Zodiac comes from Münster ( Germany) and was formed in 2010 with former(old) members of Misery Speaks ( Death Metal ) and among others current Janosch Rathmer drummer of Long Distance Calling. The music of Zodiac is according to me a mixture of Blues " Underneath " in Classik Rock " Downtown ". We can also hear on certain songs of the influences rock of the 70s. " Leave behind me as well as " believer " let us in to the world of the rock ballads of the 80s.
Stoner fans, beware! For Vista Chino is simply the new bandname taken on by John Garcia (singer), Brant Bjork (drums) and Bruno Fevery (guitar), now that the other former Kyuss members Josh Homme and Scott Reeder won their law suit against Kyuss Lives! using that name for any recordings. Further proof of the ongoing animosity between the former Kyuss members.
After waiting again 3 years en new record from Monster Magnet with frontman and founder Dave Wyndorf. I was expecting a more powerful number with more content to open the cd. The title track is much better more than 9 minutes ; trippy arrangement , psychedelic and great melodies. “Three Kingfishers” is a cover from Donovan (album Sunshine Superman) at the late sixties.
Leaves' Eyes are one of these bands that have come a long way to be where they are now. In my opinion, this band still deserves a ton more respect, definitely after the release of their new release, entitled Symphonies Of The Night.
The album title is just perfect for the music it contains. All songs are bombastic, mysterious and the band shows some of the best variety every heard within the genre.
The Answer were one of the very few Irish retro rock bands that actually made a name for themselves…at least for a little while..with highlight the support act for AC/DC.
Devildriver, A band from Santa Barbara California (whose name refers to bells Italian witches used to drive evil forces away) from hit singles like “Hold back the day” or “Clouds over California”. This time the band returns after their previous album (witch wasn’t that long ago) and is about to unleash its latest album called Winter Kills.
Austrian label Napalm recently released Beg Upon The Light, the debut full length of Texan act Venomous Maximus. This outfit around frontman Gregg Higgins created a concept that isn’t that unusual in this kind of Music, i.e. the darkest vision of occultism. The album brings a modern and catchy mixture of Dark Rock, Stoner and Doom Metal with a very darkened, occult atmosphere. It’s melodic and, at the same time, rocking, it’s modern and traditional, it’s catching and obscure.
When it comes to ‘our kind’ of Music, the presence of J.R.R. Tolkien has been a constant element. Long before the current hype, caused by the Lord Of The Rings-motion picture trilogy (and now The Hobbit), ‘we’ extracted tolkienish elements into ‘our’ sonic experiments. Bands and projects were named after beings, entities, places, histories etc. from the many stories by this famous fantasy writer, and so were ‘artist names’. Several bands, however, not just used those names to label themselves or their project.
Sometimes everything goes the way you want, but at other times, it just seems like the world turns its back on you. That last thing happened to the German Deadlock when their grunter left the band after the release of Bizzaro World. The departure of Johannes Prem left a sour taste as he was the original singer before Sabine Scherer joined the band and he formed the foundation for the typical Deadlock sound.
Saltatio Mortis is a German medieval metal band. Their name is Latin witch means “dance of death”. It’s an allusion to the “Dance Of Death”, and a motto of the band is: “He who dances does not die.” Unfortunately I don’t understand any German, and their official website and Facebook have no translated version so I couldn’t find out anything about these lads.
