FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Album number two from this Bay Area female-fronted doom trio. Funeral doom this is not—eight tracks spanning less than 36 minutes. From the upbeat (if none too uplifting) chugs and gleaming instro passages of the opener “Ever Hunter” through the piercing, haunted wails and jagged riffing of “Corpse Candles,” this is not your slogging bog-band doom, either.
Ever wonder what would happen if you let a nine year old kid interview their favourite band? We over at Hellbound did, so we arranged for nine year old Sam Stewart-Panko to interview guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li from his favourite band, Dragonforce. Here’s an interview you don’t want to miss.
Although he almost missed it – please see inside for all the details – Hellbound’s Rob Kachluba finally made it back to Atlanta GA earlier this month for this year’s edition of the ProgPower USA Festival. Here is Rob’s recap of the three days that he was in attendance at the fest, which included performances by Evergrey, Sanctuary, Ihsahn, Haken, While Heaven Wept, Forbidden, Therion and many more.
Now after watching this thing twice I’ll bet anyone who would argue that Matt Barlow is not the one and only true vocalist for this band. His performance on the Metal Camp festival show is flawless. Such emotion and passion in his delivery, it will have you punching your fist in the air. Highlights are “Declaration Day” and “Dracula”. He hits the highs effortlessly and really knows how to command the stage. The band sounds as tight as hell and really proves that they are the premier power metal band in North America bar none.
The fact that Edguy sound more hard rock than power metal these days shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has listened to the band over the last few years. They all have the chops to pull of the experimenting and damn Tobias has a great voice. This is head and shoulders above the last couple of Edguy albums.
Overall, the live show is just amazing, musically, vocally, visually, the ensemble really pull it off. Hearing 80,000 fans singing along with Avantasia is a little awe inspiring.
Sceptical as I was, I’m pretty happy with Infected and if it marks a turn to a rockier, darker band, I’m with them.
On Demons of the AstroWaste, Unleash the Archers sound like veterans of the scene and turn in a, ahem, stellar performance. This album is a nerd’s delight in more ways than one and may very well be an album of the year contender on many lists!
“Sabaton blend traditional metal with power metal and a bit of military pomp to create some truly catchy work. Naysayers will repeatedly bring up the fact that they are not Bolt Thrower so they shouldn’t try to do ‘military metal’ (something that the band started dabbling with on Primo Victoria, which quickly became their forte) however that’s a lot like telling As I Lay Dying that they shouldn’t do Christian Metal because they aren’t Stryper. I actually came to the Sabaton party a little late, I was introduced to the band with The Art of War (their 2008 release with Black Lodge) so these ‘Rearmed’ editions from Nuclear Blast (the bands new home) were a huge treat for me.”
Jason Wellwood reviews the new ReArmed Edition reissues of the first four SABATON albums on Nuclear Blast USA.
Thematically, Turisas sustain their mostly historical bent with eyes turned toward Byzantium, though any storytelling takes back seat to the triumphant tone and exultant crusade invoked by the music itself.