CD Reviews - May 2001

 

THE CLASSIC

 

LIEGE LORD - MASTER CONTROL (Metal Blade Recs. - 1988): This is a total classic of speed/tharash metal de way it used to be in the late eighties: with great riffs, screeching vocals and virtuosism (guitarist paul Nelson is great shining through all the album). What makes this album music so original are the diversity of the riffs and the rhythms that are like a razorblade cutting through all the songs. What can I say of classics like "Eye of the Storm" or "Master Control"? What can I say of the great cover of Rainbow´s "Kill The King" ? That are fantastic ! Vocals like the ones of Joseph Comeau are not common nowadays (they can be piercing, subtle or anything he wants depending on the song). I can add just one thing: I hope this band gets reunited really soon, because they would be a bit of fresh air for heavy music. Favorite tracks: "Eye Of the Storm", "Soldiers Fortune", "Suspicion" and "Broken Wasteland". Contact: Liegelord2@aol.com

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AKA MOON - IN REAL TIME (Carbon 7 Recs. - 2001): This is the newest release from Belgian experimental outfit Aka Moon. A great experimental release from this trio (along with keyboard player Fabian Fiorini this time) that has no boundaries ( in fact after listening to a couple of their songs you will find out that the three musicians are truly virtuosos). The mix of disimilar styles as jazz, fusion, rock, eastern sounding melodies are what gives this band their unique personality. In fact Fabrizio Cassol is an amazing saxophonist that has great improvisational skills and the ever changing foundation conformed by Stéphane Galland (drums) and Michel Hatzigeorgiou on bass (who demonstrates that bass playing can be stretched beyond some limits that bassist sometimes create) along with Fiorini on keyboards make enough room for everybody to show what they know about their instruments. The first composition (that was done for ballet) is called "In Real Time" and is divided in seven parts which are really independent one from each other but at the time are closely related. I think this realice is for open minded persons that are not afraid of listening new things and merging of styles. I have not listened all the others Aka Moon´s Recs. But if they have this quality I would love to have them all in my CDs collection. This is an essential recording. Contact: carbon7records@compuserve.com

 

ALTERATIONS - LIVE RECORDINGS 1980-83 (Intuitive Recs. - 2000): This recording is made by three Live Recordings by the group Alterations made in London, January 1st 1980; Copenhagen, May 10th 1981 and Frankfurt, May 2nd 1983. The three tracks have different qualities and demonstrates the improvisational and exprimental sound of this band who uses conventional and unconventional instruments to creat their intuitive music. It is interesting to see how they evolved in the three years that this recording shows. The two more recent tracks are constructed in a different way, more melodic and they are over thirty minutes long. It is always interesting to listen to what four great musicians like this ones (Steve Beresford - piano, Peter Cusack - guitars, Terry Day - percussion and David Toop - flutes) can achieve. This recording is for people that are not scared of listening boundaries breaking music. Contact: http://hjem.get2net.dk/intuitive

 

 

AZEROTH - LIVE IN POLYGON (Independent - 2000): Excellent live album from this extremely original outfit from Russia! The main charachteristic of all the songs are the incredible keyboards (Alexey is really a keyboard master) and the amazing drumming (Evgeny Trefilov is a name to don´t miss a move). All the musicians in this band are above average and I would like to listen their new material to see what this lineup can do in studio. The first song "Orphytos" is enough to see the great quality of the band, followed by "Majestic Indignate" and "Dark Ocean of Star Fields". They shine through all the album and the sound is really good so you can hear what this guys can do with their instruments. The cassette edition comes with four bonus tracks that are remixes from previously released songs. Totally recommended for those who love great musicianship. Contact: azeroth00@yahoo.com

 

 

BARRY GUY / MATS GUSTAFSSON - FROGGING (Maya Recordings - 1997): We all know what bass master Barry Guy can do. But if you put him together with Mats Gustafsson, a man that plays sax, flutes, french flageolet and other wind instruments you have this great album. With a lot of fun they have titled their songs as some frog species, I think, and like frogs, one of the main charachteristics of this CD is the jumping-like sound of the instrumentation. "Bufo punctatus" starts de experimentation with phrases from Guy and Gustafsson in a totally unconventional manner. "Hyla Pickeringii" is still more strange…I still don´t know how Gustafsson does all this sounds with his instruments. "Lythodytes Ricordii" starts with Guy using the bass almost as a guitar with some rhythms before getting into phrases and more phrases. This record is esesntial for fans of experimentation done in a great way. Email: maya@eircom.net

 

BARRY GUY / PAUL PLIMLEY - SENSOLOGY (Maya Recordings - 1997): Amazing album of duets between Paul Plimley on piano and Barry Guy on double bass. This two musicians are geniouses as you can hear in the tracks that compose this CD. This are thirteen tracks of pure madness, great improvisation, great compositional skills. The opening with"This is not much less than flat" is full speed with runnings and phrases from both instruments that play different things but in a really coherent way. This CD can open a lot of minds with its music, and with this attitude to music where the important thing is to experiment with mind and body. Jazz, fusion, experimentation, avant garde are some of the words that come to my mind when listening for example "Short steps until it finally dawned" or "Sensology" or "Jazz for now and never more" with their atmospheres and textures. I would like to pinpoint one of the tracks but the whole CD is amazing. Email: maya@eircom.net

 

CANDIRIA - 300 PERCENT DENSITY (Century Media - 2001): This is the fourth album of one of the most original bands to come out from the scene in the nineties. This band uses influences of metal, hardcore, jazz, fusion, rap and many more styles to construct their tracks. It is amazing to hear all the breaks and tempo changes that they make within their songs. Also you can find clean guitars used in an unconventional way, with chord progressions that are very different from what most bands would do. This is an extremely technical bands that have rehearsed their music a lot of times to achieve this result. The first tracks from this CD, "300 percent density" is a clear demonstration of what they can do along five minutes of playing their music. This is a band not afraid of experimenting, which seems to have influences as different as Machine Head, Biohazard, Messhuggah and John Coltrane. "Signs of Discontent" has a really strange introduction and base that I have not yet developed how it is played….it is really weird. I would totally recommend this bands to people that like the bands to be original regarding which style are they getting their inspiration from…because it is sure that this band takes it from a lot of different places. Favorite tracks: "300 percent density", "Constant Velocity is as natural as Being at Rest", "Channeling Elements" and "Contents under Pressure". Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br and www.candiria.com

 

CURSED - THE COLDEST DEATH INFINITE… (Independent - 2000):  Black metal in the vein of Immortal and Marduk is what we have in this MCD from this French band. This means speed, complex riffs, dark atmospheres, rotten vocals. What I specially liked from this band are the guitar solos tat seem to be based in great melodies and not only on speed. I think that "The Coldest Death Infinite …" is a really great title for this record because listening to the band´s music you have this sense of darkness, cold, death. The overall sound of the recording is good, but I would have liked in the mix the drums to be more in the front, that here are a little bit in the back, maybe the cymbals are covering a little bit the sound of the drumkit. The guitars have a really original sound, sounding a little bit muddier than in most of the bands of the style where they sound more raw (overdrive effects). For fans of black metal this is an excellent band for you to check. Contact: CURSED@ifrance.com

 

DAEONIA - CRESCENDO (Candlelight Recs. - 2001): Daeonia´s follow up to their acclaimed debut album "Craven" is a symphony of darkness. This guys have big influences from gothic bands from the eighties but they have a more modern sound. The influence that comes to my mind while listening to "Crescendo" is the Sisters of Mercy. But I think that despite this similarity, Daeonia is reaching a different part of the gothic specter. What I like most from this album is the combination of the keyboards and guitars ( the former playing dark backgrounds and the later doing repetitive phrases in order to create the climate for the vocalist to do his job). The only thing that I would have changed is the mix of the second guitar that i could have mixed higher to give more power to the music (the way Paradise Lost did with "Draconian Times"). Songs like "Drowned" or "Meridian (12311999)" have solid hooks and strong melodies. I think the mood of the songs is deeper for example in "The Bridge and The Ashes" where the atmosphere is more oppressive with more presence from the keyboards or "Within The Blink of An Eye" with the piano and vocals intro. My favorite tracks: "Thoughtograph", "Within The Blink of An Eye" and "In Cimmerian Dreams". Contact: www.candlelightrecords.co.uk

 

DANISH INTUITIVE MUSIC (Intuitive Recs. - 2001): I would really love to know more about intuitive music. The Group for Intuitive Music was founded in Copehagen Univerity Institute of Music in 1974 and it inludes such great musicians as Jørgen Lekfeld, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen and Elisabeth Klein. As one can see in the booklet this people use different ways of expressing, musically and in paper (I would love knowing how to read their partitures). There are in this CD three works by Jørgen Lekfeldt, three by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, two tracks by Ivan Eugen Vincze and two by Jørgen Plaetner and the recordings feature things from the seventies like "Madison Music" or "A Meditation on Inner Global Life" up to the nineties "October 6th" and "Taking a Walk". Here the experimentation with instruments, vocals and whatever they can is the main feature. I find this recording very interesting with extremely great musicianship and it looks like this people is always anxious to discover new lands in the music world. Contact: http://hjem.get2net.dk/intuitive

 

DEREK BAILEY AND VERTREK ENSEMBLE - DEPARTURES (Volatile Recs. - 1999):  Total sonic experimentation is what you will find in this recording by the improvisational duo Vertrek Ensemble and guitar master Derek Bailey. People fan of traditional guitar playing will be horrified by this because Vadim Budman and Derek Bailey approach their instruments in a completely experimental way trying to discover new sounds, new textures, new ways of playing and breaking boundaries within the guitar realm. Ron de Jong´s percussion doesn´t follow a pattern of rhythms that can be easily swallowed, in fact he supports the guitars with shorts bits of percussion that are also experimental and are like phrases in themselves. Listening to this recording is like listening to a dialog between three persons being each instrument one of them…I am saying this because the musicians prefere to play short bits each one instead of doing very long lines that could be more difficult to understand. I like the recordings of people like this that are not afraid of trying to bring a new dimension to their instruments despite if what they do is popular or not. A five star release for fans of sonic boundaries braking. Contact: volatile@canada.com

 

DISINTER - WELCOME TO OBLIVION (DeadSun Recs. - 2000):  "The Sleeper Awakens" a really apropriate title for this song that opens the CD: it is like receiving a kick in the stomach ! It can awaken a dead !!This death metal combo is a really good one (specially the drummer with his double bass sounding through the whole album). This guys know how to create dark moods with fast riffs (see as an example "Welcome to Oblivion", the title track (02:10)). There are certain passages that I find more interesting than others like the riff in "Followed From Death" (0:50) that repeated through the song gives a great mood or the first riff in "The Sleeper Awakens" (before the first blast beat appears). "Descendant of Darkness" is a slower number with an interesting double bass drum pattern and I think is the heavier song in all the album because is darker, it is like a beast crawling in the shadows…interesting riffs. This is a really good CD for lovers of death metal !! My favorite tracks: "Descendants of Darkness", "Holy Parasites" (the slowest song…almost doom) and "Earthen Interment/ Torn from the grave". Email: gurkkhas@aol.com

 

 

EMBOLISM - …AND WE ALL HATE OURSELVES (Erebos Prods. - 2000): Death/ grind coming from Slovakia! Thius band has been playing in the underground since 1997. This release has also some touches of black metal on it, specially on some speed riffs and in half of the vocals (there are two types of vocals, a grindcore-type growling and a more trollish vocal). After some demos and split CDs the band has finally arrived to the debut CD. I liked the beginning of the CD with the song "Have you fear?" with a rhythmic riff before the blast beat that remembered me of old Entombed. Second song "The thorns of Hatred" starts with a blast beat with black metal vocals before getting into a really interesting riff (0:42) and a stupendous break with only drums and bass. In fact I think that if the band makes more use of this type of things they will be considered a really original band: riffs like the ones in "The Wreckages of Life" (2:22 and 2:40) or the ones in the end of "Are you sleeping?" (1:29) (with an interesting double bass drum pattern), or the distorted bass break in "Fight" (1:10) are not found in most of the bands in black metal. My favorite tracks: "The Thorns of Hatred", "Fight", "Money, life and love" (killer vocals and drumming !) and "Death Causing Pleasure". Contact: embolismsk@hotmail.com

 

 

EMPEROR - EMPERIAL LIVE CEREMONY (Candlelight Recs. - 2000): This is Emperor´s first live album, recorded on the tour of their album "IX Equilibrium"on 1999. Here you can see the total essence of the band, a band that if it sounds powerful in their studio albums here sounds one thousand times better. Also you can see how important is the band for the black metal genre (there are in there countless of inferior quality imitators). Ihsahn and Samoth are at their best here playing all the complex parts that you can hear in their songs without any difficulty. It is a pity that they say that they are not going to play live for a long time to concentrate on other projects because this band sounds great in this environment !! They open with a great rendition of "Curse You all Men following into a version of one of their best songs "Thus Spoke the Night Spirit". It is amazing!!. "I am The Black Wizards" succeeds in making you feel the darkness and depression on it. This CD has a great sound that helps to emphasize the whole performance. "An elegy of Icarus" follows with its enchanting melody and powerful keyboards. This recording have also great renditions of "Inno A Satana" and "Ye Entrancemperium". Emperor is a classic!!.Website: www.candlelightrecords.co.uk

 

 

ENTWINE - GONE (Century Media - 2001): This is the second album of this finnish masters of gothic and melancholic melodies (The first one is called "The Treasures within Hearts"). The album has a great sound and it was mixed in the famous Finnvox Studios by Mika Jussila (yes, the same guy that has worked with Stratovarius, Nightwish and Childresn of Bodom). Great melodies and power are what flows in this recording since the beginning with "Losing the Ground". Some guitars parts are reminiscent of Paradise Lost ("One Second" era) for example in "Snow White Suicide". The amazingly beautiful keyboards of Ritta Heikkonen open one of the best songs in the whole album: "Closer (my love)" a slow depressing ballad where singer Mika Tauriainen can expand his vocals. In fact Tauriainen has a good voice and knows how to express what he wants through his voice and lyrics. What I liked a lot of this album is the great orchestration fundamentally between the guitars and the keyboards that conform a big part of Entwine´s signature sound. My favorite tracks: "Grace", "New Dawn", "Closer (My love)" and "Thru the Darkness". Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br and www.entwine.cjb.net

 

ERIC MERTENS - WHITE WORKER (Carbon 7 Recs. - 2001): This a really interesting record for people who like experimentation with lots of melodies. In fact the work of Eric Mertens and his band (that has in the lineup extremely good musicians) made me remember records of the seventies like for example those of great bands like Return To Forever or in some cases Weather Report or Mahavishnu Orchestra. Plus the band has a more modern sound and feeling like something more modern. The mix of jazz, fusion and contmeporaneous classical music along with some eastern influences and the use of not so characteristic orchestrations and unsusual instruments (as tuba, doublebass, french horn and bassoon) gives this recording a unique feeling. What I would like to remark on this CD and that I think that gives a special touch to the music are the superb vocals by Anne Mertens. In songs like "Watchman" she does a harmonie with Eric´s voice that is very delicate and interesting, and on "Soylent Red" she chooses to follow some keyboard lines in order to accentuate the feeling that the whole band is bringing to the listener. Eric Mertens has made a really good job with this record demonstrating that he is a great composer and creating this album that would not be out of place as a soundtrack of a movie. Great quality musicianship!. My favorite tracks: "Belgiques", "Watchman", "Explosion by Sympathy" and "Soylent red". Email: carbon7records@compuserve.com

 

EUGENE CHADBOURNE AND VERTREK ENSEMBLE - DIMSUM, DODGERS AND DANGEROUS NIGHTS (Volatile Recs. - 2000):  An experimental and improvisational recording from this canadian label completely focused on improvisational music. The Vertrek Ensemble is a duo consisting of Vadim Budman on guitars, trumpet, cornet, wooden flute and harmonica and Ron de Jong on drums, percussion, cymbals and bells. Together with improvisational master Eugene Chadbourne (on vocals, guitar and banjo) they create this great recordins consisting of four experimental tracks. The first track "If I were a Bell/ Variations on a Theme by Holst (or Mahler?)" starts as a country or jazz tune but suddenly turns into more experimental path with Vadim and Chadbourne trading phrases with their respective instruments. This track is a fantastic mix of diverse improvisational techniques and is almost thirty three minutes long. Second track " I Challenge you to an Epiphone Duo" shows both guitarists stretching their playing into new atmospheres and textures, creating interesting moments of tension with their use of odd harmonies.and counterpoint. "Death Lives in That Bayou" is my favorite track with loads of experimentation and the use of a banjo. This is like a country tune gone mad !! I like the spontaneityin all this recording and the open mind of this three men trying to stretch music boundaries. Email: volatile@canada.com

 

 

EVIDENCE - TRUTH FROM A LIE (Wicked Prods. - 2000):  Coming from Portugal, Evidence has managed to do a style of modern hard rock/ heavy metal with great vocals (courtesy of Sérgio Sabino , which are similar to the ones that Chris Cornell used to do in the first Soundgarden CDs but more powerful, I feel also some shades of Ray Gillen in Badlands too…the result is great). The band is really powerful, opening the record with the great song "Time Machine" with a memorable chorus and a great solo (Vasco Martins is a really good guitarist). "Ignorance" opens with a simpler riff but going faster after some seconds into a kind of power metal race. Tracks like "Thorns" (with some odd drum beat in some places, acoustic guitars along the distorted one and some great vocal harmonies) can be a hit if the record is promoted adequately. There is a ballad too called "Never Too Late". The track "Shankar Song" that has two parts explores some eastern melodies before developing into heavier stuff. This record can be in the charts if only has good promotion (and if the tendency of putting only rap and hip hop on TV and radio changes). Contact: evidencemetal@hotmail.com

 

 

FUNERAL RITES - NECROEATER (Painkiller Recs. - 2001): A rainy introduction leads us into the dark world of Funeral Rites. "Weird Tales" is the opening track of this band that has influences of black metal and I can hear some old school of thrash metal in there too. The songs are carefully constructed giving priority to the generation of atmospheres and dark feelings. There is an interesting use of spoken vocals in this first song too (along some funeral keyboards). One thing to point out is the excellent work of the guitarist. After this slow beginning they speed up to full blast metal in their second track called "The wintermoon". What I liked a lot from this track and from the whole album is the use of keyboards that sound really clean in contrast to the guitars. Fans of elaborated black metal will be delighted. It would be great if this band can record with a bigger budget to get a better sound (in fact I think this is the only low point of the recording but it can be fixed easily). Contact: painkiller@infonie.be

 

GOD FORBID - DETERMINATION (Century Media - 2001): Amazing second release from this great death metal band ! (the previous are "Reject the Sickness" and  the MCD "Out of Misery") What I like the most from this band is their skills in doing really powerful and fast songs including amazing melodies, guitar parts (clean guitars in some of the songs are really spectacular) and solos that make this band unique in their style. There are two points also that I would like to remark: One is the excellent drumming and bass playing from this masters called Corey Pierce and John Outcalt respectively. The first is a beast behind the drumkit and the later is a Steve Di Giorgio style player!! The other one is the excellent sound and production of this recording. The opening of this technical death-metal opus can not be better than this: A climatic instrumental passage ("Dawn of the Millenia") gives intro too the first song "Nothing": fast, brutal, technical, in the vein of At the Gates, In Flames and the bands of the Gothenburg sound. All the CD is full of blasting music with powerful riffs (beside the drumming and bass playing I talked about before). This is a killer CD for lovers of brutality and technical bands. Favorite tracks: "Broken promise", "Divide My destinity" and "Determination - Part 2" . Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br and www.godforbid.com

 

HASTE - WHEN REASON SLEEPS (Century Media - 2001): Powerful second album from this Alabama sextet. The music is a mix of metal and hardcore with great results. The strange thing with this band is the constant use of two vocalist…one growling and the other one highpitched. Songs like "Meridian Summer", "Confessions of a Lesser Known Saint and others are really like a kick in your head. This band is really powerful and has the atributes to be one of the top bands in the style of bands like Rage Against the Machine (in fact Haste is much more powerful than this band). It is great also the use of clean vocals in some tracks that give some strange melodies to the songs. It will be interesting to see how this band will evolve in the future. Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br or www.hastemusic.com

 

ICARUS- PROMOTIONAL SAMPLER (ICARUS - 2001): This is a sampler of songs by the bands that have been or are going to be released by label Icarus from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first band is Secret Sphere whose song "Under The Flag of Mary Read" is a demonstration of power metal in the vein of Stratovarius with a lot of keyboards and fast riffs (some of them reminded me of Symphony X). Vampiria is a great band from Argentina that makes a type of black metal with lots of keyboards and riffs that are more rhythmic than fast and clean vocals in the vein of Moonspell. Vampiria is an excellent and original band ( the only thing I would improve is the drums sound that sound quite thin). The songs ppresented here are from their debut album ("Ambasador of Morning (Salve Luxfer)" and " Brother Wolf (The Path of Seventh Moon)"). Hemisphere presents the song "Mind´s door" from their album of the same album…their sound is similar to that of the first Yngwie Malmsteen´s Rising Force (here the sound is not as clean as it should be). Morgana is the name of this band of power metal whose CD "Angel" has been released through Icarus (two songs are presented here "The Downfall of Rain" and "The Syndrome" and both are really good). Stoner Rock and Doom are also present here with the bands Natas and Dragonauta respectively, excellent bands from Argentina of the styles mentioned above. One of my favorite bands from this compilation is Arachnes (eventhough we have the sound problems in drums that should be more powerful, and they make a strange contrast with the vocals and keyboards that have a great sound) and the other one is Fall of The Leafe whose song "Deference, Diminuend" is black metal at its best. Contact: icarus@ba.net

 

INSOLENCE - REVOLUTION (Maverick Recs. - 2001): This intense recording of this band from San Jose, California is a welcome addition to the "new metal" scene. The sound of the band is a mix of bands like Soulfly, Living Sacrifice, Korn, Limp Biskit (also some of the vocals are similar to the ones in The Prodigy and some melodies really twisted like the ones you can hear in a band like Tool) and many more. There are also some reggae and funk influences too. This band is really tight and it looks like that it has been rehearsing and playing live a lot. "Death Threat", the song that opens the CD is a song destined to be a hit. Second song " Head 2 Head" is much more aggressive and I liked it much more because of the strength that pours out of all the song´s parts. There are fourteen songs in this CD, including one experimental/industrial/hip-hop track called "Mad Science II". The band is touring with Soulfly, so I think that those concerts willbe killer…plus it would be good to see Insolence live to see their live act that they tell is very impressive. Contact: christian@susanblondinc.com

 

KATATONIA - LAST FAIR DEAL GONE DOWN (Peaceville Recs. - 2001): As tey always did, Katatonia manages this time to surprise you with their newest recording. The atmospheres so depressing in their previous recording are present here two but in a more subtle way: as one can see in opener "Dispossession" (sort of Pink Floyd in some places, specially in the vocals). There is more contrast between the heavier parts such as the ones present in "Chrome" and the cleaner ones ("We Must Bury You" (with great lyrics)) specially when they are put one next to each other. What amazes here is the sound that is cleaner and more up to the fron than in previous recordings…I think the production is much better here (the CD was recorded on the great Sunlight Studios from Sweden and was recorded, mixed and engineered by legend Tomas Skogsberg, Jocke Petterson and Katatonia themselves). What I like from Katatonia is their hability to make a fusion of metal, gothic, dark and experimental music to create their own style (and this have made fans form such different styles as death/black metal and gothic music to like them). Jonas Renkse vocals are as charming, hypnotic and personal as always (check as an example "Tonight´s Music") and Anders Nyström and Fred Norrman are amazing in their job of constructing the songs with rhythms and subtle melodies. Katatonia is one of those bands that never will dissapoint you. My favorite tracks: "We Must Bury You", "The Future of Speech" (great orchestration) and "Sweet Nurse". Contact: www.peaceville.com

 

KEMET - DYING WITH ELEGANCE (Deadsun Recs. - 2000): Exceptional record from this great band from France. A mix of doom and gothic parts with great climatic vocals, ocassional screamings and great guitars are what make this recording so special. The opening with "Immaculate is really a great beginning with clean guitars pushing through a melody that soon becomes a distorted rythm in the fashion of My Dying Bride or Anathema. The vocals in this track are awesome, sort of a cross of Pete Steele and Aaron from My Dying Bride in the clean parts but worked out in a completely different way (In fact what I like from the singer is that he can transmit the feelings which he is singing about) . In fact the second song "Cowardly yours" starts in amore death metal fashion but getting more climatic after a few seconds. In the middle part of this song there is a screaming part (sort of black metallish) with some Emperor´s shades. "Will you forgive me" has the addition of really interesting bass lines that ornaments the work of the voclas and some twin guitar harmonies that are fundamental for the harmonies. This is an album to listen numerous times because you can find something new each time you listen it. Specially beautiful are the female vocals in "Like a Musing" that make an interesting contrast with the vocalist´s vocals and the guitar solo melodie in the middle of that song. The inclussion of acoustic guitars in some of the songs really help to remark the atmospheres that are present throughout the whole album. My favorite tracks: "Like a Musing", "Immaculate" and "Insignificant". Email: gurkkhas@aol.com

 

KRATORNAS- THE ONSLAUGHT OF BATTLE DEMONS, UNHOLY IMPALER - COLLECTION OF MEPHISTOPHILIS, PAGAN WINTER - INFEROS (Ligum Dulum Prods. - 2000): This is a cassette that the people in ligum Dulum Prods. Sent me containing songs from three of their bands, Kratornas from Philippines, Unholy Impaler from Italy and Pagan Winter from Germany. Kratornas is a really fast bands with elements of death/black metal and grindcore. They have interesting parts when they try to go slower and develop good ideas. What find strange here are some of the vocals that are two highpitched and distorted and seem an electric saw (maybe is because the sound is not really good). "Armaments of Sadism" is the song that I think Kratornas must use as a mould for new songs. Un holy Impaler has different songs and riffs with a crushing guitar sound (evethough the mix is not so good) and they have originality in their black metallish music. Songs like "Horror Village" and "Ritual tribal practice" are future classics of the underground. Germany´s Pagan Winter are graced with the better sound of the three bands here. Their music is raw black metal with fast riffs, blast beats and the vocals typical in the genre. There are also influences of bands of 80s thrash metal like Kreator, Destruction and early Sodom. Also there are some Bthory influences too, but with a faster edge like in bands such as Immortal. A great mix to my ears. Contact: ligumdulum@angelfire.com

 

LUTI KRISS - THROWING MYSELF (SolidState Recs. - 2001): This band´s music is really heavy, modern and climatic…the first band that comes to my mind when listening to them is Deftones, also I feel there are some shades of Fear Factory and Pantera in there but in a minor proportion. The recording has a strange introduction with some noises and effects before getting into "Black Smith" with great tempo changes in some parts. Followed by "The "Annihilat" Ion" a song with furious rhythms and vocals. Some exotic sounding melodies along with some breathing bases are thrown in "Ligh Blue Collar " one of my favorite tracks from this recording. "Patinetly Philadelphia" starts with an original riff before getting into some vocal madness and melody lines that creat an atmosphere of oppression. This band is really original and gives a needed new twist to modern metal music. My favorite tracks: "Light Blue Collar", "Patiently Philadelphia" and "An Act of My Own Volition". Contact: teresa@toothandnail.com

 

MADDER MORTEM - ALL FLESH IS GRASS (Century Media - 2001): Agnete M. Kirkevaag has a powerful voice. And this is the first thing I though t when her voice appeared in the first song ("Breaker of Worlds") of this album, the second CD from this norwegian band (The first one is called "Mercury"). This woman uses her voice in a completely different way than most female vocalists do nowadays: she is really more aggressive. I mean she is energetic but he knows how to do it while singing great original melodies over the wall of sound created by the musicians. The second thing that came into my mind is the quality of the sound in this recording: is fantastic! Recorded on Studio Underground from Sweden where bands like Opera IX, Carnal Forge or Necrodeath have recorded, this CD features nine tracks of pure heaviness, pure twisted melodies and strange vocal harmonies. What the band wants to emphasize are the different atmospheres and textures that you can find through all the CD: Pure heaviness ("To Kill and Kill Again"), depression and despair ("The Cluster Children"), beauty ("Head on Pillow"). This is an amazing second effort of this promising band. I have not listened their debut but I would love to, considering the quality of "All Flesh is Grass". Favorite Tracks: The Whole Album. Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br or www.maddermortem.com

 

MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE - GATES OF DELIRIUM (Entity Prods. - 2001): The music that Midnight Syndicate developes can be called the soundtrack of a very dark and atmospheric horror movie, because this is the way they are composing now. "Gates of Delirium" is Midnight Syndicate´s fourth recording and is really amazing! The concept of this CD is the story of a madhouse from last century called Haverghast Asylum. The compositional skills of Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka are very mature and they are emphasizing the textures and atmospheres through all the albums with a load of keyboards and samplers. Plus there are voices from the characters of the story that really transport the listener into Haverghast Asylum. Twenty one great gothic and dark songs/passages composethis recording where I would point out the magnificence of "Haverghast Asylum" with its sad melody, the persecution like atmosphere in "Halls of Insurrection" or the orchestration grandeur in "Residents Past". The whole album is really amazing an they have become one of my favoirte bands because of their musical and compositional skills. This is an album to listen with thelight out and letting your imagination flow. Contact: info@midnightsyndicate.com

 

MORGUL - SKETCH OF SUPPOSED MURDER (Century Media - 2001): Jack D. Ripper is a strange character and is the only member behind Morgul´s music (the band started as a duo in the early nineties). I think I can define his music as being dark metal with great keyboard orchestration, multiplicity of vocals (clean, high pitched screams, etc.) He introduces the album with the song "Violent Perfect Illusions" with a keyboard melody, orchestration and accentuation done perfectly. What I liked a lot of this Cd is the mixture of standard death metal with all this classical music passages and eastern and folk melodies. The originality is omniprescent in this CD and he dares to do a Kiss cover (that could be a sacrilege for some death/black metal close-minded fans) "She" (I think here the sound is not as good as in the rest of the album maybe is because the guitar riffs and keyboard bases are not as dense as in the other songs) in a very strange version. There are also some pieces with great piano and keyboards like for example "Truth, Liars and Dead Flesh" that for me is the darker song on the CD (the piano melody remembers me of some english horror movies soundtrack from the sixties). My favorite songs: "Of Murder and Misfortune" (with some blast beats than by an electronic drum), "Truth, Liar and Dead Flesh" and "Once Again" (an industrial/death/black experiment). Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br and http://home.no.net/morgul

 

MURDER SQUAD - UNSANE, INSANE AND MENTALLY DERANGED (Pavement Music - 2001): Death metal the way it used to be in the beginning of the nineties ! Including that muddy sound that was present in the first releases of Entombed, Dismember and Carnage. This is a side project of four famous musicians whose main bands are Entombed (Uffe Cederlund and Peter Stjärnvind) and Dismember (Matti Karki and Rickard Cabeza). The result is similar to what this guys did in the first recordings of the above mentioned bands but with a clearer sound and more experience in the composition of death metal songs. Album opener "Slowly Burnt to Death" is a clear demonstration of what you can find in this recording (and it makes me remember a song from ex Entombed/Therion member Lars Rosemberg´s project when he came to Argentina). Speed, growls, hyper fast leads, deathly slow rhthms, is like watching a catalogue of the best features in the death metal genre (and they sound extremely swedish too). Favorite Tracks: "Twisted High", "The Return of the Rotten" (both musically and lyrically) and "Bloodfreak". Contact: bloodfreaks@hotmail.com

 

NAPALM RECS. - PROMOTIONAL SAMPLER VOL. 1 (Napalm Recs./ ICARUS - 2001): Napalm Records is a label dedicated to te darkest forms of music. Having in their ranks bands as Siebenbürgen, Abigor, Tristania or Summoning. This compilation presents one song from thirteen bands from the label. The first one is " The Haunted" by Trail of Tears: atmospheric metal with keyboards, female vocals (really intersting the main soprano), clean guitars in some interludes and vocals that are reminiscent of Gothic era Paradise Lost, really interesting. Followed by "A dialogue with the stars" by Vintersorg… this song is faster with rocking drumming and arpegiatting keyboards, power metal riffs and vocals that could be from a black metal band (except on the bridge where it becomes clean)…really original one. Darkwell´s "Realm of Darkness" is an interesting example of combining excelent melodic textures with crushing guitar rhythms and it has the vocals of an interesting soprano that generates the adecuate atmosphere. The bands in Napalm Records are above average and I would like to pinpoint some of them that are present in this compilation because they are of excellent quality: Hollenthon, The Sins of Thy Beloved, Lacrimas Profundere, Forlorn and Dargaard. Originality is the key word here. Contact: icarus@ba.net

 

PAUL NELSON - LOOK - PROMO CD (Independent - 2001):  Virtuoso guitarist Paul Nelson (Liege Lord) unleashes melodies and chops through all the song that compose this promo CD called "Full Blast". Nelson is a great guitar player as has been shown in his work with the beforementioned band and countless collaborations with diverse artists. This song is reminiscent of the shredding fever that was popular in the eighties. I can listen to shades of Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore and Steve Morse but with a lot of personality in Nelson´s sound. Legatos, speed picking, sweep picking,are predominant aprt of Nelson´s style. I would like to listen the complete work because this guy has a total dominion of his instrument, creating passages full of virtuosity, melodies and good taste. Contact: Liegelord2@aol.com

 

PECCATUM - STRANGLING FROM WITHIN (Candlelight Recs. - 1999): A beautiful opening of violins that leads to a harpsichord intro leads us into the world of Peccatum. This is Ihsahn´s (Emperor) project with the amazingly beautiful vocals of Ihriel and the orchestrations that in Emperor could seem out of place but here are of extreme beauty. It is really interesting the contrast of the male vocals (Ihsahn and Lord PZ) with the female (Ihriel). I think that here Ihsahn found a place to experiment things and stretch his music a little bit further than what he does in Emperor. For example there are certain passages with extremely vocals (kind of what King Diamond does). The opening "Speak of the Devil (As the Devil may Care) " is really amazing, the second song ("The Change") however is more similar to Emperor´s material. I think the best parts are were the similarity is not so strong and the passages with Ihriel´s vocals. There are great choruses in here (listen to the middle section of "The Change" or "The Song Whick No Name Carry" to know what I am talking about) and a killer guitar riff opens " The Song Whick No Name Carry " which is one of the best tracks of the album with twisted vocals and good orchestration. A really interesting album with a lot of experimentation within the black/dark metal realm that I think will please all those who love music to evolve and become better and different each time. My favorite tracks: "Speak of the Devil…", "The Sand was Made of Mountains" (with cleaner male vocals and interesting guitar solo) and "I Breathe Without Access to Air". Contact: www.candlelightrecords.co.uk

 

 

PRAYING GODS - ANTLERS (Ubus Recs. - 2001): Extremely experimental ambient/noise project. Praying Gods are experimenting with sounds in a way nobody else does. The tracks consist in linking different sounds (sounds of different nature) to create an atmosphere or develope an idea. Lovers of bands like Telesmata or VoidChannel will be delighted with this release. There are tracks that seem more coherent than others, for example "Country Style" or "Burning Birch Timber". I can not tell you which instruments is this guy using but they sound really interesting, maybe a great way to explore would be mixing this sounds with a more common song structure so the idea developes in a different way like in "Ingrown Hair" for example. For fans of experimentation and sound madness. My Favorite tracks: "Ingrown Hair", "Radioplasma" and "Them Leaves is a Fallin´". Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

 

RAVENS OVER GOMORRAH - DARKLY MELISMA (Independent - 1999): Excellent metal band (in a black/death metal style ) with great melodies. In the three songs presented here they demonstrate a great cohession as a band with great melodies (see for example "Sacred and Profane Love"), interesting rhythms and corrosive vocals as well as spoken parts. They are really a promisory band. I would like tosee them recording with the budget of say Morbid Angel or a band like them to develope their full potentional. Excellent guitar parts and excellent technical drumming (apart from the blast beats parts) full of double bass. This band is going to release their new opus this year. I hope they can reach a broader audience since they are a really good band. My favorite tracks: the three tracks are excellent but if I had to pinpoint one of them would be "Kingdom Beneath the Wolf" that contains all the elements of Ravens over Gomorrah´s sound.Contact: heavenfalls@hotmail.com

 

RELATED TEXTURES (Modanti Recs. - 2001): This 13 track compilation CD presents us tracks from six bands or projects: Chocolate Grinder, Désar, Black December,J Mundok, Mara´s Torment and Lovage. Chocolate Grinder is a band with an electronic atmosphere and keyboards all over the place tat allows them to generate their interesting textures, female vocals are excellent her (and in some parts made me remind Björk and in others to Andrea Nebel Haugen of Hagalaz Runedance). They make an excellent job through the three songs presented here. Désar is a one man project with heavy use of electronics from Lucien Désar, lots of experimentation, textures and atmospheres through the two tracks here. Excellent vocals that fit the mood of the songs perfectly (some way between Moonspell, Lacrimosa and Sisters of Mercy in the second track this vocals are quite distorted by some device). Another artist to Remark is J Mundok whose three tracks are filled with electronic sounds used in an unconventional manner, there are some samplers in there too. I liked it a lot. Mara´s Torment is the band here that has the most quiet/atmospheric sound and the vocals in "Control - Vocal Mix" are excellent. Black December is here represented by their track "Undertow" this is a climatic track with keyboards, spoken words, depressing singing, some percussion done in a careful way to fit the mood. Finally, Lovage is the band that seems to have a more comercial side to their music but this is in no way bad because the melodies and angelical vocals are awesome. Contact: modanti@hotmail.com

 

RHAPSODY - DAWN OF VICTORY PROMO (NEMS Enterprises - 2000): Rhapsody is back after the "Symphony of Enchanted Lands" !! The two songs contained on this promo package continues the path of their two previous albums: epic songs full of melodies, double bass drumming and amazingly clean vocals (courtesy of Fabio Lione). Plus you have the always shredding Luca Turilli on guitars. The two songs in this sampler are quite similar to the ones that can be found in their previous effort "Symphony from Enchanted Lands". "Holy Thunderforce" is a great song destined to be a Rhapsody classic with interesting guitar and keyboards solos from the two main composers Luca Turilli and  Alex Staropoli. "Dawn of Victory" the title track is a faster one with a lot of interesting keyboard lines, some violin lines that make the result still better and great drumming and choruses. Rhapsody continues to develop their own style in this third recording with all their trademarks. Email: nems@nems.com.ar

 

SANITY´S DAWN - CHOP COPPER (Shredded Recs. - 2000): This Grind / death band from Germany has released a really good record for lovers of the style ( I think that people who like more extreme hardcore music will also love this release because there are some riffs that remind that style). Two different styles of vocals (it reminded me of Brutal Truth´s singer in some places) are the main characteristic of the band. The opening with "Half a brain" is a really powerful one with some rhythmic guitar riffs in the middle part. In fact I think that the band should exploit more this type of rhythms instead of ussing the blast beat parts that have the characteristic of sounding similar. For example the riff in "Fat Stinking Bitch" (0:35) is one that can be expanded and explored or for example the riff that opens "Pulled out tongue for my Kebap". Some riffs in "Komisch in Kopf" reminded me of early Carcass records I felt something similar listening to "Sewing lampshades with a scrotum and spermatic cords". I think this band has the potential to become one of the bests in the genre. Plus I think their drummer is really good at what he is doing. Favorite tracks: "Komisch in Kopf", "Pulled out tongue for my Kebap" and "Fat, splat and dead". Email: shredded@t-online.de

 

SHADOWBREED - ONLY SHADOWS REMAIN (Painkiller Recs. - 2001): Great death metal band from Holland!.This is death metal in the vein of Unleashed, Morbid Angel, old Sepultura or maybe Bolt Thrower. Crunchy rhythms and fast leads are trademarks of this style and Shadowbreed has that and much more (see as an example the CD opener "Warcraft (After 2001 Stories)"). A great guitar riff opens great song "In the Shadow of Ygdrassil" with rhythms to bang your head with. This band is supporting legendary dutch death metal band Thanatos in a tour through the Netherlands now and it seems from what I can hear in the CD that they must be a killer live act! (They have done shows with bands as Cannibal Corpse, Mayhem, Deicide, Hades Almighty, Primordial, etc. etc.). The recording has a killer sound: The recording was done in Harrow Productions Holland and was mastered by Harry Wijering (Harrow). I loved the guitar riff in the beginning of "Path In The Dark"…this is one of the best tracks not only in this album but in the death metal genre…it sounds great!. My favorite tracks: "Path In The Dark", "Battlerager" and "Warriors Blood" (with pumping bass sound included). Contacts: painkiller@infonie.be

 

SILENT EXILE - DANCING WITH DEATH (Naivlys Music - 2000): Silent Exile is a progressive band whose songs are constructed with an axis conformed by Cedric Rioux keyboards (omniprescent through all the recording) and Fabrice Blanchet´s guitars. This is not a mere copy of Dream  Theater, they are really original in what they do mixing the melodies of progressive rock with heavier passages. A distinctive feature of Silent Exile are the vocals of Chriss J.Y. that are not the usual high pitched vocals that bands of the style usually use. His vocals are more bluesier, more rock and roll. Songs are long and complex with a lot of tempo changes, solos and melodies. From ballad like parts such as in the beginning of "Stratosphere " or the beginning of "Glase Maakerstraat" to heavier stuff such as in the first part of "Images of War" called "Thunder on Ahland", this band covers all this range and the spaces in between. I think that some label should check on this band and sign them so they got the production and sound that they deserve. Contact: silent_exile@hotmail.com

 

 

SYMPHONY X - SYMPHONY X / THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY (NEMS Enterprises - 2001): This is the reedition of the first and third album from one of the main power progressive metal bands Symphony X done by NEMS Enterprises in double CD format in a great packaging that includes the lyrics from both albums. The first CD opens with a solemn introduction ("Intro The Dementia") before getting into the clasic "The Raging Season" with amazing choruses (in the vein maybe of Queen) incredible solos (this is a prove of the originality of Michael Romeo for those that say that he is only a copy of Yngwie Malmsteen. The songs are really well constructed (around guitar and keyboards obviously) and doesn´t show the vocals of the great Russell Allen (that is featured in the second CD presented here "The divine…". Songs to remark here are the before mentioned "The Raging Season", "Masquerade" (with that great keyboard/guitar harmony intro), "Absinthe and Rue" (killer guitar riffs , keyboards and double bass drumming) and "Tauting the Notorious" (a power metal race !). The second CD, "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" shows us a more mature and heavier Symphony X with better musicianship, an inmense sound (it is light years far from the one that was in their debut album) and a much better singer (Rusell Allen) with a lot of personality and that can give power and melody to all the songs. "Of Sins and Shadows" opens the CD with great strength and refinement. You can see the band is more tight and is not so focused on Romeo´s guitars or Michael Pinella´s keyboards as it was before (eventhough there are solos all over the place)…in this case the drummer and bassist shine a lot more than on the first record. Songs to point out: This is a killer album and the whole CD has great quality in its musicianship, in the compositional side and in the power/strength side too. If I have to pick one song to sum up it will be "Sea of Lies". Contact: nems@nems.com.ar

 

TELESMATA - NEOLOGISTICS (Ubus Recs. - 2000): Another experimental record from noise/experimental master Robert Kasch who is also the head of Ubus Records. This Telesmata recording brings us fourteen tracks of sonic experimentation with a unique device called the Saylt digital voice synthesizer. This device can make sounds quite different than what one must be accustomed to listen to. What I like here is the variety of sounds that Kasch achieves through the whole album, going from something ambient like to the boundaries of noise in only a couple of minutes. This is for fans of this type of experimental music. My favorite tracks: "Meditation", "Transmission Errors 1 & 2", "Transmission Error 3". Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

 

TELESMATA / PRAYING GODS - SPLIT CD (Ubus Recs. - 2001): Another experimental explosion from this two projects who dive deep into the forms of sound. Here are presented six songs from Praying Gods and three form Telesmata. As I have said before in the reviews of the other recordings from this artists, what is fundamental here is the search of new sounds created through devices that are not commonly used. Playing with sound and taking them from atmosphere to noise and then back is what makes this recordings so interesting. I wonder if these sounds can be used in a different context which I would love to explore. Favorite tracks: "Drowning River" (Praying Gods), Dissapointment Lake (Praying Gods), "Transmission Error 4" (Telesmata) and "Silicon Mass (Roaster Mix)". Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

 

THE SHOUT - ON ARRIVAL (Carbon 7 Recs. - 2001): I am not afraid to say that I have never heard group of people with so different vocal ranges before. And the interesting thing here is that they are not using the vocal harmonies in the way a classical chorus or a gospel or jazz vocal group would do. Here there are more influences, this is an eclectic group of people ranging from Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Indian, Classical, Opera, etc.etc. They can recreate great harmonies, vocal counterpoints and melody lines composed by Orlando Gough and Richard Chew who have also written together three outdoor choral pieces: The Shouting Fence, Corona and Journey To the North. This is specially amazing in songs like "Tall stories" a tale about 20th century immigrants thata arrived to North America and the five parts of "Axaxaxas MLO" which is a compendium of the skills of the composers and singers. The whole album is a must for people who likes great vocals, harmonies and counterpoints. In fact there are not instruments used here…the vocals are enough to build everything in a perfect way. Email: carbon7records@compuserve.com

 

TIM KASCH - TIM KASCH (Ubus Recs. - 2001): We have here the elements present through all Ubus Recs. Material: experimentation, noise, sounding madness…but here it seems that the device used to generate tis experimentation is different from the one used in other releases. Here it seems that Tim Kasch is using an analog synthesizer or a machine like that. It is interesting that some passages of this recording made me remember some experimentation that progressive rock bands or fusion bands used to do during their improvisations in the mid seventies. It is interesting to listen how many sounds you can achieve using this devices, sounds that are not heard in other part than here where they take experimentation to other levels. Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

 

WOHEDNESS - Skeletal Life (Independent - 2000): Pure grind/death is what this band does and they do it really well!! A really drummer is the fundamental part of this band that goes to the extreme of what is guttural. The riffs are played at hyperspeed. Do you remember "Scum" era Napalm Death? That is the band that Wohedness made me think about. The principal difference is that Wohedness plays more variety of riffs and include short solos in some parts of their music (is it a fuzz distortion pedal what I hear in the solos?). You can hear all this in songs like "Conspired Possession" or "Keeper to Tormentor" (with the most guttural vocals). I think that this band deserve a better production (eventhough the sound is good) to be more effective (perhaps making the drums sound a little less thin than here). They are really good in what they do. Maybe exploring more with the solos and melodies that they use sometimes will be a good idea. My favorite tracks: "Keeper To Tormentor", "Stenchcore Nextdoor" and "Truth of Fiction" (with short blast beats all over the song and some interesting drum breaks). Contact: corpsecore@excite.com