Suburban

To me, Otep has always been quite the mystery. I've always had the hardest time putting this band in one genre. Perhaps that's a good thing. Too many people have been spending too much time labeling bands nowadays. Time to put an end to this. However, not touring Europe for centuries might be another reason for remaining that same enigma. After the release of Hydra, let's hope this last disappointment alters for the better. Back to Otep's new release now, which goes by the liquid name of Hydra.

Formed by Pete Newdeck (drummer at Eden’s Curse) and Ian Nash. After successfully writing an array of hard hitting music, they quickly enlisted the enthusiastic drummer Mark Cross (Firewind, Helloween). Cross was so impressed by the vocal ability of drummer Newdeck, he booked into a studio for the album F.E.A.R.

The United Kingdom has brought forth lots of new hardcore and metal blood over the past few years. Just think of bands such as Your Demise, While She Sleeps, Brutality Will Prevail, Last Witness, Desolated, ... Although the guys in Continents look like the perfect sons-in-law, they play the hardest music possible.

The first impression when I started listening to the first song, St. James, was that I was dealing with a new song by the British hardcore band More Than Life. But after a few minutes, I realized that I was dealing with a new American hardcore band. To reveal its identity: I'm talking about Fall City Fall from California, USA. They've just released their first full-length through Victory Records, called Victus.

Back in the days, when Ozzfest was still on the road in the USA, one Sharon Osbourne witnessed a great band play one of the stages. That band was Otep. They signed to Victory Records in 2009 and immediately became the 'strangest' band on the label, as it's just impossible to put them in a box. The band you can compare them to the best is Deftones in my opinion, but much heavier.

Rumors had been circulating that Fabio Leone would become the new Kamelot vocalist, but in the end it was Tommy Karevik that would handle the microphone.  Has this changed Kamelot’s music profoundly?  No, not at all, Kamelot still sounds as Kamelot used to sound before.  Let’s put it frankly, if you just listen to the album, without knowing that you’re dealing with another vocalist, my guess is you wouldn’t even notice.

The Very End is a trash metal band from Germany.  Now a you might already know trash is not really my favorite cup of tea. But let’s not jump to conclusions, and give this album a fair chance.

Trash metal not being my favorite, it’s no small wonder I’d never heard of this band before.  Yet this is already their third album so far. But as far as I could tell they haven’t had much attention so far, and for that reason stayed quite obscure. I did find out that they’ve had their fair deal of line-up changes so far.

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.

Resolve In Crimson (42:40) goes on in the vein of the last album, XI Reasons To See, with nothing less, yet nothing more either (at all, unfortunately), to add.

Polish horde Saratan (Arab for ‘cancer’, if I’m not mistaken) return with their third full length after the recruitment of two new members (formerly and / or currently active in e.g. Mord’A’Stigmata and Witchking). In a couple of months, the quartet will celebrate its tenth anniversary, but in mean time we might welcome a new full length, lasting for thirty seven minutes.

Heh...funny “info sheet” on this band found on the label's website (it's somewhat similar to the German text that came with the download promo copy of the album) : “On the night of November 6^th, 1979 Black Sabbath was at their most drug addled and explosive standing. They were on tour supporting their newly released Never Say Die album...” (arguably their most heavy album ever) “...and had a night off in Los Angeles.