“Sometimes you stumble upon a band entirely unknown to you (and I suspect, to everyone else) and you hear a lot of good things, yet the overall listening experience falls well short of good. Canadian prog-power-trad metallers, Medevil subjected your Steelness to such an unsatisfying experience with their sophomore outing, Mirror in the Darkness.” Lost reflections.
“As always, I’m dating myself with my taste in music, but so be it. Sumerlands is an unheralded act set to explode on the nostalgia-core scene with their self-titled release and let’s just say, I’m fully on board. Featuring Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, Briton Rites, et al) on vocals, Sumerlands plays exactly the kind of music I couldn’t get enough of in the late 80s/early 90s. It’s dark, brooding, traditional American metal with traces of prog and doom around the edges.” The boys of summer never sounded so olde!
“Destined to be one of the weirdest releases of the year, the obscure but fascinating New York act Wicked Maraya resurfaces after 18 years in the ground. Flash back to 1994: The upstart band drops their Cycles debut at a critical time for metal. The Seattle grunge revolution was well underway and metal had lost the limelight – forcing a slow, inexorable retreat back to the rancid underground. Cycles was very much the product of that tenuous era as the band tried to synthesize these opposing musical approaches into something new and exciting.” Metal history class is now in session!
“When I do these little retro-reviews, I try to find albums that really had a lot to offer, but somehow never caught the public’s attention. Be it bad marketing, poor timing or short band life, there’s always a reason why a high-quality album slips through the cracks into oblivion. Perhaps no better example exists than Wicked Maraya and their debut album Cycles. Steel Druhm’s clinical diagnosis here is one of terminally poor timing. While Cycles sported a winning and catchy-as-fuck traditional heavy metal sound that strikes me as a darker, edgier, more proggy Queensryche mixed with Crimson Glory and Nevermore, it arrived at the very height of the Seattle grudge explosion where everything metal was forced back underground after a decade of prominence and popularity.” More goodies from the vault? Steel Druhm is in a giving mode to be sure. Ignore the terrible band name and awful album cover and let’s all focus on what counts: the music!
