Message of the month

Halfway through the month and 35 new promos have already arrived in my mailbox! Looks like it will be a busy summer. Personally I have kept myself occupied with work and training for the Stockholm Marathon on June 4th. Two weeks without alcohol so far and three weeks left to go. This is obviously the time to do some serious work on the site, and so, I have started several projects. I will mention those which you may benefit from here just in case you're interested. We will start adding direct purchase links to Amazon and CDON to the reviews in the near future and a Community-like section will be created, which will give you new ways to interact with the site. This is still some way in the future but when that is in place it will be impossible for "the stupid people" to steal your name in the comments. A lot of additional features are planned as well, more about those later. I plan to use this monthly playlist update to keep you informed on what is happening.

And now.... The Larch... Sorry, the Playlist:


Shadow Gallery - Room V
Probably my most awaited release of the year is finally here and amazingly it sounds like it lives up to my pretty unreachable expectations. This is just fantastic! Most definitely an Album of the year candidate.

Pain of Salvation - BE - DVD
This will please all Pain of Salvation addicts. A quite extraordinary concert performance and loads of extras to dig into. Very cool!

Royal Hunt - Paper Blood
The opening keyboard solo was enough to make me smile. Royal Hunt continue the melodic nature of The Mission and turn the aggression up a notch. Sounds promising.

Freak Kitchen - Organic
Disappointment struck after the first few listens to this one. Nowhere near as inspired as Move or the self-titled and only a few songs stand out so far.

Demons & Wizards - Touched by the Crimson King
My first impression is disappointment, but I have not heard this one nearly enough to make a final judgement. There are moments of greatness but also moments where both Schaffer's guitar riffs and Hansi's voice annoy the hell out of me. I never thought I should write something like that. "Terror Train" is to blame.

Circus Maximus - The 1st chapter
Great Progressive metal. Unfortunately the Gladiator-inspired Glory of the empire comes rippingly close to the melody in The Accolade by Symphony X as well as a certain passage from The Lord Of The Rings. Effective, but not convincing when you suddenly recognise the melodies. Besides that this is high quality music and should please fans of complex music, especially Symphony X fans.

Tori Amos - The Beekeeper
A very strong album that keeps growing. Maybe a bit too pleasant and lacking an edge that was on the first albums. I love the voice, the melodies and the piano and the Amos experience is still one of a kind. I am now counting the days till her concert in Copenhagen.

X-Japan - Silent Jealousy (Single)
Ever since I read Matthew's review of the Jealousy album I have been searching for it. Found this single on Ebay recently and since then I have been listening to it daily. This band has something really special. I'm now hunting for any of their albums.

Angra - Temple of Shadows
I'm just now beginning to discover how great this album is. It is even closing in on my favorite Angra album, Holy Land.

Shaaman - Reason
This is a diversion from the Angra roots towards a more rocking and back-to-basics approach. Not quite on par with the debut. It takes a little getting used to but the album has some great songs. Innocence is incredibly beautiful.

RPWL - World through my eyes
Really good melancholic prog-rock.

Johnny Monaco - 5-track Promo
5 catchy rock songs make for a very promising taster of the upcoming album "Your Secret's safe with me"

Arena - Pepper's Ghost
Symphonic Rock with a great atmosphere. Clive Nolan's keyboard sound is quite mesmerizing.

Evergrey - A night to remember
Absolutely riveting performance even though the sound is somewhat lacking in the guitar department. Tom sounds amazing and I can't wait to see the DVD.

Ray Wilson - The next best thing
Compared to Change this one is more varied and takes longer to get into. It doesn't quite reach the superb level of Change but is still a very good album. The album has some amazing songs, but also a few which haven't hit me as hard. Sometimes is really beautiful as is Alone which has a strong Chris Isaak feel to it.

Sandalinas - Living on the Edge
Straight ahead no-frills hard rock. A nice surprise filled with great guitar work and catchy songs. My only slight problems with this release is the use of keyboard on some songs and the singer who is good but has room for improvement.

Written by Steen
Sunday, May 15, 2005