CD

Warnot is a project by former Cloudscape guitarist Björn Eliassion.  He left Cloudscape in 2009, and started working on his own musical project, which ended as this album under the name Warnot.

Brooklyn based guitar-drum duo Xaddax is yet another great band in the list of stuff distributed by Mandaï (like, I daresay, most of their stuff), bringing us the band's debut full-length 10-track album which was released on the Skin Graft label back in May 2012.

Deplorable how little info one can find on the Internet about this London based British band! From what I've been able to piece together, the band was formerly known as a quartet under the name of Death Cigarettes until the latter part of 2009, when original singer Maya and guitarist Andy decided to take on a new rhythm section.

Having started as a Bologna (Italy) based guitar-drums (guitar = Michele, drums= Giovanni) duo in 2006, D.U.N.E. grew to a quartet including singer Alessandro and bassist Nico (native of Barcelona and Toronto, but I ain't sure to whom which place relates), which released its debut 12-inch vinyl release L'Ipotesi Della Stipsi in March of 2008 through several labels (including Wallace Records, but with licencing to Shove records, In Limi

Enchantya is a band hailing from Portugal, and with this album they deliver their first work to the world.  They are fronted by Rute Fevereiro, whom some of you might know from Black Widow, a all female band, but which she left in 2004.

What this band brings us is progressive Goth metal, with female vocals. That the group consists of excellent musicians cannot be denied, especially the keyboards leave a very good impression, but the duo guitarists also give a great performance.

Jorn needs no introduction I guess.  He’s been around the scene since countless years, and has featured in many bands and projects, like Masterplan, Avantasia, Millenium and of course solo.

In those years he has released many fine albums. Now opinions might vary about this album. I mean there’s nothing wrong with the songs in themselves they’re sort of a compilation or a ‘best of’ of Jorn’s albums.  But they were dipped in a symphonic bath to end up on this record. 

I have a vague memory of Kix’s first release, be it alone for those vivid green letters the band name was – and still is – written in.  Musically I don’t remember very much, except one song ‘Atomic Bomb’, I guess at that time there were other bans around I was more interested in.  and that’s about it, neither me or my friends bought other records by this band.

So it was with a bit of a surprise to learn this band still existed. It seems they have even been writing new stuff for a new album that should be released somewhere in 2013.

Timo Kotipelto you all know as frontman and vocalist of Stratovarius, while Jani Liimatainen is known as guitarist of Sonata Arctica.

The two of them have been playing lots of acoustic shows that seem to have drew great critics, which made them take the decision to put some songs on an album.  Initially self-financed they ultimately found a company that would release the album on a much wider scale.

Usually I have a hard time with sludge music, and especially the ongoing flood of sludge metal bands is more than I can take. But Moghul (great name) do manage to capture my attention. At a first glance, the two songs don’t sound too spectacular, but the more time you spend with them, the more fascination evolves from this psychedelic doom foursome. Attentive listening reveals how multi-layered the music actually is. The CD contains 2 long tracks running between nine and thirteen minutes and subsists on countless mood swings.

Opium Warlords, the brainchild of Sami A. ‘Witchfinder’ Hynninen (whom you might know from e.g. Reverend Bizarre, Spiritus Mortis, Armanenschaft, Lohja SS, Punisment, KLV and several more), return with We Meditate Under The Pussy In The Sky, a five-tracker that lasts for thirty five minutes. We Meditate … is a mainly instrumental record, with an approach rather typifying to Svart Records.