Suburban

How painful : a Metal band with its first 3 albums (2001's Revolution Revolución, 2003's Confession and 2005's One Nation Underground) out on Roadrunner Records...and there's not even one in my collection, nor any of the albums which followed (2008's Enigma, 2010's Dead New World and 2012's Epidemia), and that with the sales figures of the two first albums already exceeding a million copies! I guess I' have to make some kind of mending, by relating to you the band's history in a nut-shell?

Alright, let's do a quickie...that's what I thought yesterday evening, before picking up the info I'd gathered about this Gothic Metalcore act from Schwarzenfeld, in the Bavarian region of Germany, and realizing I had a bigger job ahead of me than I'd reckoned for.

The American band Solace Of Requiem aren’t a traditional band, nor easily comparable to one or another sub-genre whatsoever. In 2004 they released their self-called debut album, which brought very dense and old schooled Doom-Death Metal. The second one, Utopia Reborn (2006), was quite different, for adding somewhat classic Death Metal with lots of progressive elements. Then the band underwent some internal struggles, so it took quite some time before they were able to return with another album.

This new Ewigheim-album is to celebrate the project’s 15th anniversary. For a discography and biography, I’d like to refer to the reviews I did for the former recordings, Nachruf (see update January 6^th 2014) and Bereue Nichts (posted on October 31^st 2012, available within Concreteweb’s Archive).

This Australian Metalcore act was founded in 2008 by frontman Michael Crafter, following his farewell tour with I Killed The Prom Queen (other bands he'd been in, were Carpathian and Bury Your Dead). Guitarist/ backing vocalist Dan Brown, from fellow Melbourne Hardcore Punk act 50 Lions, was the first to be enlisted, with guitarist Adam Harris, bassist Borgs and drummer Matthew Owens following soon after.

This band was a surprise to me.  I’d never heard of these Californians before, yet this is already their third album.  Of the band members the only name that rings a bell is that of Kiyoshi Morgan, who used to be the guitarist in Vicious Rumors.

Before i express my opinion, I have to admit that black/trash metal is not usually my kind of music... But I did like Persecution Mania. Long time ago though.... Even listened to Epitome of Torture again, to catch up.

Bloodbath is founded in 1998, with a shared fascination for horror and death metal. Since the release of their first EP, Breeding Death in 2000, Bloodbath is a real pioneer in extreme (death) metal music. Grand Morbid funeral is (again) recorded at the Ghost Ward Studio and The City of Glass Studio in Stockholm.  Mix for the account of David Costillo.

I guess SPV/Steamhammer wanted to hop on the bandwagon, and make money by releasing this single as a Christmas release, and linking this to the commemoration of the Great War as well (That’s the First World War, for those of you who have just come out of a centuries long hibernation – just kidding of course).

Since Arch Enemy and Walls Of Jericho it’s been proved that female fronted bands are also really big and heavy when it comes to metal. Well, Sister Sin is also one, great band who the vocals are lead by a female. This band comes with their Dirty Metal sound from the capital of Sweden. One of the biggest European countries which has great metal bands. Sister Sin is a powermetal band from which Sweden counts a lot.