Monthly Archives juni 2011

Posted in Cd Reviews

”A farewell to arms” is the latest album from Norwegian rockers, TNT (although in the USA and Scandinavia it has been titled as ”Engine” for reasons best known to record companies.
Since forming in 1982 the band have been through many lineup changes, and the current lineup includes two members from the 1982 lineup – Ronni Le Tekrø (Guitar) and Morten ”Diesel” Dahl (Drums). They are joined by Victor Borge (Bass) and Tony Mills (Vocals), both of whom have been with the band for around five years.

The voice of Tony Mills is likely to be familiar to many people – as well as having recorded three albums with TNT, he had a long career with Shy releasing around a dozen albums with them, and he has also provided vocals for a number of other bands including the first two albums for upcoming Bri...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Magna Carta/Border

“…A celestial blend of enigmatic lyrical threads and layered neoclassical metal”, that is a quote from the info sheet. You need a university degree in English to come up with that phrase I believe. X OPUS is a band that is said to mix JIMI HENDRIX with SYMPHONY X and JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH! Band leader and guitarist James Williams proudly states that this is the album he´s been waiting all his life to make. I really have great expectations by now…

And yes, the guitar intro to “Terrified” is really striking. I detect YNGWIE J MALMSTEEN in here to, and the shared vocal parts never fail to impress. In short: An opening track to die for...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Sacred Legacy

The Maldives; sun, sandy beaches, vacations, picturesque, and now also death/thrash metal! SACRED HEART has been an ongoing concern since 2006, with Ahmed Shahyd as the guitarist and founder. Inspiration comes from thrash, but also from melodic and progressive metal, plus Japanese Anime soundtracks! This is the band´s second album, originally released in 2008, but the third album, plus Shahyn´s second solo album, are already in the works for 2011. Are there recipient fans for this massive output?

I wonder actually. This is an album of contradictions. On one hand there is the beautiful guitar orientated instrumental tracks, such as “Infinity Reloaded” and the title track. There is also the vocal version of the title track, a slow but moving piece with guests Shaani and Fal...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Light up the dark” is the fifth studio album from Swiss band China, but only the first album from the band since they reformed in 2007. The last album from the band was way back in 1995. On this new album, China have worked with two different producers from Los Angeles on the album – Chris Johnson (Buckcherry, Evanescence) and Michael Parnin (Steve Stevens, King’s X), and the result is a great rock album with a modern feel.

Tracks such as ”Light up the dark” are definitely classic hard rock, while other such as ”Stay” are more melodic rock (while still retaining plenty of guitar to keep it from becoming too lightweight). ”Gates of Heaven” is a very good power ballad.

The lyrics to ”You cant call it working” say ”You cant call it working if its rock and roll” – well reviewing an album...

Posted in Interviews

Festivalphoto: Call to arms is your 19th studio album. How do you feel it compares to other albums you’ve released?

Nigel: I think musically it’s a natural progression but we did make the decision to make it less euro-metal than the last couple of albums – there are no fast double kick drum tracks on there for a start and less keyboard parts. Also we wanted to go back to how we used to record – for instance everyone in the room playing and to be less reliant on the computer side of things – that is, people all doing their parts separately.
Another thing is that, for example, I didn’t want any drum samples used, only the natural sound of the kit. As regards the album as a whole, we’re all extremely happy with the result!!

Festivalphoto: What is your favourite track on the new album, and wh...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

After witnessing a majestic Dimmu Borgir show with the National orchestra and choir on a Saturday night, the Sunday brought another special concert in the land of the vikings. This time it was held a bit further away from the city center, at the [Henie Onstad Arts Center ](http://www.hok.no) which offered an interesting collection of black&white concert photography from the 70s, 80s and 90s in one of its indoor exhibitions. But the event we gathered there for took place on the outdoor stage, build in the idea of a small amphitheater with the round space in front of the stage and circular stairs on which people could sit. The cozy part was that you could actually sit on a hill with grass which started right behind these rows of chairs...