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.
Since its conception in 2004, M.I.C. has seen several line-up changes, due maily to band leader and singer/ guitarist Yvon Serré's constant moving, not only within China (where the band was founded), but also back and forth to his native Canada.
Hum...do you know, Meroë is an historical city on the right side of the river Nile, situated some 200 north from Karthoum, Sudan, and is known maily from the more than 200 piramids found on the West side of the town. The town was populated from around 800 BC to 350 AC, and was the capitol city of the Kingdom of Koesj for 7 centuries. The reason why the town was eventually abandoned, remains obscure, although there's speculation that the town was taken over by the Kingdom of Aksum around that time.
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).
With this new release, Antwerp region's Codasync delivers its 5th album in just as many years, and again manages to do something different while at the same time remaining within their specific niche of instrumental (modern) Progressive Jam Rock/ Metal.
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.
From Leipzig, Germany, comes a relatively young band playing what they call "Opera Metal". So, what is the possibly interested party to understand by that statement? In short (they elucidate on the matter somewhat on their website, explaining things to greater detail), Opera Metal, as seen by molllust (written with a small "m" on purpose) is a perfect blend of Opera and Metal elements.
A search on the Internet for “My Lai” will invariably set you onto a small Vietnamese village, where a bunch of American soldiers made a bloodbath out of each man, woman and child living there in March 1968. But since 2010 My Lai is also a musical outfit of the modern Garage Rock inclination from Roosdaal, Belgium (a village East from the town of Ninove) consisting of the trio of Matthijs Verstegen (lead vocals, guitar), Koen Devits (drums, keyboards & backing vocals) and Brent Van Lierde (fuzz bass).
