Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Am Tuat - Inmotion (Club Inferno) Review by Steve Green
	It's time for some more kitchen sink Metal. Man, this is impossible to categorise as this Dutch band do throw everything but the kitchen sink into this album. The core of their sound is a propelled by huge, groove laden riffs, which are joined by a mega gutteral deathly vocal. So the bulk of their sound is of the Death/Doom variety. But frequent changes in paces, Progressive rhythms, Spanish guitars, moments of pure mellowed out bliss and as well as blackened influences in both the music and the vocals are certainly guaranteed to keep the listener on their toes. And while this may sound like a mess to some, the various styles do actually work, mainly as the numerous styles are cleverly, and
naturally, segued together. It's only occasionally that things get a little messy and bogged down, mainly on the song Faded Images, but Am Tuat seem to be able to fight their way through these problems after a short while. So be warned, this is an eclectic album, so it won't be everyone's cup of tea. But if you enjoy everything from acoustic guitars to gutteral vocals, then you'll be fine. www.amtuat.com

Argus - Argus (Shadow Kingdom) Review by Metal Mark
	Pennsylvania’s Argus might well get put into the doom metal category due to the thick riffs and the oftentimes deliberate pacing. However, their influences are more varied than some bands. It’s obvious that along with Sabbath, Candlemass, Trouble that they also took in their share of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and Metallica. They frequently travel around the mid-paced level as they build the songs like large walls around them. The mood is often serious and to the point as they waste little time in laying down a heavy foundation. They remind some of Pale Divine only more active. The aspect about Argus that impressed me the most was their desire to attack right away and let you know what they are going to do.
They have a sinister edge to their sound and they use it to their advantage. Vocalist Butch Balich has a powerful and steady voice that blends together very nicely with the music. Argus have taken some classic style doom and metal but added their own galloping approach to it. The only downside was that a few songs were fairly similar in their sound. Still I liked this disc right from the start and I am sure it will continue to grow on me. www.myspace.com/theargus

De Magia Veterum - Migdal Bavel (Transcendental Creations) By: Dave Schalek
	M, the genius behind Gnaw Their Tongues and a host of others, returns with yet another solo project, this one entitled De Magia Veterum and issuing the debut full-length, “Migdal Bavel” on Transcendental Creations. I reviewed “An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood” by Gnaw Their Tongues awhile back, and the sheer terror of blackened noise continues with De Magia Veterum. Once again, I’ll make comparisons between M’s project here and early Blut Aus Nord, as De Magia Veterum has a decidedly French sound with plenty of quirky patterns, dissonant riffs, and tortured howls. De Magia Veterum definitely possesses a great deal more structure than Gnaw Their Tongues, and is, therefore, much closer to traditional black metal in sound. The solid black metal base has considerable variation with tempos ranging from mid-paced dirges to all out blasts. The traditional guitars employ the usual, tremolo
picking style in spades, but also include some hard hitting, slower riffs, and some deep bass to go along with the usual low-fi production values. However, strange patterns of noise and disturbing atmosphere are sprinkled throughout the album and contribute to a general sense of unease that permeates the music. For the most part, the formula works with some interesting, disturbing songs, but a couple of tracks appear to drift somewhat and threaten devolve into blackened noise, material previously covered by Gnaw Their Tongues. The end result is that “Migdal Bavel” is uneven, but will probably appeal to those that like their black metal slightly off kilter. Recommended. www.myspace.com/demagiaveterum

Hell's Thrash Horsemen - ... Till Violence (Always At War Records) Review by Crin
	As the title suggests [a bold statement at that] this is a Thrash influenced release [no prizes for guessing that one]. In the current climate of Thrashing revival and in trend setting Thrash retro popularity, it will be most pleasing to any of you who are into such razor riffamanic snare snapping face ripping metal to discover a rather fine band here [I wont mention the country of origin until the end] ….. I bet you looked down didn’t you? Here we have a thrash sound where the final cover track gives the game instantly away. [Testaments, The Preacher]. It’s hard and controlled, clean, tight as a pair of raw ass lips under dire gut wrenching diarrhoea pressure, and fluent as blood oozing from an open
wound, like we hear in numerous acts of yore. To name a few, Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Iron Angel, Piledriver, Destructor, we could go on and on, the list is that long. The style is firmly in the US thrash sound as opposed to the more ragged European style. So do the songs here and musicianship required to produce good thrash exist therein?? Thankfully this band can kick serious ball bags, with a throaty vocalist who shouts his angst rather than warbles or belches if you get my meaning. This is the Whiplash school of anger vocals with a more subtle Testament style of melodic thrash guitar mania. The tracks weave though great guitar riifs and solos, hammering that retro vibe well and truly into your skull. I actually enjoyed this album after playing it a second time. This is a pro cdr release, so it could well be labelled as a very well recorded demo. Whatever you perceive the actual release format, this is one Hell ride of fantastic retro thrash. The band are from Russia by the way [as if you never looked!!] www.myspace.com/hellsthrashhorsemen

Mr Temper - Origin of Brutality (Self Release) Review By Steve Earles
	Mr. Temper open Origin of Brutality with the very-Pantera-inspired In Extremis. Devil Down has a fine rock n’roll groove, but it’s on Drink Destroy that the band makes their mark as Mr Temper, very classic rock in a modern sense, it’s a good song about encounters with the demon drink. Solitude shows the band showing a more sensitive side, . while Fuse shows off their musical chops. Their anthem Mr. Temper reeks of attitude. I have to say this CD is worth buying for the track H.O.T alone which name checks so many fine metal albums, among them Slayer’s South of Heaven and Christ Illusion,
Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Justice For All, Celtic Frosts Morbid Tales, Overkill’s classic Under The Influence and Horroscope, Testament’s First Strike Is Still Deadly and Practise What You Preach, and Megadeth’s Killing Is My Business and Business Is Good, and of course Bonded By Blood by Exodus. Major props - which is as it should be, as they are all very special albums to me. On the whole a fine debut album from a fine British band, well packaged and produced - a band worth checking out. www.mrtemper.co.uk \| www.myspace.com/mrtemperuk

Radiance - ...And The Night Comes Down (Self Release) Review By Strawb
	Whenever I have been there, I like Italy. The country has great laid back values. It has chic. It has some babes in every town, and on occasion I have even caught Mrs S hungrily eyeing some dusky skinned Adonis. It has History and is proud of it, none of that wimpy ‘oh and when we had an empire we may have infringed some deserving sods human rights’, no, in Italy they would take over the world again tomorrow, and immediately inject their own values upon it. And probably skip a few centuries and begin with despotic madmen in command, make a horse king and begin the implosion immediately. And it is from this fine country that Radiance originates and see fit to send this site their
demo CD for review. Originally an all female band, formed by current guitarist Federica, they decided testosterone was a necessity in 2007 and added male drums and bass for some underlying thrust. They describe their style as Progressive Hard and Heavy, which is taking three bites at the cherry, but is as good a description as any. The six tracks vary slightly but are consistent in quality. The subject matter is from the female angst catalogue. There are some pseudo-operatic vocal passages which leave me cold, but these are balance by good guitar work and great opening riffs on most of the tracks. Mrs S has listened in and to avoid any claims of sexism I quote her directly “the music is really good but the vocals... her voice is just too weak for the rest of the band, it doesn’t seem to gel.” Then qualifies this with ”But on occasion it all comes together and then it’s great.” ‘Nuff said. Interweb page is www.myspace.com/radiancemetalband

Snail - Blood (Meteor City) Review by Metal Mark
	Snail formed back in the early 90s as a trio and pumped out a self-titled album and an EP called "All Channels Are Open". Then they began writing material for their second album, but lack of success and other issues caused the band to break up. Last year the guys got back together and revived the band name. Then they added a long time friend, Eric Clausen (guitar) as a fourth member to add to their sound. Then they were ready to finally knock out their sophomore LP and "Blood" is made up of mostly songs that were originally written back in the 90's. So that brings everything up to date. So if a band is called Snail then you would expect them to be slow and indeed this band lives up to their name. They
churn out large mountains of riffs in attempt to create an atmosphere right from the start. I would say that the sound is more thick than heavy as the sound tends to float more than pound at your senses. The sound is a cross between Fireball Ministry, "Holy Mountain" era Sleep and a few others. Where this bands succeeds is that they take some of the same influences as other stoner acts, but they try to be more subtle in their presentation and even stretch the sound out some more. This gives their sound some definite texture. The downside to Snail's sound is they really could have used some kick to the head type bursts. There were songs that had a hypnotizing effect, but others that were beginning to put me to sleep. I like their approach to an extent, but would have enjoyed more if they would varied the sound more and added some punch to it. Still not bad for a band who have not recorded in a long time.

Statius - Arcane Fables (Self released demo) By: Dave Schalek
	Normally, I do not review demos, but I’m making an exception in this case. Los Angeles has a thriving scene with bands in many different genres, but a lot of the bands are mediocre, even those that have been established to some degree. Statius, a very young band with just this debut demo of seven songs (almost a full-length) under their collective belts, may just vault themselves to the forefront of the L.A. scene. Playing a mix of melodic death/ thrash and power metal, “Arcane Fables” features seven, varied songs replete with a huge guitar and bass sound, powerful riffs backed up by soaring keyboards, vocals of a couple of different styles, and surprising maturity in
songwriting ability. At times the music is rough and brutal with plenty of speed and gruff vocals, and at other times mournful with finely written keyboard melodies. Statius are quite good at seamlessly mixing the genres without sounding overbearing, or jarring, as they transition from out and out thrash to the introspective, melodic moments. These changes in tempo from a slow pace to galloping thrash are well done over long songs, and speak to the obvious talent in songwriting ability that Statius are already displaying with “Arcane Fables”. Combine this maturity with stellar production, especially for a demo, and “Arcane Fables” is of such professional quality that you’d mistake this work as that of a full-fledged debut full-length. Although not necessarily playing in my genres of choice, Statius are definitely a band to watch in L.A.’s varied scene, and I’m sure that a record deal of some sort is right around the corner. Check them out at their MySpace site. www.myspace.com/statius

The Morning After - You Can't Hurt Steel (Rising Records) Review by Steve Green
	They look like a bunch of emo's and the promise is of over the top Metal... and that's basically what you get here. The ingredients include, an Iron Maiden songbook (the Maiden influences are everywhere) a stack of modern influences: from beatdowns to gay as fuck choruses, a Dragonforce songbook (for the OTT lead guitars) and a stack of Power Metal clichés, plus a few growled vocals for good effect. In a way, it doesn't matter about the Power/Traditional Metal influences as the songs are constructed for the Kerrang/Scuzz generation. More seasoned Metallers, such as myself, don't care for the pseudo 80s sounds because it don't appear to be from the heart. This
one is for teenagers with no real grasp of what Metal is about, so it's best I pass this onto my 14 year old daughter who has an unhealthy appetite for all things Emo. (And as a side note, she loved this album straight away) www.risingrecords.org/home.php

Valkyrja - The Invocation of Demise (Metal Blade) review by Sam Thomas
	“The Invocation of Demise”, is the debut album from Sweden’s Valkyrja, now released on Metal Blade, having previously been out through Northern Silence. It’s one of those albums that, whilst I can’t say there’s anything wrong with it exactly, it just doesn’t quite do it for me. The info that came with it suggested that it might be for fans of Immortal, which had completely escaped my worldview, until I listened to it on headphones, and, yes, OK, I can kind of see where they’re going with this. Essentially, what you get is some very true Norwegian black metal (yes, I know they’re Swedish, I already said so), but also with some more symphonic touches (think Dimmu Borgir, and yes, they’re Norwegian too).
This varies between very raw and quite polished sections, which actually isn’t at all bad. Given that this is a debut album, I’m not going to be too harsh on it: its main faults are that there’s not a great deal of originality here – nothing which makes me sit up and think “Yes! These guys have got it!” Then again, how many debut albums have been stunningly original? There’s talent here, and at least they haven’t fallen for the other trap, namely, to produce an album sampling different musical styles and ending up as a Jackson Pollock style mess. Nothing to set the world on fire, but a fairly decent release nonetheless. Interesting to see which way the next album will go. www.metalblade.com \| www.myspace.com/valkyrjaswe