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Amon Amarth - Twilight of
the Thunder God (Metal Blade) review by Sam
Thomas |
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Amon Amarth deserve a great deal of credit for having
single-handedly invented the concept of Viking metal, and for
having stuck resolutely to their hammers ever since. Johann
Hegg and his merry band are, in fact some of the nicest guys
you could ever hope to meet, despite being extremely large and
hairy. Their previous album, "With Oden on our Side", saw the
band giving up their day jobs and turning professional with
the music correspondingly reaching a new level. This time
around, they're touring with Slayer on the Unholy Alliance
tour. At a rough guess, I'd say that should see album sales
going through the roof... |
Twilight... continues very much in the same vein as the
previous opus, but this time around it's bigger and better.
Kind of like the difference between an ageing widescreen TV
and a bang-up to date flatscreen with killer surround sound.
Johann is still in Viking mode (yes, honestly!) and the riffs
are just as brutal as ever. They're also catchier than ever,
to the extent that having listened to this once it sounds so
damn familiar that you'll be checking through their back
catalogue to check if the Vikings have turned green and are
recycling old riffs. (No, they aren't). The glorious brutality
and the sheer lust for life that so characterises Amon Amarth
shines through this album, and you can't help but headbang
along with virtually every track. There are guests galore on
this opus, most notably perhaps Apocalyptica (confused the
hell out of me- I thought for a moment that Amon Amarth had
introduced keyboards) on "Live for the Kill" which probably
indicates pretty well how much the band have raised their
profile with the usual combination of long, hard tours and
releasing outstanding quality music.
This was the most anticipated release of the year so far here
at Live4metal - two writers offered their services
(unprompted) and I'm damn certain that the only reason Steve
didn't pull rank was because he knew he'd hear it played
constantly (which turned out to be the case). Normally, when I
get an album like that there's an element of disappointment,
but this was exactly what I wanted to hear, right from the
storm-lashed opening of the title track through to closer
"Embrace of the Endless Ocean" which had something of a
distant echo of "Runes to my Memory", my favourite track on
"With Oden on our Side". Amon Amarth have cornered the market
in brutal Viking metal, and this time around the experience of
listening to them is pretty much like being hammered into
oblivion by an extremely jovial thunder god. For simplicity
and total catchiness you can't beat "Guardians of Asgaard",
with its incessant repetition which pretty much encompasses
the whole Viking theme. Oh yes, there's some fantastic guitar
as well.
To be honest, this one's a no-brainer: if you know Amon Amarth,
go out and buy it immediately. If you don't know them, go out
and buy it immediately, and then be prepared to buy a few of
their back catalogue as well. Meantime I think I'll raise a
horn of ale...
www.amonamarth.com |
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Bullet - Bite The Bullet
(Black Lodge) Review by Steve Green |
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While the Missus is busy typing up her Amon Amarth review (which is
actually just above this one), I have the pleasure of another bunch of
talented Swedes, Bullet. Bullet are an all out, pure Heavy Metal band.
They are a perfect combination of AC/DC and Accept. So if you like either,
or both of the bands, then you are going to absolutely love this album.
Pay The Price is first up, and it reeks of the Brian Johnson era of AC/DC,
even down to the metronomic bass line. The riffs are straight out of For
Those About To Rock, while the vocals veer towards our Teutonic buddy Udo
Dirkschneider. Mixing the two bands styles together, this sounds like a
blend of For Those About To Rock and Accept's Balls To The |
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Wall, which is just about perfect to these well trained ears.
It could even end up as my favourite song of the year. After
this, well, the Metal anthems just keep on coming. Road King
is another AC/DC - Accept crossover, with the sounds of
Too High To Get It Right clashing with Flick Of The Switch,
with Hell Hofer's vocals taking me back to the 80s once again,
as does the infectious chorus of Rock N Roll Remedy and the
sound of Dio's Stand Up And Shout on steroids, aka Rock Us
Tonight . And that's the beauty of this album. This is just
chock full of 80s Metal anthems, and as Accept were my
favourite band for a long time, I've got even more reason to
love the hell out of it. This album is (nearly) on a par with
Metal Heart, Balls To The Wall, Restless And Will and Breaker.
It also fits in nicely alongside AC/DC classics such as Flick
of the Switch and Fly On The Wall. And who gives a fuck if
this isn't that original. This is the type of Metal that's
missing from today's over saturated scene. You can keep 95% of
what gets released these days under the banner of Metal. This
is the real deal and every self respecting Metalhead should
own a copy. Buy of fucking die!!!!!!
www.bullet.nu
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www.myspace.com/bulletsweden |
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Debauchery - Continue To
Kill (Locomotive) By: Dave Schalek |
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Germany’s Debauchery veer dangerously close to self parody
with their latest full-length, entitled “Continue To Kill” and
released on Locomotive Records. Debauchery play choppy death
metal that obviously pays homage to Six Feet Under and old
Cannibal Corpse, along with the identical references to AC/DC
that Barnes and company expend so much energy doing likewise.
“Continue To Kill” starts out well enough with decent, gore
laced death metal with solid riffs, a bludgeoning percussion,
and loud, barked vocals that are a carbon copy for Barnes.
That said, however, the album starts to degenerate with an
increasing number of covers, or |
“near covers” (songs that could pass for that of another band,
but may not be) that hit upon such tried and true bands such
as old Slayer and, naturally, AC/DC (see the track “Hard
Rockin’”). In addition, a number of other tricks are employed
such as cameo appearances from Schmier and others, and, most
notably, a track called “King Of Killing” that appears to
anticipate everyone’s review of the album. To that end, this
track starts off with a high-pitched, nasally spoken voice
complaining about Debauchery’s lack of originality by ripping
off AC/DC and Six Feet Under. This soon segues into a vocal
attack upon such niceties by the vocalist Thomas. You’re
initially inclined to say that Debauchery don’t really give a
shit about what anyone thinks about their obvious tendencies
towards being a clone band, but, if they truly did feel this
way, why bother with a rather juvenile rant? At any rate, this
self parodying is annoying and pretty much destroys anyone’s
ability to take Debauchery seriously.
This tendency towards self destruction is really too bad,
since I’ve found that the band’s first couple of full-lengths
were well executed, if formulaic, death metal. I was looking
forward to this release but it has become apparent, to me at
least, that Debauchery have run out of ideas. To that end, I
really can’t recommend “Continue To Kill”.
www.debauchery.de |
www.locomotivemusic.com |
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Glenn Hughes - First
Underground Nuclear Kitchen (Blistering Records)
By: Joe Florez |
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The voice of rock just keeps pumping out the releases. It only
seems like yesterday that Music For The Divine came out, but
it’s been two years and now we get served up another disc of
funk. Anybody that knows Glenn’s music style and taste knows
that things can get sort of repetitive after awhile, but he
does manage to shake things up. “Crave” is a really funky
opener that gets down James Brown. The bass lines that Glenn
plucks have plenty of groove and everyone else in the band
keeps up with the pace and also throw a lot of rhythm into the
situation. The man sings soulfully at times and throws out
those trademark screams that are unmistakable. Definitely a
good first cut to open up the show |
and liven you up, especially if you are feeling down. “F.U.N.K.”
continues with its winning ways, but adds a horn section and
some keyboards for a sound that is a mixture of today meets
classic 70’s rock. Sweet! Now, here is where Mr. Hughes shows
off his more mature side. ‘Satellite” doesn’t have him
squealing out at any spontaneous moment. Instead, he is in
total control here and the voice has a more soulful vibe. The
funky bass lines are in there as well as more brass sections,
but it’s all in check and played with emotion. This is a
relaxing number that will definitely calm you down after a
long strenuous day in your life. This one has a vintage feel
to it. Once again, just when you thought you had the man
pegged down, he goes that extra mile and gives a performance
that is unpredictable. If you want the highly energetic funk
vibes, you get them here. If you soulful and passionate, it’s
here. Want sweet ballads free of cheese? You can find it here.
Anything and everything you could want is here. This is by far
his most mature offering without alienating his fans of the
past. This is definitely a must have for all GH fans.
www.blisteringrecords.se |
www.glennhughes.com |
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Khold - Hundre Ar Gammal
(Candlelight Records USA) By: Dave Schalek |
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Norway’s Khold returns after a three year hiatus that saw a
few of the band members reform as Tulus and release “Biography
Obscene”, an excellent example of stripped down black metal
with a dirty sound. Khold, in contrast, has considerably more
groove than Tulus while still retaining a filthy atmosphere.
At any rate, “Hundre Ar Gammal”, released on Candlelight
Records USA, is Khold’s fifth full-length since the band’s
inception in 2001. Khold’s version of black metal shares
definite similarities with Darkthrone’s more recent
flirtations with black ‘n roll, but with considerably more
polish, a beefed up production, and variations in tempo. Hell,
even a |
few moments of melody are present on “Hundre Ar Gammal”. Those
moments are few and far between, however, as Khold manages a
slimy atmosphere mostly due to the exceptionally loud, and at
the forefront in the mix, vocals from Gard (who also,
incidentally, manages a somewhat original take on corpsepaint).
Also somewhat loud is the bass, which, at times, seems to at
least equal the guitar in the mix.
“Hundre Ar Gammal” is definitely a slick album with excellent
musicianship and production values, but, unfortunately, the
album really fails to grab me in a meaningful manner. I find
myself becoming bored with the album as I wade deeper into it,
and repeated listens are not really helping matters much, I’m
afraid. Essentially, the songwriting comes up somewhat short
and I believe that Khold have missed an opportunity with
“Hundre Ar Gammal”. Mediocre songwriting combined with quality
musicianship are the hallmarks of a journeyman band that
firmly resides within the second tier of the genre, and Khold
seems to be somewhat stuck with that label. That’s
disappointing because the qualities are there for Khold to
make the leap. I’ll stick with Tulus.
www.khold.com
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www.candlelightrecordsusa.com |
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Oblivion999 - Illusions
Painted For Me Alone (Self Released) Review by
Marco Gaminara |
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Having formed just shy of a decade ago in Modena, this Italian
quintet has released their debut which was nearly 3 years in
the making. Starting off with a very keyboard orientated "For
Me Alone (Intro)", the guitars kick in for "In Need" followed
closely by a sharply smacked snare and Stefano Crotti's rather
gruff vocals. Nicolò Messori's drumming is really quick and
precise and he has no problems going from sheer blast to
lightly tapping his high-hats for timekeeping. Diego Angeli
plays his leads with gusto over Francesco Poggi's rhythm
guitar, and then they hastily swap roles to keep things fair,
with Gabriele Lei taking care of the rest of the rhythm
section on his bass. "Newest Era" starts off with a far |
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more 80's feel to the squealing guitars, but the heady pace of
thrash metal and Stefan's vocals sounding a bit Kreator-esque,
truth be told. While not sounding anything like Pink Floyd,
"Neon Trails" is a very slow number that reminds me a bit of
their more trippy stuff and is nice mellow interlude which
completely counterpoises the angriness of "Scattered Atoms",
even though it has similar mellow bridges. The very processed
vocals on "The World Runs Faster Than Me" give the song a bit
of a cybery feel to them, as does the mid-tempo riffing that
just threatens to explode, but never quite does. Another brief
interlude in the form of "Side A / Side B" marks the midpoint
of the album and takes us to the far more upbeat and enjoyable
"Pearled Of Morning Dew" which is more 90's styled in its
staccatoness. Slowing things down again and adding some female
vocals, making them sounds a little like MacBeth, "April
Evenings" is a beautifully morose track. Acoustic guitars
morph into stronger distorted ones in "The May Vertigo", with
powerful vocals, but never really getting too fast either. The
rather epic "Momentum" takes us on an 8 minute journey through
a couple different styles and moods, tapering off to a rockier
lead filled conclusion. "Horizon Of Events" and "Deadlock"
wrap things up nicely and in a similar vein to earlier tracks,
with their powerful rhythms, strong drumming and aggressive
vocals, then mellow interludes with clean vocals.
www.oblivion999.com |
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7th Nemesis - Archetype
of Natural Violence (Self-released) Review by
James Young |
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Archetype of Natural Violence is the rerecorded version of
2006’s ‘Violentia Imperatrix Mundi’ by Frenchmen 7th Nemesis,
and whether or not you want to consider it their debut, it
cannot be denied that this album is a nifty piece of
musicianship. Its genre can loosely be classed as ‘extreme
progressive metal’, but such a tag only scrapes the surface of
what this band is capable of. The main element is death metal,
but this band have a Death-like knack of crossing boundaries
and throwing the rulebook out of the window. Sargon’s vocals
range from a brutal growl to a fast-paced screamed voice,
sometimes |
even morphing into an off-key avant-garde voice in ‘Moira Kai
Hybris’. All of which blend with a rhythm section which twists
and turns all over the place, not caring at all about
conventional time signatures or traditional playing. Sometimes
the unorthodox and technical style is reminiscent of the newer
breed of progressive bands, such as Between The Buried And Me,
or Becoming The Archetype, but the headbangability is never
lost through overcomplicating the music. Anyone concerned
about metalcore elements might be disconcerted to know that
they are found in here, but relieved that any traces which
make their way onto the album are combined with a more brutal
style of death metal which sounds wonderfully unique.
This album seems to have been divided into three parts, but
the concept seems extremely abstract after one glance over the
lyrics. The music is engrossing enough to absorb you into the
mindset of 7th Nemesis however, and the three quarters of an
hour duration of the album simply flies by. A breakdown of the
various components which form this opus is downright
impossible, but some things cannot go unmentioned, such as the
slamming technicality of the tracks, starting from the opener
‘Forsaken’, and rarely letting up until the fast and furious
closer ‘Odium Humani Generis’. More highlights on a album full
of high-spots include the fantastic eastern-sounding melodic
guitar leads on the ‘Moira Kai Hybris’, which stand out from
an otherwise groove-laden track which fuses elements as
diverse as Mastadon and Arch Enemy. The eastern influence
stretches across to ‘Severence’, in which an acoustic
interlude introduces some spectacular twanging, before
building into some glorious solos. The genre-hopping doesn’t
end here; from the frighteningly odd frequencies found on
‘Prometheus Unleashed’, which give an avant-garde effect, to
the post-rock-meets-shoegaze intro to ‘Divinus Afflatus’, the
list is endless, but it’s ultimately you who needs to
experience the diverse elements in the gracefully menacing end
product.
This is certainly different from anything I’ve heard before,
which makes it a bitch to put into words, but any fans with an
interest in death metal, progressive music, or even metalcore
will be quite happy with this. Through all the brutality and
technical wizardry on display here, this album will surely
make you get your groove on.
www.7thnemesis.com |
www.myspace.com/7thnemesis |
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The Oath - 4
(Code 666 Records) review by Sam Thomas |
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There has to be some reason why The Oath have decided to call
their second release “4”, but unfortunately I haven’t a clue
as to what it might be. The five of them hail from Lyon, have
been around since 1999 and previously had one self released
album which met with critical acclaim but was pretty much
unknown outside their native France.
The press release asks me to consider the best parts of Dimmu
Borgir, At the Gates and Emperor and describes the overall
sound as “blackened death metal” and “Very hard to label”.
Well, I love a challenge, so here’s a label: “absolutely
brilliant world-class metal in a |
symphonic black style, with underlying elements of thrash”.
And let’s not forget to mention that this is really, really
catchy. I found myself with “A Question of Faith” running
through my head on numerous occasions since I started playing
this CD – it’s one of those tracks that has everything going
for it. It’s catchy, well-written, has outstanding harmonies
between distorted and clean vocals, all provided by D444 (I’m
sure that’s the name of an electronics component that I used
to buy years ago…), rippling keyboards very much in the style
of Dimmu – everything is just what you could wish for. The
lyrical themes would seem to tend towards the black metal side
of things (I’m basing this judgement on track titles such as
“Unholy Blood” and “Godless Existence” as obviously it’s a
touch difficult to actually distinguish individual words in a
distorted vocal) but the catchiness of it all is what really
makes this album stand out. Each track is well-written and
each track could stand quite well on its own merits. There’s
no endless repetition here, no opportunity to get bored, The
Oath are playing flat-out from the start and don’t know how to
let up. The passion that these guys have for their music
shines out from every note of this black-tinged masterpiece.
If Live4Metal gave marks for albums, I suspect that 4 would
have to get a perfect 10. But since we don’t do that, I shall
settle for informing you that this is a truly brilliant
release.
www.theoath.org |
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Uli Jon Roth - Under A
Dark Sky (SPV) Review by Metal Mark |
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As I scanned the back of the CD case before listening to this
disc my eyes took in the listing of ten tracks and then one of
those was broken down into three chapters and the final track
was broken down in no less than a dozen chapters or parts.
Suddenly I felt like I did back in college when my professor
plopped down copies of Moby Dick on every one’s desk and
informed us that we had four days to read it and write a ten
page paper. Yes, I was expecting to be a bit overwhelmed by
this album just due to the number of tracks and the number of
musicians contributing as well. I am most familiar with Roth
for his time with the Scorpions back in the 1970’s, but now he
plays a rather neo-classical |
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style. There are a number of people contributing to this album
including vocals from Mark Boals, currently of Royal Hunt, and
Liz Vandall, ex Sahara. Roth plays all guitars, bass and
keyboards on his creation. I am sure that the attention here
was to build moods and no doubt there are some definite ideas
behind this release. Listening to this album would be kind of
like doing a long dot to dot puzzle but finding out in the end
that it doesn’t really form a picture. The vocals and
orchestral and choir parts do a great deal of floating and
wandering around yet they never quite contribute enough to
really construct anything very definite to latch on to. Much
of this album just swirls about with sounds coming and going
although it’s very light and spacey at times with far more fog
than substance. At times I wasn’t sure if I was listening to
many songs or just one long, giant track that was going to
meander on forever. Now Uli Jon Roth does tip in with some
guitar passages of course and some are quite stunning because
he is far more about tones and feeling than about flash and
dash. Yet the length and format of this album sets it up to be
a huge creation and what’s really inside is a lot fluff and go
around with only a few assorted moments that really accomplish
much. I can appreciate having grand ideas, but you should only
do so if you plan on seeing through the entire project and to
me this album is just a bit too thin and long-winded for my
liking. www.spv.de |
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Withering - Festum Melancholia (Self
Release/Metal Hit) Review by Steve
Green |
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From the very outset, it's obvious that Withering hail from Finland. An
acoustic intro builds to a more traditional Metal solo, which in turn
makes way for what can be best described as the Death Metal era of
Amorphis, with its feet still firmly entrenched in the Elegy phase of the
band. Yep, Withering get their groove on pretty darn quick. I'm a big fan
of Amorphis' earlier works and this MCD fits in very nicely with that era,
especially with the Finnish folk influences. Ok, so Withering aren't
exactly creating anything new here, but they pay homage to their national
roots as well as their musical heritage with such feeling, that you cannot
help but love this release. My only complaint is that with only 4 songs,
one of |
which is an instrumental, plus an intro and outro, you are left
wanting more. So I hope they get a great response from this cd and head
straight back to the studio to record a follow up.
For once, the blurb that comes with a release is spot on. For fans of
Sentenced, Amorphis and Paradise Lost.
www.myspace.com/withering |
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