Bertus

There have been but a few albums where upon the first listening I got an immediate ‘Whow’ effect.  Well this second album by Greek/German band Redrum had that effect on me.

Amberian Dawn, a Finnish symphonic metal band released a compilation album “Re-Evolution” of the most successful songs from their four previous albums as a way to introduce and show off the talents of their new singer Capri after the departure of Heidi Parviainen. It is not a groundbreaking album, there are no real new songs to review but Capri does change something, from a technical standpoint the sound is very different and leaning more and more towards power metal compared to the Heidi era.

Melodic death metal / metalcore band Six Reasons to Kill, based in Germany recently released their fifth album “We are Ghosts”.

It is obvious that the band put a lot of time in constructing their songs and building this album. It contains an excellent arrangement of blast beats, breakdowns, tempo variations, melodic parts, lyrical elements and powerful riffs taking their hybrid of aggressive metal and modern hardcore to a higher level.

Hey Kid (what a stupid name) is a fairly good debut album where grunge-, classic-, alt-, punk- and stonerish rock passages flow into each other, effortlessly it seems. Of the more heavier tunes, “A wrapped solution” definitely sticks out, with some guitar solos and some harmonic drum tapping. The vocals could have been better, but they should not scare anyone away. The 9 rather short (2-5min) tracks stretch unimpressive musical ideas far too thin, and the instrumental sections never build into anything really exciting.

Xavier Rudd might sound familiar to your ears. He's a multitalented Australian singer-songwriter and a strong environmental activist. As a direct consequence, the songs he produces are mostly society bound. He uses his music as a tool to stand up for the Aboriginees he cares so much about and to prevail our vulnerable Mother Earth. Also on his latest piece of music, which goes by the name of Spirit Bird, these elements are clearly present and thoroughly worked out.

Sweden has always been the breeding ground of many great metal bands. One that has been taken from under the dust is the female fronted rock 'n roll band Sister Sin. Ten years ago, they released their debut record, called Dance Of The Wicked. But as the band didn't get the success they deserved back then, the American label Victory Records decided to re-release the album.

The Italian Symphonic kings Rhapsody Of Fire just released a new live- album “Live- From Chaos To Eternity”. The album will be available as 2 cd digipack and as limited 3 vinyl set. The material on this album was recorded on the band’s latest European tour in Spring of 2012. The album contains a mixture of old classics and newer tracks. Since their release of “Legendary Tales” in 1997, the band gave a new meaning to the word “epic”. On this album you get 24 songs including drum solo, that maybe is a bit long.

Their 2009 movie documentary The Story Of Anvil had made the band famous over the world, following seemingly endless years of energy- sapping tours. Their albums are considered as landmarks among a musical genre. Their most recent release “Juggernaut Of Justice” from 2011, was a powerfull and unrelenting thunderbolt of the first order. Now this Candian cult metal act are back with their new recording “Hope In Hell”.

Light Your Anchor is a five-piece, German Melodic Hardcore band that was founded in Hamburg in 2011 and they are back with their first full-length album ‘Hopesick’. If you liked their EP ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ than you will certainly love the album, it’s filled with old school melodic and technical hardcore spiced up by the load of variations in style, tempo and structure with a clever combination of screaming and melodic vocals.

More than twenty five years ago our beautifully smelly Earth got festered when Autopsy decided to exist. Through miscreants like Severed Survival and Acts Of The Unspeakable, the quartet injected the American Death Metal scene with their own vision of gore and terror, and undersigned was pleased. I saw it was good… Autopsy unfortunately disbanded in 1995 and some of the members continued under the moniker of Abscess, another great, and slightly comparable act with messages of love and peace, evidently.