REVIEW: ISENGARD - CROWNLESS MAJESTY

 

ISENGARD - CROWNLESS MAJESTY (Hemisphere Entertainment, 2001)

Produced by Ragne Wahlqvist and Isengard

Recorded at Thunderload Studio, Stockholm

Artwork by Michael Schindler / Dragon Design

Tracks: 1- Dreamland, 2- Coming Home, 3- Legends, 4- The Winds of War, 5- Stormcrow, 6- Dragon Empire, 7- Shadows of Light, 8- The Crownless Majesty, 9- Armour of Gods, 10- Poltava, 11- Eye of the Storm, 12- The Empire

This band plays power metal...and not a very original one. This band has all the elements that a band like Stratovarius or Hammerfall could have and not much more. They have the high pitched vocals, the thundering drums and the galloping guitars and the classical solos. I think this band should set tyhemselves apart from the whole heavy/power metal scene that is in complete decadence by adding some new elements to their music. This is a good effort with good sound but they need to be more original. Favorite tracks: "The Winds of War", "Shadows of Light" and "Eye of the Storm". Contact: http://i.am/isengard

REVIEW: ILLEGAL OPERATION - DIGITAL HERO

 

ILLEGAL OPERATION - DIGITAL HERO (Tribal Productions, 2001)

Produced by Tribal produsctions

Recorded at Private Home Studios, january-march 2001

Artwork: Valeriu Dudau

Tracks: 1- Trails To Nowhere, 2- Antourage, 3- Digital hero, 4- Unfair, 5- When All The Children, 6- Digital hero - remix. 7- Encounters, 8- Unexpected Error, 9- Life as Lie, 10- C.P.U. the Hero, 11- Mystical, 12- Welcome, 13- Under the Underground, 14- Again and Again

This band is amazingly diverse in what. There are two words to describe their music: originality and diversity. In fact all the songs here are completely different one from the other. At the same time Illegal operation´s music is really heavy and powerful...sometimes it has an industrial touch, sometimes they use electronics, sometimes they sound closer to Fear Factory. Then a slapping bass enters and changes completely the mood. The interesting thing here also is that there are multiple changes within the same track and this guys are not afraid of experimenting with their music. There is a lot of diversity too in the vocals...they go from death like to some really melodic voice, to an industrially processed vocal. All in one CD !! Favorite track: "Digital Hero", "Encounters", " Welcome". Contact: www.tribal-productions.com

REVIEW: HELLFUCKED - DEATHECRATION / 1ST OFFENSIVE

 

HELLFUCKED - DEATHECRATION / 1ST OFFENSIVE (Ketzer Distro, 2001)

Tracks: 1- Bitchkill, 2- Death-throat of Satan, 3- Strychnin, 4- Es müssen Sterben..., 5- D.F.K., 6- Fick Deine Verfickte, 7- Fickpisse Selber Du Arschloch (Hellfucked Laden Zum Schimpfen Ein)

Hellfucked is a german band from what i can deduce from the dialogues that are between their songs on this CD. Thir music is a black/thrash metal band. What do I mean? Their music has a ll the carachteristics of black metal with the rotten vocals, the fast and furious riffs, the thundering blast beat drums, but they also have guitar riffs that sound definitely like an eighties thrash metal band with those drums patterns and those guitar riffs with a lot of space and a raw sound. This type of riffs combined with blast beats in some places and screaming vocals gives the identity of Hellfucked. Favorite tracks: "Strychnin", "Bitchkill" and "Death-throat of Satan". Contact: http://www.welcome.to/ketzer

REVIEW: HEARSE - HEARSE

 

HEARSE - HEARSE (Independent, 2001)

Tracks: 1- Torch, 2- Well of Youth, 3-Raptured in Twilight

This is a band from Sweden that features ex Arch Enemy vocalist Johan and they make something that I would called heavy death metal, because the vocals are clearly deathly and the guitars and melodies have the essence of heavy metal on them (there are also some galloping riffs too!!). Hearse has a killer guitarist risponsible of many of the melodies contained here and he is the center of the band creating the song structures with his riffs and then letting certain melodies flow while Johan screams at the top of his lungs.There are great ideas here and I would like some label to contact this guys to give them the production that they deserve. Favorite tracks: "Torch", "Well of Youth". Contact: hearse@polisen.nu

REVIEW: GRIND MINDED - YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY

 

GRIND MINDED - YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY (Filthy Records, 2001)

Produced by Hilan Ciric and Grind Minded

Recorded at the Sing Sing Studios

Artwork by KG designs

Tracks: 1- Tomorrows Ashes, 2- Hatecore, 3- Six Feet Under, 4- World Domination, 5- Goddestructeve, 6- Inconsummatus

This is a one intro- five song CD from this death band with an extremely fat sound with an emphasis in the bottom end riffs done by the guitars and bass. The CD opens with a sort of tribal intro before getting into the first burst of powerful death!!!! What amazes most here is the sound that is really fat with a lot of bottom end...I think that the guys have tuned their guitars really low. And the band has hooks in their rhythms....just check the first track called "Hatecore" where the vocals go along with the guitar to create this deadly music. There are some blast beats like in the beginning of "Six Feet Under" which is a more death grind track (but the drummer prefers other rhythms instead of the faster ones. The overall sound here is good...I would have mixed the drums a little bit louder and I really liked the combination between the guitars and the bass that make the sound here really crushing. Favorite tracks: "World Domination" and "Hatecore". Contact: www.filthyrecords.xs3.com

REVIEW: GREEN CARNATION - LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS

 

GREEN CARNATION - LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS (The End Recs., 2002)

Produced by Endre Kirkesola

Recorded and Engineered at Dub Studios

Cover Arts by Niklas Sundin

Tracks: 1- Light of day, day of darkness

As the booklet says here, this is Tchort´s music legacy. For those who don´t know Tchort, he is the man behind Blood Red Throne and he has played in bands like Emperor and Satyricon to mention just a few. Green Carnation is his project (that takes the name of the band he had before) where we can see a deeper side of his musical personality, more complex, more flowing. There is only one track here and is more than 60 minutes long, full of changes, different parts, rhythms, melodies, riffs, sound experimentation, heaviness, subtle parts etc, etc. Tchort is a source of musical resources of all type here, showing all he knows in compositional matter in all its magnitude. And he shows a lot of diversity too. This is one of the CDs of the month. Contgatc: www.theendrecords.com

REVIEW: GRABNEBEL FÜRSTEN - VON SCHEMEN UND TRUGBILDERN

 

GRABNEBEL FÜRSTEN - VON SCHEMEN UND TRUGBILDERN (Ketzer Distro, 2001)

Tracks: 1- Von Schemen und Trugbildern , 2- Was Bleibt, 3- Sturmpropheten, 4- Sehnsucht, 5- Sakralästhetik, 6- An Den Kalten Ufern, 7- Leben Mit Der Angst, 8- Fluchtgeburt, 9- Schwäne

A really good death/black metal band. The first thing that struck me was the really good mix that this release has (specially on the guitars) despite being a trully underground band...it seems that they have worked very hard on this. Another thing that I liked is that they have a lot of emphasis on melodies and moods, creating them with the guitars and the keyboards. Also they have a very technical drummer that knows how to accentuate certain phrases much better than most of the drummers out there. And he also knows how to do blast beats when he wants to. There are a lot of types of vocals: a more growling one, a screaming one and a spoken / singing one. I would like to listen more music from this band that really surprised me. Favorite tracks: " Was Bleibt", "Sturmpropheten" and "Leben Mit Der Angst". Contact: www.welcome.to/ketzer

REVIEW: FRODE GJERSTAD / JOHN STEVENS / DEREK BAILEY - HELLO GOODBYE

 

FRODE GJERSTAD / JOHN STEVENS / DEREK BAILEY - HELLO GOODBYE (Emanem Disc, 2001)

Editing and Mastering by Frode Gjerstad

Recorded at Stavanger (Folken) - October 1992

Drawing: Camilla Sørvik

Tracks: 1- Hello, 2- Three Two Three Two One, 3- Three by three, 4- Two three Two Three, 5- Penultimatum, 6- Goodbye

This is the result of a concert done in October 1992 by this spontaneous music masters relying in some jazz structures while breaking its boundaries. I had the opportunity to review a lot of albums where Derek Bailey participated and he is always a surprise, making his guitar talk, scream and sing depending on the mood of the song. The structure of the tracks here is clearly improvisational and you can listen almost 25 minutes of improvisations on "Three by three" geting surprised on each new part that this trio developes. John Stevens is killer on the percussion and Frode Gjerstad with his alto saxophone is the alma mater of this recording playing skillful runs while Bailey plays some chords and sustaining a note while the guitar does some weird sounds. A must for improvisation fans. Favorite tracks: Three Two Three Two One", "Two three Two Three" and "Goodbye". Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

REVIEW: FLOODLAND - THE NOW AND HERE IS NEVER

 

FLOODLAND - THE NOW AND HERE IS NEVER (Serpent Qui Danse, 1998)

Produced by michael Strasser and Axel Rob

Recorded at Future Sound Studios, Vienna

Photos by Gerald Zugmann

Tracks: 1- The Now and Here is never, 2- War In My Head, 3- Digital Heaven, 4- Sister of Mercy, 5- Talking To My Radio, 6- Trust, believe and Die, 7-Shepherd Death, 8- marionette, 9- The Plague, 10- Black Rain, 11- Neon Dreams, 12- Too Late, 13- Behind the Unicorn

This is the prelude of what Floodland was going to achieve in their new release, "Ocean of the Lost". There are three years between that album and this one and the band got better in that time sounding tighter and doing more intrincate arrangements. The music here is again very dark with an emphasis on vocal arrangements, guitar melodies and keyboards that help the music to be as climatic as the band wants. It is interesting the way in which the vocals are harmonized in some tracks like "Shepherd Death" where you can listen to a deeper vocal in the background while the main vocal is completely in the middle range. The palms here go to the guitarist, Burnhard Wieser, who is the risponsible of many of the moods contained in this recording through his constant change between clean and distorted guitar. A classic. Favorite tracks: "Trust, Believe and Die", "The Plague" and "Neon Dreams". Contact: www.floodland.org

REVIEW: FLOODLAND - OCEAN OF THE LOST

 

FLOODLAND - OCEAN OF THE LOST (Wait and Bleed, 2001)

Produced by Milos Dolezal

Recorded at Hacienda Studios, Zirovnice

Cover Art: David Maninger

Tracks: 1- White Skin, Black Soul, 2- Ocean of the Lost, 3- Crepusculum, 4- Never, 5- I standing Fall, 6- Always on the Wrong Side, 7- The Dawn (version), 8- remembering Tomorrow, 9- Coming Home Tonight, 10- Mist of Time, 11- Sea of Light, 12- Prague, 13- 1648, 14- The Camp, 15- Coming Home Tonight (reprise)

This is a release with a really good mix and sound! The band Floodland goes along the style that I call gothic metal, that is a style heavier than gothic rock but retainingv the climatic elements of that style along with some of the arrangements. And this is one of the fundamental things in Floodland´s music: the arrangements...they have plenty of them here, from certain guitar arpeggios along with keyboards that enhance the music to certain vocal passages that make the music really climatic or the female / male vocals duets that are used in songs like "Never". This CD has fifteen tracks in this vein and it is interesting to see how well developed the songs are, being exactly that: SONGS. The main influences thta I can listen here are: Moonspell, Sisters of Mercy, some Paradise Lost ("One Second" era), that is very dark music but constructing songs that have a lot of hooks on them. Favorite tracks: "Crepusculum", " Remembering Tomorrow" and "Always on the wrong side". Contact: www.floodland.org