Metal Music NEWS and interviews

A live performance of the song Necronomicon by Hypocrisy at The Paradise Garage in Lisbon Portugal September 30 2013                

Shadow Kingdom Records, Release: September 3 2013. This is a reissue of two EP's. One from 1983 featuring Tommy Mezmercardo - Vocals / Guitars, Roger Abercrombie - Bass, Bill Ward - Drums. The second from 1985 featuring Tommy Mezmercardo - Vocals / Guitars, Steve Conrad - Bass, JR - Drums. First will explore the songs from the 1983 EP. The opening song The Forsaken is unique in its delivery, while it is an intro of sorts in does paint a picture of disaster and conjuration, to be honest I was not sure what to expect and found myself captivated in its tentacles. "Dead Ones Cry No More",  high style vocalization like Mercyful Fate or very early Judas Priest is predominant. The production is extremely good considering this was captured in an era of analog recordings. "Arabian Nights", feeling all the nostalgia with every note, any metal psychedelia roots were surely planted by this band. This track transcends through time and you can still feel all its energy even...

Released on Deepsend Records September 3 2013. The Living Magisterium is an EP by DM/BM band from Milwaukee  WI, Emblazoned. Members are:  Jeff - Vocals, A.J. - Bass, Kevin - Guitars, Alex - Drums. The EP begins with the intro "Premonition", dark and ominous is the mood that it sets before attacking us with "Extinction of Creation", the early roots of death metal come screaming through with low guttural and high vocals style. Solid production, raw brutal guitar tones and devastating double kicks. Next up is "Bound By Eternal Penance", several bands come to my mind as I listen, Vader, Immolation, Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse to name a few. The music takes me back to my early years. Back to the nineties when DM was just emerging. The essence of that era is captured with pure intensity in each riff. "Refuge In Darkness", open chords, dismal sounds of haunting style and with a pure BM feel to it before building up into a fast paced slammer. The ...

To be released October 1 2013 through Cruz Del Sur Music. Beyond The Martyrs is the third full length album by Argus - Metal band hailing from Western PA. Members are Butch Balich - vocals,  Jason Mucio - guitar, Erik Johnson - guitar, Andy Ramage - bass, Kevin Latchaw - drums. The opening track "By Endurance We Conquer", sets a haunted and dismal atmosphere with catchy guitar licks and solid bass line. Metal roots are evident through out. Vocals are clear and it's easy to understand all the lyrical content. No super polished production, just straight forward raw power. "No Peace Beyond The Line" has a strong and memorable chorus. The Hands Of Time Are Bleeding some of the bands that come to my mind as I listen are Helloween, Savatage and Hammerfall. "Trinity" is song three, guitar tones are heavy and captivating. The main rhythms get my head moving. The early sounds of metal are etched in every song and good to hear bands still accomplishing to capt...

Carcass tour show in support of their latest album Surgical Steel. At Reggies Rock Club in Chicago IL with opening act Macabre. Photos plus short video of their new song "Unfit For Human Consumption"                              

The new album "Back To The Front" by Entombed on Century Media to be released October 29th 2013 in the US. Here is the album cover and track listing. 01 – “Kill To Live“ 02 – “Bedlam Strike“ 03 – “The Underminer“ 04 – “Second To None“ 05 – “Allegiance“ 06 – “Waiting For Death“ 07 – “Eternal Woe“ 08 – “Digitus Medius“ 09 – “Vulture And The Traitor“ 10 – “Pandemic Rage“ 11 – “Soldier Of No Fortune“

Released through Kaotoxin September 3, 2013. Hailing from Clermont Ferrand, France. Genre -Brutal Death. Nephren-Ka members include: Laurent Chambe (Vocals), Sébastien Briat (Guitars & Backing vocals), Alexandre Phalippon (Bass & Backing vocals), Thibaud Pialoux (Drums). This is the debut full length from the band. Nine tracks of constant devastation, exhibiting all the traits of pure death metal in all its glory. The first song is Butlerian Djihad, it does not waste any time and gets direct to the brutality. Production is top notch, no surprise since it was mixed and mastered by the legendary Hertz Studio (Vader, Behemoth). "Mastering The Voice", haunting start, open chords demonic vocals. Some of the bands that come to mind are, Decapitated, Nile, Sinister and Gorod. "Legend of Salim" (Part 1 The Seeds of Discord), pure aggression, a take no prisoners feeling, just insane arrangements that come crawling through the speakers like an untamed beast. "T...

Bakerteam Records Release, September 30 2013. Youniverse is the latest album by Sawthis. The band roots from Italy and is described as modern thrash metal. Members include: Alessandro Falà - vox, Adriano Quaranta - guitar, Janos Murri - guitar, Gaetano Ettorre - bass, Michele Melchiorre - drums & vox. The band began in 2000 and have been devastating with their sound ever since. This latest inception starts of with "The Logical Colors", it waste no time to set the mood of pure intensity. Production wise, it is top notch, balanced sound, clear drums, warm brutal guitar tone and punchy bass. "The Waking Up". is track two. Some of the bands that creep into my cranium are Pissing Razor, early The Haunted, Slipknot early albums, some Hatebreed and slight Fear Factory influence. "The Voice Falls On Me", along with the aggressive style vocalization there are a few phrases that are done in a modern clean form. "The Crowded Room", starts of with an i...

Scarlet Records release September 10 2013. Countdown To Revenge is the latest album by Hollow Haze. The band roots are from Italy. Genre is describe as HardRock/Metal. Label is Bakerteam Records. Members include: Fabio Lione: Vocals, Nick Savio: Guitars, Dave Cestaro: Bass Guitar, Camillo Colleluori: Drums. Hollow Haze began in 2003 and have four other full length albums since the start of 2006. This new album begins with the intro "Room 212" and leads us into the first song "Watching In Silence", a mood setting like entering into a horror sci-fi film. Once the music starts you can easily tell its a high quality production. Guitars sound amazing and have creative catchy arrangements. "Still Alive", is much more fast paced. The song has power metal influence but stays unique in the way the verses are sung by Fabio Lione. "No Rest For The Angels", this particular song is very epic in the beginning. Solos are engaging and creative. "Life Has ...

Scarlet Records release June 18 2013. Ars Musica full album by Dark Moor. The band hails from Madrid, Spain. Genre described as Symphonic Metal. Members include: Alfred Romero - vocals, Enrik Garcia - guitars, Roberto Cappa - drums, Mario Garcia - bass. The band has been around since the early nineties and this is their latest album. Top notch recording production and incredibly talented musicians. There is and Intro and to say its epic is an understatement. The vocalist has huge range and his style is right up there with other great vocalist like Marc Hudson of DragonForce or James LaBrie of Dream Theater. You can hear a wide range of musical creation in each and every track and its difficult to find anything to be critical of. Some of my favorite songs on this album include, Together As Ever, The City OF Peace, Living In A Nightmare, and El Ultimo Rey. The album its full of elaborate arrangements and memorable passages. Every song contains many layers of melodi...

An EP released through Sociopathic Sound Recordings / Dissected Records. July 30 2013. A three piece grind ensemble hailing from Birmingham. Genre described as Grindcore. The firs song, The Deepening Revolt, is a brutal assault from the start, psychotic screaming and frenzied drumming paint a picture of the terror that is yet to unfold. Next up is  "PIG" , a crank call of sorts. Catchy riffs and heavy thunderous drums get my head moving. "Future & Fantasy", this particular song reminds me of the bands Phobia and Napalm Death, if those two bands had a baby this track would more likely be it. "Kill Them All", none stop violence continues to churn out yet another slaughter slab of madness, solid performance that will more likely have you punching things. "Give me Your Money", another band that comes to mind as I listen is also The Berzerker", more in the vocal style, would also have to include Carcass as an influence as well. "Wearin...

Upcoming release by Temple of Torturous, September 23 2013,  Fyrnask - Eldir Nótt is a one man project and comes to us from Germany. Genre described as Ritualistic Black Metal. The Intro opens the experience with a bell chime or tuning fork capturing its resonance perfectly. The atmosphere is deep and engaging, like shadows beckoning to enter a dark fortress in the middle of a forest. Intriguing how sound can invoke such imagery without any narrative, that in it self is a huge plus in my mind."Vigil", thunders in seamlessly, guitars are solid with even tone and vocals are in true BM style. The track explores many passages and takes us from high screaming to silent whispering. "Jarðeldr" light rain in a cold night, fire is burning, embers crackling. A mood of epic adventure, dismal passage. This builds into an onslaught of grinding drums - open chords high screams, a malevolent painted voyage into an abyss, an open bottomless pit of maniacal creation. "Suonnas...

Upcoming release September 23 2013 under Temple of Torturous "Vertilger", by Vom Fetisch der Unbeirrtheit. A two member project from Germany. Genre described as experimental black metal. The opening track is Lachenvieh. Now here we have something that's very different and intriguing which warrants more investigation. I get a sense of chaos wanting to escape some sort of structure. Guitars have very little distortion and are dissonant to an extent. Drums exhibit knowledge of unconventional time signatures and stray away from the standard. The closes comparison which I can hear would be a band that few people may know called, Sleeping Time Gorilla. "Schabenbrut", talk about epic, this track goes for about twenty minutes and has everything from BM, DM, thrash, industrial, ambient and dissonant. Experimental is the name of the game. "Multiformale Leiberdimension", dark malevolent forces weaving a wall of dismal sounds. As far as the content I am not fami...

Every Sun Is Fragile full length released on Pulverized Records in late July 2013. Autumnblaze is Markus Baltes - vocals, guitars, bass. Arisjel - drums. Andreas Schuler - guitars. The bands hails from Germany. Genre described as Melancholyrockmetal. The album starts with "opening" and is a minute thirty seconds intro with clean guitars, building a musical map of what is to come. "New Ghost In Town", is the first full song, the first thing I am reminded of is early Anathema. Clean vocals are dominant through most of the track and I hear some higher pitched ones towards the end. "Invisible Fields", solid bass lines and drums set creatives passages with the lyrics being easily digestible and comprehensible to my ears. "I'm Spiegel", interesting title, much heavier guitar tone and vocal style are found in this track. Assuming this is all sung in German which sounds great anyhow, even though I don't understand a word, I can appreciate the m...

Cathodic Black EP released July 2013 through Pulverized Records. members include: Tobias Netzell- Guitar,keyboards,backing vocals. Björn Pettersson - Guitar,keyboards,backing vocals. Daniel Jansson - Vocals,bass. Jonas Martinsson - Drums. Band roots from Falun, Sweden. Genre described as Post rock/metal. This EP is comprised of three songs starting with "Rusting Sun", keyboards lead us into a heavy and mood setting opening. My first thoughts are, great production, guitars are clear and have excellent tone. Dark passages and somber feeling is what I am experiencing on this song. Nine minutes of total doom rock destruction, an epic way to start us of. "Altar", chorus effect and drone riff arrangements painting a vast landscape of dismal sounds, a heavy Neurosis influence is apparent. Vocals are low and raspy. Lyrical content is easy to understand as the vocalist finds a balance level between heavy yet discernible approach to his style. "Tooth and Bone" is ...

Sonus Mortis -A self release demo July 2013 available only through Bandcamp and Soundcloud. A solo project by Kevin Byrne hailing from Dublin, Ireland and described as Atmospheric Black-Death-Doom.  The first track on the Sonus Mortis Souncloud site is "Harbinger of Doom", solid production value is evident from the first measures. Quality of guitar sound is great, warm yet intense and brutal. Drums are balanced perfectly and every hit is pronounced. Lots of atmosphere with open chords and synth is also apparent. "A Pale Reflection", clean strumming sets the mood, somber and eerie, reminds me of early Novembers Doom or early Neurosis. At times you forget that it is only one composer, so many layers of instrumentation you might thinks its a five piece band. The track is a long journey and takes into different soundscapes of dark ambient roads. At eleven minutes long it never gets boring, rather leads you into one passage to another with intrigue. "In The River ...

The Saints of Blasphemy - I: Baptized in Blasphemy full length released April 2013 under Extreminal Productions. Studio members are: Bloodcurse-Vocals, Sixrazor- Guitars, Ricktor Ravensbrück- Guitars, Ixitichitl- Bass, Dorjan- Drums. Live performers include: Bloodcurse- Vocals, Hellskald- Guitars, Mörg- Guitars, Deragore- Drums. The band hails from Wilkes-Barre, PA. The first song is an intro, Diabolicae Baptismum- Spoken word with a horror movie style of sound in the background almost reminded me of the old style 70's horror film music which I enjoy very much and grabs my attention. Next up is "Baptized in Blasphemy", title track, solid performance high BM vocal style kicks in immediately, good production quality - guitars sound aggressive and have heavy brutal tone. "Spawn of Creation", this one has thrash metal elements on the arrangement of the riffs, I hear dual vocal, mid-low to high executed with precision. "Christian Despotism", very creative...

Happy to introduce all my readers to the feature model for September 2013 Melle Noire                                                       Photo by Viola Odorata ( marion-adam.magix.net   1- What inspired you to do modeling? Was there a point early in your life that sparked your interest?   I loved to be photographed ever since I was a child, but for a long time I thought would not get a chance to start modeling,  then in the late summer of 2001 somebody approached me in a club and asked me if I would try to start an alternative model career, I didn't even know that alternative amateur modeling even existed.                                                               ...

A one man BM project. S. Stormhammer: All screams ov agony, instruments, and genocide. Genre described as Raw Black Metal, Ambient and True Tamrielic Black Metal. Roots from Henderson, NV This album is part of several provided to me by AEA zine for inclusion in issue #23. There are a total of 23 songs with a combined total of 45 minutes. As raw as it gets as far as production quality. Sometimes there are real drums and sometimes drum machine. To quote directly from the insert "Crafted in unbridled disgust and revulsion for all things, living or dead, between the months of Morning Star and Second Seed, 2012". A couple of tracks feature interesting intro with a dark atmosphere. Guitars are recorded in their purest form without any type of processing except for slight distortion and sound like they were captured straight to recording. The riffs are interesting but do fall of timing with the drums on occasions. Vocals are in true BM style just like he describes "screams of...

CALADMOR - releasing the new album ,Of Stones And Stars' 8-30-2013, featuring Chrigel Glanzmann, vocalist of ELUVEITIE!   Chrigel of ELUVEITIE quotes for "Of Stones And Stars", the upcoming full-length of CALADMOR: ,I’m really excited about the upcoming album of my Swiss friends CALADMOR! Not only because of the indisputable improvement compared to their debut ,Midwinter' but also because ,Of Stones and Stars' is in my opinion simply a very originally arranged Epic Folk Metal-Opus with clean (mainly female) vocals coming along with harsh vocals. Sounding very simple so far, there is much more about ,Of Stones and Stars'! For I think CALADMOR’s true strength lies within their skills in creating a sound with stunning diversity still preserving the typical CALADMOR-Style within all their songs. On ,Of Stones and Stars' CALADMOR coquette with every imaginable genre. There are for example tracks in true Amon Amarth manner, fine melodies reminding...

Serpent Crown released June 4 2013 through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. The band is described as Metal- Sludge, Thrash and hail from San Francisco USA. Members are: Dara Santhai- guitar, vocals. Dave Dinsmore- bass. Mike Jochimsen-drums. No Beacon of Light, is the first track on the album. "Raw pure metal sound" is my first impression. One of the bands that come to my mind is Nuclear Assault in the style of vocals. Good bass sound, punchy tone. The song builds into a fast thrashy riff that gets my head moving. "Prelude to the Netherworld", great title, this song does not waste any time setting the intensity and kicks into a solo from the first measure, well executed. All the roots of the early days of thrash metal are evident. bands like Vio-lence, Wrath and D.R.I. can be noted as an influence. "To Leave This Land", drums do some interesting fills and rolls at the start of this composition, as well as doing solid footwork on the kicks. memorable a...

Gods Forgotten Orbit is a self released album, August 1, 2013. Members consist of Luke Stuchly-Vocals. Benny Stuchly - guitars, bass, synth. Gunther Rehme - Drums. Based out of Augsburg, Germany. The band is described as progressive metal. Cracking Shell of Calypso, is the opening track. Clean strumming riff captures my interest immediately, short and gets right into the heaviness. Really digging the vocal style - its mid growl but easy to discern lyrical content. We are led into a bass line that has impressive tone and clarity. A solo comes in, fluid and well written, blending perfectly with the rhythm section."Veil of Leviathan", great title. Catchy and captivating bass line leads the journey into this composition. Drums sound powerful and well executed. "Eclipse Chaser", this track builds many layers of harmony, from the open chords and progressive bass arrangements. It's a composition that makes your brain inspect all aspects of the riffs being projected....

Thrash metal act Toxic Waltz from Germany seeks label: " TOXIC WALTZ Thrash Metal; Germany Searching for label Debut full-length 2013 "tba" In the beginning of 2009, TOXIC WALTZ were founded by lead guitarist Jimi and ex-drummer Tim. Bass guitar player Rahman, vocalist Angelo and rhythm guitarist Alex joined the band soon to form a THRASH METAL ensemble that is clearly affected by the US BAY AREA style (e.g. EXODUS, HEATHEN, DARK ANGEL), neither leaving out influences from other genres nor lacking recognition value. TOXIC WALTZ are delivering aggressive, but artistically demanding THRASH, characterized by diversified songwriting. The band's unique style and live experience, originated with many smaller gigs, earned them bigger venues soon. TOXIC WALTZ shared the stage with well-known bands like SIX FEET UNDER, ALPHA TIGER and DEBAUCHERY. In near future the debut full-length record “tba” is ready to be released through a record company. The band is ...