Own Release

I have to admit: I’ve never been a ‘fan’ of this Dutch band. Holland is known for its huge so-called ‘female fronted’ scene, i.e. Gothic, Symphonic or Epic oriented (Heavy) Metal with a female singer, and more than once this country exceeds the international colleagues / competitors easily. In many cases, the Netherlands indeed are spectacular country (I won’t start enlist a selection of bands, because whatever…), but La-Ventura did never please my ear drums or grey cells at all (cf. a full length and an EP during the first decennium of this century).

Only recently received, even though originating from the end of last year (so are many releases, so WTF…).

Objective info: Alms And Avarice was recorded at Black Coffee Sound by Clay Neely (Elder, Black Pyramid, Killslug) during last year’s summer.

Half-and-half, subjective versus objective info: Doom stuff with a chilly atmosphere and powerful sound, balancing in between tradition and experimentalism.

A search on the Internet for “My Lai” will invariably set you onto a small Vietnamese village, where a bunch of American soldiers made a bloodbath out of each man, woman and child living there in March 1968. But since 2010 My Lai is also a musical outfit of the modern Garage Rock inclination from Roosdaal, Belgium (a village East from the town of Ninove) consisting of the trio of Matthijs Verstegen (lead vocals, guitar), Koen Devits (drums, keyboards & backing vocals) and Brent Van Lierde (fuzz bass).

Neither of the few sources giving out the info, I am quite uncertain as to when this Jacksonville (Florida!, not Arkansas, North Carolina, or Texas) based quartet (consisting of lead singer/ guitarist Tony Minkus, lead guitarist Hans Oellerich, bassist Ryan Wilcox and drummer Benny Pucket) first got together to play their Country and Southern flavoured Classic Hard Rock tunes...but their MySpace page was opened on Jan. 30, 2006, so many that's a good indicator?

B.M.O. is the solo musical vehicle of Greenville, Alabama based Sidney Allen Johnson, and  Poinem Cherem is the 6^th album on which he brings his typical socio-politically incorrect thoughts to life. For info on those previous releases, read the review of The Godless, The Godforsaken, And The God Damned in the TSM/SLW Promotions special also featuring Arbogast, Toyz and Yotangor, posted April 18, 2010..

Huh...weird name for a “band”...but then, why would a person nót call his project after a cryptocrystalline form of silica (composed of very fine intergrowths of the silica minerals quartz and maganite)? With its waxy luster, semi-transparant aspect, and assuming a wide range of colours (although usually white to grey, greying blue, or a shade of brown ranging from pale to almost black), I can certainly understand why the mineral may have spoken to the artist's imagination! (P.S.: mineral description taken from Wikipedia)

Schysma is the creation of keyboardist Martina Bellini, with the help of bassist Giorgio Di Paola, both originally members of a band called Purpleknights. In September of 2009, after years of live performance in rock and metal clubs across Northern Italy, the two began working together to compose original songs.

This conceptual album tells the tale of the Jewish people's exodus from Egypt, in a somewhat peculiar way.

Process are a Danish act that did work for more than three years on their debut album, Through Acknowledgement Only; main reason: line-up issues (especially in finding a suitable drummer). They did work with renowned producer Jacob Hansen (think: Destinity, Submission, Yyrkoon, Xerath, Aborted etc.) to create a technical approach of modern Extreme Metal.

King Hiss is a musical collaboration between Jan Coudron (Carneia, Fenndango), Jason Bernard (Gootch), Visioene (Mans Ruin, Empathy) and Josh Fury (Mans Ruin, Congress, Liar) witch happened somewhere in june 2011. These rockers try to find the perfect balance between heavy riffing, sticky choruses and groovy rythms. but the ball started rolling when the band started taking shape after Jason and Josh's bands fell apart.