Category Cd Reviews

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Escape/Sound Pollution

Californian band TALON emerged from VOXEN, who sort of made it when their track “Sacrifice” was included in the Dustin Hoffman movie Outbreak. Their self titled debut was released by Frontiers in 2002, and this is their fourth outing. Previous vocalist Chandler Mogul brought them closer to AOR, and apparently left (for the successful OUTLOUD) on mutual agreement, paving the way for new vocalist Shawn Petala (LINE OF FIRE). The band now consists of guitarists Kory Voxen and Jimi Lee, bass man Phil Keller, drummer John Parker and new keyboard player Eric Ragno (CHINA BLUE). Classic hard rock and a return to the energy and sound of their debut is promised, let´s find out!

The overall sound picture is a bit lame, the energy promised seems lost in the mix at times...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

Australia´s ELM STREET debuts with an album that will be recognized by al fans of classic metal. Eight years after their conception ELM STREET takes their IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH and GRIM REAPER influenced metal to the retailer´s. Live they have played with Australia´s finest e.g. BLACK MAJESTY and THE ANGELS. Amusingly enough this youngish quartet has enlisted the aid of legendary thrash cover maestro Ed Repka. But what do they sound like, and are they as splendid as the info sheet says?

They open with the title track, as is requested by a classic band. “Barbed Wire Metal“ has a lot of guts, chorus and a fine riff, as could be expected. They continue in fine fashion until “Elm St´s Children“...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

German metalcore veterans HATE SQUAD release their sixth album in 18 years. The band continues to mix thrash and death with hardcore, in various doses. Since their formation they have played estivals like the Dynamo, With Full Force etc, sharing the stage with bands like DEATH, KREATOR, MACHINE HEAD, and VENOM, to name but a few. They have also been voted best newcomer 1995 by TV channel Viva, ahead of both FEAR FACTORY and KORN, and been on heavy rotation on both Headbanger´s Ball and Metalla. Enough superlatives for now, how do they sound?

With the info sheet fresh in mind, the soft guitar notes of opening intro “Deep Scars” are a genuine surprise! The title track, on the other hand, is exactly what I was expecting, death with grooves, and even a bit more atmosp...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

MY BLACK LIGHT was formed in 2008 by keyboardist/vocalist Rodolfo Coda Bertetto and vocalist Monica Primo. They started out with covers to get things going, and via music contests they began recording this album in 2010. Did all the planning and carefulness pay off?

If there is one thing I´ll remember about MY BLACK LIGHT it´s the keyboards. Their instrumentals are mostly short and snappy, and their riffs are carried out by Rololfo, or augmented by his keyboard work. Thr major songs are “Guiding Light” and “Ti Sento”. The former is somewhat straighter, contains only female vocals and the gothic parts are nicely underlined by a piano. The latter might be in the right language, the pace is somewhat quicker and it´s quite forceful...

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After a long wait, the new Nightwish album is finally here. The bands fans have been speculating for months about the album and posting links to ”leaked tracks” (inevitably fakes) and excitement has built to such a level that surely the album cannot live up to the level of expectation. Well, after listening to the album I have to say I’m stunned. The album is even better than I’d hoped for – and not just a little bit better – its mindblowingly good.

With this album, Nightwish could have played it safe and released something that was similar to Dark Passion Play but with a few improvements, but they havent taken the easy option – they’ve chosen to go for something that not only contains some stunningly beautiful tracks that Nightwish fans will be comfortable with, but which also contains...

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Venom are legends of extreme metal – their second album (Black Metal) gave its name to an entire genre of music, and black metal bands still sing about the same subjects as Venom were doing 20 years ago – the devil, burning churches and so on. Perhaps because of their reputation as an extreme band, I’d somehow never actually listened to them until their new album arrived for me to review.
What a revelation – I’ve definitely been missing out all these years, this is damn good stuff. Black metal bands tend to have growling vocals that normally just don’t work for me – they’re so unintelligile that the singer could be reciting his shopping list and nobody would know...

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”Full circle” is hte sixth album by Swedish band, The QUill. Their last album was released in 2006, so it’s been a long wait for fans, but thankfully the wait is over. The Quill have a sound that is a mix of 70s hard rock and 90s stoner rock or grunge. There is also a definite Black Sabbath influence that is noticeable when listening to the album.

Title track ”Full circle” is a stronger track for me than opener ”Sleeping with your enemy”. It’s got a Clutch/stoner rock feel to it

”White flag” is a track with a strong Black Sabbath feel to it particularly in the guitar riffs, but also to an extent in the vocals.

This is a great album that while not completely stoner rock will certainly appeal to fans of that genre, as well as appealing to fans of bands like Black Sabbath.

If you haven’t...

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Despite the similarity of the name to the famous movie star, James Deane is actually a talented singer-songwriter from the UK. Blending country, folk, rock and other influences he’s produced a great album. Listening to the album, you can hear the Neil YOung influences, and the opening track, Diamonds & Hearts has a Tom Petty feel to it.

”Diamonds & hearts” is a great song with its Tom Petty feel. It’s probably my favourite song on the album,

”Unwritten song” has a more soulful sound, and is another excellent song.

”Strange emotion” is a slow beautiful song to end the album.

The album is based on some great well-written songs with intelligent thoughtful lyrics, and these are played in a way that sounds deceptively simple, but which contains more depth than you first appreciate...

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Iarla Ó Lionáird is an Irish singer best known as the lead singer with Afro Celt sound system, a band that blends traditional Irish music with west african music and modern electronic music.

Foxlight is the third solo album from Iarla Ó Lionáird – which over 14 years isnt many, but this is clearly a man who works at his own pace and releases albums when they are ready rather than to meet a set timetable.

On this album, Iala has included his first song in English – ”Glistening fields”. For people like me who don’t speak or understand Gaelic, the CD booklet helpfully gives the lyrics in English as well as Gaelic – for all except two songs which for some reason arent translated into English.

There are quite a few guest musicians on the album, but for me the one that really stands out is...

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Alfonzetti takes its name from singer Matti Alfonzetti who has plenty of experience, having been in several bands including Jagged Edge, Heavy Waters, Skintrade and Bam bam boys. This is pretty much a solo album – the album is very much a work of just two men – Matti Alfonzetti and Daniel Flores. Between them they play all the instruments apart from some lead guitar parts where guest musicians including Marcus Jidell from Evergrey make an appearance. In addition, Alfonzetti wrote and produced all the tracks, and Flores mixed and co-produced them.

For me the best track by far on the album is the last track – ”I will never let you fall”. Heavier than the other tracks, it’s the only time Alfonzetti’s voice shows a bit of power and the heavy guitar riffs make this a very good track.

Some n...