By all means, the guys from Austin, Texas based Prog Metal act Ethereal Architect deserve an apology, as their sophomore album has been due a review for a couple of months. Sorry dudes, but all kinds of things have happened to cause this delay. First of all, there was the usual Summer pile-up at Headquarters Office, which caused my editor-in-chief a delay a delivering everything that came out during those two months in one big package.
Cosmic Travelers was a short-lived live project that resulted in a sole, self-titled album in 1972. With the record company Volcano closing soon after its release, the album was quickly deleted. The GearFab release of Live! At The Spring Crater Celebration-Diamond Head, Hawaii (full title) includes six tracks and runs the standard length of an LP of the era (about 40 minutes).
Although “Hard Rock” (that's the terminology the band itself uses) act Circle 7 only showed itself on the San Diego scene a mere couple of years ago, the core of the band, in the form of drummer Daniel Cease and lead guitarist/ backing singer Ryan Holliday, have been “at it” for much longer than that. In fact, the twosome have been writing music together ever since meeting at high school and making bonds of friendship, going through several bands and project throughout the years.
Italy and metal has never really been a truthful combination. It's only Lacuna Coil that has always grasped me by the throat. And hey, what do I find here? Cayne, an Italian rock metal band with former members of Lacuna Coil. I was really waiting for this to happen, for real! I'm super curious what this will sound like. Cayne already formed in 1999, but for some reason I never really got to know of their existence. It's just only now that they say to have a solid line-up and sound.
Ett Grindslagsmål I 2 Delar means something like ‘one Grind-massacre in two parts’. That’s the linguistic part of the story. No thanks…
Always Fallen is an industrious young Belgian Thrash Metal band that was founded in the summer of 2005. After writing and rehearsing for almost a year, the band started playing live gigs, in February 2006. After a minor line-up change consisting of lead singer Kenny Devos whom at that point joined the band, they released their first demo entitled No Mercy for Sinners upon the public in February 2007. Nearly exactly one year later they released the mini-CD-album See my Blood.
It's very possible that this band was originally started as a solo project by the artist (composer/ guitarist/ singer) known only as J. Ahola (a member known amongst others from multi-gold selling act Teeräsbetoni, super group Northern Kings, and popular Christmas act Raskasta Joulua), as the info sheet we got along with the promo copy of the album speaks of putting the age of the combo as having started in early Summer 2008, counting from when the first song (which is included in the album, by the way) was written.
Aestrid is an indie rock band from Utrecht, The Netherlands. Formed in 2004, Aestrid started as Bo Menning's solo recording project. When Menning putted a band together and the self-released debut album The Echo Resistance got picked up with good reviews, combined with intense and haunting live shows, all the hard work seems to have the result he deserves.
France and eccentric Black Metal, I can sum up tens of bands that play unorthodox yet still very orthodox, and mostly unique, refreshing Black Metal, pushing limits and trespassing borders, without forgetting the core of their raison d’être. A young act that follows the very same direction is this one.
Forgotten Tomb was formed at the end of last century as a solo-outlet for Italian multi-instrumentalist Herr Morbid, but as from 2003 on, the act turned into a ‘real’ band. The earliest years were characterised by ice-cold, breath-taking and suffocative Suicidal Black Metal of the most depressive kind, but there was a permanent evolution, with a more experimental approach after a while.
For example, you need to check out 2011’s Under Saturn Retrogade, posted by undersigned on May 8th 2011 (see the archives section).
