You know, in this “business” of music journalism, I have found that it's usually the “small” labels which keep coming up with rather nice surprises...and the last one on that list is this album by the South-of-France Noise-Hardcore act Stuntman, who turn out to have been around already since the autumn of 2002! The band hails from Sète, which is situated in the Herault region (Languedoc-Roussillon), and somewhere between Montpellier and Beziers.
Pffoooh...okay now...about 4 years ago colleague Erik did a review of the sophomore full-length release by this Bergamo (Lombardy) based Italian Power Metal act (and you can still consult it in the “Archive” section of this here website, posted 10/07/2010), but he kinda left out giving a decent history of the band...so that's now up to me, ain't it?
Sinbreed is the project around 27 year old Guitarist Flo Laurin who joined forces with dedicated artists of the European metal scene. The members are Frederik Ehmke [Blind Guardian] on drums, Hebie Langhans [Seventh Avenue] on vocals, Alexander Schulz on bass and Flo Laurin who handles guitars and keys.
French act Silent Opera was formed in 2007 by Olivier Sentenac (b), Romain Larregain (g) and Laure Laborde (v). They (and ‘they’ includes some new members) recorded a first album at the Laguna Records Studio, which got released as Act One in 2010.
The guys at Mandaï delved into their closets, and got some of their not too recent items out for us to appraise. One of those, was the debut full-length of experimental outfit [sic], who are not to be confused with the Hardcore/ Thrash/ Death Metal act SIC from the Faroe Islands of Iceland!.
Finland's back in the house, with the new release of Shear, offering a decent bunch of progressive (power) metal fronted by a charming lady.
This wacky Fuzz-Doom act was founded during the summer of 2009, when Clayton “Claytanas” Burgess (whom you might also know from Electric Wizard and Terraset) and a mysterious guitarist known only as The Ghoul indulged themselves on '60s Rolling Stones, Black Flag, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, the first High Tide LP, numerous B-type horror movies, and an undisclosed quantity of weed, to come up with music
This Wiesbaden (Central Germany) based quintet was founded in 2009, and went through two bassists and two drummers before settling to the current line-up consisting of singer Johannes Schöbinger, guitarists Yannick Zobus and Jonas Römhild, bassist Markus Straussner, and drummer David Willmes (the latter two joining the band during 2013), each bring in his own background and personal taste to the final product.
This New Jersey three-piece engage in stoner, grunge and seventies rock passages. They do show some hints of talent and rhythm during some of these bits, but they lack direction and they rarely flesh out any of their ideas. At best they sound like second rate Alice In Chains for a few moments or like Soundgarden without the depth or sense of direction. At worst they sound flat and clueless. Somewhere below the surface I think that Driven Rise generate some interesting tones, but just not enough of them and no real blueprint to go by.
Founded in early February 2009 with members from a diverse background of the Perth, Western Australia area, Reapers Riddle made such an impact on the local scene that the launch of their self-titled 10-track demo album caused the venue at which they offered their debut sold out of alcohol by 11pm!
