7 THORNS - ARTIFICIAL NIGHT

Line Up:

Pete - guitar

Munk - guitar

Tyr - keyboards

Lars - drums

Thomas - vocals

Kenneth - bass

Music by 7 Thorns and Mik Holm

Tracks:

1-Artificial night

2-Metal Will Show you the Way

This is a band that features in the line-up some members of Illnath. Opening up with "Artificial night" with keyboards that deliver some melodies and create some atmospheres. The band succeeds in giving this tune a true epic feeling. Then comes a guitar delivering a melody that consolidates this feeling. The style here is heavy metal with some hard rock elements and some progressive elements. There are certain power metla influences too fitting well the feeling of the music. The singer has a lot of personality and that is really good for the band´s music.  There is really good musicianshiop here that is evident in the clvere song construction that this recording has. The tunes are long enough also to let them develope multiple ideas.  I would mix a little bit louder the guitars to give more aggression to the music. This two tracks leave you wanting more from 7 Thorns.

Recorded at Borsing Studios

Produced by 7 Thorns

ABGOTT - ARTEFACT OF MADNESS

Line Up:

Agamoth - vocals, guitars

Thanatos - guitars

Azael - bass

Antichrist - drums

Music by Abgott, exc. 1 and 12 by Kaoma Mega, 5 and 8 by Agamoth and Thanatos, 10 by Thanatos and 7 by Agamoth/ Thanatos/Antichrist

Lyrics by Agamoth, exc. 7 by Luke Diesektor

Tracks:

1- Iv

2-Kronos Cosmic Throne

3-Church of Necrophilism

4-Experiment in Evil

5-Diabolical Surgery

6-The  9 th gate

7- Black light Scenario

8-Abyss666

9-Dimensional Labyrinth

10-Epitaph

11-Thy infernal Fields

12-Twilight Luciferia

Abgott is a band that makes bands like Dimmu Borgir pale in comparison. This is black metal done with originality and with a huge sound that is much louder and bigger than in the bands of this style. And they are extremely talented as it is evident in the multiple changes, solos and arrangements that each tune here has. Abgott goes beyond black metal adding also elements of death metla nad thrash metal with plenty of breaks, tempo changes and technical parts. The band is really extreme and wild but at the same time they show a lot of technical skills that go beyond the pure savagery, creating a world of darkness and aggression that is really unique and original. Do you want extreme vocals? Here you have plenty of them, really well used to emphasize the brutality of this recording. But the main thing is the amazing structure that the tunes have, full of multiple changes, arrangements and parts that show amazing musicianship and imagination. One of the recordings of 2006 !!!!!!!!!

Recorded at Alpha and Omega Studios

Produced by Alex Azzali

ABORYM - GENERATOR

Line Up:

Malfeitor Fabban - bass, synth, b. vocals

Bård "Faust" Eithun - drums

Nysrok - guitars, synths

Prime Evil - vocals

guest:

Attila Csihar - vocals

Music by Aborym

Lyrics by Aborym

Tracks:

1-Armageddon

2-Disgust and Rage (Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

3-A Dog-Eat-Dog World

4-Ruinrama Kolossal S.P.Q.R.

5-Generator

6-Suffer Catalyst

7-Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

8-Man Bites god

9-I Reject!

Aborym is already a classical band that kicks off here with an atmospheric intro before the whole band enters with huge guitars that deliver fast riffs with a truly black metal sound. The vocals done by Attila Csihar and Prime Evil are really agonic and extreme fitting well the death/black metal sound that this band developes here. Eventhough the band is extremely aggressive most of the time, they also have a climatic side that delivers dark passages all over this recording. Here we have ex-Emperor drummer Bård "Faust" Withun delivering ultra fast rhythms. There are multiple changes in speed and in riffs and tempos and that is one of the esential elements in Aborym´s music. The sound of the recording is huge, specially the drums have a crystal clear sound that enhances Bård´s aggression. And the sound is one of the biggest improvements that Aborym has done when comapred to previous recording. A truly extreme classic.

Produced by Aborym

AETHERIUM - HERFST

Line Up:

DAve - drums

Sven - guitars

Bie - guitars

Joel - bass, vocals

Music by Aetherium

Lyrics by Aetherium

Tracks:

1-Slør av Sorg

2-The Battle and the Dream

3-The unknown

4-Everlasting Darkness

5-Possessed

6-Eternal Death

The recording opens very dark with an environmental sound and keyboards, and a voice that whispers. Then a strange voice appears. Later the band turns to mid-paced compositions with a very raw sound and a very loud voice, mixed really high. The guitars make some arrangements that are in sort of a viking metal style but with a much rawer sound than the used by the typical bands of the style. The voice sounds very distressed, very deathly and with some black metal influences. The track "The unknown" begins with a rhythm very thrash metal, in the vein of Venom. There is a very hard contrast for example with the track "Everlasting Darkness" that opens with very clean guitars and a deathly voice that whispers and speaks over the clean guitars. There are black metal riffs but with a more guttural voice, closer to death metal. This is pure aggression with a dark atmosphere and a really raw sound.  

Produced by Aetherium

AGENT COOPER - BEGINNER´S MIND

Line Up:

Doug Busbee - guitars, vocals

Eric Frampton - keyboards, b. vocals

Sean Delson - bass

Frank Fontsere - drums

Music by Agent Cooper

Lyrics by Doug Busbee

Tracks:

1-East Indian Sun

2-Shallow Disease

3-In the Bottle

4-Taipei

5-Timing Crucial

6-I never Remember

7-the Heat

8-She Screams

9-Struggle Like I do

10-You know

Opening with an Eastern sounding feeling in “East indian sun”  the band quickly shows interesting powerful riffs and melodies. The music here has much of rock and something of heavy metal and progressive rock too. There are multiple changes in the compositions and also multiple arrangements in each one of them. The vocalist is very versatile and he can emphasize the heaviest parts and simultaneously sound very melodic in other parts of the tunes. This band is fresh air for a scene that for a scene that sometimes is stagnant as the hard rock one. Bands like this one are very welcome since they contribute new ideas. There is very good guitar work and a very tight rhythm section. The album has a direct sound, very well mixed, at a very high volume, giving extra points to this recording. Pure rocking sound !!!  

Recorded at Analog Playpen, APC, Exocet, Number Nine and Rush Hour Studios

Produced by Doug Busbee and Eric Frampton

ALBATROS - DEMO 2005

Line Up:

Goran Prskalo - vocals, effects

Jonatan Ewald - bass

Joakim Nilsson - guitar, clarinet

Rikard Edlund - guitars

Axel Sjöberg - drums

Music by Albatros

Lyrics by Albatros

Tracks:

1-Uprising

2-Badger

3-A Badger´s Tale

4-The Way of the Gypsy Curse (live)

5-A thousand Leaves (live)

The guys from Albatross are back with new compositions in this particular type of rock that they do. Again the influence is coming from the heavy rock of the seventies and from traditional bands like Black Sabbath or Pentagram. The music here has a touch of psychodelia that give much identity to the music of the band. The songs are created with very good taste and many of them remain a long time in the mind of the listener due to the melodies that are memorable. The singer is of the type that is absolutely necessary in this style, is a type of singer with a good rocking alcohol-fueled voice and that simultaneously can develop killer melodies. Some riffs reminded me to some things of Cathedral but with a sound that is quite different from the one used by this band. The tracks are direct and two of them are taken from live concerts, giving an idea of how the band sounds in a show. The sound is raw and direct with strong guitars and a bass that supports really tight the rhythms.  Pure rocking energy with killer songs.

Produced by Albatros

ANNULATION - HUMAN CREATURES

Line Up:

Domi Weber - vocals, guitars, berimbau

Simi Rüegger - drums, b. vocals

Tin Rötlisberger - guitar, b. vocals

Reto D´Amelio - bass

Music by Annulation

Lyrics by Domi

Tracks:

1-Siege of Fear

2-Fuck All

3-Human Creatures

4-Soul Get Out

5-Confused

6-Crow Song

7-Murderer

8-Radical Shit

9-Roots (live)

This recording starts calmly with clean guitars and an atmospheric keyboards creating a  dark environment. Then the whole bands enters with powerful guitar riffs showing that this band is a death metal machine. The music here is death metal with really brutal arrangements but where speed is not the main thing, accentuating more the rhythms in order to sound heavier (don´t get me wrong, there are plenty of ultra fast and brutal parts here). The guitars are really well mixed and that is essential to let the listener feel all the aggression that this band unleashes here. And the guitars not only do the riffing but also they deliver interesting melodic arrangements that make each tune really unique One thing that got my attention where some bass arrangements that are not typical of the style. Tracks like “Fuck all” are faster and more brutal than the others with killer drumming con mucho uso del hi-hat. As I said before the recording has a good mix that makes things even more effective. Pure aggression and brutality.

Recorded at  Mister Mix and Reflectingseven Studios

Produced by Annulation

ANTHENORA - SOULGRINDER

Line Up:

Luigi Bonansea - vocals

Stefano Pomero - guitars

Domenico Borra - guitars

SAtefano Balocco - bass

Fabio Smareglia - drums

Music by Anthenora

Lyrics by Anthenora

Tracks:

1- June 6 1944, overlord

2-Dawn of Blood

3-Order of hate

4-A New Rebellion

5-Soulgrinder

6-the Call of the Undead

7-Hundred Knives

8-Fatherland

9-Cassandra

10-Hellish fire

11-Dream Catcher

12- Steel brigade

This it the new Anthenora recording that fundamentally shows a progress compared to the previous one that we reviewed some time ago, especially in the sound of the band that is much better now.  Opening with a short introduction and getting into "Dawn of Blood" it can be seen that Anthenora is a powerful metal machine with good riffs that are complexes and that combine thrash metal, power metal and other powerful styles. The band sounds very powerful with a singer that knows how to insert himself in the band´s music while adding more power and melodies. The band has a good use of rhythms that avoids the cliches achieving original and powerful rhythms and riffs.  The sound of this recording is better than in the previous one, specially in the drums and the guitars that sound more in the front in the mix and more powerful than before. A crushing release. 

Recorded at Remaster Studios

Produced by Anthenora

APHELION - DEMONSTRUCTIVE

Line Up:

SAlvatore Bonaccorso - drums, percussion

Alessandro Bertoni - keyboards

Sebastiano Pozzobon - bass

Matteo Gasparin - guitars

Music by Aphelion

Tracks:

1-Deconstructive

2-Rise of the Phoenix

Two tracks are the ones that are on this demo. The shortest one has almost seven minutes and each of the compositions here has many arrangements and elements that make them very interesting. The music here can be defined as progressive metal with a lot of technical skills by the musicians. There are time changes, breaks, complex riffs, rhythms with counterpoints that show an interesting virtuosism. There is heavy use of keyboards here but this does not cause the music to lose any power. There is a good use of the heavy guitar sound to emphasize some parts that are more aggressive. The drummer is very powerful in his way of playing and skills add a lot of dynamics to the music of the band. There is use of an infinity of different sounds and arrangements and the tracks are very complex with many different parts. The solos show also good taste and virtuosism. The rhythmical section is very tight and solid, sounding compact in all the recording. Pure virtuosism.

Recorded at Majestic Studios

Produced by Aphelion

ARKENEMY - BELIEVE IN MYSELF

Line Up:

Eliana V. - lead guitars

Udo U. - Rhythm guitar, vocals

Gabriel P. - bass, b. vocals

Joutsen - drums

Music by Arkenemy

Lyrics by Arkenemy

Tracks:

1-Mindscanner

2-Believe in Myself

3-Cryonics

4-Knife_Blood_Pain

5-Nothing Can Save You

6-The Circle

7-Sunset

8-Wire the Others

The music here is a mix between death metal and a lot of eighties thrash metal. I am saying this because the band has technical riffs and rhythms but played with a more brutal sound. The vocals can sound like a more extreme Chuck Billy. I mean, this guy can do some melodies and then scream at the top of his lungs adding a lot of power to the vocal lines. Eliana, the guitarist interacts cleverly with Udo the rhythm guitarist and she delivers also really good solos. There is good drumming work with intense double bass. The band sounds really tight and compact and that adds extra aggression points to the music. I love the parts where the guitars deliver intense riffs and the drums enter with full double bass. I think this is an ideal band to see in a live show cause they have a lot of headbanging riffs. There are multiple changes here and also some calmer parts like the solo part of "Mindscanner" or the melodic arrangement in the beginning of "Believe in Myself". One of the releases of the month.

Recorded at Alpha Omega Studios

Produced by Arkenemy mand Alessandro Azzali

ARKHON - I AM THE SKULL

Line Up:

Chris I. - guitars, vocals

Adonis Y. - guitars

G. Solomou - bass, vocals

Danny K - drums

Music by Ioannou/Solomou/Yiannakkas

Lyrics by Solomou

Tracks:

1-Human

2-Neatherscurrial

3-Idolof the Macabre

4-Deathborn Caress

5-Vanity

This is the newest recording of this band that we have reviewed some months ago. This release kicks off with “Human” , a really brutal track with full speed and ultra fast guitar riffs. Here we can see that the band knows how to speed and also how to be brutal. Just check the ultra fast ride cymbal patterns in “Human” to see what this guys can do. The drumming is fast and intense with a weird snare drum sound. There is also an innovative bass part on this tune that gives a more climatic feeling to this “Human”.  There is a combination of guttural death metal vocals with more agonic voices that make each song really extreme in the vocal department.  There is good guitar work here, one of them doing some bottom end riffs and the other one doing some arrangements here and there, interacting cleverly. The second track "Neatherscurrial" contrasts a lot with the first one because its not  as fast and it leaves more space for the developing of original ideas. The album has a raw sound that fits well the music giving the feeling of an extremely violent band. If you like fast rhythm then you have many different on each track here. A really extreme release.

Recorded at Fishbon Records Studios

Produced by Panayiotis Savva

ASSACRE - FANTASTIC ILLUSIONS WORTH DYING FOR

Line Up:

Ben Aqua - all instruments, vocals

Music by Ben Aqua

Lyrics by Ben Aqua

Tracks:

1-Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For

2-Satyriasis De Minimis

3-Gayer than God

4-Kalos K´agathos Gorgos

5-Cyclops Genesis

6-I have fifteen legs

7-Thy Crystal Obelisk Shall Ascend into Stormclouds of Mechanical Mystery

8-The Ultimate Value of Human Life

Some violent sounds and a distorted American anthem open this album from this project coming from the mind of the artist Ben Aqua that does a very experimental recording here with many sounds that go from death metal to total improvisation.  In this sound I have to remark the distorted guitar, the guttural vocals in many parts and the programmed drums that deliver many fast and many technical parts.  There are many changes and a lot of experimentation here within a very heavy context.  The tune “Satyriasis De Minimis", for example, is heavier than hell and has multiple ideas that surprise constantly.  There is also experimentation with samples and industrial sounds.  There is a lot of precision in the interaction between guitars and programmed drums which is very important to achieve a powerful result.  There are influences of bands from different styles, for example of Merszbow in the noisiest parts, besides other extreme metal bands.  An extremely experimental disk with innovative ideas. 

Produced by Ben Aqua

AURORA BOREALIS - RELINQUISH

Line Up:

Ron Vento - guitars, vocals, bass

Tony Laureano - bass

Music by Vento / Laureano

Lyrics by Vento

Tracks:

1-Myths of the Light

2-Let the Games Begin

3-Ravaged by Fire

4-God Wills It

5-The Red Flag

6-River through the Skies

7-Tonight We Feast

8-Black Snow

Aurora Borealis is back with all their violence unleashed again over the listener. Ron Vento´s band is progressing on each album in their style that combines elements from death and black metal. Amazing drummer is her an essential point cause there is a lot of technical skills here besides pure aggression. Vento delivers riff after riff here with utter violence showing originality and brutality and also that he has good technique and precission in his playing. And there are multiple changes and breaks here making each tune really an experience in combining parts that interact really well onewith the other. The vocals are really extreme as it must be in an Auror Borealis album but this time they are better managed emphasizing the brutality of the recording. The labum has a really good sound that Vento achieved in his Nightsky Studios and thi sound is essential to make the music here even more direct and aggressive. A crushing release with good musicianship.

Recorded at Nightsky Studios

Produced by Ron Vento

AVA INFERI - BURDENS

Line Up:

Carmen Susana Simoes - vocals

Rune Eriksen - guitars, effects

Jaime S. Ferreira - bass

Joao Samora - drums, percussion

Music by Ava Inferi

Lyrics by Ava Inferi

Tracks:

1-Ava Inferi

2-The Shrine

3-A Glimpse of Sanity

4-Wings of Emptiness

5-Sinisters

6-Vultos

7-Fate of Mountains

The album starts with a mid-paced/slow rhythm and with a guitar melody that sounds strange and dark.  Then they the heaviest guitars enter.  This band´s music is very climatic and at the same time aggressive.  For example “The Shrine” begins with a melancholic keyboard with a female voice that whispers and with a bass that does a line that slowly turns faster.  Then the most operatic voice enters with heavier guitars, but always keeping a mid paced rhythm.  There are good melodic arrangements and the female voice of Carmen Simoes is spectacular, very melancholic.  All the atmosphere of this album is very beautiful and melancholic and there is a lot of emphasis in the creation of a dark atmosphere. And that is one of the trademarks of Ava Inferi´s sound besides heaviness.  An excellent combination of power and beauty. 

Recorded at Top Room Studio

Produced by Ava Inferi

BLACK TRINITY - DEMONIC PLEASURES

Line Up:

Surt - drums

Hymir - guitars

Arawn - bass

Khaine - vocals

Music by Black Trinity

Lyrics by Black Trinity

Tracks:

1- Abysmal Abomination

2-Ebony Ablaze Thy Beloved Night Sky

3-Martyr Complex

4-Black Trinity

5-From Cold Dark Caverns

6-Demonic Pleasures

7-Oath of Blood and Iniquity

8-Triumph in Blasphemy

9-Frozen North

10-Death Crush

This is fast and raw black metal with influences of Norwegian black metal but also with influences of American black metal. A lot of progress has been made here since the previous recording that we reviewed. Specially soundwise. The music here has very fast drumming with a lot of double bass and with heavy use of blast beats in the hyperfast parts. There is a certain thrash metal influence in some of the riffs and rhythms. To be a raw and direct black metal type of recording (to differentiate it from operistic black metal or from the black metal that ahs some gothic influences) it has very good sound. The voices are of the black metal type but with a thrash metal touch that makes them sound more powerful than the agonic howls used by many bands of the style. We could say that this thrash metal influence approaches the Black Trinity sound to the one of  bands like early Kreator but with a much darker feeling. There are plenty of changes in the tracks and the emphasis is in the dark and heaviness of the tunes and not in the speed. There is good compositional work and this is evident in these changes and the arrangements that have been done. As I said before the sound is good specially in the guitars and in the ride cymbal of the drums. There is a cover from mayhem ultra classic "Deathcrush" to add even more aggression to the msuic. Pure darkness full of aggression.

Recorded at Track Six Recording Studios

Produced by Black Trinity and Brandon Youngs

CALMSITE - ELVISDEATH

Line Up:

Juha Lehtonen - guitars

Ville Virtanen - guitars

Jukka Penttinen - drums

Petri Seitsonen - vocals

Esa Mäkinen - bass

Music by Calmsite

Lyrics by Calmsite

Tracks:

1-Barnhill Burning

2-Hit Stroker

3-Hookerbites

4-Dealer´s Hand

5-Date with the Blades

6-Words Denied

7-Dive into the bottom of the barrel

8-White boots rodeo

9-Tornament

This is the second album from this Finnish death metal band with a particular style that emphasizes the technique and the brutality. Here we have many original and particular rhythms and very aggressive arrangements. This album has a very good sound which adds more aggression to music. The voices are very extreme as in the previous album but they are very clear at the same time letting the listener follow all the lyrics perfectly. The guitars are very rhythmical and the arrangements are very interesting. As I said before the emphasis is in the originality and in the aggression of the tunes and not as much in the speed. The drums are fast but it does not have the typical death metal sound. It emphasizes the heaviest rhythms instead of doing blast beats or using the double big drum all the time. The voices are very extreme and very guttural. In some parts they sound like a roar. The band is extremely compact and that makes the result is still more aggressive. I must once again emphasize the good sound of this recording that is better than the one in the band´s previous recording. A crushing release.

Recorded at Cursed Studios

Produced by Jani Loikas

CERBERUS - KLAGELIEDER - GRABESGESANG

Line Up:

Beleth - vocals

Dawn  guitars

Astrega - drums

Nebiros - guitars

Infernal Doom - bass

Music by Cerberus

Lyrics by Cerberus

Tracks:

1-Blackend

2-If Frozen fire Falls

3-Drachenland

4-Seven Gates

5-Song of Blood and Ice

6-Klagelieder - Grabesgesang

7-Siegestanz

8-Todestränen

Serberus opens with a powerful mid-paced riff in "Blackend"  and soon turn into a very furious black metal that simultaneously has a very dark feeling with good black atmospheres. The good thing that this band has is that they combine elements of black metal with elements of other styles as for example a voice of the death metal type in some parts and they have elements quite different from the ones used by most of the bands in the style. For example "If Frozen fires falls"  is a track that opens with a pure heavy metal riff with some thrash metal feeling that soon turns into black metal but maintaining the rhythm displayed by the drums with a thrash metal style. The band has a good sound that makes more powerful everything that the band does. Mainly the effort in the mix of the guitars is noticed making the sound extremely powerful. Guitars melodies are really dark and make each one of the tunes very memorable. Here there are no operistic singers and nothing similar, but only pure aggressive black metal. Serberus is a good combination between the black metal old school, more modern elements and some experimentation.

Recorded at Tubetemple Studios

Produced by Cerberus

CHAIN COLLECTOR - THE MASQUERADE

Line Up:

Kjetil Nordhus - clean vocals

Svenn Aksel Henriksen - screaming vocals

Anders Kobro - drums

Gøran Bomann - guitars

Kjell Jacobsen - guitars

Music by Chain Collector

Lyrics by Chain Collector

Tracks:

1-Hierarchy of Murder

2-Harvester

3-Neverwhere

4-And then there was None

5-Crucifixion

6-^Project Savior

7-Tapping the Vein

8-Fallen Angel

9-Wicked Mask

10-Winter Princess

This black metal supergroup that includes members of Carpathian Forest, Green Carnation, Trail of Tears and others go beyond this style and they show it kicking off with "Hierarchy of Murder", a tune that can be labeled as modern death/thrash metal. One  thing that I have to remark here is the spectacular sound that the music here has sounding right in your face but at the same time with a really huge sound. This is pure violence unleashed full of extreme vocals in the vein of melodic / technical death metal bands. There are breaks, tempo changes and rhythm changes with complex guitar riffs and here is evident the good skills taht this musicians have. The vocalist is really strong that can manage good melodies and also the most extreme parts. The guitars also do interesting melodies and arrangements. The tunes are really well contructed being aggressive and at the same time really memorable. A future classic in the metal realm.

Recorded at DUB Studios

Produced by Endre Kirkesola and Chain Collector

CHAOS CREATION - PSYCHED-OUT MANIPULATION

Line Up:

Aleksi Ahonen - vokills

Toni Huhtiniemi - guitars, b. vocals

Mikko Knuutila - guitars, b. vocals

Arto Vesander - drums

Julle - bass

Music by Toni, Julle and Arto

Lyrics by Aleksi

Tracks:

1- Head on Turbulence

2-Total Thrashing Dreamstate

3-Overdue Fallout

"Head on Turbulence" starts climatically with a melody that we can describe as exotic while the other guitar delivers a heavy riff. The band shows some progress when comparing with the previous recording that we reviewed a couple of months ago. The music here is pure thrash metal with some heavy metal influences too. This "Head on Turbulence" is a more atypical with some more melancholic phrases while the other two tracks are pure thrash metal with eighties influences. You can see a huge progress in the band, specially in the sound that now is bigger and better mixed. "Overue Fallout" opens with clean guitars delivering interesting arpeggios and a guitar that delivers a solo with really good taste. Then comes the total thrashing riff really special for headbanging. The vocals are powerful fitting really well the music and they are louder now than in the previous recording. Pure thrash metal the way it must be done !

Recorded at Studio Dauntless

Produced by Chaos Creation

CHARME - GOTHICA PROG POETRY

Line Up:

Rachele Manfredi - vocals

Aldo Sefa - drums

Francesco Mengoni - bass

Fabrizio Agostini - keyboards

Saverio Bartoli - guitars

Music by Bartoli (3), Agostini (5), BArtoli / Agostini (4), Agostini/Manfredi (2), Agostini/Bartoli/Manfredi (1)

Lyrics by Manfredi, exc. 3 by Bartoli and 5 by Agostini

Tracks:

1-Lust Chapter

2-What is there for me

3-Escape

4-The River

5-Dream

This CD is original because it begins with something of progressive metal in the Dream Theater vein with powerful guitars and complex rhythms and then turns into something completely different. Rachele Manfredi is the voice of the band that fits really well the music doing melodies with her voice and simultaneously giving quite a dark feeling to the music of the band. The voice gives a melancholy feeling to the compositions and it seems to me that the title is really adequate for this album, “Gothic Prog poetry”, because it defines the general feeling of the music of the band really well. There is a really good work from the guitarist in the riffs and the solos. There are multiple changes but everything is combined with very good melodies that are another of the essential elements of the band´s music. The melancholic feeling of the compositions and the energy of riffs are a good combination that characterizes the music of this band. A very good combination of power and darkness.     

Recorded at Grm Studios

Produced by Charme

CHIMERA - LIeFE

Line Up:

Nishtash-guitars, bass, vocals, vocals

Andrea D.- vocals, synths, programming

Music by Chimera

Lyrics by Chimera

Tracks:

1-Delve Yourself and Bury me

2-What lies Behind

3-Dell´io e la percezione Dio

4-Still unrestful Selfexpanding Ego

5-When Mankind Abandoned Earth for Cosmos

Chimera is a brutal band from Italy with an original and strange style. I am saying that the sound is rare because it has extremely heavy guitars and simultaneously the band uses keyboards and synthesizers. But the sound is definitively of extreme metal. The voices are truly extreme and of the deathly agonic type. The sound also has a definite black metal feeling. Here the keyboards have an important role because they contrast a lot with the guitars. The drums are programmed which gives a mechanical feeling to the music. The sound is raw but good and everything here sounds very powerful. Chimera is a very original and mainly atypical band. They have their own style that is a good combination between aggression and darkness.

Recorded at Blue Inferno Studios

Produced by Chimera

COLD FUSION - OCCUPATRIA

Line Up:

Marcin Bachtiak

Music by Marcin Bachtiak

Tracks:

1-Never Go Back

2-The Captive Dreamer

3-Te Struggle for Survive

4-To the Bitter End

5-Crusade

6-Occupatria

7-Deliverance Day

8-Dear Fatherland Rest uietly

9-Report

10-While Carthago Burns

This CD starts at the same time with a pure and epic sound with very interesting orchestration, with a programmed percussion that accompanies this arrangements and in which the fundamental thing is the main melody that creates simultaneously sad and epic atmosphere. There is plenty of keyboards work because this instrument is the main one. And there is also very good compositional work where the fundamental thing is to obtain the correct harmonies and also to achieve the goal that the percussion perfectly fits these harmonies accentuating the passages that must be accentuated and giving a little more heaviness to the tracks that need it. There are very dark tracks here like track "The Captivr Dreamer" that  has an extremely melancholic piano and that is combined with a keyboard that makes some progressions in the background with a very sad feeling. The sound is very clear and pure and perfectly fits the rest of the music of Cold Fusion letting you listen each melody and each one of the arrangements that are created. A recording full of imagination.   

Produced by Marcin Bachtiak

COLD FUSION / RUKKANOR - WUNDERWAFFE

Music by Cold Fusion and Rukkanor

Tracks:

 1-3 Cold Fusion

 4-6 Rukkanor

This is a split CD with three compositions of each one of these musical projects.  The style is similar to the one described before in the Cold Fusion review, with a hard accent in the atmospheres and in the dark climates.  The difference in the music of both bands is evident although both are very experimental and dark.  This differences are a very good thing in this split since is given a game of similarities in style but contrasts in the composition and in the execution that turn out to be very good for the listener.  There are good and very interesting ideas in the compositional work that shows knowledge of progressions and arrangements and capacity to transmit ideas and feelings to the listener. 

Produced by War Office Propaganda

COUNT DE NOCTE - LUCTISONUS DOLOR

Line Up:

T. Nieminen - vocals

W. SAurén - guitars

J. Orpana - guitars

A. Ahonen - bass

J. Korsumäki - keyboards

J. Hohtari - drums

Music by Count De Nocte

Lyrics by Count De Nocte

Tracks:

1-WaRomance

2-The Proximity of the End

3-The Mirror and Phobic Sanity

4-Siivetön Strojelusenkeli

5-While MY Heart Burns to Dust

6-From the Hope Towards

7-Vertical Horizon

8-For My Fleshed Angel

9-Luctisonus Dolor

The CD opens majestically with "WaRomance" . This is a Finnish band that does black metal with elements from the old school of this style. They are very fast but at the same time they have an intelligent use of nordic melodies that were used in the early and mid nineties. Simultaneously they combine this with more climatic elements that are used to make the tunes sound very distinctive and simultaneously to give them a darker atmosphere besides aggression. In addition to the black metal voices there are also very extreme and guttural voices in some parts. The drums do blast beats and is really fast most of the time. The sound is raw and direct and the mix is good since it allows to listen clearly the keyboards that is making arrangements even in the fastest parts. The tracks have good development and they are not simple eruptions of speed and aggression. There are very good keyboards arrangements that make the compositions more interesting and we could then call this style something like "symphonic nordic black metal" or something similar. A good and original combination of pure hate and darkness.

Recorded at Frost Studios

Produced by Count de Nocte and Jani Loikas

CROWN OF GLORY - SPIRIT

Line Up:

Hans Berglas - guitars, b. vocals

Philipp Meier - keyboards, b. vocals

Ursula Dietrich - bass

Hene Muther - vocals

Thomas Merz - drums, b. vocals

Markus Muther - guitars

Music by Crown of Glory

Lyrics by Crown of Glory

Tracks:

1-the limit

2-Here we are

3-Salvation

4-Art of Payback

5-Spirit

6-Keep the Flame Alive

This is a band coming directly from Switzerland whose music is pure heavy metal with strong emphasis on melodies and a certain neoclassic touch. Here there are influences of bands like Helloween, Stratovarius, Symphony X or Yngwie Malmsteen. There are very good guitars riffs  and mainly there is a lot of  support by the keyboards. The keyboard player has very good technique which allows him to arrange many parts with good orchestrations and melodies. The singer has a Míchael Kiske type of voice and is good in handling high pitches and he has a very versatile voice with good technical skills. The tracks are well constructed and in its majority they have choirs of the ones that can be sung with your fist in the air with epic feelings. Most of the music here has a definitively European sound. Tracks like "Keep the Flame Alive" have a classic chorus that has a real German feeling. It is a band with good melodies, good songs and a lot of technical skills. Pure heavy metal !!

Recorded at Joker Studios

Produced by Crown of Glory

CRYPTIC VISION - LIVE AT ROSFEST 2005

Line Up:

Todd Plant - vocals, guitars, keyboards

John Zahner - keyboards, vocals

Rick Duncan - drums

Sam Conable - bass, vocals

Timothy Keese - gutiars, vocals

Music by Rick Duncan

Lyrics by Rick Duncan

Tracks:

1-Introspective

2-Contemplation (Excerpt)

3-Grand Design

4-In a World

5-Ascension

6-Keyboard Solo

7-Shock Value

8-The Progledy

9-In a World (demo)

This is a live recording full of progressive rock and killer arrangements and melodies. The compositions are complex here and show that the musicians are really good since they need good skills in order to be able to play some extremely complex passages that are on this compositions in a correct way. The keyboards are essential here and they give a definitive seventies progressive rock feeling to the music but with a more 21^st century sound. The guitars sound powerful and that is the reason why we could say that the sound of the band is somewhere between progressive rock and progressive metal, although there are more influences of bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer than from heavier bands. Here the melodies and the solos are fundamental showing the god musicianship and the good taste that the band has. The singer is climatic and has a very good feeling on handling the melodies and the vocal arrangements with a good vocal range. There are also in "The Progledy"excerpts  of some tunes from prog rock heroes YEs, Dream Theater, Kansas and others. The sound is very good specially for a live recording and every note can be heard perfectly here. Virtuosism within good songwriting.

Recorded by Rick Duncan and Mike Preston

Produced by Cryptic Vision

DAGOBA - WHAT HELL IS ABOUT

Line Up:

Wether -bass

Franky - drums

Shawter - vocals

Izakar - guitars

Music by Dagoba

Lyrics by Dagoba

Tracks:

1- What Hell is About

2-Die tomorrow (...What if you should?)

3-The Fall of Men

4-The Man You´re Not

5-Cancer

6-It´s All About Time

7-The things Apart

8-the Things Within

9-Livin Dead

10-042104

11-Morphine - The Apostle of your last war

12-The White Guy (Suicide)

The band starts with no mercy with the title track with fast riffs and rhythms with a scream that can make the Earth shake and shatter becasue of the aggression unleashed. This is an amazing combination of modern metal with death metal giving that extreme and huge sound taht this style of music has. The druming here has a lot fo double bass and it sounds like a Panzer division stepping over you with incredible use of rhythms. The guitar riffs are rhythmic and extremely heavy achieving the maximum heaviness that a band can deliver. At the same time the band has also more climatic elements in some aprts combining them with a voice taht is closer to Fear Factory or bands of that style giving a memorable feeling to each composition. The sound of the band is PERFECT. Yes, if I had to choose one band tat has the perfectr extreme metal ound I should choose Dagoba. This band is 10 points over 10  in aggression and violence !!!

Recorded at Antfarm Studio

Produced by Tue Madsen

DEAD AWAKEN - TOMORROW WE DIE

Line Up:

Andreas Backström - guitars

Joakim Edlund - drums

Andreas Morém - bass, b. vocals

Jörgen Kristensen - drums

Music by Dead Awaken

Lyrics by Dead Awaken

Tracks:

1-Manic Destructive

2-56 Tons of Madness

3-Fear defined

This recording opens violently with “Manic Destructive” showing that the music is powerful and very aggressive with very hard drumming. This is pure death metal with influences of bands of the quality of Deicide or Dismember or Benediction but with a more modern sound. The voices are very extreme of the growling death metal type. The only pity here is that there are only three tracks because they leave you wanting more explosions of pure violence from Dead Awaken. The band sounds very solid and the rhythm section is very powerful, fast and aggressive. The sound is very aggressive and the guitar sound is very heavy and the riffs sound aggressive and original. My favorite track is “56 Tons of Madness”. This it is one of the death metal releases of the 2005-2006 years.   

Recorded at Studio Sutare

Produced by Lasse Holmgren

DEAD MANS HILL - WE WILL LIVE FOR ETERNITY

Line Up:

Bart Piette

Music by Bart Piette

Tracks:

1-The Shadows

2-Dagon

3-Behold the Crucifix

4-Dance in the Cypt

5-Dagon II

6-And we hope...nemesis will be near soon

7-Angela

Whispers and a really atmospheric sound opens this recording.  Here there is a strong emphasis in atmospheres and climates and there is a lot of use of sounds that are behind the main ideas, more of type used to create backgrounds.  There is use of samplers and there is a percussion accompanied by many keyboards that help to create the dark atmospheres.  There are some voices that generate melodies original and ethereal that also give a very experimental feeling to the compositions, maintaining also the feeling of darkness and at the same time adding an idea of something like ancient or gothic to the music.  Tunes like "Behold the Crucifix" would be spectacular for a soundtrack of a movie since they are incredibly orchestrated.  Darkness and good composition go hand by hand here. 

Produced by War Office Propaganda

DEATH HEAVEN - TECHNO DECOMPOSING WORLD

Line Up:

BRN - bass

Matteo - guitars

Andrea - guitars, vocals

Baital  -drums

Music by Death Heaven

Lyrics by Anrea

Tracks:

1-Intro - the Fusion Between A.I. and Humanity

2-Techno Decomposition World

3-Nuclear death

4-The Cannibal of Milwaukee

5-In the Name of God

6-Shadows in Darkness

7-Sunday of War

8-Faith in Nothing

With an introduction with sirens in the background and with some electronic sounds starts this band with an orchestral intro that takes us directly towards the aggression and brutality of this technical death metal band.  This introduction is very different from the rest of the music since the speed starts to increase and soon we have in the other compositions drums doing blast beats and hyper fast rhythms.  The voices here are of the death metal type, at times more growling and at times more guttural, in other moments they are of the agonizing type.  The riffs are fast and complex, and here it is necessary that the band sound as compact as these guys do. This makes everything sound heavier and more aggressive.  There are multiple changes in riffs, rhythms and tempos.  The drummer has very good technical skills, specially with the double bass drum, and he has good management of  patterns necessary to play the rhythms and be creative at the same time.  There are influences of the old school, from bands like Death or Morbid Angel and also of more modern bands, above all in the good sound.  The sound is not the best but is strong and direct with guitars that sound powerful and aggressive

Produced by Death Heaven

DEATHCHAIN - DEATHRASH ASSAULT

Line Up:

Rotten - vocals

Corpse - guitars

Bobby Undertaker - guitars

Kuolio - bass

Kassara - drums

Music by Deathchain

Lyrics by Deathchain

Tracks:

1-Return of the Nemesis

2-Venom preacher

3-Lepra Lord

4-Graveyard Witchery

5-Deathrash Legions

6-Napalm Satan

7-Panzer Holocaust

8-Morbid Mayhem

9-Valley of the Corpses

Kicking off with "Return of the Nemesis" the band shows how much they have progressed playing their death/thrash metal when compared with their previous recording. Fast rhythms and riffs are the essence here along with the ultra bestial voice that spits lyric after lyric without mercy. The guitar riffs are also very rhythmic in many parts of the type that are designed for headbanging and moshing. this is pure aggression with a drummer that plays thrash metal rhythms completely accelerated and showing amazing brutality. there are ultr fast and manic guitar solos that show pure aggression delivered by the guitars. One remarkable thing is that the band is extremely well rehearsed and they sound really tight making the composition sound even more brutal. When compared to the previou album we can see that the sound has improved a lot, specially on drums and guitars that now sound like if you were standing in front of the amps of this guys. Pure aggression with one of the best sounds of the year !!!

Recorded at Studio Sound

Produced by Deathchain and Sami Jämsen

DEBAUCHERY - TORTURE PIT

Music by Debauchery

Lyrics by Debauchery

Tracks:

1-Torture Pit

2-Butcherman

3-Debauchery Bloodpack

4-Cummin and Killing

5-Vitality of Decay

6-Death metal Warmachine

7-Horrors of War

8-Meat Grinder

9-War and Glory - guts and gore

10-Goreobsessed Murderers

11-Carnival Carnage

12-Klan of Killers

13-Cult of gore

14-Decadent Depravity of the dead

15-Blood for the blood god

Debauchery is pure brutality and they show it kicking off with "Torture Pit", a tune that shows that the band can deliver superhuman brutality and aggression. The main riff here is crushing as hell and there are ultra guttural vocals. The band emphasizes this riffs that are rhythmic and extremely heavy and they combine them with faster riffs of the type that bands like Cannibal Corpse deliver. "Debauchery Bloodpack" is one of my favorite tunes here because it sound like a brutal death metal Pantera. Why? Because this guys have the pure headbanging rhythms and riffs and they combine it with a heavier sound and with more guttural vocals giving the brutal death metal feeling to the music but keeping the rhythm that has been designed for the mosh pit. The sound of the recording is really good and gives even more brutality because if you play the cd loud you will feel the band crushing your chest with their violence.

Produced by Debauchery

DENEB - A PATH WITHOUT DESTINATION

Line Up:

Tomasz Sulka - guitars

Szymon Kufa - guitars

Krzysztof Lenard - drums, vocals

Rafal Polnik - bass

Wojciech Konkol - vocals

Music by Deneb

Lyrics by Deneb

Tracks:

1-Born from Ashes

2-Phoenix

3-Chaos

4-Waiting

5-A Path Without Destination

6-Diasparagmos

7-Anxieties

8-Conspiracy of Silence

9-Phantom

10-A Tale of Loss

11-The Wanderer

A very climatic introduction called "Born from Ashes" with a very dark sound and some keyboards introduces us into "Phoenix", a tune that shows us that this is a band that combines death metal with black metal with good phrases and guitar melodies that contrast with the aggression that delivers the band. There are good solos mixed with very heavy riffs that are a trademark of the band´s music. There is a very creative drummer that does not use the cliches of the style and that leaves space for the guitars and for the arrangements that are done by the other instruments. The voice is very guttural, very death metal and also there is a more agonic black metal type  voice like the one used for example in Norwegian black metal. The rhythmic section is very brutal with good work of the bass player who also does some interesting phrases in parts in which the drummer is calmer and he supports the drumming really well too. The sound is raw but good here. There is a lot of technique and the band sounds very compact. Pure brutality with very good quality.

Recorded at P.W.M.CH.S. Studio

Produced by Deneb

DICTATOR - PROMO CD-R 2006

Line Up:

Anoi - vocals

Man - guitar

Rudi - guitar, b.vocals

Rasid - bass

Bowtuck - drums

Music by Dictator

Lyrics by Dictator

Tracks:

1-The undone

2-Death Reality

3-World that Full of Hate

4-In Hellfire

THis is a really raw recording full of aggression coming directly from Malaysia. The music here is between death metal and thrash metal and I find influences of the old school here of bands such as Venom or Bathory but all transfomed in Dictator´s own sound. Direct and fast guitar riffs are the essence here delivering the heart and soul of the tunes here. The drumming is intense and wild doing fast patterns but always leaving space for the guitars and the vocals. And the vocals are really agonic fiiting well the feeling of the music and giving an even more extreme sound to Dictator´s output. The sound of the recording is a little bit muddy and I think that with a better mix the music would sound even more aggressive. There is a cover of Unleashed´s "In Hellfire" that adds extra points to this aggressive release.

Recorded at Metalizer Studios

Produced by Dictator

DIFENACUM - ROZANDO EL MONGOLISMO

Line Up:

Largo - vocals

Ivan - guitars

Bola - bass

Peladilla - drum

Richarte - guitars

Music by Difenacum

Lyrics by Difenacum, exc. 5 by el Trabu

Tracks:

1-Nothing but death

2-Rozando el mongolismo

3-Ebola

4-Elemental Disease

5-Feto Subnormal

6-Vermins

7-Alelos o Alelados

This is an extremely brutal CD with very fast riffs and really extreme voices. Unlike their newer album called "Lapsus" this one has more climatic voices in some parts and more guttural in others that are more similar to those of the above mentioned disc. There are many blast beats and also an influence of grindcore bands like the first Napalm Death or the first Carcass or even Anal Cunt or Bolt Thrower but with a more modern sound with guitars that are recorded very loud and with drums that has an outstanding hi-hat. I have to say that this recording is previous than the other one mentioned and that is the reason why the sound is more primitive in spite of being really violent. Riffs are effective, the rhythms are effective and in spite of not being extremely original they have a great impact in the listener.

Recorded at Cami Roquetes Estudio

Produced by Difenacum

DIFENACUM - LAPSUS

Line Up:

Ivan - guitars, vocals

Bola - bass

Pelaka - drums

Music by Difenacum

Lyrics by Difenacum

Tracks:

1-Apostasia

2-Tauromafia

3-ø

4-Lapsus

5-Homo-economicus

6-Piorrea

7-Ciudad cloaca

8-Legaliza

9-Freedom sucks

10-Informacion / Manipulacion

11-Plastas

12-Basta ya!

13-Sis Pams baix Terra

14-MDMA

15-Egofobia

16-Audiotomia

17-Marron

18-Xapapote

19-P.O.D.O.

20-nace, consume, muere

21-El equilibrio del terror

22-Palabras necias

23-A Cagar

This is pure brutality. This is pure death metal of the most brutal kind that uses some elements of grindcore. The music here has a strong emphasis on speed. Here there are 23 tracks one faster than the other, with a lot of aggression and a lot of violence. The drums do blast beats most of the time and the guitar makes extremely fast rhythms. There are changes in time and there changes in rhythms. The tracks are short and direct and very compact in their structure. Track two "Tauromafia" opens with a riff that is closer to the heavy metal type but soon returns to the death metal or grindcore path at full speed. There is a very raw guitar sound but mixed at a really loud volume which is really good because it gives more impact to this aggressive music. The voices are very extreme: one that is more guttural and the other that does more shouts in the agonic grindcore style. They are not ininteligible but they are very extreme. The tracks are short and they are played at full speed. The band sounds compact and this is important so that the quickest tracks are not lost within a noise ball. The compact sound gives extra points to this band making the violence level higher.

Recorded at Rocketes Estudio

Produced by Difenacum

DIRTY RAIN - DEPARTURE OF DAYS

Line Up:

MArco Ciuffreda - bass, programming

Giuseppe Ciuffreda - synth, programming

Federico Mondelli - vocals, guitars, piano

Music by Dirty Rain

Lyrics by Dirty Rain

Tracks:

1-Far Away

2-Love Carrier

3-Prophecy

4-Glass Morning

5-Wind of September

6-Leaving Yesterday

7-...ANd Winter Comes Again

A melancholic keyboard opens the tune "Far Away" with an air of sadness and beauty at the same time. Subsequently all the band enters with powerful riffs , really in the heavy metal vein and with a very melodic singer that doesn´t deliver the common lines of the style innovating with the melodies. The band has progressive elements in its sound and an evident feeling of Italian heavy  metal. There are multiple changes in the tracks, using clean parts and others that are very powerful. I like when they go directly to the heaviest moments since they are more aggressive and powerful. Tunes like "Love Carrier" are more direct with rhythms that leave place for the guitars to develop arpeggios or riffs. There is a certain feeling of melancholy here, mainly due to the gothic elements in several of the compositions that contrast with the parts more heavy metal. A good combination of melancholy and power.

Produced by Dirty Rain

DRACO HYPNALIS - WEAVERS OF UNREST

Line Up:

Ivos - bass guitar, programming

Lukas - vocals

Mira - guitars, keyboards, programming

Music by Mira and Ivos

Lyrics by Martin

Tracks:

1-Cairn Cleansing Tune Keys

2-Disharmonic Points...in opening

3-Fortified Source of Invisible Light

4-Tombstones for shapeless kindred

5-Departed for the cloud - valted portal

6-Portal for the nocturnal weavers of unrest

7-Green Cathedrals Painted by Silent Wings

8-There We Stand Bonded (Veiled in Stars)

9-Coda

This is a band that we have reviewed previously whose music is an interesting combination of death metal with black metal. This band has special emphasis in the keyboards and has a voice that is more in the black metal style. The keyboards are in all places in this recording orchestrating each one of the tracks and creating multiple arrangements. The keyboards contrast a lot with the guitar arrangements and the heaviness of the riffs and the rhythms, giving a sensation of contrast to all the music of this CD. This contrast is essential here and is one of the main elements in the band´s music. The keyboards are a fundamental element here and they give much identity to the music of Draco Hypnalis. Compared with the other recording that I have commented, this one shows a very clear improvement, specially in everything concerning the sound. This band is a great combination between aggression and arrangements with a lot of technical skills and very clear ideas.

Recorded at Studio Poliená

Produced by Draco Hypnalis

DREAM STEEL - THINKING ABOUT INFINITY

Line Up:

Alessandro antonelli - vocals

Andrea Di Cesare - guitars

Daniele Mazzanti - guitars

matteo Velluci - drums

Diego Testa - bass

Music by Vellucci (1), Antonelli/Di Cesare (2,3), Antonelli/Mazzanti (4), Mazzanti (5)

Lyrics by Dream Steel

Tracks:

1-Octopus

2-Between Man and Child

3-Thinking About Infinity

4-So far So Near

5-Kiss of the Shadow

This album begins in an unconventional way with a drums solo called "Octopus". This solo is approximately thirty seconds long and soon it turns into the next tune called "Between man and child" that is a fast track with good drumming work with double bass in the style of the Italian power metal.  The riffs here are fast and powerful and there is good guitars work that create the rhythms that are the essence here and the epic melodies that the compositions here have.  The singer has a wide range going from mid-tones to high pitches and there is good work in the vocal harmonies and choruses.  The tunes have plenty of changes in riffs and rhythms and that makes them more interesting and  show that the band is very compact, specially the rhythm section.  There are some common elements of the style but the band sounds powerful and solid. Pure metal !! 

Recorded at Fear Studio

Produced by Dream Steel

EN DECLIN - TRAMA

Line Up:

Andrea Aschi - guitars,

Maurizio Tavani - vocals

Carmelo paci - bass

Marco Campioni - drums, percussion

Daniele Carfagna - guitars

Music by En Declin

Lyrics by En Declin

Tracks:

1-_

2-Until Bleeding

3-1647

4-My Anger

5-Still Anger

6-When Edge...

7-...Turns Blade

8-Isquosadmove

9-Lost...

10-...In the Trama

11-A Passage

A calm keyboards introduction starts this beautiful and dark recording with a melancholic melody. This is the essence in the music of En Declin: the dark melancholic climatic element. There are influences of bands like Anathema, Opeth, and bands that are very climatic and at the same time powerful. Some parts brought to my memory the Norwegian band In the Woods and I surely love that. That means that there is a very good mixture of influences with a lot of personality. This is heavy dark rock but at the same time very melancholic with heavy use of clean guitars and sad, melancholic voices full of sorrowful feelings. The melodies are really ethereal and the tunes are very memorable specially due to some eastern type of melodies. The singer is very good and knows really well how to transmit the feelings that he tries to show with his voice. There are good guitar melodies and good arrangements done by all the instruments. The rhythm section is solid and at the same time leaves plenty of space for the voices and the guitars to do their work. The tunes in spite of being melancholic are powerful have a lot of power and strength. The sound is clear, clean and is of the same quality as the one of some of the bands top of the style. A release that combines good feelings with powerful tunes.

Recorded at The Outer Sound Studios

Produced by Giuseppe Orlando

EXCALION - PRIMAL EXHALE

Line Up:

Jarmo Pääkkönen - vocals

Jarmo Myllvirta - keyboards

Kimmo Hänninen - guitars

Timo Sahlberg - bass

Henri Pirkkalainen - drums

Tero Vaaja - guitars

Music by Excalion

Lyrics by Excalion

Tracks:

1-Temptation Wasteland

2-A Moment in the Spotlight

3-Reality Bends

4-Dire Waters

5-Stage of Lies

6-Heart and Home

7-Megalomania

8-My legacy

9-Obsession to prosper

"Temptation Wasteland" opens up this album with a climatic keyboard before a rhythmic and powerful guitar riff enters. The music here is pure heavy metal with epic feelings and some progressive touchs. This has a definitive european sound with plenty of power metal influences. There are a lot of keyboards here. And the good thing is that in some tunes the guitars do riffs that are not so common in this style. The singer is really powerful in the style of singers like Mats Leven, having a voice that is more powerful than in bands of the style. The melodies are essential here being epic and memorable. There are progressive changes from one riff / rhythm to the other. There is a good work of the band as a whole in developing the tunes here. There are also good vocal harmonies and aguitar arrangements that contrast with the keyboards and interact cleverly with it. Pure metal with memorable songs.

Recorded at Watercastle Studios

Produced by Artu Sarvanne and Excalion

EXPULSER - HAERESIS

Line Up:

José L. Bougleux - guitar, vocals

Maria Juanna Lima Hermeto -bass, cello

Kiko Cicciola - drum

Weber Daeahmon - guitars, vocals

Renato Kefi - piano

Music by Expulser

Lyrics by Expulser

Tracks:

1-The Enchanter

2-Blind God´s Seed

3-Evocate (...in revenge)

4-Nevermore

5-Dismembering God

6-Blessed Angels

7-The pages

8-Innocent Blood

9-Blood in Ecstasy

10-TEstimony

11-Haeresis

Powerful riffs of unconventional type with a lot of pinch harmonics use are the ones that open this cd.  This band shows fastly that their music is aggressive, compact and with plenty of changes.  There are many changes in riffs, changes in tempos and there is good technique that is the one that allows to do all these changes of in a fluent and compact way.  The combination of the more rhythmic parts with faster parts is essential to reach the level of aggression and heaviness that Expulser´s music has.  The voices are extremes, they are really death metal, but with a modern metal sound in some parts in which the voice is less guttural but also aggressive.  There are blast beats in a many of the parts showing that this drummer is extremely fast and aggressive.  The riffs are fast and of the type that make progressions of one note played with extreme speed, with a certain influence of old school death metal.  The band sounds very compact and the sound of the recording is direct and clear making this a truly aggressive effort.

Recorded at Mr. Silva and Vol. 4 Studios

Produced by Expulser

FREDY STUDER / AMI YOSHIDA - DUOS 21-27

Line Up:

Fredy Studer - drums, percussion, metal, gongs

Ami Yoshida - voice

Music by Studer / Yoshida

Tracks:

1-Duo 21

2-Duo 22

3-Duo 23

4-Duo 24

5-Duo 25

6-Duo 26

7-Duo 27

Here we have an interesting experiment cause here we have a percussionist with a vocalist interacting. Here we have plenty of textures and I find really surprising Ami Yoshida´s work where she uses her voice as another instrument. Yoshida does incredible sounds with her voice doing interesting explorations with her voice. Sometimes she whispers, sometimes she screams agonicly but always creates interesting textures. Fredy Studer does not make rhythms focusing instead in sounds, some fo them can not be recognizible as coming from percussion. There is plenty of improvisation and experimentation here and each of the seven duets has its own identity being completely different from the others.

Executive Producer by Peter Bürli

Produced by Fredy Studer

FUCK THE FACTS - LEGACY OF HOPELESSNESS

Line Up:

Topon Das- guitar, vocals, programming, keyboards

Mel Mongeon - vocals

Dave Menard - guitar

Tim Olsen - drums

Marc Andre Mongeon - bass

Music by Topon

Lyrics by Topon

Tracks:

1-City of Stone

2-Horizon

3-Dear Shit Book

4-Short term goals, long term disspointment

5-Eclat-boue-sang

6-Make your grave

 + bonus tracks

This is the new Fuck the Facts album that opens up in a truly original way with "City of Stone" a really rhythmic composition with keyboards and samples. Then enters the guitar and the drums adding aggression to the music. The main goal here is to create really aggressive compositions with a certain atmosphereic element. Obviously there are plenty of death metal and grind parts here full of brutality as in "Horizon". But there are always plenty of samples and some electronics that combined with some twisted riffs that emphasize the heaviness of the music give Fuck the Facts a sound full of identity. The tunes are short and violent as for example "Dear Shit Book" that is a hammer through your head. The sound is direct and really well mixed with loud guitars and effective drumming and sounds.

Produced by Topon Das

GAIA EPICUS - SYMPHONY OF GLORY

Line Up:

Thomas Hansen - vocals, guitars

Joakim Kjelstad - guitars

Mikael Duna - drums

Yngve Hanssen - bass

Music by Gaia Epicus

Lyrics by Gaia Epicus

Tracks:

1-Welcome (intro)

2-Time and Space

3-Miracles

4-Seize the Day

5-Hand of Fate

6-Wings of Freedom

7-Spanish Eyes

8-No Release?

9-Chamber of Secrets

10-Be thy Cross My Victory

11-Symphony of Glory

This it is the new Gaia Epicus recording and it begins with the intro called "Welcome" with a circus sound and fastly passes to "Time and space" that is pure power / heavy metal with fast rhythms and an epic feeling, with arrangements of the neoclassical type.  The tunes are memorable with a definite nordic metal feeling in the sound.  There is good work of melodies that, along with the arrangements, are the main element of this band´s music.  The drummer is solid using really well the double bass drum to accentuate the fastest parts.  The singer uses a medium range of his voice, without falling in high pitches or in clichés of the style.  The music is not extremely original here and I like more tunes like “Miracle” that have more original riffs. If you like power metal you will like what this guys deliver here.

Recorded at Top Room Studios

Produced by Gaia Epicus

GHOST MACHINERY - HAUNTING REMAINS

Line Up:

Pete Ahonen - vocals, guitars

Tapsa Pelkonen - bass

Jussi ontero - drums, keyboards

Music by Pete Ahonen

Lyrics by Pete Ahonen

Tracks:

1-World of Unbelievers

2-Blinded Eyes

3-Temples of Gold

4-Evil Within Us

5-Down in Flames

6-Dreamworld

7-From the Edge of the World

8-Darkest Hour

9-Fallen Angels

10-Heaven or Hell

11-In your (evil) dreams

12-Out in the Fields

13- Shadows

"World of Unbelievers" opens up this album kicking off with a neoclassical keyboard showing that this trio is pure heavy / power metal with all the elements of the style. Here we have melodies and intense riffs that sometimes don´t sound too original but at the same time are powerful and memorable. The vocals are melodic in the vein of bands like Helloween or Stratovarius. The tunes are well constructed and the band shows good technical skills as for example the drummer that has killer double bass drumming (and he also plays the keyboards). There are good riffs and I loved the middle section of "World of Unbelievers" that has crushing riffs with a definitive european sound. The melodies and the choruses are the essence here and they give also an european metal sound to the band. The mix is good and I would love to mix louder the guitar to surpass the keyboards and give some extra power points to the music. This is pure metal with excellent songs.

Recorded at Tonebox Oy Studios

Produced by Ghost Machinery

GUSTAF HILDEBRAND - PRIMORDIAL RESONANCE

Music by Gustaf Hildebrand

Tracks:

1-Omega Continuum

2-Post Oblivion Felds

3-The Hollow Structures

4-Omnivoid

5-Ruins of a Failed utopia

6-Wanderer of Strane Spheres

This is the new recording by Gustaf Hildebrand and it continues with the experimentation with very dark atmospheres.  The CD begins with "Omega continent" which is a tune with sounds that I would be able to describe as "abysmal" because they are something very dark, very dense, very deep, that give place also to other dark sounds.  There is always in the background it some sounds that give an idea of depth.  One of the important aspects of this recording is that it contains six tunes that are very different between them.  All of them are different forms of experimentation and on each composition different sounds are utilized, maintaining a coherence that is the darkness in the atmosphere of each of the tracks.  Hildebrand surpasses himself in each new composition adding new shades and new elements with which he expands the sonorous limits of the compositions. 

Recorded in Eskilstuna, Sweden

Produced by Cyclic law recs.

HADDAH - FROM HAPPINESS TO DISGRACE

Line Up:

Tia - vocals

Fabio - guitars

Sorma - guitars

Ale - bass

Beppe - drums

Music by HaddaH

Lyrics by Matteo Galanti

Tracks:

1- Intro

2-Falling

3-Under a Mile Pain

4-Madness

5-Revenging L.A.

6-Outro

A climatic introduction with a heartbeat or something similar opens this record. The music here is modern metal with influences of bands of this style but taken much more to the extreme, with a much heavier sound. The rhythms are heavy as hell and the guitars and drums have a very modern sound of the new metal type although they sound quite different from bands like Korn and other exponents of this style. Also there is influence of more extreme styles like death metal, specially in certain riffs and faster rhythms. The voices are very extreme and this vocalist is versatile being able to fit perfectly in the music and in the different passages that are created here. The very rhythmical guitar riffs are played with a very direct and powerful sound. The rhythmic section is very solid hitting strongly the brain of the listener. The bass player accentuates the rhythms that the drummer creates really well. Tunes like "Under a Mile Pain".  have a structure of traditional metal but with the more modern sound that we have described previously. An aggressive and effective release with killer sound.

Recorded at JSR Studios

Produced by Haddah and Max Lotti

HALLEY - THE EVIL BECAUSE

Line Up:

Luca - drums

Valerio - vocals

Massimo - guitars

Simone - rhythm and acoustic guitar

Gabriele - bass

Music by Halley

Lyrics by Valerio

Tracks:

1-Age of Sorrow

2-Dark Supremacy

3-The Evil Because

4-the Great Worm

5-Suicide of Purpouse

6-Kaos

The band opens up with "Age of Sorrow" with clean guitars and drums that deliver an interesting pattern with the hi-hat before the whole band enters with heavier guitars. The main riff here is twisted and original and the drummer is really good in creating good rhythms without abusing of cliches. In all this recording thuis guys also leaves a lot of space for the guitars to develope their ideas. "Dark Supremacy" is a really fast tune with more aggression and pure thrash metal riffs and rhythms and with a powerful voice tat has influences from eighties thrash metal. And this voice is really powerful and aggressive suprising always with all its power. The band is tight as heall and this is evident in the tempo changes and rhythm changes and they sound really compact here. The sound is much better than in their previous recording, sounding louder and heavier this time. Pure thrashing aggression from a band designed to blast you with their intense music.

Recorded at Comet Broadcasting Studios

Produced by Halley

HARVEST RAIN - NIGHT´S GLOW

Line Up:

Jason Thompkins

Jamey Thompkins

Music by Jason Thompkins, exc. 6-8 by Jamey Thompkins

Lyrics by Jason Thompkins

Tracks:

1-I Call her Cloudgirl

2-Before Evening

3-Strange Eveing Glow

4-13 year Memory

5-Night´s gown

6-Corpse Candle

7-Flight

8-Shadow March

9-White Clouds

10-Drowsy Stare

11-Lantern

This album opens with strange sounds of industrial type that create a rate in background of the composition, the band sample that this is an experimental group with fort eminently used of keyboards but not used to make progressions of agreed, but rather to experiment with new sounds. There is percussion used like an adjustment to more transport us to the world that the band creates through its music. It has from strange rhythms to rhythms that are listened to as if they were very distant. The voices are processed, fitting very well with the rest of music. Here note plus the element more electronic than in other projects of this type in which they are emphasized perhaps plus the dark of atmospheres. One looks for to hide simple neither the programmed batteries but that puts them or in the front to generate the ideal feeling to the compositions. The result is very climatic with a cold voice, without passion that also is reconciled very well to the feeling of music. A dark and original release.    

Produced by Jason Thomphins

HEADLESS CROSS - BURNING SANCTUARY

Line Up:

Dave Silver - guitar, vocals

Jack Wilke - guitars

Andy Stone - bass

Kyle Daniel - drums

Music by Dave Silver

Lyrics by Dave Silver

Tracks:

1-Elysium

2-Circle of Madness

3-Testament of the Deceiver

4-Blinding Sorrow

5-Burning Sanctuary

Looking at the name I thought that the band was going to sound like Black Sabbath. Forget that ! In fact this is a powerful metal band that combines cleverly pure heavy metal with thrash metal. We can say that this band makes heavy metal and takes it to the extreme bordering thrash metal with a really modern sound. The drummer is really good creating good rhythms and includes also interesting double bass passages combining a classic sound with a more modern one. The guitar riffs are really rhythmic, designed for headbanging, some of them more classical like the one in "Circus of Madness" but played with a trully moern sound. The vocals are a combination of pure metal and thrash being more powerful than most of the heavy metal singers but at the same time being capable of delivering intense melodies. The band sounds compact and powerful. The sound here is direct and powerful with a good mix that gives extrapoint to the band. Metal in its most powerful form.

Recorded at Madhat Studios

Produced by Mark Stuart

HELL TERRORIST - PROMO 2005

Line Up:

Brian

Me

Kekko

Music by Hell Terrorist

Lyrics by Hell Terrorist

Tracks:

1-Scream for My Fucking Bitch

2-Suicidal Mercenary

3-Hell Terrorist

Opening violently with “Scream for my fucking bitch” this trio shows quickly that their music is a combination of death metal with thrash metal.  One of the main elements is the incredible use of double bass drum by the drummer and the direct, fast and powerful riffs.  These same riffs are the ones that give a thrash metal feeling to the music of Hell Terrorist, nevertheless, the voices are very extreme, not terribly guttural but more of the style used by bands of the old school of death metal.  There are good technical skills of the musicians that sound compact despite the speed of the compositions.  The guitar riffs have a certain influence of extreme bands of the eighties, they are direct and fast.  There are multiple changes in riffs and in rhythm but they are always aggressive sounding rhythms.  "Hell Terrorist" has guest vocals by Attila Csihar, so lovers of Mayhem and Aborym can check this release. The sound of the CD is direct and mixed in a very high volume, which makes still more effective the violence unfolded by the band. 

Recorded at Agitato Records Studio

Produced by Hell Terrorist

HORDE OF WORMS - UNEARTHLY DESOLATION

Line Up:

Alexander Erhardt - vokills, guitars, programming

Brent Assoun - guitars, bass, vokills

Music by Erhardt / Assoun

Lyrics by Erhardt

Tracks:

1- Unearthly Desolation

2-Dead and Forgotten

3-Endless Plains of Ancient Genocide

4-Ghostly Mournings

Horde of Worms is a band that always sounds very brutal, very quick, but every time with a more polished sound that makes them sound more extreme. This polished and better sound causes that each element that is played by the band is more effective: each beat, each guitar riff, each growl is much more emphasized. For those that do not know the band they play brutal death metal with very guttural voices with very fast drums and guitars that make very fast rhythms. And the guitars are the ones that every day sound better or in each recording they sound better. There are good double drumming parts and also really good parts that are very rhythmical and those are the ones that are better for headbanging. The good thing is that there are parts where they slow down a little bit and they make these rhythms that emphasize the heaviness of the music. Every time they are obtaining a better mix and on every recording they are obtaining heavier results. Tune "Dead and Forgotten" is the one that I like the most and starts with a killer double bass drumming and with a very fast guitar riff. All the recording is very violent. This is an experience in pure violence.

Produced by Horde of Worms

HYMNS OF THE WICKED - NEVER SEE THE SUN AGAIN

Line Up:

Shaun Collins - vocals, guitars

Ethan Cain - keyboards, guitars

Carson Richter - bass

Greg barr - drums

Music by Hymns of the Wicked

Lyrics by Hymns of the Wicked

Tracks:

1-Intro

2-Souless

3-Innocent Man

4-Song #4

5-Dead Logic

6-World Of mine

7-Never See the Sun Again

8-Society

9-Mistake

10-Run Away

11-We Call out

12- Apocalypse

13- Stigmata

This is a combination of hard rock with modern metal with some influences of bands like Mudvayne or Korn with a truly extreme voice (this guys Shawn Collins seems to be going to explote while screaming the lyrics). There are twelve tracks and intro. the band sounds compact and aggressive with a good guitar sound. And there is a good combiantion between guitars, bass and drums when they do breaks or rhythm changes with a huge sound. The bass player is esential here because he gives a lot of bottom end to the music and he emphasizes each of the riffs and rhythms making the band sound heavier. The guitar sound is really good and aggressive. The overall sound is good yet direct sounding right in your face. Each tune has been carefully constructed with the goal to achieve utter heaviness. Good modern metal !!

Produced by Brian Bricklin and Raymond Mclean

IRATE ARCHITECT - BORN BLOOD PORTRAIT

Line Up:

Jens Ballaschke - guitars

Christoph Madarasz - vocals

Philipp Pfeiffer - drums

Asgard Niels - bass

Music by Irate Architect

Lyrics by Christoph Madarasz

Tracks:

1-Pathfinder

2-Born Blood Portrait

3-Chicks on Speed

4-Taschenspieler

This is very brutal death metal with some elements of grindcorethat features Asgard Niels who is now playing drums in Holy Moses. The tunes are very fast here, with drums at the speed of the light with very fast guitar riffs. An element to emphasize is the sound that is much heavier and far better mixed that in most of the bands of grind style. I have to remark also that the band has good lyrics in their compositions. As I said before the drums are very fast, with a lot of double bass drumming and with plenty of changes in patterns that need a good technique to be played as correctly as in here. One of the elements that distinguish the band from others of the same style is the amount of tempo changes and the big amount of technical parts that this band has. In spite of the speed the band sounds tight and sounds very compact and this causes them to sound much more brutal. The vocals here are very extreme of the death metal guttural type in the most rhythmic parts and more of the grindcore type in the fastest parts. A really extreme experience.

Recorded at 3rd A Studio

Produced by Irate Architect

JADIS - PHOTOPLAY

Line Up:

Music by Jadis

Lyrics by Jadis

Tracks:

1-There´s a light

2-What goes around

3-Asleep in my hands

4-Standing Still

5-I Hear your voice

6-Make me move

7-Who I am

8-Need to Breathe

9-Please Open your Eyes

10-All You´ve ever known

11-Photoplay

One of the things that got my attention on this recording is the huge amount of melodies. This is a band with a lot virtuosism and at the same time a band where all the musicians work to construct a good track and not only to show their skills. The guitarist stands out by his good technique and his good taste with the melodies. The music here is rock with a certain progressive touch and also including some elements of hard rock and pop. There are many keyboards here and there is a big influence of progressive rock bands from the 70s and the beginning of the 80s. And the band has a really modern sound that makes each arrangement in the compositions to sound very effective. The tunes of this album are memorable mainly thanks to the melodies that stick in the listener´s mind for a while. The singer is very versatile and very melodic and has the type of voice that fit well this type of compositions. There are slower tunes like "What around" that are very emotional with good climates created for a ballad and where there is a good work of the guitarist and the keyboard player again. The recording has very good sound where every instrument is mixed in a crystal clear way. A very good recording with memorable songs.

Produced by Jadis

JIM GILMOUR - GREAT ESCAPE

Line Up:

Jim Gilmour - keyboards, vocals

John Bianchini -guitars

Christian Simpson - drums (3,4,6)

Roger Banks - drums (1,2,5,9,10)

Corrina Tofani - vocals

Music by Jim Gilmour

Lyrics by Jim Gilmour

Tracks:

1-No Sign

2-Algonquin

3-lost Along the Way

4-Killarney Sunrise

5-the Northwind

6-Radiant Lake

7-Carden isle

8-Wasteland

9-Canoe Do It?

10-Last portage

This is very powerful progressive rock where the keyboards have a fundamental role. The music here reminds me to Rick Wakeman but with a much more modern sound, as the one that have for example the keyboards of masters like Jordan Ruddess or Kevin Moore.  The guitars sound powerful which approaches Gilmour´s band more towards metal than towards progressive rock. The drummer is a killer one and powerful, with a lot of technical skills and creating good rhythms that support the phrases of the keyboards. The singer uses a middle range without abusing of high pitches creating good melodies that are one of the essential points of these compositions. There is a lot of virtuosism here and that is evident in the experimentation and the multiple changes that have the compositions. Also there are good direct and memorable tracks with melodies and good choirs.   Killer tunes that will stick into your mind with virtuosism.

Recorded at Empire and Good Sheppard Studios

Produced by John Bianchini and Jim Gilmour

JON BRUMIT - VENDETTA RETREAT

Line Up:

Jon Brumit - all instruments, sound devices

Music by Jon Brumit

Tracks:

1-Invisible/Hu/Man

2-Geography/Nowhere

3-Good/Life

This recording seems to be the soundtrack of a film. But according to what the press release says, the film has not been made yet. This is pure experimentation with many electronic elements. There are three long compositions here that sum a total of near fifty minutes between the three. There is much experimentation with sounds dynamic and with silences and there is much improvisation too. There are many samplers and electronic elements that give a special machine like feeling to some parts transporting the listener to another musical dimension. There are very short eruptions of sounds and many textures that are accumulated generating sonic layers that show that imagination does not have limits here.

Produced by Jon Brumit

KAOTHIC - ORDER TO CHAOS

Line Up:

Gustavo Romero - bass

Alberto Marin - guitars, vocals

David Curtonates - vocals

Marcos De La Calle - drums, percussion

Music by Kaothic

Lyrics by Kaothic

Tracks:

1-Sphere

2-Hypocritical

3-Strange Confusion

4-Seven times seven

5-A raven in the dark

6-Veil of Shame

7-Arrows of Time

This is a band whose music is death metal with many influences of thrash metal and modern metal, which makes them very interesting.  A point to emphasize is that the sound is very good specially in guitars and drums and that makes the music of this band still more aggressive, mainly in the moments when the band plays parts with influence of eighties thrash, modernized by this stunning sound.  The voices are extreme, they are of the growling type, that fit well this type of very aggressive music.  There are very good rhythms, very heavy, as the one in the start of “Hypocritical” that is very dense, supported by drums that does some rhythms with double bass drums but not fast and furious, but maintaining a tempo and dynamic that is not excessively fast but very heavy.  There are other riffs with use of harmonics that sound really modern and they give a very modern taste to the music of the band. A really aggressive and good sounding release. 

Recorded at Sintonia Estudios

Produced by Bigsimon and Kaothic

KDREAM - KARNAGE VISORS

Line Up:

K - all isntruments, vocals

Music by K

Lyrics by K

Tracks:

1- Karnage Visors

This album kicks off with a lot of silence in order then to let the listener hear some sounds in the background, giving the idea of something dark, of something mysterious.  A minute and fifteen seconds later appear some very rare, more electronic sounds and they begin to generate a darker and more mechanical atmosphere.  It should be emphasized that this cd contains a single composition of more than 25 minutes that is a constant experimentation.  It says in the booklet that is a long version of the theme “Where Am I” that K dedicates to The Cure.  This long composition permits to K to develop multiple ideas and to surprise to each new moment adding sounds.  And this is a completely different format because there are main ideas that are used in different parts of the composition giving full coherence to the music. You will open your mouth in disbelief while listening this limitless experimentation.

Produced by K

KDREAM - TO OUR DEAD SOULS

Line Up:

K - all instruments, vocals

Music by K

Lyrics by K

Tracks:

1-Where Am I

2-Thinking About You

3-To Exorcize Me

4-Dead End

5-Razor Blade

6-Dying For

7-My Bloody Valentine

A sound in the background as if it was come kind of liquid falling opens the track called “Where Am I” setting the atmosphere of this recording. In “Thinking about you” the feeling becomes a little more atmospheric with a lot of experimentation.  But this album has the characteristic to do a greater emphasis in the silences and in the background textures when compared to the other K-Dream releases.  “To exorcise me” has more electronic sounds, always surprising with the construction of the compositions and with a different atmosphere to that of the previous ones.  There are other compositions that begin more abruptly with sounds that rotate and they rotate or repeat themselves until they create a very interesting climate. Pure experimentation that shows a different side of K´s musical personality. 

Produced by K

KDREAM - LOST IN THE LAND OF HOLY GRAIL

Line Up:

K - all instruments, vocals

Music by K

Lyrics by K

Tracks:

1-Mantra

2-Lost in the Land of the Holy Grail

3-The Calling

4-Transylvanian Diva

5-A Prayer on the Light Road

6-Krystal lake

7-Memories

This recording starts with a track that is called “Mantra”, with an electronic sound that can be listened in the background of the composition.  Later a stranger sound enters, more of the dark atmospheric type.  This recording has seven tunes that are very different one from the other.  In this album a more ambient facet is explored through the very dark passages created in K-Dream music to which is added then some melody or arrangement that can even be repeated as an echo.  Again it should be emphasized that there is a lot of imagination and experimentation here , as for example  in the track “Lost in the land of the holy grail” that is a composition that I would say that is something of an ambient industrial type because of the kind of textures used (in the background there are very dark keyboards but in the foreground there are electronic sounds that are quite rhythmic). Pure experimentation with innovative quality. 

Produced by K

KDREAM - INTERNAL UTERAL ETERNAL YOU

Line Up:

K- all instruments, vocals

Music by K

Lyrics by K

Tracks:

1-Eyes

2-Skin

3-Kiss

4-Lips

5-Heart

6-Voice

7-Love

8-Touch

9-Body

10-Sex

11-Spirit

12-Soul

13-Energy

14-Touch (bonus)

K, the brain behind the music of K-Dream is a person with an imagination without limits. The experimentation that has done in the last four releases that we are reviewing on this issue he is really impressive.  This cd particularly is full of textures, starting with the composition called “Hoist” that has a quite rhythmic programmed drums and that uses a keyboard below that creates a texture that I would define as futuristic. “Tim” on the other hand begins with a guitar that starts creating a heavier passage until the keyboards generate a very dark atmosphere.  All the tunes are very different the one of the other but at the same time they have a lot of coherence. An amazing trip through experimentation.

Produced by K

KERNEL - ESCAPE OR KILL

Line Up:

Paolo Casati - vocals

Claudio Rampinini - guitars

Roberto Ringoli - guitars

Marco Re - bass

Francesco Notarangelo - drums

Music by Kernel

Lyrics by Kernel

Tracks:

1-Intro

2-Rage and Destroy

3-Falsi Liberi

4-Escape of Elf

5-The Last Whisper

6-Scappa

This is pure thrashcore with a lot of aggression and full of heavy riffs and rhythms. There is some hardcore and punk influence here that is evident on each of the compositions and also a lot of metal sound, specially in the guitar riffs and in the complexity of the tunes. Here we have really extreme vocals spitting the lyrics and adding even more aggression to the music. And also we have amazing guitar riffs tat sound direct and delivering extreme aggression. The rhythm section is solid and leaves a lot of space for the guitars to deliver their riffs and keeping the aggression that this msuic must have. There are interesting guitar solos that contrast with the most aggresive parts and at the same time support a lot the overall feeling of Kernel´s music. Pure aggression !

Recorded at Chronical Music Station Studios

Produced by Kernel

KÖRBER - ROWE - MÜLLER - FIBRE

Line Up:

Tomas Körber - guitars, electronics

Keith Rowe - guitar, electronics

Günter Müller - iPod, electronics

Music by

Körber / Rowe/Müller

Tracks:

1- Fibre

2- 2

3- 3

As anything that is released by For 4 Ears records you don´t know what to expect because you don´t know in which way the artists are going to surprise you with their experimentation. We have here plenty of electronics thata re the essence here, starting sometimes pasages full of statics and others that have a more mechanical or machine-like sound creating interesting atmospheres that sometimes sound really oppressive. There are plenty of ambient passages here and that is the essence of the music that this masters of experimetnal music deliver. The compositions are long and taht allows the musicians to put many ideas together and developed them intensely.

Recorded at Atelier Chausse-Coq, Geneve

Produced by For 4 Eare Records

LAB ELEVEN - LAB ELEVEN

Line Up:

Fabrizio Morgante - vocals

Daniele Belli - bass

Stefano Doccini - guitars

Francesco Marcacci - drums

Music by Lab Eleven

Lyrics by Fabrizio Morgante

Tracks:

1-The Novice Butcher

2-You Love to hate

3-Death thoughts

4-All That Remains

Starting with an intro with some ambiental sounds the band soon gets into their brutal music with fast riffing and rhythms. The music here is death metal of the brutal kind with really guttural voices and crushing drumming. What first got my attention is the heavy hi-hat used in tracks like “ The Novice Butcher” that show brutality but at the same time interesting ideas. The guitar riffs are of the rhythmic type, ideal for the mosh pit, emphasizing the aggression and heaviness of the music being the core of the band´s music. The riffs have a certain thrash quality but with a heavier death metal sound. The band shows good musicianship in the multiple changes and breaks that are all over the compositions here. As I said before the vocals are guttural but of the clear types where you can discern the lyrics (not of the gurgling type used in many grind and brutal death metal bands). The sound of the recording is direct and raw and maybe with some better mixing the result can be even better. One of my favorite tunes is “You love to hate” because it is the most atypical one with really violent drums parts and other parts where the drummer leaves a lot of space for the guitars.

Recorded by Matteo Buti

Produced by Lab Eleven

LAETA MORS - PERPETUAL DECAY 233

Line Up:

Diego Danelli - bass

Massimo Graglia - vocals, programming, synth

Luca Vertemati - guitars

Music by Laeta Mors

Lyrics by Massimo Graglia

Tracks:

1-Land of Suffering

2-My Life is your defeat

3-Unnatural Regression

4-Ghosts of Mind

5-Perpetual Decay

6-Lihjthouse Keeper

7-Murder

8-Eternal Death

I don´t know why I expected something like thrash metal here but I was mistaken. The music here is much more brutal, much more death metal even if it has thrash metal elements. There are some keyboards that make some arrangements giving a good atmosphere to the tunes. The drums are programmed here and give a more mechanic feeling to the compositions. The voice used here is very strange, is very extreme. The guitar sound is very raw and it gives a lot of aggression to the compositions. But the music here has several thrash metal elements with a great amount of technical parts and always taken to the extreme. As I said before the drums are programmed and in many parts they are programmed at a great speed, doing even blast beats in some parts. The compositions are in general very fast and the voices are extreme, of the type that I would call “death metal roar”. There is an influence of some classic death metal bands like, for example, Morbid Angel, Corpse Cannibal, but the band has its own identity, mainly because of this particular sound that is obtained with the guitars so distorted, with the programmed drums and the voice of Massimo that is very particular. The CD has eight tunes that are very violent, very powerful. Pure aggression.

Recorded by Bicio

Produced by Laeta Mors

LEICHENSCHLACHT - TREUE UND EHRE

Music by Leichenschlacht

Lyrics by Leichenschlacht

Tracks:

1-Kaltes Land

2-Winterreich

3-verdammt

4-Feuer der Nordens

5-Dämmerung

6-Treue und Ehre

Opening with an orchestral introduction in which the guitars accentuate the orchestra before the whole band is launched into a ferocious black metal with a lot of speed.  Here there are blast beats and influences of the Norwegian old school of this style and from bands of thrash black metal style.  I like a lot tunes like "Winterreich" that has a riff that is fast and original and that goes quickly into blast beats accelerating and subsequently returning to the previous riff and then pass to a still heavier rhythm.  There is a mixture of black metal and death metal in some parts here that add even more aggression.  The voices are trully black metal with that typical agonizing sound of the style.  The guitars riffs are fast and played with power chords that makes them sound reallyy heavy and heavier than many bands of the style.  The drums are fast with a lot of blast beats and double bass drum.  The sound is direct and raw making this a very extreme album. 

Produced by Leichenschlacht

LINGUA FUNGI - FLOWERY DREAMS

Line Up:

J.Padatsu - guitar, mandolin, bass, percussion, flutes, whistle, samples and programming

Music by J. Padatsu

Tracks:

1-For you, little seed

2-Branches

3-Nightly Gardens

4-Her Leaves in Gold and Silver

5-Visions Quest

6-Lucid Dreams

7-Bloom

8-Hope You Won´t Wither

This it is a project coming directly from Finland. They open the album with "For you little seed" with a rather electronic sound and soon they become fastly darker and with an ambient feeling reflecting pure desolation and anguish that quickly is transmitted to the listener. There are very good guitars and mandolin arrangements and there is also heavy use of keyboards and programmed instruments. These sounds, despite being modern, give a main idea to the compositions of having a certain Nordic folklore, or pagan influences. An example is “Nightly Gardens” in which with a guitar, one flute melody and one tribal average percussion make the imagination of the listener fly towards those frozen forests of the north of Europe. There is plenty of experimentation also with melodies and sounds that allow the musicians to discover new sonic landscapes in each composition. A recording that must be listened over and over again in order to find each time new ideas.

Produced by J.Padatsu

LIVE NOT ON EVIL - NEXT TIME NAIL IT SHUT

Line Up:

John Begley - bass

Rob Windfelder - vocals, guitar

Eric Sauls - drums

Norm Alger - guitars, vocals

Music an lyrics by Rob Winfelder except 3 muisc by Norm Alger and lyrics by Rob Winfelder

Tracks:

1-Dead Eyes

2-Shooting Stars

3-Ghost in the Woods

4-All is Vanity

5-Lost Prophet

6-End of Time

7-Broadway and Fulton

8-Love you to Death

9-Crown of Souls

10-Never Say Die

11-The Great Escape

The music of this band is heavy rock with some punk and hardcore influences. The tunes are direct, powerful and simple, always maintaining the essence of the band that is to go directly to the results. The sound is quite better than in many bands of the style, specially in the guitars. There are variations in the intensity level of the compositions, for example the second tune is one of the most powerful and these heavier tunes are where a certain hardcore influence is seen. There are direct guitars that play riffs and, along with the voice, they are the essence of the music that this band delivers. The sound is raw and direct and it fits perfectly the music. Good songs with a lot of energy

Recorded at Plan B Studios

Produced by Live Not on Evil

LUCID FEAR - MISTRO

Line Up:

Cathrine - vocals

Henrik - vocals, guitars

Stig - keyboards

Bjorn Erik - guitars

Cato - drums

Espen - bass

Music by Lucid Fear

Lyrics by Lucid Fear

Tracks:

1- Mistro

2-Grief for my Death

3-Psychic Deterioration

4-Outro

5-Tinder I Blålyst Mørke

An introduction with sounds of nature and a dark atmosphere kicks off this CD. The second tune "Grief for my death" releases fastly all the violence of black metal over the listener. This band is of the type that cultivate raw black metal but in this case with a very good sound when compared to other bands of the style. This good sound is fundamental so that the sound here is not turned here into a noise ball that is what sometimes happens to bands of the most extreme black metal. This album is a better mixed than many others in this style. The voices are really black metal and the very fast guitars deliver fast riffs. The drums does blast beats and fast rhythms making the band sound very powerful. But also there are subtler moments with feminine voices and an operistic feeling. Cathrine, the singer here, has a voice that contrasts a lot with the rest of the band and this contrast reveals a darker, unique atmosphere. There are interesting arrangements of guitars and keyboards in the compositions that make each of them very interesting. All the tunes are violent and dark and this is a band that I believe that is ideal to see in a live show. Pure darknes and aggression but with a truly melancholic feeling.

Recorded at Senteret Studios

Produced by Henrik Bruun and Lucid Fear

LUCIFIXION - AS EVIL AS ME

Line Up:

Austin Waidelich - guitars

Jeremiah Riley - drums, vocals

Maria Seeburger - vocals

Andy Hamlet - guitars

Lawrence A. Ray - bass

Music by Lucifixion

Lyrics by Lucifixion

Tracks:

1-As Evil as Me

2-Saga

3-Death´s Design

The music of Lucifixion is death metal but in the first tune, called "As Evil as me" they begin with a heavy metal riff, very  power metal, and this gives you an idea of the very interesting sound of this band. This is a combination of elements of different styles with riffs closer to thrash metal in some parts and with a very guttural voice. The guitars emphasize the rhythms and work to create a compact composition and not just to put fifty riffs together in a same composition. The second tune has kind of a tribal percussion and has a melody in the beginning very epic and melancholic that contrasts a lot with the rest of music. The voice of Maria is very good contrasting with the more guttural voice and giving a very personal feeling to the music of the band. There is also a very good guitar solo in this second tune and the band sounds really solid. The sound of the recording is crude, direct and there are not many overdubs or any trick of that kind. The music has some doom elements in the parts that are a little bit slower. This is a good band that combines brutality with intelligent arrangements.

Recorded at Strawberry Fields Recording Studio

Produced by Lucifixion

LYKAION - BEHIND...A WHISPER

Line Up:

Luca Mazzilli - vocals

Fabio Valentini - guitars

Alessandro Sforza - guitars

Valerio Miseferi - bass

Andrea Alberati - drums

Music by Sfoza/Valentini/Mazzilli

Lyrics by Mazzilli

Tracks:

1-Secret of life

2-Reconstruct

3-Behind...

4-...A Whisper

This is a really heavy band but at the same time it has really good melodies. If you combine the sutility and arangements of a band like Opeth and then add the aggression and intensity of bands like Nevermore or Katatonia you can have a small idea of how this band sounds like. That is, Lykaion is a band that is extremely heavy but at the same time gives a lot of importance to some melodies and arrangements. The band sounds really aggressive, mainly due to the powerful riffs that deliver pure aggression and at the same time have enough hooks to make them memorable. the musicians here have a lot of technical skills and that is evident while listening some complex parts that this compositions have. There are calmer part like the begining of "Reconstruct" with clean guitars and good cymbals arrangements delivered by the drummer. The voice delivers powerful yet melancholic lines that give a good feeling to the music too. The tunes are long enough to let the band show how good theya re in developing the compositions. A must have.

Recorded at Cellar Studio

Produced by Lykaion

MANDATORY DEATH -CLASHING OF THE SWORDS

Line Up:

Mikel - vocals

Rhyno - drums

Kurt - bass

Dario- guitars

Garrett - guitars

Music by Mandatory Death

Lyrics by Mandatory Death

Tracks:

1-Going to War

2-M.D.K.

3-Clashing of the Swords

4-We´ll be Waiting

5-Bulletproof

6-The Rise and Fall

7-Awaited Hell

8-Hit the Bricks

A really direct riff opens this recording showing that Mandatory Death is a thrash metal band  with influences of the classical bands of the style from the eighties.  The band has a very fast drummer that at the same time leaves space for the guitar riffs that are fast and precise and that are the essence of the music of the band.  The compositions are fast and there are good guitar arrangements that do good riffs and phrases in all the tunes.  The voice has influence of the early bands in thrash metal, sounding as the most extreme James Hetfield of the “Kill em All” album but taking his voice to greater levels of aggression The sound of the recording is raw and at the same time is mixed with a very high volume.  This band is pure aggression unleashed and each one of the compositions is a kick in the balls of the listener. 

Produced by Michael Daher and Mandatory Death

MANITOU - DEADLOCK

Line Up:

Ismo Laukkanen- bass

Markus Vanhala- guitars

Markku Pihlaja- vocals

Antti Laurén - guitars

Matti Suhonen-drums

Music by Manitou

Lyrics by Manitou

Tracks:

1-And the Silence Bites

2-Fools in Control

3-Waste, Damnation

4-the State of Mind

5-Black burning Flame

6-Swallowing the Dark

7-Psychoracer

8-Lead a Wild Ride

9-By the Waves of Stars

10-Black Meadow (Menace of War)

11-The Black Meadow

“And the Silence Bites” starts furiously this CD with a very heavy riff.  This is pure heavy metal in the vein of bands as Judas Priest but with a sound closer to the German style of bands like Primal Fear, Rage or Helloween.  But also the band has also influences of Finnish bands of the style making this a really good sounding band.  The band has very good riffs and does not abuse of cliches of the style as are doing many bands nowadays.  I like more tracks like “…in control” that have riffs heavier and they are different from the rest of the compositions.  The guitar sound is very good, very powerful, which makes the compositions sound full of energy.  The singer is very versatile fitting really well the atmosphere of the tunes.  He has a medium range that is where he is more comfortable and he does not abuse the high pitches, preferring to use mid range melodies.  There are good melodies that along with the powerful riffs give identity to the music of the band, as well as the choruses that are used to add more harmony.  The sound is very compact and very well mixed. Good heavy metal 

Recorded at Sound Supreme Studios

Produced by Manitou and Janne Saksa

MANKIND IS OBSOLETE - RISE

Line Up:

Gordon Bash - bass, b. vocals

Natasha Cox - lead vocals, piano, guitars

Mark Nurre - guitars, b.vocals

Jon Siren - drums, b. vocals, programming

Nathan Trowbridge - keyboards, b.vocals

Music

and lyrics by Natasha Cox and Jon Siren

Tracks:

1- Still Night Here

2-Someone like you

3-She

4-In this Ocean

5-Rise

6-Everyday

7-Puppet

8-More than What I am

9-Victory

10-Beyond

11-Smile in the Dark

12- Prayer

Some electronic sounds open this cd and the abundance of climatic keyboards show good taste and a subtle side of the band.  There is a very good taste in the melodies and that is one of the fundamental elements here.  Another of the essential elements is the voice that is really spectacular.  Natasha Cox is the singer that has a middle ranged voice that is very different to the one of other similar singers that use a more operatic type of voice. The voice is essential here in the most climatic parts of the music.  Also she utilizes a more aggressive voice that gives a lot of power to the band too.  The sound of the band is modern, with distorted and heavy guitars but where the emphasis is in the combination between heavy guitars and melodies.  There are certain elements of different styles and there is good guitars work creating melodies with wah-wah in some tunes.  The riffs are direct and fast, being quite rhythmic and interacting well with the drums.  The sound is good and that also helps the band to obtain the atmospheres that they want to create. A great combination of powerful feelings. 

Produced by Gordon Bash

MASS INFECTION - PROMO 2005

Line Up:

Giorgos - guitars, vocals

Kostas - bass

Nikos A - drums

Nikos L. - guitars

Music by Mass Infection

Lyrics by Chris P.

Tracks:

1-Decay

2-Eternal Oblivion

Mass Infection is a death metal band with many influences of the old school of this style. The essence of the music here are the complex guitar riffs, with a  lot of work in them and the aggression. The tempos here are fast but there is not only an emphasis in speed but all music is very creative and complex which  makes more interesting the work of the band. There are slower parts, mid-tempos that change the feeling of the compositions. The voices are very brutal here, fitting perfectly the aggressive and powerful music of the band. There is very good drumming work with good double bass parts. The guitars sound aggressive and really huge and they create riffs with a powerful death metal sound. A raw sound that gives the idea that you are watching the band playing live. There are multiple changes and breaks in the tunes which requires of a good technique to be played correctly as Mass Infection does. The tunes are very well composed, they are complex and the band sounds compact which is essential to increase the aggression that unleashes this band and to play in a correct way these rhythms and parts of the compositions.

Recorded at Nemesis Studio

Produced by Tasos Karapapazoglou and Mass Infection

MICHAEL THIEKE UNUNUNIUM- WHERE SHALL I FLY NOT TO BE SAD, MY DEAR?

Line Up:

Michael Thieke - alto clarinet, alto sax, clarinet, zither

Derek Shirley - bass

Eric Schaefer - drums

Luca Venitucci - accordion, piano

Music by Michael Thieke Unununium

Tracks:

1-If I think, again, of this place

2-Fünf treppen

3-Portnoy

4-Der Idiot

5-Nach Aussen Gewölbte Mönche

6-MMM

7-Der Verfolger

8-Element 110

9-Einen käfer werfen

This is a truly experimental record where Michael Thieke delivers intense experimentation with clarinet and sax while the other musicians construct impressive sounds and atmospheres wityh their instruments. there is a good combination between exploration of new sounds and melodies. I like a lot the accordion and piano that is really experimental but at the same times gives sort of a "french touch" to the music adding some melodies. There is good interaction between the duo Thieke /Venitucci with the rhythm section creating original and challenging passages all voer this recording.

Recorded by Michael Thieke

Produced by Michael Thieke

MIDGARD - BORN FROM ASHES

Line Up:

Peter Fritz- guitars, vocals

Michael Lang - guitars

Jan Zelenka - bass

Wildan Srkalovic - drums

Music by Midgard

Lyrics by Misgard

Tracks:

1-Prelude to insanity

2-In My Darkest Hour

3-Time to fear

4-Against and Again

5-Start Believing

6-Final Breathy

7-Where is the Help

8-the Pain Remains

9-Trapped in My Black Shadow

10-Lost

Prelude to Insanity", an acoustic intro  with a very melancholy feeling, opens this album. This intro has a piano that interacts really well with the guitars. Quickly the band passes to "In My Darkest Hour" that is a heavy tune with a fast riff and double bass drumming with a lot of influence from thrash metal. How can you combine aggression with climatic moments? Ask that to Midgard that know how to do it really well. The rhythms are fast, with double bass drums and fast tempos. The riffs are fast but they are used also in a way that are more memorable and that remain in the mind of the listener. The voice is extreme, of the agonizing type, giving a feeling of death metal to the music but  there is also a cleaner voice than supports the other one in the choruses and in the more climatic parts. There are multiple changes in rhythm and this shows the precision of the band, specially the rhythmic section. The sound of the cd is really good emphasizing the good work of this band.

Recorded at Studio 66

Produced by Peter Fritz and Midgard

MORBID PAIN - SPLIT WITH DIFAMATION

Line Up:

Music by Morbid Pain

Lyrics by Morbid Pain

Tracks:

1-Raped by a Dead Dick

2-Slaves

3-Morbid Pain

4-Arising Among Deads

Here we have two tunes of the split CD that has done Morbid Pain with Difamation.  The music here is a type of death metal / grind with very fast drumming, with a drum that creates fast and furious rhythms and blast beats with a lot of influence of bands in the grindcore style.  The guitars here are very distorted and they create riffs extremely fast that fit well the ultra brutal sound of the band.  The aggression is here the main thing and the voices are very guttural, really in the most brutal death metal style.  As opposed to the majority of the bands of the style the tunes are not excessively short, and they give more place to develop the ideas.  I would like to listen also the tunes of Difamation to see the similarities and contrasts in style and sound that have these bands. 

Produced by Morbid Pain

MORPHEUS - DELOMELANICON

Line Up:

Thanasis - vocals

Chris - guitars

Zisis - guitars

Spiros - bass

Mike - drums

Music by Morpheus

Lyrics by Morpheus

Tracks:

1-Sic Luceat Lux (intro)

2-Delomelanicon

3-An Addition to the Myth

4-Aperture in Demise (outro)

Darkness arrives in the form of the intro called "Sic Luceat Lux", full of keyboards and that foretell the aggression that this band will unleash over the listener.  But at the same time it shows all the politeness and precission of the band in the construction of tunes and orchestral parts.  This intro is long, lasting almost two minutes and inserts itself very well into the following tune that is a composition full of keyboards. And here is shown the band´s style that is a combination of death metal with black metal.  The band has speed and aggression and has also aggressive voices in the death metal style of the growling type that is combined with a more black metal voice of the agonizing type.  There are blast beats and fast rhythms and here is where the drummer makes a remarkable work.  There are fast riffs that are complex and other more rhythmic riffs that leave place to the keyboards to build the arrangements that give a darker sound to the compositions.  The sound of the recording is violent, direct and strong allowing the listener to feel that this band is extremely aggressive but at the same time has a dark and subtle side

Recorded at Nemesis Studios

Produced by Morpheus

NELS CLINE / JEREMY DRAKE - BANNING + CENTER

Line Up:

Nels Cline - guitars

Jeremy Drake - guitars

Music by Cline / Drake

Tracks:

1- B+C 1

2- B+C 2

3- B+C 3

4- B+C 4

This is a very interesting recording because both musicians are guitarists and both are truly experimental.  This it a live recording that shows how this people takes the sound of the guitar and transforms it into something that with extreme difficulty can be identified like a guitar and that surprises constantly mutating in different forms.  There is a lot of use of electronic elements to achieve new sounds and to extend a lot of the sounds that the instruments have.  There is a lot of work with textures, a lot of work with sounds and even with noises.  Also it is important here the work with silences that contrast hardly with many of the sounds that emanate from the instruments.  There is a lot of improvisation and spontaneity in each one of the compositions.  A good combination of experimentation, spontaneity and good musical abilities. 

Recorded live at Line Space Line, Los Angeles

Produced by Experimental Music Research

NEUROTIC - THE REBIRTH OF SIN

Line Up:

Angelo Rodrigues - guitars

Marco Reis - drums

Ino Detelic - bass, vocals

Joao Guerreiro - vocals

Music by Neurotic

Lyrics by Neurotic

Tracks:

1-Prayers of Sin

2-New Human machine

3-deformed

4-Wicked God (the Rebirth)

5-Dark light (Bright Shadow)

6-Ohropax

7-Cannibalistic

8-The Path (To Cross)

9-Divine Burning of Souls

10-Fearful Life

11-Wakening

12- Neurose I

The album begins climatically with 1 before the band enters in a powerful way.  This is very modern death metal with a very good sound.  The voices are of the growling type that fit really well the music and they add still more aggression to the band.  The drums do interesting rhythms and patterns leaving always space for the guitars that are the essential instruments here and that play riffs that are fast with strong emphasis on the heaviness of the rhythms. There is also place for the experimentation in tunes such as “Neurose I” where strange unconventional sounds are used.  There are also bass solos which is surprising in this style of music.  I must emphasize the good work of the vocalist who not only is very aggressive but knows how to accentuate really well the rhythms that create the band.  The sound of this cd is really good and this makes that this album can transmit perfectly all the aggression that the musicians have to the listener.  A very violent and interesting album. 

Recorded at LAC Studios

Produced by Angelo rodrigues

NOISEBAZOOKA - FREE PROMO DEMO 0106

Line Up:

Almir - guitar, drums

Salmi - screams

Music by Almir

Lyrics by Salmi

Tracks:

1-Half Informed

2-Five Levels

3-the MEchanics of Love

4-Instructions Manual for Everyday Life

5-People to Melt

6-Your third Eye

7-Cubistic Worldview

8-Green Room

9-A Marcusean in Structuralist Clothing

10-Xenon Lamp

11-Nothing but a Dot

12-Birth Sells

13-Crystal Mountain No(ise) cover

Noise Bazooka is a band with strong emphasis in speed and brutality. The style that this band delivers is pure grindcore or noisecore with some parts just a little bit slower that I would call brutal death metal. Here we have very fast guitar riffs , not necessarily played with a very downtuned guitar sound, but using instead a more intermediate sound. The drums are very fast and do blast beats all along the compositions and also uses a lot of double bass drumming. The sound of the recording is very raw, fitting well the brutal feeling of the music. There is a certain industrial sound in some parts also that give a special feeling to the sound of the band. There are influences of bands like Anal Cunt, Agathocles and something of Brutal Truth. There is a Death cover of the tune "Crystal mountain" but done in a completely different way. The voices are very extreme, of the grindcore type that do agonic screams over the compositions (not so guttural death metal but rather grind).  Pure bestiality.

Recorded at Noisbulletandbazzokalandscapes Studios

Produced by Noisebazooka

ONANIZER - TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Line Up:

Karel Kamaryt - guitars

Marian Meszaros - vocals

Jirka Kopriva - guitars

Zbysek Petrásek - bass

David Zika - drums

Music by Onanizer

Lyrics by Onanizer

Tracks:

1-Unsere Mutter ist Halt Anderes

2-About Love

3-Wo Shiang He i Bei Pigyu Ma

4- Blues

5-Genocide (future)

6-Queen

7-Jessussito

8-Keck At

9-Conceal Birth (light)

10-Uhorela

11-Bass Fuck

12-Eko Feko

13-Muhamed Mula Omar Vs. Bashah Masud

14-Imhotep

15-Abdurrahman Halayi a Ciceklerin Dili

16-Jdi Spat

17-Commercial Tarts (live)

18- To be short of shouts (live)

19-Your Better Self (live)

20-Russsia (live)

The new Onanizer recording opens with an intro with a keyboard that makes an interesting melody that gives a sensation of peace before the brutality of "About Love" arrives. The music here is very brutal, is pure death metal, with the particular guitars sound that Onanizer has. This sound is very heavy, really huge with guitars that are like a wall delivered against the listener. The bass is clean and that is a huge contrast with the guitars, but is always brutal. The drums are very fast and do many blast beats but at the same time they are creating some rhythms more in the thrash metal style. The voices are extreme and are in some parts very guttural and in others pure agonic screams. There are parts here that are much more experimental in which the voice does some shouts in the background making some type of strange melody that contrasts with the guttural voice. The recording is very brutal and the tunes are fast but simultaneously they leave place for experimentation. Even there are some certain hardcore influences in some parts. The sound is direct and is recorded with a very high volume. One of the most aggressive releases of the year.

Produced by Onanizer

OPERATION COUNTERSTRIKE - COMPOSTER OF DEATH

Line Up:

Meikel Rümper - vocals

Christopher Haut - guitars

Stephan Haut - guitars

Hendrik Schelenz - bass

Gerrity Schneehage - drums

Music by Operation Counterstrike

Lyrics by Operation Counterstrike

Tracks:

1-Stronger than Sauerkraut

2-The Composter of Death

3-Ey dude, we are doomed

4-About Mize and Corn...

5-Confess

6-Biological Footweapon

7-Death metal Owls from hell

8-It´s an Evergreen

9-Fried Potatoes are falling

10-Muh Muh land

11-The vanilla is gone...

Without warning the band kicks off violently with "Stronge than Sauerkraut".  This band combines elements of death metal,for example a guttural voice, with elements originating in thrash metal such as the more precise riffs and the mid paced rhythms. The band´s sound is modern and the guitars sound really fat with a lot of bottom end, especially in parts that are very rhythmic. Also there are hyperfast parts, really in the death metal style, where the drummer delivers extremely fast rhythms, almost blast beats in some parts.  There is a very precise work of the guitarists that need to go from riff to riff very quickly and there is complexity in the compositions, fundamentally due to the multiple changes.  The voice is very guttural in the most violent parts and a little less, of the growling type, in the slower parts.  The sound is reallyy good, direct and specially the guitars sound very violent. Pure hatred unleashed. 

Produced by Operation Counterstrike

OVERGARVEN - PROMO 2005

Line Up:

Nick  T. - guitars

Nick K. - guitars

Peris - bass

Thodoris - drums

Kostas - vocals

Music by Overgarven

Lyrics by Overgarven

Tracks:

1-Bleeding World

2-Just a Fake

3-Shattered Values

4-...Rehenta

5-Let me Die

This band has former members of the Greek band Crossover.  The music here is melodic death metal, very aggressive but at the same time full of arrangements and originality.  For example, the riffs are original and the emphasis is not only in the speed of the compositions.  The riffs have the style of the riffs used in bands such as Children of Bodom with a lot of dynamics and changes.  There are also black metal elements here and there is a female voice that creates good melodies even in very heavy passages giving a distinctive sound to the music of the band.  There are also good guitar melodies that contrast with the more extreme voices that are agonic and more deathly and also of the guttural type.  The drummer accentuates really well the rhythms that the rest of the band creates and the band sounds very tight and  compact.  The good sound adds some points extra to this album.

Recorded at Nemesis Studios

Produced by Overgarven

PARRICIDE - PATOGEN

Line Up:

Michal Wojcic - vocals

Lukasz Zajac - vocals

Tadeusz Jankowski - bass, vocals

Piotr Sabaranski - guitars

Albert Kraczowski - guitars

Andrzej Kuczura - bass

Krzysztof Saran - drums

Music by Parricide

Lyrics by Parricide

Tracks:

1-Deep village (intro)

2-To the Seemingly Immune

3-Interpretation

4-Symbols?

5-The Evil and the Good

6-Patogen

7-Here´s the Source of Indifference

8-In the Name Of...

9-For What?

10-Masquerade II

11-Maybe it was Him

12-When A Village is Out of the WIndow

13-Daughters and Sons of Eternal Star

14-Politics

15-Subconscious Terror (BENEDICTION)

16-Polish Beautiful Village (intro)

"Deep Village" is the introduction to this recording that is like an eruption of violence thrown to the listener. From this intro we go directly to “To The Seemingly Immune” , a tune that starts with an mid-paced thrash metal drums rhythm until it enters a more death metal pattern with influences of the old school of this style but with a more modern sound. The voice surprises because is extremely guttural, I would almost say grindcore, adding more brutality to the music of the band. There are many rhythm changes, breaks and complex passages and very fast parts with blast beats that show that the band has the necessary technique for being able to play them correctly. The guitars deliver riff after riff sounding very compact. The recording has a very good, very violent and direct sound and I have to remark that the guitars have been heavily downtuned. The snare drum has a really particular sound with a dry snare drum sound of the snare drum and a better double bass.

Recorded at Hertz Studio

Produced by Parricide

PHOSPHOROUS SINCERELY - VOCAL POEMS

Line Up:

Nina Björk Eliasson - all vocals

Music by Nina Björk Eliasson

Tracks:

1-A Scaref around the neck

2-Rambling Robot

3-Cykeltur (Bicycle tour)

4-Humming Percussion-Bird

5-Hárid (Hair)

6-Sisyfos

7-Prjar Flugur (Three Flies)

8-Sissy-Fuzzy

9-SMS

10-Where is it?

11- Gentlemen´s Throats cut with very sharp razors with great care and skill. No irritating feelings afterwards

12-Long Hair in Two Hours

13-Unlimited Chat - Fixed Price

14-A scarf around the neck

15-THe singing horse

16-Phosphorous Sincerely

Here we have Nina Bjork Eliasson who is a member of the experimental band Madam Press whose music we reviewed some time ago. In this cd Nina stretches constantly her voice, creating phrases, melodies, sounds, noises, showing many ideas and an amazing vocal control.  In many moments it seems unbelievable that all the sounds that you are listening stem from her voice, it seems something superhuman.  It is interesting that there are both exploration of melodies and also of percussive sounds carried out by Nina, developing a very interesting experimentation in each one of the compositions that constitute this album.  There is a lot of coherence here and I observed that Nina develops constantly ideas that interact one with the other giving form to this surprising album.  Excellent and extreme originality with amazing control of the voice where whispers, moans, shouts, howls are a way to achieve originality and new territories in improvisational music. 

Produced by Biba Björk Eliasson

PROJECT: CREATION - FLOATING WORLD

Line Up:

Hugo Flores - guitars

Carlos Bateras - drums

Vasco Patricio - guitars

Fred Lessing - flute

Tiago Linx - vocals

Alda Reis - vocals

Paulo Chagas - sax, flute

Nuno Silva, cello, bass

Allen Vasconcelos - acoustic guitar

Music by Hugo Flores

Lyrics by Hugo Flores

Tracks:

1-The Floating World

2-Living Under a Blue Sky

3-The Desert Plnet

4-The Civilization

5-Mechanical Dragonflies

6-Arriving

7-Warming up the Machines

8-Artificial Satellite

9-Intervening

10-Creating Atmosphere

11-First Species

12-the Shining Planet

13-Cheops

14-Returning Home

This CD opens with “The Floating World” that is the title track with a dark and mysterious sound. In this band participates Hugo Flores, whom we have already reviewed with his projects Sonic Pulsar and Atlantis. There are a lot keyboards in this recording creating many atmospheres and there is also much experimentation with melodies. Flores guitar is heavy and that is essential to give more power to the compositions. The compositions are very powerful and have a very epic sound. I have to remark that this are very good musicians with plenty of technical skills, which is necessary to obtain the good results of this album. There are heavier tracks, ideal to shake your head, as for example the title track and also there are more acoustic moments like for example “Living Under a Blue Sky”. There is an essential element also that is the combination of male voices with interesting female ones that deliver haunting melodies. There is a good concept behind this album dealing with civilizations, Egypt and worlds development. The very good sound of this album must be remarked also. A good band with killer melodic ideas.   

Recorded at HFP Studios

Produced by Hugo Flores

PROJECT MORFEO - DICOTOMIA

Line Up:

Gianfranco Biagini

Filippo Mastrangelo

Music by Gianfranco Biagini

Tracks:

1-Dark corners

2-She is Pain

3-Walk Away

4-My Truth

5-Night Creatures

6-Evade

7-Free from your chains

8-Vintersang

9-Det Siste Kappittel

This is a very interesting album that has a combination between something more in the gothic vein, very dark, with orchestration, mixed with some rock, something folklore and some electronics.  There is a lot of work of keyboards that is one of the fundamental pillars of the music of this band.  The tunes are quite memorable and there are more introspective tunes like "She i Pain" that then becomes more powerful.  This tune is very memorable with a melody that developes the keyboard (with a piano sound) that is very memorable.  There are heavier tunes as "Walk Away" with a guitar that sounds heavier and with a powerful rhythmic section.  But most of the time the combination is between the powerful elements with other more climatic and darker.  The voices have a gothic feeling, they are clean and they do dark melodies that interact well with the rest of the music.  

Produced by Gianfranco Biagini

RICOCHET - ZARAH, A TEARTOWN STORY

Line Up:

Björn Tiemann - keyboards

Jan Keimer - drums

Hans Strenge - bass

Heiko Holler - guitars

Christian Heise - vocals

Music by Björn Tiemann

Lyrics by jan keimer

Tracks:

1-Entering the Scene

2-Teartown

3-Disobedience

4-Silent Retriever

5-Cincinatti Road

6-Caught i the Spotlight

7-Final Curtain

8-The Red Line

9-A New Days Rising

A long introduction called “Entering the Scene” opens this album with majestic sounds and fastly slides in the second track called “Teartown”. This band has long compositions that are closer to the nine minutes some of them and with a magnum opus call “A New Days Rising” that is eighteen minutes long. The music here is full of keyboards and is very climatic, with a very warm voice that handles really well the middle range and creates interesting melodies. As I said the keyboards are very important here because they are the ones that create the main atmospheres of the compositions. Also the guitars are very important and they sound heavy and give that progressive metal sound to the music. This is pure progressive metal with many changes and arrangements and with plenty of virtuosism. There is much technique here in the musicians and the rhythm section doesn´t abuse arrangements to show its skills but instead keeps the rhythm of the compositions and supports all the changes that the tunes have. The guitarist stands out and he makes really good solos with good taste and a very good sound: A band that shows good taste and virtuosism.   

Produced by Ricochet

RICTUS GRIN - LIVING THE DREAM

Line Up:

Dave Moran - bass

Jeff Lamers - drums

Larry Weeks - guitar, vocals

Music by Rictus Grin

Lyrics by Rictus Grin, exc 6 by Wally and 3 by Eric Klein

Tracks:

1-Lifeless

2-Stalker

3-Death Dance

4-The Dark Hereafter

5-Keystone Buick

6-Rictus

7-Morgue

8-Poe

9-Alucard

Rictus Grin is a band that we have reviewed before and that has worked a lot in the last few years recording many records and doing concerts with bands such as Obituary, Napalm Death, Suffoication, King Diamond and many more. This is a trio that is extremely compact and direct letting you feel all the aggression taht they deliver. The music is what I would call death/ thrash metal with aggressive guitars and good solos tahta re fast aggressive and direct. the drumming is intense with plenty of double bass drumming. there are tempo and rhythm changes that show how tight this band is and there are also plenty of changes in the guitar riffs. The vocals is a thrash metal voice taking to the extreme and fits really well the music of the band being of the extremely aggressive type. This recording has better sound than the one we reviewed some time ago that was "Taste the Steel". A really aggressive band that gets better every time.

Produced by Rictus Grin

RITUS - MORTIFY

Line Up:

Diana T. - keyboards

Matthias M. - drums

Thomas B. -guitars

André S. - guitars

André G. - vocals

Music by Ritus

Lyrics by Ritus

Tracks:

1-Morbid thoughts

2-Tears of Blood

3-Grüne Hëlle

4-Der Senne Letzter Tag

A violent riff that sounds powerful and at the same time climatic opens up this recording in the track “Morbid Thoughts”. The first thing that got my attention was the heavy contrast between keyboards (which are used a lot here) and the guitars. There is fast drumming here with heavy use of the ride cymbal and also a lot of breaks. The vocals here are really aggressive in the death metal vein. This voices contrast also heavily with the keyboards creating sort of a feeling of tension and release in many parts. And the keyboards are the ones that have the role of giving the music a really dark feeling that is all over the place here. The keyboards play an important role here despite not diminishing the aggressive role of the guitars. There is a lot of emphasis on the atmosphere besides the aggression and you can see this in “Tears of Blood” with clean guitars and drumming that makes interesting arrangements for the most climatic side of the band. The compositions are really well developed and because of this structures and the guitars melodies they remain in the listener´s mind. There is good musicianship here. The sound is direct and a little bit raw which makes it even more aggressive.

Recorded at Black Flame Studio

Produced by Ritus

RUKKANOR - DEORA