Apontokation are a band from Guadix, Spain, formed in 2010 by guitar player Patxi and drummer Sijmen. With three other members, Apontokation recorded a first demo in 2011, called Awakening The Beast, followed in 2012 / 2013 by a second demonstrational record, Bloody Carnival (after being ‘reduced’ from a quintet to a quartet). In the meantime, the band was able to perform on festivals like Skulls Of Metal, Blood Fest, Exorcismo Vaginal Fest, Coin Rock etc.
Once again I have the honor / the opportunity / the task to write a review on a Polish Death Metal recording, and okay, Poland is one of the most influential, inspirational and impressing countries when talking about ‘pure’ and ‘technical’ Death Metal, but I am sort of satisfied (going for both the positive as well as the negative definition of this description) by the overcrowded scene. That’s why I was sort of skeptical when listening to this album for the first time.
Fire Within is a fairly recent Dutch metal band, who have just released this album, their debut so far.
I was surprised at the quality of this album, a mix of power rock, hard rock and symphonic metal. The only minor point for me are the vocals, who are lacking a bit in power.
Believe it or not, but ScaRveD is a rather recent addition to the Belgian music scene. This female fronted band started in 2012, and brings us music that sits halfways between heavy metal and hard rock. ‘Dynamite’, their debut album, was already released in July 2014, via the Greek label Sleaszy Rider Records, and release by the band itself was in September of that same year.
I am quite crazy about J.R.R. Tolkien’s material, and then I am referring to much more than the Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit books alone. Also the former eras are pretty interesting, if not even more, yet they are sadly underestimated. But around our little globe, there are many (human) beings that know something about the older stories. Such one is Portuguese duo Nienör, named after Niënor, the daughter of Húrin and Morwen, and sister of Urwen and Túrin aka Turambar.
In June 2014, Dawn Of A Dark Age released their first chapter of a six-piece concept about the six elements. Six? Well, actually, this hexaptych will deal with five elements, i.e. earth, water, fire, air and spirit, each sonically defined in an own album, with the sixth part being some general conclusion.
With the intent of making Pop-oriented music with heavy guitars, Michiel Korsten, Lars Geukens, Gert-Jan Stehouwer and Ferry van der Woude founded this Weerter-based (Rotterdam area) Dutch band in 2010.
Hum, the name of this Belgian “Hard Rock” act from the Limburg province sounded rather familiar to me, so I thought that maybe I'd come in touch with the quintet through a previous release and so, after having browsed through the info sheet we were sent along with the physical copy of this album, and having found that the guys indeed had a first album out in 2012, I checked all my reviews for that year...and the following half year, because sometimes stuff gets to us a bit later. All in vain, because trace of a previous encounter with the band was non-existent.
Desdemonia are one of the (very) few bands from Luxembourg, formed two decades ago. Throughout the years, they played live on stage a lot with some ‘big’ names, such as Krisiun, Sacred Sin, Soilwork, Enthroned, Heaven Shall Burn and many more. They released a first album, called Same, in 1998 (independent), but my first acquaintance was in 2001, when this band released the second studio full length, called Paralyzed (September 25th 2001).
It Was somewhere in 2010, when lead singer Elton Boussen, guitarists Brennan Caboor & Benjamin Moll, bassist Marvin Marteijn, and drummer Matthijs Quaars got together to start rehearse covers of the likes of Pantera, Machine Head, and Lamb Of God, and that same year the quintet went out of the rehearsal room, playing the local venues of their home base village Oostburg (South-West of The Netherlands) with great success and positive response from the att
