REVIEW: NIGHTWISH - CENTURY CHILD

NIGHTWISH - CENTURY CHILD (Spinefarm Recs., 2002 )

Produced By: Tuomas Holopainen and Tee Cee Kinnunen

Tracks: 1- Bless the Child, 2- End of All Hope, 3- Dead To the World, 4- Ever Dream, 5- Slaying the Dreamer, 6- Forever Yours, 7- Ocean Soul, 8- Feel For You, 9- The Phantom of the Opera, 10- Beauty of the Beast

Cover Art by Markus Mayer

Recorded at Caverock Studios

Here we have Nightwish´s new album. And I have to say that this album is closer to "Oceanborn" than to "Wishmaster". Why? Because it has a heavier sound than on their previous release ("Wishmaster") which had a lot of emphasis on easy listening melodies. Here we have riffs that can be compared to the ones in classics like "Passion and the Opera" or songs like that one (check "Slaying the Dreamer"). On "Century Child" we have also more male vocals that contrast a lot with Tarja´s ones and add new sides to Nightwish´s music. The sound of this album is excellent and makes the music shine even more. .

Favorite tracks: "Slaying the Dreamer", "Beauty of the Beast" and "Ocean Soul"

Contact: www.spinefarm.fi

REVIEW: NEVER AGAIN - GERMAN DEATH METAL AGAINST FASCISM

 

NEVER AGAIN - GERMAN DEATH METAL AGAINST FASCISM (Deich Recs., 2002)

Produced By: Michael Eden

Tracks: 1- PROFANITY: Thw springs within, 2- SPAWN: At the Gates of Human Mercy, 3- MEATKNIFE: Bloodblister, 4- MEATKNIFE: Tombstone sucker, 5- TEARS OF DECAY: Redemption, 6- MENTAL ABERRATION: Escape from Within, 7- MALEDICTIVE PIGS: Delicay Deformity, 8- EMBEDDED: The forsaken Soul, 9- FETUS CHRIST: To those who Oppose, 10- GALLERY OF DARKNESS: Sea of Silence, 11- VERY WICKED: Creation of a God, 12-FALLEN YGGDRASIL: Nightflower, 13- IMPURE: Something Evil, 14- CRYPTIC: Shrinkhead Butt Plug, 15- ANASARCA: Something Evil, 16- INTESTIONAL INFECTION: Der Arbeiter, 17- INTESTIONAL INFECTION: Nazischweine, 18- THORNESBREED: Dream of Extinction, 19- FESTERING SALVIA: Festering Salvia Live, 20- OF TREES AND ORCHIDS: Nywlathetep; 21- FEARER: Stored Experiment; 22- DESPONDENCY: Dogmatic Strangehold

Cover Art by Michael Eden

Here we have 22 tracks of pure death metal from bands coming from Germany who show their feelings against fascism and nazism. Here is pure brutality with fast riffs from bands like Profanity or Of Trees and Orchids or the technicality of Embedded. There is a lot of difference in the sound of each band and some of them are mixed better than others but they all show teir brutality and their devastating riffs. My aboslute favorite here is Thornesbreed that delivers a brutal yet climatic tune that melts the listener´s brain. Apart from being a manifest against fascism this is a good sampler of underground death metal bands that are showing their talents in Germany today. A must

Favorite bands: Of trees and Orchids, Thornesbreed and Despondency

Contact: www.deichrecords.de

REVIEW: NECROPHOBIC - BLOODHYMNS

NECROPHOBIC - BLOODHYMNS (Hammerheart Records, 2002)

Produced By: Necrophobic and Tomas Skogsberg

Tracks: 1- Taste of Black, 2- Dreams Shall Flesh, 3- Act of Rebellion, 4- Shadowseeds, 5- Mourningsoul, 6- Helfire, 7- Cult of Blood, 8- Roots of Heldrassil, 9- Blood Anthem, 10- Among the Storms

Cover Art by Sebastian Ramstedt

Recorded at Sunlight Studios

Necrophobic is a powerful death/black metal band with interesting thrash touches. Here we have their powerful new album which was recorded on the mythic Sunlight Studios where the nineties scandinavian death metal scene developed. This time they have ten powerful tracks that are extremely fast and really powerful. Tobias Sidegård´s vocals are powerful as hell going from screaming to guttural but always adding power to the tracks. Also thumbs up for the killer drummer Joakim Sterner who can be clearly listened on this album (this CD has a great mix....Tomas Skogsberg is a genius doing this). The tracks here have subtle melodies as the ones you can hear in "Shadowseeds" which create a darker mood that is great in Necrophobic hands. 

Favorite tracks: "Dreams Shall Flesh", "Mourningsoul" and "Shadowseeds"

Contact: www.hammerheart.com

REVIEW: NAZGUL - DE EXPUGNATIONE ELFMUTH

 

NAZGUL - DE EXPUGNATIONE ELFMUTH (Elegy Recs., 2002 )

Produced By: Nazgul

Tracks: 1- Proemium, 2- Hult-Garth, 3- Elficidium, 4- Dies Festi..., 5- In Summis Montibus, 6- Nigrum Praesagium, 7- Impetus Quartae Lunae Novar, 8- Caelum Obscuratur, 9- Legio Draconarum orkian, 10- Natura Cadit, 11- Charcharon, 12- Solvitur Ad Elfmuth, 13- Bellum, 14- Epilogus

Cover Art by Vite

Recorded at Petit Studio

Here we have this band that plays "orkish black metal". In fact their music is black metal with many orchestrated parts mixed with some extremely fasta and raw parts. The vocals here are of different types, from the trollish (or orkish) type to a more guttural one to a bass spoken one. This guys know how to do an orchestral compositiona nd they show it through all this release...each of the songs here have a lot of keyboards and samplers that reflects the feeling that this guys want to transmit to the listener. When combined with the hyper raw guitar (that is mixed a little bit low for my taste) and the programmed drums this gives us Nazgul´s sound. The sound is good, specially on the keyboards (the main elment here) and the vocals (I prefer the spoken vocals because they give more atmosphere to the tracks). Lovers of atmospheric black metal will like this one for sure

Favorite tracks: All the CD, specially the orchestrated parts

Contact: www.elegymusic.com

REVIEW: MOURMANSK 150 - PSORIASIS GYRATA 3

MOURMANSK 150 - PSORIASIS GYRATA 3" (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Mourmansk 150

Tracks: 1- Skin and Internal Disorder, 2- Diagnosis, 3- Treatment, 4- Surgical Techniques

Cover Art by Unknownsickness

Here we have four tracks of pure experimentation with electronic sounds. Elemental sounds are mixed with electronics making this experiment in sonic madness. Mourmansk 150 knows no limits for their exploration of sonic boundaries, sometimes closer to noise and sometimes closer to ambient. Tracks like "Treatment" are more chaotic while tracks like "Diagnosis" have a different structure and show more coherence with spoken dialogues and sounds from some documentals from nazism and war. The compositions are quite long (more or less five minutes each) delivering a total of twenty minutes of pure exploration of sonic tapestries. People who enjoy this type of experimentation will surely find Mourmansk 150´s music interesting.  

Favorite tracks: "Diagnosis" and "Surgical techniques"

Contact: http://mourmansk150.free.fr

REVIEW: MOTIVE - DAMNED IF YOU DO...

 

MOTIVE - DAMNED IF YOU DO... (Independent, 2001 )

 

Produced By: Motive

Tracks: 1- Expose The Lies, 2- Spiral Fracture, 3- Religious Intent, 4- The Deep End, 5- Land, 6- Damned if You Do, 7- Almost Over, 8- Liberty

This is a previous recording from this powerful band and comparing this to the 4 song demo that we reviewed before you can listen to the evolution that this band has suffered, specially getting a better sound. Here we have all the other elements from Motive´s sound, the fast drumming (the double bass work is not so clear on this recording), the great bass work, the fast guitar riffs and solos and the vocals that later became more powerful and have been mixed in a better way. This is a good band for those looking for pure power and energy and some wild attitude.

Favorite tracks: "Spiral Fracture", "Land" and "The Deep End"

Contact: www.motive1.homestead.com

REVIEW: MOTIVE - 4 SONG EP

 

MOTIVE - 4 SONG EP (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Motive

Tracks: 1- Lochness, 2- Straight Madness, 3- Burnt Flavor, 4- Genetic Cleansing

Here we have this 4 song EP from this guys whose main influences are in the thrash and death metal styles. There are elements of old school death metal in many of the riffs here and also many influences from bands from the mid eighties and late eighties, specially on the drums rhythms (but this guy also makes interesting double bass patterns that give extra points to the songs. There is also an excellent work by the bass player who is really tight with the drums yet making interesting phrases and arrangements (here the mix lets us hear clearly the bass). The vocals are really wild and have a lot of power that make Motive a really energetic band. We want more from them!

Favorite tracks: "Lochness" and "Burnt Flavor"

Contact: www.motive1.homestead.com

REVIEW: MINDLOCK - SOULFRACTURE

 

MINDLOCK - SOULFRACTURE (Independent, 2000)

Produced By: Lars Schmidt

Tracks: 1- The Four Walls, 2- Unconsciously Aware, 3- Voice Within, 4- Soulfracture, 5- Exposed

Cover Art by Morten Ussing

Recorded at SoundZone Studio

This is an EP released by the guys of Mindlock before the Promo 01. Here you have all the elements that make Mindlock´s music a neck breaking experience. Here you have the powerful riffs, the drum patterns that makes you bang your head, the powerful vocals that add a lot of power accentuating the riffs while spitting the words. The sound in the Promo 01 is better and that is good because it means that this guys have a clear picture of what they want inside their heads. The four songs on this EP have no mercy for the listener, crushing him from the beginning to the end with its smashing power!!

Favorite tracks: "The Four Walls" and "Voice Within"

Contact: www.mindlock.dk

REVIEW: MINDLOCK - PROMO 01

 

MINDLOCK - PROMO 01 (Independent, 2001 )

Produced By: Mindlock

Tracks: 1- True Face, 2- Don´t You Care?, 3- Shattered Dreams

Cover Art by Mindlock

Recorded at Soundzone Studios

Here we have Mindlock, a powerful band whose music can be described as braincrushing metal with nineties influences from bands like Pantera, Sepultura, Pro-Pain and others.The music has intense riffs designed for the mosh pit or for headbanging (I mean, they are those guitar riffs that make yoou jump again and again making you loose control). The drummer here is a guy who knows exactly what fits better the song in the style of drummers like Chris Kontos or even Raymond Herrera and when combined with the guitars and the powerful vocals they create Mindlock´s mindmelting music. The three songs on this promo have really good sound and I really hope that they release a full length really soon!!!

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.mindlock.dk

REVIEW: MINDBREAK - WELCOME TO THIS WORLD.

 

MINDBREAK - WELCOME TO THIS WORLD... (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Mindbreak

Tracks: 1- Apathy, 2- Disharmony, 3- Centurio, 4- Broken Minded

Cover Art by Mindbreak

Here we have this powerful death core band. First of all I have to say that the sound here is really good (I expected some poor quality sound but I was wrong). Then come the songs which are extremely powerful, specially because of the heavier than hell guitar riffs and the powerful vocals. All the songs here have a main riff which is the center of the track and then they have some rhythm changes and breaks. But the main thing here is that Mindbreak have developed four really deathly and powerful tracks with interesting drumming and a focus in brutality but without forgetting songwriting. Check this brutal band and let them surround you with their violence!

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.mindbreak-metal.com