Reviews written by: Darlene Steelman

Reviews

Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

Saturnus, who hail from Denmark, deliver a soft, melodic doom metal sound that is almost erotic with "Saturn In Ascension". Hearing the words doom metal, the first band that comes to mind is Candlemass and then Black Sabbath (who were doom metal before there was such a thing). The interesting thing about this album, is although a doom metal genre,...

06/02/2013

Etecc - Volition

Etecc hails from Germany and delivers a heart-pounding, mind bending sound that will leave you wanting more... so much more. Now, as an old head lover of the heavy metal genre, it takes a lot of oomph to get me to listen to a newer band for more than four minutes.. Seriously. Maybe I drank too much Kool-aid as a kid, I don't know. I wanted more for...

22/01/2013

Rampart - War Behest

The CD starts off with a beautiful prologue, 'Thunder Realm.'  There are chirping birds and what sounds like a train bell and goes into the overture, 'Army Of The Perfect.' There are sounds of a sword battle complete with neighing horses. This actually turns into a song, which was interesting. When I hear the word 'overture' I never thought of voca...

17/10/2012

T.A.N.K - Spasms Of Upheaval

'Spasms of Upheaval' is an impressive release. It took a little while to get used to the eclectic varitation of songs on this CD. Once they sunk in and I could feel the emotion of the music, it was awesome. T.A.N.K (Think of A New Kind) isn't a new kind of heavy metal band, but they pull off the polars of singing and screaming vocals well. Extre...

02/10/2012

Narrow House - A Key To Panngrieb

'A Key to Panngrieb' is definitely a CD filled with such a dark ambiance that it could be the background music for an apocalypse. I looked Narrow House up and they are categorized as Apocalyptic Doom Metal so that fits. On their website they are listed as "atmopsheric funeral doom" which fits as well. 'The Last Refuge' starts off with haunting p...

26/09/2012

Teramaze - AnhedoniA

Dean Wells – Guitars/Backing Vocals Brett Rerekura – Vocals Mathew Dawson – Guitar Tijon Lolis – Bass Dean Kennedy – Drums AnhedoniA hails from the Kangaroo Continent of Australia and their style of music is interesting to say the least. They definitely have a mainstream sound that is most likely popular with people who like bands like Aveng...

20/09/2012

Karhu - Survival Of The Richest

'Survival Of The Richest' is a smorgasbord of sound.  Karhu's disjointed song writing style takes a couple listens to settle into. There is just so much to it; layer upon layer of upon yet another layer of melodies and harmonies. The vocals on this entire CD took some serious getting used to.  The clean vocals sound like Chris Cornell (Soundgarden,...

15/09/2012

Pictured - The Strand Of Time

When I think about France, I think of croissants, touchy feely men with wicked mustaches and wine. France is the country of romance, food and the Eiffel Tower. What's metal about any of that? Well, the Eiffel Tower is, but that's about it. I looked up French heavy metal bands and there are actually 269 of them! Holy ooh-la-la. Pictured, which is...

13/09/2012

Metalhead - Metalhead

Metalhead hits all points with a heavy metal hammer. There are so many genres of metal these days it is almost ridiculous. With a name like Metalhead, a band better be all-encompassing of heavy metal, right? Being from Germany (home of the Scorpions, land of the Bratwurst) they had better be freaking good. Well, Metalhead hits all points with...

10/09/2012