PHD

Voices are a new project with a couple of former Akercocke-members. And those who are trusted with Akercocke might have a clue about what Voices stand for.

The French horde Destinity celebrated its fifteenth anniversary last year, entre outre with the preparation of album # 8, Resolve In Crimson. This record was recorded again with Jacob Hansen (!) and it features guest vocals by Stéphane Buriez, whom you might know from another great French Extreme Metal act, Loudblast.

I do really appreciate the things Swedish band Grief Of Emerald has done since the second part of the nineties. Their characteristic Scandinavian-influenced Black Metal did always convince because of the nice symbiosis in between melody, aggression and persuasion, and the members’ craftsmanship is impeccable. Unfortunately, Grief Of Emerald have not been able to reach the upper top because of the overflow on same-minded bands, among which several that are at least as convincing, and probably slightly better.

Deplorable how little info one can find on the Internet about this London based British band! From what I've been able to piece together, the band was formerly known as a quartet under the name of Death Cigarettes until the latter part of 2009, when original singer Maya and guitarist Andy decided to take on a new rhythm section.

Based in Madrid, Spain, this band was founded in April 2005 when keyboardist Sergio López and guitarist Jose Manuel Torres met each other through a very popular Internet music forum. Influenced by the likes of Epica, After Forever and Nightwish, their desire was to start a European female fronted Symphonic Metal project. So, with that in mind they first went in search of a rehearsal space, and then went on the lookout for the additional members to complete the line-up.

Taking their name from a specific area, also known as The Valley Of Armageddon, in the Palestine Region of Israel, Brazilian Death-Thrash trio Esdrelon (current line-up consisting of bassist/ singer Darcio Aguilar, guitarist/ singer Cleber Beraldo, and drummer Jack Ferrante) formed at the start of 2002 in the industrial area of ABC (hum...I'm not sure what that means).

I was very, or better: extremely pleased with late 2011’s release On The Coming Of Darkness (review posted November 12^th 2011 - see archives section), and luckily this successor goes on in the very same vein, both musically as lyrically (conceptually). On The Dawning Of Light consists of nine tracks with a total running time of forty seven minutes, and still the project is veiled within mystery and unknown identities (for what this might be worth).

London, UK-based band The Devil debut with a nameless, self-produced album, which I’ve seen being compared to Swedish Ghost. For a modest part I can understand why (like the masked identities), for another modest part I do not fully agree. Main reason: The Devil are less mainstream and much more obscure in theme, while The Ghost appear as a Metal-circus with an image prevailing on content.

Scottish combo Cnoc An Tursa were able to record The Giant Of Auld at the legendary Foel Studio with highly acclaimed producer Chris Fielding at the helm (think: Ageless Oblivion, Moss, Winterfylleth, Primordial, The Wounded Kings etc.). Result: a killer production, of course!

The huge scene from Suomi has bands / projects in between ‘I can’t stand at all’ till ‘hail and praise’. Behexen for sure do belong to the second category. I follow them since their debut Rituale Satanum (Sinister Figure, 1999/2000).