Belgian auto-didactic musician / multi-instrumentalist / composer Mathieu Vandekerckhove is known from his activities in acts like AmenRa, Caan, Sembler Deah or Kingdom, but since ten years, he acts as a solo-artist under the moniker of Syndrome as well. In 2011, for example, he did release the surprising full length Floating Veins (on CD and LP, via ConSouling Sounds).
Sweden’s Skineater are some kind of ‘super-band’ with former and current members of e.g. Wombbath, Carnal Forge and Dark Funeral. The combo recorded this first album at the famous Studio Underground with master / mixer Pelle Saether (think: Fleshcrawl, Necrodeath, Throneaeon, As Likely As Not, Days Of Anger a.o.).
Cruz Del Sur Music are about to re-release all older stuff by Pagan Altar,
Lovelorn Dolls are a young project from Brussels, Belgium, formed a couple of years ago by Bernard ‘Corpus Christi’ Daubresse and Kristell ‘LadyHell’ Lowagie. The latter is a well-known singer, formerly involved with e.g. Valkyre and Skeptical Minds, and part of the The Road To Consciousness Rock / Metal-Opera team as well (that’s where she and Bernard met, by the way). Some might know her as well from her solo-effort Joliet.
The Dutch band Infinity was formed in 1995. Throughout the years, the band recorded a handful of great albums with a same-minded structure, yet with a slight difference in final execution. After lots of changes in line-up and label, Infinity signed to New Era Productions in early 2012, and a first result of this collaboration was the compilation Back To The Source…, an album with re-recordings and cover songs.
I’ve never been disappointed by any of Hate’s former albums, and the good news is: with Solarflesh I won’t be either. The new album by the Polish combo Hate goes on in the very same vein of the past, i.e. technical, slightly experimental Death / Black Metal, ambitious and well-thought. As a matter of fact, Solarflesh is the most logical, evident successor of 2010’s Erebos (means also: less mythical, less Post-oriented – cf.
The Greek band Enshadowed was formed about fifteen years ago and did release a handful of recordings before, mainly through Black Lotus. This new full length was recorded with Septic Flesh’s Fotis Bernardo at Devasoundz Studio, and indeed the production is rather clean yet not too clinical.
After some line-up changes, Long Island-based combo Buckshot Facelift return with the third long player, after Universal Goat Tilt and Anchors Of The Armless Gods. The band recorded the new album at Audio Playground with Keith Moore (production, engineering, mix and mastering).
The result is an amazing collection of unique, original Grind-explosions with a slight touch of exaggeration. However, because of the creative ideas, this exaggerated approach gets easily excused.
Manufactum III is another live-album (after I and II, but I guess you’re smart enough to find it out yourself), captured in front of about 8,000 wild fans during a gig in Hamburg, Germany.
Pros: wonderful sound! There is nothing that bothers when it comes to the sound. It is just like it has been registered in a few hundreds of takes in a professional studio, then enriched with the enthusiastic support of a couple of thousands of fans. Another pro: the instrumental part of the deal. My personal appreciation goes to the bag pipes and percussion parts
Joel Grind did a jam session in the vein of the earliest efforts by his main band, Toxic Holocaust, in order to pay tribute again to the roots of Metal. The result is a twenty five-minutes ten tracker (intro and outro included) that honours the Old School, i.e. early Bathory (especially!!!), Motörhead, Kreator, Countess, Venom, Sodom and, of course, early Toxic Holocaust.
