Skull Koraptor are a Thrash Metal band from Greece and this is their début EP.
Skull Koraptor play Old-School Thrash Metal with a pinch of Heavy Metal added to the mix. They’re influenced by the old Big Four and wear their influences on their sleeves.
It’s energetic and played with passion. We may have heard this style many times before but there’s no denying the enthusiasm that the band attack the material with.
The instruments are played well and there are a fair few enjoyable solos sprinkled around.
Each song is well written and the band have a good grasp of what it takes to write a catchy Metal song.
The vocalist does a good job and overall this is an authentic recreation of Old-School Metal that should be recognisable to any fan of the genre.
If you’ve reached your saturation point with this type of Metal then there’s probably not much to tempt you here, however if you still carry a torch for this older Thrash sound then Skull Koraptor are actually way better and more authentic than a lot of those in the retro-Thrash movement.
Want some enjoyable and honest Old-School Thrash Metal? Look no further.
Onheil are from the Netherlands and this is their second album.
Storm is Coming has a strong production with everything sounding crushing and the band easily wreak devastation like a natural disaster, which is partially what the concept of the album is based upon.
Onheil play Black Metal that’s fast and sharp but also surprisingly heavy as they have a bit of a Blackened Thrash/Heavy Metal influence to their sound.
The band I’m reminded of most is Hypocrisy as Onheil have a similar feel to both their style and sound – if you take Hypocrisy circa Into the Abyss and give it a bit more of a Black Metal sheen then you’ll have the right idea.
They’re certainly not Hypocrisy rip-off’s though, as I’m also reminded of bands like Amon Amarth and, (to a lesser extent), Dimmu Borgir, Kreator and Iron Maiden in places.
The vocalist is very accomplished and sounds great whether he’s screaming or growling. Powerful cleans are also used sparingly to add effect and provide good back up to the main shrieks.
The Blackened melodies are played fast and hard, with riffs and leads being in no short supply. Storm is Coming also features an enjoyably Heavy Metal aspect to their sound, mainly in the guitar department. Duelling guitars are prominent and many leads could be straight out of the Classic Heavy Metal rulebook.
This is a band who can play Melodic Black Metal without it sounding jolly or hopeful; this is dark music with an evil tinge to it that all centres around the band’s direct and cutting method of assault.
Overall this is an enjoyable and absorbing listen with good songs and melodies that capture the attention. Check them out and see what you think.
Threshold are from the UK and play Progressive Metal. This is their 10th album.
The latest Threshold album, eh? Always a pleasure to listen to this band. They have put out some great music over the years so this was an album I was looking forward to listening to.
Although undeniably still Progressive Metal, they’ve added a little more Hard Rock in their sound, which shows up in some of the harder riffs they use from time to time. This is a subtle alteration however, as they’ve always had this aspect to their sound in varying amounts and For The Journey is still Threshold through-and-through.
Straight away the classic Threshold sound blares out of the speakers as soon as you press play. Threshold are remarkable in this style of music in that you can instantly recognise them; they don’t particularly sound like anyone else and yet even though it’s instantly familiar they still manage to avoid overtly repeating themselves. This speaks of a band with a lot of talent, which has always been apparent.
The songs on For The Journey are a well-crafted collection of strong tracks that showcase the considerable songwriting ability of the band. They walk the fine line between technical ability and emotive songwriting and manage to strike the perfect balance between the two.
Threshold have always, to me, sounded very easy listening in the sense that their music appears to effortlessly sink into the brain and it’s like listening to liquefied Metal that tastes as good as the finest of wines.
The musicianship is, of course, exemplary. Whether this is the powerfully understated drumming, the driving riffs, the exquisite solos and leads, the subtle bass or the mood enhancing keyboards; Threshold know what they’re doing and they do it extremely well.
Vocally as well, the band are onto a winner. A compelling and powerful voice provides clean vocals that are wide in range and incredibly self-assured and powerful. Some of the vocal melodies are enough to send shivers down the spine, especially when they merge perfectly with the accompanying music. The astoundingly good chorus to Unforgiven is one example of many.
Well, what an album. For their tenth full-length Threshold have once again created a masterpiece of Progressive Metal that raises the bar for any other band who are even vaguely playing this style.
This is essential listening from an exemplary band. Get this.
Neverworld’s debut album Visions of Another World is a talented and energetic display of Metal prowess. I wanted to find out a bit more about them, so I quizzed lead guitarist/vocalist Ben Colton about their impressive début and the universe of Neverworld…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Hello! I’d describe us as an epic/traditional/progressive metal band. We try to take all the best elements of the old school styles and put a fresh twist on it. Come and check us out!
Give us a bit of history to Neverworld
Well we were born in late 2009 forming from the demise of a couple of bands. Basically I was trying to put my old band Sentinel back together but when I couldn’t get everyone on board, those of us that were formed Neverworld. It’s been a busy and brilliant 5 years. We’ve worked very hard behind the scenes and it’s slowly starting to pay off. We’ve been very lucky with gigs, reviews and our fantastic fanbase right from the start. In 2010 we released our début EP ‘Welcome To…’, hit the road for a couple of years and back in March finally released our début full length album ‘Visions Of Another World’!
Tell us about your band name – where did it come from?
Picking a band name in this day and age is incredibly hard! Everything’s been done before so choosing a suitable name was difficult. We wanted a name that reflected our vision. Something with huge scope for song writing ideas and imagery. Right from the off we’ve considered ourselves to be an audio visual band and Neverworld just fitted that perfectly. It’s the place where we all go to when we go to sleep. The dream world if you will, where anything can happen!
What are your influences?
Personally I have loads. My taste is generally metal but quite diverse. I just love great well played well written music. I really admire bands who do something different every album but retain their signature sound. Bands like Fates Warning and Winger deserve a special mention for that. I’m also a huge fan of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Manowar, Crimson Glory, Redemption, Mr Big, Thin Lizzy, Slaughter, Kings X right through to stuff like Alice In Chains, Dan Reed Network, Blue Oyster Cult etc. It’s a huge list and I could quite easily be here all night! I have a massive CD collection and I’ve probably been influenced by most of it at some point in my life!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I’m about to release an album with my side project All Seeing Eyes so that’s getting a lot of my attention atm! The new Winger and Fates Warning albums are great. I’ve also been listening to Dan Reed Network and The Mob quite a bit but in terms of new bands or music I’ve just been introduced to I’d have to say go and check out my buddies Avenging Benji, Elm Street, Neuronspoiler and Wardrum. Insanely talented musicians and song writers and there’s a fantastic prog band from Italy called Astra. Amazing stuff
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
As much as possible really. We aren’t silly and we aren’t on a major label. There’s only so much we can do but what’s important is reaction and the reaction has blown us away. We’ve been blessed with great fans and glowing reviews. Something I’m very proud of. Sales wise it’s done quite well too. All in all we are happy with what it’s done. It’s paid for itself and our CV looks a lot better now than it did before its release!
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Absolutely. Mainly because of what other people have said about it. I think there comes a point when you’ve heard it too many times and your own judgement becomes clouded. All you can do then is turn it over to the people that matter and cross your fingers which is exactly what we did. It was a very hard and long process making this album so in the end we were happy it was finally done!
What can you tell us about the lyrics and any themes/stories the songs have?
The themes of the album are quite diverse. We have a duet about a vampire and a girl falling in love. Sounds like Twilight right?! Not so, never even seen it. Very much influenced by Let The Right One In and Bram Stoker’s Dracula that one. We have a track about the movie They Live which is one of my favourites, there’s a song all about revenge, one about being haunted by spirits. There’s kinda something for everyone I think on the album. The track This Fire is all about having a desire so strong the flame will never go out. We’ll be experimenting more with themes on the next album and exploring Neverworld a bit more.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process
Well a lot of the first album was written a few years back. When we started out we needed 5 songs so we could go out and play live so I sat in my room and wrote some riffs quite quickly, took them to the studio where the others could have a say about it and laid them down. We were just a 4 piece then. Our original keyboard player left before we’d played a single show! So it was quite a straight forward process. Tracks like Ghosts and Eminent Reprisal came about a bit later and had more band involvement. We’ve started writing the second album already and it’s a completely different process now. Everyone’s involved. We are all sitting there in the studio laying stuff down, changing each others ideas slightly and stuff like that. The next album will very much be a complete team effort and I’m loving it. This band has some brilliant musicians and they all have their own influences so it’s going to be interesting to see what we come up with!
How did the duet with Christina Gajny come about?
I’m quite an impulsive fellow. I literally woke up one day and thought wouldn’t it be awesome if we did a male/female duet. I went on my laptop and started looking for a good lady singer. The first one I came across was the amazing Christina Gajny! I thought wow she’s the one. I messaged her but didn’t hear anything back for about a month! I figured she didn’t wanna know! Luckily she did reply and we wrote Blood And Romance. The rest is history! She’s a very talented young lady so I consider her involvement an honour. It was also a masterstroke because of her we had people actually turn up to see us when we started playing in London! Haha! She’s a great girl and if we do ever need a female vocalist again she will be it.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
As I said earlier the song writing process is already under way. We are trying to write the ‘perfect’ album. Visions got a lot of great reviews but we have to better it. It’ll be tough but a task we are all up for. As far as music goes I believe in progression. I think that’s a really important part of being a musician. No part of us wants to make the same album again. The next album will have a lot of depth and variety. There will be out and out rockers, a couple of epics and hopefully some more prog style tracks. It’s early days yet but we have 6 ideas on the go at the moment and all are sounding like they could make the album. I’m excited and I think Neverworld fans should be too! Like I said we are on a mission to better Visions and we won’t stop until we have!
What’s next for Neverworld?
We play our final show of the year on September the 20th in our local club. Looking forward to that one. We are playing with Desolation Angels, The Deep and Death Valley Knights. All great bands so should be an epic night. Then we are concentrating on the follow up album. With our début we were recording and playing shows all over at the same time which didn’t really work. The album got delayed massively because of that and we don’t want to do that again. So we plan to hit the studio in a big way and get about 15 tracks done. The best 10 will make the album. We will also be making a video soon for a track off the new album. Really hoping we can get this all recorded this year and then spend next year back on the road. That’s the plan anyway! Wish us luck?!
Sons of Crom are from Sweden and this is their début album. They play epic Viking-influenced Heavy/Black/Folk Metal.
This is thundering music with an interesting sound; it’s somewhere between Old-School and New and gives the band an interesting sheen.
We’ve heard this style before, of course, but this is a veritable exemplar of the sub-genre as it’s done exceedingly well.
Taking elements of bands such as Enslaved, Arcturus and, notably, Bathory, this is an impressive distillation of the quintessence of those bands, birthed anew in the form of Riddle of Steel.
The music and vocals are epic beyond all reason and you just can’t help but get carried away by the obvious passion and enthusiasm here. It’s hard to credit that this is a début album really as the level of maturity displayed on these songs is staggering. Each track is fully realised and boasts more features than many bands manage in a full album.
Epic melodies abound and the guitars really do draw out every last tiny bit of emotion possible from the instrument. This is Metal through and through in the best possible way. It’s Bathory updated for 2014 whilst remaining faithful and true to the original.
The vocals are varied and accomplished; they span everything from darker, rougher shouts, to higher screams, to a mid-ground semi-clean, to choral overlays. The delivery is masterful.
The music is richly textured and almost suffers from stimulation overload at points as there’s a lot going on and it’s all so damned grandiose!
This will likely be snapped up eagerly by fans of the Bathory/epic Viking Metal scene who are still hungry for all things of this nature. Unless you think Bathory are the be-all and end-all of this style then you should find more than enough to feast on here.
Turn it on, turn it up and get swept away in the huge nature of the band.
(Sample is from their Conqueror EP which is a taster of two tracks from the album)
Doomlord are from Puerto Rico and play Doom Metal. This is their début release, one half of a split with King Heavy.
This is Classic Doom/Heavy Metal with a good recording and enjoyable songs. Taking cues from early Doom Metal, the band have a strong sound that emphasises the Metal part of Doom Metal and clearly enjoy what they do.
The Spanish-language vocals give the album a nice flavour and helps differentiate the band’s sound. The singer has a good voice and knows his chosen genre well.
The music is well played and the songs have some good moments to them. Tasty riffs and solos abound in these 4 tracks. Keyboards/organs add an extra dimension to the songs and are a nice touch. There a lot of well-written sections in the tracks and the band are adept at creating atmospheric parts to otherwise rocking Metal tunes.
This flies the flag high and proud for True Metal and anyone with a passing interest in the original incarnation of Doom/Heavy Metal would do well to look this up.
Stench are from Sweden and play Death Metal. This is their second album.
Opening with a wowzer of a riff, Archways sets the bar high straight off the bat and continues in this vein for the whole 39 minute running time.
Stench play Old-School Death Metal that may be influenced by the Swedish sound but isn’t defined or limited to it. Theirs is a more varied sound that incorporates elements of Black, Heavy and Doom Metal into their Death Metal core.
Subtle aural enhancements are added at strategic points throughout the album to create an extra layer of mood to these songs. Combined with the emotive nature of the riffs and the half-growl, half-shriek of the vocals it means that Stench have somewhat of a Blackened feel to their songs.
There is somewhat of an eerie, otherworldly feeling to these tracks. It’s as if they’re channelling some nameless horror and are acting as a lightning rod for all things mysterious, dark and rotten.
It would be a mistake to dismiss this band as a standard Death Metal band, as although this is exactly what they appear to be on the surface of things the reality of the situation is quite different. They have a further depth to them that is made up of the extra influences and added parts of their sound as mentioned above. These work together to create a true journey of an album that straddles multiple genres in its quest for Metal perfection.
This is a band who have produced an album that’s just so much more than I was expecting. Stench bring something powerful and dangerously individual to the Metal table. I cannot recommend this album enough.
Favourite Track: Road. Quality riffing, infectious bass and atmospheric mood.
This is the second album from Sweden’s Crucifyre. They play dark Death Metal full of personality and great songs.
The first track starts in a very unexpected fashion, with darkly melodic Doom riffing and clean female vocals that sound quite ritualistic. It’s a bold start to the album and when the song starts “proper” it doesn’t disappoint.
Calling Black Magic Fire Death Metal is a bit of a disservice in a way, as there’s a lot more going on here than just a straight ahead Death Metal album. Bringing to mind a mix of bands like Usurper, Venom, The Meads of Asphodel, Cathedral, Celtic Frost, Gravehill, Black Sabbath and Dismember this is a strong release that captures an occult feeling and channels it through a Heavy Metal core with a Death Metal exterior.
The band have that Old-School Death Metal style going on but there’s also more than enough Classic, Heavy and Doom Metal touches/riffs to go around. This means that the album is incredibly well-rounded and complete. Back this up with a set of very solid songs and you have an album that is extremely impressive in nature.
When I mentioned The Meads of Asphodel earlier it was because I hear echoes of this band in the vocal department and the vocal patterns/rhythms; Crucifyre have the same talent for catchy rhythms and Blackened shout/growls that have a similar character and personality. Semi-clean vocals even make an appearance and these are just great.
Albums like this are more than just one style; this release has a plethora of weapons with which to ensnare the listener and hook them in. The brutality is rhythmic and this is very song-oriented so that each track has an actual identity rather than just taking up space. The personality and character of the vocals spills over to the music as well and the passion and fervour of the band for all things Metal is never in doubt.
This passion is backed up by talent though and they ably pull off everything they try, whether this is the cleaner sections, the ugly brutality, the catchy songs, organs, sound effects, impressive solos or the female enhancement; it’s all performed and delivered at a masterly level.
There’s enough here to appeal to almost any Metal fan. This is Metal as it should be done. I love it.
Osmium Guillotine are from the UK and this is their début album. They play Heavy Metal.
This is 80’s style Heavy Metal with a sexy guitar sound and plenty of attitude. The production is largely apt for this kind of band, although in a feat of differentiation Osmium Guillotine have a guitar tone that’s both thicker and heavier than most bands playing this genre and it works very well for them.
The music is played with passion and obvious zeal and everyone seems to know their job well. Nice solos too.
This is Old-School Heavy Metal that manages to encapsulate quite a few different feelings from early Metal and distil them into this release. Classic Metal is a given, but Doom Metal, Proto-Thrash and NWOBHM all get a look in. There’s even a touch of Punk to things now and again.
The vocals are great, and there’s not a hint of Power Metal to be seen. I love Power Metal as much as anyone, but it’s nice to hear a band like Osmium Guillotine who are just pure Heavy Metal without the more extravagant ostentation inherent in Power Metal. The singer here has a great set of lungs and possesses the charisma to do the tunes justice.
These are a strong set of songs with plenty of hooks and choruses to keep you coming back for more. Memorable melodies and good riffs flow freely and everything feels just as it should.
Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Anthrax…if these bands float your boat then Osmium Guillotine are a logical band to check out. Along with the recent stellar release from Johnny Touch this proves once again what any real music fan already knew – True Metal isn’t dead.
Neverworld are from the UK and this is their début album. They play Power Metal.
Visions of Another World starts with a short, atmospheric intro track before launching into their first song proper which is immediately all double bass, speedy riffs and keyboards/horns. It’s a strong opening that clearly states the intent of the band and the genre they play. Once the vocals kick in it’s cemented and you know it’s going to be a good run.
The band specialise in long songs that make the most of their many talents. The songs are colourful, rich and above all Metal. Soaring guitar melodies and omnipresent keyboards ensure that there’s never a dull moment to be had. There are also more solos than you can shake a stick at and it all sounds goooood.
The band boast a strong vocalist with a grand voice. He carries the tunes effortlessly and provides a focal point to the extravagant and showy music. He delivers a sterling performance.
This is a band that could never be mistaken for anything other than pure fucking Metal. This is epic, grandiose and pure class. The UK is not really known for Power Metal as much as the rest of Europe is, but Neverworld have created a shockingly good album that will surely see them rival the best that other countries have to offer.
If you’re a Power Metal fan you should make it your mission to snap this album up as quickly as you can.
Favourite Track: Blood and Romance. An epic song, the longest here and also features a great duet with Christina Gajny, (ex-Interlock). Fantastic stuff.
Skull Koraptor are a Thrash Metal band from Greece and this is their début EP.
Wonderbox Metal 