Waltari – You Are Waltari (2015)

Waltari - You Are Waltari (2015)

Waltari - You Are Waltari (2015) If you’re nostalgic for the 1989–1991 type of, “The Real Thing” era Faith No More, Waltari definitively it’s your type of band and you will devour their 14th studio album released on February 27, 2015.
The band’s name is a reference to the popular Finnish author Mika Waltari, a favourite author of guitarist Jariot Lehtinen.
Waltari was formed in 1986 in Helsinki, Finland, by Kärtsy Hatakka (vocals and bass), Jariot Lehtinen (guitars) and Sale Suomalainen (drums). Sami Yli-Sirniö joined as second guitarist in 1989.
Their first album entitled “Monk-Punk”, was released in 1991 followed next year by the album “Torcha!” (1992) on which Waltari started blending various musical styles into the sound that would become their own although there are strong similarities with the style and sound of Faith No More.
Their previous studio album, “Below Zero” was released in 2009 followed by a cover album entitled “Covers All” in 2011 – and I have wrote about it – read my review HERE.
The new album, “You Are Waltari” was introduced by the single “Digging the Alien” which also got a music video. Read more Waltari – You Are Waltari (2015)

Venom – From The Very Depths (2015)

Venom - From The Very Depths (2015)

Venom - From The Very Depths (2015) Venom is definitively one of the most influential metal bands of all times and they were genre founders with their first two albums, “Welcome to Hell” (1981) and “Black Metal” (1982). Their third album, “At War with Satan” (1984) left some serious marks on me too with it’s 20 minutes long title track. it was a semi-concept album that tells the story of a war between Heaven and Hell where the latter side wins. Cronos – bass guitar, vocals; Mantas – guitar and Abaddon – drums had major influence on the development of heavy metal and contributed to the creation of other sub-genres such as thrash, speed, death and power metal.
In 1985, Venom released their fourth album entitled “Possessed” which was not as successful as their previous albums. Dunn then left the band to pursue a solo career.
Their fifth album, 1987’s “Calm Before the Storm”, moved away from Satanic themes in favor of “sword and sorcery” material and it was even less successful than Possessed. As result Lant, Clare and Hickey all left Venom which left Bray as the only group member.
As many other fans I lost touch with Venom as many other exciting bands flourished on the scene. Read more Venom – From The Very Depths (2015)

A Swarm Of The Sun – The Rifts (2015)

A Swarm Of The Sun The Rifts 2015

A Swarm Of The Sun The Rifts 2015 This is the second installment from the Swedish duo A Swarm of the Sun and it will be released on January 30, 2015.
About many musical pieces I heard that people said it’s dark, but trust me, this is actually very dark, dense and depressive. It’s really overwhelming. You have to be in the right mood – state of the mind – to get through of it and enjoy it.
A Swarm of the Sun find their own path of music and their very own sound. It’s a massive wall of sound with subtle elements and a great balance of delicate emotions and pressuring density.
Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund – the core members of the band brought in drummer Karl Daniel Lidén to build up this sonic landscape based on smart layering and twisted melancholy. Heaviness and emotions are merged in this nine songs and the result it’s disturbing as an exorcism. In the official promo release they mention that “The Rifts reflects on various implications of a very specific, profound and personal struggle” – and it’s actually really came out of their music, literally you can feel some sort of deep sadness and shattering pain.
The music it’s expressive in a quit realistic way that it simply take you to some other place and bury you there in the end and it take effort to crawl back to the reality of your living-room. Read more A Swarm Of The Sun – The Rifts (2015)

John Zorn – The Song Project Vinyl Singles Edition (2014)

John Zorn – The Song Project Vinyl Singles Edition (2014) This is not an album, but a treasure with the characteristic of a dynamite: it will explode right in your face in the very moment when you will push play.
Although there is a solid line-up of gifted singers such as Jesse Harris or Sofia Rei, the crown belongs to the genius of Mike Patton. He’s really something and he is brilliant, sparkling and unique each and every time, with each song he reveals another shade or dimension of his unlimited possibilities to approach and perform a song. It’s both admirable and completely disarming.
But the release feature a whole army of outstanding musicians conducted by the man who put all this “atoms” and “elements’ to work, the Magus John Zorn. Marc Ribot – Guitar; Trevor Dunn – Bass; John Medeski – Organ, Piano, Fender Rhodes; Kenny Wollesen – Vibes, Joey Baron – Drums and Cyro Baptista – Percussion are the solid foundation of these sonic buildings. Read more John Zorn – The Song Project Vinyl Singles Edition (2014)

L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)

L'Effondras - L'Effondras (2014)

L'Effondras - L'Effondras (2014) Post-rock it’s a vast and vague space and definition, fancy sometimes, abstract and elitist/exclusivist, but unfortunately mostly shallow, quite selfish and meaningless. Instrumental bands and albums scar me as David Bowie is afraid of Americans.
L’Effondras – actually ☉ – it’s a French instrumental trio and when I first watch a recording of one of their live performances posted on YouTube my first thought was early (Barrett era) Pink Floyd. So, it’s not really that “thing” called “djent” – or whatever – and – fortunately – it’s not that bored to death thing called quite elegantly shoegaze (or shoegazing). Although, there’s a little bit of both worlds in their music, but they manage to combine all those elements smartly and efficiently. Read more L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)

dNeau & mSelv – Junior Spirit (2014)

dNeau & mSelc - Junior Spirit (2014)

dNeau & mSelc - Junior Spirit (2014) A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Music with roots back to the 70’s and 80’s, a wide and vivid space where disco meet psychedelic flavours and funk collide violently into acid pop. Grooves and feelings are drifting into the unknown in a quite disturbing after-hour trip. You take off on the wings of the sound, but you don’t know where you will landing. If you close your eyes and turn up the volume, you can fly. Or just simply you will falling up.
My personal favorites are the Bowie-feels-like “Chinoise” and the hypnotic title track, but there is a piece of cake for everybody who’s willing to listen!
Buy and support independent artists!! Read more dNeau & mSelv – Junior Spirit (2014)

From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)

Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2

Rich Prewett From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 This is a quite ambitious and interesting project I had stumbled into a few years back and yes, I saw the opportunity in it and gave the link to my American guitarist friend Rich Prewett. If I recall it correctly, the first song he made was “Egoista”, then he did “Sonhar” and it was followed soon by another one. Rich did an awesome job mixing those African vocals with good old tasty blues flavors. I told him that it would be great if he put together a whole album out of it and that’s what he did!
And this is really good. Feel good, sound good. Rich Prewett is a quite experience and versatile musician and producer, he made miracles with those vocal stems. The music he created and performed around those vocal tracks it’s a vivid mixture of blues, rock, reggae and Latin vibes and sounds, but maintaining throughout a “world”, an universal flavor of it. This is extremely universal, but still, very particularly Rich.
I love it throughout!! Read more From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)

John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014)

John Zorn – The Last Judgement (2014)

John Zorn – The Last Judgement (2014) This seems to be the last piece of the mystical-musical puzzle started by Zorn. I’m still in love with the insanely brilliant “Ipsissimus” released in 2010, followed by “Templars-In Sacred Blood” in 2012.
Zorn formed in 2006 the hardcore voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron which became known as the Moonchild Trio.
Moonchild is the title of a novel written by Aleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians over an unborn child. In the novel, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers’ magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member, “A.B.” is theosophist Annie Besant.
Same year two albums of Zorn’s compositions performed by the trio were released: “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” and “Astronome”. Read more John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014)

AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014)

AC/DC - Rock or Bust (2014)

AC/DC - Rock or Bust (2014) Who would believed that there will be a fifteenth AC/DC album in 2014 on 19 February 1980? With a serious six year gap since the release of their previous album, “Black Ice”, and repeated rumors regarding their eminent retirement, nobody really expected one more AC/DC album. But damn, if Rolling Stones managed to celebrated their 50th anniversary in the summer of 2012, it would be a serious treason if the Australian rockers would not have their 40th anniversary with a world tour in 2015! Still in school-uniform outfit, Angus is 59 years old!!
At under 35 minutes, it is the shortest studio album ever released by the band, two minutes shorter than their previous shortest album, “Flick of the Switch”, which was released back in 1983. Looking at the song titles – Rock the Blues Away, Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder, Rock or Bust, Rock the House, Play Ball, Baptism by Fire – it is definitively a genuine AC/DC album: everything just stay the same as it ever was. And – obviously – that’s what most of their fans expect from them. I think bringing in someone like DJ Lethal – for instance – or any other creative fresh mind and not some fancy assh*le like Sonny John Moore (aka. Skrillex), would be a nice touch, but then again, experiments are always involve high level of risk and these guys and their hardcore audience are extremely conservative. Don’t worry guys, the album consist of only good-old Rock’N’Roll!!
The only change is Malcolm and Angus’ nephew Stevie Young replacing Malcolm Young who seems to be seriously ill and unable to perform. Read more AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014)