PIAS

Line up :

Chris Boltendahl - vocals

Hans Peter Katzenburg - keyboards

Axel "Ironfinger" Ritt - guitars

Stefan Arnold - drums

Jens Becker - bass

Line-up:

Pär Sundström - Bass

Joakim Brodén - Keyboards, Vocals

Thobbe Englund - Guitar

Chris Rörland – Guitar

Hannes Van Dahl - Drums

The expectations for the new album of ‘Sabaton’ where very high after their super release of ‘Carolus Rex’. Because it was their first release with their new line up we had to wait and see if it could compete with their previous album. The record itself is not bad but it’s sometimes to rushed and uninspired in my opinion.

I guess it is because of their reformation last year, but in any way Swedish band God Macabre decided to re-release their sole official recording, The Winterlong, which dates from 1993. Before reviewing this masterpiece, first a short history of the band.

After a long five years of waiting ‘Deathstars’ have risen from their graves with a new record called: ‘The Perfect Cult’ witch was released on (surprise, surprise…) Friday the 13^th. It’s a solid ‘deathglam’ album wich stays in line of their previous work.

When Black Anvil released their debut album Time Insults The Mind, I was enormously surprised; the positive way! The band was formed in New York City with members who were active in the NYHC-scene (the founding members were active in Kill Your Idols, for example), but Black Anvil’s 2008-debut had nothing to do with Hardcore whatsoever. And what’s more, their thrashing and Doom / Death-injected Black Metal truly was of a very high quality.

I’ll skip every unnecessary introduction about the huge discography, lengthy history or influential theory by Swedish act Vintersorg. I have no intention to go into Andreas Hedlund’s enormous curriculum vitae either. Just read what I think about this new Vintersorg-album, whether you like it or not.

This Frontiers Compilation offers you a choice of 14 tracks from different Frontiers signed bands of projects.  Among them the fantastic and already well known W.E.T., but also I.R.S., and some as yet undiscovered gems like Moon Land. If you want to have a sample of the quality bands that Frontiers Records have to offer – as if you didn’t know that already – then you should at least by this compilation, discover some of their bands, and subsequently buy some of the full albums, of which you were given a taste.

Finally New York-based Tombs (Mike Hill-g, v; Ben Brand-b; Andrew Hernandez-d; and Garett Bussanick-g) return with the successor of the splendid Path Of Totality, which was released in June 2011. In the Archive of this site you will find the review within one of the Relapse-specials I did; see update September 18^th 2011.

Uriah Heep is one of those bands, that, like The Rolling Stones and other bands, have been around for so long, you almost can’t remember when you first heard them.  This once again shows that in the days these bands were founded, it was their steadfast determination and their quality as musicians that made them famous.  Oh, and a bit of luck also of course.  In comparison a lot of present day bands are massively hyped by their record companies, score one or two hits, and fade away into oblivion after a few years.

Neal Schön, founding member and lead guitarist of Journey (and as a matter of fact also the only musician that’s been in Journey from their beginnings up to now), but who has plucked the chords in Bad English and even in Santana, has teemed up with fellow Journey bandmate Deen Castronovo, and bass player Marco Mendoza (Ted Nugent, Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) to record this album.