Category Cd Reviews

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Makaki Music

SOFIA TALVIK har ett rockprojekt tillsammans med I hemlandet England uppskrivna Battle of the Bands-vinnarna BALL OF MAYHEM. Ett hårdrocksband gör alltså om mjuka låtar till tyngre varianter, inte tvärt som. Fler recensioner på kommande delar följer.

Fyra spår med engelsk touch av mjuka svenska poplåtar, kan det bli lika bra som SWEDISH HITZ GOES METAL? Nej, tyvärr måste jag vara glädjedödare. Den publikfriande tuggummimetall som BALL OF MAYHEM gör borde ha strukit med redan på tidigt 80-tal, när QUIET RIOT slutade förslosa RANDY RHOADES talang på musik för japanska tonårsflickor. Enkla komp, billigt skramliga refränger, och inte minsthalvfalskt sjungit, eller värre...

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Cornerstone are an Austrian band who were formed in 1998. In 2008 they released their album ”Head over heels” through Atom records, and after touring for that album, recruited their new singer Patricia Hillinger. Now the band are ready to release ”Somwehere in America” and it’s an album worth the wait.

The Press release with the album describes the band as ”Modern AOR pop rock”. I’m not sure I’d agree with that description really though – when I think of pop I tend to think of mindless lyrics and a total absence of guitars, and this is far too good to be classed as pop. The AOR description is more accurate and the Rock description is definitely accurate. I’d describe the music as melodic rock or soft rock, in a similar vein to bands such as Heart...

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Guido Campiglio is a guitar player who has chosen to release this instrumental album. Although focussed around his guitar work there are also electonic arrangements included.

Some of the ”song” titles are totally meaningless to anyone other than the artist – ”C.D.T. Symphony” and ”Butterfly suite Op. No 1” for instance, whereas others do at least manage to give an idea of what to expect – ”Tomahawk (Dance of war)” for instance.

Listening to the album I’m left with just one thought – who is the album meant to appeal to? As far as I can see its only going to appeal to other guitarists as an entire album of instrumentals built around the guitar work just isnt going to appeal to many people I’m afraid, despite Guido Campiglio’s obvious talent as a guitarist.

Guido Campiglio would in my opini...

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Lost reflection are a hard rock band from Italy who originally formed in 1996 as a tribute band for Crimson Glory. After a five year break while frontman Fabrizio Fulco was in Florida working with the ”Ben Jackson Group”, Lost Reflection are back together and have just released their album ”Florida” through Italian record label SG Records.

”Media violence” has some good solid 80’s guitar sounds and combined with the vocals reminds me a lot of Zodiac Mindwarp, and this is fairly representative of most of the album.

”Wings of Glory” is an instrumental with plenty of electric guitar.

”Crucified” is probably my favourite track on the album.

”Nitefall” is an odd track that seems to end naturally after three and a half minutes and then starts again as a totally different style instrumental whic...

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När Machine Head släppte ”The Blackening” 2007, så gick den varm i min spelare.

Det kändes som en av de mest kompletta metall-skivorna i modern tid.

Många är artisterna och banden som släpper plattor tätt, Machine Head låter arbetet ta tid, när man lyssnar på deras nya skiva förstår man varför.

Efter att ha lyssnat några varv märker man att det är kvalitet, ljudbilden är enorm, det är finstämt, tungt och brutalt på samma gång.
Varje slag som Dave McClain slår på skinnen är distinkt, de fina gitarrslingorna får precis lagom mycket plats.

Ännu en gång har metall kvartetten ifrån San Francisco gjort det, ett nytt mästerverk.

Skivan inleds med spåret ”I Am Hell” (Sonata in C#).
Låten börjar med närmare en minuts vacker kör-sång, sedan kommer ett blytungt ...

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The Dirty Youth are a young rock band from South Wales. Depsite the fact that they are yet to release their debut album they have already had a video played on Scuzz and appeared at both the Download and Bloodstock festvals.

”Fight” is the title track and is a storming anthem that I’m sure will win the band a load of new fans, particularly among teenage readers of Kerrang. The musical style is likely to appeal to fans of Paramore or Avril Lavigne rather than fans of classic rock or metal fans, and is definitely a radio friendly style that is likely to lead them to big things.

”Crying out for you” is another great song with a good tune, nice guitar and bass work and Danni’s vocals sounding great.

The final track is a stripped down track – mainly just piano and Danni’s vocals...

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White Wizzard are a band who have suffered from too many lineup changes, and this album shows no sign of changing things. Former vocalist Wyatt Anderson rejoined the band and recorded the vocals on ”Flying Tigers” but since recording the album he’s already been replaced.

Musically if you havent listened to White Wizzard before, they’re definitely influenced by classic metal bands – Iron Maiden most notably, but NWOBHM bands in general (even though White Wizzard are American not British).

The whole album is strong with no tracks looking like filler. Top tracks for me are probably ”Night train to Tokyo”, ”Fight to the death” and ”blood on the pyramids”, although it is hard to pick just a couple of tracks from an album thats consistently good.

A great album with some great vocals from Wyatt ...

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Hell is a band with a long history – or to be more accurate a band with two short histories. The band was formed in the early 80’s and actually signed to Mausoleum records shortly before it collapsed. The band split and was then reformed in 2008. Since reforming they have signed with Nuclear Blast records and released this, their long awaited debut album. The album has been mixed and produced by one of the top producers in metal these days – Andy Sneap who has mixed or produced albums for a whole hose of top bands including Machine head, Trivium, Devildriver, Exodus, Kreator, Opeth, Arch Enemy and Megadeth...

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Dominanz hail from Norway and are a three piece Industrial/Metal band. All three members have been in other bands before including Immortal, Cult of deception and Thy Grief. As you’d expect from a Norwegian metal band, the song titles and lyrics tend to be fairly dark and moody. The lyrics include subjects such as depictions of erotic oppression, slavery and ways to dominate fellow man – as I said, dark subjects.

Ok, so what to expect musically? Industrial is a term that seems to cover a huge spectrum of bands, but the best known is obviously Rammstein, and they are probably a good comparison – there’s lots of power in the music but its a slower pace than say a typical thrash or death metal band...

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Frontiers/BAM

TOBY HITCHCOOK made the spotlight as vocalist of SURVIVOR founding member JIM PETERIK´s latest venture PRIDE OF LIONS. He did it to such an extent that he was awarded the opportunity to debut as a solo artist on the same label. He has been compared to the likes of LOU GRAMM (ex. FOREIGNER) or JIMI JAMISON (ex. SURVIVOR), and a young vocalist can do far worse… While waiting for the next PRIDE OF LIONS album in 2012, we leave the stage to Toby, augmented by Swedish talent Erik Mårtensson, who handles all instruments.

This is not child´s play. From the first chord on it is evident that Toby means business, and that he has been well reinforced by the multi talents of Erik...