If you were around in the 80ies, and were a fan of rock music, this band’s name might ring a bell. They released their first album under the name Saracen in 1981. There was a hiatus between 1984 and 2003, but in 2003 they again released a full length album.
René Thomsen is not only the leader of this band, but also the guitarist and composer. This CD ‘Unbroken’ marks his second release, after their 2009 debut album ‘Let’s Get Ruthless’. Most of the twelve songs on this album were composed together with Fair Warning producer and guitarist Helge Engelke.
I was very pleased with the evolution Xerath underwent in between both first albums. The debut I was acceptable, but with II, Xerath did surprise me a lot. That’s why I was pleased to notice that now, after almost three and a half year of impatiently waiting, there is a new Xerath full length, ingeniously called III.
Dråpsnatt are a Swedish act that were formed almost one decade ago out of the ashes of Maleficium, i.e. by Narstrand (also in e.g. Sangre / Blodritual and Nivlhel) and Vinterfader. They recorded five albums in mean time, but the first two haven’t been released.
The very young Tampere, Finland-based label Saturnal Records suddenly came out of the blue with three highly interesting releases; Hellspirit with Dawn Under Curse and On Death’s Wings by Blood Red Fog were the first releases, available as from May 26th 2014 on; check out the reviews I did, posted respectively on August 16th and July 18th 2014.
The Megs are a hard rock quartet from Italy. So far they’ve released a full LP ‘Jealousy’ in 2011 and an EP ‘Start’ in 2013.. So this is their second full album.
As a matter of fact calling them a hard rock band is hurting the truth, because it is quite difficult to categorize their music in a particular genre. They really have a sound of their own, that is very hard to compare to other bands. Let’s say they play rock’n’roll, but with many angles. At times they almost sound like D.A.D., but on the next song they almost sound poppy.
Teramaze returned and released their 4th full length album. After completely grabbing the attention of the underground Prog-Power Metal fans with their 2012 release “AnhedoniA.” Teramaze blends tight and speedy syncopated guitar/drum riffs and rhythms, with melodic hard vocals. You could compare this style with bands like Dream theather.
Finnish band Rippikoulu was formed at the very end of the eighties, singing in their native tongue (now this isn’t that unusual anymore, but in the early years, most bands from all over the globe used the English language specifically). The band split up in 1995 after the death of guitarist Marko, and despite this tragic loss, their 1993-demo-tape Musta Seremonia was cool enough to be re-issued on both vinyl and CD via their current label, Svart Records.
Although a band that has been around since the 80’s….I never actually heard of them. Although it is rather hard to find info about them. They are Spanish and only have a little info on the web about them here and there, but it’s all in Spanish.
So basically i can’t really tell anything about hem besides that they have a new record out. That record doesn’t really make it on my favorites list as it just lacks power, sounds dull and isn’t really interesting but rather typical. Overal an average album.
Not contenting themselves with the re-release of ‘The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell Part One & Part Two", Steamhammer are also at the same time re-releasing Virgin Steele’s 1998 album ‘Invictus’.
