A new Vanden Plas album is always something to look forward to. They’ve never failed to amaze me with their fantastic albums. Four years have passed since their last album ‘The Seraphic Clockwork’. But it has definitely been worth the waiting .
This New Jersey three-piece engage in stoner, grunge and seventies rock passages. They do show some hints of talent and rhythm during some of these bits, but they lack direction and they rarely flesh out any of their ideas. At best they sound like second rate Alice In Chains for a few moments or like Soundgarden without the depth or sense of direction. At worst they sound flat and clueless. Somewhere below the surface I think that Driven Rise generate some interesting tones, but just not enough of them and no real blueprint to go by.
Yet another great release from Danish band Pretty Maids. They’ve kept on releasing good album after good album since 2010’s Pandemonium album.
However mind you, this is not a totally new album. It consists of 12 tracks, 8 of whom are re-recordings of tracks they did in their period with Massacre records, and 4 are new tracks. But it’s the four new tracks that steal the show. Two of them are straight forward heavy metal songs, and the other two are very good ballads.
When Dutch band MaYan were formed, they drew the attention of the worldwide press immediately. Reason: the great line-up. MaYan were formed by Mark Jansen, the guy behind Dutch top-acts such as After Forever, Sahara Dust / Epica or Les Faidits, and After Forever-colleague Jack Driessen.
This band, or is it just a project, consists of some very well known musicians. On vocals we have none other than Tommy La Verdi (21 Guns), Josh Ramos (The Storm, Hardline) on guitars and Michael Shotton (Von Groove, Airtime) on drums. The intention of this project was I guess to resurrect the career of Tommy La Verdi, whom we’d not heard of in a long time. There’s also fair contribution of Alessadro Del Vecchio (
In spite of my rather varied experience as a music listener, I keep coming along occasional surprises, usually of the pleasant nature!
If I'm reading my info sources correctly, this Chicago based Blackened Sludge-Noise act was founded in 2003 by the trio of singer/ guitarist Dylan O'Toole, bassist Ron Devries, and drummer Brian Lynn, and in that line-up not only self-released their 3-track 11-minute debut EP God Slave, but also their (11-track, 54-minute) debut album The Unquiet Sky, issued in May 2005 on the Seventh Rule Recordings label.
Gloryful is a band from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, formed in 2010 playing an epic type of heavy Metal. The current members are Johnny La Bomba – Vocals, Jens "Shredmaster JB" Basten – Guitar, Vito Papotto – Guitar, Oliver Karasch – Bass and Hartmut Stoof – Drums.
Okay...so the story of the formation of this band is somewhat peculiar, but also not unthinkable in these days of Internet communications. You know, the four members of Culted have never actually been together in one room, but is that actually such an amazing feat? I mean, if musicians from different sides of the globe can contribute to songs written by others, why could they not switch ideas back an forth in order to write music together? I mean, it's been done before, you know!
Another of these bands that seem to have existed forever, and despite not receiving much attention in the regular press nor on the mainstream airwaves, continue to record and release new albums. And on this album, there still are three of the four original band members giving acte de presence.
