CD

Kamchatka is from Sweden and their bluesy stoner on The Search Goes On seems like it would transfer very well to a live performance.

Although Kamchatka doesn't add an entirely new flavor to a familiar genre, they do a more than fine job of it. The song writing is sharp and snappy and the performance is spot on.  My only complaint about this CD, their fifth already, is that the vocals are pretty one-dimensional and change very little from track to track. Then again, that's a standard trait of the stoner genre.

The straight in yr face- thrash metal meets hardcore songwriting is very aggressive and the Montreal band focuses entirely on just making hopeless youth music.

Something of a surprise from the Czech scene, Cult of Fire mix some notable ferociousness of their own into the typical black metal formula.

When talking / thinking about the Extreme Metal scene, we’re used to focus on the scenes from Europe, America (both North and South), and ‘modern’ parts of the Pacific (New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Singapore more specifically). However, more than once I got in touch with a release from a band that comes from a mostly ‘unusual’ country. I can enlist an impressive amount of bands, but I will not.

Blaze, not be confused with  the once  Wolfsbane, Iron Maiden,  and  Blaze  main man Blaze Bayley, no sir  no,  these 4 youngsters hail from Japan, and  with the EP  the rock dinosaur  they provide us a really good slab of very old school hard rock/ Metal,  in  this case not so much  influenced by  the known  NWOBHM stars of the early 80 ear like  Maiden,  Saxon or Priest,  but rather   influenced by UFO, old scorpions and MSG.

Adramelech are (were) a far-underestimated band from Finland, with members also known from their co-operation with, for example, Demigod, Torture Killer and Impious Havoc, a. o. The album Psychostasia was some kind of ‘break-though’ within the (European / international) Death Metal scene, if only it were because of the eccentric, characterising approach courtesy of bands from the Land of a Thousand Lakes. It originally saw the light in 1996 via major Extreme Metal label Relapse Records.

X&Y is an alternative rock band that was formed at the end of 2006 in the French Riviera. The band has participated in and won various contests, and reached the finals of national contests from amongst hundreds of bands from France, Belgium and Switzerland. They were also nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in November 2011 with the song “I miss you”.

Hailing from the West Midlands British town of Kidderminster (which is situated some 26 km from Birmingham in SW direction), this band was formed in early 2008 by (lead) guitarist/ singer Hannah Fieldhouse (formerly of Oxzide and Stream Of Sound, and also running an own acoustic project on vocals & guitar under her own name), and guitarist Wayne Taylor (whom was singer and founding member of local Metal outfit Forge Chaos, at at the time of Winter Storm's formation looking for a chance

We Are The In Crowd is an American pop/rock (punk) band from Poughkeepsie, NY formed in 2009. The current members are Taylor "Tay" Jardine (vocals, keyboards), Jordan Eckes (rhythm guitar, vocals), Cameron Hurley (lead guitar, backing vocals), Mike Ferri (bass) and Robert "Rob" Chianelli (drums).

Atlanta based Volume IV, featuring Joe Carpenter of Nihilist, has just announced the release of their Ripple Music debut album, Long In The Tooth, which will be coming out in the US on March 11th, and is scheduled to hit the European stores on March 14th of 2014!