Kvelertak (Witch is Norwegian for "stranglehold" or "chokehold") is a six-piece rock band witch was formed in 2007. The group comprises of singer Erlend Hjelvik, guitar players Vidar Landa, Bjarte Lund Rolland and Maciek Ofstad,bass player Marvin Nygaard and drummer Kjetil Gjermundrød.
Right, before I actually get into the music on this album, I have a rectification to make. You see, in the review of my first encounter with this band, which was for the remixes EP Underground: Voodoo Night Sessions (review posted 20/12/2009) I made a small mistake, namely to assume that the band's full-length album Underground was still to be released...when in fact it had been issued a year prior to the EP, on Nov. 14, 2008. At that time our website had not yet re-connected with the people of Alfa Matrix yet.
A “glis”, in the animal world, is an apparently edible dormouse. Well, that's where I stopped reading on, because I didn't wanna know any more that thàt! So I went on to search, and found out there's a Los Angeles/ Copenhaven based Ambience/ Experimental “Fucked -up” Pop act by the name of Gliss (twó times “s”), and a one-man project named Glis Glis, playing Shoegazer-like music.
Since the band released their former effort (Grand Feast For Vultures) in 2009, and because three of the members started another band / project (Mongo Ninja) around that time as well, I thought Blood Tsunami were no more. But praise the Gods of Trash! Blood Tsunami are back! This time, the band comes with a new bass player (a guitar player from Sweden, Carl Janfalk) and a new label they signed with (Indie), but that is not the most important difference with the past.
Stone Sour is an American band that was formed in Iowa somewhere in 1992, performing for five years, before disbanding in 1997. They reunited in 2002 and since 2012, the group has consisted of Corey Taylor (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Jim Root (guitar, keyboard), Josh Rand (guitar) and Roy Mayorga (drums, percussion). The band is good for 2 Grammy nominations various other awards and now a fourth album.
Woodcut released the demo-MCD Grim Death Awaits as an appetizer to this full length (damn, it took very long, too long), but finally we might welcome the first official full length studio album by Finland’s Vorum. I was very pleased with that 2009’s promotional mini-album, so my expectations were high.
Voices are a new project with a couple of former Akercocke-members. And those who are trusted with Akercocke might have a clue about what Voices stand for.
Belgian auto-didactic musician / multi-instrumentalist / composer Mathieu Vandekerckhove is known from his activities in acts like AmenRa, Caan, Sembler Deah or Kingdom, but since ten years, he acts as a solo-artist under the moniker of Syndrome as well. In 2011, for example, he did release the surprising full length Floating Veins (on CD and LP, via ConSouling Sounds).
Imagine a blend of Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes, AC/DC and some other bands, and you’ve got Stone Axe. This album was recorded at the 2011 Roadburn Festival, but it could just as easily have been a studio recording, because the public is hardly to be heard on the album, and the performance of the band does not much differ either.
With this Deluxe Edition, Ripple Music brings us a rerelease of Stone Axe’s second album. As a matter of fact it’s the complete original album, expanded by a second CD, with tracks that were previously only available on vinyl, or were part of a compilation, and some tracks that were never before released. Is this alone worth buying this album? I’m not sure. After all it’s more of the same stuff, being seventies inspired rock, reminiscing to many of the great bands that existed or sprouted in that period of time.
