|
|
|
|
|
Nomans Land - Farnord
(Einheit Produktionen) Review by Crin |
 |
Viking Metal from Russia and this far-flung land has a
wonderfully rich scene when it comes to Pagan/ Viking folk
metal. Such fantastic bands like Pagan Reign, Arkona,
Butterfly Temple, Alkonost, Chertog Volka, Izmoroz, Smuta
etc. Nomans Land are of a calibre of the aforementioned acts
yet serve up a more thicker guitar sound and dominant grim
vocal bark. The folk elements are less prominent and the
ethnic atmospheres watered down. This is the bands fourth
album and it is much of the same as the previous outings. We
are talking high octane Pagan songs that transcend the more lacklustre
Polish Pagan style. The Poles prefer a more grizzled lazy
guitar strum and steer clear of traditional |
| instruments
that inject any warmth of jolly atmospheres, like Graveland and Slavland, for instance. Nomans Land are
far from the over the top dynamics of Korpiklaani, as this
band reside in a kind of early Amorphis style with a bit
more folk bolstering their sound. The band dress up in
animal skins wielding swords and roaming in bleak damp
woods, and yet the music does not reflect that image
totally. There is a far more thick Gothenburg Death sound to
the music here. But that does not mean this
band kick ass.
www.einheit-produktionen.de |
| |
|
Omega Lithium - Dreams in Formaline
(Drakkar)
Review by Steve Green |
 |
We get allsorts here at L4M Towers and Omega Lithium are a
Gothic/Industrial outfit from Croatia. Strip away the music and vocalist
Mya Mortensen sounds a little like Evanescence's Amy Lee, for want of an
obvious comparison and I suppose the melody lines aren't that dissimilar
to Lacuna Coil. But what lights up this album are the Electro/Industrial
beats and the huge keyboard swathes. Some songs follow a more mainstream
path, such as the more commercial sounding Stigmata and My Haunted Self,
which are what I'd call "single material" and I'm sure they could be
possible hits if the band had the right breaks, but for me, it's the
more industrial material that floats my boat.... |
|
Opening number, Infest, is a heavy dancelfloor classic, despite its Gothic overtures, I'm also a
fan of the regimented (robotic) beats of Andromeda and the catchy, yet
powerful stomp of Hollow March. And I feel this direction also offers
Omega Lithium a more individual sound. But as it stands, this is a very
promising debut.
www.myspace.com/omegalithium |
| |
|
Reece - Universal Language
(Metal Heaven) by Julian Handley |
 |
Reece, the first solo release by David Reece came my way as a
bit of a surprise. I had previously come across his work
with the excellent Bangalore Choir in the late eighties, an
L. A. Glam band who offered something a little different due
to David’s more metal tones, which ultimately led to him
replacing Udo Dirkschneider as Accept’s lead vocalist on the
‘Eat the Heat’ release. Although this proved to be a brief
encounter as to replace Udo in Accept is to replace the
irreplaceable.
Anyhow back to the present, this album is a polished, well
balanced rock release containing a mix of hard rockers and
mellower moments. David’s voice has aged well and |
has a dry distinctive raspiness about it which is equally effective
delivering edgy hard rock or heartfelt ballads. The albums
opener ‘Before I Die’ offers up a taste of the groove laden
style that dominates this album. ‘Flying Close to the Flame’
and ‘Fantasy Man’ is served up with the same winning
formula, built on driving guitars and big choruses.
The more laid back acoustic numbers don’t disappoint as they
open the way for David’s powerful vocal delivery to be found
on the tracks ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Once in a Lifetime.’ The
album is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination,
nevertheless it offers a satisfying re-encounter for fans
of old, who will be pleasantly surprised with this solid
effort. www.reece-rocks.com
| www.aorheaven.com |
| |
|
Theatre of Tragedy - Forever Is The Word (AFM)
Review by Steve Green |
 |
This is a very hard album for me to view objectively. 1998's Aégis album
is one of my favourite albums of all time and thus anything the band
produces has to be compared to that great album.
I've not heard the bands last album, Storm, so this is my 1st experience
of hearing Nell Sigland and she has a good voice, although she's not in
the same league as Liv Kristine. My research also tells me that Storm
saw the band return to its Gothic roots after the totally awful synthpop
direction of the Musique and Assembly albums. Forever Is The Word,
thankfully, continues in that direction. Trying to take everything in
and trying to |
describe the album, without making comparisons with the Liv Kristine era of the band, I'm left with the conclusion that Forever
Is The Word is the sort of album that Lacuna Coil would make if they
headed in a Gothic/Doom direction. Nell Sigland has a similar style to
Cristina Scabbia, although she obviously sings a different style of
music, and the Theatre of Tragedy that is alive today has a sleeker feel
to it, while still retaining a lot of their original sound. (And just a
smattering of Krautrock as demonstrated on Astray).
Despite any reservations I may have had, I really like this album,
particularly Lorentz Aspen's keyboards/piano work. I guess my only
disappointment is the lack of vocals from Raymond Rohonyi, who only
features on about half the songs. So, ending on a positive, this album
comes highly recommended to all.
www.theatreoftragedy.com
|
| |
|
The Devil’s Blood - The Time Of No Time Evermore
(Ván
Records) Review By Steve Earles |
 |
As technology increases, the quality and passion
for music decreases. Music has gone from being something
special to be cherished, to be something downloaded to take
up space on an ipod. I hear people boasting pathetically: “I
have thousands of songs on my hard drive.” So what! Better
to have a collection of music that means something to you.
Such as the new album from The Devil’s Blood, the
excellently titled The Time Of No Time Everymore.
The first distinct element of The Devil’s Blood is the voice
and presence of their enigmatic vocalist known only as F.
She is a priestess/goddess for her band in much the same way
as |
Alia of Blood Ceremony and Jex Thoth, both fine
front-women themselves. What all three bands have in common
is harnessing the female energy, which in a male-dominated
genre of music is ground-breaking. It’s also significant on
other levels. When Christianity came to prominence, the old
religions that placed women in a position of rightful
importance (very simply boiled down, women are the givers of
life, surely that is the most important thing in the world),
but the Christian religion with its hatred of women,
destroyed all this, now in the 21st century we see the
beginnings of a rightful reversal. This is more subversive
than a million ‘controversial statements’ by bands to sell
records. So, a little digging into what these
‘female-energy’ bands stand for will be most worthwhile.
Now, all this would be significant in itself, by The Devil’s
Blood have created incredible music. Following on from their
marvellous Come, Reap EP, they have crafted an album of
beauty, catchy, well-played, heavy songs. Inspired by Black
Sabbath, Coven, Roky Erickson and Black Widow, The Devil’s
Blood have given it their own twist and created timeless
music (their intention I’m sure, bearing in mind their
philosophy of time’s not really existing in the sense we
perceive). Music both aged as fine wine, and as fresh as
tomorrows dawn. A thing of beauty and joy forever. It should
be listened to (frequently) as a body of work, so it’s hard
to pick highlights. But I love Queen of My Burning Heart,
Evermore, Rake Your Nails Across The Firmament, and Angels
Prayer.
A record of beauty and power…evermore.
www.van-gbr.de/ |
| |
|
Thundra - Ignored by Fear
(Einheit Produktionen) Review by Crin |
 |
Featuring members of Enslaved, Evig Natt, Throne of Katarsis
and having formed in
1998, this is the bands third album and it is a progressive
form of the
Black Viking metal theme. From the first track, Inner
Struggle, we are
pounded by a sharp thick guitar sound and viciously caustic
vocals surges.
The similarities to Borknagar are at times too close for
comfort, especially
when the Garm style clean vocal chants temper the intensity
this album
generates. The tracks range from fast blasting Gothenburg
clarity to
mid-tempo Nordic flair. Keyboards also lift the music into
its more epic
levels and yet the overall sound is extremely aggressive and
littered with meandering arrangements and numerous vocals |
|
ranges. We get those Blackened
snarls and clean chants, and also deathly grunts and barks.
The technical
ability of this band is shown in full on the eight minute,
Storm Within, and
one can consume the full force of this wholly Scandinavian
Viking Metal
tumult. We can also see other influences from the best parts
of Enslaved and
Einherjer, accelerated and intensified to create this highly
polished dense
sound.
www.einheit-produktionen.de |
| |
|
UDO - Dominator (AFM)
Review by Steve Green |
 |
I know I'm ridiculously late with this review, but that's not because the
album has been sat in a corner gathering dust. Far from it, in fact, as
this is the album that I've probably played the most this year.
Long time readers of this site will know of my love for 80's Metal, and
of Accept in particular and I'm pleased to say that this album is
genuinely up there with anything else in Mr Dirkschneider's career. And
the overall feel of the album makes this a natural successor to 1986's
Russian Roulette, especially as the opener, The Bogeyman, could be the
follow up to Monsterman. And surprisingly enough, as much as I like it,
the opening |
number is arguably the weakest song on the album as this is
a fine collection of classic 80s Metal and once the Neon
Knights style riff of the title track kicks in, there's no
looking back.
If you loved Accept in the 80s and haven't followed Udo's career as
closely, then this album is going to blow you away. So many songs sound
like lost classics from the 80's. Black And White could quite easily
have been on Balls To The Wall. Infected could have fitted in on Metal
Heart, as well as Restless And Wild... the list goes on.
Part of me is disappointed that Udo hasn't joined up as part of the
latest Accept reunion, an album that's actually being recorded about 5
miles away from where I live (damn, so close, yet so far) but to be
perfectly honest, Accept are not going to be able to record an album as
authentic and as masterful as Dominator... or are they?
Is this my album of the year? Very nearly, I'd say it's only just beaten by Doro's Fear No Evil, showing that
German Metal has never sounded so good.
http://udo-online.de/index.php |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
