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Lion Music/Warner

In the mid-nineties vocalist Ian Parry was looking to follow up the success of his solo album “Thru´ the Looking-Glass”. He wanted something ambitious, and it would take until 1999 before this album was finalized. The ELEGY touch surely helpend sales, as did probably the inclusion of world-renowned guitarist Patrick Rondat and ex VENGEANCE bassist Jan Bijlsma. Today it might be at least as helpful to have KAMELOT guitarist Thomas Youngblood and AYREON star ARJEN LUCASSEN as guest on one track, playing the bass. Other musicians in the first incarnation were; guitarist Stephan Lill (VANDENPLAS) and well-travelled drummer Dirk Bruinenberg. Apart from the eleven originals this re-mastered edition contains two bonus tracks.

The story of power hungry people´s quest for a...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

Norwegians LONELY KAMEL is in the business of stoner rock. Surely no-one doubts that after seeing the band name and the cover… The band has only been around for three years, still they have released two albums and shared stage with bands like MONSTER MAGNET and KARMA TO BURN. Blues, grooves and booze seems to be the band´s motto, and it works well enough for them to have a go at their third release. I wonder if tracks like “Grim Reefer” will be enough to make every listener high on the music alone?

Bluesy stoner it is, straight from the opening chord of “Grim Reefer”, the hypnotic voice of guitarist Thomas Brenna fills my ears. They change pace once, but mostly the stubborn repetition of the likeable riff is the main concept...

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Frontiers/BAM

Introducing BOBBY KIMBALL and JIMI JAMISON feels like asking a catholic who the pope is. But anyway… Bobby rose to fame as the voice of TOTO between 1977-84, and 1998-2008, while Jimi was, and is the returning lead vocalist of SURVIVOR. Both of them has been solo artists, or are, and have a wide experience of making music. To enhance things further they have enlisted the aid of a.o. Jim Peterik (SURVIVOR, PRIDE OF LIONS), JOHN WAITE and Erik Mårtensson of W.E.T and ECLIPSE, while Mat Sinner (SINNER) handled the production. The backing musicians are; excellent German guitarist Alex Beyrodt, bass man Mat Sinner, keyboardist Jimmy Kresic and drummer Martin Schmidt. I sthis what the melodic rock community has been waiting for?

Well, after “Worth Fighting for” I´d say yes! Actu...

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Napalm/Sound Pollution

German mediaeval metal band SALTATO MORTIS has been quite successful. From humble beginnings in 2000, this combo has successfully combined their folk and metal influences and turned into a band to be counted with. Eight albums to date, and a highly successful DVD recently, sounds like more than they bargained for in the first place. They all have tongue wrecking names that are impossible to remember, perhaps the song material lingers better?

Contagious might be the right word. The mix of German rock, some metal and a lot of mediaeval instruments makes they boy wonders back home no doubt. The in-your-face character of the songs makes it difficult for me to see them as mediaeval, in spite of their colorful live show...

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Ministry Founder Al Jourgensen, the godfather of industrial metal, has long been known as his country doppelganger, Buck Satan – an ode to Jourgensen’s longtime country hero Buck Owens, who just prior to his death “blessed” Jourgensen’s country side project Buck Satan & The 666 Shooters. Featuring guest artists from the metal world as well as country artists, fiddlers, cellists, pedal steel guitars, mandolins, banjos, Jourgensen digs deep into the vaults of his extensive knowledge of country music to produce this array of original tracks as well as a nod to Gram Parsons on Drug Store Truck Driving Man. Jourgensen describes the music as “Heavy Western” or “Country Core.”

Well, I have to say this is definitely very very different to Ministry...

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Danish band Fate are a band that has been through plenty of lineup changes since the band first formed in 1984. After almost ten years, several lineup changes and several album releases, the band split in 1993. The band then reformed in 2006, and since then have had yet more lineup changes, released a new album (”V”), and are now ready to release their latest album – ”Ghosts from the past” – hopefully with a stable lineup this time. Original member Peter Steincke is the only member of the band remaning from the bands 1980’s incarnation.

”Children of the night” opens with some 80s keyboard sounds before the guitar kicks in and is a great guitar driven melodic rock song

”Seeds of terror” is a slightly heavier guitar driven track and is the first song on the album to do without a keyboard ...

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Martyr de mona are a young midlands band who have been building up a good reputation with their live shows – quite a few people who’ve seen them live have recommended them to me. Unfortunately I’ve not managed to catch them live yet, so listening to their album will have to do me for now.

Listening to the album, it sounds fantastic – the guitars are the standout point for me – some great riffs and melodies, and the vocals work well with this.

Comments on a few of the tracks

The album kicks off with ”Sever” which immediately starts with some heavy guitar riffs before the rest of the band joing in for the song proper. A very good song that really gets the album off to a great start.

”Departed” isnt a ballad – its a metal track still but with a hint of ballad thrown in.

”End of forever” is ...

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80’s Scandinavian metal band Oz are back after a 20 year absence, and are marking their return with the release of ”Burning Leather”. The album is a mix of old and new tracks. The old songs have been re-recorded so they’re the best they’ve ever sounded.

”We decided to include and new tracks and re-recorded old songs on ”Burning Leather”, because we wanted to show what OZ is about in 2011”, drummer Mark Ruffneck says. “It will be our first album since 1991 and there are whole new generations of heavy metal fans who do not
even know our old songs. And for our old supporters, it is probably interesting to hear their favorites in new versions. In conjunction with the new songs you get a package with ”Burning Leather” that shows OZ as we are today.”

The music is NWOBHM (New wave of Brit...

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Bear Cavalry hail from the South coast of England, and this foursome have already gained plenty of fans – the band has already had their music championed at Radio 1 by the likes of Edith Bowman and Kissy Sellout –the latter going as far as make his own Kissy Klub version of Custom Hands. They’ve also had support from Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw as well as being played countless times by Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music.
The band use at least seven different instruments between them to create their music, which is probably best described as indie-rock although it does have other influences as well.

The use of African style chants in ”Custom hands”, and brass instruments (trumpet I think) in ”Will Smith solves the rubiks cube” and ”Dragons milk Pt II” add a lot to the feel of the EP, and it’...

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”What the angel said” is the second single from The Savage Nomad’s debut album, ”Coloured Clutter”. The band seem ridiculously young to be making music of this quality but they’ve managed it. When you have people like Mick Jones (The Clash) recommending them then you’ve got to take that seriously – musicians of his calibre dont give praise lightly. Mick Jones gave the band their big break by getting them to play his Carbon Casino events in London when the band were only in their mid teens.
I’ve been listening to this song for a while and struggling with how to describe them – I know I like the song, but it doesnt fit in any nice neat genre pigeonholes which makes it much harder to describe. I can see similarities to some songs from The Clash, but even that isnt a perfect comparison.

Al...