Long time no live! First headbanging after the last deluding PRIEST experience.
Back to the roots, at my beloved Crescendo Live House for "Metal 'till Death Vol. 3". We got to see Outbreak Riot, Sec Dimension, Crucified, Wheel of Doom, GSD, After Zero and Satanic Heritage. All people from around here (Japan, I mean), but telling the truth, despite the bombastic title, of "metallic" there was very little tonight. We got death, MDM, half-a-way NU-Metal/metal core ... all quite enjoyable, but nothing really awesome. Nothing but one, AFTER ZERO! Oh, men! The revelation of the day! A very intriguing MDM, with hearth-attack fast riffings, razor-sharp screaming, furious percussions & a persistent melody behind a blasting power.
Sandbanks delayed my brig, so I finished by missing Outbreak Riot, despite they were one of the band I wanted to check out (last time in Kagurazaka I liked them very much). Sec Dimension, Crucified and GSD did a good show, but for some reason didn't get my numbers. MDM & Metal Core with much movement on stage, but little pathos. Also musically speaking : display of aggressivity on stage, but mostly already heard tunes. Don't mean to diminish the guys... maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, but they didn't impress me at all.
Wheel of Doom are worth deserving a shot (I knew them from a previous gig, last year). They delivered a short, but very effective armageddon-like strike. Very aggressive death/thrash metal. Drumming and vocals get close to black m., but guitar section stays far from it. Not something I would listen on commuting to work, but pretty enjoyable on the whole. Beside, the dudes are really cool on stage!
After Zero were the coolest tonight! They got everything I needed to ignite. Presence on stage, right music, energy... and even more! After a neckbreacking track, a Run to the hills-like drumming cvught my attention and in no time an awesome - as well as unexpected - Maiden's Aces High blew me away! Too bad most of the youngsters in the crowd didn't appreciate that jewel as much as the Cpt.
Satanic Heritage were a bomb! I liked the performance and their skills very much. Powerfull and fast Death, with melodic grinding and very harsh vocals. Unfortunately the singer doesn't suits my needs, nor does their attitude: they played a bit too much for themselves and the band's buddies they knew. But since they're young, I guees we can expect better for the future.
That's all for today. I leave you with two demos from the gig: take them or leave them (you're not going to see them elsewhere I think).
Somebody keep thrashing them, and I keep rescuing them... Small pearls of a gone age... golden age of metal. Last week got a couple more of THUNDERHEAD albums, awesome German band. And since I noticed you hit them quite a bit, here I'm giving you Movin' On (1993 EP Jap. Ed.) and The Beast of Thunderhead (1997), both quite hard to stumble upon. Guess you already have the first Behind the Eight Ball.
More than "Product of Disgust" this CEREBRAL FIX box is an awesome product of delight! I've been stalking for a while this treasure chest , which is an AWESOME limited 2000 only box set (Cpt. one is nr. 0002!!!) for a while at the pirate market... But you know, not knowing well the band's sound , I was a bit skeptical... Taking up your butt a box isn't that pleasant! But after checking them out - those few tracks you can find around, I mean - I went in for the kill! And most surprisingly got it less than half-priced! Am I scary or what? I was so happy I forgot to ask about a similar one by ARTILLERY.
Anyway, not very much know outside UK are these Britons, where instead they gathered enormous success in the past. English thrash/death metal band formed in Birmingham in 1986. They became members of the UK thrash metal and death metal scenes through four albums, three of which were on major labels before finally disbanding in 1993. In 2006, they announced a reunion for only one night stand, which eventually got repeated a couple of more times, showing how much their fans still needed them and what is their potential. Voices say they have an album's worth of new material, but for now they are waiting for the reception of the new songs - 4 pieces enclosed in this box. And inside the box you find all their discography plus a collection of demos & lives. The later is not particularly appealing to non-collectors: sound is crammy and the quality, well... But if you like it you go for it! The whole is squisitely packed with pics, band history, reviews, etc. A lovely set-up for a kick-ass listening experience! Read out some detail on the albums HERE, if you want.I'm beaming it up just because there is little of their stuff around and certainly there are dudes who want to give them a try! Bring them good, don't spread it for free too much and have fun!
Warming up for this forthcoming weekend live house action, here you go with some good stuff from the land of the rising sun.
ONMYOZA-Inyo Shugyoku (2006)
Guess you may already know them... the most successful female fronted band around here. Yet you don't see much of their stuff around, nor you get to stumble upon their CD at the shop so often - outside Japan, I mean. Almond-eyed female singers sound pretty much all the same, but ONMYOZA is a bit of an exception, since she's the prototype of them all. She's not bad at all and has a nice power. Yet on the long run her limited excursion range may result a bit tedious. This double CD is certainly a good selection of their repertoire. A perfect start for those who still ignore them, as well as a good end! You'll get what I mean!
ANIMETAL-Complete Last Live (1999)
You could take them as a joke, were it not for the awesome musicianship of the players and for the stratospheric voice of virtuoso EIZO SAKAMOTO, singer of world famous Osaka originated Anthem. And I do love his scream, one of the best - if not THE best voice in Japan. Animetal is a parodistic band, covering virtually all the most known anime soundtracks Japan-born. Those of you who got blessed by the first or second invasion of Japanese animation on TV in Europe, will certainly recognize & enjoy their themes (I still got many on 45' vinyl). But those of you who are in metal since those days (a long while ago!) will also recognise a mountain of other references... Helloween, Maiden, Metallica, AC/DC. You lucky bastards won't probably understand a shit of the Japanese singing, so most of the tracks may not sound so booring to you, as they often do with me! But just in case, be carefull to ABSOLUTELY check out track 08 (Mazinga Z), 09 (Guitar solo - I'd like to see more things like this one!) and track 14 (This is Animetal).You'll get hell of a fun!
I love European metal. German in particular. And I was just enjoying to the new CANNON-Metal Style out and around these days (German band I strangerly didn't know before, despite their previous releases), when I recalled THUNDERHEAD! Fu*king enjoyable metal. No extra shit, no virtuosism... just groovy sound, clichè-packed-but-funny lyrics, cool & screamy vocals and a-uhh rythms! In an era ruled by Helloween, it wan't easy to cut out a space for themselves, but they managed not to take compromises and mantained their style all the way through! Encyclpaedia Metallum epitomizes better than I could do (even if too shortly) their staus:
"After an unsuccessful audition with Victory (Ger), American vocalist Ted Bullet met ex-Viva (Ger) guitarist Henrik Wolter and ex-Talon (Ger) bassist Ole Hempleman in a Hanover bar, and with the addition of drummer Alex Scotti to complete this German- based band, recorded a demo that quickly prompted a contract with Intercord. Behind The Eight Ball was recorded when the band had hardly played a live date, but was a reasonable debut in a basic metal style similar to the Almighty's early work, and sold well on the German market as the group played with Victory and Uriah Heep in the USA and in the UK and Europe with Motörhead. Busted At The Border and Crime Pays followed in the traditional metal footsteps of the debut, although Thunderhead became a more cohesive band as a result of their live work, with more power metal overtones to their heavily guitar-based sound. They maintained their level of success in Germany, undoubtedly helped by their frontman's English vocals and outrageous onstage demeanour, but they remained a minor act in global terms."
The two bricks I'm piling here are those I like at most: Killing with Style (1993), Were You Told The Truth About Hell (1995)! The sound is pretty American-like... but you'll feel that EXTRA kick & riffing that distinguish European metal from Whitesnake and other a-like sounding bands. Crush Course in Life, Thank you for Making me Suffer, Killing with Style... all are awesome heabanger tracks! Enjoy! Talking too much...!? Shit, happens...!
Port's up and running again... with brand new HUGE dock. But something got lost and privateers need new passes to cross the gates. Call the Cpt. once inside. Have fun!
