“This is a big hearted and ferocious triumph” – declared Dom Lawson of Metal Hammer, while Nick Ruskell of Kerrang! go even further and proclaim: “British Lion is a brilliant album”. Well, it have its moments, but far not so brilliant as the media (and EMI) try to sell it to us. I can understand and generally I appreciate the British proud and the unconditional support for their own artists, and if not Steve Harris, the former and leader of one of the most famous and influential Heavy Metal bands of all time – talking about Iron Maiden, obviously – then don’t know who else might be called a “Rock icon”, but still, these 10 tracks are not so thundering and lightning Metal masterpieces as they are advertised. Actually singer Richard Taylor is another pale and weak copy of Ian Gillan mixed up with Bruce Dickinson, fortunately 100 better then poor Blaze Bayley, but not even close to the almighty Dickinson. This album with Dickinson, well, then, maybe, this could come closer to the praises. But Richard Taylor’s voice is smooth, but completely powerless.
On the other hand David Hawkins and Grahame Leslie delivered some excellent guitar parts while Steve Harris, surprisingly, managed to play his bass more colorful as he regularly does it in Maiden. Worth to highlight it, there are a couple of actually brilliant guitar solos on the album.
And strangely, the album here and there reminds me more of some Dickinson’s solo work from the 90’s, rather then sounding as a 2012 Metal album. And for God’s sake, the lyrics, who was interested in another song about Judas??! Read more Steve Harris – British Lion (2012)
Metal
Bone Dance – Self-Titled (2012)
Morgan Mechling – vocals, Phillip Davis – guitars and vocals, Kasey Richardson – guitars, Bryce Kresge – bass and visuals, and Patrick Santana – drums are here to unleash the Hell of fury and contorted, merciless Metal. Forging genres, melting into one Black Metal and (Post) Hardcore, Sludge and Doom, technical and extreme Metal, Bone Dance is not “just” a band, but an attitude, a state of spirit and mind, and they delivering not “only” music, but their work is a manifest. Back in the days, Rollins Band had this kind of attitude and energy, although Bone Dance speeding up wildly, just like you put a 33⅓ r.p.m. spinning vinyl record up on 45 while Morgan Mechling keep on howling bloody deadly.
Grinding the tooth of chaotic Hardcore/Metal, Bone Dance enforce the balance and sharpness, clarity in their music, find the equilibrium between rage and conscience, despair and revolt, gloom and grooves. And throughout this extremely consistent 10 tracks, Bone Dance manage to merge the extremes: slowly grinding moments with brutally fast overtakes; contorted and gloomy riffs with cutting to the bone sharp ones; truly distorted, twisted passages with groovy, powerful build-ups. This wild, but fluid approach keeps the listener attention sharp throughout this massacre. Give up all hopes and push play!! Read more Bone Dance – Self-Titled (2012)
Ektomorf – Black Flag (2012)
Although they have been often criticized as being heavily influenced by Max Cavalera’s Sepultura and Soulfly, Ektomorf managed to gather a serious fan base around Europe and the perseverance of Zoltán “Zoli” Farkas finally were fructified. Too similar to Sepultura and Soulfly or not, Ektomorf deliver the same kind of merciless, intense, Hardcore fueled, modern, Groove Metal. In these riffs, screaming vocals, heavily pounding drums there is no compromise, but fury, focused anger, brutally expressed honest, human revolt.
Ektomorf was founded in 1993 in Mezőkovácsháza, Hungary, a small city near the Romanian border, by Zoltán “Zoli” Farkas. Due to his gypsy background Zoli saw himself confronted with racism and prejudices, which made even harder for an East European Metal band to get recognized, locally and internationally. After releasing 3 records and touring Hungary back and forth, their breakthrough came when they started collaboration with Danish producer Tue Madsen. They singed to Nuclear Blast in 2004 and moved to AFM Records in 2009 being label mates with bands such as U.D.O., Doro, Masterplan, Annihilator, etc.
“Black Flag” is the band’s eight studio album, although, on February 17, 2012, the band relesed through AFM Records an album entitled “The Acoustic” consist in 12 “unplugged” (acoustic) versions of newly recorded songs from previous records, plus two cover songs, “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”. Read more Ektomorf – Black Flag (2012)
Le Minus – Make My Day (2012)
At first instinct it seems handy to label Le Minus as a Primus follower and probably this French trio would not even consider themselves insulted, but listening throughout “Make My Day”, beside the obvious Les Claypool influences, Le Minus incorporates in their vivid musical universe elements which lead back to bands such as Mordred, Infectious Grooves, Fishbone, Living Colour and Rush. Sometimes getting wickeder and more Metal fueled (“Playing With Echoes”, “One Parachute”), the band forged some furious heavy riffs to combine them with some twisted funky grooves and crazy rhythmic structures finding the perfect balance between heaviness and fluidity, precision and wildness, complexity and efficiency.
Lord Murray, sing and play the bass pretty close in Les Claypool’s manner; Captain’ Yo have those Primus flavored crazy solos, but also deliver some serious riffs while drummer MOX is responsible for the solid structural and rhythmical bases of the trio. 9 tracks, a wild, colorful incursion in the experimental/avant-garde outer limits of Rock/Metal, an explosive fusion of energy and power, colors and flavors, murderous grooves, perfectly suitable for the fans of Claypool and Primus, but not only, more conventional/conservator listeners, fans of Rush for instance, may find this pretty exciting. Read more Le Minus – Make My Day (2012)
Aphrodite’s Baby – 90, EP (2012)
My French is rusty ( 😆 ), so, their bio in French really did not helped me too much, but this 4 track EP is definitively pretty convincing. Aphrodite’s Baby reminds me of an unleashed Rollins Band, they managed to merged together the Punk attitude, the Hardcore rawness and the intensity and grooves of the modern Metal and delivered an ass-kicker material.
But this “90” it’s also a fun concept. Danny Madigan, played by Austin O’Brien, was the kid in the “Last Action Hero” movie, (1993) the big fan of Jack Slater, a larger-than-life action hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Axel Stone is one of the main character of the “Streets of Rage” series video game beside Adam Hunter and Blaze Fielding. And far as I found out, “Hocus Locust” is a skill from the “Dragon Quest” series and this skill reduces the MP of one enemy. I’m still in trouble and digging for Larry Kubiac who might be Francis Lawrence “Larry” Kubiac III played by Abraham Benrubi in the American teen sitcom, entitled “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” which originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993, but I’m really not sure about this…. 😆
So, the music is Read more Aphrodite’s Baby – 90, EP (2012)
G.M.B.C. – Complete Omnivore (2012)
Completely disturbing, noisy and contorted, explosive, G.M.B.C. delivering the most dangerous type of Hardcore with Metal outfit in the footsteps of Converge and merging the furious attitude of Dead Kennedys with the overwhelming sound and energy of Pantera. G.M.B.C. are here to set the world on fire. The 8 tracks of “Complete Omnivore” are a merciless and compromiseless ride into the wild and once the pogo starts, nobody can stop it! But this isn’t only about energy and aggression, G.M.B.C. came up with some grinding you into the ground rhythms, some cutting to the bones riffs and at the bottom line they actually delivered a couple of great songs.
“Baldwin’s Case” have some moments which sounds like a meat grinder. “Evil Sex Machine” have the heaviness and southern spirit of Down combined with some madly speed Hardcore grinding. “Platini Beach” have a kind of Punk vibe while “Rasputin” sounds like a modern version of Napalm Death – both track are only few seconds over one minute. “Fat On Dry” sounds like Dead Kennedys doing a little Grindcore butchery, and “Moto Salad” have the sick taste of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Read more G.M.B.C. – Complete Omnivore (2012)
Ostfront – Ave Maria (2012)
Operation Ostfront (German for “Eastern Front”) was the sortie into the Arctic Ocean by the German warship Scharnhorst during World War II. In May 1941, after the loss of the German battleship Bismarck, Adolf Hitler had forbidden any German capital ship from venturing into contested seas. By December 1943 the tide had turned against Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic had been lost, and supplies poured into the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. In September 1943 the German battleship Tirpitz was disabled during the British Operation Source, leaving Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen the only operational heavy ships in the Kriegsmarine. In November 1943 the Arctic Convoys restarted. On 19 December 1943 Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz submitted a request to Hitler to allow Scharnhorst to attack the next convoy sailing through the Barents Sea. On the 25 December 1943 Dönitz ordered Ostfront to commence. Admiral Fraser, alerted by Norwegian resistance information to the possibility of an interception by Scharnhorst, prepared a trap for the German warship.
On 25 December Scharnhorst sailed to intercept the British convoy, JW 55B, believing it to be sparsely protected. In the ensuing Battle of the North Cape Scharnhorst was separated from her escorting destroyers and was sunk. This is history.
Neue Deutsche Härte – “New German Hardness” it’s a term invented by the German music press in 1995 specially to describe/defined the music delivered by Rammstein on their debut album “Herzeleid”. Also known as German Electronic Metal or Dance Metal (tanzmetall), this new genre has its roots in the music of bands such as Laibach, Die Krupps and Oomph! and along Rammstein the genre is proudly represented by bands such as Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Megaherz, Tanzwut, Umbra et Imago, In Extremo, Omega Lithium, Stahlhammer, Fleischmann, etc.
Ost+Front will definitively delight all and each Rammstein fan. Read more Ostfront – Ave Maria (2012)
Black Light Burns – The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (2012)
“The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall”, the sophmore album by the Wes Borland leaded and fronted Black Light Burns sounds sweat and dark in a quite David Bowish manner. It’s impossible to stick any label to this music, it’s impossible to squeeze it into any defined genre of style, this is post “something” without being typically finicky and selfishly obscure and pointlessly exclusivist, it’s simultaneously Rock, mainly noisy and garage taste-like, but sometimes Jazzy, and Industrial in a quite classic sense and approach, but avoiding all the cliches and mandatory conformity. It’s arty, but not abstract and it’s trippy without becoming shapeless. Wes Borland definitively founded a fascinating, very own flavored path here and delivered a pretty exciting material.
Vividly colored, changing moods and grooves, “The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall” it’s a bold, literally edgy cutting, modern (Industrial) Rock album, one of the finest of it’s kind.
Quitting Limp Bizkit in 2001, Read more Black Light Burns – The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (2012)
Inside-Project – A History of Violence (2012)
Pounding drums and murderous tempos, cutting till the bone riffs, bloody howling/deadly screaming vocals, “get the hell out of my way” attitude, merging the Death and Thrash Metal rooted with the intensity and energy of the Hardcore, Inside-Project are back!
Three years after “Alone facing death” and after playing more than 100 gigs across Europe, shredding the stage with bands such as Motorhead, Suicidal Tendencies, Agnostic Front, Gojira, Entombed, Tagada Jones, Paradise Lost, L’Esprit du Clan, This Is Hell, Ultra Vomit, Mass Hysteria, The Arrs, Eluveitie, “A History of Violence” consist of 11 merciless, the Alpha and Omega of modern Metal brutality. Read more Inside-Project – A History of Violence (2012)
Testament – The Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
Testament was formed in 1983, in Berkeley, California and they are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s Thrash Metal scene. Singer Chuck Billy replaced former singer Steve Souza – also of another Thrash legend, Exodus – in 1986, prior to the recording of their first studio album, “The Legacy”, and while guitarist Eric Peterson has been credited as the only constant member since foundation and the band had numerous lineup changes, the current line-up includes two other original members, guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Greg Christian, while behind the drums we’ve got Gene Hoglan (associated with artists such as Devin Townsend, Dark Angel, Death, Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad, Pitch Black Forecast, and most recently Fear Factory) who initially joined the band back in ’96 and replaced Paul Bostaph during the recording session.
To date, Testament has released nine studio albums, four live albums, six compilation albums, and six singles, and they were one of the first Thrash Metal bands to sign to a major label, to Atlantic Records, in 1986. They achieved their biggest success with their 1992 released, fifth album, “The Ritual”, which debuted at #55 on the Billboard 200 charts, the band’s highest ever chart position in the United States. The band also has two Top 40 albums and one Top 50 album to its credit in the UK. Their previous, ninth studio album, “The Formation of Damnation” (2008) entered the Top 20 in Germany at #15.
Released on July 27, 2012 in Europe, the 50 minutes of their tenth studio album, “The Dark Roots of Earth” it’s the perfect refreshment for all the true metallers and headbangers fueled by the nostalgia of the 80’s raw Thrash slaughters. Read more Testament – The Dark Roots of Earth (2012)
