Metallian Heavy
HAIL OF BULLETS, featuring former PESTILENCE, BOLT THROWER and ASPHYX singer Martin Van Drunen GOREFEST drummer Ed Warby, THANATOS guitarists Stephan Gebédi and Paul Baayens as well as former HOUWITSER bass player Theo van Eekelen, has signed a deal with Metal Blade Records…Chicago’s LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR has recorded an album, entitled War Metal Battle Master. The CD is due through Southern Lord in April…CARNAL LUST has joined the Thundering Records’ roster. The band’s Dawn Of The Hatred album will be released in February...Montreal’s PAROXYSM is looking for a drummer following the departure of Franck Camus. Any death metal drummers interested may contact the band through info@paroxysm.ca...CHAOSWEAVER has signed a recording contract with Shadow World Records. The band is working on its, as yet, untitled debut…The End Records has announced February 19th release date for the third album from SCULPTURED, Embodiment…EXODUS has issued a new DVD independently. Entitled Double Live Dynamo! The DVD features sets from 1985 and 1997…Open Grave Records has announced the signing of Swedish death metal band THE COLD EXISTENCE. Formed at the end of 1999, and featuring members of MALEFICIO, GARM and VINDICATE, the band will issue a new album in June, 2008…I For Us Records has signed THE END OF ALL REASON. The band’s sound is compared to THE RED CHORD…Gerben, guitar player of DISAVOWED, has joined OBSIDIAN…IMPALED’s The Last Gasp is now out through Candlelight Records. MP3.com is streaming the album…France’s HYPNOSIS has mothballed its drum machine and recruited drummer Alex Urena (ex-NECROSIS)…DECREPIT BIRTH will release a second album, Diminishing Between Worlds, on January 28th through Unique Leader Records…MESHUGGAH has picked obZen as the title for its next album, which is due in March through Nuclear Blast Records…Unknown singer Jonathan 'Joller' Albrechtsen has been picked as the new man fronting HATESPHERE…Regain Records has issued a live mini-CD of GORGOROTH entitled Bergen 1996. The two-song CD was recorded at the Garage in Bergen, Norway on May 23rd, 1996 and was originally issued as a seven-inch single as The Last Tormentor…Massacre Records has signed SINISTER and will issue Silent Howling in the autumn of 2008. The band, which has just lost drummer Paul Beltman, will record the album in the spring…GRAVE, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary through a number of shows, has signed with Regain Records…FUNERAL FOG has thrown in the towel…COUNCIL OF THE FALLEN, which currently features DEICIDE drummer Steve Asheim, has announced the addition of guitarist Santiago Dobles from the progressive act AGHORA…Demonaz Occulta formerly of IMMORTAL has a solo project called DEMONAZ. The project is aided by Abbath of I and IMMORTAL…HOLY MOSES has picked Bloodbound as the title for its next album, which is due in the spring. The band is touring with OBITUARY and AVATAR in January…Denmark’s ARTILLERY has a recruited Søren Adamsen (CRYSTAL EYES and STARRATS) as its new singer…Ray "Black Metal" Wallace who managed SACRIFICE and others for many years as well as promoting metal shows in Ontario and managing his local HMV music store died because of an brain aneurysm at the Toronto Western Hospital last month…AVULSED has a DVD out called Reanimating Russia 2007…AMON AMARTH DVD Wrath Of The Norsemen has gone gold in Canada four months after release…EXMORTEM has signed a two-album deal with Mighty Music…After a show at Ekens Gård FACE DOWN decided to make Rickard Dahlberg (CONSTRUCDEAD) a permanent replacement for Joacim Carlsson. The band was working on a forthcoming album called Mass Murder Agenda.
THRESHOLD's keyboard player and co-producer Richard West has returned from Remaster Studios in Italy where he was co-producing the fourth POWER QUEST album. POWER QUEST is the brainchild of ex-DRAGONFORCE keyboard player Steve Williams. The band recently signed with Napalm Records…My Kingdom Music has signed DREAM STEEL. The band is recording an album called You which is due in February…Frontiers Records will release MARKUS GROSSKOPF’s Bassinvaders album Hellbassbeaters on January 25th…LION'S SHARE will release the new album, Emotional Coma, in USA on January 29th through Locomotive Music. Emotional Coma was released by AFM Records in Europe and Spiritual Beast in Japan/Asia. LION'S SHARE will also have two songs, Soultaker and The Edge Of The Razor, on the Magic Circle Festival 2007 double-DVD…JETBOY has released The Glam Years Movie And CD through MVD. The CD/DVD package includes a 1986 performance at the Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood, a slideshow, plus new interviews with each member. The audio disc includes 21 tracks of old demos plus two new recordings, Feel The Shake 2007 and a version of Folsom Prison Blues...Twenty years after releasing the debut City Ad Mortis DEFENDER will start recording a full-length CD. The band will start recording at the Legacy Studio on the second week of December. The album will be released in the summer of 2008…Frontiers Records has signed RALF SCHEEPERS for the production of his first solo album. The singer of PRIMAL FEAR will begin recording his album with production help from band-mate Mat Sinner…Dockyard 1 has signed Germany's STORMWARRIOR. The band is recording its third studio album, Heading Northe, at the group's own Thunderhall Studio…In an odd twist, two CRIMSON GLORY vocalists, Midnight and Wade Black, will join each other on their respective bands. Wade Black will sing on Midnight's M2 album. They will also play joint acoustic shows and perform together with their bands, MIDNIGHT BAND and DISASTERPEACE…AYREON’s new album, 01011001, is due in on January 28th…LEATHERWOLF has parted ways with guitarist Geoff Gayer in the midst of its European tour. The band had had to cancel its last show in Italy as a result… BRAINSTORM’s Downburst is now out through Metal Blade Records…EVERGREY has pulled out of its planned co-headlining European tour with BRAINSTORM which was scheduled to take place in March. The Swedes claim the next album will not be ready in time for the tour…BLOODBOUND has been rejoined by singer Urban Breed who had left the band in 2006 amidst acrimony. The singer had been on the road with the band for the last several months…IN FLAMES has re-signed with Nuclear Blast Records for the world except North America. A new album is expected in June…BENEDICTUM will issue a new album called Seasons Of Tragedy through Locomotive Records in January…VAINGLORY has parted ways with guitarist John Michael Youngblood…Kevin DuBrow, lead singer for QUIET RIOT, was found dead at home in Las Vegas on Sunday November 25th. The man had apparently died seven days earlier alone at home. He was 52 years old…EVOKEN, which just issued A Caress Of The Void through I Hate Records, has announced the addition of keyboardist Don Zaros…The planned KING DIAMOND, KREATOR, CELLADOR and LEAVES' EYES tour of America in April of 2008 has been cancelled due to King Diamond’s ailing herniated disc of the spine. The vocalist is not expected to be fully recovered in time for the touring…KROKUS’ classic line-up of singer Marc Storace, Fernando Von Arb (guitar), Chris Von Rohr (bass) and Freddy Steady (drums) reunited for an appearance on November 18th on a Swiss TV show called Die Grössten Schweizer Hits (The Biggest Swiss Hits) where the line-up performed Tokyo Nights, Bedside Radio and Heatstrokes…IRONY, featuring vocalist Nicolaj Ruhnow of DOMAIN, has signed a deal with Sleaszy Rider. The second album In The Beginning Of… Echoes From The Past will be released by the new label in the near future. Metallian Demos
HOUSE MASTER – I PARONI DE CASA Half the time it is not easy trying to figure out whether Venice, Italy’s House Master is serious or not. Aside from the band’s name – which sounds like something was lost in the translation, although the band insists the initials are HM and therefore justified – song titles like Der Governator or I Paroni De Casa (Venetian for I Patroni De Casa or, er, House Master) do not offer much assurance. That being said, the band’s music is no joke. Evil Eyes kick off the disc with some ‘80s metal high screams that rule, but the song quickly establishes the five at purveyors of rough and ready thrash metal. The band’s raw delivery harkens back to old Sepultura or early Flotsam And Jetsam, but with added brutality and updated intensity. A touch of hardcore is also present as a function of the primal ferocity of this band, although plenty of complex riffing is also present. Get scribbling to oxeo@libero.it or visit www.housemasterband.it. - Anna Tergel DEATHBRINGER – HOMO DIVISUS Living and breathing acrid underground air Belarus band Deathbringer is true to its domain and literally so. The band’s style is as close to Death as any other band out there. As much as Death, in its later years, determines and influences Deathbringer’s sound and movements this demo shows how capably the Eastern Europeans do their thing. The songs are accomplished and professional. The rhythms as technical and tight as anything Chuck could manage. The leads are very smooth and the riffs really interesting. The vocals of Mitry Molochnikoff impressive in their own rights. With three songs lasting over 27 minutes one knows that the quintet is no slouch. In fact, were it not for the creeping Death influences this demo would be among the most incredible independent releases this year or last. Perhaps knowing this the third song on the CD, Black Pilgrim, takes a detour through Tool and Coal Chamber territory before coming back into metal territory. Oddly enough, portions of the song bear some similarity to the dominant music of the film Eyes Wide Shut. Find the band through www.myspace.com/deathbringerband or e-mail deathbringer@tut.by. - Anna Tergel BLEED – MISS ALCOHOL After the risqué album cover and racy image the CD’s first song Better Than You leaves one a little cold. The song is not bad, but is not as hard or crazy as anyone looking at the cover would have expected. At least, the New Jersey band has set itself up for merchandising its own line of lingerie and whiskey for the future. Better Than You with its gentle nod to White Zombie and Danzig is not the best song on the disc however. Miss Alcohol, Suffocated and Bleed are better tunes that rock harder and even include a couple of screechy guitar whams. That is more like it. The bassist sure knows how to pump his instrument as well. My fave dude in the band is the guitarist though. Look at that hair. Visit the band at myspace.com/bleed – Sheila Wes Det LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT – VIOLENT ACT OF BEAUTY Not sure why we are reviewing this because this is not metal. The Metallian has sent it to me so I am at least delighted to say that our solo band/man Sean Brennan has lush long dyed hair that rocks. So does the concept. The very Marxist-Leninist artwork and lyrics take a swipe or two at America and the government taking on the system not only with a one-page manifesto, but also with song titles like Feeling Fascist?, America’s A Fucking Disease and Nothing’s Sacred. Musically, this is electronic music that only occasionally speeds up into dance or techno territory. The programmed music is focused on slower layering and digital slow-mo effect. Some added effects like real drums and flutes spice it all up on occasion. LAM is an American band but I swear Brennan sounds awfully like Rob Halford’s quieter moments especially on his industrial project or solo albums. Can you hear it? Overall, not heavy or metal, but deep and brave. An interesting guy who can be reached via info@londonaftermidnight.com. - Sheila Wes Det | |||||
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