Band : Clusterhead

Album title : Times Of No Trust

Label : Own release?

Distributor : Artist Service – Music Buy Mail

Release date : 30/05/2008

Release : CD

First a word about Artist Service and Music Buy Mail: the latter was started in 2002 as a mere mailorder service, adding the possibility of music downloads in early 2007. To aid their possible clients in their decision to buy an album or not, the distro offers 30-second mp3 files of 3 songs of every album in their catalogue. Later in 2007, they founded the Artist Service promotion agency as an extra support for their products, noticing that a lot of 'em were disappearing in the grey area of the current-day mass production world. Thus, they offer their clients (both bands and labels) the service of sending out promo material to the press, thus increasing attention to said products and possible chance to better sales. A cooperation which certainly works to the advantage of both sides! Of course, in the case of labels, the agency is provided with promo material directly (by using a portion of the sent material), but in the case of individual bands, the agency even provides the service (if wanted) of getting the music burned to actual CD carrier. And in thàt way, one might even look at Artist Service as a label, in fact! (contacts: Artist Service: artistworxx.de; Music Buy Mail: musicbuymail.eu)

And now, to Clusterhead, that South-German Melodic Metal band borne during the year 2005 in the Bavarian town of Regensburg. Owning their own home studio, this quartet consisting of singer Rene Brandt, guitarist Frank Stadlbauer, bassist Andreas Meyer, and drummer Ruediger Tonn were able to record their material, and have thus far already released three EP's (2005's The First Attempt, 2006's Reflection, and 2007's Hole In My Heart), which have all gotten nice reactions from press and fans in an increasing way. After the latter demo, the boys decided it was time for a full-length, recorded between April and November 2007. From the beginning, the band's aim was to deliver the kind of music they were influenced by growing up...in other words, such acts as Judas Priest, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, and more...and give it a modern touch.

The 11-song promo album offers material which is best described as modern melodic energized Heavy Rock with real good guitar and a nice singer with a medium-high pitch (goin' for a Rob Halford remeniscence in the highest regions) with a touch of hoarseness that sets him apart from the average Teuton Power Metal vocalist. The songs are well-structured with the necessary breaks and solo parts, but also surprise with their occasional high content of keyboards...even though no credits for that instrument was given. IN German press, the guys have gotten comparisons to such artists as Bonfire, Axel Rudi Pell and Pink Cream 69, but I personally feel these guys don't quite do the same thing, occasionally being far more heavy! You can listen to a shitload of songs off the album at the band's MySpace (.com/metalclusterhead), where the band posted no less than 6 tracks, including the "ballad" "Ghosts" (a video for the song "Made Of Stone", which was also featured on an earlier demo, can be found in the multimediasection of the band's own website clusterhead.com). A recent review in the Dutch Aardschok magazine was rather negative, accusing the singer of doing his best too much (huh?) and making sound things somewhat forced (hey?), and being the possessor of that typical nasal Teuton accent (not true)...the band of producing typical Teuton Hard Rock/ Metal on the basis of their influences (not true either; besides, only Scorpions is German in that equasion!), and generally stating that the music is out-dated and average, except for album opener "Tears I've Cried".

Well, I suppose it all depends on who's listening, and I suggest the magazine simply handed the album to someone not quite into this kind of powered-up Melodic Heavy Rock/ Metal...maybe his girlfriend had a band day and he needed to blow off some steam on an innocent bystander? Although I will agree that the material on the album is of an average, I would plead that it is an high average indeed, and I'm sure the people who recently came to see US Power Metal act Cage in the South of Germany found Clusterhead to be the excellent warm-up support!

82/100

Tony.