Formed in 1997, Chicago based Rock band Soil rose and took over that particular scene. After their first independent release, the band was the first rock group signed by the legendary Clive Davis to J Records. The band achieved mainstream success with their major label debut "Scars" in 2001. The band did have some trouble with their line up until reuniting with their original vocalist Ryan McCombs in October 2011.
Although this band has been a favourite Industrial Metal act of mine since their 1992 hit album Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And the Way To Suck Eggs, and in spite of the fact that I only once was given the honour of reviewing an album by the band, I still acquired most of he band's (regular) studio albums (including the first two completely Dance-geared recordings).
German band “The New Black” have been rocking the scene since 2009. Since then they have been making music that they themselves describe in a very fun way,
“...This is our kind of party: Black Label Society bring the booze, Pantera spice it up, Thin Lizzy add some taste, and Alter Bridge smooth it over before Metallica turn it black... And you can be there, too”.
Helker was formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina by guitar player Mariano Ríos and bassist Christian Abarca. The current line-up features guitar player Leo Aristu, drummer Hernán Coronel metal vocalist Diego Valdez. Helker is widely considered as the leading South American heavy metal band to emerge from Argentina.
Gama Bomb is an Irish trash metal band, witch was founded by School friends Joe McGuigan (bass) and Philly Byrne (vocals) who met up with Luke Graham in 2002. Soon, they built up a small but loyal following which they consolidated with a rigorous touring schedule and frequent forays into self-released recording. The band first gained attention with their demo entitled The Survival Option in that same year.
German melodic hard rock/metal band Voodoo Circle is back with their third album, titled “More Than One Way Home”. Voodoo Circle is, of course, the side project of former Silent Force (and current Primal Fear) guitarist Alex Beyrodt, who is joined by vocalist David Readman (Pink Cream 69), bassist Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner), drummer Markus Kullmann (Dezperadoz) and keyboardist Jimmy Kresic (Kiske/Somerville).
I had no idea this German band still existed. It’s been quiet on the album for a few years for this band, their previous release goes back to 2009.
To tell you the truth, this band is stuck in the 80ies. And there’s nothing wrong with that. They bring us classical decent melodic heavy metal, and bring back memories of Iron Maiden and Helloween, with some progressive influences coming through at times.
While back in my younger days is was very hard to find female, or even female fronted bands, nowadays we can say we’re spoiled. But this also means that since there are that many female fronted band around nowadays, there is also a fair share of bands who are rather mediocre.
Magica, hailing from Romania, is a band that has it’s ups and downs. Some of their songs are fantastic, others are just mediocre. Could this be due to the fact that Magica meanders between power/symphonic metal and something I’d call pop-metal ?
This is their fifth studio album since this Swedish band was formed in 2004. And as before they’ve made a fine album. Not that it brings anything new to us. Far from that. This album, as were their previous albums, is chock full of stereotypes and clichés of the genre.
Actually their music can best be described as a mix of Manowar, Iron Maiden, Sabaton, Judas Priest, and maybe I could name a few others.
If you buy the limited edition digipak of this album you not only get the CD, but a DVD as well, recorded at Wacken in 2010, who also contains some bonus tracks and a video. But I only received the CD.
