Own Release

I have to admit: I’ve never been a ‘fan’ of this Dutch band. Holland is known for its huge so-called ‘female fronted’ scene, i.e. Gothic, Symphonic or Epic oriented (Heavy) Metal with a female singer, and more than once this country exceeds the international colleagues / competitors easily. In many cases, the Netherlands indeed are spectacular country (I won’t start enlist a selection of bands, because whatever…), but La-Ventura did never please my ear drums or grey cells at all (cf. a full length and an EP during the first decennium of this century).

Only recently received, even though originating from the end of last year (so are many releases, so WTF…).

Objective info: Alms And Avarice was recorded at Black Coffee Sound by Clay Neely (Elder, Black Pyramid, Killslug) during last year’s summer.

Half-and-half, subjective versus objective info: Doom stuff with a chilly atmosphere and powerful sound, balancing in between tradition and experimentalism.

There are not that much internationally known Metal acts from South Africa, but one of the most interesting ones is a pretty young act, Bloodbeast, formed in 2011 by some (current or former) members of Bile Of Man, Demented Martyr, Fuck The Corpses, Architecture Of Aggression and Divine Plague. With gratitude to Infektion, Bloodbeast will be able to penetrate the metallic spheres of the Northern hemisphere.

Zaklon are one of the very few bands I know from Belarus (the western part of the former USSR), but with this release they might gain some success outside their home country’s borders. The project was formed at the very end of last century by a guy called Temnarod and this album, with lyrics (again, like the project’s former releases) done in the Belarusian native tongue, was originally recorded during late Spring 2009 and released in a very limited edition in early 2011 through Forestland Prod.

Process are a Danish act that did work for more than three years on their debut album, Through Acknowledgement Only; main reason: line-up issues (especially in finding a suitable drummer). They did work with renowned producer Jacob Hansen (think: Destinity, Submission, Yyrkoon, Xerath, Aborted etc.) to create a technical approach of modern Extreme Metal.

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.

Following experiences in other bands (I only have actual info on one of 'em, really – see further), singer Chris “Box” Pugsley and guitarists Marc Matthews & Toby Stewart (both play lead as well as rhythm guitar parts; the latter was in Awake By Design, but I doubt he contributed to the 2 full-length self-released albums of that band) came together in 2008 through their mutual love for and understanding of Melodic Death Metal.

This Melodic Rock/ Metal Czech quintet was founded in 2007, and as far as I know their line-up has always consisted of lead singer Ray, guitarists Jeff (also backing vocals) and Sasha, bassist/ backing singer Marian, and drummer Frankie.

By all means, the guys from Austin, Texas based Prog Metal act Ethereal Architect deserve an apology, as their sophomore album has been due a review for a couple of months. Sorry dudes, but all kinds of things have happened to cause this delay. First of all, there was the usual Summer pile-up at Headquarters Office, which caused my editor-in-chief a delay a delivering everything that came out during those two months in one big package.

Always Fallen is an industrious young Belgian Thrash Metal band that was founded in the summer of 2005. After writing and rehearsing for almost a year, the band started playing live gigs, in February 2006. After a minor line-up change consisting of lead singer Kenny Devos whom at that point joined the band, they released their first demo entitled No Mercy for Sinners upon the public in February 2007. Nearly exactly one year later they released the mini-CD-album See my Blood.