Reviews: Wardrum, ΛΔΛΜ, Night Resident, Sonic Blast (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Wardrum - Mavericks (Steel Gallery Records)

Wardrum are one of Greece's premier power metal acts. To most non-fans they are the band that featured Beast In Black frontman Yannis Papadopoulos, before he joined that BIB. However they now have George Margaritopoulos behind the mike and his pipes remind me a lot more of Hansi Kursch and Russell Allen, listen to Silver Of Eternity to get that Symphony X sound proper. Mavericks is the Thessaloniki band's first album with George behind on vocals and he has infused this album with a new focus carrying the lyrical power of this conceptual record. Yep in true Blind Guardian style this is concept record based on the "Mavericks - The Story Of The Messenger" a novella written by band leader/drummer Stergios Kourou. It fits in well with the band's rampaging power/prog metal style for tracks likeΜαύρο (Ulreh’s Song). 

Stergios and Strutter Bass (bass) giving it the full power gallop on Μαύρο (Ulreh’s Song) but also on No One Believes. The guitar duo of J. Demian and Kosta Vreto display flair and technicality throughout, be it on the anthemic Promised Land or the more stripped back No One Believes where the folk sounds move in. The production is handled by the band making the record sound very big, sound-wise letting it breathe in the same way as Symphony X do with bombast fused with virtuosity. Sands Of Time is the most theatrical song on the album full of Middle Eastern influence, that takes things into more progressive realms again re-establishing those prog/power credentials. Mavericks can be seen as something of a rebirth for Wardrum. This concept record based upon their album cover mascot sees them embrace their 10 years of making music with the most ambitious record they have made. Let's hope this is a new beginning that leads to at least another 10 years of stirring Wardrum music. 8/10   

ΛΔΛΜ - Sun (Venerate Industries) 

This is a bit of musical exploration I really enjoy. Athenian five-piece ΛΔΛΜ (Adam), play an esoteric, atmospheric, psychedelic style of music that's a melting pot of grooving stoner, dirty grunge, shimmering post-rock and traditional music all brought together in a potpourri of musical goodness. Sun is a concept record about the celestial body itself, dealing with fatal hope that even though it brings so much good, it will at one point come to an end taking us all down with it. The three song suite Monolith is the climax of the unnamed protagonist returning to earth and reality from another plane of consciousness which is why ...And Then There Was Light is such an ethereal sounding record with an echoed sound and the hints to the broad scope later on. 

There's a mixture of Alice In Chains Never Say Never) and Soundgarden psychy/grunge, the desert rock leanings of Kyuss and then later on crushing riffage from bands like Monolord or Windhand. What makes Sun sound different is that they of course have that cavernous rhythm section and serpentine riffage that so often change between dual harmonies, thunderous heaviness and even lighter fluid melodies. But ΛΔΛΜ also bring keys and slide guitar to the record to flesh out their widescreen musical identity. I was listening to Sun in my garden with a beer in hand and I must say this is probably the ideal way to indulge in it. You can totally lose yourself in Sun, a psychedelic journey with soaring highs and crushing lows. 8/10    

Night Resident - Darkness Is My Home (Endless Grey Records)