Amaze Knight - The Key (CD Review)

01.Imprisoned (Shadows Past)
02.Restless Soul
03.Heartless
04.Liberation (The Reflection)
05.Liberation (A New Day)

Fabrizio Aseglio (Vocals)
Christian Dimasi (Guitar/Vocals)
Davide Gemello (Keyboards)
Nicolò Vese (Bass)
Michele Scotti (Drums)

Special Session Member: Max Tempia (Keyboard)

Amaze Knight formed in November 2010 in Turin, when Christian and Michele met, they both had a big passion for music and the strong will to create and experiment with it, without any preconception.

Once the rest of the band were found they began composing their first songs, with the main aim of touching the listener and taking him to a world where melody and aggression find a balance and a meeting point.

In collaboration with Sound Engineer and Producer Roberto Maccagno they set out to record a concept album describing emotions, experiences and considerations through a common story which bounds one song to the other, with a varied and unpredictable sound caused by the many different musical influence each member of the band brings.

'Imprisoned (Shadows Past)' takes a couple of minutes to get going, but when it kicks in it comes to life, full of swirling keyboards, anthemic riffs and a strong vocal performance.This first track is 10 minutes long so there are plenty of timing changes at one point bringing back memories of bands like Atomic Rooster.

Nice Acoustic opening to 'Restless Soul' leads to a mellow song, almost bordering on 'AOR' style american rock, again this one has a change half way through with some excellent guitarwork backed by a solid drumbeat.

Unfortunatly 'Heartless' is a slow melodic ballad, its "Nice" but doesn't seem to go anywhere, if it was a straight ambient piece that would have worked better but the attempts and guitar solos dont fit right.

The opening keyboard work on 'Liberation (The Reflection)' almost sounds like a flute creates a nice mood then some amazing synth playing heralds the rest of the band in.
This one builds and builds, throwing in twiddling little solos here and there, and some fast drumming towards the end giving it that Neo-Prog edge.

'Liberation (A New Day)' starts with a traditional piano piece to make Beethoven proud, when the vocals come in it just adds to the atmosphere and the guitar solo would make Steve Hillage proud.

This is a great album, very much old school Prog, think ELP, Atomic Rooster, Yes in essence yet with a good Neo-Prog standing as well, again think IQ, Marillion.


Rating 9/10
For fans of: Purson, Asia, Dream Theater, Claudio Simonetti

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/AmazeKnight

Dirigiri - Dirigiri (CD Review)

01.Death By The Hands Of An Angel
02.Bone Collector
03.Boiled In Blood
04.Riot
05.Straight From The Grave 2
06.Toilet Extermination

Derek Dishner (Vocals/Bass)
Gene Olivarri (Guitar)
Omar Guerra (Drums)

Dirigiri were formed in March 2004 to create a mixture of old school thrash and traditional death metal and to make music that is yet captivating and driving but leaves you wanting more.

The band have built their reputation as part of the Texas Metal Market with major road experience and also in Mexico in undeground music festival circuit's.
They have supported the likes of Exodus, Overkill, Rigor Mortis, Candlemass and Onslaught.
Some say after have seeing their shows they have experienced nightmares and have had the Devil himself appear before their very eyes!

Well they may have influences from old school thrash but this is pure death metal!
Very fast, highly aggressive, delivered with a conviction that this level of brutality is justified.
Some of the most evil growling vocals you will hear blend with furious drumming and full on riff mayhem.

The only thing i didint like was that all but one track (Riot) seem to be counted in on the snare drum, which just sounds a bit odd to me.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Nile, Morbid Angel, Brujeria, Cannibal Corpse

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/dirigiri

Mercy House - Conflict (Download Review)

01.Conflict

Drew (Vocals)
Dany (Guitar)
Dan (Guitar)
Mick (Bass)
Yam (Drums)

London rockers the Mercy House return with a new line up and a refined heavy rock sound that seems to improve everytime they release something new.
After numerous demos and a highly rated debut album (A Broken State Of Bliss) they set out on the road bringing their controlled mayhem to any stage that would have them.

This new track is full of heavy guitar and drums and Drew's voice screams out of the speakers as dangerous and as powerful as ever.

This track is available for free and is released to coincide with their first ever slot at Download Festival this Friday 13th June wher they will be tearing up the Jägermeister Stage from 3:55pm with an ear blistering show not to be missed.

Their second album is due later this year.

Get Song Here https://soundcloud.com/themercyhouse/conflict

Sylvatica - Evil Seeds (CD Review)

01.Lost
02.Psychopatica
03.Winds Of Decay
04.The Ascension
05.Evil Seeds
06.God Of The Gallows
07.Hate Quest
08.Lucifer
09.Reanimated
10.The Sludge Soup
11.Sect Of Sleep

Jarden Schlesinger (Guitar/Vocals)
Thomas Haxen (Bass)
Pelle Buch (Drums)

Sylvatica started as a folkish black metal project in 2009 by friends Pelle Buch and Rasmus Kaibe, who, while listening to Svartsot, in a drunken haze decided that they wanted to start a folk metal band. Realizing that none of them could play flute, and they needed a guitarist, they called Jarden Schlesinger the same night and he was added to the "line-up" after that, and the flute was scrapped.

The first Sylvatica release was the song 'Mjölner og Mjöd', which quickly became a local hit in their hometown Nyborg, even though it was very poorly recorded and mixed, by Kaibes bigger brother, they started getting a name for themselves, and after a couple of line-up changes they recorded their first Demo EP 'Sagn og Sagaer' in late 2010 with the new line-up, consisting of Jardén Schlesinger and Jannik Ravn on guitars, Thomas Haxen, replacing Kaibe, on bass and Pelle Buch on drums.

Jannik left the band in the summer of 2011 just as they were about to record a new EP  'Mosemanden'. For gigs they band took in guitarist Thor Stokholm, who filled in for a few shows untill they found a permanent replacement in Martin Hamann, though he would also leave a year later.

Now sticking to a three piece unit for recordings they have since been signed and now unleash their debut album, they continue to play live with the addition of Richardt Olsen on guitar.

Expecting 'Melodic Death Metal' i was rather surprised to hear the opening track 'Lost' being a symphonic piano instrumental, this lead into a 7 minute mini epic called 'Psychopatica', very much a Viking Metal sounding song, super fast drumming, furious riffery and demonic vocals, throw in an acoustic breakdown and unexpected timing changes and this is way more than what it was billed as.
The next few songs continue with this style, folk melody played on guitar with power metal precision.

'God Of The Gallows' is a slow dark and brooding piece, again nice use of acoustic guitars and simple powerchords to start with creating a doom/black metal feel, when it kicks in it is very reminiscent of classic Satyricon.

After this we return to the folk/viking influences, some thrash metal riffs lurk within 'Reanimated' complete with the slow chord structure a la Mustaine.

'Sect Of Sleep' starts with more beautiful acoustic playing, the song builds with a very catchy riff running throughout.

Rating 9/10
For fans Of: Amon Amarth, Satyricon, Turisas, Ensiferum

Vengeful Ghoul - Timeless Warfare (CD Review)

01.Chained Freedom
02.The Sovereign Place
03.Ruthless Crow
04.My Crowded Solitude
05.Under Control
06.Schaukelstuhl
07.Search For Apeiron
08.Fire & Spell
09.Timeless Warfare

Emre Kasapoglu (Vocals)
Ozgur Nair (Guitar)
Senem Undemir (Guitar)
Volkan Beykoz (Drums)
Gorkem Buyukesmeli (Bass)

Formed in 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey by Senem and Emre, they took their style of power/thrash metal and started to play live, soon after they cut their first demo.
Whilst most bands will pay for studio time, the band decided to build their own studio in which to continue recording and 'Ruthless Crow Studios' was the result and also the title of track three from this their debut album.

Machine gun fire effects are used to introduce 'Chained Freedom', starts off as a mid paced thrasher before moving more in Painkiller era Priest metal, and boy has that vocalist got some style!
At times this borders on Power metal, but manages to stay away from the endless guitar twiddling that that genre tends to offer.

The next few songs follow the same pattern then we come to 'My Crowded Solitude', a very simple guitar riff with a powerful vocal delivery to start with but you can feel that the song is building, and 2 minutes in the song explodes into riff heaven.
Then the pace changes again, a lot more agressive with some very heavy drum work.

The oddly titled 'Schaukelstuhl' is sung in german and sounds like a Rammstein ballad!
The song does not fit on the album, but it does stand out and is very well put together, even the keyboard sound is authentic.

'Search For Apeiron' offers up some old school thrash riffs, with some unusual timings from the drums, some serious multi on tracking on the vocals, and a strange solo thrown in that sounds almost out of tune, that all helps however to create the albums second stand out track.

The doom laden 'Fire & Spell' brings back that early 80's sound of Mercyful Fate, a brilliant track, superb guitarwork and that vocal is outstanding.Plenty of timing changes thrown in to keep the song fresh and exciting for a great 7 minutes!

'Timeless Warfare' manages to switch seamlessly between two styles, the first is a traditional thrash chord structure and then old style speed metal, throw in another great vocal performance, a riff heavy solo some pounding bass playing and you have another outstanding song!

You know the first 5 tracks were really good, but it is the last 4 that really stand out for me and have to say again that the vocals are just amazing!

Rating 10/10
For fans Of: Mercyful Fate, Accept, Judas Priest, Opera Diabolicus

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/vengefulghoul

Running Death - The Call Of Extinction (EP Review)

01.Unleashed
02.Killing For Gods
03.Call Of Extinction
04.Celebrate Your Agression
05.Hunting For Heads

Simon (Guitar/Vocals)
Julian (Guitar)
Vigi (Bass)
Jakob (Drums)

German thrash metal band formed back in 2004, in 2007 they released their first demo and after building up a solid live reputation they released a full EP called 'Raging Nightmare'.
They are currently working on their first full album but until its release they are re promoting their second EP 'The Call Of Extinction' which is available for free at the bands Bandcamp page (Link Below).

This is what i like to call melodic thrash metal, think Megadeth style, lots of guitar workouts with Maidenesque overtones mixing with Mustaines style.
Some excellent bass playing here as well, you dont often hear that coming through with a lot of bands, and the whole thing is driven by some precision drumming.

However the vocal style is a little raw, it doent quite match the music, not sure if thats because the vocalist is singing in English and trying too hard to get it right or if simply he has a more agressive "shouty" style of vocals more suited to the death metal genre.

But it is a good solid EP, any misgivings i have about the vocals are essentially unimportant because its the music that makes this one stand out from the endless pile of bands who knock this out without much care and attention.

With that new album in the works it should be one to watch out for.

Rating: 9/10
For Fans Of: Evile, Elimination, Kemakil, Megadeth, Slayer

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/runningdeath
GET EP HERE http://runningdeath.bandcamp.com/

Wretched - Cannibal (CD Review)

01.Gold Above Me
02.Morsel
03.Calloused
04.Thin Skinned
05.L'Appel Du Vide
06.Cranial Infestation
07.Salt Lick
08.Cannibal
09.Wetiko
10.To The Flies
11.Engulfed In Lethargy

Steven Funderburk (Guitar)
Adam Cody (Vocals)
Joel Moore (Guitar)
Andrew Grevey (Bass)
Marshall Wieczorek (Drums)

North Carolina band first came together in September 2005 when drummer Marshall Wieczorek and guitarist Steven Funderburk formed 'AND SINCE FORGOTTEN'.
By 2009 and with the new name 'Wretched' they released their first album 'Exodus of Autonomy'.
In 2010 a line up change brought in guitarist John Vail and bassist Rico Marziali and felt confident these changes would propel them further into
metal glory. Perfecting a new sound, they released Beyond the Gate, however their success proved too much for the band, who suffered another lineup change in 2011, creating what would be this latest incarnation With Adam Cody (GLASS CASKET) on lead vocals and Andrew Grevey on bass joining Marshall on drums and guitarists John and Steven, the group finally felt complete. Motivated by their new additions, they joined The Metal Alliance Tour alongside DevilDriver and 3 Inches Of Blood.

After another album and more gigs and positive press they have now unleashed 'Cannibal'.

The opening to 'Gold Above Me' is amazing, slow guitar over some technical blast beats, the song then picks up the speed and we find the level of power that this band are highly capable of.
Heavilly driven by the superb drumming of Wieczorek and the evil growls of Cody.Some very clever guitarwork in there as well, not just riffs and powerchords but some great solos.
This is a relentless onslaught of power executed by a band who understand their craft to perfection.

They mix up the styles as well, songs like 'Thin Skinned' start off with a doom feel before moving into Thrash and a stunning guitar solo.
There is a weird almost gothic instrumental called 'L'Appeal Du Vida' that gives the album some breathing space.

The title track is a 7 minute epic blending melodic progressive riffs, quite almost acoustic guitarwork and mid tempo thrash metal.

A very good album and one that went beyond my expectations of just another generic death metal album, definatley one to check out.

Rating 8/10
For Fans Of : Devildriver, Six Feet Under, Xenochord