| CD REVIEW The Claymore |
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Band: The Claymore Hailing from the German twin town of Castrop-Rauxel (which lays some 7 kms North in the middle of the line between Nordrhein-Westfalen’s cities of Bochum and Dortmund), The Claymore was formed in their current line-up (consisting of singer Andreas Grundmann, guitarists Kai Swittek & Sebastian Busacker, bassist Christian Köhle, and drummer Hardy Kölzer) back in the Summer of the year 2000. In these days of bands being formed and members being exchanged, it’s to be considered a respectable trait for any band to stay together for that long, and in the case of The Claymore (I wonder why they chose that name, because as you might know a “claymore” is a specific type of Scottish sword!) that may partly have to do with the fact that guitarist Swittek also played in a Melodic Death Metal side-project named Agamendon (in which also the drummer and other guitarist played for a while – since then, the band’s become an entity of its own, self-releasing a 2004 album and finally seeing it’s “official” debut out on the streets in 2008), which released it’s debut demo around the same time as The Claymore. On the other side, Swittek, Köhle, and Kölzer already had a history of playing together for 4 years prior to getting together with Grundmann and Busacker! The Claymore’s demo now, was a 3-tracker + intro, and all songs were equally put on the 2002 full-length promo album II! In between, the band was winning preliminary round after the other in several band competitions (coming in 2nd place at 2001’s Emergenza). For the following, my info sources disagree: one puts the self-release of the band’s Monument album to October 2005, the biography we got from the label talks about December 2003, and then in the band’s live appearances list, we can find “release parties” happening in latte 2004! In any case, the album got the band a great 8/10 review in German top magazine Rock Hard, and a 7,7 rating in the Heavy soundcheck. Plenty of interviews and live reviews followed (also in the aforementioned). Since 2005, Köhle has found himself an additional outlet with Thy Spellcraft, a melodic Heavy Metal act originally formed in München during 1999, which moved a lot due to personnel changes, and has been residing in Köhle’s hometown since his joining (still unsigned, the band issued a 2001 demo, was unable to finish another, and gave the world a new 3-track demo in 2007). Getting back to The Claymore, I need to tell you that in the period of 2005 to 2008, they not only performed many headlining shows, occasionally played abroad (in Holland, Romania, and Italy), but also managed to play support slots for the likes of Rage, Primal Fear, U.D.O., Axxis, Tankard, Squealer, Silent Force, Freedom Call, Angel Dust, Dew Scented, and Mystic Prophecy (to name but the most prominent ones). Somewhere in 2007, the band released a 4-track demo (including one video clip) to promote new material, but with no positive results towards getting signed. In early 2008, The Claymore started work on a new full-length promo-CD, which they recorded in their own Sounds Of Steel studio, and finished in September. That same month, they finally manage to get signed to Germany based label Black Bards Entertainment, and announce through their MySpace page that the album has a European release date of November 21. A week àfter that date, they even announce that the album is actually out, and in February the band posted a bunch of pictures from the release parties! Yet, the album’s street date in the UK was in April 2004, and only way àfter that did we get a promo copy sent…so, I’m a bit confused here! What I’m nót confused about, is the band’s musical direction: an up-tempo yet melodic Heavy Metal with Progressive flavourings and some additional modern elements (a Thrash touch here, some down-tune played guitar there…you know the drill!?) justifying the whole to be categorized under the Power Metal banner. The lead singer has a nice high pitch without being heady, and enough power to occasionally be somewhat remeniscent of Bruce Dickinson. To get an earful of the material, surf to myspace.com/theclaymoremetal, where you’ll not only find a track off Monument, a demo version of the track “Soulseeker” (happened to be the video on the 2007 demo), plus “The Angel’s Assassination” (album opening track), “Borderline” (these two also were featured on the demo), and the album title track off the new album! Quite sufficient to find out whether the band’s modern take on Classic Heavy Metal is something for you, or not! 88/100 Tony. |