REVIEW: BADLAND - AXIS OF CAVITY

 

BADLAND - AXIS OF CAVITY (Bruce´s Fingers, 2002)

Produced By: Simon H. Fell

Tracks: 1- Axis of Cavity, 2- Arm of The Sea, 3- Groove For Deep Branch, 4- Surface For Talice, 5- The temporal Bones, 6- Birdie, 7- The Scapula Angles, 8- Spinous Process, 9- Bow, Stick and Reed

Cover Art by Simon H. Fell

Recorded at the Steam Rooms 

This month we have many releases that feature great musician Simon H. Fell playing double bass in different formats and lineups. And we will start with this Badland review. Badland is a trio consisting of Fell in double bass, Simon Rose on alto saxophone and Steve Noble on drums. This trio takes a lot of elements from jazz and then twist them into new shapes and forms, experimenting constantly with new sounds, rhythms and musical phrases. Here we have Fell and Noble constructing a musical skeleton with their rhythms and phrases and we have Rose adding flesh to the bones. There are moments that are more chaotic like at 3:00 in "Arm of the Sea" and there are many other moments that are more relaxed. Here you have experimentation on each track, on each minute and on each second. This is music done by musicians who stretch boundaries.

Favorite tracks: "Axis of Cavity", "Birdie" and "The Scapula Angles"

Contact: www.brucesfingers.com

REVIEW: ATROCIOUS DEVOURED - GOLDEN JAIL

 

ATROCIOUS DEVOURED - GOLDEN JAIL (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Atrocious Devoured

Tracks: 1- Hatred, 2- Killer Gods, 3- Golden Jail, 4- Live Murders, 5- I don´t Like it, 6- Murderer

Cover Art by Atrocious Devoured

A bestial band that plays extremely brutal death metal with interesting guitar arrangements. That is what Atrocious Devoured music sounds like. Fats riffs with extremely distorted guitar, drum beats at full speed with some blast beats in some of the tracks, brutal vocals. Everything here is conceived to brutalize the ears. There are some rhythmic riffs in tracks like "I don´t like it" that are designed to add more heaviness to the tracks and that are even more effective than the fastest ones. The sound of the recording is raw and direct so the band has achieved something like a "live sound" on this recording. Here you have a band with power and brutality for headbanging while listening to it.

Favorite tracks: "Hatred", "Killer Gods" and "Live Murders"

Contact: http://perso.infonie.fr/atrocious.dev

REVIEW: ASTRAY - PROMO 2002

 

ASTRAY - PROMO 2002 (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Astray

Tracks: 1- Welcome To the Cult, 2- Barbed Wire Paradise, 3- Bleeding Here

Cover Art by Astray

Astray has found the perfect way to combine the agression of styles like black metal and death metal with many melodies and arrangements. Their music brings to my mind some shades of bands like for example Primordial, that is bands that have a lot of power and aggression in their music but that at the same time they have the melodic arrangements that give a lot of quality to the songs. Here we have a great keyboard player that adds a lot of melodies and feelings to Astray´s songs giving a lot of identity to the band while the guitarists spit their riffs with total rage. The vocals are screaming ones in total black metal fashion and are fundamental to the aggressive sound of Astray´s music. If you love bands who combine really well extreme agression with quality and melodies here you have a band for you!!

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.astrayband.com

REVIEW: ASHES YOU LEAVE - FIRE

 

ASHES YOU LEAVE - FIRE (Morbid Records, 2002)

Produced By: Ashes You Leave

Tracks: 1- Free, 2- In Vain, 3- Fire, 4- Hurt, 5- Ready To Cry, 6- Don´t Forget the Planets, 7- A Crimson Shade, 8- Manservant

Mastered by Peter Neuber

This is the fourth album from this great croatian gothic doom metal band, and this new release finds singer Marina much more confident than on the previous "The Inheritance of Sin and Shame" adding new melodies and showing all her vocal skills. Ashes you Leave have consolidated their style sounding like no one else (the mix here is clear and strange and gives the band a unique sound, specaially on the drums). There are many arrangements that reflect the beautiful and dark feelings that this band wants to transmit to the listener. The guitars are heavy and we have Marta´s violins doing a lot of melodies and sometimes harmonizing the vocals with the instrument (check the song "In Vain"). The guitar riffs have become a little bit more complex and at the same time leaves more room to the vocals, keys and violin to do their job on the songs. A must for lovers of dark metal.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.morbidrecords.de

REVIEW: ASGAROTH - RED SHIFT

 

ASGAROTH - RED SHIFT (Peaceville Recs., 2002)

Produced By: Asgaroth

Tracks: 1- Naked Eye, 2- Lured Decoy, 3- Cyphred, 4- Bluntness, 5- Buried, 6- Mindscape, 7- Descent to Dion, 8- I, Befouled, 9- 6 Bloodmarks, 10- Sharpedge Solitude, 11- Red Shift..., 12- Video tracks. Naked Eye

Cover Art by Asgaroth

This is one of the most powerful releases of the year! Comin directly from Barcelona, Spain, the guys in Asgaroth have surprised us with this powerful album full of devastating guitars and incredibly heavy parts. But what gives Asgaroth their complete identity is the mix of the crushing guitars with the keyboards that play great melodies and arrangements on top of this rhythmic base. There are also amazing guitar solos that contribute a lot to the dark feeling that all the album has. The vocals are brutal and they fit perfectly the music (and as all the album is really well mixed you can appreciate each of the parts and each of the mukltiple changes that Asgaroth´s music has along with the great vocals). You must have this one!!

Favorite tracks: All of the CD. One of the releases of the year.

Contact: www.peaceville.co.uk

REVIEW: ART OF DARKNESS - MIND SUICIDE

 

ART OF DARKNESS - MIND SUICIDE (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Art of Darkness

Tracks: 1- Maniac Illusions, 2- Eclipse, 3- Totem, 4- Slaves of Reality, 5- Mystique

Cover Art by Dries Lyesen

Recorded at Nadir Studios

Brutal yet technical death metal witha lot of atmospheres is the style that Art of Darkness plays. Here they present us five compositions with brutal vocals (screaming and guttural depending on the accentuation that the guys want to give to their music. The guitars are like a kick in your stomach and they interact really well with the drums that creates some breaks and changes that are complicated to follow. But one of the main thing here are the melodies that give a lot of feeling to the songs (thumbs up here for the bassist that makes interesting counterpoints with the guitars in some of this parts). The technical skills of the band are really good because if they hadn´t a really good level of musicianship they wouldn´t be able to play this songs. Now we want more songs from them. More!!!!

Favorite tracks: The five!!!

Contact: www.artofdarkness.too.it

REVIEW: ARCH ENEMY - A COLLECTION OF RARE AND UNRELEASED SONGS FROM THE ARCH ENEMY VAULT

 

ARCH ENEMY - A COLLECTION OF RARE AND UNRELEASED SONGS FROM THE ARCH ENEMY VAULT (Century Media, 2002)

Produced By: Arch Enemy

Tracks: 1- Starbreaker, 2- Aces High, 3- Scream of Anger, 4- Diva Satanica, 5- Fields of Desolation 99, 6- Damnation´s Way, 7- Hydra, 8- Video: The Immortal

Cover Art by Arch Enemy

Here we have some unreleased tracks, covers and other rarities from this great band that recently released their album "Wages of Sin" one of the best in their career. This time they deliver some covers like Judas Priest´+s "Starbreaker" or Iron Maiden´s "Aces High" (this two versions are killer and have even more energy than the original versions). Here you have seven tracks that you will not find anywhere else in Arch Enemy´s discography and that have great sound, power and originality as all Arch Enemy´s albums have. A must for lovers of Arch Enemy, of the bands that have been covered and of original music.

Favorite tracks: "Aces High", "Damnation´s Way" and "Fields of Desolation"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: ANTHENORA - THE GENERAL´S AWAKENING

 

ANTHENORA - THE GENERAL ´S AWAKENING (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Tony Fonto and Anthenora

Tracks: 1- Planet Jail, 2- Dark Horizon, 3- The Savior, 4- Gemini

Cover Art by Davide Musizzano

Recorded at Remaster Studios 

Metal !!!! In its purest form, with some power metal shades and really modern sound (and some late eighties reminiscences). That is what we have here. This four track MCD delivers a lot of energy and the songs are really memorable (this guys have composed good songs with catchy choruses and epic vocal lines that will be surely sang by metal audiences). One thing that I liked a lot are the guitar solos that are in the songs. This guys have consciously avoided the neoclassical runs and speed solos that many metal bands are using nowadays and they have instead used more original ones with a really good guitar sound. Thumbs up also for the original singer who uses his vocal ranges but not uses shrieks and techniques that have been overabused by other bands.

Favorite tracks: "Planet Jail" and "Dark Horizon"

Contact: www.anthenora.com

REVIEW: ...AND OCEANS - CYPHER

 

...AND OCEANS - CYPHER (Century Media, 2002)

 

Produced By: Tommy Tägtgren

Tracks: 1- Fragile: Pictures of Silence: Melting the Skies, 2- Picturesque: Cataclysm Savour: And the Little Things that Make Us Smile, 3- Angelina: Chthonian Earth: Her Face Form Worms, 4- Halcyon: The Heavy Silence: IN Silent Rain, 5- Aphelion: Light Evanescence: Into Extinction, 6- Opaque: The Morning I Woke Up Dead: Today is the Day, 7- Aphid: Devil Flower: Fruits of Lunacy, 8- Voyage: Lost Between Horizons: Eaten By the Distance, 9- Catharsis: End of Organisms: Absolute Purifications of Sin, 10-Silhouette: IN White Rooms: Vacant Bodies, 11- Comatose: The World Amnesia: Planet Dead, 12- Debris: The Magenta Harvest: Liquid Flesh, 13- Nail: An Odyssey in Flesh: Celebrate the New Skin

Cover Art by Shannon Hourigan

Recorded at Abyss B Studio

And Oceans is back with their new album. This time they decided to record again in the Abyss Studios and they achieved again their huge sound with things from black / death metal and that mechanical feeling that the band has in their songs thanks to the keyboards and the guitar sound (this guys have a unique guitar sound that together with the keys give this cold dark feeling to the songs). The songs are extremely weird with many dark melodies and multiple arrangements. And, as on every ...And Oceans album we have many original ideas and many interesting parts that give the band a lot of identity. This is a must for any person that loves metal music and has an open mind.

Favorite tracks: All the CD. A masterpiece as always.

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: ALL BORO KINGS - JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT

 

ALL BORO KINGS - JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT (Century Media, 2002)

 

Produced By: All Boro Kings

Tracks: 1- ABK, 2- Twist the Cap, 3- Just for the Fun of It, 4- Blowin Smoke, 5- It´s All Good, 6- The Rat, 7- King of the World, 8- The Party´s On, 9- Independent, 10- 12 Pack, 11- You Got It, 12- Broke, Drunk

All Boro Kings play rocking music with a lot of hooks and very modern influences.. here we have from straight rock and roll to some hip hop and rapping on each of the tracks. This band has also some punk attitudes, specially in some of the vocals. The guitar sound is rocking (I mean is distorted, but not as crushing as in a metal band). All the songs have many hooks on the choruses and on the melodies, specially the ones done with the vocals (you will be singing some of the songs while listening to them for the first time in your life). I think that many of the songs in the album can be potential hits if they are well promoted. This guys rock and they are wild while simple and catchy.

Favorite tracks: "Just For the Fun...", "It´s All Good" and "12 Pack"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com