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Anathema - Hindsight
(Kscope) review by Marco Gaminara |
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I think the weather is completely wrong to be listening to
this CD. The sun's shining, it's all cheery looking outside,
yet the completely ethereal quality of this calls for grey
skies and misery. Or at least that's what it feels like. And
now 4 days after writing those opening lines, the weather is
far more appropriate and I could even imagine that I'm in the
dreary northern parts of this rain soaked island. Now while
this is meant to be an acoustic rendition of some old and new
tracks, that's only partially true. Yes it's completely
acoustic and beautifully done, but I'm afraid there's nothing
on here from before 1996 and that would be "Angelica" from
'Eternity', everything else come from albums I'm not as
familiar |
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with so I can't compare the tracks here with the originals. In
many ways this reminds me of the only time I've ever watched
Anathema, about 6-7 years ago at the Kings Head in Fulham for
a Total Rock acoustic set, which was very well received by
everyone there. Opening track "Fragile Dreams" taken from the
1998 release 'Alternative 4' uses a very minimalist and
gradual addition of each instrument to blossom into the gently
picked guitar and cello over which Vincent sings his mournful
melody, the light tapping of the drums eventually comes in to
keep time and add more urgency to the proceedings, followed by
the keyboards to bring forth the tears, be they of sadness or
joy is totally up to you. After my first listen to 'A Fine Day
To Exit', I realised that these guys had gone a very Floydesque
route that their compatriots Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride
flirted with too, but for Anathema it would appear that this
suited them and they embraced it and "Leave No Trace" is a
testament to that. The very forlorn "Inner Silence" works very
well in this subtle format and shows that a good song can be
played in a myriad of ways. Another point to make is that the
tracks are by no means abridged and sometimes appear even
longer because of their stripped down feel, like on "One Last
Goodbye" where it's mostly piano and vocals. Feeling very
hippie with twangy guitars
on "Are You There?" from their latest album 'A Natural Disaster',
which slides along peacefully into the lovely "Angelica" with its
lengthy solos. The female vocals are exquisite on "A Natural
Disaster" and add a previously unheard texture to the album.
"Temporary Peace" combines the male and female vocals over the
guitar harmonies giving it a lullaby feel. The very ethereal
"Flying" brings the previously released material to a close,
with its Spanish guitars twanging away and being strummed
frantically to its crescendo and then abating once climax has
been reached. The new track "Unchained (Tales Of The
Unexpected)" opens with hauntingly slow cello playing under
Vincent's voice, which has a very morose timbre to it that
makes the melody all the more sorrowful and memorable and a
great way to fade the album out.
www.anathema.ws
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www.kscopemusic.com/anathema |
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Black Flame - Imperium
(Regain Records) Review by Luke Goaman-Dodson |
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It's gotta be said, but Italy is putting our fragmented scene
to shame with its furious productivity. This is the fourth
studio release from occult-inspired turbo-metal act Black
Flame, notable for being the first band signed to Forces of
Satan, the label founded by Gorgoroth's Infernus. Any band
working in this genre will inevitably draw comparisons to
Angelcorpse, who pretty much perfected the blackened-death
style back in death-metal's twilight years of the late
nineties. Those comparisons would be apposite, since the
Floridians have obviously been a considerable influence on
Black Flame, but the sound here is still very much unique,
drawing on seminal acts such as Myrkskog and Zyklon but |
constructing original material out of these building blocks,
rather than just copying the blueprint exactly.
My tastes in metal tend towards the slower end of things these
days, so this style doesn't normally appeal to me much, but
Black Flame throw in more than a few ideas that perked my
interest - the second half of 'Black Sun Theory', for
instance, contains a detuned monster of a riff that calls to
mind the very best of Morbid Angel with a hint of Burzum's
cavernous atmospheres, a frightening combination that I'd like
to hear more often.
Anyone with a fondness for blastbeat
brutalism could do a lot worse than look up these guys.
www.myspace.com/obf
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Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
(Earache) Review by Metal Mark |
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Sweden's eight piece band Cult of Luna encompass many styles
as they take various parts of doom, death, progressive and
others into their sound. Perhaps they fall into that
post-metal category like Isis and Neurosis and others yet Cult
of Luna's material is far more appealing to me. On Eternal
Kingdom they slowly and I mean very slowly create emotional
landscapes comprised of music, sounds and noises. The pace is
plodding at times and the music can be repetitive, yet the
moods, even the ones that make my nightmares seem tame are
stunning. Other bands playing a similar style seem to live by
a thick, textured feel and I think Cult of Luna have a more
singular sound that allows the listener to really soak in each |
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little part that they are churning out. Many of the parts they
play might be simple by themselves yet the tones, pitches and
arrangements help to turn something basic into something very
rich. Sometimes the songs come out in a hazy trickle and
sometimes they are cranked out with spine rattling heaviness.
Yet just about every song had me waiting in anticipation for
what was coming next. Now, despite everything I love about
their music I have always struggled to deal with the vocals
and they are not a great deal different here than in the past.
Granted they are somewhat few and far between as the music
takes most of the running time. Yet the vocals are just gruff
at best and flavorless at their worst, either way they do more
to distract than they do to enhance the overall sound.
Slightly irritating vocals aside, this is still an album that
is as dynamic as it is interesting.
www.myspace.com/cultofluna |
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Decadence - 3rd Stage of Decay
(Massacre Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Sweden’s melodic thrash act Decadence re-release their third
full-length, entitled “3rd Stage of Decay”, on Germany’s
Massacre Records. Newly added to Massacre’s roster of signed
bands, Decadence’s re-release has re-worked artwork and layout
and is a precursor to a new album due by the end of the year.
Heavy doses of Destruction and Overkill combined with some
melodic touches abound on “3rd Stage of Decay”, originally
self-released in 2006, my only exposure to the band. In
addition, Decadence features Metallic Kitty, a female vocalist
who’s sort of a dead ringer for the child of Schmier and
Angela Gossow when it comes to the vocal delivery (she also |
manages a few gruff growls). Definitely lighter in tone than
some of the death/ thrash to come out of Sweden, Decadence are
treading well worn ground on this release and are not very
original. Combining a general mid-paced tempo with some out
and out thrashers, Decadence also feature the requisite dual
guitars, Ms. Kitty’s rather generic vocals, and a production
structured around the guitars. Decadence do, however, play the
genre well enough with quality musicianship and a few riffs to
hold my interest for about half of the album, but, frankly,
we’ve heard all of this before from a million other imitators
over the course of the last twenty- plus years.
Overall, there’s some promise displayed on “3rd Stage of
Decay”, but the album’s lack of originality curbs my
enthusiasm for seeking out additional releases from Decadence.
Eh.
www.massacre-records.com/
| www.decadence.se/
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Diphtheria - To Wait For Fire (Pitch Black
Records) Review by Steve Green |
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Diphtheria are from Cyprus and in keeping with the spirit of things, I
drank some KEO brandy a few nights ago to prepare myself for this review.
Listed amongst their influences are the likes of Iron Maiden, Saxon, and
Judas Priest. And I think that just about sums them up perfectly, except
that I'd add Spinal Tap to that list. They formed in 1993, took ten years
to record their debut album (which is the one I'm reviewing now) and took
another 5 years to release the bloody thing!!! In all honesty, it was
worth the wait as I think that this is going to end up as one of my
favourite albums of the year. This is pure, unadulterated Heavy Metal that
is completely devoid of any outside influence, other than |
some of the greatest bands to ever grace the scene.
Vocal wise, I'm hearing a mixture of Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and Biff
Byford and musically, I'd name the same three bands, plus a bit of Sabbath
and even a touch of early Mercyful Fate and a pinch of
Candlemass. I'm not kidding
anyone when I say I know Diphtheria are never going to reach the dizzy
heights achieved by any of the bands I've just mentioned, but that doesn't
stop this being a wonderful gem that's hidden deep into the underground
scene. This is 10 tracks of pure Metal that all true fans of the genre
with find impossible to resist. Just like with the Scorpions, the melodies
are simple, but they stay in your head for days. The biggest culprit is
Behind The Mirror's Eye, which I tend to have swimming around in my head
at all times of the day and night, and this is quickly followed by the
darker tones of Sleeping With The Worms. Out of the 10 tracks, I'd say
that 8 of them are utterly essential listening and that will ensure that I
will be playing this album for a long time after this review is written.
I hope that Diphtheria get a good enough response from this album that a
European tour is possibility. If not, I'll gladly come over to Cyprus to see
them. I might be back over there in October... any chance there's going to
be a gig around that time? If not, I'll be content to crank out one of the
best Metal albums in a long time, over and over again. To quote fellow L4M
writer Dave Schalek... Buy or fucking die!!!
www.myspace.com/diphtheriametal |
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Dislocation - Soulgrinders From The Stars
(Pro-Pulse Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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France’s Dislocation play a sludge-laden, choppy style of
death metal with a science fiction theme and a few musical
quirks. The oddly named “Soulgrinders From The Stars”, the
band’s third full-length with an “aliens abduct us, rape our
souls, and probe us in various orifices” (for the most part, I
think, as the bulk of the lyrics are in French) thematic
concept, combines a mid-paced tempo with raw guitars, guttural
growls, and a few weird, unsettling song structures to produce
an overall sound akin to Incantation, but without the Satanic
themes.
Initially, I wasn’t all that impressed as the first track or
two are a bit weakly written. In |
addition, the production seems to be somewhat muted. This form
of death metal requires a deep, powerful sound that knocks you
flat, and that is lacking a bit on “Soulgrinders…” A deeper
production is definitely warranted. However, progressing
further into the album, the songwriting improves and I began to take more
notice. Consisting of a mid-paced tempo jarringly intermixed
with a few all out blasts, rather simple, choppy riffs that
alternate between fast licks and a thicker sludge,
“Soulgrinders …” also boasts some prominent bass lines and odd
moments of guitar melody. Throw in some strange,
accordion-style keyboards that make an appearance or two and a
deep seated growl that is noticeably sung in French, and you
get an album that definitely has a weird vibe and is initially
a bit difficult to wrap your head around. In short, I began to
appreciate Dislocation’s take on death metal with repeated
listens as “Soulgrinders…” is best characterized as
challenging, somewhat unusual for death metal. Imagine, if you
will, Mithras with a more brutal sound.
To be honest, I’m not sure how often I’ll revisit
“Soulgrinders…”, but I’m intrigued enough to pay attention to
Dislocation in the future. Recommended.
www.dislocation.fr.st
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Force Majeure - Frozen Chambers
(Low Frequency) Review by Dave Baynham |
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From the moment the twin guitars rip in, followed by a Halford
meets Dickinson scream on the opening track ‘Gatecrasher’ you
can tell this band makes heavy metal. Possibly melodic heavy
metal, sometimes power metal, but essentially proper, old
fashioned heavy metal. This album is more about riffing than
soloing, has the odd decent chorus, but a lot more air
punching moments. Force Majeure is built around guitarists
Jussi Reuhkala and Eemli Ojanen, although bass player Toumas
Vaananen & vocalist Ricky Tournee have both been with them a
while. They have had a succession of drummers & keyboard
players. On this album the drums are handled by Heikki Saari
of Norther, while keyboard |
player ‘Huikka’ is the sound engineer.
After four demos, this is their debut album. At times it
sounds like one: Naive, rough around the edges, but energetic
and full of potential. The main points of reference are
Accept, Edguy and early Stratovarius. Even if you hadn’t
seen the band members names, the tracks mentioning cold,
freezing and winter might have given away the fact the band is
Finnish. For a heavy metal band they have some surprisingly
chunky keyboard sounds, especially the huge synth solo on the
ballad ‘Winter’s Tale’. They also mix the lyrics between
serious and tongue in cheek. Overall this album is worth
checking out and the band’s future is worth keeping an eye on.
www.forcesite.net
| www.lowfrequencyrecords.fi
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