Taking their name from a specific area, also known as The Valley Of Armageddon, in the Palestine Region of Israel, Brazilian Death-Thrash trio Esdrelon (current line-up consisting of bassist/ singer Darcio Aguilar, guitarist/ singer Cleber Beraldo, and drummer Jack Ferrante) formed at the start of 2002 in the industrial area of ABC (hum...I'm not sure what that means).
When I listened to this album the first time, my first though was, “You have got to be kiddin'? How can a band hope to make it in today's music business with such a singer?”...well, time to check the info, which (literally) reads as follows :
Originally formed in the Crete town of China (situated on the West side of the northern Coast of the Island) during 2007, Playgrounded only stabilized its line-up around lead singer Stavros Markonis, guitarist Michael Kotsirakis, keyboardist/ electronics man Orestis Zafeiriou, bassist Odisseas Zafeiriou and drummer Vasilis Podaras in 2010.
I was very, or better: extremely pleased with late 2011’s release On The Coming Of Darkness (review posted November 12th 2011 - see archives section), and luckily this successor goes on in the very same vein, both musically as lyrically (conceptually). On The Dawning Of Light consists of nine tracks with a total running time of forty seven minutes, and still the project is veiled within mystery and unknown identities (for what this might be worth).
London, UK-based band The Devil debut with a nameless, self-produced album, which I’ve seen being compared to Swedish Ghost. For a modest part I can understand why (like the masked identities), for another modest part I do not fully agree. Main reason: The Devil are less mainstream and much more obscure in theme, while The Ghost appear as a Metal-circus with an image prevailing on content.
Scottish combo Cnoc An Tursa were able to record The Giant Of Auld at the legendary Foel Studio with highly acclaimed producer Chris Fielding at the helm (think: Ageless Oblivion, Moss, Winterfylleth, Primordial, The Wounded Kings etc.). Result: a killer production, of course!
The huge scene from Suomi has bands / projects in between ‘I can’t stand at all’ till ‘hail and praise’. Behexen for sure do belong to the second category. I follow them since their debut Rituale Satanum (Sinister Figure, 1999/2000).
Daylight Dies were originally formed in 1996 in Asheville, yet in mean time they relocated to Raleigh (North Carolina). Throughout the years, the band recorded different studio works, amongst which three full length, and without exception all of them were reviewed extremely positively by the international press.
The Obscurity Within… is the first full length by Dutch horde Entrapment. The band’s demos and 7”EP’s were sold out very quickly, but this debut will, of course, appear in a much larger edition.
