Lost Insen: Here After (Self Released)
Lost Insen are from Tunisia and started life as Dream Theater cover band and you can hear the influence of the premier purveyors of prog metal right from the outset. With the organ drenched first track The Greedy Idiot, which also has a nice fat, crunchy guitar riff and a few time signature changes for good measure, not bad for 4 minute track, in fact all the tracks are relatively short for a progressive band with only the final, majestic, grandiose, middle eastern flavoured Freedom, It's All About clocking in at over 10 minutes ending the album in terrific style. Despite the short lengths the tracks are all excellently written and performed by a band who are obviously excellently talented, from the massively melodic When You Were Here to the heavyweight Breaking The Walls. The guitars and keys of Karim and Fadhel Bouazra work together brilliantly bringing the main body of the songs to life while be aided by Yessine Belghith's bass and Mehdi Braham's drums along with Oscar Zubelzu's strong vocals have more in common with Ray Alder than they do James LaBrie but they fit the bands intelligent progressive metal delivery and they at their best on the acoustic ballad The Way It Has To Be. This record is fantastic, it is one of the best progressive records of the year so far and I urge you to seek it out. Well done Lost Insen you have released and album that many bands can only dream of releasing in their career and never mind as their debut!! 9/10
Arising Fear: Beyond Betrayal (Self Released)
There really is a glut of German thrash metal around at the moment and Arising Fear are fast, furious and full of fury. Coming from the more modern style the band share a lot of stylistic similarities with Trivium and early Machine Head, especially with Alexander Rauh's vocals and on tracks like Deadly Embrace which features those trademark MFH pinched harmonics. The band combine twin guitar riffage and some metalcore breakdowns that hark to groove metallers like Pantera. This is a 10 track album that is full of anthems, Rauh's and Kevin Pöllmann's guitars are awesome, heavy, melodic and very fast with Tobias Möhring's drums and Thomas Franz's bass really bringing the heavy to the album, Möhring's drums especially are the driving force behind Day To Overcome which knocks you out of the blocks and has a massive melodic chorus. Arising Fear are a breath of fresh air to the German thrash scene sounding very American in their delivery which will stand them in good stead for the future. If you are a fan of Machine Fucking Head then you will really enjoy Arising Fucking Fear and their debut album, which is frankly an excellent modern thrash album from these young Bavarians. 8/10
Jesus Christ: We Will Fight (Self Released)
Jesus Christ are a thrash metal band from Russia, they mix frenetic guitars with shouted vocals and lots of attitude, this isn't thrash in the Metallica/Megadeth style and is more like Anthrax in tone with the thrash speed mixing with the hardcore stomp and lots of anti-governmental rallying, with a name like Jesus Christ you would expect the band to have balls of steel. The guitars are straight out of the Spitz/Ian school of riffage and the vocals are pure Belladonna, see Blind Humanity and Traitor as two songs lifted straight off Among The Living. The band do try to expand their sound with death growls but other than that this is strictly thrash. A good album with some good songs let down by the production which is D.I.Y but lends itself to the bands sound. It's not big or clever but it is fun filled thrashing by a band that do what they do well. 7/10
Lost Insen are from Tunisia and started life as Dream Theater cover band and you can hear the influence of the premier purveyors of prog metal right from the outset. With the organ drenched first track The Greedy Idiot, which also has a nice fat, crunchy guitar riff and a few time signature changes for good measure, not bad for 4 minute track, in fact all the tracks are relatively short for a progressive band with only the final, majestic, grandiose, middle eastern flavoured Freedom, It's All About clocking in at over 10 minutes ending the album in terrific style. Despite the short lengths the tracks are all excellently written and performed by a band who are obviously excellently talented, from the massively melodic When You Were Here to the heavyweight Breaking The Walls. The guitars and keys of Karim and Fadhel Bouazra work together brilliantly bringing the main body of the songs to life while be aided by Yessine Belghith's bass and Mehdi Braham's drums along with Oscar Zubelzu's strong vocals have more in common with Ray Alder than they do James LaBrie but they fit the bands intelligent progressive metal delivery and they at their best on the acoustic ballad The Way It Has To Be. This record is fantastic, it is one of the best progressive records of the year so far and I urge you to seek it out. Well done Lost Insen you have released and album that many bands can only dream of releasing in their career and never mind as their debut!! 9/10
Arising Fear: Beyond Betrayal (Self Released)
There really is a glut of German thrash metal around at the moment and Arising Fear are fast, furious and full of fury. Coming from the more modern style the band share a lot of stylistic similarities with Trivium and early Machine Head, especially with Alexander Rauh's vocals and on tracks like Deadly Embrace which features those trademark MFH pinched harmonics. The band combine twin guitar riffage and some metalcore breakdowns that hark to groove metallers like Pantera. This is a 10 track album that is full of anthems, Rauh's and Kevin Pöllmann's guitars are awesome, heavy, melodic and very fast with Tobias Möhring's drums and Thomas Franz's bass really bringing the heavy to the album, Möhring's drums especially are the driving force behind Day To Overcome which knocks you out of the blocks and has a massive melodic chorus. Arising Fear are a breath of fresh air to the German thrash scene sounding very American in their delivery which will stand them in good stead for the future. If you are a fan of Machine Fucking Head then you will really enjoy Arising Fucking Fear and their debut album, which is frankly an excellent modern thrash album from these young Bavarians. 8/10
Jesus Christ: We Will Fight (Self Released)
Jesus Christ are a thrash metal band from Russia, they mix frenetic guitars with shouted vocals and lots of attitude, this isn't thrash in the Metallica/Megadeth style and is more like Anthrax in tone with the thrash speed mixing with the hardcore stomp and lots of anti-governmental rallying, with a name like Jesus Christ you would expect the band to have balls of steel. The guitars are straight out of the Spitz/Ian school of riffage and the vocals are pure Belladonna, see Blind Humanity and Traitor as two songs lifted straight off Among The Living. The band do try to expand their sound with death growls but other than that this is strictly thrash. A good album with some good songs let down by the production which is D.I.Y but lends itself to the bands sound. It's not big or clever but it is fun filled thrashing by a band that do what they do well. 7/10