North Black are a Russian one-man outfit by Asmodeus (Svart Faalskhet). With Filosofi Svart Skog, North Black bring sixty six minutes of Symphonic Black Metal that totally lacks of originality, but believe me if I assure you that the fan of this specific genre will adore this piece!
I’ve made the choice to write one single review for these two albums. No Bros was an Austrian hard rock band, that had some success in the early eighties. As a matter of fact the basis for this band was laid in 1974, when Klaus Schubert and Michael Außerhofer founded the band Target. They changed their name to No Bros at the end of the seventies.
It’s hard to believe, but the original ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ album was released way back in 1984, that’s three decades ago. I was still a teenager then….
To release the thirtieth anniversary, Sony Music now releases a remastered version of this album, that originally was released on EMI Music, and adds two discs containing a live registration of a show Judas Priest played on May 5th 1984 at the Long Beach Arena in California.
Jorn Lande, whom we probably all know, be it as vocalist in Masterplan, his solo work, his work in Avantasia and much much more, has joined efforts with Trond Holter guitarist in Wig Wam. Together they have created this new Rock Opera about Vlad the III, better known as Vlad the Impaler, or even better known as Dracula.
Swedish Label Nordvis were focusing on their native scene especially in the past, but with some open-mindedness they are signing bands from other countries too, and that’s a good thing. Especially when thinking about their joint-venture with Bindrune, you might find some non-Swedish formations. Anyway, another name to add to this list is Izah. Izah are a Dutch collective, releasing their debut full length via Nordvis.
This is already the fourth album since the release of the debut album ‘Sign Of Angels’ in 2010 from Norwegian rock goddess Issa. And under the adagio never change a winning team, Issa continues to bring us a mix of melodic rock, bordering on pop rock at times.
Polish horde Gurthang (another reference to the great Tolkien-sagas!) finally returns with new work. In the first years of their existence (they were formed in 2010), they did record and release quite some stuff, but as from half of 2013 nothing seemed to happen anymore. Until now…
Does the name Erik Martensson ring a bell ? Besides performing in W.E.T. , writing and producing for other musicians like Toby Hitchcock and Adrenaline Rush he’s also the frontman in this Swedish band, alongside Magnus Henriksson.
Well, sometimes surprises are great. And it has not always to do with renewing details or superb quality – though in this case both options I just mentioned are part of the greatness too. But it’s especially the style versus the label that did confuse me, albeit the positive way. I’ll explain why.
Devouring Star are a pretty young and quite mysterious horde from Finland, which I knew from one single demo only. Now they come up with a studio full album, consisting of five pretty lengthy compositions (i.e. lasting in between five and ten minutes), written for this release exclusively (meaning: these tracks were not on the 2014-demo).
