Gama Bomb: Tales From The Grave In Space.Highly energetic Thrash with party attitude and far out lyrics about ninjas, ghosts, flesheating scarecrows, robots and the splendor of B-movies. Anything but boring! The band and the good people at
Earache Records have made this album available for free, as a
legal download. Go get it!
Wolf: Everything.It is no secret I've been completely obsessed with Sweden's Metal sensation, Wolf, lately. After discovering the excellent
Ravenous album last year, I've dived deep into their complete back catalogue, and I strongly suspect the Swedes of being incapable of writing a bad song. Seriously, all their albums are great, some are even downright amazing! The band delivers Heavy Metal the way it was supposed to be done, with no major gimmicks, but tons of nerve!
Celesty: Vendetta.Run-of-the-mill Power Metal. Not bad, the band has some good ideas, and some songs bloom into beautiful creations, like the melodic
Like Warriors or the more epic
Lord (Of This Kingdom). Nevertheless, nothing truly spectacular can be found here, and the arrangements leave something to wish fore, in particular the choirs.
Dream Evil: In The Night.I fell out of love with Dream Evil some time ago, and lost track of the band for a couple of years. I decided to give them another chance with
In The Night, and it has turned out to be a pleasant, but not fantastic, album. The tongue-in-cheek humor that is the band's trademark is still intact, and tracks like
Bang Your Head and
Electric shows that the band is still capable of writing catchy and melodic tunes. However, overall, there are too many uninteresting songs, and the album as a whole never gets completely under my skin.
Abbatoir: Screams From The Grave.Good, old classic Metal from 1982, somehow reminds me of a mix between Mötörhead and Agent Steel. A great album, with lots of nerve!
Cauldron: Into The Cauldron (EP).After enjoying the debut album Chained To The Nite, I decided to check out the Canadians' first EP, and what a great disc! Only four songs, and a production that sounds like they recorded it in an old cellar are the only drawbacks, but all songs are totally great. Classic, thrashy Heavy Metal as it should be done!
Rhapsody: Sea Of Fate (song).Great to hear the symphonic masters back with such a strong composition! Still need to check out the full album, but this is rather promising!
Gamma Ray: To The Metal!Hmm, I'm really trying to get into this, but I'm still not completely convinced about its strengths. Gamma Ray is high on my list of godly bands, but
To The Metal seem half-baked to me. Sure, we have some great songs here, but overall, the album seems like a mix between already used a million times old Hansen-riffs, and ripping off Judas Priest.!
Freedom Call: Legend Of The Shadowking.The melodic Metal warriors return with a pleasant, yet not fully consistent album. Contains some amazing songs, but when the band gets too experimental, and plays around with gothic sounds and weird vocal styles, it just doesn't work. Full review coming up.
The Law: Distorted Anthems From The Suburbs.I saw
The Law opening for Thrash band
Freddy Kruger´s Underwear, and they delivered a top class show.
Distorted Anthems From The Suburbs is full of crunchy Thrash riffs, surprisingly melodic vocals, and kick ass attitude! Ohh, and the have a song about old school wrestler
The Undertaker!
