Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Incrave - Dead End (Metal Heaven) By: Joe Florez
	Having existed since 2001, this six piece Swedish unit released one disc before, under a different name, and it’s only now that more people will hear of them via Metal Heaven. At least in Europe anyway. It’s round two for these boys and what is served is pure straight up Euro metal at its finest. I have to admit that while the music is more than worthy of your ears Johan’s vocals worked my nerves cause they were a bit too whiney and nasally for my taste, but as I listened to it again and again I was able to cope with it. Immediately when “Shattered” kicks it into high gear, you will instantly compare it to early 90’s Tad Morose. However, the guys are more than capable of holding their own. A nice mid paced tone is
set with plenty of muscle behind the riffs and a rhythm section that is packed with power while not overdoing it and easily going into hyper drive. There are keys in there just to accent the music a little bit and the end result is very good. After a few of the milder moments, “The Touch Of Death” takes it up a few notches and adds a little bit of octane here as there is a heavier feel and the music is a bit faster. Most traditional metal heads who like it melodic with sprinkles of heaviness and higher range vocals will have no problem enjoying this. The music is rather consistent with no surprises and it’s damn good. Be on the lookout for Incrave. www.metalheaven.net \| www.incrave.se

Nexxt - Addicted To Sin (Hurricane Shiva) Review by Steve Green
	Some overseas folk (sounds much politer than "foreigners") have learnt their English from watching US TV shows and films, they therefore pick up an American accent, and when they speak English, it's a weird listening experience where you hear the marriage of two completely different dialects. I think Nexxt vocalist Cristian Tricarico must have learnt to sing in English by listening to Sepultura albums as he seems to have acquired an accent from a certain Massimiliano Antonio Cavalera. And if you aren't a fan of Max Cavalera's voice, then that'll influence whether you like this or not, irregardless of how the music sounds. The quality of the music is just about what you'd expect from one of Europe's lesser lights, when
it comes to Metal. It's a few years behind the times with a thin production to match. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what Nexxt serve up and it does possess a certain charm, but it's kind of like watching Liverpool one week and visiting Accrington Stanley the next. You have to be really devoted to the cause to prefer the latter. Make your own mind up by visiting the bands Myspace page at: www.myspace.com/nexxtmetal

ShannoN - Angel In Disguise (ArtistService) Review by Metal Mark
	In the world of metal the term "melodic" doesn't always have to be a dirty word if a band knows how to use it to their advantage. The key to making good melodic metal has to do with the band's ability to use the melodies to make the song catchy, but also they need to use the metal side to give it a good solid backbone to keep it going. Well, France's ShannoN obviously have this skill and they not how to use it, but they know to wield it, twirl it and spin some excellent melodic metal with poise and precision. I was hooked about two minutes into opener "Do you know?" due to the powerful vocals and extremely tight arrangement. The album continues on the same high level as the band soars through track
after track of some of the best of this type of metal in some time. As far as influences I would say Scorpions, MSG, early 220 Volt and even Dio come to mind throughout the course of "Angel In Disguise". They certainly play a style that makes this album sound like it could have been done between about 1986 and 1990, but it's so instantly likable and of high quality that being a little dated doesn't really matter. There are a few songs with some moments that are a little lighter than I may have preferred, but they are few and far between. Obviously they know the style they are comfortable with and they plunged straight into it and created thirteen tracks with a great deal to offer. This band has been around for a decade, but didn't release their debut until 2003. However they are certainly doing enough to make an impression now. Easily one of the better metal albums I have heard so far this year and I would highly recommend it to fans of late 80's/early 90's style metal. www.myspace.com/shannonbandrock

SorgSvart - Vikingtid Og AnArki (Einheit Produktionen) Review by Crin
	Norwegian Black Metal with the phrase ‘Norsk Anarkistisk Svart Metall’, wording that sets the music into the vicious blood letting fury of Mayhem or Darkthrone. The cover and overall imagery is black and white, and the first track all point to a raw TRUE Black Metal experience, but how wrong can first impressions be? The misleading packaging detracts from the quite wonderful Viking/Black Metal atmosphere generated by main man Sorg. For here is an album of such quality and depth that I am aghast to the far from raw primitivism generated by the cover. Here we have up-beat keyboards, clean vocals, rousing choral chants, flutes and obligatory mouth harp, all cementing the main drive of this album. There is
also the icy guitars, harsh vocals and Black Metal framework the music is built around. You can cite the wonderful Viking mastery of Windir and Enslaved, both bands having their brazen longboat heroics replicated here. At times the music rolls into a post black metal camp fire atmosphere of jolly vocal chants and even more jolly keyboards. The pagan battle metal of Finntroll and Moonsorrow are also bands that simmer in the background, worthy citations for any band. SorgSvart take their Black Metal above the constraints of mere primitivism, and into a far more accessible and rousing level of ice mantled Norse Viking metal. www.einheit-produktionen.de

Theatres Des Vampires - Anima Noir (Aural Music) Review by Marco Gaminara
	I was really expecting this to be far more, I don't know, black/goth metal, than darkwave/goth. Perhaps this is owing to a couple tracks I downloaded from their site a couple years back, which were far darker and heavier. I'm certainly not saying that this black soul is bad, far from it. Sonya Scarlet's angelic vocals glide sultrily over Fabian Varesi's keyboards which overshadow the guitars and bass played by Stephan Benfante and Zimon Lijoi, however Gabriel Valerio's drumming is solid and metronomic in instances, but full of flair and fills in others. Opening track "Kain" is light and airy with plenty of
tinkering on the ivories, while "Unspoken Words" sounds far more sampled and electronic, a little Nina Hagen in some way, but without the shouting. On "Rain", a cover of The Cult classic, the keyboards have a very 80's Casio tone feel to them, but the guitars are far more driving and fuller, far more fitting to the rockier sound. Guitars take the fore in "Dust", but the undertones of the keys are not overthrown and key upbeat melodies going in the background. Grand pianos and violins roll in "From the Deep", where Sonya's multi octave voice is truly sublime and works well with the subtle male vocals added in for a little texture. The only thing that comes to mind during the intro to "Blood Addiction" is 80's arcade games, and while the guitars have a nice heavy edge to them, they are just aren't used nearly enough, so the song is far dancier than I'm certain it'll be when played live and the overdriven guitars shall drown everything else out, which "Butterfly" manages to do rather well. Back to synth rock/pop for "Wherever you Are", which probably would probably be able to get airplay on regular radio, it's that catchy. I see visions of nightclubs and manic strobe lights with cybergoths bouncing around when listening to "Two Seconds", but for the true heart of an "Anima Noir" I see grey skies above a beach with violinist sitting on a grand piano being played with gusto. It's a beautiful ending to the album and so eerie and forlorn with such despair in Sonya's tone that it could easily bring tears to the eyes. So like I said, not what I was expecting, but so much more in so many ways that it was an interesting ride. www.theatres-des-vampires.com \| www.auralmusic.com

The Crooks - High Society Rock N Roll (UK Division Records) Review by Steve Green
	(We Are) The Crooks, the second song on High Society Rock N Roll is exactly how I expected the band to sound, even before I had heard a single note: On this number, they sound exactly like Hanoi Rocks, although they have a punkier side to them, which I wasn't really expecting. But taking in the album as a whole, I wouldn't say they sound exactly like Mike Monroe and Co, (apart from on Time Out, which is a dead ringer for the reformed version of Hanoi Rocks) although they definitely belong in the same camp. This is a fun album of thirteen tracks, each clocking in at around the three minute mark. Sure, it's throwaway, bubblegum Rock N Roll, but you can't take life seriously all of the
time. The Crooks provide a bit of light entertainment and the Punk influences I mentioned above take this to the next level, think the lighter side of The Ramones and perhaps the more commercial side of The Clash. On Danny Boy, them seem to have nicked the Undertones Jimmy Jimmy and have given it a Buzzcocks makeover, which seems a bit surreal. But it's all good fun, especially the cover of Madonna's Material Girl, which subtly includes a Sex Pistols riff. To quote Sir Mick Jagger, "It's Only Rock N Roll, (But I Like It)". www.myspace.com/thecrooksitaly

The Lamp of Thoth - Cauldron of Misery (Eyes like Snow) Review by Chris Davison
	What is the most metal city in the UK? Is it London, with it's ancient history, gothic architecture and plethora of bands and thriving band scene? Is it buggery. Bradford. Evil, ugly twin to Leeds; northern, harsh and blackened by soot and industrial decay. It is also one of the few places where roughly one in ten men over the age of 40 still dare to bare their paunches clad only in the fading glory of old Iron Maiden and Saxon T-Shirts. On the edge of this pox-ridden hell hole is Keighley, an old mill town, and scene to many nights on the piss for me during the late nineties when I was courting the current Mrs Davison. It would also appear that this rough and ready corner of our sceptic isle is also the home to a
brilliant doom act. The Lamp of Thoth are a three piece comprising of the amusingly titled “The Overtly Melancholy Lord Strange” (Bass/Vocals), “Lady Pentagram” (Drums) and “Randy Reaper” (guitars). This is fantastic old fashioned doom spiced with the best elements of lost NWOBHM legends such as ...erm...Legend and Aragorn, with added hints of esoteric American acts such as early Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol (who are covered here with a simply mouth-dropping version of their “Frost and Fire” from the album of the same name). A short affair at a mere 5 tracks, this e.p. Is as much a torture as it is a pleasure. Why is it such a bitter sweet offering? Well, four of the five tracks here are absolute stone cold killer classics, and it seems cruel to offer such a tantalising glimpse of what may lay before us before the CD stutters to a halt. That being said, the dry, groovy tones of the music here, with vocals not unlike a more metal version of those to be heard on the first Black Widow album – strange, other worldy and with a creepy folk feeling. Opener “The Lamp of Thoth” is a platinum choice for opening track, sounding as it does like a full on collision between the Celtic refrains of Solstice in the guitar melodies and classic Pentagram in the guitar tone and production, before the main riff catches you by the short and curlies and squeezes until you lose the power of speech. The next track, “Sunshine” is a slower, more doom laden crawl through despair, punctuated by desperate Bill Wardian drums, before the lurching crescendo brings the track to a stuttering finale. The cover version, “Frost and Fire” manages to out Ungol the Ungols, being relatively faithful to the original, but slowing it down and smothering it in a delightfully melancholic doom-sauce. “Blood on Satans Claw” is the first of two live offerings, and sounds like both the band and the audience had a blast, it being a more turbo-charged take on their classic stylings, aside from the “motherfucking whore” refrain, which would have made most bands from 1981 blush like their mums had caught them wanking. The sound quality isn't brilliant for the live tracks, but it does do the trick of capturing that illusive feeling of watching a great band in some backwaters British pub-dive with a dozen other desperate old metal heads. (Note to desperate old metal heads: I feel your pain). Closer “Into the Lair of the Gorgon” is a bit too...well, stop-start-y for me, but then some of that could be the frustration of hearing the audience seemingly having chats during the silence between riff passages! This is probably going to be the most essential doom short produced by any band this year, and certainly the most promising British doom band I have heard in bloody years. You know how utterly amazing The Lord Weird Slough Feg are? Well The Lamp of Thoth could easily eclipse their greatness. So please, Overtly Melancholic Lord Strange – make me overtly happy Lord Lard-arse and give us an album in the none too distant future! www.northern-silence.de

The March of Seasons - My Winter (Graves Records) Review by Steve Green
	Gothenburg inspired Metalcore has been done to death for way too long now, and in all honesty, it's time to move on. The problem is, although I've just shot the genre down in flames (no pun intended) that this album does sound bloody good. Tearing out of the blocks with Trip Behind My Illusions, this is pretty hard not to ignore. Full of energy and an over-bearing feel good factor, I was into this quicker than a binge eater would be into a jumbo sized packet of chocolate digestives. I guess I felt just as guilty afterwards as well. And that less than pc analogy just about sums up the Metal world in an instant. The conformist thing would be to dismiss this just because of the style, but deep
down, why shouldn't I like this solely based on the fact that I like what I'm hearing? Yes, this style has been done to death a million times before, but it ain't half good. This one's a guilty secret not to tell your friends about. www.myspace.com/themarchofseasons

Various Artists - WWE The Music Volume 8 (Columbia Records) Review by Adam Hawke
	I’ve been a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since I was around 9 years old, I grew up watching guys like The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. I bought WWE The Music Volumes 4 and 5 years ago and I was glad to be finally reviewing a wrestling album. The album starts with Jeff Hardy ‘No More Words’, a great song of guitar skills and wonderful lyrics. A great way to introduce the album! ‘SOS’ is more like a pop song and is personally not my kind of music. It seems out of place on this album. Following ‘SOS’ is the instrumental ‘Glamazon’, which seems to be very straightforward
and a bit too basic for an album. I was really wanting more out of the song and was disappointed at how it ended. It’s a repetitive song and doesn’t have anything special in it. The album picks up more of a metal rhythm once more in ‘In The Middle Of It Now’, it seems to save the album somewhat from the seemingly same rhythm of the past 2 songs. ‘Sliced Bread’ was a real let down as it drags the album out of metal into pure ridiculous….very pop idol and again, it doesn’t seem to fit on this album and would be more suited for Now 66. The album once again picks up the metal mantle again with ‘No Chance in Hell’. Now here is the problem I have with this song, it’s a great rock version, however, I prefer the original version. The original version is just a better sounding song and its more fitting with the WWE style, however I have to give credit to this version as it’s a good song for this album. The album seems to follow pretty much the same pattern from here, ending with ‘Break Down The Walls’ again a good version but I prefer the original. WWE have strayed somewhat from there classic format for wrestling albums, however, it's not a bad album. Apart from a few songs, it's good. More fitted for new wrestling fans, the older long time fans of WWE probably will not like this album. It's ok, but they have done better.