Second release of COC after a while on hiatus whilst Pepper Keenan is living it up with DOWN… I ‘ve been listening several times to this album and unfortunately I cannot get myself to really appreciate it.. Production wise it’s obvious that together with Pepper also a decent recording budget went… (it’s really a shame how Reed Mullin’s drums are sounding like a someone hitting cardboard boxes and sheetmetal whatevers instead of his well known hammering …. ).
I plead guilty your honor… I once bought a copy of Chicago’s ‘17’ album, an album that was released in 1984. Once in a while when going on holidays with the car, I take this album with me, because it’s still some sort of rock album, and my wife likes it a lot. But that album was and has for a long time been the only Chicago album I ever listened to.
A HILL TO DIE UPON, describe themselves as a blackened deathmetal band, I can add to that that they are a Christian Blackened deathmetal band, and even in today’s scene that’s still a rather the exception to the rule.
This Modern Metal act comes to us from Douglas County, Colorado, where brothers Matt (vocals) and Andrew (guitar) Whiteman have been training from tender youth to approach the making of music in an as professional possible style.
(read with exhalted voice) Guess what? I somehow got it in my head to make the introductory words to this review, as if it were a nature documentary. Wanna indulge me? Okay then... (now read on with a semi-deep, moody, but captivating, dramatic voice – Richard Attenborough-style, perhaps?) Situated at about equal distances (that being around 65 km) from Nottingham in the SW, from Hull in the NNE, and from Sheffield in the WNW direction, is the community known as Lincoln, in the English province of Lincolnshire.
Japanese promos, part 3 (for previous episodes, check my reviews of the Aggressive Dogs EP and the Gunship666 full-length), and yet again a change of pace: leaving behind all Hardcore pretenses, and going for an internationally tainted modern Hard Rock sound with added Dance elements through the inclusion of lavish synth sounds...here's Loka from the town of Sekagaya!
You'll remember that our editor-in-chief brought home three promos from his recent trip to Japan? Well, with the promo of Gunship666's second full-length album, we'll be taking you into somewhat different realms of the guitar-oriented music scene, because where the music of Aggressive Dogs (see review posted earlier) was situated comfortably within the Metallic Hardcore aura, we now have to do with a Tokyo based Heavy Metal band! Granted, the vocal approach gives the band a Crossover colouring, but let's not quarrel about details, shall we!?
Aha...the return of a Belgian band which, in 2008, brought great expectations by releasing its self-titled debut full-length through the Apache Productions imprint, and then went on to play at the prestigious Graspop Metal Meeting festival, prior to suddenly splitting in 2009, and thus effectively crushing any anticipations of putting our country on the global Metal maps (and charts) with a band which could cut the chops!
Returning from a promotional trip with Channel Zero (of which he is co-manager) to Japan, our editor-in-chief came back with a threesome of promos for upcoming releases by the bands Gunship666, Loka (check back on a later date for posts on those albums), and Aggressive Dogs, and it so happens that the latter marks the return to the realm of releases for a true Japanese Hardcore legend!
The early days of English Dog go back to the very early 80’s, when they were an exponent for a style of punk which started to show some moderate metallic influences something they shared with GBH and Discharge. As years went on English Dogs choose to opt for a more metal approach as where the aforementioned other examples opted to stick to there punk roots….,In all fairness I believe that would possibly have the better choice for English Dogs as well…. Fact being that as the more they headed into the di
