Mindfall - Post Apocalyptic Grind EP (CD Review)

01.False Decisions-Fatal Actions
02.Slashed Tongues
03.Dead Inside
04.Shadows Grow Deep

Juha Aunola (Vocals)
Andy Aunola (Guitar)
Jonne Tolonen (Guitar)
Mikko Pakanen (Bass)
Jari Huttunen (Drums)

Mindfall formed in 2014 and are from the City of Oulu, Northern Finland.
Band members have many years of experience in a various other bands playing music from
different genres.
The band members are defined by participation in the song writing process and the desire to provide an intensive gig experience to the audience.

Well no fancy intro from these guys damn if the first song doesn't just explode through the speakers with an unholy scream and then bang right into the powerhouse that is 'False Decisions-Fatal Actions'.Not as the title suggests "Grind" but more of a very well produced technical death metal with some real melody blending with true power.

Less furious but just as brutal is 'Slashed Tongues', highly rhythm drum patterns are punctuated by simple but effective chords, the chorus is backed with a great riff, really gives the song some structure and depth.

'Dead Inside' is another juggernaut of a song, driven by superb drumming, the song builds as the guitars come in, all the time the song is held together by the death meatl styled vocal, but one you can hear!

A highly melodic start to 'Shadows Grow Deep', almost lures you into a happy place but as was expected the power and agression comes in and smacks you around the head, but through clever timing changes they bring that melody back to perfection.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Chaosanct, Xenochord, Spitting Blood

Cyrence - The Hospital EP (CD Review)

01.A New Begininng
02.Dystopia
03.This Life
04.The Hospital
05.I Won't Fall
06.You Kill Me
07.Purity Control


Tim Grathwohl (Vocals/Guitar)
Dominic Millett (Guitar)
Chris Hammer (Bass)
Thomas Goldberg (Drums)

Started in 2006 as a solo project of Tim Grathwohl (Vocals and Guitar, Ex-ONE MORE DAY/Ex-GATECRUSHER). In early 2009 they became a full band, featuring bassist Sebastian Moser of SHAPESHIFT/CYNICISM and Chris Boenisch on drums. In late 2009, drumming duties were handed over to Lenz Scharf (SICK SOUL/Ex- A-RECORDZ/Ex-GATECRUSHER).

With Artur Vladinovskij on Lead Guitar, the line-up was complete from late 2009 until April 2010.
Due to conflicting schedules, Artur left and was replaced by Dominic Millett in May 2010. Unfortunately, Basti and Lenz decided to leave the Band in June 2011, again because of conflicting schedules. Luckily, Thomas Goldberg, former drummer of DEATHFEAR, joined in October 2011. In March 2012 finally they found the right person to fill the gap Basti left behind, as Chris Hammer (Ex-KNOW YOUR FOE/AS MENTIONED BELOW) joined the band as their permanent Bassist.

'Dystopia' starts after another fucking intro to an ep/album!
What we get is a very mature sounding melodic thrash metal influenced sound, vocals sung properly (no grunts and growls), solid drumming and endless riffs.

Next few tracks do exactly the same a precision take on the genre faultless in its delivery with a lavish sound production.

'I Wont Fall' is a seven minute mini-masterpiece starts slowly and just builds layer upon layer, highly rhythmic drum patterns blended with clean chord structures, then some timing changes to slow things down before a new rhythm starts, stop/start drum and vocal keeps things intresting, then full on thrash assault time!

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, Evile, Kemakil

Dark Void - Release The Kraken EP (CD Review)

01.The Awakening
02.Nameless
03.100 Years
04.Release The Kraken
05.Anger Within
06.Near Death


Philippos Chrysostomou (Vocals)
Andreas Tryfonos (Guitar)
Trifun Moskalj (Guitar)
Christos Papadopoulos (Bass)
Panayiotis Soteriou (Drums)

Dark Void were formed by Andreas, Christos, Giorgos Hajistilis and Panayiotis late summer of 2013. They started playing mostly covers but soon started on original songs.

Late spring of 2014 Hajistillis decides to leave the band fot personal reason but he still remains a very good friend to dark void! the band at that time decided that if they wanted to rise above all the other bands they needed a singer, and thats were Philipos came in and finally Trifun came to fill in for the 2nd guitar.


Ignoring the pointless 2 minute opening sound effects and a bit of acoustic guitar, yep another band another intro as a seperate track as opposed to simply placing it at the beginning of the main song, which after nearly 12 seconds appears to start exactly where the other one ended.

Okay so rant over and on to 'Nameless', from its distortion opening it then hammers it way through the speakers for some full on thrash metal, no messing around here, ahh well thats what i thought until it went all "symphonic" for a second with keyboards??? then seems to move more into black metal timings and more of that keyboard, and no vocals so what is this "Intro" part 2???

Finally a song! and '100 Years' sounds the part musically, but the vocals need some work and why throw in death metal backing growls where they are not needed or fit?

'Release The Kraken', well this one is worthy of all praise because it samples Eric Cartman from the Cthulhu episodes.The music really does fit more with melodic death metal than out and out thrash, but it is a seriously good and heavy track, very drum driven.

Up next is 'Anger Within' and the first song that really ticks most of the thrash metal boxes, though i still think the vocals are to harsh.

The last track 'Near Death' starts with some pounding basswork followed by furious drumming, there is a slight effect on the vocal which helps it along, slightly reminiscent of early metallica, but dispite that, still really kicks ass!
Some brilliant guitarwork in here as well.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Tempestora, Breathless, Reaping Havoc, Savage Messiah

Vetten AEpaeraet - Sydaentalven Viha (Single Review)

01.Sydaentalven Viha

Sami Ferm (Vocals/Flutes)
Aleksi Kulmala (Guitar)
Leo Lemmetty (Guitar)
Jarmo Luopa (Bass)
Irene Penttonen (Keyboards)
Anton Nisonen (Drums)

From Helsinki, Finland Vetten Äpärät is a six member folk metal band founded in 2006. They consider themselves to be the second generation of Finnish folk metal as they were influenced by the Finnish pioneer bands that came before them. Wanting to take the genre to the next level Vetten Äpärät are currently creating a folk metal lifestyle that goes beyond just playing and recording music.

Their music is built on the strong base of Nordic melodic metal ranging from skull crushing low tuned sounds to traditional folk melodies. The vocals bring the message of the harsh but beautiful life in the realm of north. Visually their goal is to create an authentic theatre-like concept. The band has found their style from the flora and fauna of the creatures and elements in folklore like dryads.

In 2011 and 2012 Vetten Äpärät recorded two demos (Demo 2011 and Taru 2012) as a five piece unit. After their original bassist left in the spring of 2013 the band went through changes in their concept. By the end of the year the band got a new bass player and recruited a completely new member for lead guitars which changed Sami's role in the band to just vocals and flutes. With the new line-up Vetten Äpärät recorded their debut single "Sydäntalven Viha" in 2014.

The new album is to be released later this year.

Normally pretty difficult to get a handle on how good a band is from just one song, however, this is no ordinary song.
Starts nice and acoustic with some vocals, then rest of the band join in and it is epic, full of meldy, passion and power, then gets even faster and full on folk metal is let loose, drum driven and then use of keyboards to give it that celtic feel.
As the song progresses they just thow more and more in, numerous timing and style changes.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Turisas, Elvenking, Tanzwut

Dormant Inferno & Dionysus - Beyond Forgotten Shores (CD Review)

Dormant Inferno
01.Veil Of Lunacy
02.Deliverance
03.A Once Holy Throne (Incantation)

Gautam Shankar (Vocals)
Sunny Bhambri (Guitar/Bass)
Lenin Kharat (Keyboards)

Formed in 2009, Amidst the clutter of Thrash, Death & Metalcore bands in Mumbai, two guys decided to take a different route and play Doom Metal back in 2009. Influenced by varied bands Dormant Inferno aims at attaining a sound which is minimal yet captivating. Dormant Inferno hopes at exposing the Metalheads in Mumbai to Doom Metal, a beautiful yet ignored genre of Metal.

Starting off with a pretty straight forward modern metal workout 'Veil Of Lunacy' has no elements of Doom at all, the acoustic sounding breakdown around 3 minutes in is well played and then starts to come to life as darker chords come in and some evil sounding vocals appear.

'Deliverance' is a bit more doomy but then ends up sounding more like Iron Maiden, okay with death meatl growl vocals and then just like the previous track it goes all quiet with another acoustic breakdown and with added hushed vocal, expecting this one to then go into Doom, well it doesn't, almost symphonic metal yes, doom no.

Well for the last song 'A Once Holy Throne' can we get some doom? Nope again just metal, might have a dark edge to it but it aint doom.

Rating 4/10

 Dionysus
04.Beneath The Skies Of War
05.Rain

Sheraz Ahmed (Guitar/Drums)
Umair Ahmed (Guitar)
Waleed Ahmed (Vocals/Bass/Acoustic Guitar)
Rauhan Lasharie (Flute/Synth/Violin)

Dionysus is a Death/Doom band from Lahore, Pakistan, and thats about all the info i have on them im guessing they formed around 2010.

'Beneath The Skies Of War' and still no sign of Doom metal, this is more of a mix of death/extreme metal with a slight nod to a couple of doomish chords.

And here comes the 'Rain' for another death metal inspired workout, at times more melodic thrash than anything else, this ones saving grace is the last few minutes of clever use of acoustic instruments and a bluesy/power metal solo.

Rating 6/10

So what should have been a blistering doom split ep, turns out to be another dissapointment, have these people never heard of Electric Wizard or Cathedral???

Zapotek - Blood Offering EP (Download Review)

01.Blood Offering
02.Rip Your Face Off
03.Human Sacrifice
04.Atomic Energy
05.Noise Machine

Sky London (All Instruments)

This is the new project from Sky London who has moved out from behind the drum kit (currently with Star Scream) into Bass Music Production in the DnB/Dubstep/EDM style.
Not being a style i know anything about this could be a tricky review.

Starting with 'Blood Offering' an ambient and quite percussive beginning, nice light synth tones, yet as the keyboards come in more it has an edgy almost un-nerving quality, synth pulses then come in with a few voice samples thrown in.
It almost sounds like a intro to a horror movie and not what I was expecting.

The same quality of soundscapes return for 'Rip Your Face Of' add a more uptempo drum beat and this is clearly aimed at the dancefloor, but there are intresting elements thrown in here, my old ears detect a passing nod to electronica soundtracks by Klaus Schulze to more modern  composers like Deadmau5.

The next piece 'Human Sacrifice' has some electronic harpsicord and a very disturbing sample of a babys vice.
The music is punctuated by some clever synth scrapes and use of traditional piano.


'Atomic Energy' is multilayered with voice samples and hi-energy drum and bass rhythms, the overall style is very reminiscent to Chase & Status.

The final piece 'Noise Machine' has a more automated rhythm, tinges of Kraftwerk and Moroder blend perfectly with the modern dubstep style.
Nice use of vocal samples once again and at times the timing changes and chord structures, use of drum machine and that hi-hat sound remind me of good old "house music", can see a dancefloor rammed with everybody waving their hands around.

Overall I have to say, to me it seems quite dark in places, not happy and upbeat, more suited to a cyberpunk gig than Ibiza!

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Deadmau5, Chase & Status, Skream, Skrillex

DOWNLOAD LINK: https://zapotek.bandcamp.com/releases

The Lidocaine - Chicken Cage Of Horror (CD Review)

01.Chicken Cage Of Horror
02.Empty Space Devil's Blog
03.The End Of The Beginning....
04.Too Late To Escape
05.Fabrication
06.Onion Of Chasity
07.Zest For Life
08.Retrobution
09.Throat Of A Monster
10.Voyage Of Discovery

Anthony Rausku (Vocals/Guitar)
Eroz (Vocals/Guitar)
Tatu Hiltunen (Bass)
Jari Vanhanen (Drums)

The Lidocaine are a finnish rock/metal/progressive band coming from the city of Helsinki, formed in 2007.
Their debut album "The Voices and Noises of KILING KOLING" was released in summer 2009 and their second album "On The Road To MIERO" was released in 2013.


Okay so this is pretty odd, 'Chicken Cage Of Horror' starts with a pretty wild but straight forward mix of rock and metal, but the vocal really carrys the song, part power metal style part almost folk/metal, cant really put my finger on it, it is also slightly silly, but very infectious, I wonder what's next?

Even with this next song cant help but notice a kind of folkish rock element to the music, that said it also seriously rocks, i am really struggling with this one!

Okay skipping forward to 'Too Late To Escape' and we have a rock ballad with female vocals, no mention in the blurb as to who this is?

Thats followed by 'Fabrication' a sort of melodic thrash workout, lots of neat riffs and some great drumming, gets into some quite epic classic rock style riffing during its seven minute duration.

Back to the silly with 'Onion Of Chasity' from more folkish vocal to what sounds like an impression of dani filth, all over some frantic extreme metal then it all gets this timing change that shouldn't work but somehow does.

Really moving into prog territory with 'Zest For life' like rush jamming with primus.

With 'Retrobution' well frankly I give up, ballad, heavy metal, extreme metal, doom, blues, you name it it's in here somewhere!

After another fairly straight forward and very well executed prog/metal workout on 'Throat Of A Monster' we get to 'Voyage Of Discovery' more folk rock blended with just about everything else and some more female vocals (I think).

One helluva album, quite brilliant, full of humor and just about every genre of rock and metal n show at one time or another.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Primus, Deep Switch, Turisas