APHASIA - BEYOND THE INFINITE HORIZON (Independent - 1998) : This is a MCD with four songs of extreme metal that in some parts sound like death metal and in others sound like black metal. What really surprised me of this release was the length of the songs, none of them is less than five and a half minutes long. That is not usual for bands of the genre and that allows the threee musicians to do some changes into the same song. I think that this is the point that the band must use: the mix of clean guitars and distorted ones and the two type of vocals. The album is really good and has a good sound. thIs guys are working on their next effort and they have a new drummer. I would like to see how the new stuff is. Favorite tracks: "Seasonal Stowaway" and "Quest for Eternal Life" . Email: pouilleuxqc@videotron.ca

 

 

ARCHONTES - THE WORLD WHERE SHADOWS COME TO LIFE (Metal Agen - Valiant, 1999): When I saw the cover of the CD I thought that this was the work of a black metal band but what did I found instead? It is great power metal coming from Russia !! Yes, this band has the humorous way to do metal that have made bands like Helloween famous. Plus they use a lot of keyboards more in a way that Stratovarius would do it. The songs are really well constructed putting a focus in melodies. The singer has nothing to envy to guys like Timo Kotipelto or Michael Kiske. I hope this guys continue doing this great music and I will wait until their next record. My favorite tracks:"The World Where Shadows come to Life", "Runaway from Dark" and "Fear is the Conscience of Villains". Email: valia-rec@mtu-net.ru

mailto:Naepesh@hotmail.com

 

 

BLENDERHEAD - FIGUREHEADS ON THE FOREFRONT OF POP CULTURE (Tooth and Nail Rec., 2000): This is a band that has a really modern sound (in fact it sounds quite like a cross between grunge and punk). The music is both energetic and funny. It reminds me of some exponent of the genre but I don´t know exactly to whom (eventhough I found some shades of Stone Temple pilots in some places). The overall result is really good. This is a recommended album for fans of this genre that is between pop, grunge, punk and rock. Email: blenderhead@toothandnail.com

CLICK - CLICK (Abyss Recs.. - 1997): This is one of the projects of prolific guitarist Anand Bhatt. This release is extremely powerful! What I would like to point out is the extremely good work of the percussionist and the bassist. Anand´s vocals fit perfectly the music that his three partners are making. The guitarist crushes with rythms and subtle textures. The six songs of this release are not enough. I hope Anand continues with this project with such good musicianship because the results are of extreme quality. My favorite tracks are: "Down Below", "Vladimere" and "Mountain". Email: click@hotmail.com

CONDITION RED - CONDITION RED (Lion Music - 2000): This is a supergroup. Yes, a collaboration between musicians that are all full of virtuosity and imagination. Both guitarists, Lars Eric Mattsson and Alex Masi are well known and respected for their solo projects. In this CD the keyboards of Alexander King are all over the place and the vocals of Torgny Stjärnfelt and Ella Grussner give personality and contrast to the music (in fact I think that Ella is the point that the band must use because she is a genious, and plays great violins parts, such as the one in the intro to Call out my name"). If this was not enough you have Esa Pietilä, an awesome jazz sax player that puts his musicianship in there. This is progressive rock for people that was missing the quality, musicianship and complexity that bands in the seventies use to have. As a bonus there is the collaboration of Derek Sherinian (ex Dream Theater) doing a couple of keyboard solos. My favorite tracks: I can not pinpoint a song. The whole album is great. Email: info@lionmusic.com

DAFELDECKER; FUSSENEGGER, KOVACIC - PRINTER (Durian Recs., 1999): This is experimental music done between three musicians: Werner Dafeldecker plays acoustic bass and glass, Uli Fussenegger plays acoustic bass and Dieter Kovacic manipulates turntables. The first track that gives name to the record is twenty nine minutes long and there the three men experiment a lot with sound and noises. There are certain parts where they create certain oppressive atmospheres and others where they try to make their instruments sound in a totally different way than they are supposed to do. They also like to sustain a note while th other make some rythm over it. Is quite weird music and you can feel that they are creating something new. They play a lot with dynamics. This CD was recorded live on May 1999. My favorite tracks: "Printer " and "Dun". Email: durian@durian.at

 

 

DROWNING - DROWNING (Released Power Productions, 1999): This band is really direct and mixes death metal with some hardcore parts (specially certain drum patterns remind me of old hardcore). They sound really powerful. I think that this band has to have a great live performance. One of thoise performance that makes you shake your head until thay have finished. The band is extremely tight considering the changes of tempo that their songs have. The deathly vocals courtesy of Ridwan fit the music perfectly giving a sense of suffering and martyrium to their songs. I liked a lot also the cover art and the general layout of the CD. My favorite tracks: "Veil of Disguise", "Downfall" and "Tempter´s Crowning". Email: drowndcp@hotmail.com or alainrpp@compuserve.com

 

 

FAR´N´HIGH - ATTRACTION OF FIRE (Brennus Music, 1999): Lovers of progressive metal /rock will find this CD a dream come true!!!!. This band from France takes all the elements of the genre and put them together in their own way. The songs are complex and really good musicianship is needed to compose songs like the ones here. I think that this band knows how to manage their music to reach perfect equilibrium bewtween what is subtle and what is heavy. The main factor that drives the music is the guitar of Stéphane but all musicians shine in this production. Vocalist Damien (who also plays keyboards) is great for the band and can do all the phrasing needed with his voice. Also the drumming is complex and keeps on pushing the limits. My favorite tracks: "How do you feel", "Our love" (here Damien´s vocals can be listened carefully in all its magnitude), "Attraction of Fire" and " Holy Crossing! Email: Brennus.hardrock@wanadoo.fr

G.A.G - FROLICS (Bloodbucket Prods. - 2000): This is a two track CD consisting in the two parts of Frolics: Frolic 1 and Frolic 2. This is a noise/ ambient projecta and it is well done (in fact I would like to listen a little bit more of a keyboard that was in the background on Frolic 1…that can be one point to exploit. The only man behind this project is Graeme Gill who does everything in this records and who is also the head of Fete Recording, a small label focused on producing noise/ambient records. This is for fans of this style of music, with lots of experimentation. Email: fete@operamail.com

 

HATRED - THE OFFERING (Independent -1999): This is death metal at its best. A recording with great sound: a fundamental part of any death metal sound is the double bass drumming and here you can hear it in its total plenitude. Really fat guitars that remind me those of Cannibal Corpse but instead of being used as fast as in that band they are used to construct a deadly groove. An extra point is the bass guitar that pumps through all the recording and in certain special moments you can hear it constructing certain textures. And there are two types of vocals: one, a deep growl, and the other one a shriek !!. My favorite tracks in theis album are: "We all burn" (great part where the vocals follow the fast drum parts), "Rotting" and "Desolation". Totally recommended for fans of extreme death metal. Email: hatredva@aol.com

JARRA - TEST OF FAITH (Lion Music - 2000): A surprising album ! As I put on the intro to the interview that I made with them this band mixes metal with southern rock, thrash and blues and bring up his own sound. Add to that the great vocals of Kathie Jarra and the thrash like sound of Johnny Russian´s guitars and you have a crushing album like this. The music in the CD is well constructed and its original (and you can identify inmediately the sound of the band and that is one of the main points that bands are always searching). My favorite songs: "Eternal Love", "Pain" (here in the middle part is where I think that Kathie´s vocals reach the climax) and "Two Evils". Email: info@lionmusic.com

LIVING SACRIFICE - THE HAMMERING PROCESS (Solid State Recs., 2000): This is one of the most powerfuls bands that I have listened in a long time. Their music is a mix of styles ranging from Sepultura or Soulfly to Fear Factory and Coal Chamber. One point to remark is that their sound is huge like those of the main bands in the metal scene today or even better. The vocals are spectacular and can be extremely rotten in ocassions or melodic as in the case of parts of "Bloodwork". The drumming is really impressing trying to add more than the usual heaviness to the music of the band. In fact there are some percussive parts that give another feeling to the songs. A great album for those lovers of potent bands with a lot more than speed to offer. My favorite tracks: "Flatline", "Bloodwork", "Hand of the Dead" and "Hidden". Email: teresa@toothandnail.com

MORTIFER - IF TOMORROW COMES (Metal Agen - Valiant - 1999): It is really good to listen to bands that are still making good thrash metal. In fact this is the purest tharsh metal album I have listened in years. The sound is influenced by german bands like Kreator, Sodom and Destruction. The overall sound of the production is really good sounding raw (specially the drums and the bass have a sound like we used to listen in the late eighties). My favorite tracks: "If Tomorrow Comes", "Fatality Insane" and "Sea of Tears" It is really good to see a band that is really faithful to their roots regardless the style that is more comercial in the scene today. Email: valia-rec@mtu-net.ru

 

MÜHLBACHER - DAFELDECKER - DIPTHONGS - (Durian Recs. - 1997): This is another work of this experimental man called Werner Dafeldecker (also head of Durian Records from Austria), this time he teams with Christian Mühlbacher on percussion. They asked a lot of improvisers musician to play a solo totally independent from what the others play and and then, using a computer, they made this collages of sounds. This is quite amazing because the result is really good and you can see that this guys must have worked hard to obtain this. All the tracks have names of some chemical elemant. And they sound like we could call each instrument an element and then bring up a more complex chemical by combining them. Great job!. Favorite tracks: "Calcium", "Chlorine" and "Copper" Email: durian@durian.at

NO DREAM - MEMORIES PROGRESSION (Metal Agen. - Valiant - 2000) : Spectacular band of progressive metal from Russia! This band conmsists in four musicians that are helped in this release by a male and a female vocalist that really seem to be part of the band (the male vocalist brought shades of In the Woods…to my mind). The musicianship is really complex and the instruments that surprised me most were the guitar and the keyboards part (there are parts that are so beautiful….): This people know how to compose epic songs with lots of parts and changes. Lyrically the album is very poetic ( it seems that they have worked hard in that aspect too). My favorite tracks: "Vaguest Dreams", "Forcefed Memories" and "Memories - a Heaven in Hell´s Despair". Email: valia-rec@mtu-net.ru

PAGAN - HEATHEN UPHEAVAL DEMO´98 (Independent, 1998): From Turkey comes this band whose guitar man Talciron I have interviewed last issue. An epic intro called "The Convening" gives way to the first song called "The Longing and the Ancient Ones" that is very subtle black metal with acoustic guitar parts and spoken parts. I find this band very interesting because they can do great music within a real fast context and they have great taste for melodies. The keyboards of Typhoon are great and give a feeling of obscurity to the songs. I like a lot the spoken parts because in those segments the drums are quite more rythmical and you can hear the song breath. My favorite tracks " The longing and the Ancient Ones", "Marching of the Hordes" and "Bitter Gates of Grief" . Email: talciron@usa.net

REALLY CRAZY GERMANS - ADOLF CASTLE (Metal Agen. - Valiant - 1999) : The name of the band is really true to what their members are. They are crazy!! And they are and sound german ! The music in this record is like heavy metal but with a twisted sense of humor. Songs like "Russian Polizei" stick in your mind inmediately. This is a record to have fun with and drink lot of beer while listening to it. They make me remeber of bands like Tankard (they are different musically but…) or Die Toten Hosen (because of the choruses) and sometimes to Running Wild. My Favorite Tracks: "Gallow Tree", Oh grand Old Alaric". Email: valia-rec@mtu-net.ru

REBEL´S MOTHER - SANCTIFY (Independent, 2000): Rebel´s Mother is a band that has influences of heavy, thrash and death metal. The first song in this record, "Dance of the Dead" is deceiving: It starts sort of deathmetallish and then suddenly changes into a more thrash/heavy thing. Also, this song has a spectacular keyboard solo from Chris Alis and the guitars give power and melody at the same time. The vocals of Jeremy Brown are really appropriated for this kind of music being melodic and powerful at the same time (I think he really has the talent of putting the right vocal melodies in the right places)(there are also some deathlike growls too). This band has also a motor woman in the person of Melanie Jamias, the drummer whose style gives Rebel´s Mother´s music the push that it needs (I am the fan of rhythms done with cymbals instead of hihat and this woman does a lot of them). My favorite tracks: Dance of the Dead", "Walk Away" (with a lot of percussion) and "Sanctify" (sublime guitars and keyboards) Email: metal@rebelsmother.com

ROLF MUNKES - NO MORE OBSCURITY (Lion Music - 2000) : German virtuoso Rolf Munkes has been playing guitar in other projects for yearsand here it is his first solo album. The album is in parts ins trumental and in part it has vocals. The participation of different singers and musicians along the record (in fact only Munkes and drummer extraordinaire Gerald Kloos are the only ones that play in all tracks) give the music differnt textures and feelings. The song ranges from neoclassical metal to jazz-fusion stuff. There is also a drum solo courtesy in part to Kloos and in part to Anders Johansson (Hammerfall).My favorite songs: "You and I" (really catchy), "That´s new" and "Confuse Them All" . Email: info@lionmusic.com

 

SPECTER - IMAGES OF THE INNOCENT (Metal Agen - Valian, 1999): This russian band is not easy to classify. What I can say of them is that they are really really good in what they do. They sound like a progressive metal band but thay have a darker side that bands in the style usually don´t have, specially on the vocals that sometimes are whispers and are not as high pitched. But the great musicianship that is present in the bands of the progressive genre as long with the tempo changes and complicated structures are present here along with keyboards that are omnipresent giving this feeling of climatic textures and virtuosity at the same time. .Also I have to point out the work of the guitars that push the music of the band to a heavier side. My favorite tracks: "Jackal", "Elements" and "Mythology". Email: valia-rec@mtu-net.ru

 

THE JULIANA THEORY - EMOTION IS DEAD (Tooth and Nail Recs. - 2000): This is music destined to be a hit. Sometimes when you listen to some songs you say: "Well, if they got the support of the media, they will do it". This is the case with The Juliana Theory. If the media puts their eyes on them they can be stars really soon. Their songs have the commercial potential to do it and they are better constructed than the ones of most of the bands of the same genre. Great work of vocals in this release. The songs have big hooks. Maybe some day we will hear from them as big numbers. My Favorite Tracks: "Don´t Push Love Away", "Is Patience still waiting?" and "Emotion is dead Part I and Part II. Email: teresa@toothandnail.com

 

 

TORBEN ENEVOLDSEN - HEAVY PERSUASION (Lion Music, 2000) :

Torben Enevoldsen is a guitar virtuoso that comes from Denmark. His style is reminiscent of great players like Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. Torben starts this CD with a heavy tune that has the title of the record. After that he changes climate with a more melodic song called "Desert Groove" with tasty solos and moods. The whole album is a demonstration of what a player with good taste and great technique can do. It is good to listen to players like this. I totally recommend this album to all those people that love guitar music. My favorite tracks: "Desert Groove", "Go Figure" (with some phrasing that reminded me of Greg Howe) and "Heads Up" (really energetic). Email: info@lionmusic.com

 

TWISTED TOWER DIRE - DEMO 2000 (Independent, 2000): This is a band that makes pure heavy metal but with a more modern sound. They have also certain thrash shades in their music. They are METAL !! Good work of guitars. If this is their new material I would like to listen to the whole album when it is ready. I think that vocalist Tony Taylor is really a finding…he can sound like a NWOBHM singer when he wants and like an eighties thrash metal singer in other parts. This guys will have a good career if they can find a good way to promote their music. They have the talent and the potential to do it. Favorite track: "Sign of the Storm". Email: twistedtower@earthlink.net

 

ZAO - SELF-TITLED (Solid State Recs., 2000): This band has a sound that reminds me of Fear Factory but using more electronics (in fact the percussion in the album is electronic). Also they are more experimental and uses clean guitars and other stuff to point out the moods of their songs. The vocals are like the ones in certain black metal bands (in the heaviest parts) but have also an industrial feeling in them and sometimes they are like whispers. I don´t know how the other records from this guys sound but I must say that this one is extremely mature an intense. I hope I can make an interview with this guys because they are a band to watch in the future. My favorite tracks: "The End of the World", "Trash can Hands" and "A tool to scream". Email: teresa@toothandnail.com