Category Cd Reviews

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Me, who never lived the rock ’n roll life in the 80s, Im extremely happy to just look around nowadays and meet more and more bands, who give the feeling of that great, heroic time of rock and the life around it. This style seems that – thanks good- started to spread again, as a nostalgy nowadays, hopefully getting over one day the stupid trendy pop songs.

I met quite by chance Shock Rocket, a young band ruined in Italy. The four guys, -not more than 20 years old boys Im talking about-, not just play or try to play the rock n’ roll, they really live that life and the music at all. And its absolutely right: topics, songs, and the all enviroment around Marty, Marco, Andrew and Joey is full with the emotion what we usually love to call hard rock...

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It’s been a long wait since British heavy metal band Beholder released their last album (The Awakening – released in 2009). Since then there has been one lineup change – Simon Cliffe being replaced on guitar by Scott Taylor (maybe having three Simons in the band just got too confusing). The four year gap doesn’t mean the band have been sitting around resting though – they’ve been touring regularly throughout this time and playing festivals such as Bloodstock. I enjoyed their last album, and their live shows are always great, and having heard some of the new songs live when the band supported Lawnmower Deth in December I was looking forward to hearing this new album.

Well, it was definitely worth the wait. If I was to try and sum up the album with just four words, those words would be…...

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Combichrist’s latest release is ”No redemption”, which is thirteen new songs written for the computer game series Devil May Care. In addition to the standard 13 track cd, ‘No Redemption’ will be released as a limited deluxe 2 disc edition which contains a second disc which contains ten classic Combichrist tracks that are also used in the game.

Combichrist have always had a distinctive sound that blends Metal, Industrial and electronic dance sounds. It’s a sound that has won them a lot of fans, particularly when they toured supporting Rammstein.
This new album is quite different – with some tracks the electronic sounds have been scaled down dramatically and what you’re left with is a more generic Metal/Industrial sound which I found extremely disappointing – tracks such as ”Age of mu...

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nulldB come from Würzburg in Germany and in 2008 won the ”German Rock and Pop Award” as the best newcomer in the category ”Hard ‘n’ Heavy”. In 2009 they released their debut album ”In the Eye of the Storm”.
The bands biography describes them as ”Neue Deutsche Härte” (New German Hardness), which I have to say isnt a term I was familiar, but after some digging it turns out to be a a style that is influenced by German rock, alternative metal, hard rock along with elements from electronica and techno, and the genre includes bands such as Rammstein, Stahlmann, ASP and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.

If you’re expecting a Rammstein clone, then you’re out of luck – while there are some similarities at times, NulldB are very different to Rammstein...

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Steamhammer/SPV/Playground

FULLFORCE entered the scene in 2009 as a vehicle for vocalist Mike Andersson (CLOUDSCAPE), guitarists Stefan Elmgren (ex. HAMMERFALL) and C.J. Grimmark (ex. NARNIA), bassist Tommy Larsson, (ex. HEED) and well-travelled drummer Anders Johansson (ex. YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN, HAMMERFALL). Their debut “One” was unleashed in 2010. Now CJ has left and is replaced by Stefan Rosqvist, has that caused any changes?

Opener “Broken Dreams” has a whiff of CLOVEN HOOF´s riff to “Laying Down the Law”. The ensuing melody is alright and there is force…if not quite full. The craftsmanship of the guitar pattern in “Break It, Crack It, Destroy It” is tangible, but the song never really fulfils its potential, in spite of a fine refrain...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

The need for more genres and new ground to break leads to both digestible and indigestible results. Back in the year of your choice during the days of the Roman Empire they never foresaw this! Fronted by Kataklysm front man Mauriozio Iacono EX DEO devotes yet another album to the rather unbroken territory of Epic Roman Metal. Emperor Caligula gets full focus here, and their brand of heavy metal gets a touch of the many enactments that can be seen in the Mediterranean when you go there in the summer.

What else than an opener called “Caligvla” embellished with pomp in every possible way of that age meeting with modern recording technique and layers of choirs could open up this album? But the next track, “The Tiberius Cliff (Exile to Capri)”seems very elaborate, gloomy...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

Californias newcomers HUNTRESS are contenders to the envious spot of the newcomer of 2012. Power and force can be found in most albums I review, but Jill Janus and her female approach to the chartered country of KING DIAMOND sure is interesting enough. The info says it´s epic and timeless, I´ll settle with “like King but without balls”…let´s hear them out!

Opener “Spell Eater” wastes no time and displays itself as a speedy track with an arrangement for maximum effect. The well-known voices of the KING are there, backed by real heavy metal. “Senicide” has more of MERCYFUL FATE in its veins, and is augmented by a chanting voice. “Sleep and Death” may well be more KING than the Dane has produced in many a year lately...

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German Power Metal legends Helloween are back with their fourteenth studio album.

The first track on the album (and indeed the first single – check out the video on Youtube) is Nabatea. A departure from the typical subjects of rock and metal songs, this seven minute epic tells the tale of Nabatea (a real place). The first real democracy over 3000 years ago, almost nothing remains of this peaceful kingdom in the desert, but one of it’s cities does remain and is well known – the hidden city of Petra with it’s buildings carved out of the rock (if you’ve watched films including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade you’ll have seen it). Petra was only re-discovered 200 years ago (in 1812)...

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Greek singer/musician Tatiana Manolidou comes from a musical family, and has studied piano,vocal and theory of music from an early age. She has composed music for the Greek theatre and TV, as well performing many concerts across Greece and Cyprus. She provided vocals for the album ”Matricide” by Prog rockers La Tulipe Noire. Now she’s unveiled her latest work – Tatiana’s NIOVI – ”Breath of light”. Most of the lyrics were written by Cindy L Spear, a poet and lyricist who has written for Iona and Karnataka.

Brief comments on a few of the tracks…

The album opens with ”Intro: Breath of life” which is a lovely Celtic sounding track.

The album then moves quickly into ”When I’m lost” which is a rock song, but still quite delicate at the same time...

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It’s been a long time since Wintersun released their debut album – eight years in fact. Jari Mäenpää appears to subscribe to the Axl Rose school of album making to take that long over an eagerly awaited album. So after eight years it would be reasonable to expect a superb album, but what Wintersun have delivered is somewhat surprising.
You get a whole five tracks – yes you read that right, just five tracks. It gets worse – two of those are basically intros (one four minutes long, and the other just over two minutes), so it’s down to just three proper songs...