This is the second album from US death/doom metal band Fires in the Distance.
Air Not Meant for Us is a 50-minute journey into melodic death/doom waters from Fires in the Distance, who feature an ex-member of Xenosis in their ranks. Continue reading “Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant for Us (Review)”
This is the second album from Swedish/UK death metal band Pale King.
Brought to us by current and ex-members of bands such as Heads for the Dead, Just Before Dawn, Those Who Bring the Torture, Wombbath, Ashcloud, Henry Kane, Ursinne, and Gods Forsaken, Pale King know a thing or two about death metal. Continue reading “Pale King – We Are but Memories (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal gets sent a lot of new music, (which is great), but there’s no way that everything can get covered unfortunately, (which is not so great). This new column hopes to redress this balance, if only slightly, by taking a look at a handful of releases that a record label has recently sent out that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
This time we’ll take a look at some releases from Majestic Mountain Records, which is a record label that I’ve only really just discovered via the wonderful Kal-El. I know nothing about the label, but I like what I’m hearing, so let’s delve into some of what they have to offer below… Continue reading “Label Roundup: Majestic Mountain Records – Bogwife, Redscale, Jointhugger, & Grand Cadaver (Reviews)”
This is the second album from A Thousand Sufferings, a Belgian blackened doom band.
We last heard from A Thousand Sufferings in 2015 with their debut album Burden. This was a dark slab of doom/sludge metal, and with Bleakness A Thousand Sufferings have capitalised on the strengths of that early record and produced 41 minutes of tortured and pained heavy music. Continue reading “A Thousand Sufferings – Bleakness (Review)”
The 69 Eyes are from Finland and play Gothic Rock.
This is a pretty epic Best Of album, spanning 28 tracks across 25 years. Most bands will never be that prolific.
I haven’t actually heard The 69 Eyes before but they’re certainly a band I’ve been aware of.
As is the case with Best Of albums like this it’s essentially a greatest hits package, and the quality of the songs reflect this.
It shows a remarkable consistency over the band’s long career. Times, style and fortunes may shift and change, but a good song is a good song regardless.
These are catchy, memorable, Gothic-infused Rock songs with personality and choruses aplenty.
The singer has that kind of deep, charismatic voice that is essential for this kind of music and it’s easy to see why he has captivated so many hearts over the decades with his vocal performance.
There is a lot of music on this release, almost 2 hours in total. But even given the constraints of the genre there’s a decent amount of variety here, with everything from up-tempo rockers, moody slower songs and outright ballads getting a chance to shine. The band have suffered no shortage of inspiration over the years, that’s apparent.
From my own point of reference, they combine elements of HIM, Ashbury Heights, Mono Inc., Paradise Lost, Tiamat, Type O Negative, Moonspell and Sentenced; although I’m well aware that it’s probably the other way around in reality.
With such a wealth of riches in one package, if this is your kind of music then it’s hard to go wrong with The Best of Helsinki Vampires.
I’m sold. Sign me up.
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