CD

It seems that once again, Stratovarius has managed to deliver us a good album. Their 16th studio

album so far,  since their formation in 1984.  They did a tour to promote this new album, which also

brought them to Belgium, at the Biebop.

They still play power metal, but it seems they have gone back to their earlier sound.  This also implies

you don’t have to expect new gimmicks on this album, it’s good, old fashioned Stratovarius stuff, with

the o so familiar Timo Tolkki vocals., which you either hate, or love. And once again I’m flabbergasted

When Maëror Tri decided to split up almost two decades ago (and still my tears haven’t completely gone yet), two of the members, Stefan and Martin (aka Baraka[H] and Glit[s]ch), decided to continue their collaboration under the moniker of Troum. ‘troum’ is an old-Germanic word for ‘dream’ (Traum in modern German), and they did choose this moniker specifically to focus on the experiences of the past, knowing that there will never be a return.

Rein were (I use ‘were’ instead of ‘are’, for the band disbanded after the release of their sole full length album, which this review will deal with) – so, they were a five-piece from the Auvergne-region in France, focusing on the heritage of Pan-European tradition(s) and the glory once floating over European soil.

I was totally blown away two years ago when Nebular Winter Productions’ owner Nasos introduced me to Morar. They did debut with the five-tracker Chants Of Ossian, which did stand for fabulous Nordic-styled Epic Black Metal with a Norwegian touch of superiority and grandeur. Check out the review I wrote for that EP, posted on September 21^st 2014.

Faunus Amadeus Loki is the artist’s name of New York born guy John Donadio, who runs the Volk Lore Music collaborative.

Despite having some earlier releases on different labels, I hadn’t heard of Milwaukee-based project Climax Denial before.

There are a couple of (German) bands with the moniker Todgeweiht, but this one deals with the duo from Thuringia, Grimwald and BluothArn. They started more than a decade ago, but didn’t release but two demos (one was even never officially distributed) as well as one full album. That album, called Pestilenz, was initially supposed to be part of a split with Winternight, nowadays known as Wintarnaht.

The Italian trio Nyx (A. Sathsiva, S. Flagellyon and G. Azelyoth) recorded this new album at the Sottomarino Giallo Rec Service studio during summer 2014, with mixing / mastering assistance of Luis Varo. The result, called Hairesis and, unfortunately, lasting for only half an hour (and some seconds, all right), gets released by two of my preferred East-European labels, i.e. Vacula Productions and Satanath Records.

Deviator are a project from Ukraine around Dmitry ‘Lord Hastner’ Kundelski. As from 2007, there were quite some releases (demos, some contributions to splits, some singles / EPs, and two full lengths; compilations and this specific album not included). A couple of months ago, I wrote a review for the compilation To Forgotten Path – Triumph Of The Will, published on October 11^th 2014, released via Pesttanz Klangschmiede. But the last ‘real’ full length release dates from 2012, actually.

Ad Noctem Funeriis (to my limited knowledge of the Latin language [sorry but I didn’t speak it anymore since about twenty centuries…] this moniker has been misspelled, but who cares about that) are an Italian act that contributed on a split with defunct Italian band Propaganda in 2008, and that released a first album in very early 2009 (…of Evil and Torment, via Salute Records). Then things went silent, but eventually the band entered the studio again in Winter 2014 in order to record their second full length album.