Napalm Records

  • Revolution Renaissance – Trinity (2010)

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    “Trinity” is the swansong release of Revolution Renaissance, a band formed by Timo Tolkki after his departure from Stratovarius in 2008. This release features a vibe very similar to Stratovarius back in the old days, and for over 45 minutes, we get treated to some brilliant simple-yet-elegant Power Metal songs that never sound dull or pretentious.

    Love him or hate him, Timo Tolkki is one of the best guitarists that Metal has produced over the years, and his music songwriting abilities are equally impressive. Most of his stuff with Stratovarius and Revolution Renaissance previous albums are proof of his abilities (except for his terrible last two ‘solo’ albums). In “Trinity” he sticks to the basics of traditional Power Metal, with epic vocals (courtesy of Gus Monsanto), catchy guitar melodies, brilliant solos, super tight drumming, and subtle keyboard arrangements.

  • Iron Fire – Metalmorphosized (2010)

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    Ever wonder how can you royally screw up the flow of an album?, just listen to Metalmorphosized and you will have the perfect example of how not too structure your release. Featuring 3 new songs (tracks 1, 3, 8 and 10) and 9 more from the band’s demos between 2001 and 2006, “Metalmorphosized” showcases Iron Fire’s metamorphosis in terms of sound between the years.

    Immediately you can notice that “Metalmorphosized” is a ‘stitched together’ release because the way the sound of the band changes between songs. The only common denominator of this release is the band’s signature Power Metal sound and Martin Steene’s characteristic vocals. The new songs are definetly better written (and sounding) than most of the band’s older stuff presented here, but the vocal ‘experiments’ get to be very annoying sometimes.

  • Atrocity – After the Storm (2010)

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    Atrocity is one of those bands that you really don’t know what’s going on with them, but you eagerly await for their next release to see what they will sound like. First they started off by playing pretty decent Death Metal, and then they started incorporating weird non-metal elements into their music, way ahead of their time for 1994 in their album “Blut”. Lately (and we say lately very loosely) they released their “Werk 80” and “Werk 80 II”, in 1997 and 2008, these albums featured covers of popular pop songs of the 80’s.

    More recently (four years ago) they released “Atlantis” and they where considered and ‘extreme metal’ band again, because of the ‘aggressiveness’ of this release. Now in 2010, the band is jumping into the Folk Metal/Ethno Metal area with their very impressive “After the Storm”, an album that features Yasmin Krull on vocals. This jump will surely puzzle some people, but for us that been listening to the band for quite a while it’s merely an interesting twist in the band’s career.

  • Shadowgarden – Ashen (2010)

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    Featuring Draconian members Johan Ericson and Andy Hindenäs (Ex-Draconian), Shadowgarden is another Gothic Rock/Metal band to appear on the scene courtesy of Napalm Records. While having heavy competition on their label with Lacrimas Profundere, Shadowgarden’s Gothic Rock/Metal is good enough to make them a name for themselves and become one of the top bands in the scene.

    As we could expect, Shadowgarden’s biggest appeal is the solid guitar work. The ten songs in this album feature a plethora of powerful guitar riffs and melodies, something that Johan is an expert in creating, both with Draconian and Doom:VS. “Ashen” quickly made us remember the sound of bands like To/Die/For, Charon, Entwine, etc, where the melancholy behind the music is ever present thanks to the excellent guitar work.

  • Liv Kristine – Skintight (2010)

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    First of all we have to disclose that we are HUGE fans of Liv Kristine and we have loved almost every thing she has ever released in her career, until now. “Skintight” shows the desperation of an artist trying to break into ‘mainstream’ music. With Leaves’ Eyes and Atrocity being highly popular and very different musical outlets you would image that such a quality singer like Liv would have enough.

    Since 1998, Liv has been releasing stuff promoting her solo career. We loved “Deus Ex Machina” since it was a nice break from her main gig back in those days (Theater of Tragedy) and it featured some nice folk-ish songs with some other pop-ish material mixed in between. Not much came of this (except in Norway) and she went back to releasing ToT albums until she got the boot in 2003. And we feel that her best chance at ‘mainstream’ commercial success was with “Musique” and “Assembly”, some electronic/techno oriented albums that shined with her vocals.

  • Tristania – Rubicon (2010)

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    Tristania has always been one of our favorite bands since the late 90’s with their impressive “Widows Weeds” and “Beyond The Veil” albums. Fast forward to the mid 00’s and we have that Morten Veland left the band and Tristania was stuck in a creative limbo releasing somewhat dull and uninspired releases. Lastly in 2007 we got Illuminate, and album that was somewhat decent and marked the last release of the band with Vibeke Stene, the band’s iconic Female singer. Many people gave Tristania for dead after Vibeke left and not a lot of people had confidence that the band would ever return with release solid enough to get them back on top of the Gothic Metal world.

    With “Rubicon”, Tristania proves us all wrong (yes, including us). The band’s latest release is as great as we could have ever expected, not like Morten Veland would have done (for this check out Mortemia), but like the ever shape-shifting Tristania only knows how to do: it’s complex, powerful and well designed to keep the listener engaged. With the band’s new female singer Mary Demurtas, we get a more than worthy replacement for Vibeke. Mary’s voice is indeed different than Vibeke, but it has enough power and range to helm Tristania’s female singer crown gracefully.

  • Edenbridge – Solitaire (2010)

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    Out of the very impressive roster of bands over at Napalm Records, Edenbridge has always been one of the most consistent bands they have. Over the years they have released very solid albums, that feature well crafted songs and a very characteristic sound given by Sabine Edelsbacher the bands vocalist, and Lanvall’s music composition skills.

    The band’s bombastic sound is present in every single one of their releases and “Solitaire” is not an exception. The band’s Symphonic Power Metal sound is very well crafted around Sabine’s vocals, and the use of catchy melodies, as opposed to using overly complicated structures in their songs.

  • Nox Aurea – Ascending in Triumph (2010)

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    Playing Gothic Doom Metal, today we have Nox Aurea a brilliant band from Sweden that will give Draconian a run for it’s money. The band’s second full-length “Ascending in Triumph” provides us with 8 melancholic tracks that will surely keep us entertained until the next Draconian album.

    Playing a genre that is not very popular these days, Nox Aurea create the perfect Gothic Doom atmosphere with their low-tuned guitars, majestic keyboards, and brilliantly crafted ‘beauty and the beast’-type vocals. We are huge fans of Gothic Doom Metal and Nox Aurea have catered to every one of our quirky needs since their debut “Via Gnosis”, and will “Ascending in Triumph” the band takes their abilities to a whole new level of greatness.

  • Thulcandra – Fallen Angel’s Dominion (2010)

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    Fronted by Steffen Kummerer from Obscura, today we have a very impressive band from Germany. Thulcandra comes with the slogan of “the heirs to Dissection’s throne” and this could not be any more accurate. The band excels at making Death/Black Metal music unlike anybody these days.

    The influences of Dissection and Emperor are clearly present, but the band takes this further with their own technical abilities. For a band that has been together since 2004, and has never release a full-length, “Fallen Angel’s Dominion” is an impressive achievement.

  • Necronomicon - The Return Of The Witch (2010)

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    After an absence of 6 years, we finally get a new release from Canadian Necronomicon. Since the impressive “The Sacred Medicines” the band has been lurking in the shadows, but finally they make their big label debut with “The Return Of The Witch” out on Napalm Records.

    Necronomicon combines straight-up Death Metal with some melodic influences. However, the band sounds nothing like all the Melodic DM bands these days. Their music is very brutal and less flashy than other bands. They have also added some minor Black Metal influences in the riffing, but nothing major and it’s just to enrich the band’s brutal sound.

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