CD

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.

Prototype was formed by two former members of Los Angeles trash band Psychosis. This, I believe, is their third album.

While Prototype cannot deny its trash origins, its music exceeds the limits of the trash genre. They have managed to mix in a good dose of progressive metal, and, very important for me, they have managed to have decent vocals, instead of shouts.

Based in Madrid, Spain, this band was founded in April 2005 when keyboardist Sergio López and guitarist Jose Manuel Torres met each other through a very popular Internet music forum. Influenced by the likes of Epica, After Forever and Nightwish, their desire was to start a European female fronted Symphonic Metal project. So, with that in mind they first went in search of a rehearsal space, and then went on the lookout for the additional members to complete the line-up.

As most of you might know already, trash metal isn’t my cup of tea.  Which implies that I have suffered enormously listening to this album. This is trash metal at its purest form. Fast, aggressive.  And to make matters even worse the lyrics – I guess they’re English? – are understandable. The drummer is trying to beat the world speed record I guess, but that’s about it.

Why this album, originally released in 2007 had to be rereleased is a mystery to me.

This conceptual album tells the tale of the Jewish people's exodus from Egypt, in a somewhat peculiar way.

The 9^th Cell is more a one-man project than a real band, since almost everything on this record was written and played by David Pais, a Portuguese born guy, who has been active in the music business in the past, but this is his very first release on a record label.  He got the aid of some guests for some of the vocals though.

Zaklon are one of the very few bands I know from Belarus (the western part of the former USSR), but with this release they might gain some success outside their home country’s borders. The project was formed at the very end of last century by a guy called Temnarod and this album, with lyrics (again, like the project’s former releases) done in the Belarusian native tongue, was originally recorded during late Spring 2009 and released in a very limited edition in early 2011 through Forestland Prod.