REVIEW: KORN - UNTOUCHABLES

 

KORN - UNTOUCHABLES (Epic Records, 2002)

Produced by Michael Beinhorn

Recorded at Conway Studio

Cover Art by Eric White

Tracks: 1- Here To Stay, 2- Make Believe, 3- Blame, 4- Hollow Life, 5- Bottled Up Inside, 6-Thoughtless, 7- Hating, 8- One More Time, 9- Alone I Break, 10- Embrace, 11- Beat it Upright, 12- Wake Up Hate, 13- I´m Hiding, 14- No One´s There

When Korn first appeared in the scene they were welcomed as the new blood in metal....then came success with their second and third album and then people started to hate them and the whole new metal scene (this is a bag where they have put bands like Korn, Papa Roach and a million more, I don´t know why because they are very different). Fuck em!! I think that Korn brought a new style that is their own to a scene that was becoming stagnant . And they show that they have not lost their energy on this album "Untouchables" which is much heavier than "Follow the Leader" or "Issues" . Here we have all the elmente sthat have made Korn famous but with less catchy choruses and some more interesting riffs. The recording has fourteen tracks and also a multimedia track.

Favorite tracks: "Blame", "Thoughtless" and "Wake Up Hate".

Contact: www.korn.com

REVIEW: JAILBIRD - ...INSIDE NONSENSE

 

JAILBIRD - ...INSIDE NONSENSE (Geska Records, 2002)

Produced by Jailbird

Engineered at Numerock Studios

Cover Art by Franck Ackermann for Ackermann Studio Design

Tracks: 1- End Connection, 2- N.W.O., 3- White Lines 23, 4- Go Insane, 5- Delirium Tremens, 6- Majestic Sacrifice, 7- Last Pray, 8- Red Sky, 9- Mach. Syst. Ctrl, 10- Red Light Visions, 11- Heaven Distortion

Some issues back I had the opportunity of doing an interview with Jailbird and here is the review of their latest album. The music that this band makes can be labeled as industrial metal, mainly because of the sound of drums and guitars (you can not compare this band to Ministry or Nine Inch Nails because their music is completely different). Here we have electronic drums and heavy crushing guitars all in a sort of mechanical environment which I like because it gives a lot of originality to Jailbird´s music. The vocals are sometimes sung, sometimes spoken and sometimes screamed or whispered, depending on the mood that this guys want to give to their music. There are a lot of keyboards that emphasize the sound creating the Jailbird´s sound. One thing that I have to remark is the excellent sound that this recording has. If you want something with industrial sound but with true identity here you have Jailbird.

Favorite tracks: "Go Insane", "Red Sky" and "Red Light Visions"

Contact: www.geska-records.com or http://jailbird.free.fr

REVIEW: INTERNECINE - THE BOOK OF LAMBS

 

INTERNECINE - THE BOOK OF LAMBS (Hammerheart Records, 2002)

Produced by Erik Rutan

Recorded at Dimensional Sound Studio

Cover Art by Marco Jeurissen

Tracks: 1- The Elder Gods, 2- Ceremonies of Deceit, 3- ....For Thee I Bleed, 4- Hallowed Guidance, 5- Inverted, 6- Encrypting the Vehemence, 7- Divinity, 8- The Calling of the Hordes

This is a devastating release . Internecine is the project of Jared Anderson who plays guitars, bass and vocals here. He is helped by Tony Laureno and Derek Roddy (Aurora Borealis and many other bands) on drums and also he has some guest guitar solos by Erik Rutan. Also the production is done by Erik Rutan who as always delivers a great quality sound that helps Internecine to achieve the results that they want to reach. Here the guitars are extremely well mixed showing all the brutality that this death metal one man band is capable of doing in all the tracks. The guttural vocals are clearly mixed and well combined with the guitar riffs and hyper fast drumming. Lovers of brutality enjoy this CD and crank up your music equipment!

Favorite tracks: "Ceremonies of Deceit", "Hallowed Guidance" and "Divinity"

Contact: www.hammerheart.com

REVIEW: IN PECCATUM - ANTILIA

 

IN PECCATUM - ANTILIA (Independent , 2002)

Produced by Eduardo Botellio

Recorded at MM Studios

Cover Art by Joana Oliveira

Tracks: 1- Septem Aquae, 2- Everlasting Delicacy, 3- Watery Portrait, 4- Till Daylight Comes, 5- Sustained in the Nebula

"Septem Aquae", a string quartet intro opens this five song MCD before In Peccatum enters in all their magnitude to show their powerful and climatic music. The music here is dark metal with a lot of keyboards, really great guitars which play interesting and melancholic melodies (also they have killer solos). Also here are Neves vocals that fit the melancholic and dark music of the band perfectly. This is a perfect showcase of how a band can be heavy and dark and at the same time melodic and melancholic. The keyboards passages are extremely obscure and atmospheric (check 1:20 of "Watery Portrait" to see what I am talking about). So, here is what I would say to anyone that reads this review: Let darkness embrace you with In Peccatum´s music.

Favorite tracks: The five tracks are real masterpieces. One of the CDs of the month

Contact: www.inpeccatum.8m.com

REVIEW: HUNOK - GESTA HUNGARORUM

 

HUNOK - GESTA HUNGARORUM (Independent , 200)

Produced by Hunok

Cover Art by Gabor Zselencz

Tracks: 1- Dead of God´s Whip, 2- Lord Almos, 3- Oath of the 7 Lords, 4- Arpad our Ancient Father, 5- 897- End of the Great Migration

Here we have this unipersonal project by Gabor Zselencz who is the main man behind Hunok and he also plays the keyboards and drums on this release. The music on this demo is extremely ambiental consisting mainly on keyboards passages and atmospheres created by Gabor in order to show his extremely dark musical taste. Here everything is done in order to create an extremely obscure atmosphere and this is achieved by the use of minor chord progressions and slow percussion in some places. IN tracks like "Arpad our Ancient Father", which is more than 10 minutes long you can listen more shades and sort of a type of guitar sound that contrasts with the keyboards. This is for people who like this type of experimentation in darkness.

Favorite tracks: The five tracks are awesome !

Contact:

Hunok c/o Gabor Zselencz

Walter-Kolb-Str. 2

60594 Frankfurt Am Main

GERMANY

REVIEW: HUMAN BLOODFEAST - DAMNED TO ROT

 

HUMAN BLOODFEAST - DAMNED TO ROT (Independent, 2002)

Produced by Stephan Fimmers

Recorded at Aexxys Art Studios

Cover Art by Hans Himmelhuber

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- I´m Alive, 3- Me in You, 4- Addicted To Flesh, 5- Follow the Floodline, 6- Orgasm Through Mutilation, 7- Twisted Desires, 8- Damend To Rot, 9- In My Head, 10- The Beast Inside, 11- Flesh Eating Mother

Human Bloodfeast is a really brutal band whose main characteristic are the guitar riffs which are extremely intelligent and well designed to make people bang their heads. Here we have guitars that are really crushing with a big fat sound and that have a lot of coordination with the killer rhythm section (they play also excellent solos which are ultra heavy and yet with a clear sound and some melody on them). There are different types of vocals here but the main one is the most guttural that accentuates in a really good manner the riffs and rhythms tat the rest of the band does. One of the most brutal bands of 2002 !!

Favorite tracks: "I´m Alive", "Follow the Floodline" and "The Beast Inside"

Contact: www.humanbloodfeast.de

REVIEW: HÖSS - DEMO 2001

 

HÖSS - DEMO 2001 (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Höss

Recorded at Selani Studio

Cover Art by Höss

Tracks: 1- In The Name of the Father, 2- Future is the Past, 3- Around the World in 80 Sec., 4- Father !, 5- I am who I am not, 6- I want to....

The first thing that got my attention from the beginning of this CD were the strange rhythmic patterns that this band uses: they are not common...in fact they are twisted and everchanging as hell!! The band has a lot of technical skills and they use then through all this recording of what I would like to call unorthodox death metal. There are a lot of strange melodies combined with killer drumming (this guy is a master of the double bass and of odd time signatures). The guitarists are really technical too playing a lot of crushing riffs perfectly tight with the drums and the adding some interesting solos or melodies in all the tracks. For fans of original and twisted death metal.

Favorite tracks: "IN the Name of the Father", "Father!" and "I am who I am Not"

Contact:

Pawel Michalkiewicz

11-130 Orneta

Dworcowa 7A/2

POLAND

REVIEW: HEAVENLY - SIGN OF THE WINNER

 

HEAVENLY - SIGN OF THE WINNER (Century Media Records, 2001)

Produced by Tommy Hansen and Heavenly

Recorded at Sound of the Winner Studio

Cover Art by Herve Monjeaud

Tracks: 1- Break the Silence, 2- Destiny, 3- Sign of the Winner, 4- The World Will Be Better, 5- Condemned to Die, 6- The Angel, 7- Still Believe, 8- The Sandman, 9- Words of Change; 10- Until the End

An orchestral introduction opens this CD on the tracks "Break the Silence" before getting in the heavy metal universe of Heavenly (this first tracks is a really good instrumental piece). The music of the band goes along the path of bands like Stratovarius or Yngwie Malmsteen but with more predominance of the keyboards. In fact I like a lot the work of the keyboards that give a lot of epic touches to the music on this CD. I think the band has to rely on this more in order to achieve their identity (and maybe a little bit less on the vocals that are really similar to Kotipelto or Michael Kiske depending on the song...for example he reaches more originality in tracks like "The World Will Be Better"). This is a CD for heavy power metal lovers that like fast guitar runs along with a lot of epic melodies and fast drumming with a lot of double bass.

Favorite tracks: "Sign of the Winner", "Condemned to Die" and "The Sandman"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: GREYSWAN - GREYSWAN

 

GREYSWAN - GREYSWAN (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Greyswan

Recorded at Flying Studio

Cover Art by Greyswan

Tracks: 1- Sleepless Nights, 2- Alone Among Thousands of People, 3- Tragic End

Here is this MCD from this gothic dark metal masters. With some shades of Paradise Lost and Anathema, Greyswan has managed to develope their own style, with heavy riffs combined with keyboards and an excellent vocalist full of anguish and sad melodies at the same time. I like the way this band can play heavier than hell parts retaining the melodic side of the music at the same time. I liked a lot the keyboardist (please, mix him louder because he is great in all the chord progressions) and also the main guitarist who plays those sad melodies over the crushing rhythm guitars. This guys deserve soon a recording contract and a full length release. We want more from Greyswan!

Favorite tracks: The three on this CD are amazingly catchy and dark at the same time

Contact: greyswan@libero.it

REVIEW: FJELLTRONE - SKOGENS ANDE

 

FJELLTRONE - SKOGENS ANDE (Dark End Records, 2000)

Produced by Fjelltrone

Recorded at DarkEnd Records

Cover Art by Mig 91, Nyman and DoD

Tracks: 1- Skogens Ande, 2- Vintermånens Land, 3- Under Mörkrets Tistel, 4- In Till Döden; 5- En Sorg, 6- Demonernas Fjäll; 7- Ensanhetens Skugga; 8- Vintersorg

Here we have this incredibly melancholic band that plays a music that I would describe as nordic folk with some ambient touches. In fact there area lot of interesting features: one is the combination of keyboards and interesting percussion (as in tracks like "Vintermånens Land"), another one is the developing of sad melodies within each of the tracks (I love the way in which this guys express their ideas mainly using a keyboard chords progression and then adding a lot of melodies over it. People who like this type of music will be delighted with Fjelltrone´s originality and their musicianship. All this instrumental tracks are little masterpieces that awake a lot of feelings in the listener.

Favorite tracks: All the CD is a fucking great piece of art.

Contact: www.fjelltrone.com