Own Release

Last time we came across this Antwerp based Belgian Thrash Metal band, was for the official release of their full-length album 3 Cheers For The Misery through UK label Casket Music/ Copro Records [review in Copro Records special – with bands An Ocean Between Us and Inner Fire – was posted 09/02/2012 only, in spite of the album having already been issued in the UK on Halloween 2011 (that's 31/10/2011), and can still be checked upon in this site's “Archive” section]...but that album was already rele

This sextet from Kuurne (a suburb North of Kortrijk in the South of West-Flanders, Belgium) came into being following the split-up of the now defunct Death/ Black Metal act Depravity (now no longer in existence), when a couple of its members wanted to move on to a kind of music they felt a greater affinity for, namely a female-fronted Melodic Progressive Metal.

For a project with some truly high-grade Instrumental Metal music, these guys sure use a terribly illegible logo! But heck, that's not what this is about, is it?

To many of us, Iowa based Vaduz will be a new name, yet the band's roots go back all the way to 1987!

After some line-up changes, Long Island-based combo Buckshot Facelift return with the third long player, after Universal Goat Tilt and Anchors Of The Armless Gods. The band recorded the new album at Audio Playground with Keith Moore (production, engineering, mix and mastering).

The result is an amazing collection of unique, original Grind-explosions with a slight touch of exaggeration. However, because of the creative ideas, this exaggerated approach gets easily excused.

Manufactum III is another live-album (after I and II, but I guess you’re smart enough to find it out yourself), captured in front of about 8,000 wild fans during a gig in Hamburg, Germany.

Pros: wonderful sound! There is nothing that bothers when it comes to the sound. It is just like it has been registered in a few hundreds of takes in a professional studio, then enriched with the enthusiastic support of a couple of thousands of fans. Another pro: the instrumental part of the deal. My personal appreciation goes to the bag pipes and percussion parts

Totengeflüster (whispers of the Dead) were formed in 2007 by Totleben, who wanted to create his own interpretation of grim Black Metal with classical-symphonic elements. Soon he joined forces with a same-minded guy, Narbengrund, who wrote lyrics that did fit well to the music and ideas of Totengeflüster. Narbengrund takes care of the vocals too, by the way. And the line-up gets finally completed by Schattendorn, who performs the session drums (live as well).

Intractable are a Swiss quartet (Benjamin Kottmann-v, d; guitar players Markus Hospenthal and Dominik Meier; Michael Schuler-b). The band was formed in 2006 and released a first demo (with the title First Eruption) about two and a half year ago.

The number of Metal bands that I do know from Liechtenstein, a country sweetly floating in between Switzerland and Austria, is very limited, especially when it comes to ‘my kind’ of Metal. There are a couple of acts I do like within the Dark Goth / Ambient / Classical genre (WeltenBrand and the likes), and we do / did have bands / projects like Elis / Erben Der Schöpfung, but when it comes to Death / Black / Funeral Doom / … material, this country remains quasi-virginal. Liechtenstein isn’t but a very small country, of course.

From Prague comes a very nice Progressive Rock/ Metal act (with additional elements), formed in 2006 by singer/ guitarist Martin Schuster (formerly of Arawn and currently also a member of Pessimist), bassist Adam Palma, and drummer Filip Kittnar (formerly of Hell, he also bashes the drums in the band Lammoth).