Following the excellent Captain Morgan’s Revenge (2008), Alestorm released the Leviathan EP containing Heavy Metal Pirates, a single that was released for download from the band’s MySpace page months earlier. The EP contains just 4 tracks (listed below), and unfortunately only contains 2 new songs, a re-recording and a cover. The sound is very consistent with what you will find on Captain Morgan’s Revenge; the guitar solos, the keyboards, and especially the pirate vocals.
This band took ten years off between releases and they are surely back with a pretty good album that will attract fans of Progressive metal as well as Power / Heavy metal. The bands sound as been clearly updated to fit more recent releases of other bands of the genre. But the old school feeling is still there.
This Germans have created a pretty good release that blends Power/Heave metal with some Progressive touches. It was probably good that they had a ten year hiatus before this release, in order to get perspective on things and come up with a very good release.
Hatesphere comes from Denmark with an interesting release. They mix Trash Metal with some very pronounced Metalcore influences. While this is a considerable step up from their previous release, it has something missing. The music is ok but very repetitive and the vocals have been considerably improved.
This release is very good for a few songs, but after that it gets pretty dull and all interest is lost. I will admit that the music is very well made and the powerful guitars go along the elaborate drumming. The problem that I have with this release is that is good enough for 3 songs and the rest all sound the same. If you like your music to all sound the same then you will love this album.
Fejd provides us with a very solid debut album. This Swedish band plays folk music, with almost no elements of metal, so don’t expect distorted guitars or anything like that. The most ‘metal’ aspect of the band is probably the drumming. The bands music incorporates a wide variety of medieval instruments and they all blend to perfection, creating an album very rich in different sounds.
While I’m no expert in folk music, I can appreciate a good album when I hear one. You can clearly listen to the Hurdy-gurdie, bag pipes, and violin among several other instruments. The fusion of instruments is done to perfection creating very cohesive folk melodies that will have all the fan of medieval music dancing and chanting along the vocals.
I’m always surprised with the albums that come out of Napalm Records, since they have a wide variety of bands that play almost every genre in metal. The Bullet Monks play hard rock with some metal influences. This German band has a very interesting sound that will make anybody want to ride a Harley and hit the road.
“Weapons Of Mass Destruction” is the perfect album to be listening to in a dive bar while drinking away your problems. The overall rock and roll feel of this album, with some great guitar work will have everybody asking for more.
This Austrian band plays a very unique blend of Black Metal. It’s harsh, melodic and sometimes even groovy. The combination of styles makes “Cold” a very entertaining album to listen to. I must admit that I was moving my head up and down with most of the songs of this album, since they provide a prefect combination of brutality and melody that I rarely hear from Black Metal bands.
“Cold” is the band’s third full length album and it show how they have been evolving since playing mainly harsh Black Metal to a more balances but equally aggressive style. Musically this band has a lot to offer, this two man outfit manages to create a cold and depressive atmosphere only rellying on distorted guitars and blast beats that rival any other band of the genre.
This double CD live album from the German and Leaves’ Eyes will be a nice addition for all die hard fans of the band, as well as people starting to get into the band’s music. It provides a great variety of songs from all of their previous releases. The audio was taken from their performance at the Metal Female Voices Fest in 2007. And while the production was delayed, it was well worth the wait.
Leaves’ Eyes is pretty much Atrocity + Liv Kristine, but their music is a Nordic inspired Gothic Metal, that is mainly characterized by Liv’s beautiful voice. But this does not mean the music is not good, since the band members have been creating excellent music in Atrocity for years. And Atrocity is known to experiment within the realms of metal and beyond.
Grave Digger has been around for almost 30 year now, and they have been marked by their inconsistency between releases. “Ballads Of A Hangman” is one of those in between releases. While the band’s sound is more of an old school Heavy metal they also have some Speed metal influences here and there. The best part of their sound is that the stay away from many of the current Power metal clichés.
This album is an overall good release with some very good moments, but at some points I was lost thinking that I’ve been listening to the same song for 10 minutes or so. Most songs are very similar and they can get boring eventually. The vocals I have to say are one of the things I like the most about this band, the raspy style of Heavy metal vocals makes them a perfect fit for the music, and don’t annoy the listener too much (like, in my opinion, many Heavy metal bands).
The music of Hollenthon is what happens when you give a synthesizer to the demented Grandmaster Flesh (A.K.A Martin Schirenc) from Pungent Stench fame. The band’s sound can be defined as an epic symphony of madness, the music I would probably hear in my head if I was confined to a mental institution. This release was in the making for 7 years, and it was well worth the wait.
