Line-up:
Pär Sundström - Bass
Joakim Brodén - Keyboards, Vocals
Thobbe Englund - Guitar
Chris Rörland – Guitar
Hannes Van Dahl - Drums
The expectations for the new album of ‘Sabaton’ where very high after their super release of ‘Carolus Rex’. Because it was their first release with their new line up we had to wait and see if it could compete with their previous album. The record itself is not bad but it’s sometimes to rushed and uninspired in my opinion.
6 years after their previous studio album, the 2008 double-disc conceptual Nostradamus (which we at ConcreteWeb never got to review), Judas Priest is finally back with a new studio recording! In the meantime, the band not only did a couple of world tours, but also took some very dire decisions!
Line up :
David DeFais – Vocals, Keyboards, Orchestration, Bass
Edward Pursino – Guitars
Frank Gilchriest – Drums
Joshua Block – Guitars
When Carcass fell apart, two ex members Michael Amott and Johan Liiva joined forces with Daniel Erlandsson, and Amott’s younger brother Christopher, to form Arch Enemy. Their debut album ‘Black Earth’ was released in 1996, and obtained some success in Sweden but was better received in Japan.
Within the Black Metal scene, there have always been lots of sick-minded entities. I am not referring to ‘fans’ of the genre (though it can help to be slightly ‘different’ in order to ‘understand’ and ‘undergo’ these lovely tunes of hate and / or despair), but I am talking about many musicians. One of them is, without any doubt, the sole member of Tjolgtjar, JR Preston.
The Finnish act Rippikoulu was formed at the end of the eighties as some Punk / Death hybrid, and they were very popular back then, at least in their home country. One of the reasons was the use of their native tongue (now this isn’t that unusual anymore, but in the early years, most bands from all over the globe used the English language specifically). The band split up in 1995 after the tragic death of their guitar player Marko, but shortly before, they recorded a demo-tape, Musta Seremonia.
Athens-based Fistbang Records have recently released Oltretomba’s The Death - Schieràti Con La Morte, the full length debut for this Italian act. As a matter of fact, Oltretomba started as a solo-outfit by Athanor’s Lucas Demon, and in 2008 he released a first (nameless) demo.
After two self-released EPs and a split (with Hiisi), the Finnish duo Oath finally signed a contract with a professional label, Belgium-based Immortal Frost Productions, in order to release their debut full length. The project consists of two experienced musicians: Ville ‘V-Khaoz’ Pallonen, who you might know from Azaghal, Hin Onde, Wyrd, Druadan Forest or Hellkult, amongst others, and A.
Distant Voices are a very young label from France, formed in Autumn 2012, but for sure it is a special one. It has to do with the musical direction, i.e. a mostly underground-oriented kind of grim, depressive, ambient, melancholic and / or atmospheric Black Metal, which I do adore. But there are more labels that do so. What this label makes so distinctive from any other, is the care and time the crew takes for each single release.
This is where reviewing a album becomes fun rather than laborious – in such much that Michael Bormann has seen it fit to release a 'Best of Ballads' album under the title of 'Love is Magic' and believe me in this case the title is so true.
