Classic Metal – Page 10 – Wonderbox Metal

Kilmara – Love Songs and Other Nightmares (Review)

This is the third album from Spanish Heavy Metal band Kilmara.

Kilmara play Melodic Heavy Metal with good songs and good vocals. The band have elements of Classic Metal and a more modern influence at the same time. On paper this juxtaposition sounds doomed to failure but they manage to pull it off smoothly.

The singer has an accomplished voice that is relatively restrained compared to some in this genre, and is all the better for it. He works with the rest of the song and the music and vocals have a synergy that is unforced.

The strength of any album like this lies predominantly in the songs themselves; if these are weak then there’s not much to fall back on like there is with some other genres. Kilmara obviously take pride in their songs and have lavished considerable attention on them it seems. This has paid off as each song is slick and Rockingly good. The only slight misstep is Alpha which sounds out of place with the rest of the album; more like something you’d find on some substandard Euro-Metal cheese band’s release. It’s not an awful song but its standards are lower than the rest.

The performance of the band can’t be faulted and there are plenty of solos and leads to get your teeth into. The top quality sound allows them to do their thing with impunity; a crisp, punchy production shows the band at their best.

This is a very enjoyable album. The honesty of the songs and some quality songwriting combined with a nice, modern crunch results in a meeting of the Old-School and New- in a way that works well rather than falling flat in one of the countless ways that such a clash could do.

If you’re a fan of Traditional Heavy Metal and like a modern sheen to your music then seek out Kilmara, you won’t be disappointed.

Interview with Dead Earth Politics

Dead Earth Politics have recently released their extremely sexy EP The Queen of Steel. They’re rightly receiving rave reviews about this collection of tracks, so it seemed like a good idea to dig in deep and get some more information on this red hot little band…

Introduce yourself!

Horns and Hails! This is Ven – lead vocals for Dead Earth politics!

How did the band form?

Will and Mason have actually known each other for years. They met our former guitarist Ernie in the earlier part of this century. They jammed in various roles under the monikers “Grunt” and “Dirtbox”. I joined up in 2005 and shortly thereafter we became “Dead Earth Politics”!

What are your influences?

Huuuuuuge range. Mine personally are Matt Barlow, Peter Steel, Elton John (1970’s preferably), David Vincent, Brian Howe, Bruce Dickinson and just too many others really to name. It would be a boring read.

What are you listening to right now that you want to recommend?

I have been jamming The Animals, Huntress, Loreena McKennitt, Nekrogoblikon and Kobra and the Lotus as of late. I recommend them all – more than that, I recommend listening to anything you can wrap your ears around. Pay attention to locals! In my player now there are local (Austin) favorites like Death Will Tremble, Headcrusher and Critical Assembly.

Give us some background to your latest EP.

Having inducted Tim Driscoll into this thing we do we finally began amassing a decent amount of new tunes. We are, however, meticulous and picky. Rather than waiting four MORE years for a third release we decided to hammer out the three tracks that we felt best defined our direction. Whether these define a “Dead Earth Politics” sound or just the sound of this EP, we aren’t sure. Now that we also have Aaron Canady on second axe, his influence, I expect, will be quite heavy in the writing process as well.

Talk to us about the artwork.

I thought of the concept as a means to visually transition our audience into where we are. I love “The Weight of Poseidon” and will always. However, I think our take on our art has matured and grown more intricate. Having “The Queen” straddling Poseidon and skewering him with his own trident seemed to be the least subtle way we could get idea across that things were changing. Subtlety is our enemy.

What’s your writing process for the songs?

Usually, someone will bring in a song and show us the pieces. We then hack that composition into a thousand, unrecognizable pieces and use spit and glue to put them together in a seemingly random order. Then, we argue about it. Then we record. Then we argue more. And forever.

Are you pleased with how the EP turned out?

I AM TOTALLY STOKED ABOUT THIS FRIGGIN EP. Way beyond my expectations.

On your Bandcamp page you’re offering this EP as a Buy Now Pay What You Want download – why did you decide to go this route instead of charging a minimum price?

We kind of feel like we, in some ways, are hitting a ‘reset’ button. We want people interested in our tunes to have unimpeded access to the album. If someone digs us enough and is hellbent on not paying they will download the album anyways – might as well be able to track the downloads so we can monitor our numbers and keep in touch with ’em!

Your combination of modern Metal with classic Metal influences works really well for these three songs. How are you going to develop this for your next release?

We aren’t going to develop that specifically. I think this came to be in the first place because we don’t discriminate riffs. Meaning, in previous bands I or someone else might bring in a kick ass tune. Everyone else could be like, “That kicks ass, but it doesn’t sound like us.” We don’t do that. If it rocks, it rocks. If that mode lends the continued Maiden/Lamb of God-type sound for future release then cool. My thoughts are that it will likely change in some aspects.

What’s next for Dead Earth Politics? What does the future hold?

We have a show at the Dirty Dog with Anvil on April 14 and May 24 with Down at Emo’s East – Both in Austin! We also have a show at The Rail May 16 in Fort Worth. As for the grander scale, we are furiously writing and we hope to be recording yet another EP before or by the year’s end!

Thanks!

Lucifer’s Hammer – Night Sacrifice (Demo MMXII) (Review)

Chilean band Lucifer’s Hammer have released this EP/Demo full of Traditional/Classic Heavy Metal.

First thing I want to note is the excellent cover – simple and effective. Love it.

As for the music? One could almost apply the same terms to it. This is resolutely Old-School Classic Heavy Metal, taking cues from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

For a demo the sound is not that bad, although they could certainly benefit from a slightly better recording. The songs work however, regardless of this.

Each track is straightforward and has enough catch and hook to be enjoyable. The vocalist sings with gusto and appears to have gotten the Old-School Metal attitude and harmonies exactly right. He lives up to the images of his idols well, as do the band as a whole.

It will be interesting to see how they develop when they eventually put out a full length album. Time to keep an eye on this band I feel.