Posted in Cd Reviews

Pulverised/Sound Pollution

July 2007 saw founding members Julkarn (bass, guitas, vocals) and Bastard (guitar, bass), conjuring up the early stages of what was to become GRAVEYARD. The oair soon hooked up with drummer Gusi from UNDERTAKER. The object was to worship bands from their teens like ENTOMBED, MORBID ANGEL and VENOM, to name but a few. That year second guitarist SBE (ERED) joined the ranks, and promotion started of the demo “Into the Mausoleum”. They obtained a recording contract from Black Seed Productions after only a few months, and they were on their way. Since then, they have, in true underground old school death fashion released 2 EP´s, four splits and one full-length album, and toured relentlessly...

Posted in Cd Reviews

FS Records/GMR

Swedish troupe FATAL SMILE is continuing their quest for world domination with the release of their second outing “21st Century Freaks”. The band has been around for approximately ten years, but it was not until 2007 that guitarist/founder Mr. Y changed the lineup and started on their debut, modestly titled “World Domination”. Dominating reviews in a.o. Sweden Rock Magazine followed, and a massive 350 shows worldwide is not a bad achievements these days… 2011 saw the band writing and recording, and here is the next chapter…

Opener “Welcome to the Freakshow” opens with a circus part, before a shattering refrain embedded in a classic heavy metal style takes over. Shattering is probably how about seven of the eleven tracks will appear to their competition...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Concerto for Group and Orchestra is a concerto composed by Jon Lord, with lyrics written by Ian Gillan. It was first performed by Deep Purple and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Septeber 1969 and released on vinyl in December of that same year. Recorded live and played live over thirty times over the years, it’s never been done in the studio until now.
Last year, Jon Lord decided it was time for the Concerto to be recorded in a studio. Over the years he’s tweaked the original version to improve parts of it, so what we have in this release is the new improved version.
Without this album you have to wonder whether various other bands would have ever thought to work with orchestras – it’s highly unlikely that Metallica would have done their S&M concert/album if not for ”Concerto for Gro...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Fire from the sky” is the seventh studio album from Massachusetts band Shadows Fall. Over the last seventeen years they’ve been very consistent, releasing a new album every 2-3 years. In the past they’ve finished a tour and then written and recorded the next album to meet specific deadlines, but for this album they chose to spend longer on the album and not work to a specific deadline. The result is a great album with the band sounding to be back at the top of their game.

It’s a great album – it’s heavy and powerful, it’s got fast yet highly intricate guitar work, great guitar solos, powerful screaming vocals, and they’re not afraid to slow things down when it can add to the music...

Posted in Interviews

I spoke with Doris Yeh, bass player with Taiwanese metal band Chthonic shortly after they played the main stage at this years Bloodstock festival.

Festivalphoto: You’ve just played the main stage here at Bloodstock, how did you enjoy it?

Doris: More than happy to be here, to play Bloodstock is always one of our goals, so we are very happy to play the main stage this year. The response from the crowd was really really good. Yeah I think we made them excited today.

Festivalphoto: The last couple of times you’ve been to the UK it’s been supporting Arch Enemy.

Doris: Yeah, last November was the last time. And this year for the summer festival tour we met them again a few times. It’s good to see them again. It’s always been a pleasure to play with them.

Festivalphoto: You wear different mak...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s visionary music

Electric Eden is a new compilation album which features songs chosen by author and journalist Rob Young. The two disc set is designed to serve as a companion to Young’s highly acclaimed book Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music which was published by Faber & Faber in 2010.

The album really charts the way folk music has developed and changed. Rob young comments ’This compilation is designed to follow the flow from acoustic to electric folk in the late 60s and early 70s, a magical time in British music. I’ve tried to include a mixture of rarities, unheard versions, familiar names and unjustly neglected heroes and heroines...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Initially a model and actress, German singer Nico moved into music and found fame when she sang three songs on the Velvet Undergrounds debut album before starting work on a solo career.

The Music industry is often criticised for being ruthless and money driven, and there’s no doubting that at times it can be, but then they come out with a release like this. Despite good reviews when it was first released, it was a commercial failure, so to spend more cash remastering it, add in a load of bonus material and reissue it seems an odd move from a commercial perspective, but for music lovers it’s a great move as we not only get the original album but also some rare material to listen to.

Newly remastered the album sounds better than ever...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Bunker Festival, Parkteatret, Oslo 24-25 augusti 2012

För första gången anordnades Bunker Festival i Oslo och den gick av stapeln under två kvällar på Partkteatret i stadsdelen Grunerlokka. Parkteatret är en gammal biograf där fåtöljer och filmduk ersatts av scen, barer, merch och Dj-bås. Under helgen står Fenriz från Darkthrone där och spelar grym musik att pausa till mellan banden. Och det är han som bestämmer. En stor skylt deklarerar ”No Requests”, så ingen behöver undra.
Bakom det här evenemanget står Kenneth Anker Nilsen som driver Neseblod Records och Hilde Hammer. De har tillsammans pratat sig fram till konceptet och ambitionen var att göra en festival i lite mindre format men med ett exklusivt utbud.
-Vi ville ha band som inte spelar så jävla ofta men som ...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Finnish rock band The 69 eyes are back with their tenth studio album – X. The band formed in 1989 and released their first single the following year, with their debut album (Bump’n’Grind) coming in 1992. In the early days they had a Glam/Sleaze sound, but over the years this has changed as more Gothic influences have been incorporated.

I must admit that despite being aware of The 69 eyes for some years, I’d never actually listened to them until I was given this album to review.

Brief comment on a few songs

The album starts with ”Love runs away”. It opens with powerful guitars before the vocals kick in. I must say that my first action was to check the band’s lineup to see if it was Billy Idol singing – The 69 eyes singer Jyrki 69 really does sound like Billy Idol in this song...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”The world is ours Vol.2, Anyplace crazy as anywhere else” is the follow up to last years ”The world is our Vol. 1 – Everywhere further than everyplace else”. Volume 1 featured the entire set from their 9th April 2011 show at Teatro Caupolican, Santiago, Chile, and volume 2 features more shows from 2011 – three festivals to be precise.

There are various versions of this release..

Digipak – DVD plus 2 CD
Double CD
Double Vinyl gatefold sleeve (Wacken Open Air concert)
Blu-ray
Direct to consumer box featuring 2CDs, DVD, Blu-ray and a special booklet featuring exclusive on and offstage photography.

The three shows featured on this release are – Sonisphere UK, Wacken Open Air, and Rock in Rio...