There is apparently a history of friendship between this Liverpool based artist, and 359Music's CEO & producer Alan McGee, which goes back to 2007, when Chris was fronting the band The Grants and played at McGee's West London night club Death Disco. According to McGee, they clicked on the basis of both being “a round peg in a square hole”, and if he'd had a label back then, the band would've been signed on the spot!
Fans of Axel Rudi Pell can buy this new album without any hesitation. Once again, this band, who started out in the late eighties, has brought us a very good album. If, like me, you’re old enough to have lived in the eighties, and are a metal fan, you might probably still remember Axel Rudi Pell’s work with Steeler (The German Steeler, not to be confused with the band that featured Ron Keel).
Swedish act Wombbath was originally formed in 1990 (shortly under the moniker of Seizure, but this was a name that went for just a couple of months). The band was active during the first half of the nineties, and did record two EP’s, respectively called Several Shapes and Lavatory, and one full length, Internal Caustic Moments.
Treblinka can be considered a pre-Tiamat act, but with important differences.
Norwegian top-act Throne Of Katarsis sort of is a constant element within my end year lists. Their Candlelight-efforts Helvete … (2009) or Ved Graven (2011), for example, did end up with a very high personal score (both reviews I did on these full albums are still available within the Archives-tab). So I was very pleased to receive the promotional edition of this band’s fourth studio album.
The German quintet Sacrificium (vocalist Claudio Enzler, guitar players Wolfgang Nillies and Matthias Brandt, bass player Thorsten Brandt, and drummer Mario Henning) exists for about two decades in mean time. The band recorded a couple of albums throughout the past years, and toured Europe alongside bands like Dismember, HateSphere, Unleashed, Fleshcrawl, Eluveitie etc.
Finland’s Purtenance were initially formed at the end of the eighties as Purtenance Avulsion. There wasn’t but one demo under that moniker. In 1991, the band changed its name into the current one, and they released the grandiose Crown Waits The Immortal EP, which was one of my favourite EP’s that very same year (back then, tapes and vinyl were ‘hot’, CD’s didn’t exist yet), followed in 1992 by the full length debut Member Of Immortal Damnation.
It might not be the most original moniker, but this time it’s a Belgian combo (from the French-speaking part of the country) that uses Possession as band name. Why not anyway… The band currently consists of former Dawn Of Crucifixion-members Viriakh (b, v) and Dveikus (g), drummer Pz.Kpfw, and new vocalist Mestema.
Transylvania, indeed, it’s the region most people might refer to one of my possible ancestors ( ???), Mr. Vladimir Tepes, prince of the Order of the Dragons. It’s also an area that houses many great acts that are truly inspired in one way or another (not just lyrically, yet also through blood and nationalism) by Uncle Vlad the Impaler [note: in fact, it was the princedom of Wallachia, but that’s another discussion…].
Netherbird were formed in 2004 by Nephente, Grim (who left in mean time) and Bizmark. Despite almost a decade of existence, the band didn’t really record that much material. With The Ferocious Tides Of Fate, Netherbird release their third full length album, which was recorded at the Scarecrow Studios, which are, just like the label the band is currently on, gathered within the Scarecrow Music Group.
