage Festival in London, England on July 24th, 2011 (Michael played 8 songs on that festival). The line-up of Michael's band at the High Voltage Festival existed of, besides Michael Schenker, Herman Rarebell and Wayne Findlay, of Michael Voss on vocals, and Elliot Rubinson on bass guitar. Special guest at the High Voltage Festival was Michael's brother Rudolf Schenker (SCORPIONS) who played guitar on "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "Hanging On" and "Doctor Doctor". Other special guests during "Doctor Doctor" are Doogie White and Jeff Scott Soto on vocals and UFO's Pete Way himself on bass. Only, to be honest, the sound of these 5 songs from the High Voltage Festival isn't as great as of the complete show from 013 in Tilburg. Don't get me wrong, the sound of these 5 songs isn't that bad, but it's just less instead of the sound of the show in 013. Anyway, "Temple Of Rock: Live In Europe" is a fantastic live album of Michael Schenker, with, as you can see, an awesome set list. And besides that, of course it is very nice to have an official live album release of a show where you have been yourself. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.michaelschenkerhimself.com
Recordlabel: http://www.in-akustik.com |
88/100 |
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| MUNRUTHEL – Epoch of Aquarius (CD) | Ukraine | February 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Pagan / Black Metal | Running time: 60:01 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| A couple of months back, I reviewed the Munruthel re-release of their 'Epoch of Aquarius' album, which was originally released in 2006. The intro I then used was: “The history of Ukrainian based metal band Munruthel goes back to the mid-nineties. The line-up was unstable at times, as was the musical quality of the releases.” The re-release was used to gain attention to the forthcoming album, that has now seen the light of day. And I must say that the 'teaser' worked, because when I discovered 'CREEDamage' in the mail, a bell was ringing. And as impassioned I was of their previous album, I also am of the new one. The songs are again rather extensive, but the band manages to keep your attention with their accessible style of Black/Pagan metal. Unlike many other bands in the genre, Munruthel uses clean vocals as heard in traditional Heavy Metal music. A combination that works really well on this record. The songs have an epic structure, which makes it interesting to listen to the album in its entirely. Although I must say that the quality of the songs differ from each other. 'CREEDamage' may not be their best work to date, but sufficient enough at this point in time. It's good to see that after nearly twenty years, Munruthel still can come up with an album like this. The heart is definitely in the right place. Respect for Mr. Munruthel Vladislav Redkin! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.munruthel.com
Recordlabel: http://www.svarga.eu MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/slavamunruthel |
70/100 |
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| NERVOCHAOS – To the Death (CD) | Brasil | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Death Metal | Running time: 42:42 (Tracks: 13) | ||
| Nervochaos from brazil started spreading their rage in 1996. They released their first album in 1998 and their second in 2002. 2006 gave light to the “Quarrel in Hell” album and 2010 their fourth album “Battalions of Hate”. If there is one thing that you can say about this band is that there albums are always quality and the same goes for their latest release “To the Death” that is released in this year. 13 tracks of furious satanic death metal. Strong and heavy guitar riffs combined with pounding and tight drums. The vocals are light grunts in vain of Morgoth. The composing of the songs are great and very groovy. The production is also great and reminds me a lot of Pungent Stench because of the raw and filthy sound. If you are into Deicide or Pungent Stench then you are going to enjoy this album. | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nervochaos
Recordlabel: http://www.cogumelo.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nervochaos |
78/100 |
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| OCEANS OF NIGHT – Domain (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Progressive Metal | Running time: 64:45 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| The main man behind Oceans of Night is Scott Mosher who has had a series of collaborations with Scott Oliva. This is the second album under the flag of Oceans of Night. Mosher is responsible for all the guitar-, bass-, and keyboards-parts on this album. Oliva is the vocalist and co-writer on this album whilst Alan Smithee is the drummer and percussionist. Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning) mixed and engineered this album and did, not surprisingly, an excellent job. Mosher is a very creative mastermind. Perhaps this is the reason that the first track on the album, which is the title-track as well, lasts over seventeen minutes. Instead of ending with the epic-track of the album, Mosher starts with it. The song itself, “Domain”, is divided in seven parts. There are really quiet parts that sound very atmospheric. These parts are varied with beautiful guitar playing and also some real progressive metal with keyboards and serene vocals. It all sounds very controlled and well considered. Towards the end, the tempo goes up and Mosher plays a superb guitar solo. “Don't Look to Me” is a heavier more straightforward song, but with enough beautiful parts to enjoy it. On to track three, “So Near Yet So Far”, that has some weird sound effects at the beginning. Than the heavy pounding takes over and the song develops in a great track with again some beautifully played guitar-parts. “Dreams in Artificial Sunlight” is the first of two instrumentals on this album that starts and ends with the sound of a heartbeat. In between it is mainly Mosher who is competing with Mosher on this track that keeps on building up in intensity towards the end. This is an interesting instrumental. Next on is “Divisions of Time”, that has some solid drum rhythms to start of the song. Throughout the track, you will hear many excellent keyboards-parts. “Seven Days of Rain” opens with the sound of waves, seagulls and a boat blowing his horn. The guitar riffs and keyboards slowly get louder until it ends with the sound of a thunder strike. Oliva steps in and lays down some great vocals. Toward the end of the song, it turns into a great display of musical craftsmanship. This is a great progressive metal track and to me one of the best on this album. Besides the long opening track there is also another long track, called “The View to You”, that lasts over eight minutes. This song shows the sheer musical quality of Oceans of Night on this great composition. The second instrumental, “Instruments of Fear”, consists mainly of fast pounding drums accompanied by lots of guitar riffing and soloing. This is a great and heavy piece of music. “The Future Remembered” is filled with dreamy and spacey keyboards for the first part of the song. After some deformed vocals, Oliva starts and takes the lead for the second part of the track. The final track, “Ghosts of the Past”, is one of the simpler tracks on the album that has a repeating groove very present. This album needs some time to get into and enjoy it. I hope that Mosher remains creative and active so we can enjoy more of his material in the future. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.oceansofnight.com
Recordlabel: http://www.theambientmind.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/scottmosher |
83/100 |
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| OPHIDIAN FOREST/ HERESIARCHS OF DIS – Darkest Origins (Split CD) | International/ USA | February 2013 | Dennis van Dommelen |
| Style: Black Metal | Running time: 1:13:25: (Tracks: 12) | ||
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“Dark Origins” previously features unreleased demo's and early work from each artist. Showcasing each band at their most raw and most vicious. The label UW records talks about all tracks being newly re-worked, re-mixed and re-mastered for this collection. I don't believe anything of this since the tracks each sound very different from each
other. For example compare the last track from Heresiarchs of Dis with their other ones. If possible the founding and only member of this band (Cernunnos) would love the other tracks sounding the same as “Circle of Sodomy”. All tracks also those from Ophidian Forest sound as they were recorded from creaking vinyl. Ophidian Forest is an international circle with members coming from Holland, U.S.A. and Croatia. Their pagan/ black metal sounds very harsh but what really makes this band bad is the production. It's quite amazing how bad the mix is on this album. The guitars are really loud and sharp. Sometimes in raw black metal, such in-your-face guitars can create an extremely vicious tone (i.e. Mütiilation). Here it just sounds cheap and false at times. On the faster tracks there's so much feedback that its impossible to distinguish any tune whatsoever. The bass is extremely flat. It's like watching a fish out of water aimlessly flopping about on the inevitable path toward death. The drums are the only good thing sounding on this recordings. So the winner of the two is Heresiarchs of Dis only by delivering such a good last track. “Circle of Sodomy” has some old Emperor worship which I really like. Other tracks are mostly weak sounding Xasthur copies. So two scores for this spilt album but actually I would have liked to rate each song. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.ophidianforest.com
Visit their website: http://www.myspace.com/ophidianforest |
50/63/100 |
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| PARADOX – Tales of the Weird (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Power / Trash Metal | Running time: 55:02 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| Mea maxima culpa; i am not worthy …. No, i ain't worthy writing a review for this album. Simply because i've never taken the trouble to listen to Paradox before. And that has turned out to be a big, very big mistake. Provided to me by Theo Samson for AFM records i took my changes because overall he delivers damn fine, high quality metal. So also this piece of melodic thrash. So i'm not familiair with Paradox earlier releases and their ups-and-downs history but this release is damn good. The album opens with rolling thundercracks paving the perfect way to the melodic trash epic “Tales of the Weird” that clocks over more than 9 minutes filled with brilliant hooks, breaks, melody and the supernatural drums by Daniel “Evil Ewald” Buld. What a drummer this guy is, a real phenonemon ! The speed, the deadly precision, the alternation between thrash and power metal, it all makes this a killer track makes every metal band turn green of jelaousy. The whole nine minutes fly by like an X-15 rocketplane. And this isn't all folks ! This album only can be described as a real monster. Mastermind Charley Steinhauer whose also responsible for the flaming guitarrifs and the perfect fitting vocals, realy exceeds himself and the band with this awesome trash/power attack. The album is filled with the finest power/thrash anthems like the awesome “Judgement Day” with that slow middle piece in which Metallica jused to excellarete, the killer “Brutalized” and the ultimate lumberjack “Slashdead”. If you are into melodic Trash/Powermetal then this is the must have for 2012 ! Worth to mention is the really good cover of Rainbow's “A Light in the Black”. Paradox has managed to give this song the same vibe and feel but also to provide it with a slight paradox gravy. Certainly one of the best metal releases of 2012; get this one and you won't be dissapointed. Stunning album! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.paradox-bangers.com
Recordlabel: http://www.afm-records.de MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/paradoxbangers |
90/100 |
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| PHANTOM-X – The Opera of the Phantom (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: US Power Metal | Running time: 67:27 (Tracks: 16) | ||
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In June 2010 I reviewed the bands “This is War” CD which I liked very much and rated it with 82 out of 100 points. For a bio I recommend to read this 2010 review; most important fact of Phantom X is that singer Kevin Goocher was a member of US cult act Omen. Well personally I like Phantom X more than Omen; simply because Phantom X plays metal in the typical US-metal tradition: up-tempo songs with great musicianship, good vocals and attitude! I also had the luck to book the band twice for MMM shows in The Netherlands and these guys are always politely and very thankfull. Back to the album; this is again a very reliable record which is a good follow up to “This is War”. Only small comment I have is the fact that predecessor “This is War” sounded more varied than “The Opera of the Phantom”. But nevertheless this is again a fine piece of metal in way I like it most. Check this band out if you're into metalbands like: (old) Iced Earth, Vicious Rumors, Iron Maiden & Dio. | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PXMetal
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/phantomxmetal |
80/100 |
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| PINK CREAM 69 - Ceremonial (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Rock | Running time: 58:00 (Tracks:13) | ||
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I like PC '69 very much. The Karlsruhe quintet has surprised many rock fans with great albums and good concerts. The start of ' the pinkies ' in 1987 was fabulous. Their first three albums with Andi Deris on vocals were strong, providing thick heavy metal with great vocals, tight songs and big guitars. The albums gained commercial successes and provided support tours with Europe and White Lion. When Andi left the band to join Helloween, the English singer David Readman took his place. The band recruited an extra guitar player (Alfred Koffler, the original guitar player suffered from neuropathy and Uwe Reitenauer was brought in to strengthen the guitarforce) and the albums with the new forces were very good as well. Pink Cream's tenth album "In10sity" saw the light in 2007 and it was a fine record. In the five years period music of other bands, producing jobs, solo albums and songwriting kept the bandmembers busy and in the meantime drummer Kosta Zafiriou switched his drumseat for a manager's seat for Bottom Row Artists. Chris Schmidt is the new drummer of the band, he was drummer on the Sunstorm albums and the solo records of Harry Hess (Harem Scarem- and Rubber-vocalist). And the new album I am listening to is a fine record as well! The Dennis Ward production (recorded at the Hofa Studios and at Dennis' own Trakshak Place) stands firm, the playing and singing are fantastic, the artwork of Kai Brockschmidt (his artwork can also be seen on albums of Pretty Maids, Royal Hunt, Biss, etc.) shines and the songs are good, very good. Pink Cream '69 has brought a more open approach to the songs. They sound more modern, more contemporary, vitalized, experimental and fresh. Although some of the themes are exchangeable, the tension of " Ceremonial" is kept alive during the tracklist. Frontiers Records will release this album in January, it 's the second album of the band distributed by this Italian melodic rock label. I hope it will be a killer in commercial ways as well! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.pinkcream69.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pc69official |
87/100 |
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| PINNICK GALES PRIDGEN – Pinnick Gales Pridgen (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Manfred Werrger |
| Style: Organic Rock | Running time: 1:12:00 (Tracks: 13) | ||
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Many musicfans smiled when rumours of a collaboration between Doug (Dug) Pinnick, Eric Gales and Thomas Pridgen came above surface. That would be quite a combination of styles! Doug Pinnick is the King's X frontman and bassplayer, gifted with a dark voice and musical skills that brought him a lot of fame and fortune. Eric Gales is the left- handed 'Stratocaster master '. Playing the blues rock guitaristic antics as he invented it himself (with a little help of his hero, the late and great Jimi Hendrix). Eric has made a lot of solo albums (for Elektra, Blues Bureau International, Shrapnel and MCA) and he has made an album with his brothers Eugene and Manuel as well ( “Left hand path”, great stuff!). What a firecracker on six strings he is! And the man's got a fine voice too! Thomas Pridgen isn't a new name as well. This Berklee graduated superdrummer played in The Mars Volta, but he provided genius drums on records of jazz trumpet aceplayer Christian Scott, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Eric Gales ( yeah, we've got a connection) and The Memorials, a band he formed three years ago with his former Berklee friends, as well. The Magna Carta label will be the vehicle for this record and what an album is this! Thirteen tracks, more than one hour of magnificent playing, great songs and superb musical bits and bites! I was surprised that Mike Varney produced this record. He was and is the man behind the Shrapnel and the Blues Bureau International label, but his dry, tight, fair and fat production shines on this album and it creates an emphasis on the songs and the magic musicians. I was afraid the individual qualities of the players would outclass the songs, but they don't. I like the songs very much, they have that Cream, Hendrix, Robin Trower-approach with a lot of 'information ', a lot of 'surprises' in musical and compositional ways. The music has overtones of Living Colour, King's X, Aerosmith on bluesy and funky steroids, The Who, modern rock and superb jazz rock (like Jeff Beck, Spectrum Road, Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Stone Raiders). It's clear that everybody brought their A-game to this record: from the furious opener (Collateral Damage) to the fantastic closing track (Frightening), from the shortest track (For Jasmine, a variation on Beethoven's “Für Elise”) to the longest track on this gem (the British blues-based jam of “Been so high”), from the best known track ( yes, there is a brilliant cover of “Sunshine of your love”) to the new street credibility of “Hate crime”, this record floored me! What a brilliant start of 2013. It will be difficult to top this record, it will be released on the 12th of February. Get it! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.magnacarta.net/pinnickgalespridgen
Recordlabel: http://www.magnacarta.net FAcebook: http://www.facebook.com/EricGalesr |
92/100 |
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| PLAYER – Too many Reasons (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Westcoast / AOR | Running time: 1:02:13 (Tracks: 14) | ||
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A few months ago I had the opportunity to review the comeback EP of Player, the collaboration between Ron Moss and Peter Beckett. I wasn't too keen on this mini-album. The songs had no balls and besides a nice rendition of their seventies classic hit "Baby come back" the album had not much to offer. I was afraid that Frontiers Records, the Italian label of Serafino Perugino, had signed a wrong band, trusting the famous names on their reputation, their fame and their musical heydays way back. After hearing the new album of Player I can say that my fear and feelings about the new Player- opus are misplaced, because "Too many reasons" is a good album. The songs have a nice Westcoast- approach, poppy overtones and Peter Beckett's voice is a perfect fit for the songs he wrote with Mr. Bold and Beautiful and a few co-writers. The albums starts powerful with a very good song " Man on fire" and the poppy " Precious" is a nice follower. " I will " is a nice acoustic ballad, beautifully sung . " Tell me" is a powerhouse pop song with a beautiful chorus. " Sins of yesterday" has a slow pace, a Paul Carrack- like approach, again beautiful sung by Beckett. " You're my addiction" is a song of the mini-album, co-written by Steve Plunkett. Nice song, a bit Beatlesque chorus draws your attention. The title track is a real cracker, starting acoustically and keeping the slowrock-status with a great chorus. " To the extreme" is a nice commercial sound mid-paced song. " The words you say" is again a soft song, not very good. " Life in color" speeds up the album, with a great chorus and a nice guitar solo. Too bad this album hasn't got more of this. " Part of me" and " Kites" are ballads again. " Nothing like you" is a good song, a more typical adult orientated rock song and the album closes with a remake of their megahit from January 1978. Player has made a fine album with lots of poppy, soft-rock overtones. It's the voice of Peter Beckett that shines throughout this album. It's an album for a romantic late night adventure, that's for sure. Great album for the softrockers among us. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.player-theband.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it Visit his website: http://www.peterbeckett-player.com |
79/100 |
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| RADICAL NERVE DISTORTION – Incubator Of Psychosis (CD) | The Netherlands | February 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Hardcore Thrash Metal | Running time: 37:25 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| Radical Nerve Distortion initially started out as Rager in 2002, but changed their name after they recorded their very first promo. R.N.D. originators are Hans B. (guitar) and Hans K. (drums/vocals), who were completed by Tommy J. On bass in 2003. At this time their second promo is recorded with songs like 'Meatman' and 'Divebomber'. In January 2005 their next promo recordings see the light of day, on it their all time classic cult song 'Every Knee Shall Bow'. By the end of 2006 R.N.D. decides to look out for a singer/frontman, which they find in Stefan. By this time the band records their first cd 'Old Style Scare Tactics' at the Excess studio in Rotterdam. After a while Stefan decided to quit the band, and in 2010 their next promo is released. At that time the bands decides to get a second guitar player, which they found in Lars A. early 2011. In this line up R.N.D. recorded the 'Nailgunning your Dome' ep, which review you can also find on this website, but right after Hans B. decided to leave the band. The band goes on as a powertrio, and in September 2012 their second full length album 'Incubator of Psychosis' is getting recorded. Now it's here 12 deadly and aggressive attacks at your eardrums, although there has been some progression in their music, since I reviewed their 'Nailgunning your dome' ep. The music is still raw and brutal, with aggressive, raw vocals, but there is a little more variation in their songs, which does their music good. Still mainly thrash/hardcore what is offered here, with a fairly good production, R.N.D. is hammering on forwards with this album. 'Choketool' blasts out of your speakers when you put this album on, a most likely to become classic track, very heavy that is! Among the high lights of this album are songs like 'Bleeding from both sides', 'E.K.I.A.' (Enemy Killed In Action), 'Awake the Bloodshed', with the vocal duties done by Lars, also the titletrack and 'Battered Yet Unbeaten' with a guest solo from Ola Englund (Who also mastered the album). The album finishes off with 'When Fingers Become Fists', a nice song to scream along with, will probably do nice during live performances, still waiting for that to happen though, anyway until then we have the album to enjoy! You can purchase your example directly from the band itself. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.radical-nerve-distortion.nl
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RadicalNerveDistortion |
83/100 |
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| RED ROSE – On the Cusp of Change (CD) | Israel | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Hard Rock / Metal with pop rock influences | Running time: 43:59 (Tracks: 8) | ||
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The Israeli heavy rock and metal scene are small. Just like the home country, there is simply not enough space for a tour, not enough space to expand or get a wide recognition. Two of these Israeli rock – and cover bands joined forces in the end of the first decennium in the 21st century and Red Rose was born. The name of the band represents the band's vision: a romantic, beautiful dream with the bitter thorns of the real truth, of the reality. A clear vision of the historical and daily news of this country in the Middle East region.
As many bands from this part in the world, Red Rose turned their heads to Europe and Angelo Mora, journalist and reviewer for the Italian Hard Rock magazine, got the promo package of Red Rose and he inspired the band to sign a record deal with Scarlet Records.
In 2011 the debut album ' Live the life you've imagined' was released on Bakerteam Records from Milan and it gained good reviews. The record was full of melodic rock, with various hints of pop music and progressive pinches as well. I liked the record that time and was curious about a possible successor.
And yes, that second album will be released on the Scarlet Record label at the end of February. Mario, editor in chief, has send me a review copy and I'm again very fond of the music of these Israeli musicians. Red Rose's music is melodic rock with very good and solid guitarwork by Elnur Aliev and beautiful atmospheric keyboards by Deion Kristen. The vocals of Leve Laiter are very poppy, a bit thin and 'young', but fitting well in the diversity of themes, arrangements, harmonies and choruses. The music made me think of Avalon (the German band with this name), Jaded Heart, Corako, Lee Z, rustique Helloween, early TNT and early Mad Max. That diversity is one of the strong points of this band. Modern vibes (" King of the local crowd"), progressive paths ("Seize the day", "When roses faded" and "This bitter world"), melodic hard rock(" Chasing freedom" and " Don't believe these tales") and atmospheric metal ("Original sin"), it's all on this album. The lyrics contain that diversity as well: a lot of themes have "the fatalism, the catastrophe" opus, but there are many themes about relationships, positive and free speech and thinking also. Mastermind Tommy Hansen recorded the album at his Jailhouse Studio and he produced this good sounding album. It sounds tighter, fresher and heavier than the debut album. There's a lot of focus on the melodic instruments, the songs ,the themes and structures within them. The heavy drum work is created by Orphaned Land wizard Mathan Shmuely. The artwork is beautiful, the Brazilian artist Jobert Mello of Sledgehammer Graphix, took care of this fine imagination. Give this Israeli band a fair chance! They deserve it! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.redrose.co.il
Recordlabel: http://www.scarletrecords.it Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/redroseband |
82/100 |
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| SAXON – Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie (2DVD) | United Kingdom | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Heavy Metal / Documentary | Running time: DVD1: 2:02:32 & DVD2: 2:56:57 | ||
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In June of 2012 I reviewed the 2CD & DVD of "Heavy Metal Thunder - Live - Eagles Over Wacken". Well, now SAXON are back with a new double DVD, titled "Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie", and is released on December 8th, 2012. "Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie" is a very interesting documentary about the career of this British icon of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal scene. DVD 1 tells about how it all started in the coalfields of Yorkshire, where Peter "Biff" Byford started to work as well in the pits. Biff said 'The coalmine is a most frightening place for a 17, 18 year old lad to be down there'. Biff also tells that he learned to play bass in the coalmines during his shifts (Biff played bass on the "Rock The Nations" (1986) album, after Steve Dawson had left the band). SAXON started their career under the name of SOB, which they changed into SON OF A BITCH and eventually became SAXON. On DVD 1 are of the original line-up of SAXON, with the exception of drummer Pete Gill, singer Biff Byford, guitarists Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn and bassist Steve "Dobby" Dawson talking about different topics, such as each studio album of the band, touring (in the early days they even slept on mattresses in their tour bus), their management, sex and drugs. Other people who are telling something about SAXON are British journalist Geoff Barton (founder of KERRANG magazine), one of the band's managers David Poxon, but also famous musicians of the Metal scene, such as Lemmy Kilmister (MOTÖRHEAD), Eddie Clarke (ex-MOTÖRHEAD, FASTWAY), Lars Ulrich (METALLICA) are telling something. SAXON has been a big influence for many bands, so also for METALLICA as Ulrich tells.
Well, DVD2 features seven chapters, which are: – "Building The Labyrinth" (15:11): Biff, Paul and Doug in the studio recording songs for the "Into The Labyrinth" (2009) album; – "The Eagle And The Bomber" (22:10); Biff and Lemmy talking, SAXON preparing themselves in their dressing room for a gig in Wales and in Bristol; – "Strong Arm Of The Law: Saxon On The Beat Club 1981" (56:40): a fantastic concert filmed in the Beat Club in Bremen, Germany for German TV program Musik Laden (which ran from December 1972 to November 1984). The set list of this show exists of the following songs "Heavy Metal Thunder", "See The Light Shining", "Hungry Years", "Rainbow Theme/Frozen Rainbow", "And The Bands Played On", "Strong Arm Of The Law", "747 (Strangers In The Night)", "Freeway Mad", "Dallas 1PM", "Wheels Of Steel" and "Machine Gun"; – "On A Crusade" (19:31): shows us interviews with Biff, Steve, Paul, Graham, Nigel and producer Kevin Beamish done by Donna Carlisle during the recording of the "Crusader" (1984) album. You can see the guys have a lot of fun. Even when one of the members threw a pie in the face of drummer Nigel, Nigel just seriously continues with the interview; – "No Excuses" (10:57) shows us some footage from the recording sessions of the "Innocence Is No Excuse" (1985) album; – "St. George's Day 2008" (50:50): this is also a complete concert registration of SAXON. The set list of this show exists of "Intro", "Princess Of The Night", "Never Surrender", "Jack Tars", "English Man 'O' War", "Sixth Form Girls", "Warrior", "Battle Cry", "Man And Machine", "I've Got To Rock (To Stay Alive)", "And The Bands Played On", "Denim And Leather", "Ashes To Ashes" and "Crusader"; – "Big Nibbs, Little Nibbs" (2:18), which is just a very short interview with bass player Nibbs Carter done by a young kid at Wacken Open Air. Of this second DVD are especially the two concert registrations a pleasure to watch. Altogether, I enjoyed it very much watching "Heavy Metal Thunder: The Movie", it's a very interesting documentary about this legendary NWOBHM band, and like I said, the two shows on DVD2 are just fantastic. So, this DVD is absolutely a real recommendation to any metalhead and is of course a must have for any die-hard SAXON fan. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.saxon747.com
Recordlabel: http://www.udr-music.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/planetsaxon |
87/100 |
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| SEPTIC CHRIST – Guilty As We Were Born (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal / Crossover | Running time: 41:27 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| For more info about German Thrash Metal/Crossover band SEPTIC CHRIST see also my review of the band's debut album "Infected Existence" (2009) of this months update. "Guilty As We Were Born" is the second album of SEPTIC CHRIST and was released in March of 2012 on Malevolence Records. Thrash fanatics who liked the band's fantastic debut album, will absolutely like this second album as well. Actually, there's not much changed, the line-up on this album is still the same and SEPTIC CHRIST still treats us on some good Bay Area influenced Thrash Metal with some Hardcore elements as well. The only difference is that this second album features twelve tracks instead of the debut album, which featured eight songs. Anyway, just like the "Infected Existence" album, also this one starts with an instrumental track (and is again also the title track of the album), followed by the fast "Starstruck" (3:23). I must say that, although "Guilty As We Were Born" has made a lot of spins as well in my CD-player, I think that the debut "Infected Existence" is the best one of those two albums. Don't get me wrong, "Guilty As We Were Born" is absolutely not a bad album, it is still a very nice album to listen to, but in my opinion the band's debut album is just better. Just like "Infected Existence" also "Guilty As We Were Born" was produced by Christoph Brandes and sounds good. Well, as I said above, if you already liked "Infected Existence" very much, then you will like "Guilty As We Were Born" too. Anyway, my favourite songs of this album are the above mentioned "Starstruck", "Be A Man" (2:41), "The Legacy" (2:55), "G.D.L.B." (3:01) and "Political Playground" (3:59). | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.malevolence-records.us
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bowtothechrist |
79/100 |
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| SEPTIC CHRIST – Infected Existence (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Thrash Metal / Crossover | Running time: 27:03 (Tracks: 8) | ||
| On July 6th, 2012 I saw German Thrash Metal/Crossover band SEPTIC CHRIST live at the Little Devil, Tilburg, Holland, where they played together with the bands ABSENTIA, T.C.F. and KAOS (all also on Malevolence Records). What I remember is that of those four bands, I liked T.C.F. and SEPTIC CHRIST the most. I had seen T.C.F. already several times before, but it was the first time that I saw the other bands. And SEPTIC CHRIST made a good impression on me. Anyway, now I got the two albums of SEPTIC CHRIST from Mario to review for MMM, namely this one "Infected Existence", which is their debut album and was released in 2009, and their second album "Guilty As We Were Born" (2012). Well, the band started in October of 2005 under the name NOTHING TO NOTHING, but since December 2007 SEPTIC CHRIST was born. SEPTIC CHRIST exists of Bobby Shortleg (vocals), JxNothing (guitar), Chris Septic (bass) and Joey Collapse (drums). These four German guys play old school Bay Area Thrash Metal like in the eighties, and you can hear they are influenced by bands such as ANTHRAX, S.O.D./M.O.D., EXODUS, TESTAMENT etcetera. Anyway, this album starts with the instrumental "Infected Existence (Pre-Game)" (2:31) followed by "W.D.W.F. (Wake Up)" (2:58). If you listen to the riffs of these two tracks, you immediately hear the influences of S.O.D./M.O.D. and ANTHRAX. And for example, "Permitted By God" (5:22) sounds very much like EXODUS. The other songs on this album are "Walls" (3:04), "Three Letters Called Hell" (2:59), "Stand Up Straight" (3:37), "Thrashing With Style" (3:01) and "No Respect" (3:28). In fact, there isn't any weak song on "Infected Existence", because all songs are a real pleasure to listen to. As well as this album "Infected Existence" as the "Guilty As We Were Born" album (see also this months update) have both made a lot of spins so far, and especially this one, will visit my CD-player more often, that's for sure because I like this stuff very much. Although it all sounds not that original, SEPTIC CHRIST is an interesting band for any thrasher and hardcore freak, and is in my opinion absolutely a band worth checking out. | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.malevolence-records.us
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bowtothechrist |
83/100 |
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| SEVEN KINGDOMS – The Fire is Mine (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Power Metal | Running time: 53:06 (Tracks: 11) | ||
| This is Seven Kingdom's third effort. The world premiere of the single “After the Fall” was at the Progpower USA- festival in Atlanta on the sixteenth of September 2012. Seven Kingdoms consists of Sabrina Valentine (vocals), Camden Cruz and Kevin Byrd (guitars), Aaron Sluss (bass) and Keith Byrd (drums). The sounds of thunder and lightning combined with some screaming birds and galloping horses mark the start of this album. It's “Beyond the Wall” and it lasts just over one minute. The overall feeling is a spooky one. Then all hell breaks loose as “After the Fall” kicks off. It is fast and furious metal with female vocals. All through the song, there is a bombardment of guitar solos whilst the rhythm section lays down a pounding drive. It turns out to be a very powerful and catchy track that sticks to your mind right away. What a great way to start an album. The speed and power remain present on “Forever Brave” as this song is on the move constantly with the two guitarists duelling like crazy. The overall sound is fantastic. Valentine's voice is not your typical female voice. She has a lot of power and her vocals fit this power attack perfectly. Besides this, she also has a recognisable unique sound. Double guitar riffing and double bass drums mark the beginning of “Flame of Olympus”, which is a very catchy song. The complete track flows very easily into the listener's ears. “Symphony of Stars” is a bit slower and less powerful in the first part of the song and has Valentine excelling. A bit into the song, Sluss and Byrd get more prominent and the pounding sets in. This leads the way for Cruz and Byrd to play some screaming guitar solos. Next one is the title-track that contains some other elements like different vocals-parts and a bit less power metal squeezed into the track as the pace is a bit slower. “Kardia” is an acoustic ballad, which features Valentine. She sings this song brilliantly as this song is a real oases of rest between the impressive power metal on the other tracks. On “Fragile Minds Collapse”, it is back to business as the power trip continues. Luckily, there is plenty of space for great guitar parts. The next track, “In the Twisted Twilight”, is a mix of melodic and power metal. The composition consists of beautiful vocals and modest guitar playing varied with pounding double-bass drums and fast guitar parts. The next minute consist of a spoken-word interlude with the sound of horses, called “A Debt Paid in Steel”. The last track on the album is with its seven minutes and fifty seconds by far the longest track on this album. This track, “The King in the North” has a lot of variation in the song itself. There are choral backings to be heard and there are some resting points along the track. Valentine herself sings beautifully and the band shows their quality one last time on this great composition. If you are into power metal this album is a must have. If you just want to check them out, Seven Kingdoms will be touring Europe in March and April opening for Stratovarius and Amaranthe. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.sevenkingdoms.net
Recordlabel: http://www.nightmarerecords.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sevenkingdoms |
85/100 |
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| SICADIS – Blood Of A Thousand Hearts (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Metalcore / Thrash Metal / Death Metal | Running time: 33:44 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| SICADES (pronounced: Si-kay-diss), a 5 piece band from Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is totally new to me. So, when I put this album in my CD-player I didn't know what to expect. Anyway, the band exists of Brett Carter (vocals), Andy Nagorski (guitar), Mike MacDowell (guitar), Dustin Johnson (bass) and Cameron Fitzmaurice (drums). "Blood Of A Thousand Hearts" is the band's debut album, and was released in early 2012 by the band themselves. Well, what I can say about "Blood Of A Thousand Hearts" is, that it's a very varied and interesting modern Metal album. To me, the band, which exists of excellent musicians, plays a mixture of Metalcore, Deathcore, Thrash Metal and Death Metal. Also the vocals of Brett Carter are very varied. Carter sings both brutal as well as grunting, and especially on the second half of the album he sings also clean melodic parts. Anyway, the album starts with the short intro "Sail Hatin'" (0:50) followed by "Insult To Injury" (2:34). Another short intro on the album is "A Fading Light" (0:43), which is the intro for "My Redemption" (4:45). Guest vocals on "My Redemption" are done by Tyler Lyon. Other guest vocals on this album are done by Ivan Moody (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) and Derek Thompson on "Through These Eyes" (3:26). I think this band will absolutely do it very well among the younger generation metal heads. If you like bands such as HATEBREED, SLIPKNOT, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, CHIMAIRA, BLEEDING THROUGH, PARKWAY DRIVE, UNEARTH etcetera, you'll have to check this album out. I'm sure you will like songs such as "Voice Of A Martyr" (4:52), "Soldiers Of Damnation" (4:10), "No Sympathy (For The Weak)" (4:34), "Through These Eyes" and "Slay The Masses" (3:40) very much. With this debut album the band delivers an excellent business card. Well done guys. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/sicadis
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sicadis |
80/100 |
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| SNAKECHARMER - Snakecharmer (CD) | United Kingdom | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Classic Rock | Running time: 52:00 (Tracks:12) | ||
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Micky Moody 's post Whitesnake career was drenched in the blues. His collaboration with his former fellow guitar player and friend Bernie Marsden was great. Micky made some solo albums as well. His companionship with his former Whitesnake-friends in Company of Snakes (with Swedish vocalist Stefan Berggren), The Snakes (with starvocalist Jorn Lande) and MIII (with Tony Martin) kept him in shape. The last two years Micky was the leader of " An evening of classic Whitesnake " touring Great Britain, the European continent and Japan. Micky had good company on this musical adventure: singer Chris Ousey, former Heartland and Virginia Wolf vocalist, guitar player Laurie Wisefield of Wishbone Ash, Joe Cocker, Roger Chapman , the musical backbone behind
" We will rock you, the musical " and Tina Turner fame, Neil Murray, bass player for Whitesnake, Colosseum, Black Sabbath and Vow Wow and Harry James (drummer and madman of Thunder). I saw this quartet last year playing classic post-Purple-Coverdale alive in Zoetermeer. It felt good, although I was not very fond of the live vocals of Chris Ousey.
The musical friends have made a studio album under the monicker of Snakecharmer. Keyboards and piano are played by Adam Wakeman, son of Rick, the virtuoso keyboard wizard of Yes and Strawbs. Adam isn't a newbie either. He has provided keyboards on Black Sabbath and Ozzy tours and many poprecords in the UK. Snakecharmer has made a solid album, that's for sure. Classic Whitesnake- tones are everywhere on this disc, but the album has a lot of influences of Bad Company, Humble Pie and early eighties' Foreigner. Chris Ousey sounds very good on disc, the songs have a strong rhythmic backbone and there's enough room for Micky and Laurie playing leads and providing rough and tough riffs. The keyboards add magical backgrounds for this classic rock opus ( just listen to the intros for " Smoking gun" and " To the rescue"), they make the songs wider, broader and more interesting. From the fabulous opening track " My angel" to the acoustic driven closing track " Cover me in you" the album will grab you and the tension will hold on untill the last seconds of this disc. Great record, Frontiers Records will release this gem at the end of January. Get it pronto! | |||
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Visit their website: http://snakecharmer.org
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.mickymoody.com |
84/100 |
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| STORMRIDER – The Path Of Salvation (CD) | Germany | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Heavy / Power Metal | Running time: 55:50 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| "The Path Of Salvation" is the third album of German Power Metal band STORMRIDER, and the second one released by Pure Steel Records. The band, which exists since 2002, released their debut album "Shipwrecked" in 2005 and their second one "Fate Of The Hunter" in 2008. With this third album, which was released in October of 2012, STORMRIDER celebrates their tenth anniversary. The line-up of STORMRIDER exists of Stefan Hebes (vocals), Ingo Rieger (guitar), Jan Gerbracht (guitar), Daniel Woyke (bass) and Tim Nestler (drums). Personally I am not familiar with the previous two albums, so this third album is my first acquaintance with these Germans. And I must say that it was a very nice acquaintance, because this is a very good album, with ten excellent songs, great musicianship and good vocals of Hebes (he sounds like Bruce Dickinson with a lower voice). With the melodic Power Metal that the band plays, STORMRIDER reminds me of a mixture of IRON MAIDEN and ICED EARTH. So if you like these bands, I would advise to check this album out. I'm sure you will like songs such as "The Path Of Salvation" (4:50), "Across The Acheron" (6:01), "Long Way Down" (6:12), "Heretics" (6:03), "The Sentence Divine" (6:25) and "Into The Light" (5:40), because these are all excellent compositions, with fantastic riffs and guitar solos. So my end conclusion is that "The Path Of Salvation" is a good album and absolutely an album worth checking out if you like traditional heavy- and power metal. Well done guys. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.stormrider-metal.de
Recordlabel: http://www.puresteel-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/stormridermetal |
78/100 |
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| SUTUANA – Araba Fenice (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Hard Rock | Running time: 43:33 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| First of all, I never had heard of Italian band SUTUANA before. Well, we have to deal here with four Italian guys, who started early 2006 as a cover band. In 2006 they recorded their first demo, titled "Live In Studio", which featured some covers. After several gigs, the band decided to start writing their own songs. So, in 2007 they presented their promo "Porco Giochi". In 2009 SUTUANA released their debut album "PerdutaMente…". According to the information on the band's MySpace page, that album got good reviews. Now I've got the band's second album "Araba Fenice" to review, which was released in July of 2011. The line-up of the band exists of Diego Boschini (vocals, guitar), Lorenzo Zagni (guitar), Marco Nicoli (bass) and Gianluca Montanari (drums). To be honest, I am not that impressed. First of all, I don't like it to listen to songs, which are all sung in Italian, and secondly, the songs the band wrote for this album are not that fantastic. In that case, you could say that SUTUANA is nothing more than one of those many moderate bands. I only have listened two times to "Araba Fenice", and then I had enough of it. There isn't just any song which I really liked. And it would be a waste of my time to listen more times to this album. Well, personally I also can't imagine that there are people outside Italy, who will like this album, because in my opinion you could compare SUTUANA with any other moderate local band in your own neighbourhood. So, this release is only interesting for Italians, and for those who are already familiar with SUTUANA. Next album please. | |||
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Recordlabel: http://www.sgrecords.it
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sutuana |
45/100 |
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| TALAMYUS – Raven's Call to Annihilation (CD) | Canada | February 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Thrash / Heavy Metal | Running time: 48:31 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| For any band who plays Thrash / Viking metal, it is hard to stay away from the typical cliché's that are making this style so recognizable. While listening to the third album of Canadian metal combo TALAMYUS, I can conclude that they didn't even made the attempt. 'Raven's Call to Annihilation' is one big cliché with borrowed riffs and song structures that are very predictable. Luckily TALAMYUS is able to use these ingredients and turn them into qualitatively good songs. Not great, but certainly good. From the moment the title-track opens the album, you know exactly what you can expect for the next fifty minutes: traditional, brutal riffs accompanied by melodic soloing and solid drum patterns. It's easy to sit through each and every song, because it sounds so familiar and accessible. Fourth track 'The Berserkers' is the summit of this, since the mid-section is an obvious Iron Maiden rip off. But aside from the cliché's, songs like the instrumental 'Inner Turmoil' and 'Spawn of the Elements' are from an excellent quality. Lyrically, the band outlines the Viking era, with topics like war, death and other fun stuff. The artwork accompanies this theme. 'Raven's Call to Annihilation' is an recommendation for the enthusiast of traditional Thrash/Viking metal. If you are one of them, you may also enjoy their previous albums 'As long as it Flows' which was released in 2005 and 'In These Days of Violence' from 2007. At this moment, the band is writing material for their forthcoming album. It will be the first with female vocalist Krystal Koffin. Warning: if metal-cliché's give you skin eruption, it's better to let this album get passed you… | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.facebook.com/talamyus
Recordlabel: http://www.prcmusic.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/talamyus |
70/100 |
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| THABU - Reborn (CD) | Argentina | February 2013 | Jordy Brouwers |
| Style: Prog Metal | Running time: 44:18 (Tracks: 9) | ||
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I always thought that only nice princesses and delicious steaks came from Argentina, but Thabu shows that also good progressive metal comes from this country. I am not really familiar with the metal scene in South America, I only know Sepultura as a huge act. But I am quite surprised by the cd Reborn from Thabu. Thabu was formed in September of 2004 by Carlos Di Tirro (Vocals and Keyboard), Santiago Diaz Garces (Guitar) and Leandro Bulanikian (Drums). In 2005, the band (with Santiago Diaz Garces also on Bass), recorded their first EP. The band toured quite a lot during these days and in September 2008, the band released their first full length album called "La Opresion de lo Inevitable" (The oppression of the Inevitable). After the release of this album, the band replaced singer Carlos Di Tirro due to musical and personal differences. From this moment, the band decided to compose and to record the second CD. In the meanwhile, Thabu started with the search for a new singer. After several auditions, the band decided to incorporate the Chilean singer James Robledo (Ex Alternancia). He, according to the band, “fits good with the sound pretended by the band because of his vocal versatility, giving to the band the final touch to start this new phase.” In December 2012, the band released "Reborn", their new album. This album brings us 9 songs in the style of Dream Theater and Symphony X: heavy guitars, (sometimes) technical drum parts, tempo changes and sometimes quite complex compositions. If you already have some cd `s of these bands in your possession, then this release will bring you not much news. However, I want to be clear that the music is not boring and that the musicians are well skilled, but it is not so original. I can appreciate the powerful riffs of Diaz Garces and the voice of Robledo during several songs (like A Game of Lies), although the last one has to take care that he exaggerates not too much. Everything has to be functional. The CD surprises me only during the last track, Violentango. This instrumental number indicates that the band has potential and I hope that the will grow further in the future. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thabu.com.ar
Recordlabel: http://www.pureprog-records.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thabuspace |
71/100 |
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| THE STOMPCRASH - Directions (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Dark New Wave | Running time: 49:00 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| Getting your inspiration from gothic story writers like Kafka, Poe and Lovecraft promises some dark gothic music. That was the beginning in 2002. Well as The Stompcrash mentions, this second attempt provides a new sound, more define and conscious. “Directions” it is called and it overall ain't really dark anymore. Mostly it provides strong new wave and poppy influences and the gothic feel comes from vocalist Christian Celsi who has the perfect deep melancholic voice for this stuff. He reminds me of End of Green singer Michelle Darkness to make some comparison. Opener “Awaken From Uneasy Dream” is a brilliant track in the old pre gothic style of bands like Fields of The Nephilim and Sisters Of Mercy to name the most famous ones, and even after thirty times listening it still is a real classic in it's genre for me. Also “The Leaves Begin To Fall” and “Black Dahlia” are in this style. Overall however it's all too “light”, melodic and poppy for me, too much use of keys. A welcome variation is the damn good catchy “Cat's Eyes”, the quick “Enemy at your Gate” and “Hazel” which is sung by keyboard player Daniela Palermo. So this album has it's moments for me. For the future it will depend on what direction they are really going to take. The style these Italians bring with old new wave influences like The Cure is certainly daring and I hope for them that there are more adepts who are going to like this. I'm not becoming a big fan right now because it's too sweet for my metal heart but the band has quality. If they sound live more fierce than on this record they would be very nice for the Summer Darkness festival. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thestompcrash.com
Recordlabel: http://www.auralmusic.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.thestompcrash |
74/100 |
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| THE WAY OF PURITY – Equate (CD) | Norway | February 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Black Metal / Deathcore | Running time: 37:54 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| I'm no stranger to Norwegian band The Way Of Purity, since I reviewed their 'Biteback' EP and the poorly produced short film 'A Passage to the Purity of Pain in May of 2012. In my review on 'Biteback', I mentioned that that full-length album 'Equate' was already available and I was looking forward to hearing it. It has took a while, but the album has finally reached the MMM office. For those who are not familiar with what this band is about: The Way of Purity surrounds itself with controversy. Sometimes I get the feeling that they really, really try to be and look controversial, with their vision of the human race must be destroyed so that animals can rule the world again (!). I can't shake the feeling that it's more image than belief, but who am I…well, I'm here to talk about the music of this Black Metal/Deathcore band and I must say: the band has lived up to the expectations of 'Biteback.' Two of the songs that were present on the EP, 'Eternal Damnation To Rene' and 'Keep Dreaming' have found their way to the album. Aside from that, 'Equate' offers eight more songs in which the band has made a noticeable progression compared to a couple of years ago. The songs, which can be described as Black and Death metal with deathcore influences, are well written. Almost accessible, for as far as this type of music can get accessible. The tracks are compact, melodious and varied. The band experimented a lot with clean female vocals and subtle breakdowns, altered with aggressive double-bass patterns. With 'Equate' The Way of Purity developed themselves as a band. They still operate in the love it or hate it section, but with that image, I'm guessing that's the idea. The band has yet again surprised me and if they keep up this work ethic, they will become a household name in the niche that is extreme metal. Although I still set a question mark when it comes to their image, I can't help to find The Way of Purity very interesting. Go see for yourself! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.thewayofpurity.com
Recordlabel: http://www.wormholedeath.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thewayofpurity |
72/100 |
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| UNDERWELL – Plan Your Rebirth (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Robin van Tilburg |
| Style: Melodic Heavy Metal | Running time: 38:18 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| When reading the promotional package of the first Underwell record 'Plan Your Rebirth', the band strikes me as pretty serious. Terms such as Word crisis, riots and 'the system must fall' are thrown around in this somewhat philosophical message. Interesting topics for any metal-act. But then I read the vocalist calls himself Marshmallow…to me, that makes it a bit less believable. But let's step away from this foot-note and talk music shall we? Underwell plays a type of music that can be described as Post Hardcore. A tricky genre, because of the hundreds and hundreds of bands that play this type of music. Luckily, Underwell delivered an album that is very enjoyable to listen to. Although it is not very original, the music is aggressive and really sooths the aforementioned lyrical themes such as crisis, war and fighting for your rights. The metalcore is recognizable an varied, especially with the melodic breaks in which the vocals switch from screams to clean singing. The enthusiast of Post Hardcore / Metalcore may find this very interesting. 'Plan Your Rebirth' will not make Underwell one of the greatest acts in the genre, but has enough quality to stand out from the average band. Well done for a first album! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.underwell.com
Recordlabel: http://www.wormholedeath.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/underwell |
70/100 |
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| V.A. (Various Artist) - MALEVOLENCE RECORDS – 2012 European Tour Sampler (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Kees Schijven |
| Style: Thrash Metal | Running time: 32:33 min (Tracks: 8) | ||
| Although we're not usually reviewing much samplers, this one got an exception, it's a collaberation between Malevolance Records and Metal Over Oostrozebeke. Last one is organiser of a metal festival in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, which took place on the 7th. of July 2012 where the 4 bands on this sampler played. KAOS is on this release with 2 songs, 'Internal Bleeding' , from their latest release the 'Validated in Blood' ep and 'Let God Sort Em Out' from their last full lenght album 'The Pits of Existence'. Pure old school thrash metal is offered by this great band, see also the review of their latest ep. Furthermore we find Absentia with 2 songs on here too, tracks 2 and 6. This band from Spain plays a kind of dark metal with a lot of gothic influences, their music reminded me a bit of Moonspell. Absentia has released two albums so far, and delivers one track from each album, 'If Only I' from their latest album 'Our Bleeding Sun' (2011), and 'A kiss from Hellaven' from their 2009 release 'Heaven Still Burns'. Two songs with a lot of variation in them, very melodic with some brutal vocalities in them. Not really my cup of tea, but I know there is a big market for this kind of music. Third in row are Septic Christ from Germany, originally formed as Nothing to Nothing in October 2005, but split up a short time later. The band then reformed as Septic Christ in December 2007. This band also released two albums, and we get a song from each of them, first up is 'Yearning For Salvation' from their latest release 'Guilty as we were born' (2012) wich starts off with a nice intro before it blasts away full speed ahead. Thrash metal old school style is offered here, full of energy and aggression. Track 7 comes from their debut album 'Infected Existence' (2009) and is called 'Wake Up', and this is exactly what they make you do, very energetic thrash with screaming vocals and heavy riffing guitars, very enjoyable! Last one on this sampler is T.C.F., or ThrashCoreFanatics from the Netherlands, a band that plays a kind hardcore thrash crossover metal in the veins of D.R.I. and S.O.D., fast and short, angry and aggressive, 'Core 88' from their 2009 EP 'Speed or Bleed', and 'An Eye For An Eye' from their 2011 debut album 'Where Madness Reigns', of which the first one is the better one in my opinion. This sampler gives us a nice insight of what kind of bands played on the 'Metal Over Oostrozebeke' festival in 2012, which must have been a hell of a party you ask me! And also what Malevolence Records has to offer by these four bands, all four great bands, with Absentia being a bit of an outsider on this release, because of the kind of metal they play, but if you are into thrash metal this certainly could be a release of your interest. | |||
| Recordlabel: http://www.malevolence-records.us |
80/100 |
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| VEXILLUM – The Bivouac (CD) | Italy | February 2013 | Frans Neelen |
| Style: Folk Power Metal | Running time: 67:43 (Tracks: 12) | ||
| Vexillum hails from Italy and was formed by Michele Gasparri in 2004 under the name of Shadow Vexillum. In 2006 their first EP “Neverending Quest” saw the light, followed in 2010 by their debut “The Wandering Notes”. “The Bivouac” is their second album on which they are trying to put their hometown Pisa on the metal landscape instead of just remembering Pisa of their leaning tower. Well to succeed in that; ehm, well that's almost impossible or they should reach the status of AC/DC. Dreams are made to fulfil so let's give it a try. Metal with folk influences is what they bring. If you are really fond of this stuff, then Vexillum really has something to offer. Musically it's all done very well; lot's of interludes are digested in the songs like the Celtic flute and the divers animal/forest sounds. Strong point of the band are the vocals of Dario Vallesi. He has a pleasant clean power metal voice that lifts up the numbers. Opener “The Wanderer's Note” is high class stuff. A really good solid metal track that promises a lot. Also “Dethrone the Tyrant” shows the more metal side and for me this are the best ones. After this the folk influences entrée and sometimes it's a bit too much of that for me. Less metal, more folk and sometimes I miss the balance between both. “The Marketsquare of Dooly” shows the more epic side and is also one of the highlights. Also the nice duet with some female vocals in “The Oak and Lady Flame” and the campfire sing a long “Valhalla” guarantee diversion. Nevertheless clocking sixty seven minutes it's a long seat for me. Next time I would suggest a bit more power and a few shorter pointier songs to keep the attention. Mentioning Pisa it's still the leaning tower for me but Vexillum has certainly made their point. Fine record. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.vexillumband.eu
Recordlabel: http://www.limb-music.com MySpace: http://www.facebook.vexillumofficial |
74/100 |
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| VILLAINY – Demo 2011 (CDemo) | The Netherlands | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: Black / Thrash Metal | Running time: 14:21 (Tracks: 3) | ||
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Villainy was created late 2010 by good friends Reinier Vrancken, Jeroen Pleunis and Remco Verhees. Three music fans from the South of the Netherlands. “ The play any kind of metal they like” . In 2011 they recorded this first demo. Production wise this demo sounds okay and musically it's a mix of thrash metal, black metal and some doom elements. I've seen the band live a couple of times and this band has the opportunities to become big; they do have an excellent eye (or is it an ear) for metal music in common! Up to the review of their 2012 Demo below….. | |||
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Visit his website: http://villainyofficial.bandcamp.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Villainy/289423447748177 |
78/100 |
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| VILLAINY – Demo 2012 (CDemo) | The Netherlands | February 2013 | Mario van Dooren |
| Style: Black / Thrash Metal | Running time: 11:53 (Tracks: 2) | ||
| Above I reviewed the bands first (2011) demo which where both handed to me by the band a couple of months ago. I already mentioned the good musicianship of these youngsters. The first track of the Demo “City of Secrets” starts as a Celtic Frost-a-like song with a great speeding-up part at the end. Second track “I wanna split the world in two” is a more divers song in which I recognize influences of bands like VoiVod, Death and Vio-Lence. Good stuff again! Cant wait to hear a full length album of this album! Good job guys! | |||
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Visit his website: http://villainyofficial.bandcamp.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Villainy/289423447748177 |
79/100 |
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| VOID MOON – On The Blackest Of Nights (CD) | Sweden | February 2013 | Ad van Osch |
| Style: Doom Metal | Running time: 39:40 (Tracks: 9) | ||
| VOID MOON is a Swedish Doom Metal band, which was formed in early 2009 by Peter Svensson (bass) and Jonas Gustavsson (vocals, guitar) along with notorious drummer Thomas Hedlund (CULT OF LUNA, THE PERISHERS and PHOENIX). They started working on their first demo at the end of 2009, and in October 2010, four of the songs from that demo were released as the 7" EP "Through The Gateway" on German label Metalbound Records. After the release of that EP Erika Wallberg completed the band as their lead guitarist. In April of 2011 the band released their second demo, entitled "The Mourning Son". Now I've got the band's debut album "On The Blackest Of Nights" to review, which was released in November of 2012 on Cruz Del Sur Music. Well, this album is my first acquaintance with VOID MOON, and I must admit it took me several spins before I really began to like it. I can imagine this is not everybody's cup of tea, and that it could sound boring to a lot of people. But if you like Doom Metal and give this album a try, you will discover that "On The Blackest Of Nights" is an album that gets better the more you listen to it. The members of VOID MOON are influenced by bands such as BLACK SABBATH, CANDLEMASS, SOLITUDE AETURNUS and GRAND MAGNUS. Anyway, "On The Blackest Of Nights" features 9 tracks, of which two tracks are short instrumentals, namely "Psychic Bleeding" (1:14) and "The Burning Court" (0:35). Personally, I wouldn't have put these two instrumentals on the album, because I believe that they have no added value, and are now superfluous. Maybe I see it wrong, and are these instrumentals intended as a kind of intro for the next song, if so, then I'm wrong. Anyway, all the other tracks, which are "Hammer Of Eden" (4:52), the title track "On The Blackest Of Nights" (5:05), "The Word And The Abyss" (5:51), "Cyclops" (5:32), "Among The Dying" (7:13), "Through The Gateway" (4:11) and "The Mourning Son" (5:02), are interesting and good songs. The band exists of good musicians, and the way of singing of Peter Sevensson, reminds me a bit of the way such as James Hetfield sings. The production was done by bass player Svensson and sounds okay. The booklet of this digi pack is equipped with all lyrics and a live picture of each band member, and looks good. Altogether, this is a nice debut album, so if you are into Doom Metal or you are just curious about it, you should check it out. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.void-moon.com
Recordlabel: http://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/voidmoonmetal |
73/100 |
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| W.E.T. – Rise Up (CD) | Sweden | February 2013 | Manfred Werger |
| Style: Melodic Rock | Running time: 48:49 (Tracks: 12) | ||
|
Powervocalist Jeff Scott Soto joined forces with two Swedish songsmiths of the first order in 2009. The project was called W.E.T. and three Swedish rockbands were represented in this short acronymic bandname: Work of Art, represented by Robert Sall, Eclipse, represented by Erik Martensson and Talisman, represented by Jeff.
Together with some Swedish musicians this collaboration made an album that was highly appreciated in melodic rockland, combining amazing archetype Scandi-rock with melodic edges of bands like Journey and Strangeways. I liked the record very much, but Eclipse and Work of Art surprised me a lot more with their recent albums (" Are you ready to rock" and "bleed and scream" of Eclipse and " In progress" of Work of Art are legend albums in my opinion).
I was surprised Frontiers Records announced a new W.E.T. offspring at the beginning of this year and inside enthousiastic comments of Andrew McNeice (master of www. melodicrock.com) and many friends close to the W.E.T.camp made me even more exciting. Three melodic masterminds, with a musical past every musician would be dreaming about, with songwriting skills many bands would be jealous about and with gifted vocal and musical skills that stand out, this could be some mega- opus!
And yes, the new W.E.T. "Rise up", is definately great, that's for sure. The first single, the beautiful " Learn to live again" is a real firecracker of a song! What a chorus, what a riff!
And the new album contains more of these gems:
The magnificent opener" Walk away" with its hints of Journey, the stunning title track, the furious rocker " The moment" with a great guitar solo, the haunting" Bad boy", the melodic hookladen " Shot" and the great closing track with its nods to the commercial Talisman and Eclipse riffola. The album has almost no weak spots, although the ballad " Love heals" isn't that spectacular. " Still believe in us", another balladesque song on " Rise up" is a better attempt. And is it the all-time classic many fans rave about? Tough question, but I think it isn't the one. The production is a bit flat, diminishing the opportunity for a more dimensional record. A bigger, more multi- layered approach would have done the album good. The second remark is about the lead vocals. I' m a big Soto fan from his professional start in the early eighties of the former century, seeing him live on many occasions, hearing his fabulous vocals zillion times, but I think he'd better shared the high pitched vocals with Erik Martensson on this occasion.Martensson and Sall are fond of chorusses with high melodic lines, it's their trademark, almost their own brand, but Jeff seems to struggle with a few parts, losing a bit of his power, his steady pitch and his timbre. Sharing vocal duties ( songwise on more chorusses and some parts) could have made the album more dynamic, it would have given more depth, more variety, more class. And finally I do miss a brilliant guitar solo, one that never leaves you mind, your head and your memory. I like the guitars of Erik and Henrik Magnusson, they are heavy, cruncy and melodic, but an extra few memorable lead-solos( like on many Talisman and Eclipse songs) would have brought more. The new W.E.T. stuff is good, it 's fantastic, it probably will end up high in my top ten of 2013, but it isn 't the absolute classic I and many others had dreams about. The last absolute thriller Scandi- classic is still the Treat ' Coup de Grace' album for me, leaving the Eclipse stuff (third and fourth album) close behind. I hope we'll have the opportunity to see W.E.T. live! What a band! | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.jeffscottsoto.com
Recordlabel: http://www.frontiers.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/wetrocks |
89/100 |
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| WILDESTARR – A Tale Tell Heart (CD) | USA | February 2013 | Michel van Hassel |
| Style: Melodic Power Metal | Running time: 48:32 (Tracks: 10) | ||
| WildeStarr is the collaboration of ex-Vicious Rumors bassist David Starr and vocalist London Wilde. Besides the bass, Starr also plays the guitar and takes care of some vocal-parts. Wilde also plays the keyboards. The third person in the band is drummer Josh Foster, who is also responsible for some backing vocals. This is the second album released by WildeStarr and on this one, all tracks are inspired by the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. The start of the album, called “Immortal”, is very fast and intense as Wilde screams very high alike Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) and the rhythm-section lays down a pounding base. Wilde almost convinces the listener that she is immortal. This is a very catchy track loaded with musical and vocal highlights as the complete band plays like their lives depend on it. The second one, “Transformis Ligeia” has a slower start but along the song, the speed and the heaviness increase. Bass and drums again are very prominently present. Towards the end, Starr lets his guitar do the talking. Next track, “A Perfect Storm”, has some deformed female vocals, some growling male vocals and of course the high crystal vocals all mixed throughout the song. However, let us not forget the great drumming by Foster as he hammers all through the track. “Valkyrie Cry” contains some quiet moments with keyboards and Wilde singing a bit less high, but not for long. “Last Holy King” starts with some acoustic guitars and a passionately singing Wilde. It turns into a beautiful power ballad with plenty of great guitars, vocals and a sturdy rhythm-section. The power is back on “In Staccata” and if you thought Wilde sang high, on this one she really hits the high notes. If you don't dig these really high vocals this album isn't your cup of tea. Wilde really goes for it as she takes the lead from beginning to the end accompanied by a great band. The sound of a cracking LP marks the start of “Not Sane”. This is a solid mid-tempo track followed by “Seven Shades of Winter” that starts very doomy. This track again features Starr (bass) and Foster. It is a melodic heavy metal song and on this, Wilde excels, as she does not go into the ultra high ranges and towards the edge all the time. “The Pit or the Pendulum” contains lots of pounding bass and double bass drums, giving Wilde and Starr the stage to excel in their speciality. The album ends with “Usher in the Twilight” which shows WildeStarr on a high level. It is a good composition, on which all musicians get their chance to show for the last time on this album what they are capable of. Musically this is a good album. However, the most important factor is if you like really high vocals or not. | |||
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Visit their website: http://www.wildestarr.com
Recordlabel: http://www.scarletrecords.it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/wildestarr |
82/100 |
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| YAYLA – Nihaihayat (CD) | Turkey | February 2013 | William Nijhof |
| Style: Black Metal | Running time: 51:06 (Tracks: 6) | ||
| Yayla from Turkey has been active since 2007. This band is a one man project and sounds ravaging. All instruments are played by him and he does that really well!. This is his fourth album and it sounds like pure depressive evil. Tight guitar riffs and drums that sound like a constant double bass. The vocals are very evil and filthy sounding screams. There are only 6 songs on this album that are good for 51 minutes. So the first thing that comes to mind id if this doesn`t get boring...no it doesn`t. His music will take you away and in a ecstasy that keeps you listening to the entire album. If i must give a band that sounds a bit lie this then i must say that it keeps near to bands like Nortt. If you like black metal that is obscure and breath taking then you are going to enjoy this album. | |||
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yaylaband
Recordlabel: http://www.merdumgiriz.org MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/merdumgirizworks |
78/100 |
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