Rock

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    Hell of a Ride – Fast As Lightning (2013)

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    Arriving from France, today we have another excellent Hard Rock release filled with attitude and catchiness. Hell of a Ride provide us with their latest EP titled “Fast As Lightning”, featuring four tracks and seven bonus live recordings to sweeten the deal. With a high-octane Hard Rock vibe, this band steamrolls with their high-energy music filled with intoxicating rhythms and commanding vocals.

    Opening with the playful intro track, “Fast As Lightning” kicks off the musical side of things with a very typical Hard-Rocking tune that is both engaging and entertaining. The band’s vocalist Furious Djej does a great job in leading the band’s onslaughts with excellent fitting vocal melodies and great intensity. With each track featuring a cool intro section (appearing as an individual track on the CD), the band nicely sets the stage before each song. Inspired by Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, the band’s attitude is the main selling point of this release, greatly enhanced by excellent music we might add.

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    Heaven’s Colt – Labour du Vice (2013)

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    With a perky attitude and a very catchy and traditional Hard Rock sound, today we have France’s Heaven’s Colt and their release “Labour du Vice”. Featuring six songs entirely sang in French, the listener gets a very unique take and different energy on a very popular and accessible genre. Having played over 300 shows, this French outfit knows exactly what the listener wants and they are experts in delivering it at the right time.

    Opening with the album title track, the guitar work and the whole musical vibe is very typical of the genre but the band manages to make it more interesting when you listen to the “Labour du Vice” chorus section and realize they are not singing in English. With the album in full swing, tracks like “Charohn’Hard” and “Alcoolo” ooze of attitude and judging by the band’s digipack layout pictures, the band has the look and the chops to play this music with commanding presence.

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    Darkhaus – My Only Shelter (2013)

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    With tons of unusual (read: non-Metal) stuff making it to our Infernal Masquerade review queue lists, we bumped into Darkhaus and their uber catchy debut release “My Only Shelter”. Playing a very mellow and yet well-constructed Synth-Rock/Pop with some Gothic Rock/Electro influences we were quite shocked to learn that PRO-PAIN members: Gary Meskil and Marshall Stephens are even part of such a different band. Letting the band members credentials aside, this is one very interesting release that covers a wide variety of sounds and will have you fully enjoying it in a matter of minutes.

    Opening on a very high note with “Life Worth Living”, we get a very well structured track that is designed to be catchy and never leave your head… for a few days. Vocalist Kenny Hanlon has a very distinctive style and a perfect signature for the band to be recognized in the future. The music varies from Synth-Rock/Pop structures to Gothic Rock and some Dark Wave / Electro elements thrown into the mix. Tracks like “Ghost” a very good example of said mixture of elements.

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    Mike Campese – Chameleon (2013)

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    American guitar virtuoso Mike Campese is back with his eight studio release titled: “Chameleon”. In this very lively album, Mike shreds through 12 expertly composed tracks that range from Instrumental Rock to full on Progressive Rock/Metal. Being huge fans of virtuosos like John Petrucci, Toby Knapp, Timo Tolkki, etc., we greatly enjoyed Mike’s ability to craft very entertaining songs while showing off his talents.

    Opening with the playful “To the 9’s”, Mike immediately makes a quick impact with a very catchy and skillful song. While we are usually opposed of the guitar virtuoso that attempts (and fails miserably) to sing, Mike does a decent job in “Chameleon” and “She Burnt the House Down”. Not being Bruce Dickinson or anybody in that range, we are pleased that he didn’t attempt anything out of his range.

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    Mr. Vu – Dark Tales (2013)

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    The hardest job here at Infernal Masquerade is giving a bad review to very well intentioned releases. Mr. Vu sadly falls in this category, since while their enthusiasm is amazing, the lack is musical skills gets the better out of “Dark Tales”. We understand this is just a demo version of the tracks, but there are some glaring issues with them. Trying to be as minimally mean as we can, we will continue to go over this album.

    Opening with “Only the hard ones”, we can instantly hear the production deficiencies in this album, but since they are demo versions of songs we will let this go. The style is quite decent, reminding us of retro-80’s music at points; however, the vocals are just awful. We have heard tons of bad singing before, but sadly Mr. Vu is probably one of the worst. Components of the music are quite solid, like on “King of Vitiation”, where we have solid guitar/bass guitar lines, but the vocals and some of the arrangements are very odd.

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    Beastmilk – Climax (2013)

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    The highly anticipated debut of Finish Post-Punk/Rock outfit Beastmilk is finally here. On “Climax” the band will surely elevate their cult status to a whole new level with 10 sultry tracks that put together influences from Killing Joke, Joy Division, Misfits and even some hints of Hexvessel and similar outfits. Delivering one excellent track after the other one, the band really captures a timeless vibe and makes it their own in this vibrant release.

    Since the album’s opener “Death Reflects Us”, the band produces that excellent Punk-ish vibe thanks to the drums/bass guitar. The vocals of Kvohst are just brilliant and fit the vibe of the music in a very effective way; they sometimes remind us of the older Misfits stuff mixed with some Peter Murphy sultriness. With super catchy tracks like “The Wind Blows Through Their Skulls”, “Genocidal Crush”, and “You Are Now Under Our Control”, the band fully establishes their uniqueness and brilliant songwriting skills.

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    Within Temptation – Paradise (What About Us?) (2013)

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    Being huge fans of the band’s earlier material from their “Enter” and “The Dance” days, we constantly grew apart from their Pop-ish music over the last few years. While they have some great songs here and there, most of their ‘mainstream’ recent music has not impressed us much. Well, with the EP “Paradise (What About Us?)” we are quite surprised that the band returns to some of their earlier foundations (“Mother Earth”) and delivers quite an excellent short release.

    The immediate standout is the EP’s title-track, featuring an amazing duet with none other than Tarja Turunen. In this high-intensity tune the band busts out the heavy distorted guitars and excellent atmospheric arrangements. Both Sharon and Tarja do an excellent job in this track making it quite dramatic and intense. The music is nowhere near as Pop-ish as bands like Amaranthe, making us quite enjoy this song. With the remaining tracks being demo versions, we still stand to see how much they change for the actual album, but for now we will focus on how good they are.

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    Sons of Hippies – Griffons at the Gates of Heaven (2013)

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    Groovy, spacey, psychedelic are a few words that come to mind when listening to Sons of Hippies and their latest full-length release titled “Griffons at the Gates of Heaven”. Mixing Psychedelic/Space Rock influences with Post Shoegaze and a very catchy Alternative Rock foundation, this three piece band delivers 12 superb tracks that take the listener through a trippy journey. With authentic retro instruments like a mellotron and moog paired with a sitar and some weird audio oscillations, the band has a wide spectrum of appeal for fans of any of the previously mentioned genres.

    Setting a very unique mood in the trippy opening “Forward”, we are immediately intoxicated by the catchy guitars and Katherine Kelly’s signature vocals. The band’s auditive exploration continues with the hypnotic “Mirrorball”, one of our favorite tracks of this release. The atmosphere of this track is magical thanks to the ethereal backing vocals and shoegaze-ish vibe. The guitar driven “Dark Daisies” shows more of the band’s versatile songwriting skills, in a very unique and oddly constructed song.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Moonbow – The End of Time (2013)

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    With a huge Southern influence, today we have Moonbow and their extremely catchy release “The End of Time”. Featuring seven tracks of whiskey infused Hard Rock/Metal, this odd group of characters manage to craft one of the most complete and engaging releases of 2013. With a Survivor participant on vocals and members of Hank 3’s and Hermano, this odd mismatch works wonderfully when it comes to producing excellent melodies.

    The album opens with a very Southern vibe on “End of Time”, all down to the riffs we get that awesome feeling to immediately start drinking. The gracious vocals of Matt Bischoff are a true perfect fit to the band’s sound, perfectly complementing the Stoner Metal infused guitars. David McElfresh does a great job in handling the guitar duties to create a very lively and authentic atmosphere. While “Journey Of Their Iron Horse” is a superb and catchy tune, we found that the distorted vocals sounded a bit odd, taking some of the magic away.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    LowCityRain – LowCityRain (2013)

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    Spawning from the ingenious mind of Markus Siegenhort (Lantlôs), today we have the very unique and retro sounding LowCityRain and their equally named debut full-length release. Featuring over eight tracks of melancholic Post-Punk/New Wave/Electro music, this is one album that you can expect to hear in a gloomy lounge on a cold and rainy night. We are quite thankful that Markus didn’t decide to switch Lantlôs direction to release this music, and he instead made this 80’s sounding project that is quite emotional and catchy.

    Opening with the superb “You Are Everyone, You Are Everywhere”, we immediately get a very gloomy vibe thanks to its dramatic atmosphere. Fans of Amesoeurs will rejoice with this track (and release), thanks to the excellent vocals and carefully crafted retro vibe. The electro elements are quite intoxicating on tracks like “Grey Views”, nicely contrasting the somber vocals. The guitar work is quite solid, creating a very 80’s vibe of bands like The Cure.

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