Massacre Records

I was wondering if this Ivanhoe was the same band as the Ivanhoe  I bought the 1994 album ‘Symbols Of Time’ from.  And indeed it was, although during their 25 years of existence, the ine-up has changed a myriad of times.

The band started out in Austria as Last Warning and released their first two albums under this name, but later on they had to change it to The Last Warning in 2009, due to an Italian band that had the same name.

At the beginning of 2005, the band started out as a two-man project of Tobias (Guitar) and Björn (Bass). And as time passed by, the project grew to a 5 membered band. In March 2006, the current Line-Up of Circle Of Silence was completed by Nick (Vocals), Chris (Guitar) and Pit (Drums). The result is an aggressive (Power) Metal band with catchy songs and melodies.

New Formed Revelations is the third album by Croatian four-piece Infernal Tenebra. The band was able to have this material mixed and mastered by top-producer Jens Bogren at his Fascination Street Studio (think: Turisaz, Amon Amarth, Be’lakor, Borknagar, Paradise Lost, Gwyllion and many more), which attests the full, great sound.This album has nothing to do with Black Metal anymore.

Asylum Pyre released their debut album ‘Natural Instinct’ in 2009.  I seem to have missed this album completely.  Now they’re back with their second opus.  Since their previous album there have been line-up changes, the drummer has been replaced, but also the female front vocalist has changed.

Enchantya is a band hailing from Portugal, and with this album they deliver their first work to the world.  They are fronted by Rute Fevereiro, whom some of you might know from Black Widow, a all female band, but which she left in 2004.

What this band brings us is progressive Goth metal, with female vocals. That the group consists of excellent musicians cannot be denied, especially the keyboards leave a very good impression, but the duo guitarists also give a great performance.

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.

Old school Kreator is back from the early eighties? Oh no, my mistake, it’s the Bay Area thrash band Hatriot. With Heroes Of Origin, the veteran metal singer Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza is back in action. We know this legend from his time with Exodus and off course from Legacy (now Testament).

Coming forth from Germany, is Majesty. A band formed by vocalist Tarek “MS” Maghary. Quickly after the release of their debut album, ‘Keep It True’ (2000), the band started to build up a its reputation and soon after became more and more popular (but mostly underground). Their popularity kept growing and they toured with bands like U.D.O. and Mystic Prophecy.

Although this is an 100 % German band, their sound contains some vry heavy Southern Roc influences.  Yet they do not sound convincing enough, by which I mean something is lacking in their music to sound really ‘Southern’.  As a matter of fact I also hear some groove in their music.

The vocals aren’t too bad though, since Sven Zaklikowski is a rather good copy of Zakk Wylde, but alas with a German accent, like so many of his countrymen – vocalists have. The other musicians in this band also acquit themselves very well of the job.