Category Cd Reviews

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Tormenta are a new band from an area of the world not known for Heavy metal music – they hail from the Maldives. Despite this, these guys certainly know how to make brutal thrash metal.

I’m not sure if this should be called an album or an EP. With only 6 songs and 28 minutes of music, its nowhere near long enough to be an album, but its a bit too long to be an EP – it falls somewhere in between. Even the band seem confused as its referred to as both an album and an EP. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and call it a very good value EP.

Right from the start with first track, Judgement, we get screaming/growling guitars, pounding drums and a good solid bass sound – really good thrash. The vocals fit the music well too.

I’d describe the music as old-school thrash – Slayer, Megadeth...

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Formerly best known as a doom metal band, While Heaven Wept have moved towards a new more progressive style of metal, and this album see’s little trace of their Doom roots.

One criticism is the length of the album – only 7 songs ! Admittedly, the last song (Finality) is eleven minutes long, but you’re still only looking at 37 minutes of music in total.

I have to be brutally honest and say that I was very disappointed in this album – the songs lack sufficient variation and tend to blur into one another, and there is little here that I’d class as memorable. Certainly a short time after listening to the album none of the songs stick in the mind.

Track Listing:

1. Hour Of Reprisal
2. Destroyer Of Solace
3. Obsessions Now Effigies
4. Unplenitude
5. To Grieve Forever
6. Saturn And Sacrifice
7...

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Ry Cooder is a legend of American music having a career that spans over 40 years. He has worked with musicians including Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Warren Zevon, Arlo Guthrie, Catain Beefheart, Randy Newman and the Rolling Stones, and has also won several Grammy awards.
Musically he has a very diverse career spanning blues, folk, rock, country as well as world music, including The Buena Vista Social Club, and has worked with musicians from as far afield as Africa and India.

The album kicks off with a biting satirical look at bankers in ”No banker left behind”. There’s a simple but surprisingly catchy tune to accompany the cutting lyrics – e.g. ”with champagne and shrimp cocktails, and that’s not all you find, there’s a billion dollar bonus, and no banker left behind”.

”Dirty Chateau” look...

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”World war live: Battle of the Baltic sea” is the first live album from Swedish Power Metal band Sabaton. Having released six studio albums, they have plenty of material to pick from, so the time certainly seems right for a live album from a band who’s live performances are always great. The album was recorded on the Sabaton cruise in 2010.

While Sabaton are naturally addressing the crowd in Swedish here given that the cruise took place in Sweden so most of the crowd will have been Swedish, it’s quite unusual to hear a live album where the talking between songs is in anything other than English, and given that a large percentage of their fans are in English speaking countries, it does seem a slightly odd choice to record a show in Swedish which means that the vast majority of their fans ...

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Hailing from Atlanta, Mastodon are a band who seem to delight in being different. Trying to decribe their music is a challenge in itself – is it Prog metal, Thrash metal, Hard Rock, Stoner rock or something else? The best answer is that it’s a unique blend of all of these musical genres – certainly Prog Metal is the best fit but even that is an inadequate desscription. If you’ve never heard anything by Mastodon before then you’ve defintely missed out – their music is some of the heaviest Prog metal you’ll hear anywhere.

”The Hunter” is the band’s fifth album, and the first since their critically acclaimed album ”Crack the skye”.

There are none of the epically long songs that we’ve seen on previous albums – several of which have featured songs over 10 minutes long, and I think that does ...

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So Music Finland/Music Buy Mail

Finland is the land of the countless lakes and metal band. But some aren´t metal, they just opt for the seventies, like STALA & SO. Front man Stala is joined by Nick Gore (ex. LORDI), Sami J on lead guitar, Pate Vaughn on rhythm guitar and drummer Hank. To enhance things there are LORDI connections, Sala used to be drummer Kita of LORDI, who was sacked for showing himself without a mask. Freedom to write their own music seems to be the key word here, so we let them lose…

Vaudeville intros are not my favorite, and “The Show by So” is exactly that. Six songs later I still wonder if the hard rock parts have been forgotten totally in favor of music theater...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

Oliver Palotai, be sure to remember that name. Featured in the music of BLAZE, KAMELOT and DORO, the guitarist/keyboard player might not be a household name just yet. This is the second offering from SONS OF SEASONS, and a continuation of the ir chosen path says the info. The band also features METALIUM vocalist Henning Basse, guitarist Pepe Pierez, bass player Jurgen Steinmetz (SILENT FORCE, ROCK IGNITION), and drummer Daniel Schild. But now we delve into the multifaceted melodic symphonic metal that is the trade mark for SONS OF SEASONS.

The stage is never far away, and that is the theater in this case. The title track is actually an opener with choirs and other stage sounds, a theme that returns again and again during the 14 tracks...

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Foreigner have been around for over thirty years and produced plenty of classic hit songs during their career and released several albums that went Multi-Platinum, so its nice to see that the band are still looking to try new things. Acoustique is as the name suggests, an acoustic album – the band’s first one.

As well as including acoustic versions of some of their best known songs including ”Juke box hero”, ”Waiting for a girl like you” and ”Cold as ice”, there’s a previously unreleased song (The flame still burns), and a cover version – That’s all right (made famous by Elvis Presley), as well as a brand new song, ”Save me” (which isn’t done acoustically).

”The flame still burns” was originally co-written by Mick Jones for the 1998 movie ”Still crazy” and was performed in the movie by Ji...

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Lion Music/Warner

Guitarist and band leader of INFINITY OVERTURE, is the position NIELS VEJLYT normally holds. But here he unleashes his guitar, and throws in a facts and instructional DVD. After years as an on-line guitar instructor this album may seem overdue. But to display his ability he has enlisted some of the best backing musicians available. Or what about bass players like Kris Gildenlöw (PAIN OF SALVATION) and Bernardo Fesch, drummer Jacob Vand of INFINITY OVERTURE and one piano guest spot for Mads Damgaard.

The surprisingly low key and clean sounding “Heads Up” opens the album. Niels sports a very warm and almost un-metal sounding sound, but still teasing. I expected more like “Die Today”, a heavier tracks that brings the early work of TONY MACALPINE to my mind...

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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of their classic album, Hit and Run, Girlschool have chosen to revisit the album and rather than just remixing it, have chosen instead to re-record it. I’m always wary when people decide to mess with a classic – ”if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it”, and changing a classic can actually spoil it, so how do Girlschool fare with this case? Luckily the answer is – extremely well.

These classic Girlschool tracks have never sounded so good before. Obviously over the last 30 years studio technology has changed immensely as analogue equipment has been replaced by digital technology and that contributes to the album sounding so good. The other big change is that Jackie Chambers is on guitar in place of the late Kelly Johnson.
Girlschool vocalist/guitarist Kim M...