CD

Dark Forest are a UK quintet, who present us on “The awakening” a slab of traditional  heavy metal.

The people at Victory Records really have a nice taste of music, concentrating on bands which are musically special, and somewhat “out-of-the-box”. Originally concentrating on the Hardcore and Punk genres, the guys have meanwhile broadened that palate to include bands from other genres...but at all times, there's still that somewhat special side to the bands, which stems from a will to bring something slightly more progressive.

Like so many of us music lovers outside Greece, I first got acquainted with Thessaloniki based Groove/ Metalcore act Bewized through the Casket Music/ Copro Records release of their debut full-length The Scorch Of Rage, issued in late April 2011 (review posted around that date is still available in this website's “Archive” section for your factual needs), and promptly catapulted the album into my year-lists!

Some of you who used to watch the television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may remember that Dr. Baxter Stockman was this criminal genius whom created the Mousers, with whom the series' heores frequently make battle...but that may be beside the point here, unless the Helsinki based Rock/ Noise trio consisting of singer/ guitarist Markus, bassist Visa, and drummer Max actually looked at this character for inspiration when choosing their bandname, back in 2006.

The new (4^th)  full length releases from Californian Deathcore band  Winds of Plague.

Wasted Bullet is a Melodic Hardcore band from the Netherlands. The band consists of: Robbert  (vocals), Joel (drums), Lesley (bass), Max (guitar) and Jasper (guitar). They form a rather young band because their websites contain little to nothing of info or band history. Now the band released an album last November, and to be honest they do an awesome job at it. Especially when you realize this is the bands first full album.

From Central Florida comes a powerhouse band in the metal world from a familiar presence. Guitarist Shane French, is prepared to unleash his new project along with guitarist / vocalist Morrie Vozdeck. The called themselves “Voz”. Joining Morrie and Shane is drummer John Teer.

Oh my, talk about milking out successful events! In late 2010, Brian Fallon (lead singer/ guitarist of The Gaslight Anthem) and his guitar tech Ian Perkins got together to write songs together for a side-project of theirs, which he announced as concentrating “...on the dark side of soul music...”. In essence, they were writing some singer-songwriter songs with somewhat darker lyrics, and the two headed to a studio to record a total of 12 original songs.

Having come across this Finnish band's name as a reference in Circle's most recent album Incarnation, I felt no reluctance whatsoever about having to review this quartet's most recent outing.

Slough Feg is a heavy metal band formed in Pennsylvania in the early 90s. Current members: Mike Scalzi (Guitars/Vocals), Angelo Tringali (Guitars), Adrian Maestas (Bass) and Harry Cantwell (Drums). According the definition of the group: ‘has a style that's best described as an eclectic mix of Celtic Folk and Traditional Metal peppered with buckets of energy and lyrical depth’.