Bertus

I was fortunate enough to see Hidira Spacefolk at the latest Burg Herzberg fest in Germany. So with great anticipation I waited for their newest full-length Astronautica. 

I remember when way back in 1982 one of my friends bought a copy of the first Tank album ‘Filth Hounds Of Hades’, and how it created quite some kick.  This was almost raw energy, poured into a musical equivalent.  However this didn’t mean that I became a great fan of this band, but they had some good tunes.

This is the fourth album for French band Spheric Universe Experience.  I have no idea what their previous albums sounded like, but apparently their sound was more situated in the progressive metal genre.

And although there are still some prog elements there, they seem to have been reduced to a strict minimum.  No intricate keyboard parts are to be found, as a matter of fact keyboards are even spares and between.  However the album is not bad, since the guitar parts are very good. 

After five years of existence, German quartet Farewell To Arms finally debut with Perceptions (the first full length; there were a demo-MCD and an EP in 2010), which lasts for forty one minutes. The album (cf. the intro) starts rather melodic, modern and progressive, yet musically this act isn’t but modern and melodic Thrash-edged Metalcore / Thrash / Death Metal with a sound that is very closely related to the ‘trusted’ scenes of both Sweden and the U.S.Aha. Trusted, meaning overloaded, lacking of an own identity, pubic and infantile it is.

I own the first two albums of Cloudscape, ‘Cloudscape’ and ‘Crimson Skies’, but seem to have missed their third release ‘Global Drama’. Now I’m picking the trail back up with their fourth release ‘New Era’.