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Arawn - Welsh Black Metal (Demo)
Review by Crin |
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A brave title for a band so young. Is there such a thing as
Welsh Black Metal??
Hecate Enthroned are from the land of the Celts, so that’s a
good start.
Here we have a medieval atmosphere set to dynamic keyboards
and a style of epic Black Metal of the likes of Graveland, and
those early releases of Abigor and Behemoth.
The primitivism of the sound sets its dark foreboding presence
over the caustic guitar riffs that are dominated by a fuzz so
essential to this pagan influenced strain of Black Metal.
There is a great melody woven into the music, with the three
tracks here formulated into actual songs with many levels of
intensity and folkloric beauty. There is a deep sense of |
emotion flowing though the slower
sections, and yet when the pace picks up there are great riffs
and guitar licks that will propel you into Beltane with ease.
Arawn have an individuality that gives the material here a
style set apart from the surrounding masses. There was a band
in the nineties hailing from the UK called Phantasia, and
this three tracker reminds me of them. A distorted guitar
backbone shrouded in keyboard dynamics. Like Phantasia, Arawn
is the sole creation of one person, in this case a
multi-instrumentalist named, Bleiddwn-y-nos.
The tracks are 6-7 minutes long, and composed around Welsh
Celtic legends, and this deep resolute theme can be absorbed
from the dark-age moods emitted from the arrangements. This is
not blasting gut fucking Black Metal, nor is this paint by
numbers Black Metal. Here is a thoughtful demo that attempts
to capture a mood of olden integrity and cultural pride.
It sometimes beggars belief when a demo stands out more so
than the rest of the studio output I am reviewing at the same
time. But, it shouldn’t. A demo is usually the first sparks of
creative….that flow from the eager muse. This is a time when a
band will scribe their music without having the scars of the
music industry slashed about their self belief and drive to
succeed. Here truly resides the pure underground sound, a
wonderful innocence yet to be fucked up the arse by some label
or promoter.
Here I go again, ranting and raving again….time for a bong me
thinks………….
www.myspace.com/arawnblackmetal
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| As Light Dies - A Step Through The Reflection
(Mondongo Canibale) Review by Steve Green |
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Mondongo Canibale are a Spanish label, so it's not surprising that
they'd sign a band from their homeland, but you'd never guess in a million
years that As Light Dies were from Spain. Ok, I'm not say there's a
typical Spanish sound for comparison purposes as Dave Rotten's Death Metal
crew Avulsed have absolutely nothing in common with the likes of Power
Metallers Dark Moor. But if I had to hazard a guess at As Light Dies
origins, I'd
say either they were either American or Australian.
ALD are quite an artsy band. A warm tranquil, Lord of the Rings meets Enya
slice of New Age fantasy greets us with Crossing The Stygian Lake, which
is then replaced by the violin
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led Out Of The Cave, which reminds me of the late, great Morgion. Whether you like this kind of music or not,
there's no denying the bands class and high levels of musicianship and
song writing skills. It's only when they go down the route of Ved Buens
Ende and instil a more jazzy/avant-garde style, that I tend to lose
interest. It's not a style I've ever managed to grasp and I don't think
I'll start now.
With the ever changing styles, that incorporate Black, Death and varying
forms of Progressive Metal, there's plenty here that'll keep you on your
toes. I'm not a fan of every style that As Light Dies employ, but I have
to admire them for the risks they've taken. A Step Through The Reflection
is a challenging album that will appeal to those of a more high brow
nature. www.mondongocanibale.com |
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| A Tortured Soul - Kiss Of The Thorn (Eyes Like
Snow) Review by Steve Green |
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Opening number Tomorrow's Door has a retro feel which creates a warm
and fuzzy feeling down below, especially when the doomier part kicks in,
but nothing that really grabbed my attention. But what's this I hear? A
King Diamond clone doing the backing vocals... I immediately fell in love
with this album. I've been a huge King Diamond fan since I first
discovered Mercyful Fate back in 1983 and I've never heard a band/singer
that can recreate such great music, until now that is. And this isn't a
soulless carbon copy of the great Dane(s) This is music with passion and
heart.
Not Tonight drops the pace a bit and reminds me of a doom version of Judas
Priest mixed
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with early 80s Ozzy. A great combination for a disturbingly
crushing song. Nocturne cranks it a bit and heads back to the killer King
Diamond/Mercyful Fate mode. If you are a fan of KD, then you have to hear
the album as it's the best album he's never recorded. The similarities are
uncanny and it's if I'm hearing Don't Break The Oath for the very first
time all over again. Especially with the lead guitars sounding the best
I've heard since Night Of The Unborn. This is awesome shit. This album
just gets better and better as we get Little Girl, which sounds like it's
right from a KD concept and it's even better than the man himself could
produce. If you don't believe me, this song is top of the bands myspace
page, go listen to it while you are reading this review. It's a shame they
don't have Parasite up there as well, as that's guaranteed to sell this
album to you too.
If I carried on giving you a song by song breakdown of this album, then I
would be just repeating myself and I think you must have a good idea of
how this album sounds. If you haven't guessed by now, this album sits
quite nicely in the early part of the 80s, probably one of the most
creative times in Metal history. A Tortured Soul have captured that moment
in time perfectly and Kiss Of The Thorn is an absolutely stunning
collection of retro Metal that is full of passion, that blows me away
every single time I listen to it. For fans of King Diamond, Candlemass and
Judas Priest. Buy or fucking die!!!
www.northern-silence.de/eye.htm |
www.myspace.com/torturedsoulmusic |
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Blaze Bayley – Alive in Poland DVD (Metal Mind Productions)
Review by Nathan Ward |
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Blaze is back with his first, non Iron Maiden, live DVD, which
was filmed at the Metal Mania festival in Katowice, Poland. I
have yet to see Blaze live, so I was looking forward to
watching this live show. Was I disappointed? Hell no. Blaze is
a great live performer, running round with a crazed
psychopathic look on his face. Making the crowd feel as though
they are part of the band; this is how front men/women should
act. The concert itself is 135 minutes long, with about an
hours’ worth of interviews with Blaze and the band.
There are 15 songs on the set-list (16 if you include the
intro). 5 of which are Iron Maiden songs, from the Blaze era.
The intro is an air-raid siren sounding with a countdown from
10. The band opens with ‘Speed of Light’, after the third
song; Maiden’s ‘Futureal’, Blaze addresses the crowd talking
about the critics who said he’d be going nowhere and how his
record label didn’t want him to go on tour. They play another
4 songs before Blaze and the guitarists take a breather and
let the bassist and drummer do a short instrumental for the |
crowd, which they then turn into ‘Ten Seconds’. Another Iron
Maiden song they do is ‘Look for the Truth’, for half of which
Blaze stands on the crowd barrier and gets up and close with
the fans whilst he sings. After another three songs there’s
the break before the encore. They finish the show with ‘Sign
of the Cross’, yet again another Maiden song, and ‘Born as a
Stranger’.
The Extras on the DVD include: an interview with Blaze, which
lasts for about 40 minutes in which he talks about how he got
into music, joining Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden amongst other
things. He also states that joining Maiden was the best
Christmas present he ever got. The band members: Rich Newport
and Nick Bermudez (guitars), David Bermudez (bass) and Rico
Banderra (drums) also do an interview in which they introduce
themselves and talk about how they met Blaze and several other
things. Other extras include the usual; tour photos and PC
relate stuff.
The production quality of the DVD is fantastic, the sound
mixing is nearly spot one; there’s a bit of echoing in some of
the songs, but it doesn’t ruin the songs. You can hear each
instrument and vocals clearly without any hissing or muddied
sound. The visual editing is also great; you get a clean
smooth image with no blurring at any point. Even with the
house lighting there’s no hideous contrasting blocking or
ruining the shots.
My favourite songs from the show are ‘Born as a Stranger’ and
his rendition of ‘Virus’ both have a great live energy. Blaze
proves himself to be a great live artist, pushing off all the
shit he’s gained from critics and nay-sayers, saying ‘He’s not
as good a Bruce Dickinson’ because he’s not, he has his own
vocal style which fits what he writes. I hope he continues to
write great music and do great live shows; the guy's awesome.
So if you’re a fan of Blaze Bayley, and you’ve not seen him
live, or even if you have, ‘Alive in Poland’ is a great DVD.
And for you Wolfsbane fans, it has been announced that they
are reforming for a few UK dates.
www.planetblaze.com |
www.metalmind.com.pl/index.php?jezyk=en |
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Eldritch - El Nino (Re-release)
(LMP) By: Joe Florez |
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These Italians have been making their presence felt big time
this year as not only have they released another dark/thrash
record in the form of Blackenday, but they re-released their
first two discs earlier this year completely re-mastered and
stuffed it with bonus tracks, demo songs and other goodies.
Well, they have done it again with the 1998 release of El
Nino. It’s been nine years since it’s been out and they have
decided to do this one up to the max as well. The one problem
I have with this band is that while they are very talented and
present the masses with strong music, they are nothing more
than cult status with most of their releases flying under the
radar unless you are a huge fan like myself. Well, I hope this |
time they will get better recognition. At any rate, anyone who
is familiar with their work will understand that lead vocalist
Terrance Holler is a very troubled man and scribbles it all
down on paper. This man has a very dark side to him as most of
the songs relate to him and how he is a difficult man to deal
with to say the least. And now, onto the disc.
I have the original version of this and loved it. It has been
a long while since I last heard this, but here is my chance to
re-evaluate it. I always loved the intro “Fall From Grace.”
It’s catchy as fuck with this sick drum thumping and staccato riffing along with some electro vibes and Terrence’s spoken
word. “No Direction Home” is a really strong opener with
standout musicianship. The drums are tight and played to
perfection and changes up the pace from medium to heavy while
the guitars give the composition that extra crunch and yet
this is still melodic. There is plenty of odd keyboard sounds
on here, but it only helps add to this song by giving it that
extra depth. You would think that Terrence would be screaming
his heart out since he is a very troubled man, but instead he
actually sings, but you can tell that’s its intense. This is a
combination of technical/thrash and straight-up metal all
rolled up into one. “Heretic Beholder” is a culmination of
many sounds as the tone and speed of the song is upped. The
solos fly as high as the sky and there is some haunting
keyboard work that is both classy and neo-classical and still
it bounces around to other styles. High pact energy is offered
here without ever sacrificing the signature sound overall
quality. “The Last Days Of The Year” shows a softer sound to
the band somewhat, but you will hear Terrence’s tortured soul
let it all out here.
Overall, this is another standout release
from this more than underrated band. Some fans may take offence to the slight change in direction as they guys
incorporated some electronic ambiences into the mix of thrash
and metal. There is more of a groove and catchiness which is
fantastic and needs to be heard. In order to get the fans to
shell out money for this like myself they have added bonus
tracks. Two of them in fact. The first is “Nebula Surface”
which was only available in Europe and Asia the first time
around I believe. The newie added to this is a cover of Yngwie
Malmsteen’s “Dreaming.” In addition to that is a poster and
five demo tracks from 1997-1998. As you can see, this is
essential and I will get this myself. Now, if they can only
release that hard to find record “Reverse” which never made it
to North America.
www.limb-music.com
| www.eldritchweb.com |
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Goat The Head - Simian Supremacy (Tabu Records)
Review by Andrew Ward |
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Goat The Head hail from the wilderness of Norway, a muddy area
along the banks of the river Nidelva. They describe themselves
as ‘primal caveman death metal’. What the hell is that? I hear
you ask. Well giving this album a listen will explain what
this terminology means. Primal caveman death metal is simply
being angered by the world as we know it and giving it to us
via death metal.
Goat the Head certainly live up to their ‘caveman’ style with
this album, a very raw, natural sounding album with guttural
vocals and plenty of incoherent moans and groans. The first
track ‘Terminal Lesson’ kicks in with a fast paced simple
riff, then come the vocals, guttural |
but not brutal, a nice blend between heavy and intelligent
guitar work. The second track ‘Beast Man’ is my personal
favourite, mid paced and simple, enough to get your head
nodding along without you even noticing. The quality of the
song writing and the production, along with the simplicity of
the music all add up to make this a heavy and intelligent
album.
From start to finish you can imagine a caveman beating a
deerskin stretched over a rack and grunting to his fellow
tribesman about how the world is changing and evolving. It’s
the sheer simplicity of this album which makes it such a
pleasure to listen to. It's been lumped into the death metal
genre but I think will appeal across the board of metal fans.
Its difficult to liken it to other bands but if you like heavy
mid paced metal with guttural, but not brutal vocals then I'd
strongly recommend this album to you.
www.taburec.com
| www.myspace.com/goatthehead
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Hemlock - Bleed The Dream (Candlelight) Review by Marco Gaminara |
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I honestly have no idea why, but when I first picked this up I
thought it was gonna sound like Hellion, or perhaps I just
didn't read the blank promo sleeve the CD was in properly and
read Hellion, who knows. But one thing's for sure, as soon as
Chad Smith opens his mouth he sounds nothing like Ann Boleyn
and his bass pounding is far heavier than that of any of the
Hellion bassists, but that that's because this isn't 80's
thrash. It's a bit of a death/hardcore crossover, as the music
is substantially heavier than regular thrash and hardcore, but
still contains those hardcore elements of dual vocals and
plenty of jumpy syncopation. Opening track "My Eyes Itch"
could make your ears bleed if you're not |
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expecting the onslaught that awaits you. Steve Baca's
blistering drum work on "Weakman Suicide" is a blasted aural assault, as are Chad's
screams over the top. Guitarists Brandon Crane and Bryan
Gentry trade licks and throw down some really chunky riffs,
but are perfectly capable of playing acoustic melodies,
accompanied by clean vocals, as they do on "The Platinum Lie".
The ultra fast bass intro for "Nobody Knows" ploughs the way
for the rest of the band to jump in and flood the song with a
powerful deluge, 'til midway it appears to be dammed and held
up a little, but when it bursts through, it just sweeps
everything away. "Jacobs Ladder" was an awesome mindfunk of a
movie, and while having as many changes and moods, I doubt
that this has anything to do with it. While very popular
during the 80's in London, I doubt that the Americans had that
many incidents involving a "Pipebomb", and to think this is a
love song. Slow and plodding, the music suits the title for
"Suffocate the Truth" perfectly, as it's extremely
claustrophobic and doesn't let you up for air. Title track
"Bleed The Dream" has a groovier feel to it, but the vocals
are slightly higher pitched than the rest with a couple of
Disturbed type shouts there. I'm still undecided whether the
opening riff for "Becoming" has an 80's metal or glam vibe to
it, but that's quickly rectified by the pounding drums and the
clean/death vocal interplay works rather well too. Consider
this, a touch of Machine Head and a splash of Exodus thrown in
a blender for "Raze to the Ground", and the leads are
particularly impressive. There are plenty of harmonic squeaks
and squeals on "To The Nines" which take us into the final
track "Crooked Smile" which chugs along at a mid-pace pushing
the vocals to front of the mix and ending the album on a far
mellower note than it started off on.
www.hemlockworld.com
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www.candlelightrecords.co.uk |
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Om - Pilgrimage (Southern Lord)
By: D.W. |
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This music is what would permeate the wind high upon a
precipice at the edge of the sky, enrapturing a circle of
ancient hooded figures chanting to achieve transcendental
enlightenment. The latest from Om delivers an engaging triad
and reprise that urges the listener to take part in Cisneros
and Hakius’ (formerly of Sleep) ritual of dimensional
exploration, which must be experienced as a whole entity
rather than discrete tracks to truly appreciate the scope of
“Pilgrimage.” Branching from previous work though maintaining
their motif, the chanting vocal style, melodic minor bass
variations and tribal to stoner rock percussion at times
capture an essence of some sort of summoning, though whether
or not |
this power sought is of ill-will or benevolence can’t quite be
ascertained. The title track seems calm enough at first, with
crystalline enchantment of bass intermingled with a
ritualistic vibe. Soon a more frantic pace is assumed (all
things relative) that engorges the sensory-perception with a
genuine feeling of uneasiness, followed by a denouement
reflecting the calmer initial moments. Any doubt as to how
“metal” this is quickly rendered to alternative opinion during
the middle movements; riddled with distorted bass and far more
aggressive percussion, the true stoner doom comes out,
bloodshot droopy eyes and all. The latter part of “Bhima’s
Theme” brings to light skilful composition, implied by the
sheer eruption of heaviness following a peaceful intermezzo.
By itself these passages don’t have the same impact when out
of context of the album as a whole entity itself - another
merit to the composing abilities of Om. “Pilgrimage” is best
experienced in one sitting, and certainly demands multiple
listens to comprehend and appreciate the subtle intricacies
interwoven throughout. Those with an open mind to a unique
twist on the genre: grab your glassware and greenery, sit back
and let Om take you to another plane of existence through a
portal of meditative and pummeling musical cadence. A welcome
addition to drone and stoner doom collections alike.
www.omvibratory.com
| www.southernlord.com |
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Sear Bliss - The Arcane Odyssey
(Candlelight Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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I’ve always heard good things about Sear Bliss from Hungary,
but never had the opportunity to listen to them until the
release of their sixth full-length, entitled “The Arcane
Odyssey”, on the ever expanding Candlelight Records. Those
good reviews of Sear Bliss were warranted, at least in the
case of “The Arcane Odyssey”, as the album is a fine example
of symphonic black metal.
Many bands playing the symphonic style of black metal are
either prone to self-parody and can come across as excessively
overbearing, or are in constant danger of being branded as
Dimmu Borgir or Dissection clones. Sear Bliss does a wonderful
job of avoiding these |
pitfalls and emerges as an original band while still playing
within the genre. Rather than being pigeon-holed within a
singular style, Sear Bliss reaches out to incorporate pagan
and traditional heavy metal elements into their musical
direction.
Starting with a symphonic black metal base with a mid-paced
delivery, a growled rasp, keyboards, and prominent guitars,
Sear Bliss also add horns to complement the soaring, epic
elements to song structures that are heavily emphasized
throughout the album’s eight tracks. Frankly, the horns really
make this album stand out and are liberally applied at key
moments in each song. Sear Bliss’ lyrical focus seems to be on
Hungary’s pagan, pre-Christian past (although, without a
lyric sheet, I’m not certain), and the horns go a long way to
bring this aspect of the music to the forefront.
In addition to the horns, keyboards are displayed without
being overbearing to add to the melodies as well as guitar
structures that are much more reminiscent of traditional heavy
metal than black metal. Numerous melodies and solos make
appearances within the songs that are much closer to, say,
Iron Maiden than black metal of the Norwegian persuasion,
although there are a few blasts on the album.
Overall, I’m impressed with what I’ve heard with “The Arcane
Odyssey” and I fully intend to track down the rest of Sear
Bliss’ discography. Excellent.
www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
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www.searbliss.hu |
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| Virgin Sin - Brotherhood of Freaks (Mondongo
Canibale) Review by Steve Green |
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Virgin Sin were formed way back in 1983. Originally they were
influenced by the glam of Alice Cooper and Kiss and a much darker side
that earned them a reputation as Sweden's first Black Metal band, with
their sound being in the vein of Mercyful Fate and Venom. The corpse paint
has still survived, musically
though, it's all change, and although a trace of Venom is still evident, the pacing is much more in tune
with Thrash than anything else.
Normally I'm a big fan of anything retro, including a bit of Thrash, but
apart from the odd nod towards Slayer and a smattering of more Traditional
Heavy Metal, I've not really got excited about this album. Yet, at the
same time, I don't have anything to criticize the band
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for either. I guess they are ok at what they're doing, but
there are so many bands doing the same, or something similar
that do it so much better.
If a cross pollination of early W.AS.P. without the shock value, and 80s
Thrash without the aggression, sounds appealing, then give this a chance.
I'd describe this is as simply adequate.
www.virginsin.net |
www.mondongocanibale.com
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