Suffocation, legendary, an influential monument, a deadly source of inspiration for the worldwide Death Metal scene. Formed twenty five years ago, and except for a five-year break, always on top of the international map. Still with some original members (Mullen, Marchais and Hobbs), and remarkable too: the return of drummer Dave Culross.
Like I already had expected, the official first album on Nuclear Blast Records is showcasing an improvement over the previous albums. Musically they haven't changed anything, but the songs sound more accessible, more mature and the production also has more crunch to it! Stylistically they still reside in the NWOBHM and US speed metal of the eighties.
If you’d put this CD on, almost everybody that loves classical music, with hints of more modern music in it (because of the sporadic use of modern instruments) would tell you that this is fantastic music. You wouldn’t even suspect this was written by a metal band. As a matter of fact this music could even have been used as the soundtrack for some or another fantastic movie, like Lord Of The Rings for instance.
Since I received both the single and the full album at the same moment, I found it a bit stupid to write two distinct reviews.
This is the second album by this Belgian/Dutch band, that I’d never heard of before. To say they play hard rock wouldn’t do justice to their music. This is much more than plain hard rock. It’s more something in the vein of poppy stoner rock, with also hints of other genres hidden in the songs.
Years after years, Roadrunner Records' leading hardcore act was Hatebreed. They released groundbreaking records under the name of Roadrunner, but with the release of their new album, The Divinity Of Purpose, the collaboration came to an end. The new Hatebreed is released worldwide through the European label Nuclear Blast, home of many big metal acts.
Short and sweet: thirty years of business, and still one of the most impressing Thrash-acts. Energy, power, joy, persuasion, craftsmanship, professionalism, it’s just a brief selection of possible adjectives to add onto Destruction’s huge biography / history.
Boston act Converge have always been considered as one of the most inspiring, intense, important and influential metal/hardcore bands of all time and that's something the band proves once again on their new full length, called All We Love We Leave Behind.
I don’t think Deep Purple realized what influence they would have on the music business, nor did they have any clue that the band would still exist some 40 years later. In order to celebrate the anniversary of the release of the ‘Machine Head’ album, Eagle Record sort of re-releases the album, but the songs were covered by various famous and – in our countries that is – less famous artists.
The story of Tankard is an exceptional one. It was around 1982 when they came into life, but it wasn't until 1986 when their first album was recorded. The band was somewhat of a pioneer, they were spearheading a wave of German thrash bands who became successful worldwide (Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, …).
