Category Cd Reviews

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Explorer is the latest album from Welsh Singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews. Cery’s first rose to fame as the singer of rock group Catatonia, but since the bands split in 2001 she has released several albums of folk and traditional music. She is unusual in that she sings in a mixture of English and Welsh.

The album features some unusual musical instruments – the Duduk (an Armenian woodwind instrument), A Sitar, An Oud (a middle eastern instrument similar to the Lute), Chinese temple blocks, Vibraslap (a percussion instrument), a Shekere, a Kalimba and many other more instruments of varying degrees of familiarity as well.

Explorer is a mix of songs written by Cerys and traditional songs...

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”The Unforgiving” is the fifth studio album from Dutch Symphonic metal band, Within Temptation. For this album, Within Temptation have opted to release a concept album, so the album is accompanied by a comic book release and a series of short videos. The danger of this strategy is that while their hardcore fans will probably buy the comic and watch the videos, a large part of the fanbase will not, so the album has to be strong enough to stand by itself.
As it’s four years since the last studio album (The heart of everything) then expectations are always going to be high. Happily Within Temptation havent changed direction significantly and have produecd a strong album that their fans will love.

The album starts with ”Why not me” – a short track with a spoken introduction to the story bac...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

German band SERENITY plays symphonic metal, and has done so for a decade. They now release their third album, with a lot of symphony, enforced by guests like Charlotte Wessels (DELAIN), Ailyn (SIRENIA) and Amanda Somerville. This is an album about historic persons like Christopher Columbus, Casanova, and Sir Francis Drake. Is that the road to fame and fortune?

The intro, “Set Sail to”, feels like a matinee movie. It is probably very scrutinized considering the album´s historical themes. The symphonic progressive “New Horizons” has a good ring to it. Georg Neuhauser´s voice and Mario Hirzinger´s keyboards are the main focuses, as is the very strong melody. It is all historically pompous as an epic adventure film, and goes down well with me...

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Soulseller/Sound Pollution

Åtvidaberg´s finest, MAIM , skips all varieties and go for old fashioned death, influenced by the likes of; AUTOPSY, NIHILIST and MOTÖRHEAD. They debuted on Soulseller in 2009 with From the Womb to the Tomb”. Here is number two, and their third outing is obviously finished already!?

Krille and Scott, guitars, Richard, bass and pukes, and Otto, drums, are the line-up all in all. “Gravedigger Sacrifice” opens sobbing but from then on it is old school death only. Vocals with some echo remind me of OCTURNUS. The vocals are also quite clean, not many effects here, odd paces or other tinsel. “Morbid Desecration” is close to doom, and the guitar solo has an enigmatic hypnotic effect...

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Frontiers/BAM

Fyra skivor, en live CD/DVD, stora gigs, som både support och headliners, samt en hel del PR via bidrag till melodifestivalen och olympiska spelen. Det är THE POODLES facit sedan de officiellt bildades 2005. Inte illa, men så är medlemmarna inga nybörjare; sångaren Jakob Samuel har en gång i tiden varit trummis i TALISMAN, basisten Pontus Egberg har spelat i bl.a. ZAN CLAN, trummisen Christian Lundqvist spelade i RAW och gitarristen Henrik Bergqvist ersatte inte bara Pontus Norberg, han har även ett förflutet i SOUTHFORK och TIAMAT.

Jag börjar med att konstatera att Mats Valentin gett dem en oftast mognare ljudbild. Som helhet känns de mindre inriktade mot snabba hits och yngre tjejer...

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Massacre/Sound Pollution

Third album from Finish/Norwegian epic Gothic combo IMPERIA has hit the streets. Containing bombastic, operatic vocals, trigged drums and speedy power metal guitars perhaps? This is not the most varied genre.

“Touch of Your Hand” does not stray very much from my guess. Helena Iren Michaelsen has a fine voice and a lot of passion in the words. She has a past in TRAIL OF TEARS and her solo project ANGEL. The orchestral parts are done by Oliver Philipps, and Tina Guo handles the cello. The whole shebang is is mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen. Remove the keys and the enhancements of orchestral character and there wouldn´t be a whole lot to talk about here. And when Helena starts impersonating Birgit Nilsson quite frequently this is pure humor...

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”Secret Passion” is the long awaited new album from Imperia. Its been four years since ”Queen of light” so expectations are high.

The album opens with ”Touch of your hands” – a classic Imperia song with plenty of power and really showcasing Helena’s powerful operatic style vocals. Helena Iren Michaelsen has a superbly powerful voice that together with her being Norwegian conjures up visions of a Wagnerian Valkyrie.

Tracks such as ”Like Rain” give Helena a chance to show that her vocals are not limited to the powerful operatic style, and she sings most of the song in a more normal rock/metal style. ”Hold on” is the ballad of the album and again Helena’s amazing voice takes on a different style to sing.

This album shows just how impressive Helena Iren Michaelsen is as a singer...

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The album opens with a beautiful haunting instrumental introduction, ”Alv” which builds in power and tempo before the first real track on the album kicks in. The first ”real” track on the album, is the title track – ”The metamorphosis melody” and it opens with some powerful chugging guitars. The first minute of the track is really a guitar solo before the vocals of Carmen Elise Espenaes kick in. Carmen is the younger sister of Leave’s Eyes singer, Liv Kristine, and a beautiful singing voice is clearly something that runs in the family. Carmen’s vocal style is best described as operatic, but her vocals avoid the higher ranges and the lyrics are clearly heard and understood, which isnt always the case with some singers with an operatic style.
Unlike Leaves Eyes, Midnattsol have very litt...

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Meredead is the latest album from LEaves Eyes. For those who havent heard the band before, they blend symphonic metal with a strong folk influence.

This album has a far stronger folk feel to it than earlier albums by the band. The use of Uilleann pipes (An Irish version of the bagpipe) certainly emphasises the folk feel to the album, and with Nystev being a Norwegian traditional stave and Krakevisa being Norwegian traditional folklore then this also adds to the folk feel.
The whole album is a lot less heavy than earlier albums, with Alexander Krull’s growls and screams being almost completely absent from the album, and only a few songs such as ”Velvet Heart” having the power and richness we’re used to from earlier albums...

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Nightmare Records/Border
Modern prog/power metal characterized by technical ability, a fervency for volume and a passion for power. That´s what the info sheet states about Canadian band CONFLICTED. The band consists of four-octave vocalist Jason Orton, the neoclassical inclined guitarist Mark Owen, the symphonic keyboardist Ron DeCoste, metal bass man John Kolodziej and experienced drummer Corey Stoll. They have two EPS under their belt, plus a couple of Canadian awards. They must be doing something right being signed to Lance King´s Nightmare Records.

“After Too Long” takes off with some cozy bass lines before Jason takes charge. The voice is slightly distorted and their progressive aspirations are clearly audible. Modern touches meet older styles as in e.g...