“Last Man Standing”, the leading single of the second full-length album by Pop Evil was released last fall and it’s a strong, powerful, 101 % American rock/metal song with all its best characteristics. “Monster You Made”, the second single from the album, was released on June 7, 2011 and it’s a power-ballad, maybe we chances on the charts, but actually quite pale and pointless. The album it’s right between great rock songs and themes and pale, faceless, plastic and second-hand taste like indie/post grunge whatevers. Good to hear catchy, beefy riffs like “Last Man Standing”, “Boss’s Daughter”, “Epitaph” or “Black & Blue” have, I see (hear) no sense in the Pearl Jam meats Bon Jovi copying “Let It Go”, “Next Life”, “Purple” and the mentioned “Monster You Made” ballads and cliches. Read more Pop Evil – War of Angels (2011)
album
Vicious Rumors – Razorback Killers (2011)
There’s no future without past, and maybe for some youngsters it may seems incredible, Vicious Rumors are on the heavy metal scene for 32 years, being one of the true “defenders of the faith”. And not only accidentally I quote the 1984s Judas Priest album’s title, on “Razorback Killers” introduced him self for the first time on a Vicious Rumors album vocalist Brian Allen, another old acquaintance from the mid 80s when he was the front-man of the band Malice and they stroked with albums such “In the Beginning…” and “Licence to Kill”. Back then Brian Allen were widely compared to Metal God Rob Halford and his voice still have the same power and characteristics.
While composer and guitarist Geoff Thorpe is the only constant member right from the beginning, “Razorback Killers” is “only” the band’s tenth studio album, but features several guest musicians including former guitarist Mark McGee. Read more Vicious Rumors – Razorback Killers (2011)
Naisian – Mammalian (2011)
Far off from the Brit scene and tends, Naisian from Sheffield, brings to the surface a tumultuous, contorted metal with roots back both to the classic Black Sabbath sound and the mixture of sludge and post-hardcore riffs, in their music is a perfect balance between dark and noisy elements and sometimes psychedelic, other time warm and calm, spacy moments. James Borrowdale – guitar and vocals, Adam Zejma – guitar and vocals, Micheal Aitken – bass and vocals and Jordan Garlick – (only 🙂 ) drums, create a quite exciting and unique blending of intense metal and avantgardist surfing. “Mammalian” can be listen and downloaded (“name your price”) from the band’s Bandcamp page. It worth every minute and every penny. Read more Naisian – Mammalian (2011)
Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)
“Kuu” is the Finish word for “moon” while “Kauna” means “long”. Kauan started by Anton Belov in February 2005 at Chelyabinsk, Russia. Belov also play under the moniker Helengard with Alina “Witch_A.†Roberts (Inferno, ex-Semargl) and in the project called inea with Ilya Rikhter (from K Seven and R Is For Rockets). Kauna started as a folk black band and in 2006 Lubov Mushnikova joined the band as a violin player. The duo moved in the direction of folk doom and grown into folk rock/post rock maintaining their gloomy, epic sound. Even though the band is from Russia, they writes lyrics both in Russian and Finnish language. “Kuu…” is their forth full-length album and it’s probably their most sophomore, experimental and colorful release up to date. Read more Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)
Far From The Tree – You’ve Crashed Your Only Vessel (2011)
I’m almost frightened when I had to listen another band labeled “metalcore”. A few years back bands started to deny any reference to “emo”, it will take no long till bands will start denying any connection to metalcore. Till than, day after day dozen of bands, albums came through, most of them delivering the same trendy cliches. Fortunately, there are few exceptions from time to time, and Far From The Tree are one of them. “You’re Crashed Your Only Vessel” is a powerful mixture of old-school heavy metal riffings – well, some of them are returning quite to the NWOBHM and particularly to Iron Maiden – and some groove metal riffs while the space between is filled up with techno textures and layers. Cody screams, howls and sings as any singer with self esteem should nowadays and the band delivering from intense grindings to nice acoustic breaks everything to make the whole machinery sounds dynamic and catchy. And well, they do a pretty good job. Read more Far From The Tree – You’ve Crashed Your Only Vessel (2011)
Altar Of Plagues – Mammal (2011)
Pretty gloomy, merging elements from black metal to post-rock and creating sometimes contorted butcheries, other moments twisted, spacy, atmospheric, ambient passages, from Cork, Ireland, Altar Of Plagues strikes again with their second full-length album and four dark, epic, tumultuous tracks. Formed in 2006, they take influence from several differerent acts such as Emperor, Björk and Arvo Pärt. The bands untraditional aesthetic and approach to the music has led to a wide variety of listeners and this may be seen by the diverse range of acts Altar of Plagues have toured with, including Isis and Mayhem, as well as having appeared at festivals that focus on ‘extreme’ metal and festivals that encourage experimentation and diversity. Read more Altar Of Plagues – Mammal (2011)
Amnesis – The Pier (2011)
Terry Gilliam’s film, “12 Monkeys” (1995) was inspired by, and takes several concepts directly from the pretty obscure French film “La jetée” made in 1962 by Chris Marker and known in English as “The Jetty” or “The Pier.” The film, by the way: black and white, runs for 28 minutes and the plot is quite simple, the main character – appears as “The Man” – is a prisoner in the aftermath of the Third World War, in a destroyed, post-apocalyptic Paris where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods “to call past and future to the rescue of the present”. They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel, but eventually settle upon the prisoner, whose key to the past is a vague but obsessive childhood memory of a woman (who features obviously as “The Woman”) during an incident where a man was killed on the boarding platform (the jetty) at Orly Airport. Read more Amnesis – The Pier (2011)
The Horrors – Skying (2011)
When you’re bloody bored or just feels like you’ve got it all, you stair down to your shoes and spit off something “new”. So, what the heck is shoegaze?! Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly-formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. The term was picked up by the NME and Melody Maker and they used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands’ guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals, seemingly deep in concentration, while playing. So, it’s not quite a subgenre, we’re just re-labeled something. Just like nobody’s emo anymore, everybody are metalcore, perhaps it sells better. I’m just scared to ask what the fuck is Nu gaze? 😆
Back in 2007 I kind of like “Strange House”, the debut album by The Horrors. It wasn’t about “shoegazing”, it was punk rock with horror and gothic rock shades and aromas, it was raw. I’m not gonna lie to you, I think I missed “Primary Colours” in 2009, or I just can not remember it in that mindless grinding of releases. I’m getting too old for this. Read more The Horrors – Skying (2011)
Copacabana Club – Tropical Splash (2011)
This year I stumbled into a couple of excellent Brazilian bands from quite different genres – not that I actually care about labels – , starting from The Tape Disaster and MindFlow to the Campbell Trio and Lisabi. Copacabana Club reminds me of another great Brazilian band: Cansei de Ser Sexy, and by the way, after a three years gap, their new album entitled “La Liberacion” will be released at the end of the next month. So, Copacabana Club have the same kind of vibe and groove, labeled by some as New Rave, they mixing indie pop with 80s funk, rock with pop and push you directly to the dancefloor. Their mixture it’s very fresh, pumping, energy full and catchy, but it’s also kind of glamorous and retro, still absolutely now days, fresh. And “Tropical Splash” is filled with one by one catchy songs, from the anthematic “Peach” to the provocative “Sex Sex Sex”, the minimalist “Pas Toujours” and the catchy “Just Do It” or the bluesy “Darling”. Read more Copacabana Club – Tropical Splash (2011)
Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
Combining elements of classic British progressive rock and jazz, not so popular genres nowadays, probably may seem commercial suicide, but this extremely exciting eight piece band from Barcelona, Spain, delivering an absolutely groovy and colorful mixture of jazz, jazz rock and progressive rock, their music overlapping the classic sounds of the 60s and 70s, but introducing modern, avant-garde textures, glows, experimental turns and subtle colors, creating unique, new musical fusions.
Founded in Barcelona in 1999, the band is named after a radically creative children’s TV show from the early 1980s – Imaginary Planet. Their music should appeal to listeners of such diverse artists as: Anekdoten, AKA moon, Area, John Coltrane, King Crimson, Avishai Cohen, Steve Coleman, Deus ex Machina, Gabriel Faure, Gilgamesh, Hatfield at the North, Pat Metheny, Nucleus, Soft Machine, Van der Graaf Generator, Frederic Mompou, National Health, Weather Report, Kenny Werner, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn. Read more Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
