My Dying Bride has really been around a long time and remained remarkably good for a band of its stature. And honestly, of the bands that came out around the same time (Anathema, Paradise Lost) from the same area, they really have stayed the most consistently heavy in their long tenure. But this change hasn’t […]
HA! Orphaned Land is cooler than your favorite band.
A few of you might have noticed that I have taken to reporting a lot on Blaze Bayley (the man and the band), and this is partially due to the fact that I have long been a fan of his solo stuff (and his tenure in Iron Maiden). As I’ve stated before, I think that X Factor is a classic album and I will continue to defend that to this day (though, I will definitely also point out that it is poorly produced, as was Virtual XI, which in my book was also poorly conceived). In any case, I, like others who gravitated to the Blaze-era Iron Maiden, continued to follow him afterwords and were happily surprised by the quality of the material that his newly formed band BLAZE had produced. Since then, I have paid attention, with a heavy heart often times, to an ongoing saga of an excellent underground band getting ignored, fucked repeatedly by labels, management and finally crumbling under the weight of outside and inside pressures. For me, the collapse of BLAZE and the rise of Blaze’s current self-titled incarnation was shrouded in mystery as I was just a fan witnessing it from the outside, but much of what I did not know is now available in a book written by current Blaze Bayley drummer Lawrence Paterson entitled At the End of the Day (and conveniently available for Christmas!).
In 2009 there have been plenty of records that I have not reviewed. Partially because this is the first year I’ve started this zine. While highly successful in the page-views and reach categories, for whatever reason certain labels have refused to put me on their lists. Another thing could be that the records I received […]
You may, actually, have missed that Jani Liimatainen (ex-Sonata Arctica) actually has a new band! For those of us who are long time fans of Sonata Arctica, this was great news! However, the bad news was quickly assessed when I realized that Tim Kotipelto had, in fact, done the vocals on this record. So, good news and bad news. Well, I gotta say that Cain’s Offering didn’t end up being a bust, but I gotta be honest with you, I still fucking hate Timo Kotipelto’s vocals more than almost anything in the world. He just can’t quit sounding thin, irritating, annoying, whiny and.. generally crappy ALL THE TIME. His lyrics aren’t very hot either, honestly, nor is his understanding of English (though honestly it’s hard to blame him for fucking up prepositions and prepositional phrases given that Finnish has no prepositions at all and English is his second language…).
Burial Ritual hail from Wisconsin, as part of the state’s burgeoning death metal scene. Playing what I would describe as blackened death metal, they also sound pretty original for the scene as well. The gorey cover and the logo by Christophe help set the stage for the band as well..
Impious // Death Domination Rating: 3.5/5.0 – Very good! Label: Metal Blade Release Date(s): Out Now Worldwide! Website: myspace.com/impiousofficial Impious is one of many elite death/thrash bands to come out of Sweden during the mid-late 90s and they are still ripping it up in full force in 2009. As pretty much one of the last […]
To say that The 11th Hour’s Ed Warby has done a couple of things in his musical career would be a pretty major understatement. From his early days in legendary Dutch death metallers Gorefest to his current band Hail of Bullets and exceptional doom metal project The 11th Hour, to being prog legend Arjen Lucassen’s […]
Nattväsen (Night Creatures) is the name of the new Månegarm record, and one that works well with the feel of the entire album. Clocking in at a good LP length of 45 minutes, this record explores musically and lyrically the fears which we as humans have had as long as there has been night. Those fears of the things that creep out of sight, be it the ghost of a mountain (“Bergagasten”), the creatures in our dreams (“Nattsjäl-Drömsjäl”) or a mythical creature (“Draugen”). This concept seals together a record of some of the best folk/viking metal that is currently available by any band.
Sonic Syndicate // Rebellion EP Rating: 1.0/5.0 – This is everything that is wrong with modern metal Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US) Websites: sonicsyndicate.com | myspace.com/sonicsyndicate Release Date: Nov. 6th, 2009 Sonic Syndicate are a pop rock band that somehow got signed to Nuclear Blast. Apparently they’re from Sweden, but I wonder if other […]
