London, UK-based band The Devil debut with a nameless, self-produced album, which I’ve seen being compared to Swedish Ghost. For a modest part I can understand why (like the masked identities), for another modest part I do not fully agree. Main reason: The Devil are less mainstream and much more obscure in theme, while The Ghost appear as a Metal-circus with an image prevailing on content.
Troubled Horse are located in Orebro, Sweden, a city that brings us other Heavy Rock acts like Graveyard or Witchcraft. As a matter of fact, throughout their existence, and still at this very same moment, Troubled Horse do / did feature some (former) Witchcraft-members. But the musical approach of both bands differs in a couple of aspects.
Veér are, as a matter of fact, the continuation of Hungarian act Ravenshades, and consists of (former or current) members of e.g. Witchcraft, Kolp, Koprofaagia, Vortex and Sanguis In Nocte. Within the recent Concreteweb-update, you can check out the reviews on the new recordings by both Kolp and Witchcraft, by the way.
Lots of (American) bands these days try to mix punk and metal with the newest electronic genre: dubstep, or whatever you would try to call it. As hard as those bands try to make this a cohesive combination, as hard they fail in doing this.
Melencolia Estatica are a one-woman project from Italy, created and elaborated by Climaxia. Hel is the third release under the name of Melencolia Estatica, released through Temple Of Torturous. The very same label also released the new Kolp-album, The Outside, on November 12th; for the review: see elsewhere within this review section.
Process are a Danish act that did work for more than three years on their debut album, Through Acknowledgement Only; main reason: line-up issues (especially in finding a suitable drummer). They did work with renowned producer Jacob Hansen (think: Destinity, Submission, Yyrkoon, Xerath, Aborted etc.) to create a technical approach of modern Extreme Metal.
Hungary is one of my preferred countries when it comes to so-called ‘Underground’ Black Metal, with Witchcraft as one of my favourite acts. Throughout the years, many known names from the Hungarian scene joined the band as session or (temporary) permanent member.
Züül is not only an American metal band from Illinois. It's also the band you can find the least information about. If seen bad websites/ Facebook pages/ Myspace profiles but these guys rase that bar 5 inches more.
Arktau Eos are a Finnish project, formed by A.I.H. and A.I.L. (Anti Haapapuro and Antti Litmanen). They do not consider themselves as ‘artists’, but through Arktau Eos they try to express… Well, actually, I don’t know… Their music stands for an aural experience, a sonic state of trance with a psychedelic undertone.
After seven years of silence, Axehammer have finally released their second full- length called “Marching On”. This album was produced by Bill Metoyer, whose privilege was to record classics such as Slayer, Sacred Reich, Flotsam And Jetsam end Fates Warning.
