Forevers' Fallen Grace: Ascending The Monolith (Self Released)
Forevers' Fallen Grace are progressive power metal band from Massachusetts and they play traditional American Prog/power metal with nods to Shadow Gallery, Symphony X and Dream Theater. The songs are progressive but in no way are they lightweight, this is heavy metal with crunching riffs, rapid fire drumming and some booming vocals that are very Russell Allen but with elements of King Diamond especially on the Gothic Mausoleum Of Dreams which is pure Mercyful Fate. As well as the progressive influences, they also have nods to Iron Maiden on Crown The Night Blind Guardian on Iron Will (Not a Grand Magus cover). These songs are swaggering anthems full of technical guitar playing from Kenneth E. McKee and Nelson Moore, the progressive drumming of Jim Norris and the nimble bass work of Kyle Hannon, all of which is at it's most evident on Suffer Our Sins and the instrumental Wombshifter. Frontman Michael Ferro is no slouch either mind bellowing the lyrics over the metallic assault that backs him. This is a great album for fans of power/progressive metal that hits much of the competition over the head with it's heaviness, if you like your metal technical, melodic and most of all heavy then FFG will be right up your street. 7/10
Premortal Breath: They (Self Released)
Heavy metal from Mannheim now with some thrash and classic metal thrown in to the pot to create a modern mix of styles. Yes this album is on the heavy side with big, hulking riffs from Sebastian Herbold and Tobias Eymer who emulate the likes of Machine Head, Trivium and Pantera with their groove infected thrash driven by Dominik Eymer and Thomas Pettrich's chunky rhythm section, Pettrich's drums especially are very good sounding like a ten tonne truck. The album falls down a little with the vocals which are an acquired taste, a bit Hetfield, a bit but Anselmo, but they do fit the music well, with Thomas Greulich's roars and growls punctuating the metallic assault behind it. If you like your metal with slab of groove, a touch of thrash and a whole lot of balls then They will be right up your street. 6/10
Gypsy: Twisted Levity (Salute Records)
Twisted Levity is Indian band Gypsy's debut EP featuring 5 songs of 80's style Glam metal in the style of Dokken, Mr Big, Motley Crue and even Van Halen in places. I'll address the elephant in the room, the production is not great, but is does give it an authentic crackly sound. The songs kicking off with the filthy and misogynistic Give Me Your Load but this type of music has always been known for its attitude to women still the music is good with a hard rock backing being the basis for most of the songs while nearly all of them have virtuostic solos that George Lynch and Paul Gilbert would be proud, however in a bizarre and novel addition only a half of these are guitar solos with the others coming from a sitar, the first two tracks are speedsters, while New Boy In Town is funk rock song shamelessly aping Extreme. The music is good but the band are let down by Sayandip Pahari's vocals who does the croon well on slower tracks like Judgement Day but his higher register is very grating. (Since the release of this record they have changed their singer, so I hope Sankalan Samaddar's vocals are better than his predecessors. Overall a neat little Ep from a band that only need a few changes to become very very good. 6/10
Forevers' Fallen Grace are progressive power metal band from Massachusetts and they play traditional American Prog/power metal with nods to Shadow Gallery, Symphony X and Dream Theater. The songs are progressive but in no way are they lightweight, this is heavy metal with crunching riffs, rapid fire drumming and some booming vocals that are very Russell Allen but with elements of King Diamond especially on the Gothic Mausoleum Of Dreams which is pure Mercyful Fate. As well as the progressive influences, they also have nods to Iron Maiden on Crown The Night Blind Guardian on Iron Will (Not a Grand Magus cover). These songs are swaggering anthems full of technical guitar playing from Kenneth E. McKee and Nelson Moore, the progressive drumming of Jim Norris and the nimble bass work of Kyle Hannon, all of which is at it's most evident on Suffer Our Sins and the instrumental Wombshifter. Frontman Michael Ferro is no slouch either mind bellowing the lyrics over the metallic assault that backs him. This is a great album for fans of power/progressive metal that hits much of the competition over the head with it's heaviness, if you like your metal technical, melodic and most of all heavy then FFG will be right up your street. 7/10
Premortal Breath: They (Self Released)
Heavy metal from Mannheim now with some thrash and classic metal thrown in to the pot to create a modern mix of styles. Yes this album is on the heavy side with big, hulking riffs from Sebastian Herbold and Tobias Eymer who emulate the likes of Machine Head, Trivium and Pantera with their groove infected thrash driven by Dominik Eymer and Thomas Pettrich's chunky rhythm section, Pettrich's drums especially are very good sounding like a ten tonne truck. The album falls down a little with the vocals which are an acquired taste, a bit Hetfield, a bit but Anselmo, but they do fit the music well, with Thomas Greulich's roars and growls punctuating the metallic assault behind it. If you like your metal with slab of groove, a touch of thrash and a whole lot of balls then They will be right up your street. 6/10
Gypsy: Twisted Levity (Salute Records)
Twisted Levity is Indian band Gypsy's debut EP featuring 5 songs of 80's style Glam metal in the style of Dokken, Mr Big, Motley Crue and even Van Halen in places. I'll address the elephant in the room, the production is not great, but is does give it an authentic crackly sound. The songs kicking off with the filthy and misogynistic Give Me Your Load but this type of music has always been known for its attitude to women still the music is good with a hard rock backing being the basis for most of the songs while nearly all of them have virtuostic solos that George Lynch and Paul Gilbert would be proud, however in a bizarre and novel addition only a half of these are guitar solos with the others coming from a sitar, the first two tracks are speedsters, while New Boy In Town is funk rock song shamelessly aping Extreme. The music is good but the band are let down by Sayandip Pahari's vocals who does the croon well on slower tracks like Judgement Day but his higher register is very grating. (Since the release of this record they have changed their singer, so I hope Sankalan Samaddar's vocals are better than his predecessors. Overall a neat little Ep from a band that only need a few changes to become very very good. 6/10