Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Aguynguerran - Perverting The Nazarene Cult (Shiver Records) Review by Crin
	Belgian Black Metal with a razor sharp guitar sound and a very surprising amount of ideas. From the short keyboard intro [what Black Metal would be the same without one?] the pummelling snares and buzz saw riffs give you the first impressions of another hell for leather act that will run out of steam mid-way, and ideas soon after. I was astonished to find my attention being held throughout the albums duration. The first track proper, Oath, storms forth and breaks up into many levels of sustained blackened angst. Imagine an early Mayhem melting into classic Dissection and you have the formula here. Mesmerizing guitar work, hate fuelled vocals and a formidable degree of songcraft. The drummer must be on
steroids as he invoked an early Immortal hyper blasting fury that appears again and again throughout the albums duration. As you listen to the songs unfold you get the impression of highly capable musicians trying to play bleak raw extreme metal but keep forgetting to keep it rugged, and explode into quite extraordinary guitar solos, drum sequences and highly charged and memorable songs. This is an album of complex ingenuity that melts into the ears with great fluidity. It is rare thing indeed to have a band playing fast intricate Black Metal who do not sound dated, boring, or in the least bit tired. www.shiver-records.com

Bassinvaders - Hellbasseaters (Locomotive Records) By: Joe Florez
	Helloween bassist Marcus Grosskopf has come up with an interesting idea. For once, instead of a best of show with various guitarists or skin bashers Marcus came up with the idea to have various four string puckers to showcase their talents. I must admit that while I am an avid bass lover and have always wanted to play it, I had the same idea and put famous people in the spotlight, but the German beat me to the punch, but there’s an added twist. There’s no guitarists at all. It’s just a three piece unit: bass, drums and vocals. This is gonna be something else. So, who had the guts to show up for this thing? Peavy Wagner, Schmier (Destruction) and
Tom Angel ripper (Sodom) lined up. Peavy is up first with “We Live” and it actually sounds quite good. The kicker to making this thing work is quite tricky. Everyone has double duty of sorts and have to play the bass in a way that will provide a groove and rhythm much like Lemmy. If I would have known any better, I would thought that this was a leftover track from Rage. I would have thought that this was some sort of demo track just waiting for the guitars to be added. There is some good double bass drumming and damn this thing is catchy as sin. The Peavster just goes to town and gives it his all. Nice groove here. “Armageddon” has Schmier up to bat and of course this one is thrashy and fast. The gritty vox are there and is plenty of action going on. Again, you better be a good bassist cause all eyes are actually on the ones who usually get buried in the mix when the whole band is recording. Peavy takes center stage again with “Romance In Black” and this is a dark ballad of sorts. I had a problem with it at first, but giving it a second spin and this is cool. Again, it could be a Rage leftover. “Godless Gods” sounds like a part two to Kiss’ “God Of Thunder”, but sounding more evil and demonic. The best of all is Marcus giving a funky upgrade to Halloween’s ‘Eagles Fly Free.” He plays it completely the same way, but you can just hear the full rich and thick bass lines clearly and it’s amazing cause this is a hard song to play when you strip it down a bit. All I can say is that Marcus is fast with the fingers. This is a very experimental disc, but I dig it. Some may find fault with it due to the fact that there’s no axe work which helps to flesh out the songs, but that’s fine. It’s time for all bassists to get their due. It’s not a bad idea coming from a man who conceived the idea while drinking at a bar one night. This is a really fun disc to listen to if you give it a shot. I am calling this one my album of the month just because it’s very original. Sample the tracks first to get a better feel for it, then buy it. www.locomotiverecords.com \| www.myspace.com/178552203

Children of Bodom - Blooddrunk Special Edition (Universal) Review by Nathan Ward
	Alexi and crew are back with their 6th studio album ‘Blooddrunk’. The tracks on this album sound faster than the previous album ‘Are you Dead Yet?’. They have the pace of songs from ‘Hatebreeder’ and ‘Something Wild’, but they still have the melodies of the later albums and there are aggressive songs too. The album opens with ‘Hellhounds on my Trail’ which sets the pace of the album, fast with catchy melodies and powerful riffs. ‘Blooddrunk’ has a classic Bodom keyboard intro and aggressive sounding riffs. One song on the album; ‘Banned from Heaven’ is very similar to ‘Everytime I Die’, in that the melodies are similar, but the riffs sound more complicated. There seems to be the same
amount of guitar and keyboard solos through-out the album, all of which work well within the song. It is good to see that Alexi’s shoulder injury hasn’t affected his guitar playing abilities. And as per usual, there are a few cover tracks to go with it. On the UK special edition there are 11 songs in total; with the bonus tracks being ‘Ghostriders in the Sky’ by Stan Jones and ‘Lookin’ Out My Back Door’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The cover songs have an ‘American mid-western’ feel to them, especially ‘Lookin’ Out My Back Door’, which has the hillbilly style bass line and it even has a banjo outro. All in all, ‘Blooddrunk’ is a great album. It shows that Bodom are still growing and producing great songs, hopefully they will continue to write songs with the same skill they are now. I’d have to say that ‘Smile Pretty for the Devil’, ‘Lobodomy’ and their cover of ‘Lookin’ Out My Back Door’ are my favourite songs off the album. If you’re new to Children of Bodom, I would recommend you start with Hatecrew Deathroll or Something Wild, so you can get the full Bodom experience. www.cobhc.com

Cwn Annwn - Blood On The Djinn (Self Release) Review by Steve Green
	Cwn Annwn are a band that have done ok for themselves on their local St Paul, Minnesota scene. They've supported a fair few big names, such as Exodus, Testament and Chimaira, they've now taken the bold step in recruiting a female singer, Julie Schultz, and this will see guitarist Neil James vacating the mic stand to concentrate on his six string action. It's definitely worth making such a bold move early on in your career, as not so many people will have heard of you, and to be honest, had the band not made the move, then they probably wouldn't have had much chance of a career. Julie Schultz sounds so perfect for this band, that this cd would definitely be a lot poorer without her contribution.
With 5 tracks clocking in at just under the 30 minute mark, this is a perfect introduction for Cwn Annwn to make on the worldwide stage. Imagine a modern day Iron Maiden, with Megadeth's flair for lead guitar work, mixed with a Progressive edge, and of course with a female vocalist, and you have a reasonable understanding of where the band are coming from. Opening number The Scion sounds so fresh and exciting, it's like a whole new genre has been invented, which of course it hasn't, it's just that Cwn Annwn do what they do, very well indeed. The musicianship from all 4 male members of the band is exemplary, as is the production, for a self release, this matches any underground signed release, and is better than most. Hearing the male vocal intro on Calypso makes me even more positive about the addition of a new vocalist. Julie isn't your average girlie front woman or soprano diva, she's an all out rock singer, kind of like Doro Pesch, but without the accent, and with an infinitely better range. Recoil takes it down a few notches and the change in pace shows that the band know how to write a good tune or two, and that they aren't a one trick pony. I love The Djinn as the band really let rip and I can imagine this one going down a storm when they play live, as does, I'm sure, older number The Fury, which has been remixed for this release, and yes, the vocals sound fucking stunning. And it's a great ending to one of the best self releases I've heard in a while. I hope someone takes a chance of these guys and a deal will be done before the year is out, as a band of this quality doesn't deserve to slog it out in the mire of the underground for too long. Support them via www.cwnannwn.com \| www.myspace.com/cwnannwn

Dornenreich - In Luft Geritzt (Prophecy) Review by Steve Green
	In all honesty, there's only so much I can say about this album before I'd start to repeat myself. Dornenreich are a duo from Austria, Eviga handles the vocals, acoustic guitar and percussion, which amounts to the odd banging of a tambourine. The other half of the duo, Inve, plays the violin in a stunningly beautiful manner. This is a mellow album that flirts between more minimalist moments, mainly due to the sparseness of the vocals, which are often just whispered, and more upbeat acoustic jams, where the violin takes the lead and you almost feel as if you've stumbled upon a gypsy party, set somewhere in a lush forest. Metal, this most certainly isn't, but I think those who are into the folk side of Metal will quite
enjoy this. It's stripped right back to the basics, so the compositions have to be strong otherwise this would be as boring as a Bob Dylan album. But Dornenreich pull it off, as you just tend to go with the flow. When it's quiet, you are waiting anxiously for the violins to spring into life. And during the more intense moments, the music tends to surge off into Slavonic style flurry's, and you are completely taken in by their power. Whichever way they play it, this is an engaging piece of music, even if it is a little different from the norm. www.dornenreich.com \| www.prophecy.cd

Funerarium - Nocthule (Undercover Records) Review by Crin
	Nocthule is the second album from this Luxembourg based Black Metal band. The intro of winds, horses and chanting monks allows you to sit back and await the inevitable, and yet the inevitable does not occur. Riders of Doom, starts the album in a slow, pondering fashion, and not the hyper blast hellish mind assault I expected. Give it time though, the furore of speed and devilry soon erupts, but by this time I am intrigued. There is a very similar guitar sound to Norway’s, Ancient. This thick, almost bass drone weaves a magical spell amongst the pounding drums and snarling vocal tumult. The following Nocthule, again thrashes the air with that guitar drone and drags you into its twisting melancholy.
Midway through the album, the ten minute, The Curse, makes its grizzled appearance. A lumbering ode to Hell with a rolling woebegone rhythm that seems to dribble the stench of death from its lazy guitar strains. This is a wonderful moment and affirms that murky underground status many bands crave when they reach out of its confines, but few can claim to own. The track breaks into blasting mode midway and finally disintegrates into the lulling swoon of its former bane. A quite magnificent song. From then on we are hacked into pieces with the solid speed riffs and low fi vocal rasps littering the albums deeply moving compositions. There is a fine line between noise and noise with purpose. This is the latter, and its purpose is to grab your attention and allow you to band that head into the jaws of Metal Heaven. The final track, In the Dark Nihilistic Center of Gravity [great title] signs of the album as it started with a solid Blackened musical performance. www.funerarium.lu