Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight is Australian band Tracer and Swedish band Royal Republic at the Underworld. Walking into the venue it’s clear that the majority of people are here for the headliners, Royal Republic – a large percentage of the crowd seems to be wearing cardboard crowns bearing the name Royal Republic.

Despite both bands being fairly new to me, they’ve drawn a big crowd – the venue is completely full, which is impressive for a mid-week gig. Tracer have been getting some good radio airplay recently and their new album (due out the day of the gig) is superb, so I was looking forwards to seeing how they’d be in a live setting.

Almost as soon as they started to play I knew they were going to be good, and that definitely proved to be the case...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Diamond Head are a band familiar to most older fans of Heavy Metal, but some younger fans might not be so aware of them. For some heavy metal fans their first exposure to Diamond Head will have been when they joined the Big 4 (Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth) on stage at Sonisphere to perform ”Am I evil”. Contrary to the belief or assumption of some people, this isnt a Metallica song, its a Diamond Head song that Metallica have chosen to cover. When a band as influential as Metallica chooses not only to cover a song by a band, but to invite them on stage, then you know there is something special about that band. Between 1979 and 1983, UK band Diamond Head released three classic albums – the first being the White Album, reviewed here.

The album contains just 7 tracks which may not ...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Napalm/Sound Pollution

THULCANDRA are about to hit ten years next year. The band is formed along OBSCURA member Steffen Kummerer (guitars/vocals). Five years of hibernation followed when original co-founder Juergen Zintz committed suicide, and first in 2009 brothers Ludwig, Tobias, bass, and Sebastian, guitars were taken on board. That marked 2010 as the year of their long awaited debut album “Fallen Angels Dominion”. The aim seems to be going back to Sweden in the nineties, playing blackened death metal in the vein of e.g. DISSECTION. I wonder how they cherish the memories of the nineties?

The epic opening of “In Blood and Fire” may even bring echoes of BATHORY in full swing, but THULCANDRA is soon in black symphonic territory...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Napalm/Sound Pollution

Germany´s NACHTBLUT mix dark with gothic, techno and a slash of RAMMSTEIN. Starting up as a solo band of vocalist Askeroth the band soon evolved into a real band completed by guitarist Greif, bassist Sacerdos, drummer Skoll and keyboardist Lymantia. Love us or hate us seems to be the band motto, but they soon opened up for bands like EISREGEN and SODOM. In 2009 this album was first released, with a concept enough to be trendy. This is of cause a remastered
edition with four bonus tracks. So…impress me!

The initial softness of the title track transforms into soft troll metal sung in German. The feeling is a black metal band going poppy. They seem to move between troll metal, death and black...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Valkyrja från Stockholm kliver på med en energi som kontrasterar skarpt till den stela skara som står framför den. Det verkar inte störa musikerna som klockrent levererar ”Oceans to Dust”, ”Frostland” och ”Catharsis” med fart och frenesi och det är svängigt och lätt att följa dem i vändningar och krumelurer samtidigt som det är visuellt tilltalande med corpse paint och röjiga moves. De jobbar hårt och så småningom frågar sångaren A.L. på klingande uppländska om vi vill höra någonting snabbare men det här är Danmark och jag tror att jag är enda svensk så ingen fattar någonting och jag blir lite full i fniss med tanke på att till och med danska band pratar engelska till den inhemska publiken...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Franky Lee gör lättillgänglig punkrock med snygga melodier. Mathias Färms influenser från Millencollin lyser igenom starkt.

Ibland är sången lite svag (Färm låter ibland väldigt lik Tim McIlrath i Rise Against), musiken är skickligt framörd. Ljudbilden är grym, skivan låter riktigt bra.

Tyvärr får jag ingen särskild känsla av plattan. Ibland öser man på med feta riff och ibland blir det lite känsligare. De där känsligare delarna lyckas aldrig särskilt bra, det känns bara platt och tråkigt.

”No Motion”, ”Genius And Imagination” och ”Death To Myself” är några av guldkornen på en annars slätstruken skiva.

Det är är en platta som kan få en bred publik. För mig är det dock en skiva med 13 ganska lika låtar som inte berör mig särskilt mycket...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

När jag tittar mig runt i ett ganska så tomt KB så lägger jag märke till att medelåldern härinne är väldigt ungt. Ikväll är det 13 års gräns och uppåt som gäller. Självklart är KB fyllt till bredden när det är dags för Hardcore Superstar att äntra scenen! Men hade det varit det om de hade haft en 18 års gräns? Jag tror faktiskt inte det! All ära åt Hardcore Superstar men deras musik tilltalar en viss yngre publik, bestånde av tjejer. Här finns även en del äldre människor!
Det finns en anledning till allt ungt folk, och det är en man som har fått en slags legendstatus inom svensk metalscen, och det är ingen mindre än Jocke Berg! Så fort han äntrar scenen så skriker alla tjejer, vissa gråter medan andra blir inpressade i kravallstaketen...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight is one of the UK dates on The Mission’s 25th anniversary tour, and as their hometown show then expectations are high that tonight is going to be a great night.
Far too often these days the opening band on a bill plays to almost empty venues as fans stay in pubs nearby till nearer the time the main act is due on stage, but tonight the openers Salvation play to a large crowd – its good to see the venue two thirds full before the first band hits the stage.
I must admit I hadnt listened to anything by Salvation before tonight despite them sharing a similar fanbase to The Mission, but I was impressed by what I heard tonight. I say heard as the lighting was some of the worst gig lighting I’ve ever seen at a venue of this size, and it didn’t improve for the other bands either...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

A few hours before the show I found out that Black Spiders are the support band, which doesnt really come as a shock as I’ve lost count of how many support slots and festival appearances they’ve racked up in the last couple of years. They put on their usual energetic performance complete with the obligatory part where they get the crowd to chant ”Fuck you Black spiders”. Despite their performance being great I just cant get excited by it tonight – I’m frankly bored of seeing them as they’ve become overexposed recently. I’ll look forwards to seeing them once they’ve taken a break and released a second album, but for now I’m just bored of them – a shame as they are a very good band.

Tonight’s headliners are Volbeat, the Danish band that has somehow managed to fuse Johnny Cash, Elvis Pres...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Bitches Sin/Metal Nation Records

NWOBHM band BITCHES SIN was formed in circa 1980 and were quite prolific with the albums “Predator” and “Invaders”. By the mid eighties the band disbanded, transforming into FLASHPOINT who lasted for an album. As many of their peers the internet signaled a new dawn, with people expressing their interest and an ease to reach out with your music compared to the days of old. Today the band consists of the ubiquitous Ian Toomey on guitars, Steve Turton on drums, Chris Tsangarides, yes the famous producer, on guitars, Macca on bass and Dave Mills on vocals. Today´s band is a mix of ages and backgrounds, maybe that is the secret to a lasting lineup and final glory?

The opening guitar riff echoes of big 80´s productions, no wonder since Chris was responsi...