Category Cd Reviews

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Frontiers/BAM

John Wetton is a living legend. In the seventies he was part of FAMILY, KING CRIMSON, ROXY MUSIC and URIAH HEEP. He then turned his hands to U.K. featuring ALAN HOLDSWORTH and BILL BRUFORD and in 1982 he became a member of ASIA, who´s debut contained the immortal “Heat of the Moment”. Four more solo albums ensued, as well as various collaborations. In 21002 he started working with Geoff Downes again, and in2006 the original ASIA reunited. This album is a collaboration with Billy Sherwood, who counts WORLD TRADE, YES and YOSO to his producing merits. Apart from his multi-instrumentalist producer, h the album features guests from John´s past like Mick Box of URIAH HEEP, Robert Fripp of KING CRIMSON, plus a new addition, a duet with Anneke Van Giersbergen (ex...

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Angel Air/Border

LUTHER GROSVENOR a.k.a. ARIEL BENDER has a past in bands like SPOOKY TOOTH, STEELERS WHEEL and MOTT THE HOOPLE. He counts amongst guitar greats like Mick Ronson and Paul Kossoff, with his “technique isn´t everything you must have fun too-approach”. He has released two solo efforts prior to this one, “Under Open Skies” (1972), and “Floodgates” (1996), so this is really the difficult third album. Quite amusing as Luther has been involved in a good many albums and a heap of hit singles. The last year he´s been hard at work on this album, in the company of Mike Triggs (THE CHRISTIANS, RONAN KEATING live), keyboards and drum programming, plus guests Marc Eden, vocals, Jim Houghton, bass, and Joe Heart, vocals...

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Magna Carta/Border

Toronto quartet THE ANDROID MEME is not subject to conventions. They look like the runaway sons of the Rocky Horror Show and they sound like basically not many more. They state various influences like TOOL, PETER GABRIEL, TEARS FOR FEARS and MOTLEY CRUE, the latter being a riddle. The title itself has multiple meanings, and so has the music for the open minded.

To start with there is only one average track on the album. “Whistleblower” may be ominous and theatric, but it is also quite one-dimensional, modern and chaotic compared to the rest of the album. I noted no less than five tracks that I believe to not only stand out from the crowd, but to do it in a positive way...

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Bastardized Recordings/Sound Pollution

Florida deathcore/metal merchants CATALEPSY have been around since 2004, and created quite a reputation for themselves. HATEBREED`S Jamey Jasta signed the band to his own label Stillborn Records for their 2007 debut “The Godless”, which was followed by a full-length, “Iniquity” in 2008. This time around a more mature album is promised, without losing an inch of their previous heaviness. Is that true?

There are a lot of muffled hard/screaming/blackish vocals and some true dissonant chords on offer here. When CATALEPSY attracts my interest they use loops, melody and memorable guitar patterns. Those moments of greatness occur in “Goliath”, “Monolith” and the final track “Vexation”...

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”Symmetry in motion” is the second album from Swedish AOR band Elevener. Their first album, ”When kaleidoscopes collide” was released in 2008 and brought the band a lot of well deserved praise. For the first album, Elevener was really just a two piece, with Johan Bergquist covering vocals, keyboards and bass, and Anton Roos handling the drums and guitar work. This time round, Elevener is a proper band with three new members drafted in.

The album has a mix of ballads (”Dare to love” and ”For the time we share”), up-tempo songs (such as ”Never would I”), and classic AOR (for example ”Just as I thought”).

Symmetry in Motion is a good strong album with no weak tracks on it, but equally there are no songs that really stand out as being excellent either – what you have here is eleven good tra...

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”Between the devil and the deep blue sea” is the third album from US rockers Black Stone Cherry. Their brand of Southern rock has been growing rapidly in popularity since they released their debut album back in 2007, and 2011 see’s them touring the UK with Alter Bridge and playing the Hard Rock Hell festival in December.

The album kicks off with ”White trash millionaire”, a track which is Black Stone Cherry at their best.

”Such a shame” – the song title sums up my opinion on the song. You’ve got a song about death and suffering, but the song fails to deliver any emotion, and this lack of emotion just doesnt sit well with the lyrics.

”Blame it on the boom boom” is one of the best tracks on the album...

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While this duo may not sound immediately familiar, both have an excellent track record. Joseph Williams was the voice of Toto for several years in the 1980s and is now back in Toto as their current vocalist. As well as his time in Toto he has been a backing singer for Chicago and worked as a session vocalist, but where many non Toto fans will have heard his voice is in the Disney movie, The Lion King where he was the singing voice of the adult Simba. Peter Friestedt is a Swedish guitarist/songwriter who has worked with the likes of Chicago and Steve Lukathor as well as having released two critically acclaimed albums (LA project and LA project II).

With two talented members, Williams Friestedt sounds promising, but will it live up to expectations when you listen to it? The simple answer...

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”Darker days” is the third studio album from Stream of Passion. As the band is a female fronted symphonic metal band, it would be understandable if you guessed they orinigate from the Netherlands, and you’d be mostly right. Most of the band are Dutch, but singer Marcela Bovio is actually Mexican.

Marcela has a beautiful voice and this album once again allows her to demonstrate it.

”The Scarlet mark” features a great guitar solo, and the guitar generally is more prominent than in some of the other tracks.
”Spark” is a slower acoustic number with Marcela’s singing accompanied by piano and violin, and this serves as a nice change of pace partway through the album.
”Our Cause” and ”Darker days” are unusual in that they are both sung in a mixture of Spanish and English – its quite rare for a ...

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”Moonlight Waltz” is the ninth album from Italian vampire metal band Theatres des vampires. Despite this being the bands 9th alvum since their formation in 1994, the band is still not very well known in the UK, although two recent live shows including one at the Femme Metal festival in Birmingham may have helped to bring in new fans. In concert the band are known for their theatrical performances (check out live photos on festivalphoto.net for some examples).

The music is dark gothic metal, with a rich symphonic sound...

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MDD/Sound Pollution

Russian band DEVIANT SYNDROME can´t have been total beginners back when they formed in 2005. Melodic death metal is their game, and they obviously got popular with the demo “Pictures of Declared Existence”. This album was first released in Russia, but now MDD has decided to put it out in Europe.

I never get these short and ignorable intros. I know they have been popular I am not moved. I immediately note that INFLICTED DEVIATIONS is a tight lot who mixes guitar fueled heavy metal with touches and arrangements of black. The voice of guitarist George Shchelbanin is a mixed bag, from Old School to obnoxious vomits. But the music often speaks for itself...