One of the oldest still-existing Black Metal formations from The Netherlands is Countess, formed in 1992 by multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Zenon and synth-meister Vercingetorix. The both released a first demo (tape) in 1992, before they were joined by Orlok, shortly after he left the great band (and I do mean that, though apparently not many people share this opinion) Fallen Temple. In mean time, both founding members left, and Orlok is the driving force since.
We recently got sent the second release of Belgium's own “Alternative Rock” quartet Vodz, and our editor-in-chief thought of me to review the little gem...at an unfortunate moment in time where my access to Internet is somewhat limited to an absolute minimum, meaning I cannot do do the slightest bit of research for additional info. So, it's with some regret that I can only re-write the info given me along with the material into something which reads easily.
It Was somewhere in 2010, when lead singer Elton Boussen, guitarists Brennan Caboor & Benjamin Moll, bassist Marvin Marteijn, and drummer Matthijs Quaars got together to start rehearse covers of the likes of Pantera, Machine Head, and Lamb Of God, and that same year the quintet went out of the rehearsal room, playing the local venues of their home base village Oostburg (South-West of The Netherlands) with great success and positive response from the att
Jeff Scott Soto is back with a brand new album, and the world will know it ! Being born in the same year as yours truly, Jeff is a person that since the early eighties has appeared in countless bands and projects, as well as doing solo-albums, but it’s been years since I’ve heard him rocking like on this album. What he brings here is metal in it’s purest form.
Hailing from Beveren-Waas, Heads Up High is a Belgian quartet which started as a quintet at the end of 2011. About a year later, the position on the lead guitar was taken in by Nicolas Moens, and the material already written was reworked to something which the band itself calls a blending of Pop Punk and Hardcore.
When Kai Hansen left Helloween in 1988, he briefly meddled around a bit with Blind Guardian, and then founded Gamma Ray together with his long time friend Ralf Scheepers on vocals. In their first years the sound of Gamma Ray was close to Helloween, but over the years the sound changed.
Devil’s Train released their self-titled debut album, which was highly acclaimed. Many thought this would be a one-off release, but the band around former Mystic Prophecy singer R.D.
Having just reviewed the ‘Best of’ album by Gamma Ray, here’s the new album by another band that at it’s beginnings hade a sound quite similar to Helloween, but have developed their style over the years towards a more progressive metal sound.
Line up :
Stephan Dietrich - Vocals
Peter Langforth - Guitars
Alexander Backasch - Guitars
Dirk Frei - Bass
David Schleif – Drums
Those who are trusted with Usurpress’ former material might be ‘shocked’, because Ordained did progress quite a lot since 2012’s Trenches Of The Underworld or last year’s split with Bent Sea (which I did like a lot; see review updated on February 23rd 2014). Hell yeah, of course I am exaggerating, but keep this fact in mind, will you.
