Almost a decade before one Steve Harris would start up what was to become one of the more successful Heavy Metal bands still around (somewhere in 1966 to be more precise, bassist Barry Skeels, singer Steve Drewett and guitarist Chris Rose (whom had that far been active in an acoustic band) witnessed a performance of Cream at their school hall in Basildon (Southern border of Sussex, some 50 km East from the center of London)!
Mammoth is a band hailing from Australia, and with this album they just released their third album on the world. It’s the first album I ever lay my hands on though.
I was fortunate enough to see Hidira Spacefolk at the latest Burg Herzberg fest in Germany. So with great anticipation I waited for their newest full-length Astronautica.
Down, who still play their typical mix of sludge metal and classic rock, prefer to take their time. The band started already back in 1991, but The Purple is only their fourth album to date. The difficulty in judging this album is that I started to like it after quite some effort to dig and try to find interesting elements In the beginning it sounded rather typical and my initial impression was that few things were going on.
As soon as the package labelled Corsair arrived in my mail, I knew I was in for a treat and I was right! I've been a big fan of this band and have been following them since their first Ep. So far this band has been delivering 2 excellent EPs, and this one is no different. The third offering is one of those rare but welcome CDs that grabs you from the very first track and holds you enraptured through the entire recording.
This Metal band from Sydney, Australia (“Metal” is really the word used in the opening lines of the info sheet we got with the download promo copy of the album) was started some 6 years ago, went through some line-up changes (current membership comprises lead singer Sam Rilatt, guitarist/ second singer Ben Irwin, guitarist Dan O'Brien, bassist Kiel Stranger, and drummer Reece Kirby).
Pythia is the name of a priestess from Delphi at the Temple of Apollo, also known as the Oracle of Delphi. She was known for her hallucinations, translated into revelations or prophecies, spoken in a weird tongue, said as it came from the Gods directly. Some historici think it was because of the use of certain drugs, others think she acted under the influence of certain gasses (Greece is a rather seismic region, as you know), or it might have been some sort of self-hypnotic or mental state of whatever.
The story of Tankard is an exceptional one. It was around 1982 when they came into life, but it wasn't until 1986 when their first album was recorded. The band was somewhat of a pioneer, they were spearheading a wave of German thrash bands who became successful worldwide (Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, …).
I remember when way back in 1982 one of my friends bought a copy of the first Tank album ‘Filth Hounds Of Hades’, and how it created quite some kick. This was almost raw energy, poured into a musical equivalent. However this didn’t mean that I became a great fan of this band, but they had some good tunes.
This is the fourth album for French band Spheric Universe Experience. I have no idea what their previous albums sounded like, but apparently their sound was more situated in the progressive metal genre.
And although there are still some prog elements there, they seem to have been reduced to a strict minimum. No intricate keyboard parts are to be found, as a matter of fact keyboards are even spares and between. However the album is not bad, since the guitar parts are very good.
