Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Elysium - Godfather (Metal Mind) Review by Chris Davison
	Points for style in the CD booklet, chaps. A series of sepia pictures, showing the band in various gangster style drinking poses (think The Godfather rather than Snoop Dogg), lyrics written in faux newspaper cut-out style and funny false-news articles about the musicians fictional crime sprees. It all has a little more originality than the usual Satan, war or beer shticks that we get stuck with in our review copies! (Ignoring the rather prominent erm...three skulls on the CD cover). This was originally released as a freebie with a Polish metal magazine back in 2005. Now, if ever a whole album was to be released with a magazine in the UK, you could be well
assured that it would be absolutely fucking garbage. However, I know from a few of my trips to Poland that it isn't rare for this to be the case – on my previous visits to that splendid country, I snagged myself copies of a Solar Dawn album and a tribute to Morbid Angel album both from magazines that cost me less than two English pounds. Bargain. Thus it does not automatically follow that this will be crap. Which is handy, because it isn't. Straddling that fine line between thrash and melodic death metal, this is an album that most frequently brought Danish contenders Konkhra to mind. Tight, percussively minded modern thrash metal is the order of the day here. It's all breathless stuff, with the guitars being wrangled expertly, and while the riffs are equally head-down thrashers and mid-tempo head-pounders, the solos are a little less accomplished. The star here though is drummer Pawel, who manages to keep brilliant, metronomic beats while having an extremely unusual cymbal sound that lights up each track. The vocals are gruff, shouted rather than sang and owe more to the extreme side of the spectrum than traditional thrash singing, but they're also easily understood, despite the eastern accent. It's not a classic album, by any means, but it is at least as good as anything put out by Hearse (who share a similar sound), and better than Konkhra's “Come Down Cold”, with which swinging, groovy numbers like “Bloodsuckers Inc” share an atmosphere. This is a well deserved second chance at greater exposure for a band who deserved to have their music spread wider than on a magazine in a single country. It's not going to set your world on fire, but I bet you a tenner you've heard at least five worse higher profile thrash albums this year. www.metalmind.com.pl/index.php?jezyk=en Small print warning: this is not a legal bet.

Flame of War - Europa; Or The Spirit Among The Ruins (Garazel Rec) Review by Crin
	NS Polish Black Metal oozing smoky moods and frost bitten dynamics. From the sublime keyboard intro [obligatory for this form of monotone style] bleeds forth the rolling drum beat and pure Pagan atmospherics of Imperium. A melodic, rousing and simply arranged composition that eats up the twelve minute duration with ease. The following track, Spirit among the Ruins’ speeds up the proceedings and again hits a lengthy ten minutes of uplifting primitive Pagan Black Metal. Like the awesome Brankald and Graveland, the flavour of the Baltic sound is very evident here. The calmness of a guitar instrumental follows for five minutes and this muted atmosphere is thereafter shattered with the galloping Long Live
Death. There are traces of Burzum among the brazenly raw sound here. The music is at times ponderously agonizing and mantled in a Dark Age mist of cultural oneness. In its entirety this is a fantastically brooding release full of emotive desperation and deep expressive abandon. The band wishes to be known as Aryan Black Metal and that is their prerogative, it does not mean I agree with the phrase. The music is all I am interested in here and in a free world, music like this has its chance to be known. Ironically in the real world if bands were to promote music as controversial as this they would not get any coverage and no doubt its adherents would be beaten to a pulp. Now which world would you prefer to exist in? This album can be obtained from www.godreah.com

For Today - Ekklesia (Facedown) Review by Metal Mark
	This band has some definite possibilities, yet this probably is not going to be the disc where they prove or define themselves. However, that doesn't mean that they didn't show some progress here. If I had to define this album with one word it would be "uneven", but I guess one word reviews are not all that fair so I need to expand on that idea. This is some sort of metalcore, but that doesn't tell a whole lot either. The guitars are quite different for this style because almost every single track starts with an exercise of swirling, bending riffs that surprisingly have an almost progressive flair. Yet most of those riffs fade rather quickly and unfortunately they serve more as pretty set pieces than as the backbone of the songs. The
bass is what it should be, which is deep, churning and steady as clockwork. The drums are decent, but perhaps not as much in the foreground as they needed to be. The killer (in a very bad sense) are the vocals because they start at annoying and work their way down. Any message they hoped to pass is lost in the growls and off kilter ramblings that made my stomach feel sour. They do have some strong parts musically, but the downfall was they just had no idea how to tie them together to compliment each other. It was like different parts floating out there not really reaching for help so the results were a very scattered sound. There is potential in the playing and the production was everything it needed to be, but the poor vocals and lack of cohesion kept it off course. www.myspace.com/fortoday

Gallileous - Passie Et Mors MCD (Redrum666 Records) Review by Crin
	Redrum666 Records re-release of the bands excruciatingly agonizing 1994 demo. Here we have pure Black Doom from Poland, slower than Cathedral and more dismal than death itself. Quite mortifying. It seems that when the bass chord is struck, there is a labouring lull until the next one. You can really smell the demo era Cathedral here, grotesquely slow and deathly pale. You can feel the nausea setting in when listening to the four tracks here. The sound is massive with a distorted guitar sound sucking the atmosphere into a black hole of endless solitude. This is pure DOOM for depressives and suicidal maniacs as there is nothing remotely warm emanating from the frozen notes that disintegrate in lamenting wails
of agony. The vocals are grinding snarls that growl and groan across the chugging bass chords and dismal musical atmosphere. Just imagine a roaring locomotive rumbling at a laborious pace though blood thick sludge and bones. This cd is also available via: www.godreah.com

Guns On The Roof - Last Orders EP (Self Release) Review by Steve Green

"This is the next generation of UK Punk". A very bold statement in which to end your biog. What we have here, is a young band from Leeds, with an average age of only 19, who have been influenced from across the whole spectrum of Punk, from the old masters, such as The Clash, and from other forms of "Punk" as well, as unfortunately Green Day seem to have got in there too. The title tracks kicks off this three tracker and takes us back to the early days of The Clash, which should come as no surprise when you look at the bands name (Guns On The Roof is a song on The Clash's 2nd album, Give 'Em Enough Rope) It's a great start, which is ably backed up by the equally potent, So Tired. Guns On The Roof have captured the spirit of 70s Punk perfectly. My only concern is the occasional diversion into the poppier territory of non-punk bands such as Green Day. And don't even try and argue the point that Green Day are Punk, ok? I like a lot of final number Michael Myers, the shout-along chorus in particular is pure gnarly UK Punk in the vein of The Ruts circa Babylon's Burning. But leading up to the chorus is way too poppy, (it reminds me of the Manic Street Preachers and Green Day for fucks sake) and I'd prefer it if the band stayed away from their commercial side and that they concentrate on the more caustic edge they are more than capable of delivering. Not bad at all, and quite possibly a band to watch. www.gunsontheroof.com \| www.myspace.com/gunsontheroofuk

Hail Of Bullets - Of Frost And War (Metal Blade) Review by Metal Mark
	Twenty years ago who would have guessed that death metal (then in it's infancy) would go on to be such a wide and popular field two decades later. Yet despite all the changes over the years sometimes the earlier styles are best. That's how I personally feel about death metal and this is an album that sounds like it could have been done around 89-92 except perhaps that the production is better here. We get former members of members of Gorefest, Pestilence, Houwitser and Thanatos here so it's a bit of a death metal Supergroup of sorts. After some build-up they finally get at the meat of the material and the result is somewhere between prime Celtic Frost and early Bolt Thrower. They push forth deep
tones, dry throated vocals and enough heavy, chunky rumblings to keep most fans happy. It's a basic approach yet they do it very well with the consistently biting bursts and the spine-rattling rhythm section. I would like to have seen them add a few more faster parts, but that's minor. "Of Frost and War" isn't a venture into unknown territory for anyone involved here, but instead they draw on what they know and what they like. That approach serves them enough on this album. www.myspace.com/hailoffuckenbullets

Horse The Band - A Natural Death (Ferret) Review by Steve Green
	Most of the Live 4 Metal collective are traditional, or extreme, Metalheads. None of us, bar maybe one, are purveyors of the left of field crazy stuff, that gets lumped in with Metal. Here we have Horse The Band, who flit between an aggressive, hardcore based stance... and well, weird stuff that sounds like it was created by a kiddies keyboard, or was sampled from an 80s game console, and quite honestly, the weird left of field shit just ruins it for me. I can live with this when it's flowing along nicely, in fact, I like what I hear when the band are firing on all cylinders, but the constant addition of outside influences, to these ears at least, is a complete waste of time and it leaves me simply hating this. Sorry, a very short
review, but I don't intend wasting any more of time on this one. www.myspace.com/horsetheband

Kataklysm - Prevail (Nuclear Blast) By: Joe Florez
	It seems like the Canadian hyperblast boys just keep the releases coming one after another. I have never seen a more hard working extreme band than this. They are always out there on tours and letting everyone know that metal ISN’T DEAD! It seems like less than two years since In The Arms Of Devastation, but it has been and now it’s time to PREVAIL. As usual, there’s not time to fuck around. The title track gets right to the point and rattles the speakers to practical oblivion. Max’s drumming continues to be tight and powerful while Maurizo’s vocals are more intense and the riffs supplied by JF continue to shred. It’s real easy to repeat yourselves especially in a genre like this, but there is something special going
on. With all of the extremities that are going on from each release and each song, there is plenty of melodies if you can follow it. The musicianship continues to mature believe it or not and the thing that keeps it all together is the production. It’s real easy to make this sound sloppy and be performed the same way, but Kataklysm exceeds on all fronts. “Taking The World By Storm” is heavy as fuck, but you can hear the tempo changes immediately. The guitars are more harmonious. They aren’t as intense and in your face, but there is a pattern going on here that is easy to follow and is simplistic. In fact, they have more of a mid range sound to them. The drum pacing goes from slow to mid to fast, but works its way slowly. Some fans may be put off by this, but you are not only hearing a work in progress, but you are listening to something more mature at the same time. While these guys will always be the kings of hyperblast, you don’t hear it thrown around throughout the record. It’s used more sporadically and only when it’s called for because if you used it constantly it would get old quickly. These songs are very structured and may turn a few hardcore fans away from purchasing this, but everyone has to evolve in order to survive and be fresh. The one track that really impressed me the most was the instrumental “The Last Effort.” I thought that this would be long and drawn out, but what I got instead was something that was catchy and enjoyable. You are still able to shake your head to this and do windmills till your neck snaps. The production skills of JF just get better and everything on here sounds so clean and crisp. You can hear everyone play their hearts out. Thumbs up here again. This is loud, heavy and continues to be in your face. Fantastic effort. Can’t miss. www.nuclearblast.de \| www.kataklysmrocks.com

Kingfisher Sky - Hallway Of Dreams (Laser’s Edge) Review by Metal Mark
	Looking at the cover of this release I was thinking progressive metal, but then one look at the band picture had me thinking gothic metal. Actually I was right on both guesses as it turned out to progressive gothic metal for a better lack of term. Although it’s far more progressive and gothic than it is metal. The music is large and normally very distinct, relying primarily on gliding keyboards and the guitars are constant, but somewhat in the background. Obviously the vocals are the focus here and they come on shortly into almost every track and the music makes a backdrop for the vocals. That style might turn off some metal fans and Judith Rijnveld is a classically trained vocalist. However her voice isn't
operatic and I think the band as a whole work to have the music and vocals on the same page. This approach makes a tremendous difference as it somehow seems much easier for me to take. I think that the vocals here float rather than stab at your sense and quite honestly that helps to appreciate and soak in more of what is really going on. The arrangements are tighter than a number of bands attempting this same style. Everything isn’t automatic, but most of the songs fall into place and some point during their running time. Perhaps some fans might see this as a light version of gothic music, but I found more to enjoy about than I thought I would. Now before I go dressing in black and talking all dreamy, I do have to interject that this album doesn’t have enough metal aspects for me. The keyboards are as prominent if not more so than any other instrument. That should be a prime indicator that this isn’t going to be the heaviest album under the sun. Kingfisher Sky does a lot with what they have and they obviously care a lot about the total output and that’s a great attitude to have and largely they pull it off. My advice would just be if you love strong vocals and soothing music with a slight edge then you will be into, but if you are expecting more metal then you may want to pass on this one.