REVIEW: VICIOUS CIRCLE - VICIOUS CIRCLE

 

VICIOUS CIRCLE - VICIOUS CIRCLE (Nightmare Records, 2002 )

Produced By: Steve Cichon

Tracks: 1- the Winner, 2- In Your Hands, 3- Never Run Away, 4- Hanging By a thread, 5- Hallucinations, 6- Rocks That Make The mountain, 7- Peace lady, 8- No mans Land, 9- Every Dog, 10- Gun To the Head, 11- What Ever You Do, 12- Vicious Circle

This CD opens powerfully with "The Winner" a really heavy tune full, of crushing guitars and the mid ranged vocals of the only composer and musician here, Mr. Steve Cichon. Through the twelve tracks that we can listen here, Cichon shows us all his potential as songwriter and guitarist going from powerful and rocking tunes to more calm songs that showcase his skills as a composer. Here we have many different moods through all the CD. A thing to remark of this CD is the really good mix and production that it has letting the listener hear every detail (specially when he uses clean guitars and after that starts a heavier part. This CD is a must for lovers of good songwriting and composition with heavy guitars and interesting soloing.

Favorite tracks: "The Winner", "Hanging By a Thread" and "Gun To the Head"

Contact: www.nightmare-records.com

REVIEW: TIME OF ORCHIDS . MELONWHISPER

 

TIME OF ORCHIDS - MELONWHISPER (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Mike Barile and Time of Orchids

Tracks: 1- Empress Curfew Inviolate, 2- Age gracefully, 3- Thread of the Dream, 4- Ulcer, 5- Laugh Track, 6- Party favors, 7- Scalex Throne: Shame of Heaven, 8- Graduation Day, 9- Son, I Saw It

Cover Art by Patrick Soriano

Recorded at Purple Light Studio

This band is extremely experimental: here you have nine tracks of experimentation with different sounds (clean guitars or extremely distorted ones), different rhythms (each of the tracks have many tempo and rhythm changes, some of them are unbelievable), different kind of vocals (from clean ones to distorted ones to screaming ones). Here we have a band that is not afraid of trying something new on each track: from atmospheres in tracks like "Age Gracefully" to brutal experimentation in "Thread of the Dream". In fact this guys also have great technical skills and they are extremely well rehearsed in order to play this material that is complex and fascinating. They don´t forget also the heavy elments in their music such as distorted guitars crushing rhythms and extreme vocals. A must. 

Favorite tracks: The whole CD. This is a must for lovers of something new.

Contact: www.timeoforchids.com

REVIEW: THYRFING - VANSINNESVISOR

 

THYRFING - VANSINNESVISOR (Hammerheart Records, 2002 )

Produced By: Daniel Bergstrand

Tracks: 1- Draugs Harg, 2- Digerdöden, 3- Världsspegeln, 4- the Voyager, 5- Ångestens Högborg, 6- The Giants Laughter, 7- Vansinnesvisor, 8- Kaos Återkomst

Cover Art by Niklas Sundin

Recorded at Dug Out Prods.

This band has established themselves as one of the main viking metal bands in the scene. I think the main point in their music is the balance between the fastest parts similar to the ones in black/death metal with ancient melodies (the keyboardist is killer). The guitarists are extremely tight and another important side of thyrfing´s music is the interconnection between this two musicians doing the riffs and interacting a lot in the melodic sections where one plays the melody while the other harmonizes or does a good riff. I have to remark again the keyboards that are essential to Thyrfing´s sound adding this ancient spirit that their music needs along with the vocals (that in the parts when they make melodies are really ethereal). Daniel Bergstrand´s production has also enhanced the results that the band got in the studio making the music shine. Pure epic viking metal !!

Favorite tracks: The whole CD. It is a future classic

Contact: www.hammerheart.com

REVIEW: THROCULT - HUNTED

 

THROCULT - HUNTED (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Dave Otero and Throcult

Tracks: 1- Kill or Be Killed, 2- Hunted, 3- Eclipse of the Blood Moon

Cover Art by Nick Jackson

Recorded at Hellion Studios

Throcult´s music is extremely dark. And at the same time they are extremely powerful. They have put together a lot of the black metl atmospheres with some of death metal riffs. In fact, the black metl side is more evident in the vocals and in some of the fast riffs (this guys have rehearsed a lot to put together the riffs so precissely being them so fast). The MCD starts with "Kill or be killed" a track with hyper fast riffs and a lot of keyboards progressions and one thing that is fundamental: a really memorable chorus. One thing that I have to mention are the keyboards: this guy is risponsible for a big part of the darkness that this recording has. In fact, when he enters with his keys doing some chord progressions or interacting with the guitars, you can feel the darknes, the loneliness and obscurity that they want to transmit (check the beginning of "Hunted"). A band to be followed closely.

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.throcult.com

REVIEW: THE LAST WINTER - IRA

THE LAST WINTER - IRA (Spreadit Agency, 2002 )

Produced By: The Last Winter

Tracks: 1- Crashing the Altar, 2- Dark Immortal Eyes

Cover Art by the Last Winter

We have here two tracks from the italian band The Last Winter. Their style goes somewhere between the paths of death metal with some black metal elements and modern guitar riffs. The sound of the band is really intense, specially the guitarists that are extremely creative in the way in which they compose the riffs that are the center of The Last Winter´s music. There are a lot of parts that show that the band has a lot of technical skills, like the tempo changes, the depressive melodies, the guitar arrangements and the breaks. I would like to listen more of this band that has a lot of musical qualities and deserves a full length release right now !

Favorite tracks: Both

Contact: thelastwinter@hotmail.com

REVIEW: THE FOCUS QUINTET - 1-8 IN 1

THE FOCUS QUINTET - 1-8 IN 1 (Sachimay Records, 2002 )

Recorded By: Ross Bonadonna

Tracks: 1- Dedicated, 2- Foreward, 3- Acknowledgments, 4- Contents, 5-List of Plates, 6- Introduction, 7- Body, 8- Index

Mastered by Sasha Victory

This is a new kind of experimental band that has in its lineup two musicians that we have mentioned several times before: Ernesto Díaz-Infante and Chris Forsyth. This duo is restless and when they finish recording one CD they start making another one. This time they jhave Jeff Amal on percussion, Dan Dechellis on piano and keyboards and Anita Dechellis on voice forming The Focus Quintet. The music here is sometimes dissonant, but most of the time is very peaceful and I specially love the moments in which Anita´s voice create some atmosphere reaching notes that one is not accustomed to listen. Here we have great experimentation but it seems to me that the quintet´s main objective is to create atmospheres while experimenting (in fact some of the atmospheres have something dark in them as you can check in "Acknowledgements"). A new experimentation album by great musicians.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.sachimayrecords.com

REVIEW: TACTILE GEMMA - TACTILE GEMMA

 

TACTILE GEMMA - TACTILE GEMMA (Season of Mist, 2001)

Produced By: Rune Sørgård

Tracks: 1- Chimeras, 2- Creepy Crawlies, 3- Blackberry Jam, 4- Heal, 5- Mellow Pillow, 6- Through Your Eyes, 7- Whiz, 8- Serpentarium, 9- Miss Loona´s Speech, 10- Quite Quiet, 11- Deep, 12- Come Eclipse, 13- Blackberry Jam (1998 promo)

Engineered by Rune Sørgård

Recorded at Rune´s Place

This CD is an absolute masterpiece. Here we have the talent of Rune Sørgård doing all the compositions and playing all the instruments to create this atmospheric and climatic, yet weird release. The keyboards and programming are all over the place and we have many strange melodies through all the CD. Plus, we have Ann Mari Edvardsen (The 3rd and the Mortal) and Monika Edvardsen (Atrox) handling all the vocal duties and doing an amazing job (this women have an incredible vocal range that allows them to do all this twisted melodies that Tactile Gemma´s music needs). The combination of all the melodies and atmospheres makes this a great release with a lot of experimentation. This is an essential recording.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.season-of-mist.com

REVIEW: SUIDAKRA - EMPRISE TO AVALON

SUIDAKRA - EMPRISE TO AVALON (Century Media Recs., 2002 )

 

Produced By: Andy Classen

Tracks: 1- Darkane Times, 2- Dinas Emrys, 3- Pendragon´s Fall, 4- The Highking, 5- The Spoils of Annwn, 6- The Quest, 7- And the Giants Dance..., 8- Song of the graves, 9- Still The Pipes are Calling

Cover Art by Kris Verwimp

Recorded at Stage one Studio

Suidakra´s music goes through the path between death and black metal and adding to their music a lot of melodies and riffs that would not be out of place ina a power metal or heavy metal band and mixing them with faster ones, adding a lot of variation to their music. And the guitar riffs along with the epic melodies (done both on the guitars are the keyboards) are essential for making Suidakra´s music really original and unique (check for example "Pendragon´s Fall" to listen how epic can be a black/death metal band without loosing its power. Another feature that I like a lot is teh combination of extreme vocals with more melodic ones (this ones are done to add a lot of the epic feeling to the songs and a t the same time they complement really well the guitar and keyboard work. An essential release.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: STRATOVARIUS - DREAMSPACE RE-RELEASE

STRATOVARIUS - DREAMSPACE (Century Media Recs., 2002 )

Produced By: Timo Tolkki

Tracks: 1- Chasing Shadows, 2- 4th Reich, 3- Eyes of the World, 4- Hold on to your dream, 5- Magic Carpet Ride, 6- We Are the Future, 7- Tears of Ice, 8- Dreamspace, 9- Reign of Terror, 10- Thin Ice, 11- Atlantis, 12- Abyss, 13- Shattered, 14- Wings of Tomorrow

Cover Art by Markus Itkonen

Recorded at Soundtrack Studios

Century Media Brazil is rereleasing part of the history of metal with this Stratovarius release. This is one of the first albums of the finnish band. In fact of the most famous Stratovarius lineup we have only Timo Tolkki on guitars and voice and Jari Kainulainen on bass. Yes, on this album Tolkki was singing (before Timo Kotipelto entered the band) and his vocals are a little bit weaker than Kotipelto´s. But all the elements that made the band famous, such as the hooks in the choruses and the guitar and vocal melodies are present on this release. Plus, here are Tolkki´s ultra fast solos with a rawer sound and we have in the keyboards Antti Ikonen who is a really underrated keyboardist (they used to mix him very low in the recordings). This is to know the beginning of one of today´s top power/heavy metal bands.

Favorite tracks: "4th Reich", "We Are The Future" and "Reign of Terror"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: SOULFLY - 3

 

SOULFLY - 3 (Roadrunner Records, 2002 )

Produced By: Max Cavalera

Tracks: 1- Downstroy, 2- Seek´N´Strike, 3- One, 4- L.O.T.M., 5- Brasil, 6- Tree of Pain, 7- One Nation, 8- 9-11-01, 9- Call To Arms, 10- Four Elements, 11- Soulfly III, 12- Sangue De Bairro, 13- Zumbi

Cover Art by Nevile and Nesta Garrick

Recorded at Chaton Studios

This is the third recording of the band whose leader and main composer is ex-Sepultura Max Cavalera. With this band Cavalera is using many ideas that were in Sepultura´s last album "Roots" such as the rhythmic riffs, the dissonant guitar solos and the ethnic drumbeats. This time we see no big changes (apart from some industrial touches that some of the songs here have) when compared to the firsrt two albums. What we find here are thirteen songs in the path that the first Souldfly album set but with a better sound. What I always find amazing is the capability of Cavalera of making songs with catchy choruses (check for example "Enterfaith"). This another step in Max Cavalera´s band career.

Favorite tracks: "Downstroy"

Contact: www.roadrunner.com