CD

So you play in a famous German metal band but you feel bored between tours and recording new albums. Some people take up golf or another hobby but drummer Stefan Scwarzmann (Accept) takes his phone and calls around to see if he can find some colleagues to jam with. Vocalist / Bassist Schmier (Destruction) guitarist Herman Frank (Accept / Victory) were all in for some fun and so The German Panzer was born. Three seasoned German musicians and a name like The German Panzer give you enough clues about what kind of music these gentlemen play.

Swedish duo Murmurs very recently split up; don’t ask me why because I do not know. In 2012 Ulf and Dísa recorded the full length Fædd Úr Eldi (via Australia’s Parkbench Records), but that’s the sole official release, except for a handful of demos.

Mal Etre are a Swiss project by Nocturnalpriest, who’s also active with blackened outfits Malvoisie, Baalshamin, Parämnesia and Polish horde Funebrum. After a handful of demos, Mal Etre released a first full length in 2010, Torment, via the great Kunsthauch-label. It was one of the most surprising albums that very same year, I think.

I guess SPV/Steamhammer wanted to hop on the bandwagon, and make money by releasing this single as a Christmas release, and linking this to the commemoration of the Great War as well (That’s the First World War, for those of you who have just come out of a centuries long hibernation – just kidding of course).

I don’t know anymore how many Extreme Metal acts there are with the moniker Lycanthropy. But this review deals with the extremely productive one from Orel, Russia, close to the borders with Ukraine and Belarus. The city of Orel, by the way, isn’t that far away from the city of Voronezh, known for a very vivid Metal-scene, and house of another act called Lycanthropy (though defunct in mean time) – FYI.

Light are a Berlin-based trio (Ray-v/g/k, C-d, and Sky-b), formed in 2010. They released a (very limited) demo-CD in 2012, called Ignition, from which all tracks appear on their debut full length as well, though with another title. This debut studio full album gets released via Germany’s Black Warcult Productions, a label that was active during the era 2003-2006 especially.

Huh...Kingfisher Sky...I knew I'd come across this Dutch Gothic/ Progressive Rock/ Metal band before, but upon checking my past activity sheet I found out that I didn't do a review of either of the band's previous two albums. Ah well, why don't we go over the band's history first then, shall we?

The Venezuelan band Khristenn Corpse was formed a decade ago, and they released two demos and one full length in mean time, respectively the independently released EP’s The Khristenn Corpse and Bloodmiracle (2005 and 2010), and the LP/CD Grotesque (2011, via Argentinian Misanthropic Spirit Records). The American label Temptations Of Resonance Records will now re-issue the second demo, Bloodmiracle, though in a very limited edition.

Let’s be completely honest.  This is the first album I’ve listened to from this band. And I guess this will also be the last one.  What this band brings us, to me, sounds like a fabricated form of music.  They’ve started with a metal foundation, and then added layers of other types of music.  And for me it doesn’t really work. This is no real metal, far from it, not even nu-metal.  There are parts of pure pop music in it, despite the screaming guitars.

Horn Of The Rhino return with their fourth album, and once again it gets released by Czech label Doomentia Records; why changing a winning team must be their motto. The label even re-issued material from this band when they were acting under the old moniker Rhino.