Reviews
\r\nSubconsciously I have connected the word “Necropolis” with negative emotions and generally repulsive thoughts (no, I am not referring to Manilla Road) so imagine my surprise when I saw that cursed word as an album title of one of my favorite death metal bands. Funny thing is that this specific album with a title like that is one of the best works I have listened to the last couple of years and I am not referring only to Vader but to the whole death metal scene.
\r\nSweden is really busy "producing" new metal bands that, even the weakest of them, make quality albums. Another band that makes it’s debut these days is Mean Streak with their album "Metal Slave". A solid work, good old-school heavy metal, with every one of the cliches, both in music and in lyrics, that have characterised heavy metal during the last years. Besides, from what I’ve seen, their main goal is to play the music they truly love and nothing else.
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\r\nA VIKING RE-ISSUE\r\n \r\n
\r\nSwedish Deathsters - Amon Amarth - are releasing through Metal Blade Records a re-issue of the album -Versus the World - and the fans of Amon Amarth are going to be very happy about this release.\r\n
\r\nThe Helsinki Vampires are back and they are sleazier than ever!! Forget about gothic vampires, cobwebbed crypts and cursed love affairs. These vampires are completely different, they love parties and undead chicks while their natural habitat seems to be the dark alleys of Hollywood and the steaming strip clubs and what’s more important …they’ll rock the hell outta you!
\r\nVanity Ink’s second full-length album is out now and it will be a difficult work for anybody to be a critic against this band. Because they can surely cheer up someone who listens to their work, but until what point the lack of talent and new ideas can be fought with their enormous lust for rock n’ roll and great sense of humour? I believe that everything has it’s limit... \r\n
\r\nThings are not always what they seem; when I saw the cover of the cd I thought that I was going to listen to some goth or doom metal band. I couldn’t imagine that actually I was dealing with a Hard Rock band! Well, after listening to the first song, while looking thoroughly at the artwork at the same time, I got the picture. Both the songs and the whole artwork are totally 80’s. The production, the mixing, the compositions, the feeling…everything feels as if we are in a time machine.
\r\nI’ll have to admit that it’s a strange fact that Zero Illusion’s first cd reached our headquarters about 8 months after it’s official release. I thought that such a delay could justify a lack of professionalism and quality in this band’s work and luckily I was proven 100% wrong. After the first hearing of their album I made a short reasearch of what has been written for them internationally and in Sweden. The band has been characterised as "the new Swedish hope". I can tell you, whoever told those words, was absolutely right. \r\n
\r\nOne more album from the swedish veterans, StoneLake which is characterised by a great level of professionalism and creativity. Their 20 years experience is a fact well known and proven in their new album as Peter Grundstrom and Jan Akesson show us, unlike other bands of this genre, how someone can make heavy metal music in the year 2009 without repeating any of the staff we already know. Another fact that shows us their consistency is that since 2006 they release one album per year. This isn’t something any band can do. \r\n
\r\nI’ll begin this review with a simple question, can someone tell me what is the year we’re into??? Listening Dynazty’s debut "Bring The Thunder", I can tell you that the time machine has just been invented and we live in 1987. Hard rock AOR seems to make an unexpected comeback in today’s music reality and Dynazty make a strong debute with their first work called "Bring The Thunder". The band finished their work in 2007 and it’s out now, two years later.
\r\nEven though Mindead’d cd is on the market since 2008, we just received it. However, I think that it worth mentioning a few things about it because it’s a pretty good album.
\r\nTo be honest, I hadn’t heard of them before, even though they are in the music scene for many years and they have already released 2 EPs. “Abandon all hope” is the title of their debut album, which contains 11 tracks of modern metal with many metalcore elements. Mindead’s music style can be related to bands such as KORN, Soulfly, Machine Head and Sevendust.