Hailing from Beveren-Waas, Heads Up High is a Belgian quartet which started as a quintet at the end of 2011. About a year later, the position on the lead guitar was taken in by Nicolas Moens, and the material already written was reworked to something which the band itself calls a blending of Pop Punk and Hardcore.
Apocryfal are a band from Jyväskylä, Finland. In 2012 they recorded and independently released their demo Ravens, which I unfortunately didn’t have the chance (yet) to listen to. This release, the Aberration Of Mind-five tracker, follows the very same path, but, so says the band, it is ‘much more controlled and prepared manifestation’.
Vacant Eyes are a band from Easthampton, Massachusetts, which were formed in 2011 by Josh Moran. Initially it was a solo-project by this multi-instrumentalist, whom you might find back nowadays in the modern / progressive Black-outfit In Human Form too, or in Groove / Death band Krakatoa (twice as guitar player). After a while, Josh recruited some members, and Vacant Eyes evolved into a real band.
A SLUDGE/DOOM EP from BRAZIL is what I have on my platter, as SLUDGE it hard to chew and even harder to swallow… The 3 Tracks on ARCHAIC – good for about 23 minutes of heaviness are a fine introduction to the band especially CURRENTS OF IO the longest and last track got my attention with his spoken intro ( seems like an introduction to a documentary of our solar system) and continues monotone riffing which takes the listener on a 10 minute trip into deep space.
If you want to buy this CD, you have to contact the band on www.jacobsmoor.com – “Contact”, as the band still is looking for a label to release the album physically. But is is also distributed online via iTunes, Amazon, Spotify… This Austrian band was founded by Richard Krenmaier, Johnny Sommerer and Rainer Lidauer, Krenmaier being known as the singer op power metal band Stygma IV. The other two bandmembers play in another Austrian Metal Band Circle Of Illus
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.
A very young band from Ukraine is this one: My Dying World ‘Mako’, formed in Autumn 2013 by former DEC’50’s Sergey ‘Mako’ Tereschenko. He wrote some material, and after about ten months, he was joined by Artur ‘Shadow’ Goncharov on guitars. In mean time also a vocalist was recruited, i.e. Nikita ‘Ioria’ Eremeev.
A band with Carl Johan Grimmark on guitars – known from his work with Narnia, but also from many guest appearances on albums by other bands like Rob Rock, Divine Fire and others, is sure to draw my attention. While at the start of this band, vocals were handled by German Pascual, who also sang with Narnia in 2009, this latter was replaced during the recordings of this album by Richard Hulteke.
This studio project was started back in 2008 by bassist Peter G. Shallmin of the Siberian band Kamlath, his vision being an all-encompassing Progressive Metal audio/visual experience.
I have to admit that I am not that much ‘into’ Stoner, but despite (or is it: because of) my lack of knowledge, I’ve never understood the moniker ‘Desert Doom’, which seems to be a doomier version of Stoner. It does not really matter, but I think it is important to mention this, for the review of this album deals with Desert Doom Music. But we’ll found out more soon.
