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Reviews: Grand Magus, Mayan, The Vintage Caravan

February 6, 2014, 12:39 pm
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Grand Magus: Triumph And Power (Nuclear Blast)

J.B, Fox and Ludwig together they are the trad metal tour-de-force that is Grand Magus. Triumph And Power is their seventh album and their fourth since they moved away from their doom direction to play leather studded metal. So will this seventh album give you anything different? In a word; no but what it does do is prove once more that Grand Magus are one of the finest metal bands to come out of Sweden ever, Triumph and Will much stronger than The Hunt bringing the Heavy Metal pomp and circumstance that was on Iron Will with the marching, fist pumping On Hooves Of Gold starting things off in epic style before the heavy battle metal feel of Steel Versus Steel keeps the warrior style going. You will never get a love song from Grand Magus but who cares with songs about Vikings (Holmgang), war (the doomy Fight) and everything in between (so long as it can make Chuck Norris weep). This is an album that will make your beard grow without warning, with the title track being the bands rally to arms (and a future set closer, mark my words) Again Grand Magus are the heaviest three piece around with Fox and Ludwig's rhythm and percussion sounding like the drums on distant longboat and J.B's guitars cut like a broadsword and his voice calls to Valhalla. The album is well split with two instrumentals the acoustic Arb and the atmospheric Ymer which is an intro to the truly epic The Hammer Will Bite. yet again Grand Magus have done it again creating 11 tracks of metal so true it would beat Manowar in a lie detector test! All I can say is roll on Hammerfest as I can't wait to see these songs in the live arena and bask in The Triumph And Power!! 10/10

Mayan: Antagonise (Nuclear Blast)

Mayan (or MaYan) is the project of former After Forever keyboardist Jack Driessen, death metal guitarist Frank Schiphorst and former After Forever/Epica founder Mark Jansen, the first album Quarterpast was released in 2011 and mixed the AF members symphonic metal past with a death metal bite. The album was a collaborative effort featuring many guest vocalists and Sanders Gommans. This second album ups the ante again as it still has the operatic symphonic death metal approach of the debut and guest vocalists Floor Jansen (Ex AF, current ReVamp and Nightwish singer) and Marcela Bovio (Stream Of Passion) both contributing. However something’s have changed as now the band has more stable line up with the grunts and screams coming from Jansen, as well as Henning Basse (ex-Metallum) providing the clean vocals (also can I put Basse's name forward as the new Firewind singer) and Laura Macri being the major female soprano on the album. This three prong attack gives the band the sound of a more aggressive Amaranthe, mixed with the metal opera delivery of Avantasia and the brutality of bands like Deicide. The lyrical content too has become more poisonous as the band use this album to put across their ideas on the Edward Snowden issue and makes the link between the current National Security crisis in America and the visions of George Orwell. With all this going into the album the music needs to reflect the weighty nature of the lyrics and it does, the opening bonus track sets the scene by providing a movie-like orchestral intro to the album that explodes into furious death metal, the pace is kept high throughout with the amazing drumming of Arien Van Weesenbeck who destroys throughout the album blast beating like machine gun on every track and when mixed with the riffage, the keys and vocal trifecta it all comes together as a brutal but melodic assault that only really lets up on the acoustic/operatic Insano which is followed by perhaps the album's heaviest track Human Sacrifice. If you like your metal heavy, violent but full of melody and technical prowess then you won't get better than Antagonise. Stick it on, let it sink in and enjoy the brutality! 9/10       

The Vintage Caravan: Voyage (Nuclear Blast)

Hailing from Reykjavik The Vintage Caravan play fuzzy, hard rock that has been influenced by the band's parent’s record collection and perhaps some medicinal cigarettes. The band are a three piece that play garage rock that has is influenced by Cream, Hendrix and been brought back to life with bands like FreeFall, Wolfmother and Rival Sons. The album straddles many genres with Let Me Be being a propulsive rocker that explodes into a killer solo before returning with a nice bass intro for the final part, they have funk in the way of Expand Your Mind and even some bell bottom blues on Cocaine Sally. Oskar Logi Agustsson (the main writer) vocals are deep and resonant on the slower songs like the country-fied Do You Remember and his guitar playing is pretty good too cranking out the fuzzed-up riffs and electrified solos backed by the relentless one-two drumming of Gudjon Reynisson and the power line bass of Alexander Orn Numason. This long haired, hip shaking, mushroom taking psych rock from a band that are too young to write trippy psychedelia songs called Winterland which sounds like the Cream of Clapton, (sorry) and they really notch up the prog mysticism on The King's Voyage which is over 11 minutes plus and goes all Hawkwind in the middle ending the album with massive magical mystery tour before the finale of Psychedelic Mushroom Man which HAS to be a lost Zappa track. A very strong mind altering album from these Iceland natives and one that will see them turn into a band to watch. 8/10   

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Another Point Of View: Molly Hatchet (Review By Paul)

February 7, 2014, 12:14 pm
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Molly Hatchet, Islington Academy, London

My first gig of 2014 finally arrived in the shape of legendary Southern rock outfit Molly Hatchet who were in the UK for a short round of dates in some quite bizarre locations including Llandudno(!!!)

Iron Horses

Opening the proceedings were German outfit Iron Horses. I have respect for anyone who has the guts to get up on stage and perform but I'm afraid that this band were truly abysmal. Iron Horses have been together for over a decade and have released two albums, Titan ‘n’ Bones in 2007 and Black Leatherin 2013. They opened with the routine hard rock of Cowboys Of Rock and the sparse crowd clearly had difficulty in determining what the hell was going on. Singer Sebastian Wegner certainly tries to provide a stage presence with his Iggy Pop style swagger and physique but unfortunately the guy just can’t sing. The second track The Boneshaker opened with a thumping bass intro from Sven Moeller and was a completely different style from the opening track, backing vocals and time changes helping to make it a bit more interesting and this was followed by The Game which at least allowed the guitar work of Manuel Arlt to come to the fore. However, the band appeared to struggle with their style, chopping and changing from hard rock to thrash with a variety of styles in between, none of which were particularly inspiring.   As I said earlier, Wegner works hard to try and get the crowd interested but his flat guttural delivery did not inspire and some of his gestures were straight out of the Spinal Tap manual. A couple of other tracks were delivered before the title track from their latest album Black Leather witnessed the quite ridiculous Wegner waving an enormous flag with the band logo on. They finished with possibly their most clichéd track of the night, a bland and tired song called The Stage Is On Fire which thankfully it wasn’t. Unfortunately neither were Iron Horses. They left the stage to a reasonable round of applause and are clearly well thought of by Molly Hatchet, several of the band watching from the side of the stage and Phil McCormack giving them a very positive comment during Hatchet’s set. 3/10

Molly Hatchet

Back in 1985 Molly Hatchet released Double Trouble Live, two disc live album which captured Hatchet at their most impressive. Nearly 30 years later this album sits alongside UFO’s Strangers in the Night, Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous and Live Killers by Queen in my top five live albums of all time. I’d never managed to get to see them though and so as the band arrived on stage and launched into Whiskey Man a swell of emotion ran through me. Although Hatchet have had numerous lineup changes over the years, the current lineup features a number of long serving members. No messing about from Hatchet who kept the Southern boogie moving with the brilliant Bounty Hunter. Vocalist and harmonica playing Phil McCormack, fronting the band since 1996 is incredibly engaging, encouraging the crowd to respond with not a “Yeah” but “Hell Yeah” in true Southern style.  His vocal delivery is reminiscent of the late Danny Joe Brown who featured on many of the early Hatchet releases but also has his own Southern stamp on it. A second track from Molly Hatchet, the cracking Gator Country followed with the guitar playing of Bobby Ingram and original guitarist Dave Hlubek shining through.
When you think of Southern Rock, bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers and Blackfoot come to mind. Hatchet sit comfortably alongside these classic bands and they have the songs to rival all of these bands. Of course, it helps that all members of the band are pretty damn fine musicians with the twin guitar attack so often the signature of such bands prominent and backed by the water tight rhythm section of Tim Lindsey on bass and Shawn Beamer on drums. Second track from the classic Flirtin’ with Disaster, One Man’s Pleasure came next and then it was the turn of longstanding keyboard player John Galvin to demonstrate his quality during a quite stunning Edge of Sundown and Fall of the Peacemakers before Devil’s Canyon and then a quick drum solo from Beamer. Beamer’s solo was impressive, even more so when you take into account that he suffered a heart attack less than two years ago.
This also allowed Hlubek in particular to have a rest. He is not in the best of health, years of substance abuse clearly having taken their toll and he required a stick to walk off stage. However, he is the only original member of the band, having returned at Ingram’s invitation in 2005, and is the co-songwriter of many of the Hatchet classics, none more so than Beatin’ the Odds which followed the drum solo. Son of the South allowed Ingram to show his quality with a guitar/vocal duel with McCormack before Jukin’ City and their staple cover of The Allman Brothers Dreams I’ll Never See  brought the main set to a close with smiles all round. This included me and I found myself beaming from ear to ear throughout the evening. A swift encore included a rousing cover of Honky Tonk Women before the inevitable Flirtin with Disaster brought the evening to a close. So, after a wait of 30+ years I finally ticked Molly Hatchet off my list. A superb band who can still cut it live and who ooze the quality of a genuine classic group. A great start to the year for me gigwise and a possible contender for my top five even at this early stage. 10/10
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Reviews: Transatlantic, The Treatment, No Sinner

February 8, 2014, 11:58 am
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Transatlantic: Kaleidoscope (InsideOut)

So the pro-rock supergroup release their fourth album and it is a possibly their most adventurous yet, their last release The Whirlwind was a concept tour-de-force with the album being one song split into separate tracks. On this record the band go one better by having two 20 minute plus epics start and close the album and in between they have 3 shorter (less than 10 minute tracks). The band haven't changed their style as they still play prog in it's purest form with lots of instrumental passages huge keyboard hooks, technical bass and drums, great guitars, harmony vocals and lots of time and tempo changes. For a band made up of lesser mortals achieving this level of musicianship over the course of four albums without a dip would be very difficult however Transatlantic is now (and has always been) ex-Spock's Beard and prog-mastermind Neal Morse tinkling the ivories, Ronnie Stolt of the Flower Kings on strumming and crooning, Pete Trewavas slapping, plucking and also crooning before the motley bunch (not crew) are rounded out by Mike Portnoy, he of Dream Theater infamy manning the skins. With all the usual suspects recruited we can move onto the music which is as rich and varied as the contributors day jobs. Opening track Into The Blue starts off with a hard rock instrumental before sweeping into classy strong prog, then into and jazz middle section before Stolt is allowed to really let loose with a solo as the track slows and moves into it's euphoric final third (which features Pain Of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlow). The three middle tracks are a nice respite from the prog-epics with Shine sounding like a late period Beatles song with it's acoustic delivery and sitar intro, despite the musicianship it's a little throwaway, they change tact on Black As The Sky which is an ELP fans dream full of pulsating organ from Morse and finally out of the middle tracks is Beyond The Sun which is pedal steel powered obligatory Morse ballad that serves as an intro for the title track which closes the album (yes 5 tracks folks how very prog). This track is over 30 minutes long and goes through so many styles and time changes that mentioning them would take up the whole review, needless to say this a bit special (as all their albums are) and the title track shows just how good these guys are in their composition of epic tracks. So in conclusion the two epics are awesome but the shorter stuff is a little whiny, still a massive album for true prog fans and one that really blows you away after a few spins! 9/10

The Treatment: Running With The Dogs (Spinefarm Records)

Cambridge rockers The Treatment came to be noticed through Classic Rock magazines Powerage records initiative and they have gone from strength to strength after re-releasing their debut on Spinefarm they have embarked on some high profile tours that has honed their rock and roll skills and in the live arena they certainly look the business clad in their G'N'R/Ramones chic. However has it improved their recorded output? Well in a word yes, they have bolstered their classic rock sound with some sleazy swagger on the opener I Bleed Rock + Roll which is part Motley Crue, part AC/DC (which seems to be one of the major influences), the arena baiting Get The Party On which even has a big clap-along drum break in the middle, the title track is straight out of the Sunset Strip, as is The Outlaw which is the best G'N'R song released in last 20 years and then there is Emergency which is a big Def Leppard style track. Yes The Treatment do wear their influences on their sleeves but they add enough of their own modern influences to stop them sounding like copyists. The twin guitars of Jake Pattinson and Tagore Grey bring the riffs thick and fast, with Swoggle and Dhani Mansworth anchoring the rhythm on every track and Matt Jones' great rock and roll vocals commanding the debauchery. At 13 tracks the album is a little long with a few of the tracks filling space, but on the whole this is ballsy, brash, British rock music done by a band that are drawing from the past to influence their future, they are drawing from all the right places and I can see this album being stage one of their global take over. 7/10           

No Sinner: Boo Hoo Hoo (Provogue)

Canadians No Sinner are a traditional blues quartet with lots of balls and bluster, fronted by the awesome voice of Colleen Rennison (No Sinner the right way around fact fans) whose smoky vocals drips with an authentic whiskey hued, tobacco fuelled huskiness that is only shared by the likes of Janis Joplin and even Amy Winehouse if she rocked. The band have an early 60's vibe with the opening title track having the R&B drum shuffle and a slow break in the center of the track before the sing along chorus kicks back in, this is followed by the blue eyed soul of Love Is Madness which so Motown Vintage Trouble may want it back and until you hear If Anything you haven't heard as much raw emotion in a song, Rennison truly has a one in a million voice full of unchained emotion and moulded by years of hard living. The band straddle the line between early Stones, Motown classics and good old southern blues with a production job straight out of the Phil Spector era with songs about love, loss and general alcohol fuelled misbehaviour with the cover of Nina Simone's version of Work Song. The album slows down in the middle a bit but with a band that have as much soul as No Sinner you can forgive them for stretching their emotional muscles a bit with Rise Up which with Devil On My Back is something that Ms Winehouse would have released if she had been backed by rockers! This is good album with a nice old school feel a tour with Vintage Trouble is calling and I for one will be in the front row. 8/10   


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World Of Metal 5: Valtari, Unscarred, Running Death

February 10, 2014, 1:44 pm
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Valtari: Hunters Pride (Self Release) (Review By Nick)

Coming from the land down under Valtari is a melodic Death Metal project with a twist… there is but one of them! Fronted and indeed solely brought together by Marty Warren, this brave man has undertaken a big project that could go one of two ways. Warren’s second full-length album under the name of Valtari opens with Bitterness, which is a solid punch in the face if ever such a statement was needed. Filled with the heavy hitting drums and melodic riffs that this genre mixes so well, new album Hunters Pride gets off to a flying start. Undefeatable and Can You Hear Me continue much in the same vein with background melodies thrown in from soft yet somehow aggressive sounding keyboards. Into Shatter The Myth and In Slides that flawlessly slither into each other with ease, they slow things down a little and its Warrens voice that stands out particularly in these two tracks. Raspingly high at times with short rumbling growls when called upon but at the same time both as pure as silk. Vocally it’s hard not to compare Warren to that of Immortals old school Abbath vocals at times. From With A Childs Smile through to Tyrant the album picks up pace again, the face smashing relentless thumping riffs continue, at the same time forcing your head to bounce in every direction possible. Soon the album must finish with The Gift and Hunters Pride, and wow… what a way to finish! Slowly building up steam The Gift is a final tribute to the vocals of this album, Warren’s voice being tested at both ends of the scale without failure, beautifully supported by the snapping rolling drums and the melodical riffage I have come to expect. The encore of Hunters Pride is the epitome of Warren’s work; filled with everything that is right about this album and this genre. Rammed with enough keyboards, pounding drums and grinding guitars to wave a stick at, that all inevitably finishes in great style, changing its pace to keep you hooked into one final triumphant solo. Thankfully my earlier worries we swiftly dismissed by a brilliant effort from Marty Warrens mind. Needless to say I like this album; I like this album a lot! Watch out Sweden, Melodic Death has a father now too, and its name is… Australia?? 9/10

Unscarred: Fake Democracy EP (Contorted Records & Finisterian Dead End) (Review By Nick)
Unscarred is a powerful pounding-groove machine, wild and slightly crazy Thrash band formed in Paris. My initial opinions as the first track 100 Lashes struck my ears were “Damn this girl can sing!” Lead vocalist known simply as “Nelly” springs straight into action with quick strike up the octaves Sean Peck (Death Dealer) like opening. Followed quickly by an onslaught of groove-laden thrash. The next two offerings Fake Democracy and Puppets Territory come from different ends of the spectrum; Fake Democracy continues the groove filled bouncy bass led trend from which it was born from thanks to Bassist “Brice”, who brings good depth and strength to the track while not detracting from the vital thrash element of Unscarred. Puppets Territory as mentioned before is a different brand of music all together and enters the EP into a darker part of thrash. This time Nelly bringing slow deep growls to the forefront of the track. Although musically still of the same quality unscarred have already delivered us, this did spoil the path the EP was taking a little for me and briefly took the smile from my face as the fun seem to dissipate. Soon though the pitch perfect chorus quickly brought my smile back as Nelly reaches of the high notes again. This track was a little confused I think, and so was the next track Reborn. Despite the return of the growling vocals the funky thrash returns in this track and that for me is what Unscarred are good at. The life is brought back into the album here with the bass bouncing and the constant running guitars supplied by Boris and Nico holding the song well while keeping you intrigued as to where the album is going. Finally Meet Your Fate is a departure back to where the album started; honest groove filled thrash, only this time with a little more pace. Nelly’s vocals return to what they do best and the band seem a lot more attuned to this style of music, we’re even offered a solo or two here. The song ends with a hammering statement on the drums from Franck and leaves me with a smile on my face. Not the heaviest of stuff you’ll ever hear from this genre and Unscarred seem to be a little confused in themselves at times. Just a little more direction needed. However what this EP and band represent so far is good music with lots of fun, and there is simply nothing wrong with that in my book. A great band to catch live I highly suspect and I really hope I do have the chance in the future. 7/10

Running Death: The Call Of Extinction (Self Released)

From the opening chords you can tell what is going to happen and when the heavy, speed riffage kicks in all double kicks and razor sharp guitars you can tell that Running Death are: one a thrash band and two a very good one, especially on the solo front as Unleashed features some great fret-wanking throughout. The Germans wear their influences on their sleeves with Kreator and Slayer being the main two especially with the vocals of Simon and Julian who move between shouts and growls throughout. This is a great E.P with 5 strong thrash tracks that move like a whirlwind with lots of speedy riffs, good old fashion stomping rhythms see Call Of Extinction the songs have progressive tendencies as they move between different tempos on Celebrate Your Aggression which has sounds remarkably similar to South Of Heaven stylistically. Yet another German thrash band showing the yanks what for!! 7/10

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Reviews: Primal Fear, Chrome Division, Augustines

February 10, 2014, 2:33 pm
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Primal Fear: Delivering the Black (Nuclear Blast) (Review By Paul)

2014’s power metal season opens on a high with this offering from German veterans Primal Fear. Opener King For A Day opens at a blistering pace with multiple solos, driving bass lines and thundering drums along with the soaring vocals of founder member Ralf Scheepers. This is German power metal at its best. Think Helloween circa 1986 and you have the standard. There are no surprises but many excellent tracks which really get the head nodding vigorously. Rebel Faction follows with a similar driving pace, huge driving rhythms and crunching guitars from Magnus Karlsson and Alex Beyrodt. The drumming on this track is monstrous, Randy Black running on his double bass pedals ably supported by the driving Harris-esque bass lines of Matt Sinner. When Death Comes Knocking has a slightly calmer opening and slower pace throughout allowing Scheeper to deliver his lyrics assisted by the harmonies that one would expect from old school power metal. As you would expect from a band with nine previous releases under their belt, this is a tight and crafted release. Alive And On Fire is a rocky fist pumper with traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo and one that should really produce some fantastic air guitar in the live arena. As with the majority of German power metal bands, this is an album that follows a formulaic and well-trodden path but hey, don't get me wrong. This is great stuff and sits comfortably alongside Accept and the awesome Freedom Call in the genre. Delivering The Black, the title track has massive Dio influences and the lyrical content of many of the tracks have the great man’s lyrical themes. Penultimate track Born With A Broken Heart is the obligatory power ballad that will have lighters aloft. Album closer Inseminoid ensures that the ballad is a distant memory, powering through with similar drive and gusto to the majority of the tracks on the album. This is power metal at its finest. How about a slot at BOA? 8/10

Chrome Division: Infernal Rock Eternal (Nuclear Blast) (Review By Paul)

The fourth album from Dimmu Borgir frontman Shagrath’s side project and a cracker it is too. Opening with a brief instrumental Good Morning Riot the tempo is cranked up immediately with Endless Nights which is a straight in-your-face heavy rock track. A stomping rhythm underpins the track, with the vocals of Athera (From Susperia) grabbing your attention from the off. Some top soloing from Kjell Aage Karlsen (Aka Damage) on lead guitar throughout this track and this is an opener of intent, totally setting the scene for what is about to come. Some ingenious use of a vocoder adds a little extra. This is pretty far removed from the symphonic black metal that Shagrath is better known for with the next track (She’s) Hot Tonight continuing in the heads down metal vein. Group choruses, driving bass and drums and excellent soloing; it’s all here. This is biker rock with a flavour of 1980s metal at its best. The Absinthe Voyage maintains the momentum, thundering along like an out of control juggernaut before the pace slows with the anthemic Lady Of Perpetual Sorrow. The pace picks straight back up with the next track The Moonshine Years swiftly followed by No Bet For Free which has Motorhead’s classic influence coursing through it. This is good stuff. On The Run Again takes a more bluesy rock approach but continues to blast out, Athera’s gruff vocals complemented by the sing-along choruses and Age Troite’s driving bass lines. Mistress In Madness is the fastest track on the album, with pulverising drums from Tony White the main feature as this wild horse gallops along. This is straightforward heads down rock ‘n’ roll metal, pure and simple. However, it is delivered with style and confidence, grabbing you in the nuts from the start and dragging you along for the ride. No fillers on this album and the closer Dirty Dog is downright sleazy filth, Motley Crue but with more guts. If you like your metal served with no-nonsense then this is one for you. Excellent stuff! 9/10

Augustines: S/T (Oxcart Records)

Augustines (formally We Are Augustines) are now on their second album and they have really hit the overdrive button on this one. Their debut was based upon the personal experiences of Singer/guitarist Billy McCarthy, mainly the deaths of his mother and brother, delivered with the workingman, Americana style of The Boss and The Gaslight Anthem. On Augustines the mood is still serious but more celebratory, after the ghostly electronic opening of Intro (I Touch Imaginary Hands) the album picks up pace with wall-of-sound like production and as many instruments as possible thrown in to create a African spiritual style song Cruel City replete with the chanting backing vocals. This opening song sounds like it was pulled straight off Paul Simon's seminal Graceland album and it plunges straight into Nothing To Lose But Your Head which has all the reverberated staccato guitar of early (and relevant) U2 albeit with a McCarthy's grizzled, wounded vocals that howl over these layers of sound provided mainly by multi-instrumentalist Eric Sanderson who has bass, guitars, keys all under his remit and keeping the beat is Rob Allen who does a stirling job by adding little flourishes in many of the songs and is the main driving force behind the reflective Weary Eyes which is the kind of song Brandon Flowers wishes he could write and it is followed by another powerful anthem Now You look Back which shows off McCarthy's voice at it's best, yes it's an acquired taste but it works so well with this rootsy style of songwriting in both rockers and the plaintive ballads like Walkabout. Yes the ghost of Springsteen is there with the soul stirring songwriting and every man storytelling, but the band also have the musical chops of Neil Young, the edginess of Nick Cave, the sadness of Leonard Cohen and lots of modern influences to keep them as contemporary as possible, like alluded to earlier the band sound like a more mature version of modern 'rock' bands like The Killers, Kings Of Leon etc. With Arise Ye Sunken Ships their debut it was the sound of  band finding their feet and convincing themselves that what they were doing was worth the adversity they wrote about on the album, this record however is the sound of a band showing the world at large that they are not only talented songwriters and performers but they are also vital for both their honesty and their integrity. This is an excellent album that will set Augustines on a path to world wide recognition!! 10/10    
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Another Point Of View: Limp Bizkit (Review By Lee Burnell)

February 13, 2014, 11:43 am
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Limp Bizkit, Crossfaith, Nekrogoblinkon & Baby Godzilla, Great Hall Cardiff
On a dampened night, nothing dampened the spirits of God knows how many people who turned up to see them in The Great Hall. With strong support coming from Nekrogoblikon and Crossfaith.

Baby Godzilla

Without a doubt the second worst band I have ever seen. This quartet of confused and I'm guessing tone deaf band haven't found their sound yet. If this was their sound, they should quit. They started off with the front man, they really aren't worth researching so no name’s to be thrown out, getting in the face of the crowd screaming and trying to play….something. Out of a 20 minute set, they managed to spend 10 of those jumping off their amplifiers and falling down, which made them watchable. They are definitely a young band because they didn't have a look… the front man looked like Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, the guitarist looked like a ginger Misfits ripoff, the bassist, I overheard a friend that he reminded him of a butcher (Your guess is as good as mine) mixed with a fat kid dying for a dump, the later I could understand, teeth clenched throughout the set and the crowd were worried about whether or not he would/did cut one. Thankfully the smell of weed overtook the potential of any chemical warfare. If I had to say one good thing about Baby Godzilla, would be that they reminded me, granted marginally, of Minor Threat, but even I understood Minor Threat. To sum up, they should split. Absolutely garbage. At best 1/10.

Nekrogoblikon

I've listened to Nekrogoblikon’s impressive 2011 album Stench a couple of times before the gig and was told they put on a good show. Boy were they right, we were greeted by John Goblin, yes, he was actually a goblin dressed in a shirt and tie, work trousers and converse. He did a great job warming the crowd up for the band’s arrival, which they kicked off with A Feast. The vocals were even more brutal in person and I loved it, the band were tight. Nothing out of sync and they all seemed to enjoy John Goblin jumping round the ring getting the crowd going. The band took their time and played songs such as Goblin’s Ahoy! and Army Of Goblins from their debut album Goblin Island to No One Survives, Prince Of The Land Of Stench and Bear From Stench through to Powercore and Giraffe from last year’s EP Power. This is definitely a band to keep an eye out for and if you're into gimmicks and metal and never listened to this band. I suggest you do immediately! Only downside was the frontman Scorpion being noticeably drunk when trying to react to a fan throwing a bottle on the stage. Other than that, superb and I’ll definitely be seeing them again. 8/10

Crossfaith

I missed this band in May last year and have been loving their EP Zion as well as their 2013 featured release Apocalyze. I've heard great things about their energy, their performance and their showmanship and I was kind of hoping this band were worth the ticket price alone. The band took a commanding stage presence and after 90 seconds the band’s Synth/DJ/Keyboard player Tamano Terufumi stage dived into the crowd as they blasted We Are The Future. An awesome mix of metalcore and dubstep blended to perfection. They are a few bands I've seen that have perfect rhythm and timing, especially with all the synth drops but Crossfaith are definitely one of the best all-rounder bands I've seen live. They then followed up with their fantastic Monolith and they had the crowd in their hands. Bone crushing riffs, Dubstep that people didn't hate, what more could you want? By this time the crowd were lively, mosh pits were starting, raves commencing, I was very confused, even more confused when I joined in with jumping along with the rest of the crowd. There was one song that would follow suit perfectly, Jagerbomb, which they went immediately into and everyone freakin’ lost it! This was certainly an intense gig now! Kenta Koie, the lead singer then asked the crowd to form a wall of death...yeah….they drew a good number to do it but I was lucky to not get caught in it for once before belting Countdown To Hell before asking the crowd to get down to the ground in a Corey Taylor-esque manner before the band got into Eclipse and the band finished off with their impressive track Leviathan. They were worth the £20 alone and if you’re going to the Download Festival in June, check them out! Band of the night so far, 9/10!

Limp Bizkit:

It was like 2001 had come round and I was 13 again and I was very happy. The setup was unusual, Wes had a hawaiian theme, booze in Pineapple’s, proper luau going on there and Wes took the stage with a ukulele and just playing away and singing a cheesy old timey song. The crowd weren't amused by this, he went on for far too long and people were pretty drunk now. The band came on and Fred greeted the crowd with “Keep on Rollin’ baby, you know what time it is.” Wow, right out of the block with Rollin’. Holy shit, crowd surfing, mosh pits after 10 seconds. Surely a record? Could they follow it up with something to calm the crowd down? Nope, Hot Dog. I was so happy. Sang along with the words, remembered them all and I wasn't the only one. I wonder why, needs more fuck words in there I think, only 46. It was time for the band to break it down with Bring It Back, my favourite song from Gold Cobra and you could start to tell that not many people listened to anything after Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavour Water. Fred kept teasing the crowd saying they weren't allowed to play Break Stuff in case it ensued a riot and changed the tone with Gold Cobra. A pretty tight set so far, entertaining, great setlist so far, happy days. If the crowd needed perking up (they didn't) they started playing songs from Three Dollar Bill Y'all by playing the first verse of Pollution. When they stopped and said they weren't playing the rest but were going to play another, I was disappointed. Although the second song was Counterfeit but yet again they stopped after the first verse. I didn't like that, it seemed like Fred and the band wanted to coast their way through the rest of the show now. I was proven right for the next 15 minutes after they went through My Generation, Livin’ It Up and My Way in quick succession. I don't blame Limp Bizkit for stopping for a couple of minutes after that, the venue was unbelievably hot. But they recomposed and went into Re-Arranged, happy face. I forgot Limp Bizkit did this but they cover songs in their setlist and we were treated to Killing In The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine, Fred had already mentioned they had a 70 minute set so I wonder why the didn’t play something else instead of KITNO, that kind of got to me a little bit. But Wes started playing the Take A Look Around riff and the crowd got into top gear. Well I thought that was top gear until the finished with Break Stuff and everyone just went nuts! I’m in two minds about what to give this, 13 song set list with 2 of those finishing after 90 seconds and one was a cover…. The band were solid and I was very happy to see them, I’d see them again but wouldn't be amused if they did the same again. 9.5/10 although I’m tempted to give Crossfaith band of the night.
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Out Of The Beyond 31

February 16, 2014, 11:22 am
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Royal Southern Brotherhood: S/T (Ruf 2012)

What do you get if you form a band the features the son of an Allman Brother with a Neville Brother? Well you get 12 tracks of soulful blues rock from the smooth opening phrasing of New Horizon, the Santana-like funk of Fired Up! which has Cyril Neville's percussion all over it, as well as his soul drenched vocal delivery, the band then move through the blues balladry of Left My Heart In Memphis on which Neville shows off his excellent pipes again. This isn't a one man show however with both Devon Allman (son of the great Gregg) and Mike Zito providing the six string heroism with lots of slide guitar and good old fashion blues rocking, Yonrico Scott on the drums providing a foil for Neville and Charlie Wooton on bass, who is at his most prevalent on the funky almost reggae style of Fire On The Mountain. The band look to the past and also the future by using the classic blues phrasing and lots of rock, funk, soul and also country (Nowhere To Hide) and creating some modern blues rock in the process. The album is obviously a testament to the heritage and the skills of the contributors, all of them play excellently providing the album with a free-flowing live-in-the-studio feel and a silky segue of every track into the next ensures that this album oozes with groove and knowing confidence of a band that do what they do drawing from their heritage and pumping out some top quality blues rock. 8/10

Myrath: Desert Call (XIII Bis Records 2010)

Desert Call is the best band to come out of Tunisia's second album and it affirms just how good they are from the off with Forever And A Day opening with the Middle Eastern flavour and the downtuned riffage. The band have a lot in common with Orphaned Land mixing metal with lots of Eastern promise, however unlike OL the band have no growls or death vocals and favour a more progressive symphonic/power metal style than many in the genre. The album moves from Forever And A Day into the very heavy Tempests Of Sorrow which has some crushing riffs designed to level buildings. The band have some amazing sounds with Malek Ben Arbia's guitars powering the main bulk of the songs but that's not to dismiss the amazing keyboards and orchestrations of Elyes Bouchoucha who along with Zaher Zorgati's vocals give the band their sound, as Zorgati has a real eastern feel to his vocals which sit somewhere between chanting and crooning. The rhythm section of Saif Louhibi's drums and Anis Jouini's bass too are excellent and provide the band with some amazing technical playing, Jouini even gets a bass solo on the title track! (Lucky guy!). The band show off there technical ability and their progressive tendencies with the Dream Theater/Symphony X like Silent Cries which clocks in at just over 10 minutes, features several changes of pace and tone and ends the first half of the record brilliantly, this style is also most prevalent on Empty World and Shockwave The song reaches it's pinnacle with Zorgati's awesome vocals, this guy can sing excellently, the song also features keys out of the Jordan Rudress school of ivory-tinkling. A great album from one of the bands at the forefront of the 'oriental metal' genre (blame Metal Hammer) a cacophony of metal, Arabic sounds and musicianship of the highest order, find this album and then work your way through the bands other two and you will find that Myrath are more than just a label. 9/10  

Malison Rogue: S/T (Inner Wound Records 2011)

Malison Rogue are a metal band from Sweden and from the opening chords of Friend Or Foe? one name came rushing to my head and that was Queensryche, Malison Rogue sound an awful lot like the Washington natives with every track having that progressive punch that Queensryche bring to their works. The riffs of Bjoerkborg come thick and fast with both speed metal tendencies on tracks like The Pain You Cause but also the 'ryche's melodic power rock on songs like I Grieve which is straight off the Empire album with its pulsing bassline of Pete Fury and the marching drums of Doc, all of which is topped off with the powerful vocals of Zeb who doesn't hit the highs of Geoff Tate but he certainly has the crooning power of the man himself, these songs have power on We're All Born Sinners, emotion on the mega ballad My Mistakes and also heaps of musicality, see the orchestral Scars which features choirs and keys orchestrated by in demand vocalist Mats Leven who also provides backing vocals. This is a great album if you like Queensryche or bands of their ilk then you will really get a kick out of this! 7/10     

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The View From The Front Of The Room: Evil Scarecrow

February 18, 2014, 2:13 am
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Evil Scarecrow & Ten Cent Toy, Bristol Exchange

So once more along the bridge the merry travellers did go, this time it was for the the mighty Evil Scarecrow who continue to draw us to their presence. After rounding up our posse we did a tour of watering holes to make sure we were properly lubricated cyborgs. Into the Exchange and having missed the first two bands we got in just in time to see Ten Cent Toy who hail from Wales.

Ten Cent Toy

TCT burst onto the stage and immediately bludgeoned the crowd with their LOG style groove metal, playing tracks off their album as well as a new track called Contra (up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,A,B, Start) that still had the heavy, groove style of their earlier stuff. Yes they are not doing anything different but when you can pull a crowd and suitably make them headbang and jump around then I'd say job done. Having seen TCT a fair few times for me they do always seem to sound the same but for anyone discovering them I would say that they would be pleasantly surprised, they are heavy, aggressive and full of vitriol! A good way to open up proceedings but desperately in need of new tracks in my own opinion but for anyone watching them for the first time will have their heads crushed 7/10  

Evil Scarecrow

Gathered in the corner of the room (nowhere to hide and make a grand entrance) the five members of Evil Scarecrow make a motley crew of crazies in their black metal stage gear replete with corpse paint, spikes and chains. The band burst on to the stage and straight into Choose Metal which with Brother Pain, Dr Hell and Kraven Moredeath all providing the riffage, Monty Blitzfist drumming like a demon and Princess Luxury adding the keys and samples that give the band more scope. Before rocking the crowd they proceeded to make them cry with the emo-epic Blacken The Everything which saw the crowd giving their best sobs, then they moved into The Thundercats theme (which your writer ruined the intro of) and then into Morbid Witch which prompted more claws tot he sky. Then the drums signalled to the crowd to raise a claw to the sky for the arrival of Crabulon, seeing a room full of metal heads scuttling is still hilarious and this needs to be a single soon! At the end of the set we were treated to Vampyre Trousers which again had it's intro ruined (not by me) before the band ran off to hide in the corner again. Encore time and first it was the now legendary Robototron with the crowd providing more perfect robot squares during it's chugging breakdown which then moved into the band introductions and Brother Pain's crowd surf (I didn't drop him this time luckily) and then into War And Seek   which with a Arnie like stomp brought the set to an end. Evil Scarecrow again show that they are truly fantastic live and they just need everyone like us to fund their quest for world domination!! 10/10
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Reviews: Troubled Horse, Elysion, Amoral

February 18, 2014, 3:03 pm
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Troubled Horse: Step Inside (Rise Above)

Sweden does seem to be in it's purple patch at the moment with some very fine rock and roll bands coming out of the country in recent years Troubled Horse are the latest in a long line, but they are pretty special. They play riff heavy, retro garage rock that comes out of the late 60's and early 70's, so you need to think Free Fall, Graveyard and Witchcraft in terms of style, especially the latter as the band is made up of former and current members of the Swedish occult rockers. The band throw in the creeping organs of Ghost on Bring My Horses Home and also nods to Sabbath on Another Man's Name (which has pinched the riff of Supernaut). The bass of Ola Henriksson rumbles like thunder keeping the band moving along metronomically and along with the drums of Jens Henriksson the band have a The Doors style percussive drive that is topped by the unforgiving guitars of John Hoyles which riff and solo with like Iommi, rounding off the band is vocalist/guitarist Martin Heppich who is the band's ace as he provides the extra muscle in the guitars section and also also hollers like a wounded animal on tracks like Fears and the powerful One Step Closer To My Grave, which is one of the albums best tracks with it's jangly but rifftastic delivery, it's clapping middle eight and the sumptuous solo. Heppich vocals are similar to fellow Swede Ralph Gyllenhammer of Mustasch and the music Troubled Horse play suit his voice to the ground. This is an album taht does a rare thing, it blows you away with it's combination of retro riffage, psychedelic tendencies (Shirleen) and nods to doom on the first listen and then gets better with every subsequent spin. The band have created an album as good as any of the bands I mentioned in the initial list, the album is sublime with everything coming together excellently. 2014 is truly the year of the (Troubled) Horse!!! 9/10

Elysion: Someplace Better (Massacre Records)

Elysion are classed as goth metal and from the opening strains of Made Of Lies this is proven to be 100% accurate with the light and shade of the guitars moving from clean to distorted in a heart beat with the verses lighter and the choruses having that big meaty riffs. I know it's a genre cliche but the band feature the angelic, haunting vocals of Christianna who sounds a lot like Christina Scabbia in terms of delivery and when coupled with the pulsing Gothic metal it gives these greeks a similar style to Lacuna Coil albeit without the male vocals, with some Within Temptation and Evanescence thrown in for good measure. The second track Someplace Better introduces the keys which are handled by guitarist Johnny Zero with the rhythm section made up of Petros Fatis on drums and FXF on bass. The songs have big riffs, lots of keys and synths and a massive dubstep section in What Lies Beneath. The band have some dark imagery, emotional lyrics and big ballads like The Promise which is replete with plantative piano, violins and a soaring guitar. All of these elements, makes for premium gothic metal, along with the Christianna's strong and frankly excellent, non operatic, vocals (she also sounds a bit like Hydrogyn's Julie) the band do what they do very well. Yes they do sound a lot like Lacuna Coil and usually this gets less marks from me but in this style of music it is very hard to stand out so sounding like the genre leaders is not necessarily to the bands detriment it just means that they have absorbed enough of the LC's charisma and musicality to progress upwards and when they have some pretty heavy riffage, see Our Fate, and Christianna's vocals the band can't really fail. Strong Gothic metal 8/10

Amoral: Fallen Leaves And Dead Sparrows (Imperial Cassette)

Finns Amoral are a bit of an enigma, until 2009 they were a Death/Thrash metal band until they dramatically changed their style leaving just guitarist Ben Varon and drummer Juhana Karlsson with a new line-up that played straight down the line power metal. This is not a bad change as the I went back and listened to their early stuff and it's good however I do have a soft spot for power metal and there post 2009 output is a lot better a it merges classic power metal of galloping basslines, dual guitars and strong clean vocals, however this is mixed with some modern metal riffage and lots of time signature changes in the longer tracks and indeed the shorter ones!) It's on the first track On The Other Side Pt. 1 that the band nail their colours to mast with the double kick drums rampaging, the pinched harmonic laden drop D riffage, the bassline driven verses and the Trivium-like soloing. Ari Koivunen's vocals are powerful but not ear splitting or helium fulled, yes they are in the upper register but they don't distract you, in fact he has similar style to fellow Finn Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica or even James LaBrie. The guitars of Varon (rhythm) and Masi Hukari (Lead) are awesome with some massive modern riffage and Hukari's love of spectacular solos coming through. The songs are varied coming away from the power metal base in places but Prolong A Stay features some amazing orchestral stuff on top of the galloping riffage that wouldn't sound out of place on a Maiden album with some lead breaks that are very Djent like before everything turns into a Wintersun-like rampage. This goes straight into the acoustic almost Zeppelin-like Blueprints which also has some killer organs in it and moves into the folksy-ballad of If Not Here, Where which kicks up into Queensryche territory after the intro and also has some growled vocals. If i was forced to make a comparison its like Baroness were mega NWOBHM fans (the album cover alone would give you this idea) but this would be pigeonholing a band that can't really be. The band are never a pastiche they balance the right line between classic and modern with progressive flourishes and quality songwriting throughout. The more I listened to this album the more I fell in love with it, it is just everything you could want in a metal, it's an engaging sometimes challenging listen that both makes you nostalgic but plants you firmly in the present day, they have done more in eight tracks than many bands do in their careers. Well done Amoral you originally had my curiosity, now you most definitely have my attention. 10/10


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Reviews: Hatriot, Freedom Call, Vanden Plas (Reviewed By Paul)

March 3, 2014, 6:51 am
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Hatriot: Dawn Of The New Centurion (Massacre Records)

The latest project of long standing thrash veteran Steve Souza basically grabs you in the nuts, kicks seven shades of shit out of you and leaves through the back door whilst you regain your breath. This is a full-on 80s thrash fest from start to finish. This is the second full album from Hatriot, following quickly on the heels of 2013’s Heroes of Origin debut. Clearly, subtle isn't a word that exists in the Souza vocabulary as opener My Cold Dead Hands comes straight at you, with multiple shredding and Souza’s trademark vocals which left a huge influence on Exodus after Paul Baloff between 1986 and 1993 immediately grabbing the attention. Indeed, the comparisons with his former band are impossible to exclude. Driving drums and bass with the dual guitars of Kosta Vavatakis and Miguel Esparza ripping back and fore dominate the opener and the massive Testament sounding Your Own Worst Enemy before a slight easing of tempo during The Fear Within. Souza’s vocals were always a bit marmite-like. Personally, I like the guttural growl he uses; not only does he possess one of the most recognisable vocal styles in thrash, but you can usually get the gist of what he is singing too. This is quality musicianship with the drumming of Cody Souza particularly notable throughout the album and outstanding on Honour In The Rise and Fall which powers through like an express train. Ridiculous title award goes to Superkillafragsadisticactsaresoatrocious which could comfortably slot in to the Exodus back catalogue; massive hooks, soaring solos and chanting chorus combine to really give this the old school feel and even comes with the chanting of “Free Pussy Riot” in the fade which gives you an idea of the track’s lyrical meaning. The title track is the album’s stand out song, with Souza opening up with a trademark scream before a slow build up, full of groove and hook, with the track layering sweetly and increasing in strength and speed as it moves to the crescendo with increased tempo and some powerful fretwork from Vavatakis and Esparza. This track briefly allows you to catch your breath before the full throttle onslaught takes hold. Fans of Testament, Exodus, Violence, Kreator and even Onslaught should really get on the outside of this album. Yes, it has been done before; no, it’s not groundbreaking but if you love a bit of old school thrash in the Bay Area tradition then this is for you. 8/10

Freedom Call: Beyond (SPV/Steamhammer)

A bit like Hatriot, the eighth album from the German Power Metal outfit Freedom Call contains few surprises. Opener Union of the Strong absolutely stinks of Helloween circa 1986 but is delivered in exactly the way you want your German power metal to be. Harmonies galore, rapid fire drumming, squeaky vocals and solos coming at you from every angle. Knights of Taragon follows the same pattern, sword and sorcery lyrical content and some interesting use of trumpet style synths adds to the mix. Chris Bay’s vocals are exactly what you would expect, following the Michael Kiske blueprint of high pitched almost falsetto delivery at times alongside an almost narrative delivery at times. Heart of a Warrior continues in the same vein, rampaging along with the powerful drumming of new man Ramy Ali combining with Ilker Ersin on bass. The guitars of Bay and Lars Rettkowitz deliver some intricate and detailed fretboard action throughout. The Maidenesque Come on Home contains the brilliantly delivered line “Bang Your Head or Die” before drifting into a sing-along ala United by Judas Priest. The title track opens with piano and a string section with Bay doing his best Dickinson impression before off we gallop again. This is quite simply great fun and for those who have seen these guys on stage, you'll know that they are an absolute scream live. Beyond contains 14 tracks and the edition I have also has a second disc of live and unplugged tracks which unfortunately don't always portray Bay’s vocals in the best light but even so you certainly get your money’s worth. This album has more cheese in it than Madame Fromage's specialty Cheese Shop, and by the time you get to Follow Your Heart with its saccharine sweet harmonic choruses you'll have either broken out in a big grin and a massive hope that these guys will appear at BOA again or you’ll have put Hatriot on repeat to cleanse your system. I’m somewhere in the middle with power metal. However, this album is well constructed and sticks very close to a formula that works. 7/10

Vanden Plas: Chronicles Of The Immortals - Netherworld (Path 1) (Frontier Records)

Germanic progressive metallers Vanden Plas latest release is a marmite album with no middle ground. You'll either love this or absolutely hate it. The band’s former works have developed themes from the world of fantasy with lashings of progressive overtones and this one moves even more into that realm being a collaboration with multi-million selling fantasy author Wolfgang Holhbein and based on his Chronicles of the Immortals books. Opener Vision One sets the scene with a narrative from Dave Esser and heartfelt vocals from the unfortunately named Andy Kuntz (yes, cousin of German Footballer Stefan) before the band launch into the real opener Vision Two – The Black Knight; an eight minute plus epic that has drawn massively from Dream Theater in both composition and structure. Several changes of tempo and excellent musicianship with intricate interplay between Gunter Werno’s keyboards and Stephan Lill’s guitar work surge through this piece which reaches a crescendo with a choir adding backing vocals. You get the picture. The remainder of the album is broken down into a further eight ‘Visions’ with the story developing around a boy who is different and feels no-one understands him. Kuntz’s vocals are solid and impressive with a decent range on display. Vision Three – Godmaker continues in a similar vein albeit slightly shorter, and again it is the Dream Theater comparison that instantly comes to mind. Vision Four – Misery Affection Prelude introduces female vocals and segues neatly into Vision Five – A Ghost’s Requiem where the pace is much slower with piano and strings delivering a sombre atmosphere. The theatrical element of this album is unsurprising given the background that the band have in theatre, and this contributes massively to the way the album flows with huge classical elements complementing the regular changes in tempo and direction. Most of the tracks on the album rock in at six minutes plus but throughout the constant change in styles and delivery mean that you are rarely distracted and attention is maintained. This is an album crafted with delicacy and no little beauty. Highlights for me were Vision Seven – The King and the Children of the Lost World which is again crafted elegantly and combines heavy passages with much lighter elements. The album closes with Vision Ten – Inside, a six minute conclusion to the story which maintains the intricate and delicious balance of light and dark interplay that runs throughout the album. Definitely one of the albums of the year if you like progressive metal with huge classical overtones and a big production. If you don't, steer well clear. I’m in the former camp. It’s a damn fine release. 9/10
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Reviews: Majesty, Klogr, Tides Of Sulfur

March 3, 2014, 12:30 pm
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Majesty: Banners High (NoiseArt Records)

Lets lay it down now before we start, that Majesty (no not the band that were to become Dream Theater) sound like Manowar, a lot like Manowar, in fact if anything they are blatant copyists. The rampant drumming, galloping bass, face melting guitars and soaring vocals, coupled with swords and sorcery lyrics mean that the German band have all the loin-clothed bravado of the American 'True Metal' creators. Indeed the band themselves changed their name to Metalforce for one album and signed to Magic Circle Music before returning to Majesty and Massacre records shortly after. So yes the band do sound like Manowar but putting that aside the band play with passion and power, with the dual guitars adding the Maiden-like harmonies to the songs about battle and war that are filled with solos galore and has founder member Tarek Maghary leading the charge so to speak with his Eric Adams-esque vocals which soar above the true metal music. This is metal (or at least Manowar) by numbers mainly but if you like your metal muscular, powerful, slightly cheesy and at least half naked and trussed up with leather, then you will like Majesty's sixth album and you will bang your head, draw your broadsword and grab your war axe to tracks like the frenetic We Want His Head, the sing along Banners High and the anthems United By Freedom and Take Me Home all of which sound like they could be on Kings Of Metal or Battle Hymns. If all this sounds like your idea of hell then I'd give Majesty a wide berth, however for everyone else that ignores the fact this is Manowar, it is a fun sixth album from the Germans. 6/10

Klogr: Black Snow (Zeta Factory/Believe)

Now this is going to be a hard one, Klogr (pronounced kay-log-are) are an alternative metal band from Italy and America, their name comes from the law of Weber-Fechner, which is known as the fundamental psycho-physical relationship (S = K log R). (So now you know) Anyway back to the task at hand and musically the band are labelled as alternative metal and that they are with elements of A Perfect Circle, Tool and modern bands of their ilk, the band have down tuned metallic riffs with some dreamy harmonies, the bass intro of Zero Tolerance opens the track up for the riffage Giampi and Rusty who bring some strong riffs to the track with Rusty also bringing a wide vocal range with shouts and a harmonic clean vocal that sounds a lot like APC and Tool's Maynard. The band then move into the percussive, radio friendly Refuge which should blow up on American FM channels. This seems to the style of the album with chunky metallic downtuned riffs, angry vocals and lots of alternative attitude, so they have enough melody to appeal to those that like the Alter Bridge set but also enough power to tour with Prong (which they are currently doing). The band have a sound that is similar to a lot of bands but a sound that is very much their own mixing the bands previously mentioned with some of the ballads coming off like Bullet For My Valentine (Heart Breathing) and others full of the angst and heaviness shown by NIN albeit without the electronic influences, see Hell Of Income, then the band will move into an almost Deftones area on Room To Doubt before leaving things on the almost Katatonia like dreamscape of Ambergais. The songs are powerful and draw from the American style of alternative metal bands, the production is crisp and makes the songs sound very punchy. This is a grower of an album that after a few plays will open itself up into one of the most intelligent and cerebral albums this year so far. Watch out as Klogr are about to make a huge impact. 8/10

Tides Of Sulfur: Eternal Bleeding Demo (Self Released)

Cardiff noise merchants Tides of Sulfur have obviously adopted the 'music as a weapon' approach to their debut demo. The demo is made up of three tracks each of which are heavy sludge-like metal with screamed vocals from bassist Chris Bull who brings the bowel rupturing bottom end as well as the demon like guttural roars and banshee screams that punctuate the riff assault of Anthony O'Shea who tries his best to make your ears bleed, both men are anchored in their assault by the drums of Tom Lee who smashes the hell out of his kit. The band have lots in common with sludge masters Crowbar as well as throwing in some Neurosis for good measure. From the opening tolling bells, which moves into the killer intro from O'Shea and then the heavy as a hammer bass driven main riff Grimace starts things off nicely and then moves straight into the sledgehammer doom of Walk With The Living before finishing off with the stomach rumbling of the title track which is slow and ominous in the classic Sabbath style. This is a classy debut and is very well produced for a demo, the roughness of it lending to the violent, evil sounding songs. If you want some serious brain rattling from a new metal band then look no further than Tides Of Sulfur. 8/10  
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Reviews: Bigelf, Adrenaline Mob, Dark Forest, Savage Messiah

March 7, 2014, 11:41 am
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Bigelf: Into The Maelstrom (InsideOut Records)

Is this Bigelf or creative genius Damon Fox's solo album? That was what went through my mind as I read the liner notes, Fox handles the vocals, guitar, bass and most importantly the keyboards on the majority of the tracks with only bassist Duffy Snowhill remaining from the bands last incarnation and only appearing on a few tracks along with Luis Maldonado invited to "play some solos and add some colour" on the guitar. However for the most part it is Damon Fox flexing his twisted creative muscles on this album, he is aided and abetted on by musical Nomad Mike Portnoy on the drums and as usual Portnoy adds a huge amount of class to every track but never overshadows anything. So on to the album and as usual its a bit of a trip moving through, Beatles like pop-psychedelia, Sabbath doom, propulsive organ driven prog and even a bizarre carnival atmosphere throughout with wurlitzers and organs driving all of the songs. With the Incredible Time Machine Fox starts things off with a creepy lurching song with a sugar sweet verse and ominous chorus and then time shifts (wink wink nudge nudge) into a fuzzy dreamy final section, summing up Bigelf's sound in one 4 minute song, next is the science fiction inspired Hypersleep which has sludgy main riff punctuated by some synths and features Fox's unique vocals before things shift again into a space rock freak out worthy of Hawkwind. The album carries on like this through 12 tracks taking you on a magical mystical tour through Fox's mind from the sitar based rock of The Professor And The Madman, the heavy metal Vertigod and Theater Of Dreams which doesn't sound like Portnoy's former band but rather his inspiration John, Paul, George and Ringo, the most telling of all the tracks is the driving Control Freak which possibly explains why Fox has gone all Steven Wilson on us. This yet another excellent album from Bigelf who shows that really it doesn't matter if the album is just him as he is Bigelf. Welcome to his world! 9/10 

Adrenaline Mob: Men Of Honor (Elm City Music)

So I'll say this now, despite the critical beating it took form the music press, I quite enjoyed the first Adrenaline Mob album. In the interim between the first and this second album the band have lost Mike Portnoy (see Bigelf & Transatlantic and Winery Dogs for some reasons why) and in his place have put A.J Pero from Twisted Sister, so not the supergroup they once were only ex-Disturbed man John Moyer and Symphony X's Russell Allen remain in the A-List talent bracket. So what is the album like? Well it's your strict meat and potatoes metal, the riffs are heavy and melodic and the lyrics are chest beating and misogynistic, this is the sort of music Nickelback strive for when they are not trying to write arena ballads. Case in point is the opener Mob Is Back which sounds a lot like Burn It To The Ground with slightly better guitar playing from Mike Orlando. Unfortunately the album doesn't get much better than this, the band seem to be pooling their collective talents and driving in cruise control, this is American radio rock at it's simplest, Dearly Departed is The Foo Fighters, Behind These Eyes is a big Def Leppard like ballad. Maybe I'm getting old but this album disappoints me, it is far below their collective talents, yes I did like the first album as for a one off it was quite a breath of fresh air for all those concerned however it did strike me as a one-time thing and on this sophomore album they prove it by showing no advancement at all. Back to the day jobs I think guys! 4/10

Dark Forest: The Awakening (Cruz Del Sur Music)

Dark Forest are a old school metal band bringing NWOBHM to the modern era. Hailing from the the West Midlands (the spiritual home of metal) the band have all the hallmarks of Iron Maiden and bands of the early 80's along with revivalists like Cauldron. The first thing strikes you is the guitar playing of Christian Horton and Patrick Jenkins which is superb bringing the dual guitar riffage of Murray and Smith/Gers aided by the smashing drums of Adam Sidway and the galloping bass of Paul Thompson. However despite the strength of tracks like The Awakening, Turning Of The Tides, Secret Commonwealth and the rousing closer Sons Of England the band have one weak link and that is the vocals of Josh Winnard who despite having a bit of puff in the higher sections, he is flat for the rest of the time, his voice really is not my cup of tea, maybe it's because most bands of this ilk have a vocalist that can at least sing (albeit some can't hit the notes) not the other way around that seems to be the case with Dark Forest. I was looking forward to some good quality British metal and musically the band pull it off it's just that voice that grates on me so badly. My advice is listen to the album and see what you think but for me the album that could have been so much better if they had just changed one little thing. 5/10

Savage Messiah: The Fateful Dark (Earache)

So four albums into their career Savage Messiah still have a point to prove and they go some way to proving it on The Fateful Dark from the intro of Iconocaust  they channel Metallica's arena heroics before the main riff kicks in and its all guns blazing with the super fast thrash riffage of Joff Bailey and Dave Silver which is driven by the face crushing rhythm section of Stefano Selvatico's bass and Andrea Gorio's double kick frenzy and mixes the razor sharp riffage with lots of melodic passages. This trend continues with the fist pounding Minority Of One which has a killer solo in the middle and also shows how good Silver's vocals have become since their debut, he has his own unique delivery that suits the band's modern thrash style. I've been calling Savage Messiah a thrash band but they do bring in traditional metal to the proceedings as well with Cross Of Babylon having the sound of latter period Judas Priest and Hellblazer is prime power metal and Live As One Already Dead is a Megadeth style power ballad. In fact the 10 tracks on this album are full of power and passion packed with killer riffs face melting solos and lots of heavy bottom end all topped by Silver's strong vocals and the crystal clear production. This is a seriously good album, definitely Savage Messiah's best release and it will go some way to push them up into the upper echelons of the British metal scene. 8/10  
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Another Point Of View: Crowbar (Review By Paul)

March 11, 2014, 12:22 pm
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Crowbar – The Garage, London

Hang The Bastard

I arrived too late to see openers Dripback but was in time to catch London based sludge outfit Hang The Bastard put in a 30 minute set which whilst mildly entertaining and certainly well received by the very healthy crowd did little for me. The band are tight with the low keyed down tuning sludge and stoner delivery that you would have expected on this bill. However, despite being a man mountain in size, vocalist Christopher Barling’s delivery was pretty uninspiring. Little to no variation in pitch or style, and a general screech which made the actual lyrics indecipherable. After 20 minutes of this it all blurred into the same thing and I found my attention wandering. The rest of the band in a decent shift with energy from bassist Tom Hubbard the highlight (including some backing vocals) but I can't say I'd go and see them again. 5/10

Crowbar

The Garage was close to capacity for New Orleans sludge legends Crowbar. No intro tape required with these guys. Straight onto the stage with the intimidating founder and all round hero Kirk Windstein announcing “we've got good news and bad news”. “The good news is that we are Crowbar from New Orleans, the bad news is that we’re going to kick your ass”. And with that they launched straight into the brutal Conquering. As heavy as a troop of elephants dancing on your head in lead boots, Crowbar certainly don’t mess around. Windstein handles the front of stage with ease, the brooding heavy passages interspersed with the faster punky hardcore elements synonymous with the sludge and stoner movement. High Rate Extinction followed, one of three tracks from their self-titled album.  News of a new album were greeted with cheers from the crowd, although no new tracks were given an airing on the night. However, several tracks from Sever The Wicked Hand, their last ball crusher were spread through the set including the title track which was so heavy that I thought my liver had burst. A return to the debut album Obedience Through Suffering produced the rarely heard Vacuum, a mighty slab of sludge which in keeping with the rest of the evening, crashed through the floor. Whilst there is little in the way of guitar solos with this genre, Windstein and Matthew Brunson ensure that you are fully aware that they can play, laying down riff after riff whilst maintaining the low keyed tuned down delivery. Don’t think it’s all slow mind, as there are passages within several tracks that incite serious pit action. A devastating Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth continued the aural assault, new boy Jeff Golden on bass keeping momentum and drive and linking well with drummer Tommy Buckley who was smacking seven shades out of the kit. This was a well-paced set with a steady increase in tempo leading to a climax of Cemetery Angels and set closer LetMe Mourn which was massively appreciated by the crowd who were roaring their approval from early in the set. Windstein referred to the band’s forthcoming appearance at BOA with some relish and promised a couple of new tracks in the set. It should be a good one if it is anything like this performance. 8/10
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World Of Metal 6: Human Decay, Marshroom, Trigant

March 17, 2014, 4:11 am
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Human Decay: Figli Di Dio (Self Released)

Human Decay are thrash band hailing from Italy and Figli Di Dio is their debut EP, it features three tracks of furious thrash with some technical guitar playing and lots of blast beat drumming topped with some deathy vocals. The band's lyrics are in Italian which is not a problem as most fo the time thrash is purely about the riffs and these are solid, Sperma Benedetto, Vampiri and Meschini Traditori have an old school feel of bands like Exodus and Forbidden mixing the thrash with the death vocals and the rough and ready production. With two speed metallers it's up to Meschini Traditori to end the album with a stomping riff to headbang to and by the time its over you can see that Human Decay have a lot of potential and talent that just needs to be harnessed. 7/10  

Marshroom: Kappelmesiter (Self Released)

So a trio made up of one girl and two guys that play hard rock? Sounded like an interesting prospect and as the rim hits of I Like It signal the intro to the bluesy hard rock style with some killer guitar from Vladimir, pulsing bass from Vyacheslav and drums from Yana. This is a band that have a mix of styles and like to mix it up throughout giving them a sound similar to System Of A Down with an off kilter, never quite sure what's going to happen sound. Case in point Mr Kokle which has a kazoo at the beginning and has a Beatles like madness about it before morphing into a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song with lots of funk bass/guitar and runs for over 11 minutes(!) changing style throughout. The two Razzamatazz tracks are very much the same track split into two and leads into Motley Limb which is a big jangly ballad. Marshroom really do throw a bit of everything in the pot to try and make it work and for the most part they do, yes the vocals are a bit weird, the production ranges from adequate to dire and the band are bit like Marmite you will either be taken in them or be totally put off. I'm in the former camp and thought they are doing something abit different and new to a lot of bands out there. 7/10


Trigant: Wolves EP (Self Released)

Trigant are from Germany and yes they play thrash however this isn't your normal Kreator, Destruction, Sodom fodder the band branch out a bit throwing in some groove metal ala Machine Head and Lamb Of God. See Wolves which has a driving percussive intro before the guitars kick in and get heads banging. The guitars of Benjamin and Robin Rechner are great with Benjamin really showing his skill on the melodic intro to Reflection and the drums of Daniel Rodenbuchter really anchors everything on Disembodied. So the music is good but still I haven't really taken to Trigant, this could be because of Peter's vocals which I just don't like (personal opinion I know) still like I said the music is good, the production is crisp and modern and the songwriting for riffs etc strong I just think with a better vocalist the band could be a lot better. 5/10
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Hammerfest 2014

March 18, 2014, 9:17 am
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Hammerfest Hafan-Y-Mor Park North Wales

So once again the metal hordes descend upon North Wales for 3 nights of debauchery in a holiday park. This time it's the Haven in Hafan-Y-Mor Park that hosted the event and on side note it is a much better place to stay than the previous place in Prestatyn. Both stages were across from each other so seeing the bands was easy and the stages were a short walk from the chalets. So onto the important stuff:

Day 1 Thursday
Thursday was fuelled by cider and Sambuca so it was a bit of a blur however we did see some great bands that day.

Fury
First were traditional metallers Fury who's NWOBHM styled metal was well delivered and got the miniscule crowd there really getting into it, Fury were struggling with the early first day slot as many had either not checked in or were happy to stay in the accommodation for the set which is a shame because with songs such as Warrior's Prayer the band are really very good live. Still for those of us that ventured into the arena we were rewarded with some good quality metal. 7/10

Back then for a bit more drinking and then once more into the breach:

Death Valley Knights

Bit of an odd one this part hard rock, part European metal and lots of fun this leather clad troupe led the crowd through some boozy rock n roll that was the perfect start to the party. I didn't see much of the set but I would see them again based on what I saw the music was good the vocals were excellent and the atmosphere they create was intoxicating (in both senses). 7/10

Savage Messiah
So one more try for Savage Messiah a band that I have seen three times and three times I've been left unimpressed. This time they were touring their most recent album The Fateful Dark which is quite actually quite good. Live they were tight, full of thrash riffs, melodic solos and the voice of Dave Silver. The band have moved away from their total thrash roots on the album and this has translated to the live arena as they focussed more on their later stuff which means that they now sound a bit more like BFMV than say Testament. Still the crowd seemed to enjoy it and as I said the band performed excellently, they were the best I've ever seen them. 8/10

Day 2 Friday

So the second day and a late start heading into the main arena at 3 and going straight to main stage.

Shrapnel
A band that Paul saw at Bloodstock last year this was my first viewing of Shrapnel and bugger me they are good, super-fast, and super heavy and a wee bit scary. All wind milling hair, super speed guitar riffs from Nathan Sadd and Chris Martin, blast beats from Simon Jackson and the aggressive vocals of Jae Hadley. The riffs came thick and fast with all of the songs coming from their debut album (review pending) and in the live arena they really explode into life causing some early pits. With tracks like the Virus Conspires, Braindead, 22 and Titan the Norwich band had the crowd hanging on every lightning fast riff. A great surprise came near the end of the set when the band welcomed Metal Hammer writer (and member of Oaf) on stage for a rendition of Slayer's War Ensemble on which Lawson really let rip vocally (albeit the lyric sheet was needed, possibly due to alcohol ingestion) as Lawson left the stage the band finished the set with their own warhead which ended things as brutally as they had begun. Great way to start the day! 8/10

I missed Attica Rage but from what I heard they played their brand of heavy Motorhead-like rock to an enthusiastic crowd, Attica Rage are always guaranteed a warm welcome due to their position as the HRH/Hammerfest house band and their awesome live reputation. Still next up were:

Paragon

Now I know nothing about Paragon except that they are power metal band from Germany. Well as soon as they came on stage all leather and metal a huge smile came across my face from the opening of The Legacy this was Teutonic Metal at its best with Helloween and Accept thoroughly copied, still imitation is the best form of flattery. Although if I had to make a comparison I'd say they were a Germanic Saxon. In a whiz of metallic riffage, choreographed stage moves, strong, Biff Byford-like vocals and songs about war, death, fantasy and all the usual nonsense, Paragon managed to win the hearts of the crowd there. This was silly metal that had no real purpose other than to entertain, much like Freedom Call or Bloodbound I found the cheesiness of it all to be quite endearing, here is a band doing what they love an on tracks like frankly mental Tornado and the totally silly Impaler before Thunderstorm finished everything swimmingly (weather obsession maybe?). I would see Paragon again in heartbeat it was the perfect early evening fodder in readiness of what was to come. I knew nothing about Paragon before but now I think I need to hear what their back catalogue is like!! 8/10

A break a beer and back into the arena for what I knew was going to be a good one.

Grand Magus

It was this show that changed my view of Grand Magus forever. In my estimation they went for being a good metal band to a truly great one. With the pre-show track of Manowar's Hail To England (we were in wales but close enough I guess) ringing out and the Signs Of The Hammer were out in force and as the intro music hit a roar came from the largest crowd assembled all day. The three men strolled on and immediately burst into the killer riffage of Kingslayer and then followed it up with Sword Of The Ocean and I, The Jury which incited the first sing along of the set. what I love about Grand Magus is that they are not only great musicians they are also massively heavy live and also very humble each member having a beaming smile on their face throughout, as JB riffed like mad and sang his heart out, Fox provided the power on bass and Ludwig smashed the hell out of his kit! The band went into the massive epic shout along Raven's Guide Our Way and then sped things up with the little played The Shadow Knows, before playing three from their latest album including the epic title track before the final two songs came in the shape of the doomy Iron Will and the heavy as hell Hammer Of The North with its 'woah' refrain ringing out throughout the arena. I've never seen a band that are able to make so many metalheads ecstatically happy, much like Manowar Magus are rapidly becoming a cult band in the UK as their popularity here outstrips their popularity anywhere else. Fast, furious and suitably epic. Magus stole the show!! 10/10

A well needed rest after Magus had shredded my throat, I caught only the beginning of Soilwork but if I'm honest they do nothing for me at all so I went back to get some more fluid and food before the headliners Overkill

Overkill

New Jersey thrash mob Overkill have been doing this stuff since the 80's and were there from the beginning, never one of the Big 4 but one of the peripheral bands like Testament, Annihilator, Exodus, Forbidden and Death Angel that were possibly as good if not better than their more popular compatriots. From the outset of Come And Get It Overkill grabbed my attention with the awesome rhythm guitars Derek 'The Skull' Tailer making things fast and loud aided by Ron Lipnicki's furious drums, D.D Verni's galloping bass and the lead harmonies of Dave Linsk. Through Wrecking Crew and Electric Rattlesnake the band showed their mettle moving from thrash to straight up classic metal. However the major talking point for me was frontman Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth who has more energy than any frontman outside of Bruce Dickinson. He ran back and for the stage and was totally animated throughout the set, he is also a very funny guy putting on this hard man aura in all the between song banter. The songs spoke for themselves with Rotten To The Core, Ironbound, Hello From The Gutter and Necroshine all awesome songs that got the crowd moving although no track did this more than the Headbanger's Ball favourite Elimination (EEElimnination) which ended the main set before the encore consisted of Horrorscope and their awesome cover of Fuck You! by The Subhumans. This was a triumphant set that I loved as I always thought Overkill were straight up thrash but they mix lots of traditional metal in as well to vary things a bit. A great set from a band I would definitely see again! 9/10

So the first day was over and done with and even though I really wanted to see The Vintage Caravan a 2:30 finish time is not really something wanted so they will have to wait till another time. So off to bed for the last day.

Day 3 Saturday

Saturday came along quickly but again I started late (I'm not good at this early lark am I?) going in for Sound Storm

Sound Storm

So apparently Sound Storm are melodic/symphonic power metal band from Italy. I was interested as they only seemed to bring about 20 people to the main arena so I gave them a chance. So the band came on, guitar, bass, keys, drums and singer all the components and then it struck me why so few people saw them. They are dreadful, the music was very basic, the vocals were awful and the presence was terrible. I saw 1 and half songs and that was enough. I try not to be negative but there is no hope for Sound Storm. 0/10

Breed 77

Thankfully Breed 77 were next and they are at least better than Sound Storm, after a period of turmoil the band are on their Cultura 10th anniversary tour and they played a few choice cuts from that record but the set was much like the last time I saw them. The band drew mainly from their last 2 records and Cultura and mixed their Latin flavoured guitars with chunky metalcore. Paul Isola is a good frontman, his voice is not what it once was but it was his between song banter that got me. He went on little rant about how they've never been cool and that magazines like Kerrang or Metal Hammer never supported them, obviously not realising that it's called Hammerfest for a reason!! Still with a glut of big songs and a lot of energy the band made the hour they had go by quickly and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Although the same strikes me now as it does on previous occasions, Breed 77 are band that do things by their own rules, sometimes to their own detriment. 7/10

Gloryhammer
The pace and the joy picked up a bit with Power metal loons Gloryhammer. Founded by Alestorm's Chris Bowes the band are the furthest away from pirates you can get, the band tell the tale of the mythical kingdom of Fife and when a set kicks off with all of the band in medieval style dress (Bowes is usually the evil wizard but forgot the costume so was instead a goblin) singing a song entitled...wait for it... The Unicorn Invasion Of Dundee. Madness then ensued with the band running through their debut telling the story of Angus McFife (epic lunged frontman Thomas Winkler) and his band of men as they fight the wizard. With tracks like the awesome Magic Dragon, Hail To Crail, Quest For The Hammer Of Glory and the 10 minute plus The Epic Rage Of Furious Thunder. This was like Evil Scarecrow meets Dragonforce with a bit of Manowar thrown in for good muscle. The band were excellent guitarist Paul Templing and Bowes played off each other brilliantly and Winkler's voice is truly something else he sounds just like he does on the record which is a feat for anyone. Gloryhammer again brought huge smiles all round and left everyone with a bit of euphoria much like Bowes rum drinking other band does. 8/10

I missed Monster Truck to see them in a more intimate (and sweaty) venue the following night so it was a gap to pack and then back into the arena for German Thrash Metal

Kreator

With a bigger stage set up than Overkill, one would think where the money was spent. German thrash veterans Kreator had their Phantom Antichrist set up out and with the intro of Mars Mantra the band stormed on stage and plunged straight into the relentless battery of riffage with Phantom Antichrist, From Flood Into Fire, Warcurse and Coma Of Souls/Endless Pain. The band have a no nonsense reputation and for the first part of the set there was little crowd interaction just bludgeoning with riff after riff from founder Mille Petrozza and Sami Yli-Sirnio. The band's style has always leant to the harder edged thrash style of Slayer and was one of the sounds instrumental to the early death metal bands. Pleasure To Kill and Hordes of Chaos came next with circle pits erupting everywhere, Petrozza only taking breaks to incite pits and walls of death during the tracks. The first half ended with Enemy Of God and Phobia the lights stayed off and the band walked off stage. This did stick in the throat a little as it seemed like they were going to finish very early but no back they came guitars in hand as Jürgen Reil put himself back behind his drums ready to abuse them again. The pits really started to get brutal now with Violent Revolution, United In Hate, People Of The Lie and Civilization Collapse making up this end again all delivered with laser like precision. However it all fell apart at the end as they came out yet again this time with Mille waving the flag of hate and after two false intros (which referenced Michael Jackson and Judas Priest) they finally played their most well-known song before finishing with Tormentor. For a band that doesn't say much this last part went on a bit too long and killed some of the momentum, they do what they do excellently, my only criticism is that it can all be a little too much, there is no variation it's like being beaten up (although not as much as those in the pit!) Still it was one of the highlights of the weekend and closed things with a bang! 9/10
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Reviews: The Cadillac Three, Shrapnel, Panic Room

March 19, 2014, 1:00 pm
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The Cadillac Three: Tennessee Mojo (Big Machine Records)

The Cadillac Three are southern and as they say in the opening salvoI'mSouthernit ain't their fault. This is music for beer drinking and hell raising born from the legends of Waylon, Johnny and Willie while also bringing Steve Earle, The Allmans and more recently Waylon's son Shooter who the band sound a hell of a lot like fusing rock and country. The band themselves recognise their influences on GetYourBuzzOnwhich mentions the godfathers of Skynryd. Although with three members, the guitar and smoky southern vocals of Jaren Johnson, the Tennessee shuffle of drummer Neil Mason and the multiple instruments of bassist Kelby Ray. The band are very good at what they do, this isn't your faux country of Kid Rock you can feel that these three have this music running through their blood with tracks like DownToTheRiverwhich evokes the spirit of blues and gospel but with a rock n roll back beat. With bands like Blackberry Smoke and Shooter himself spearheading this revival of Outlaw Country (or Country Rock if you want) The Cadillac Three are putting themselves in good stead with their down home Southern swagger and an album filled with ass shaking sexually charged music rockers countered with the odd cowboy ballad. These self professed hillbillies have created a real stormer! YeeHaw!! 9/10

Shrapnel: The Virus Conspires (Candlelight Records)

Norwich...it's the Thrash capital of the world right? Well maybe that's not true but the five piece wrecking machine Sharpnel are on a mission to make this statement more accurate. The riffs come fast and furious from the outset with bludgeoning blast beats of Simon Jackson rattling the brain cells, the bass of Daryl Abbot (not that one) rumbles the bowels and the razor sharp riffage of Chris Martin and the killer solo's of Nathan Sadd mean that tracks like Kingdom Come, Titan and Braindeadbreeze through in a barrage of thrash madness with Jae Hadley conducting everything with his awesome grizzled vocals that give the band a modern sound as well as hints to the Bay Area past. 22 has a killer bass intro and again proceeds to smash your face in for over 4 minutes and has a big call and response middle 8. It's not just all super speed thrash mind as they have the right amount of groove to them as well with the title track showing just that. The pace rarely lets upon this album with every track destroying the one previously ending with the super fast All That We Know which ends everything on a highly aggressive note. This album is very strong for a debut and will definitely elevate the band to the same level of British thrashers Evile and possibly beyond. Strong, powerful and violent just how thrash should be!! 8/10   

Panic Room: Incarnate (Firefly Music)

Panic Room release their fourth album and they continue to evolve their sound which is what they have been doing since their second album Satellite and again this time they are emotional, powerful and also fully professional on every track. From the opening track Velocity which has a great guitar part from new boy Adam O'Sullivan who replaces Paul Davies and gives the track a Hogarth period Marillion, before it moves into second track Start The Sound which has the percussive drive of Kate Bush and features some excellent orchestrations and keys from Jonathan Edwards and a breathy performance from frontwoman Anne-Marie Helder who has one of the best voices in music at the moment both powerful (see the Asian flavoured title track) and plantative. With Yatim and Gavin providing the rhythm section moving the songs from the moody rockers, to massive euphoric modern prog and tender ballads see All That We Are. The album peaks and troughs bringing in light and shade, working through the piano pop of Waterfall which could be a chart hit and ends the first half of the album excellently throwing in elements of jazz (Nothing New), funk, soul and obviously rock on every track to make a cacophony of sound and also vision. Panic Room have always been a band unafraid to push boundaries and means that every album is a varied and rewarding experience and Incarnate is no exception. 8/10    

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Reviews: Primitai & Winterstorm (Reviews By Nick)

March 20, 2014, 9:18 am
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Primitai: Rise Again (Green China)

So, a little late on this one (my bad) but one of my favourite bands of the last few years Primitai return with their long awaited third album. No time wasting form the Sandhurst lads as they run headfirst into opening track “Fortune Favours The Brave” with their signature duel solos and fierce rhythmic drums that give them the classic British metal edge that we all love. Tom Draper and the wizard Srdjan Bilic guitars float on top of pounding drums delivered by Chris Chilcott throughout the first track providing me with great hope that Primitai have picked up from where they left off with their fantastic previous album The Line of Fire. Holding my breath as we slide into the next track “Scream When You See Us” my worries are cast aside. The track opens again with screeching solos and the crashing drums that quickly descend into nice running thrash riffs that support the brilliant voice of Guy Millar. This husky tuned voice has always impressed, as he is able to reach both ends of the spectrum with surprising success and within this track he proves no different. Although lyrically a little cheesy, Scream When You See Us musically contains everything you want from a British melodic thrash band and hey, what’s wrong with a little cheese now and then?
The next few songs are title track “Rise Again” and “Pound For Pound”. More melodic in their tone these tracks demonstrate another side of Primitai that shows off their skill and versatility. Miller holding notes with great ease at times, while Draper and Bilic pull back from the thrashing riffs and break out masterful solo after solo. Both of these tracks left me gently nodding my head with a little smile on my face. Swiftly moving on to “Driven Wild” and “The Cannibal” both of which open in epic power metal style reminiscent of bands such as Hammerfall or even Powerwolf. 

Stuffed full of story telling lyrics and thumping drums, these tracks have an atmosphere about them that really pulls me in. “Holy Defender” through to “The Huntress” return us back to some great classic British metal that Primitai, in my opinion excel at. Miller’s voice particularly impresses in Holy Defender as it almost creeps and slithers its way through the track. “Blink Of An Eye” and The Huntress speed up the occasion even further, Blink Of An Eye particularly standing out with a great grinding riff that slides into brilliant hand thumping breakdown.  Finally the album closes with “What Watches Over Me”. The verses here reminded me an awful lot of Staind, with slow weeping guitars and mellow hurting vocals from Miller; a side that I have never heard from his voice before, but a side that I was really impressed with. Despite the mellow melancholy like verses the song proceeds to jump into drum, guitar and powerful vocal filled chorus’s that break the song up nicely, finishing with an astounding accumulation of all of Primitai’s skills put together in an instrumental that is fit for a king.

For me Primitai have returned with a cracking album that has picked up where they left off, while at the same time advancing their sound and style enough to change things up a little but still standing up for the style of music that they clearly love. The only downside to this album is the lack of an obvious anthem or two. Primitai for me are best taken in live, as they are one of the best I've seen. It’s the passion that they show as well as the anthems that brought me to love them, if they hope to pick up more fans along the way this may be a slight downfall of this album. But hey, they still have Nocturnal Hordes and Sin City for that I guess… 9/10.

Winterstorm: Cathyron (NoiseArt Records)

Not knowing much about Winterstorm I took the plunge and delved into their latest album, one word I would use to describe the first song… explosive. With no introduction needed the German lads show us what to expect from them throughout this album, and that is Guitar, fiddle, flute, violin, accordion, drum, keyboard and possibly a little bit of harmonica filled metal. But alas there was no cowbell that I could hear...
As my ears adapted to the barrage of instruments thrown their way the track “A Hero Rises” dropped in pace and the vocals of Alexander Schirmer are introduced. There is nothing groundbreaking vocally here but his voice is good enough to serve its purpose. For me Winterstorm are all about the music and this continued with little let up as the next few tracks from “Cathyron” to “Burning Gates” were unleashed. During these tracks second vocalist Armin steps in and he sounds eerily like Mathias Nygård from Turisas, which therefore also means any of the songs that he is involved in… sound like Turisas. However, maybe this is because essentially, that is what Winterstorm are; a German version of Turisas minus the horns. Carrying on from “Windkeepers” to “Elders of Wisdom” this theory is even more compounded as the introduction on operatic backing vocals and more tales of epic battles and travels are regaled to us. Metalavial” however is a breakthrough of originality from the band. Sticking to their trusted folk/battle metal style they use this to give us a lesson in German metal mythology, a nice turn of pace and proved to me that they could be something a little more original if they truly wanted. 

Back to the final few tracks and “The Evocation” to the “Elements Strife”pick up from where Winterstom left off prior to Metalavial. Instrument and melody packed Power/Folk/Battle metal that pleases the ear instrumentally and shows off their undoubted skills. I’m unsure how to approach this rating as far as Winterstorm and originality goes… there is very little. If you’re a Turisas fan you will probably love them, but if you are hard core Folk/Battle metal fan you will no doubt be a little disappointed. My opinion; Winterstorm are Turisas only I would suggest musically with more skill and talent. They are able to combine so many instruments while keeping them melodic and not sounding like a car crash. Michi and Armin are able to ride their solos and riffs alongside instruments of all obscurities and make it work. While Sebastian’s various percussion is delivered with great aplomb and forms the bedrock of most of the songs, supported well by the keys of Max. In conclusion if you want the complete package with a little more originality despite in my opinion, them not being as accomplished musicians as Winterstorm, look in the direction of Turisas or Ensiferum. Ultimately Winterstorm are frustrate me as musically they are very impressive but have no real form of their own yet with Metalavialthey proved they could do it!. A tentative 7/10.
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A View From The Back Of The Room: Lords Of The Riff Vol.1

March 20, 2014, 9:51 am
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Lords Of The Riff Vol.1: Monster Truck, Scorpion Child & Buffalo Summer, Exchange Bristol

Back from Hammerfest and after a quick change, across the bridge and into the tiny Exchange for what was the sold out first show on the Team Rock sponsored Lords Of The Riff tour which was a showcase for young acts. When I say sold out I mean it as the venue was packed tighter than Coverdale into his trousers, there was no room to breathe and the venue warmed up quickly, still sometimes its nice to see a venue sell out for 3 lesser known bands.

Buffalo Summer

Due to the queue to get in we managed to catch the last half of the set by Welsh rockers Buffalo Summer but when the band were grooving nicely to their brand of Zeppelin-like rock playing selections from their debut album and also some new tracks (which sound very good indeed), with lots of funky old school riffs and tracks like DownToTheRiverwhichhas a sing along middle section, as well as AHorseCalledFreedomand the foot stomping She'sAllNatural. Buffalo Summer did a great job of warming up the crowd and put everyone in that 70's mindset that was needed for the rest of the evening. 8/10

Scorpion Child

This show was a double headliner and the closer switched every show this time it was up to Monster Truck to follow Scorpion Child and boy would they have a hell of a job. The Texan band strolled on to the stage with Orange Goblin's Ben Ward looking on and the now four piece (this band has more ex-members than Spinal Tap) plunged straightinto the gutter blues of KingsHighway and it hot me as soon as they started to play that this band are very similar to Percy and co. KingsHighwayhas a very psychedelic Zeppelin vibe to it with Christopher Cowart busting out the Page like riffs and Aryn Johnathan Black having the mystical stage craft and vocal gusto of Plant (albeit through a mic that was knackered leading to feedback) still for 40 minutes the band managed to bewitch the audience with their heavy, psychedelic rock perfect for those with a some medicine to smoke. The relentless riff of PolygonOfEyeswith its awesome chorus came next as did SalvationSlave (more Zeppelinisms), TheSecretSpot, Liquor and their cover of KeepGoin'originally by Lucifer's Friend. The band were a revelation to watch, they were heavy, groovy and slightly unpredictable with Black getting into the audience more than once. Scorpion Child blew the roof off the Exchange with their riff heavy-psych rock which ebbed and flowed throughout the set. An absolutely killer set from the Texans that Monster Truck were going to have to work hard to follow. 10/10

Monster Truck

So on came the Canadians, again a four piece but this time loaded with a keyboard to bring the Purple to proceedings. Considering that Monster Truck are from North of the border they sounded the most Southern of the two band kicking off with TheLionwhich was all blustering riffs and big organs yes they got the place rocking and worked their debut record playing ForTheSun, the ballad MyLoveIsTrue, the excellent SweetMountainRiver(which sounds like both Black Stone Cherry and Mountain) before the well known track OldTraincame in the middle of the set. Don't get me wrong Monster Truck are good at what they do the bass, guitar, drums and keys all work together and the vocals of bassist John Harvey and guitarist Jeremy Widerman work in tandem and give the band a sound similar to fellow Canadians Priestess, however you can help feeling that the songs are all a bit samey and after the sheer white hot brilliance of Scorpion Child, Monster Truck couldn't follow. I'd go and see them in heartbeat but I think they were just a victim of circumstance. 8/10

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Another Point Of View: The Answer

March 21, 2014, 11:00 am
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The Answer – The Globe

The bar for this gig had been set extremely high following the previous night’s storming Lords of the Riff tour in Bristol but if ever there was a night to catch Northern Ireland’s The Answer, then St Patrick’s Day was it.
Unfortunately we once again got drawn into the time warp that is the Tandoori Mahal and as a result of spectacularly poor service we totally missed Blackwolf. How long does it take to serve four people in an empty restaurant for fuck’s sake??

So it was onto the main event without a musical warm up. Luckily we'd all had a good liquid warm up and clutching pints of Guinness we lurched our way to the front as the band launched into New Horizon from the latest long player release. Bluesy and with a bucketful of soul, they followed this with Road Less Travelled, generating masses of energy from the packed audience who appeared as determined as the band to have a great night. Founder and guitarist Paul Mahon cuts a fine shape stage left, ably supported by James Heatley on drums and bassist Micky Waters. Musically The Answer are quite superb, driving hard rock with a classic melodic undertone, as demonstrated with fan favourite Trouble from Revival which preceded the first of four tracks from debut album Rise, the anthemic Under the Sky.  The rhythm section of Heatley and Waters are quite happy to deliver the base from which Mahon can demonstrate what a decent guitarist he is. However, the star of this band is frontman Cormack Neeson.  With his tousled blond locks cascading down in a mane so reminiscent of a certain Robert Plant,  Neeson has a voice and the charisma to carry the band forward and he does this with ease, delivering a vocal performance that old Percy would surely approve of. Following Concrete, the band threw in a well appreciated cover of Cradle Rock, made famous by another Irishman, the legendary Rory Gallagher. By now the band were in full swing with Neeson offering swigs of Jamesons to the front row. The chart friendly Nowhere Freeway turned into a full scale sing along with our crew hollering tunelessly (speak for yourself Matt), Guinness flying everywhere! Spectacularfollowed; cue even more awful singing and much fist pumping as the temperature continued to rise and the party accelerated towards the climax. A slight change of pace for the blues soaked Memphis Water allowed everyone to get their breath back with Mahon soloing centre stage whilst Neeson had a quick break.  Closing with Come Follow Me the band then finished with a quick one two of Comfort Zone from Everyday Demons before Preachin’ brought the evening to a typical Baptist revival church style finish.  A brilliant evening with more than enough to rival the previous evening’s entertainment, Highlights of the evening? Clearly the excitement on a certain female member of our party who on her way down the stairs at the end of the set bumped straight in Cormack Neeson, and ended up with a massive hug from him! To be fair, I’d have hugged him too! The other highlight was finding out that The Answer will be at Steelhouse in July. Excellent news!

One complaint? Put Demon Eyes back in the set as I love it. One fear: after 12 years the band appears to have plateaued a little and, as much as I love seeing them in small venues, it would be great to see them get a bit of wider exposure to allow them to progress. Maybe they need AC/DC to get back out on the road again. 9/10
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Reviews: Vandenberg's Moonkings, Vanishing Point, Ring Of Fire

March 21, 2014, 11:04 am
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Vandenberg's MoonKings: MoonKings (Mascot Records)

Adrian Vandenberg is a former guitarist of Whitesnake co-writing most of their comeback album Slip Of The Tongue, however all of the guitars on the album were done by some guy called Steve Vai. Still Vandeberg has made a career after his fling with Cov and co before hanging up his axe in 1994. 20 years later the man returns with his six string, a brand new band and an album full of hip shaking, powerhouse rock songs that our David would be proud of (old leather lungs himself appears on the final massive Whitesnake cover Sailing Ships). Vandenberg sure knows how to right a rock song with opener Lust And Lies having the dirty, lust filled swagger that the Snake have made their name doing, this moves into the Zep-like rockers Close To You and Line Of Fire which along with the mega-ballads Breathing and Out Of Reach, both of which would be a number one from 'Snake. As you can see I keep mentioning Whitesnake and that is because this album sounds a lot Whitesnake's more modern output with lots of hard rock riffage, killer solo's, big drums and bass from Mart Nijen Es and Sem Christoffel respectively. The whole band are rounded out by the great vocals of Jan Hoving who sounds like ex-Firewind singer Apollo Papathanasio doing a (brilliant) Coverdale impression. This an album for fans of the 'Snake and any hip shaking, python licking, hard rocking music. As a debut this a great, big songs, great production and excellent musicianship, however I wouldn't expect anything less from a former Snakeman, Cov only picks the best to back him and Vandenberg's MoonKings shows this in spades, as the band say on Nothing Touches "Nothing touches rock 'n' roll!" 9/10

Vanishing Point: Distant Is The Sun (AFM Records)

In all my years of metal I've only been peripherally aware of Vanishing Point and with Distant Is The Sun being their fifth album I thought it was about time I checked them out and I'm very glad I did as these Aussies play strong, melodic metal with progressive flourishes. The band fuse the heavy, crunchy guitars of James Maier and founder member Chris Porcianko who bring some seriously technical riffage to every song along with the blast beats of Christian Nativo, the bass of Simon Best providing the driving rhythms and Silvio Massaro's soaring melodic vocals. The band also have lots of symphonic elements with keys and orchestrations playing a part on every track giving the band a sound similar to American melodic prog bands Redemption, Shadow Gallery and Fates Warning, especially on the ballads like Let The River Run while the symphonic backed faster/heavier tracks like Distant Is The Sun and King Of Empty Promises have more in common with Kamelot or Sonata Arctica (who's singer Tony Kakko appears on Circle Of Fire) with their galloping rhythms and big orchestrations. This fifth record is a complex, progressive, melodic metal album that has touches of AOR, prog rock and of course metal. On the back of this album I think it's time I looked for Vanishing Point's back catalogue on the strength of this album. 8/10

Ring Of Fire: Battle Of Leningrad (Frontiers Records)

Ring Of Fire are a neoclassical metal band from the USA made of former Yngwie Malmsteen air raid siren Mark Boals, guitar virtuoso Tony Macalpine who programs the drums, both men are aided in their neoclassical mastery as usual by keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij and former Stratovarius man Timo Tolkki. So as usual the album is filled with the simply staggering guitar playing of MacAlpine who does things to a guitar that very few men can do, he works in tandem with Kuprij to pull some seriously fast riffs on the first two tracks Mother Russia and They Are Calling Your Name and then they conjure some mastery on the ballad Land Of Frozen Tears. This is a technical album with lots of great songs however there is one major downfall, the production of Tolkki is awful it's sounds very weak and muddy, it's similar to the Metal Hammer edition of Manowar's last album. Music like this needs crisp modern production to make it sparkle however this just means the album sound like a bad NWOBHM demo. Poor form indeed. 6/10
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