Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Merciless Death - Realm Of Terror (Heavy Artillery) By: Dave Schalek
	Los Angeles based Merciless Death has made a pretty smart move on their second full-length, a quick follow up to “Evil In The Night” entitled “Realm Of Terror”, on Heavy Artillery Records. Merciless Death, of course, is largely at the forefront of the current revival of mid 80s, German-style thrash metal that I was initially very enthusiastic about, as were other reviewers. At the time of “Evil In The Night”, I was quite exclamatory in my praise for Merciless Death, but I also sounded a cautionary note that this current fascination with old school thrash was in great danger of becoming stale pretty quickly. Unfortunately, that’s largely been the case and I found the debut from Warbringer, considered by many to
be the best band in this niche genre, to be overrated (sorry, Joe). Given that my enthusiasm for the glut of bands playing this style is fading, why do I consider Merciless Death to have made a smart move? Three reasons: First, “Realm Of Terror”, while still being firmly rooted in the sound of German thrash, is well produced, much more so than “Evil In The Night”. “Evil In The Night” sounded right out of the second tier of German thrash metal with all of the production values, or lack thereof, of the period. “Realm Of Terror”, however, has a really thick, prominent guitar and bass with a more modern, mature sound. The drums are better, as well, although they lack a bit of a punch and are a bit overwhelmed by the guitar and bass. Second, the album is quite short, under a half hour, consisting of nine tracks with the first being an intro. The album blows by pretty quickly with short songs that do not allow you to become complacent. Third, the album is well written with simple songs and catchy riffs that just seek to rip your head off and succeed in doing so. In short, “Realm Of Terror” has pushed back the expiration date of the thrash metal revival and, frankly, somewhat surprised me. This one comes highly recommended. www.heavyartillery.us

Mustasch - Lowlife Highlights (Regain Records) Review by Chris Davison
	Mustasch. Honestly, I can't really read that as a band name without cracking a huge smile. It remains one of the most stupid band monickers ever devised, and yet, there's something quite splendid about it. Having released their first couple of releases for Regain in the past, it's fitting perhaps that I should review this latest collection; a timely reminder of the roots of the band, culled from their releases on EMI. Taken from a plethora of previous albums and Eps, this avoids the problem that many such retrospectives suffer – the patchy music phenomena. This is because Mustasch appear to have had a very tight rein on the quality control and consistency in sound during the period
sampled. Quite honestly, you could play this album without prior knowledge and assume, for the greater part, that it was a new studio album. Musically, it's (again) quality hard rock, sitting occasionally within the heavy metal spectrum, particularly with some of the more impassioned tracks. Track 5, for instance, “I Lied”, sounds to me like Black Queen era Freddy Mercury jamming with members of Welsh doomsters Acrimony, while Richie Blackmore noodles away on guitar from the more commercial Rainbow days. Elsewhere, as with the classic sound of “Frederika”, you may be reminded of the kinds of riffs that you haven't heard since 1983. Some modern acts may go for the retro sound, but in the main they appear shallow and smack all too often of the ironic hipster. Mustasch always give the impression that they love their rock, and this is a platinum collection of professional, passionate and pleasing riffs bound together with great songwriting and production. On a hot summers day, sat out in the garden, with a beer in my hand and a smile on my face, this is the kind of music that I want to play. All of my Mustasch albums sit happily next to my AC/DC and Motorhead albums, filed under “rocking good times!”. Are there any earth shattering, life changing musical moments on this collection? No. Will you want to wear a big shit-eating grin and nod your head in slow, satisfied fashion as you listen? Yes. www.mustasch.net

Power Quest - Master of Illusion (Napalm Records) Review by James Young
	Power Quest as a band have matured throughout the years without losing any of their original charm, and Master of Illusion is a bold statement about where the Anglo-Italian melodic power metallers stand now. Much has changed since their debut Wings of Forever, which whilst enjoyable, didn’t separate itself from the power metal crowd. Neverworld and Magic Never Dies managed to implement a hard rock-meets-AOR edge which took things up many a notch, and here we stand a couple of years later with a new release. Firstly I thought I really had experienced an illusion when there was a lack of an instrumental intro song, not to mention being shocked at the absence of a lighters-in-the-air ballad, which I
thought was mandatory for this band. Also surprising was the way in which the rock elements are played down, and have been exchanged for a slightly more keyboard-driven sound, borrowing elements from Finnish power metal in some places and prog-power metal in others. A whole host of well-known names in the metal world appear on this album, which may help to explain the range of influences in this album, with guest appearances from Pagan’s Mind, Cellador, Firewind, Threshold and Fourwaykill. As expected, Alessio Garavello’s vocals have that warm Italian edge to them, with some occasional balls-in-vice moments that we’ve all come to love. Garavello has recently been recruited as a second guitarist, and the twin guitars bring the sound to a new level, and the solos especially seem to have more emotion and feeling than before. Steve Williams’ keyboards have always been a huge selling point of the band, and they have never been so experimental and exciting as on this album – the leads in ‘Civilised?’ and ‘Master of Illusion’ are fantastic, and are certainly up there with the band’s best moments. The progressiveness of the music comes out in full force at points in ‘Save The World’ and ‘I Don’t Believe In Friends Forever’, the latter of which is the closest that this album gets to a ballad. Francesco Tresca’s drumming shows a great diversity, and this can be seen especially in the songs which draw influence from the Finnish power metal scene, with ‘The Vigil’ and ‘Never Again’ containing some faster licks that we might usually associate with Sonata Arctica and Children of Bodom. The only song which one may be able to criticise as ‘generic’ could be ‘Kings of Eternity’, but it’s a nice nod to the old style of the band, not to mention nostalgic for the old fans. The one real problem I have with this album are the guest shouts from Chris Neighbour on ‘The Vigil’, which I really don’t like at all, although they get full marks for surprise factor – I never thought I’d hear extreme vocals on a Power Quest album! There are going to be a few Power Quest faithful who don’t need to be told twice to buy this album, but for those doubters out there, give this album a shot, because it really is a top piece of power metal. The UK seems to be known as a one-trick pony for the genre with such a massive focus on Dragonforce, but with such quality as this floating around, this Anglo-Italian outfit simply cannot be ignored. www.napalmrecords.com \| www.power-quest.co.uk \| www.myspace.com/powerquest

Silenzio - Silenzio (Self Release) Review by Steve Green
	While this isn't really my cup of tea, I can most certainly appreciate Silenzio's obvious talents. This is beautifully produced Prog/Power Metal, with a taste for big choruses and precision time changes. Musically speaking, this is one for the musicians out there as the playing is extremely flash, but unfortunately this is lost on a non-playing Neanderthal such as myself. What keeps me interested is Daniele De Alberti's smooth tones and the hook-laden melodies, which are the highlight of the four songs on offer, as far as I'm concerned. But as I've mentioned, this will probably appeal more to the musos out there, who'll love the high calibre performances, particularly from keyboardist Davide Nascimbene. To find out more,
widdle thy fingers over to: www.myspace.com/thescreamofsilenzio

Solisia - The Film Of My Life (Self Release) Review by Steve Green
	The quality of underground releases out of Italy is so hit and miss, that you can never predict what you are going to be served up. Here we have a female fronted Symphonic Prog/Power Metal band and once again, the quality is, at times, very questionable. Musically, when you see past the wafer thin production, it's all performed very well. The keyboards tend to dominate, and the musicianship as a whole, is very good. Unfortunately, the vocals tend to spoil everything. Marilena Stigliano's voice is, shall we say, an acquired taste and her over pronunciation of certain words due to a very strong accent (mystery as mee-stir-ee, is my favourite) is a times cringeworthy, as are her attempts at hitting the high
notes. Personally, I'd hire a decent producer and would look for a new singer, because otherwise, they'll never get past the bottom rung of the ladder. www.myspace.com/solisia

Temujin - 1000 Tears (Renaissance Records) Review by Steve Green
	Temujin's Karl Lean thought that his band wouldn't be heavy enough for the bloodthirsty readership of Live 4 Metal. But this album is more than relevant, if you prefer the more commercial side of the Goth spectrum. Temujin are a duo consisting of Karl, who handles the majority of the instrumentation, and Kelly, who provides the vocals and keyboard arrangements. And if I had to pin their sound down, I'd say it was a more restrained version of Evanescence, with a bit of Lacuna Coil thrown in for good measure, although to be perfectly honest, this is nowhere near as good as either band. I actually like the basic structure of their sound. The melodies are all pretty good, Kelly has
an ok voice and the instrumentation is good, to a certain level, but it does lack the oomph that a full band would provide. Same goes for the vocals. In the confines of the songs on 1000 Tears, everything is fine and dandy, particularly with the title track, which is very infectious. But for what the band have created on this album, they are never going to break out of the underground. The killer ingredient is missing, that final piece of the jigsaw is stuffed down the back of someone's sofa, and that sofa is on the way to the rubbish tip, never to be seen again I've seen a few of Temujin's reviews and I think some of them are lavishing a bit too much praise on the band, especially from some of the inexperienced webzines. If you want a completely warts and all opinion of this album from someone who is actually living in the real world, then: Great core structure, nice melodies, but Kelly needs to learn how to expand her range and to let rip now and again, and the music could benefit from having a full band in place as once again, I feel as if Karl is holding back a bit too much. As the guitar solo on Let You Go proves, the man can really play, I just feel that in the confines of this band, he needs to shine, and that won't happen with his current workload. I hope the band progress from this album and that I'm proved right on their next release, as they are definitely capable of producing a killer album. www.temujinband.com

Various Artists - Gigantour 2 cd (Image Entertainment) Review by Metal Mark
	Dave Mustaine's brainchild gets a live sampler of sorts for the second tour. This line-up included The Smashup, Sanctity, Into Eternity, Overkill, Arch Enemy, Opeth, Lamb of God and of course Megadeth. Certainly these bands manage to represent a fairly broad spectrum of styles in the field of metal. That doesn't mean I like all the styles because the Smashup and Into Eternity are not to my liking at all, but there is enough decent songs going on from other bands to make up for it. My favorite bands on here are Megadeth, Overkill and Lamb of God and he sound quality is strong. However I always feel like I don't quite get enough on these sort of albums because you only get a few songs by each band. I
would much rather have a whole set by one band than a sprinkling by all, but that may just be me. I think this sounded like it was enough of a quality line-up as I think they did a good job mixing veteran bands with younger acts. As far as this style of CD goes it's decent enough as most of the songs are likable yet it's likely just going to whet your appetite for a whole album by the band or bands that you enjoy.

Various Artists - Gigantour 2 DVD (Image Entertainment) Review by Metal Mark
	This is the companion piece to the CD of the same title although several tracks are different on the two. Here are my impressions of each band's performance, even though most of the acts only got a song or two. The Smashup opened and I just couldn't get into their brand of some type of metalcore. Nothing seemed very genuine about them and they just weren't that sharp. Sanctity were more to my liking as they had more of a thrash approach. Nothing new at all, but they were fairly tight and comfortable with what they doing. Oh, my poor ears and eyes as Into Eternity were up next their hokey vocals and thinly laced music. Yuck, if I had been there I would have gone to the bathroom during their set. It gets way better as thrash veterans Overkill rip into two songs. Despite the legion of guitarists and drummers this band has gone through they still rip into their songs and rule the stage. Arch Enemy follow and their music is pounding and even more coherent live, yet I have never
been very impressed by the vocals of Angela Gossow. She is very average as a singer and her performance just had me thinking that she just can't seem to get very energized. Opeth get a great amount of praise and the technical ability is there in large doses, but it just seems a stale to me. It's like metal for the slightly snooty, they replace and energy and aggression with layers and lots of long winding parts, but it's just a little too sterile. Okay, I'll admit it I have had trouble getting into Lamb of God not because I didn't like the music, but because they seem to be getting a lot of praise and they were not bringing anything new to the table. I still stand by that judgement as far their releases go, but the few clips here convinced me that they can bring much more live than on their studio recordings. Their presence and fire was undeniable on just the few songs on this DVD. Last up is Dave Mustaine and his latest version of Megadeth who perform three listed tracks and Peace Sells as a fourth bonus track. The sound is great and actually the sound for everyone on this disc is impressive. Megadeth were superbly tight in sound, but the energy I got from the band was merely decent. Maybe it's being a little older or maybe it's having a band of hired guns, but there was more standing around than I was expecting. Yet they sounded strong and the crowd ate it up. So all in all, I liked this one for what it was.