REVIEW: VELOCIDAD ABSURDA - FISICO TORTURA EMOCIONAL

 

VELOCIDAD ABSURDA - FISICO TORTURA EMOCIONAL (Independent, 2001)

Produced by David Diaz

Recorded at Silco Estudios

Art taken from the film "Aftermath"

Track: 1- Dracunculiasis, 2- Fisico Tortura Emocional, 3- Psicotica Asfixia, 4-Revienta y Destruye, 5- Ecos de Tortura, 6- Concilio de Odio, 7- Pensamiento Unico

Extremely brutal death/grind coming directly from Spain. With hyper speed in their riffs and a really guttural vocals, extremely rotten. There are some melodies in the vein of Autopsy´s "Mental Funeral". There are some twisted riffs and all the vocals are in spanish. I can describe this music in many ways but one word is better: brutal. The sound is fairly good and it helps to make the results better than in bands of the style that have a much worse sound. The plams here go to the guitarist and to the blast beat maniac drummer. Favorite tracks: "Dracunculians", "Revienta y Destruye" and "Pensamiento unico". Contact: velocidad@able.es

REVIEW: TWO WITCHES - AGONY OF THE UNDEAD VAMPIRE: PT II JUBILEE EDITION

 

TWO WITCHES - AGONY OF THE UNDEAD VAMPIRE: PT II JUBILEE EDITION (Actcom Recs., 2001)

Produced by Jyrki Wytch

Recorded at Harasoo and MSL Studios

Art by Jyrki Wytch

Tracks: 1- Ahony, 2- The Hungry Eyes, 3- the Omen, 4- Dead Dog´s Howl, 5- We All Fall Down, 6- Nightmare, 7- Fetish Dreams, 8- Mircalla, 9- Dreams, 10- Maybe Next Year, 11- Dreamworld, 12- Dead Dog´s Howl

This is a retrospective of songs from a classic gothic band...Two Witches. Many of you will know this band because it had in its lineup Anne Nurmi, singer in Lacrimosa. Here Anne played keyboards and did some vocals. But the main brain here is Jyrki Wytch. The sound of Two Witches is strongly based on the keyboards, in the guitars, sometimes clean and sometimes dirty, and in the vocals contrast between the female ones and the male ones that give sort of a dark feeling here. Musically the band is pure gothic rock nad this is one of the best exponents in the story of the genre. Favorite tracks: "The Omen", "We all Fall Down" and "Winter". Contact: www.actcom.fi

REVIEW: TRIBUTE TO AEROSMITH - NOT THE SAME OLD SONG AND DANCE

 

TRIBUTE TO AEROSMITH - NOT THE SAME OLD SONG AND DANCE (Roadrunner Recs., 2000)

Produced by Bob Kulick

Design by Chuck Wright

Tracks: 1- Back in the Saddle, 2- Rag Doll, 3- Chip Away the Stone, 4- Last Child, 5- Sweet Emotion, 6- Dream On, 7- Walk this Way, 8- Draw the Line, 9- Same Old Song and Dance, 10- No Surprize, 11- Toys In the Attic

There is no rest for Bob Kulick!!! He is always organizing this tribute albums with all his friends,a nd now is the turn of Aerosmith to be tributed. The results are sometimes better and sometimes worse. For example on "Rag Doll" the music is great but I don´t like that much the vocals (I think is Ted Nugent singing here). "Sweet Emotion" is really similar to the original version with a lot of strength. And there is an apotheotic version of "Dream On" with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Yngwie Malmsteen on guitars...I think this is the best trcka here...other people that have a participation on this CD are: Jeff Pilson, Frankie Banali, Stephen Pearcy, Jack Blades, Tommy Shaw, Tim Bogert, Steve Lukather and many many more. For lovers of tribute albums. Favorite tracks: "Dream On", "Draw the Line" and "Toys In the Attic". Contact: www.roadrunnerrecords.com

REVIEW: TIERRA SANTA - SANGRE DE REYES

 

TIERRA SANTA - SANGRE DE REYES (Locomotive Music., 2001)

 

Tracks: 1- David y el Gigante, 2- La Ciudad Secreta, 3- Pegaso, 4- Juana de Arco, 5- La Sombra de la bestia, 6- Dos Vidas, 7- La Armada Invencible, 8- El Laberinto del minotauro, 9- El Amor de mi Vida, 10- Mi Tierra, 11- Sangre de Reyes

Here is the new release from Tierra Santa and it is not a big change from their previous album "Tierras de Leyenda". In fact they have not changed a little bit. Only the sound here is better but the compositions have one BIG INFLUENCE: Iron Maiden. There are some beautiful keyboards in the tracks and I think they should use them more to make compositions with more identity. The choruses have hooks and are done in the traditional Maiden way...like hymns to sing with your fist in the air. One thing to point out: Arturo´s excellent guitar solos. Favorite tracks: "Juana de Arco", "El Laberinto del Minotauro", "David y el Gigante". Contact: www.locomotivemusic.com

REVIEW: GALILEO BROTHERS - THE DANCING LAWN

 

GALILEO BROTHERS - THE DANCING LAWN (Carbon 7 Recs, 2001)

Produced by The Galileo Brothers

Recorded at Panama City, IZMR, Culver City and the Chapel of Our Lady of All Saints, Oxford and At Eastcote Studios.

Art Direction: Austin Horn

Tracks: 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-

The Dancing Lawn is a really experiment in melodies done by a group of great musicians (thewre are so many in this recording that I can not mention them all) whose main direction is given by The Galileo Brothers. The influences here range from jazz to some blues, to some new age stuff. And there are a lot of instruments that you will not expect here like xylophone, banjo, marimbas, etc, etc. The music is very beautiful and you can fnd from some strange musical phrases that you will have to listen carefully to understand completely to really easy listening parts. There are thirteen tracks here and all are played by different musicians: this means that the music has a lot of diversity among the tracks. Each of the tracks is played by many musicians giving you the idea of little orchestras playing each of the compositions. Favorite tracks: "8", "11" and "13". Contact: www.carbon7.com

REVIEW: SWAN CHRISTY - TODAY DIED YESTERDAY

 

SWAN CHRISTY - TODAY DIED YESTERDAY (Black Lotus Recs., 2001)

Produced by Nikos Nikoloudias

Recorded at Studio 5 and Studio Live

Artwork by Set (Spiros Anton.)

Tracks: 1- Today Died Yesterday, 2- Resurrection if possible, 3- One foot in the grave, 4- here comes...!, 5- My Home (Away from home), 6- No More Everything, 7- Night Flower, 8- the Benefactor

This is a really good recording starting with a song that has a riff similar to the one on Judas Priest "A Touch of Evil" but adding to it a lot of keyboards and arrangements. Then enters an interesting vocal part accompanied only by keyboards before the whole band enters together. There are a lot of duets between male and female vocals and there are also a lot of changes in riffs and rhythms. It is interesting how this band experiments with different sounds and with silences...maybe leaving onlky the bass and drums and then the keyboards play a little phrase like in some parts of "Resurrection if possible". The guitars have a really heavy sound an they are played really proficiently making Swan Christy´s music really heavy and at the same time climatic. There are guest vocals by Ferdy from Rough Silk, Spiros from Septic Flesh and Sakis from Rotting Christ. Favorite tracks: The whole album.

REVIEW: STEVE BERESFORD / PAT THOMAS / VERYAN WESTON - 3 PIANOS

 

STEVE BERESFORD / PAT THOMAS / VERYAN WESTON - 3 PIANOS (Emanem Disc, 2001)

Editing and Mastering by Martin Davidson

Recorded at Gateway Studios, July 23, 2001

Cover by Veryan Weston

Tracks: 1- Acorn, 2-Atlas, 3- Hogarth, 4- Flaxman, 5- Fremantle, 6- Vigilant, 7- Rippleway, 8- Elgar, 9- Western, 10- Bermondsey, 11- Thornton Heath, 12- Speedwell

Amazing trio of pianists and excellent improvisers. The music here is really melodic at times and really dissonant in certain passages (I can listen a lot of diminished chords played here and there and a lot of altered chords too). It is incredible how well this three piano masters interact, doing sounds and progressions that are not common and doing certain harmonization in certain notes here and there. New boundaries are broken by this three musicians who play their instruments with a lot of love and squeeze them in order to get all the sound possibilities from them (even doing percussion on the instrument). There are alot of exotic scales played in the trio improvisations, and the duets are fantastically constructed. I specially love the moments in which the threee play all together!!. Favorite tracks: "Atlas", "Thornton Heath" and "SPEedwell". Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

REVIEW: STATE OF THE UNION - 2001

 

STATE OF THE UNION - 2001 (Electronic Music Foundation, 2001)

Produced by Elliot Sharp

All Profits Go to the National Coalition Against Censorship

What are you going to say when I tell you that this are three CDs? And what are you going to say when I tell you that this three CDs have a total duration of 171 minutes? And what are you going to say if I tell you that there are 171 tracks here? And then...what are you going to say if I tell you that each of the tracks here are performed each by a different artist? I am sure that you would be at least surprised. Well, then listen to this collection of CDs...the music is extremely experimental, full of electronic sounds combined in millions of different ways, and the good thing is that each track sounds completely different one from another...from almost noise to melodic there is everything here. There are sounds that come directly from great musician´s mind like the ones of Joey Baron, Benjamin Chadabe, Bruce Bennett and many more. If you like spontaneous music, intuitive music, improvisation and experimentation, this is for you!!!!!. Contact: www.cdemusic.org/emfmedia

REVIEW: SPIRITUS MORTIS - FORWARD TO THE BATTLE

 

SPIRITUS MORTIS - FORWARD TO THE BATTLE (Independent, 2001)

Mixed by Spiritus Mortis

Recorded at Treenikämppä Studios

Tracks: 1- Forever, 2- Beware of the Quiet One, 3- In Pouring Rain, 4- Sweet Oblivion, 5- Sleeping beneath the Lawn, 6- In Between

An excelent opportunity to know something about the music of Finland´s Spiritus Mortis. This is HEAVY METAL! I am putting this with capital letters because this is heavy metal done with a lot of conviction and without falling in the cliches that a lot of the bands in the scene have. IN fact this band has a wider range of influences appart from classical metal bands. I can listen something that is similar to Danzig, and something close to Slayer on "Sleeping Beneath the Lawn" or Black Sabbath on "Sweet Oblivion". The singer has a lot of identity and puts a lot of strength through all the tracks. I like this band a lot and I think they deserve a much better sound and hopefully they will get it on their next release, Totally recommended. Favorite tracks: "Beware of the Quiet One", " In Pouring Rain" and "In Between". Contact: www.metalprovider.com/spiritusmortis

REVIEW: SOUL EMBRACED - THIS IS MY BLOOD

 

SOUL EMBRACED - THIS IS MY BLOOD (Solidstate Recs., 2002)

Produced by Brandon Ebel

Recorded by Ray Brooks and Jonathan parker

Layout and Design by D. Clark

Tracks: 1-I fade Away, 2- The Scorn of Death´s Kiss, 3- Helpless in Wither, 4- Angels with Raven Hearts, 5- Evolver, 6- End what has begun, 7- Buried In, 8- The Cold Stares of Dead Eyes, 9- My Name is Legion, 10- Scars Remain, 11- Still as You, 12- Kingdom of Shadows, 13- Leech

As always, Solidstate Records delivers crushing bands. This time is the turn of Soul Embraced a band that plays an extremely heavy kind of music, sometimes death, sometimes modern metal, always estremely heavy. The guitars have an amazing sound that I liked a lot going from being a wall of sound to extremely clean when the vocals are whispering. But what makes Soul Embraced unique is the combination of this sound with killer solos and complicate riffs. Another thing that I have to remark is the drummer with its machine like sound that is fundamental to Soul Embraced´s compositions. The vocals are really deathly going from screams to growl and making the overall sound a really anguished one. This is one band that can be fundamental to the metal scene in the future. Favorite tracks: The whole album. Contact: www.solidstaterecords.com