Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Friday nights at MFVF are a warm up for the main event – two full days of music at the weekend. There are only three bands tonight, but with fans arriving from all over the world then it’s a chance to meet up with friends, buy some merchandise and enjoy some great music after a long day of travelling.
Held at the Oktoberhallen in Wieze, just outside Aalst in Belgium, MFVF is the premier event of the year for fans of female fronted metal, so its no surprise to find fans here from all over Eurpoe as well as places as far away as Canada.

First up are Bare infinity from Greece who put in a great performance to get the crowd warmed up.

Next up are Xandria, who have just finished their tour of Europe as part of the ”Out of the dark” festival...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night opened with sets from Toxic Federation and Rough Cut. Both were very good, but Rough Cut impressed particularly, partly because for a band that looked too young to be out late on a school night, they performed very well, and their singer in particular was very impressive. The only weak link was the drummer who didnt seem to be quite as good as the others – or was just having a bad night.

Swedish hard rockers Coldspell took to the stage in front of a fairly disappointing crowd, but didnt let that bother them. They put in a great set consisting of five songs from their latest album (Out from the cold) as well as three older songs.
With plenty of good heavy guitars and some great vocals, Coldspell definitely impressed quite a few people...

Posted in Interviews

Ant May from Festivalphoto spoke with Olli Herman and Hessu Maxx from Reckless love shortly before their show at Islington Academy in London on 26th November 2011

Festivalphoto: First of all, welcome to London – first night of your UK tour.

Olli: Thank you. Second time we’re here, or doing a full tour here, and it was more than a year ago that we last played on British soil so it’s a bit exciting to tell the truth, a bit nerve-wracking as well – do they still remember us.

Festivalphoto: Well the queue outside the venue started around 2 hours before the doors open so I think they do remember you.

Olli: Really, thanks for sharing this information, a load just came off my heart.

Festivalphoto: Your UK tour ends at the Hard Rock Hell festival. Have you heard anything about the festival?

Ol...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Ännu osignade men efter denna recension officiellt accepterade Göteborgsbandet PshycoBrew släppte i höstas nytt med EP’n Alcohol Zombies. En 8 låtar lång trash/metal skildring med tydliga referenser i göteborgsmetal-sound hos band som bla Entombed om än (!) med tydligare drag av hardcore än just metal …
Med ett elakt sound och en illa fördold mask av avsky, vrålar sångaren Simon Hansson sig igenom hela plattan och lyckas stundom med att låta riktigt ond. Bra där, det behövs för att inte trilla ner i det för två år sedan så populära pojk-hardcorebandsträsket.

Vad jag gillar med plattan är att sångaren får sin rättmätiga plats och inte överröstas av resten av de mycket samspelta bandmedlemmarna...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

LG är pepp som aldrig förr och röjer så att snoret flyger.
Det är en sanning, jag såg det! Inte desto mindre tappar Entombeds nu (enligt wikipedia 39 år gamla) frontman och sångare knappast charmen för det – utan röjer vidare som om ingenting hänt.

Klockan är bara barnet och bjuder på en aningen sömnig och för bandet; ovanligt ung publik. 15 åringarna improviserar en speedad moshpitt medan de äldre fansen nöjer sig med att i takt med musiken avmätt slänga med hårmanen i bakgrunden. Inte desto mindre saknar jag den energi publiken vanligtvis brukar ge på Entombeds spelningar, ty oavsett klockslag förtjänar bandet mer bifall.

Entombed gör en suverän spelning och LG bör få bravur för sin fina publikkontakt och skillade ölfontän...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Two hours before the doors were due to open a queue had already begun to form, and by the time the doors opened the queue was a fairly long one. This meant that The Dirty Youth, who took to the stage at the fairly early time of 7.30, managed to play to a venue that was already half full and still filling.

Singer Danni Monroe is strikingly attractive with eye-catching pink hair and a great stage presence, and most importantly, she has a great voice. Headbanging regularly she moves around the stage making a great front woman. Having heard their debut album and really enjoying it, I was looking forward to seeing the band live, and they certainly didn’t disappoint...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Massacre/Sound Pollution

Fresh-faced thrash quartet DIABOLUS DUST debuts with Massacre. Formed in 2006, the seminal line up of Jurgen Dachl, vocals, Roland Zehrer, bass, Stefan Fessert, drums, and Anton H. Lini concatenated in 2008. Old school is the aim, and thrash says the info sheet. Well, fire away.

They open with the title track, very old school in the first place. The old METALLICa fare works most of the time, they steer clear of latter day outings from Hetfield & co. The song thunders along but lacks a bit in the refrain department. Unfortunately DIABOLUS DUST lose their grip with songs 2-4. There might be echoes of everyone from ZAKK WYLDE to CLOVEN HOOF, but the refrains are not discernable from the verses in any way...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Frontiers/BAM

Amanda Somerville has made quite a name for herself, both in metal circles and as a vocal coach. Of US decent, but has relocated to Germany/Holland, to be where the action seems to be. Faithful to her previous career moves she is back with a rock/metal hybrid, involving the duo of Sascha Paeth and Miro (KAMELOT, AVANTASIA etc), handling guitars, bass, keys, drums and arrangements and keyboards respectively. The info claims the material to be in the vein of a mix of Annie Lennox, DORO, ROB ZOMBIE and Sade…what?

Odd, odd, odd. Opener “Machine Gun” can´t be described as a straight rocker. The production and mixing of the voice and the guitars seem strange for the genre. There are operatic parts, rock, pop, but also beautiful slow and steamy moments...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night was started with a short set from Dangerous Breed. They put in a good performance in front of the small crowd, but they did seem lacking in imagination – between myself and a couple of friends, for each song they did we identified an Iron Maiden song with the same guitar riffs and often quite very large similarities.

Scottish biker rock band Attica Rage were next up. Their usual bass player was absent, apparently due to work commitments, but the stand in did a decent job. Attica Rage despite only playing a few times in London had a good level of support in the venue with quite a few people sporting Attica Rage T-shirts and during their set it was clear a lot of the fans there knew the songs well...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”The return of the spectacular spinning songbook” is a live album recorded in May at two shows in Los Angeles. Unlike most albums, the setlist wasn’t planned in advance – in fact the setlist was only chosen during the show. Elvis and his band play a few songs before picking an audience member out to come on stage and spin a large wheel which is marked up with dozens of song titles. The song title at the top when the wheel stops spinning is the one that gets played next – with the audience member getting to sit on stage as the song is played. This takes audience participation to new levels, and is a great idea. Elvis Costello has done this before – hence the ”return of” in the title – he used the idea 25 years ago (so its long overdue for a return).

The Return Of The Spectacular Spinni...