CD

TheName is a Belgian groov rock/metal band. This is the best way to describe the band, although I would dare to say that they incorporate various other influences like “pop” in their songs.

Cripey...I don't know why I even bother starting this review. I mean, how would you react when, after having spent three quarters of hour in research on a band which released a 4-track EP already 9 months earlier, you suddenly find out that what you're sent is just the one song off that same EP? Would you toss the thing in the garbage can, and wait for a next release on which you find out the band is working? Hum...I guess I have more journalistic integrity than that! But I usually insist on at least being given a good representation of a band's material, before reviewing it.

Just turned 64 years of age this February 12^th of 2014, guitarist Steve Hackett is anything but an unwritten page in music history.

You know, I have a very broad taste in music, including many more straight-forward genres...but I've always had a hunger for things more complex as well. And one thing I've learned over the years, is that complex music isn't necessarily deprived of great overall melody. This, I must stress, is certainly the case with this London-based, seven-headed outfit, which has generally been categorized as Post-Rock but which, through the integration of glockenspiel, trumpet, keyboards, cello and violin, combines that with elements of gypsy marches, Klezmer, Gospel, and movie soundtrack-ish music.

Well, there you have it...I mean, when you start a review talking about the diversity of a certain record label (in casu : Victory Records), you'll find they provide you with the handy proof to make your point! Because as mentioned in my review of the most recent Close Your Eyes album, this label deals with out-of-the-ordinary type of bands, and the same sure counts for this “MetalCore” act from sunny South Florida (home base Hialeah).

Some people take the weirdest names as a monicker for their band, and it occasionally makes one wonder what method us used to chose a name. Take this Swedish Doom Rock/ Metal act, for instance.

Heikki Hautala is a visual artist (with apparently quite a few exhibitions to his name – check some of his work at (www.) heikkihautala.wordpress.com) whom is also the frontman of the Finish blind-rage noisy Punk band Sokea Piste, who thus far released one 7-inch single (July 2011's Oire), and two 12-inch albums (July 2011's Ajatus Karkaa, released a day prior to the single; and Jan. 2013's Vätikäsi), the latter of which was also released on CD by Ektro.

Norway’s Glittertind are a project by Torbjørn Sandvik, who started this outfit at the age of sixteen, more than twelve years ago. In the past, Glittertind released two albums via Karmageddon (the full length Evige Asatro in 2004, and the mini Til Dovre Faller in 2005), both as solo-project for Torbjørn.

There's not really a lot I can tell you about this Mönchengladbach based Pop punk quintet, except that apparently singer Lucas Braun, guitarists Bnedikt Ricken and Lukas Andrzejewski, bassist Moritz Mewes and drummer Yannick Vievers have been playing together since their teenager years, and thus strengthened the bonds of friendship which already brought them together on the common ground of musical preferences.

For a very brief moment there, I though the Amadora based Portuguese Heavy Metal band by this name might've reformed.