Howdy, salilors! Smoky night, yesterday at Crescendo Live House... Yeah, you bastard smokers got me well-gassed again, uh!
Anyway, HAEVY METAL CONFERENCE #9. Band list was as follows: GUILTYS LAW, AFTER ZERO, SATANICA, HELLHOUND, YOUTHQUAKE. A quite enjoyable music party, indeed. That's why I decided not to indulge to picture taking to much (just a couple and very accurate shots to the infernal dog...) and to enjoy the tunes only.
Guiltys Law, self-produced band, born in 1994, with one EP at their back, that plays Melodic Power Metal and tunes looks neat and catchy, with a fair singing (flat points here and there...). But choruses were great and perfeclty fit! After Zero got me moving!! Awesome as usual, dudes: pure fun and energy! I already reviewed them in the past here, so I wont spend much more words here. Great MDM style cover of ultra-famous "Live Wire"!
Satanica were impressive for their Black Metal style appearance and make-up (masks, face-paint, nails, armours...), but the music they played was... well, pretty different! Speed/Heavy Metal, with a very traditional imprint. Guitar riffing and a-la-King Diamond screaming are the highlights. The singing in particular, a bit retrò and with little explosions of screams, reminded me Cauldron Born-like or early epic metal bands. A very enjoyable performance.
Hellhound: kick-ass performance as usual! Little more to say! They are metal and fun! Wanted to meet the guys, but had to rosh out...!
Youthquake were the flag carrier of the night. They are a well-established presence here: Tokyo based and born in 1990 they, with six full-lenght at their back plus a new one forthcoming, they play a very nasty thrash/death. Their subtle melody and the laser-precision shredding are very catchy for the Cpt., but on the long run the not really various singing get me scrathing my belly. Great show, anyway!
Nice come-back-to-life... Had to breath less smoke, I certainly would have enjoyed it more.
Yes, dudes! Cpt. is still busy... Sorry! You will have to be patient for some new posts. But this week you're lucky. Indeed I got my ticket reserved for tomorrow's gig of HELLHOUND at Crescendo "cave". Long time no live... Or better Live after (a long) Death. Of course will try to collect some visual proof of their METAL mayhem. On the stage ther will be also AFTER ZERO (thrashy dudes you should already be acquainted with), GULTYS LAW , SATANICA and YOUTHQUAKE. Last three are completely new to me, but CROSSFIRE guarated me they kick-ass too! So stay tuned!
Hell yeah ...at last! While waiting for money and gigs to combine for some live action again, here you go with another very "juicy" piece of music! Something for your air-guitarring and banging. I'll not be spending many words about them: go checking previous posts for more details or do the homework! Just this: I love these crazy fuckers...!!! Were they not so damn good, I wouldn't hesitate to apostrophe them as a "joke". Most of their lyrics are real none-senses...cultural parodies, puns and word-plays; all very amusing if you can grasp Japanese... but absolutely non-metallic! But if you can't pierce through the language - as many of you losers do... (just kidding!) - you are left only with an awesome dynamite-like explosion of freaky good music and four-balled screamer of a singer!
It is absolute mystery to me whay they are not yet world-wide famous af Firewind, Symphony X or others! Guess for the Jap. language...
SEX MACHINEGUNS-Final Attack at Budokan (2003 CDx2 )
Hei, dudes! Help me out! I must be sick or something, because it's a while I can't get full pleasure from anything I'm going through. Nothing that really makes me bang seriously...
Here a few of the aces that attracted more my attention lately. It's all new stuff and guess you can still find it around.
THE BURNING-Rewakening (2009)
This is a sturdy Death/Thrash M. from Denmark, a country with a good and healthy tradition in this thread. I don't really think it will leave any deep scar into the metal scene, but it has some different sound and some extra originality in it. Virtually all the tunes are build on very heavy and slow grindings armor, rythmic session drilling a good bunch of holes in it. The singing by Johnny Haven(!) - a breed between Cannibal Corpse death growling and Horse the Band semi-histeric core creaming - provide a rather fitting - and pleasant - rust coating to it. Forget speed ups here... You get a very slow metal scarnification.
VIII Strada-La Leggenda della Grande Porta (2009)
Here you have another very fine weirdo specimen. You are not going to bang on this, for sure. But this is an extremly talented Italian band playing one of the most refined Prog. M. I have ever heard. Don't gear up yet (or down): this is no Dream Theater-like wanna be stuff. I said "refined". Indeed I would hesitate even calling it metal at all. Singing is in Italian (with a very fine songwriting) and very high level, placing it quite close to the "cantautore" tradition of the country. Historical pop-rock band Pooh reminiscenses in melodies and singing are most striking and welcome. No jazz-like, relax! Yet, definitely eight tracks to listen with care and to enjoy and explore over and over.
ABROGATION-Sarggeburt (2009)
I must have gone really crazy! These guys sing in German... and I like them quite a bit! Rocking from Germany, they have a rather established curriculum, with already four full-lenghts and a series of demos and EPs, which strangerly I don't know! It's a rather immediate MDM with sustained but not excessive speed, a well aged and rotten-to-the good-point growl and an orgy of subtle & catchy melodies. Nothing complex, but nothing very simple either. Production is fine, sound is clean and, well... I'd dare to say quite refined - if we can go so far for this kind of music. It reminds me a bit of Artillery (whicha actually is thrash): a guitar sound that really gives me much pleasure! And, yes, here you can bang! Enjoy! The video below is pretty nice! Already loving these dudes...!
Sorry for keeping you waiting... Little time, few interesting gigs, not much time to go trough music. Anyway... Several boxes of treasures have been brought by the waves to the Port shores. Most of them are valuable stuff (Lambo fo God, Ansur, Acid Drinkers, Another Life, Gaia Epicus, Deathstars, etc.), but nothing really able to get under Cpt. skin too much. Except for a couple of items that really kicked my ass this week. So there you go!
ARTAS-The Healing (2008)
Fire! One shot, one kill! Ilove them and you'll love them too!MDM (actually thrash/death) from Austria. Young and fresh band at their first bloodbath.There is virtually nothing new in their tunes and singing style (which actually is above the average cosidering the style) except for a bit of German and Spanish singing seasoning. Nontheless they managed to give the usual ingredients a vigorous and original shake, creating a freaky good mayhem cocktail!Production is perfect and sound is very clean. You get raw & powerful grindings, speed, and a rythmic session boasting at the right point the singer thrasshy growling. No concession to clean singing, solos decorations or Nu-metal like release from agony's slow downs. Think it as a breed between Blood Stain Child sound and As I lay Dying power. Melodically brutal. Absolute highlights to try: Bastardo, The Healing, Raghenfels and... Gangster Paradise, an amazing EMINEM cover - believe it or not!
SYLOSIS-The Supreme Oppressor (2007 EP)
Brutal and yet coyly melodic - it has beed said. Sylosis, self-termed the ‘Shredding from Reading’, is a UK quintet mixing crunching guitars, ball-busting vocals and battering double-kick and snare combinations. Then just when you think you pinned them, they throw in long cyclical sequences of melodic guitars and softened vocals (and that I don't like).I came to know them through their first full-lenght, "Conclusion of an Age". But, despite being that one a brave concept based work, it sounded so much close to modern (good) core-, nu-like music comming from US, that it didn't really impress me much. On the contrary, this previous EP is so much more intriguing and plenty of ideas! Again, nothing new to it, as for the music style, nor for the vocal performance, which is so average and already heard. Yet they show a particular ability in nailing down raw power and turning it into seemingly effortless mood-music. Very good intuitions and (yet undeveloped) threads are dispayed here. I really hope I will reevaluate the full lenght trhough the promises of this shorter effort. Absolutely to try: Manipulations through Idols, Silence from those in the Sky, Blind Desperation.
Cpt. is still alive and well...! Don't worry! Just so busy lately that I had hardly any time for blogging or going through new music - believe it or not!And that's too bad, if you consider that our new port buddy Osiris has been refilling our warehouse with containers of fine pieces (will have to share some thoughts about that too).
One of the few things I went through lately (in a rainy day... closed in Cpt. cabin, while patrolling the waters) and thought it was worth mentioning is the following.By the way, check out CLAIRVOYANTS absolutely... too cool!
AMENTY-An Angel Dies in My Eyes (2008)
These young guys are from Bielorussia (don't stop reading for that!) and are kind of new-kids-on-the-blocks, i.e. this is their first album. Playing a kind of progressive/melodic MDM (COB, Beyond the Enbrace, ...) with a not-very-screammy but harsh voice (Amon Amarth-like, which I love), I kind of liked them on first listening (rather surprising and scary things for me). Crystal clear instruments; sustained, but not overpushed speed; constant rhythm changes and melodic metal-like guitar work are the highlights. Yes, OK... they still need to polish some corners here and there: you get some fall from grace in the form of accordion inserts (I really don't like), angelic female voice breakouts, etc., but on the whole it is a very enjoyable album, with great potential. A kind of slowed down power metal, with death singing.
Dudes! After listening to Chakal for a couple of times today, I kept on shuffling unrelentlessly my iPod looking for something I couldn't find... Nothing seemed to suits Ctp. mood, until... Until I got stuck with them! Wow! I already noticed them on a fast-forward listening weeks ago, when somebody dumped it on the Port's dock. Awesome production & sound, profound and intriguing voice, fantastic guitar grooves and arpeggios. Plus, they're Italian... I immediately rushed on homeworking!
TRINAKRIUS-The Black Hole Mind (2008)
Named after the ancient appelation of their island, Sicily, Trinakrius play an incredibly enjoyable breed between Heavy/Doom/Epic/Power. With 1 demo, 2 mini, and 1 full lengh album at their back, they presents themselves here with their second serious work (9 shells in it) and the re-release of their 2004 EP. Former singer (I don't happen to know) has been replaced by the young but incredibly talented Flavio Rezza. Indeed his voice full of pathos and never simply yelling, seems to move with absolute confidence along the whole range required and it is a real pleasure to get the ass sliced by the quick acute screaming he shove inside his constant low and profound gargling. He's got something of Dio... YEah, not the timbric... It's the way of "singing" and not screaming. Sound is said to have changed a bit from their first Metal Church's wannabe stuff. Well, let me tell you: the guitarwork now is awesome! It stays influenced by a traditional Epic-Doom approach, but down-to-earth Heavy Metal riffing rules. And it's a classic, slow and heavy riffing! Sometimes you get some Sabbath... but also some Metallica reminiscence in it. Forget doom gloomy moods. There is plenty of light, fantasy and energy in their track. Just it is delivered slowly... the old style...having you crawling after them! Psychedelic a bit, but very groovy! They have something of Rosae Crucis, another very talented Italian band, but I wouldn't be able to say what. Track absolutely to try: "Mad", "Killertomia"!
Check the sound! Two vids: one live ("Killertomia"), the second from the album ("Mad"). Fantastic!
