A bunch of flyers for upcoming gigs

Casino 13 - Casino 13 (CD Review)

 1.Good Friends & Alcohol
2.Dragging It All To The Grave
3.Breakdown
4.Boneshaker
5.Nowhere
6.Blessing In Disguise
7.Without you
8.The Mojo Hand
9.Whiskey & Gasoline


Dave McEvoy (Guitar/Vocals)
Thomas Agar (Drums)
Pardeep Bhachu (Guitar)
Drake Kelly (Bass)

Casino13 was formed in February 2011 by founding members Drummer -Thomas Agar (ex-Feral) & Vocalist/Guitarist Dave McEvoy (ex-Social Head Removal) & later joined by second guitarist Pardeep Bhachu & bass player Drake Kelly (ex-Social Head Removal)

The bands members had all served their time in various metal bands previously & the idea with Casino13 was to blend elements of Punk Rock, Country, Rock N Roll & Metal & other styles into the mix to create an original sound.

Kicking off with some heavy rock n roll 'Good Friends & Alcohol' has a superb beat that gets you jumping up and down straight away, great vocal delivery and some awesome drumming drive this one home!

'Dragging It All To The Grave' and 'Breakdown' are a bit more restrained but still good.

That bouncy feel returns for the bass heavy rocker 'Boneshaker' some cool guitarwork in this one as well, nice to actually hear some riffing with soul.

Next up is 'Nowhere' a dark and heavy monster again featuring some great guitarwork.

"To live a lie, see through your eyes & now you're gone, a blessing in disguise" a bittersweet doom laden classic, punctuated by some heavy as hell drumming, beautiful vocals, easily my favourite song on this album.

Back to the 1950's for 'without out', coming over like Iggy pop doing Frankie Avalon, it is "grande fromage" but fucking great at the same time!!!

'The Mojo Hand' is a sing a long mid tempo rocker.

Finally ending the album the same way it started 'Whiskey & Gasoline' brings that jumping up and down, bang yer head, drink a bottle of jack and have a fucking great time vibe!

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of : Viking Skull, Rocket From The Crypt, Supersuckers, Zodiac Mindwarp

The Grim Sweeper - Blood Of Odin (CD Review)

01.Time Of Ancient Gods
02.Odin Awakens
03.Flight Of The Valkyries
04.The Spectral Hunt
05.Spirits Of Dead Warrior's Jig
06.Valhalla's Feast

Marcus Matusiak (All Instruments)



The Grim Sweeper is the solo project of Marcus Matusiak, guitarist of power metal band Powermajus and formerly keyboard player of melodic death metal band Matron. Originally started as a largely improvised busking project in London.

Marcus decided to put down some of his better ideas on record and take some time to write some more structured lead parts and solos.
The result is this debut release "Blood of Odin".

Here we have six epic instrumental pieces, think Steve Vai performing Turisas!
In all honesty i think that some vocals would have made this more intresting, but you cannot fault the guitarwork or amazing keyboard playing.

Marcus has created "danceable" viking folk power metal and made a great debut.

Rating 8/10
For Fans Of: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Turisas.

Fear Factory - The Industrialist (CD Review)

“They said that the world was coming to an end. Well… it ended and it was caused
by our own hand. The world just kept on turning.” - anonymous


With those words begins The Industrialist, a new chapter in Fear Factory’s career of ideas and
extremes. The follow-up to 2010’s critically acclaimed Mechanize, The Industrialist is a vital chapter
in the history of one of the most over-achieving bands in heavy music. It’s the Fear Factory machine
at its most confident and passionate, bringing every sonic weapon in its arsenal to the fore.
The shadow of the Los Angeles born band has loomed large, writing the book of industrial metal that
has gone on to influence the likes of Rammstein and inform such stalwart noisemongers as Ministry.
Fear Factory also merged the idea of melodic vocals erupting from death metal screaming long
before it became modern metal’s de-riguer. Over the course of a many storied career that’s seen the
success of five critically acclaimed albums plus a remix ep and album, Fear Factory has had a career
of creative and commercial success, selling over three million records worldwide: they’ve also been
plagued by bitter infighting and have emerged from it all in 2012 with a new alloy of aggression.

A NEW NEXUS.
Mechanize exorcised the demons that came with guitarist Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell’s
reunion after an eight year split that saw Fear Factory recording and performing without Cazares.
Those wounds healed, The Industrialist revisits and refines the sweeping melodies and unforgettable
songwriting that’s also long distinguished Fear Factory.
“There’s definitely been an evolution from that record to this one,” states Bell. “It’s still familiar very
familiar and still very Fear Factory but there are elements that we didn’t really get to on the last
record for the sake of metal.”
Of course, Fear Factory aren’t about to lighten up as “Recharger” ignites the album with the same
trademark ferocity as Fear Factory classics like “Edgecrusher” or “Replica”. Dino’s industrial-tinged
riffing is all discipline, noise and fury while Burton’s trademark vocals bleed with desperation before
exploding into enormous melodies. As the frontman screams “The future begins now!” at the top
of “New Messiah,” there’s no mistaking just who is behind the ten-track apocalypse that is The
Industrialist.
“This one is more Fear Factory than anything we’ve done in years,” says Dino. “Collaborating with Burt
again was easy, it was like magic. It felt like we were back in our apartment with seven roommates
trying to write songs with a drum machine.”

DYSTOPIA NOW!
Fear Factory’s musical and lyrical vision of Future Shock is the beating machine heart of
The Industrialist. While the “story” behind the album is better spelt out in a companion booklet
that comes with a special edition of album, there is a very obvious storyline rooted both in forward
thinking science fiction but also in contemporary events including the Occupy Wall Street and
Anonymous Movements. “There is a main character who is called ‘The Industrialist’,” states Burton,
referring to the character at the heart of songs like “God Eater: or “”Virus of Faith”. “He’s a machine
that has become self-aware and becomes a catalyst for change. The album has the loose concept
of a murder plot, with the realization that the automaton is becoming more human each day. The
last track on the album “Human Augmentation” is moment where machine becomes human and
realizes its own humanity. That’s a thought that’s very key to the Fear Factory universe.”

DEUS EX MACHINA.
The Industrialist found Fear Factory in the studio with longtime co-producer and collaborator Rhys
Fulber as well as Logan Mader who did additional tracking and digital editing. The process of writing
and recording the album was hardly traditional. It was about as intense as it could be with Cazares
and Bell constructing The Industrialist in the studio. “Everything that we recorded is fresh and exciting,”
says Burton. “We didn’t demo anything before we recorded it. You can hear the life and the creativity
that went into the making of this record as it was being laid down.”
Dino is quick to compare The Industrialist to the band’s longstanding 1995 classic Demanufacture.
“Demanufacture took what we had done before and broke all that down to create something new,”
says Dino of the album that combined the mechanized Death Metal of Fear Factory’s 1993 debut
Soul of a New Machine and its then-untraditional follow-up Fear is the Mind Killer, an album of remixes.
“We had some of the same intentions on the new record. Break it all down and build it all back up,”
says Cazares. “It’s noisier. It has more Industrial influences. It’s more Fear Factory and it just poured out
of us.”

CONTINUUM.
Cazares and Bell aren’t merely proud of the art they’ve made and continue to create but they also
realize the impact Fear Factory has had on multiple generations of metal, industrial, and aggressive
music. “We definitely pioneered the combination between melodic and brutal vocals,” states Dino.
“Syncopated guitar and kick-drum patterns. We were even the first death-grind-industrial band to
have remix records!” It is staggering to think that today’s Dubstep Metallers to progressive-minded
“D-Jent” bands owe a debt to Fear Factory. “People don’t even know where some of these ideas
originally came from!” enthuses the guitarist.

THE AGE OF THE INDUSTRIALIST.
Where several side-bands and offshoots have emerged from the Fear Factory fold: Dino’s tungstentimbered
metal machine Divine Heresy and Burton’s more cerebral Ascension of the Watchers, Fear
Factory is the focus. Without exception or reservation. “Being in Fear Factory is survival for me,” says
the frontman. “It’s what still matters most to us.”
When the band hits stages worldwide in 2012, it will be some of Fear Factory’s most anticipated and
charged shows to date. The age of The Industrialist has begun.

WORDS OF STU
Yep FF are back with a storming cd of techno fuelled power, harmony and agression in perfect balance.
The final track is an ambient/industrial soundscape and tho it lacks any real music its by far my fave track.

RATING 10/10
FOR FANS OF : Static X, Rammstein, Devin Townsend, Axis Of Perdition

Merrimack - The Acausal Mass (CD Review)

MERRIMACK belong to the most influential, most active and
authentic bands of the French black metal scene. Moreover this
band is one of the French combos that accomplished to play
worldwide tours and that made a name for themselves in the
scene over the French border.
After founding the band in 1994, MERRIMACK recorded three
demo tapes – “Act 1”, the splitdemo “Hirilorn/Merrimack” and
“Horns Defeat Thorns (A Vision Of Human Salvation)”, before they
felt ready for their first entire studio album. “Ashes Of Purification”
was released in 2002 by the underground label Elegy Records.
The jet-black hateful chunk of metal was acclaimed by the strict
core of the underground scene and the American label Moribund
Records began to put out feelers in direction of Paris. “Of Entropy
And Life Denial”, the fabulous second album from 2006 finally
marked the international break through of the Frenchmen. Media
placed MERRIMACK on the same with big names like MARDUK
or GORGOROTH and praised the musical brutality and vigour as
well as the quality of composition and playing. “Grey Rigorism”,
the third album, was a step in modern direction. MERRIMACK
combined their gruff Black Metal with epic song structures and
post-modern Sound – they got fabulous media critics and toured
through Europe and USA very successfully.
In summer 2011 the band came to an agreement about a cooperation
with the German Metal label AFM Records. In January
2012 the combo entered again the Necromorbus Studio, where
quality guarantees like WATAIN or FUNERAL MIST produced
their sound attacks. “THE ACAUSAL MASS” bites, rages, hurts
and destroys. MERRIMACK excelled themselves by introducing a
milestone of orthodox and brilliant black metal and prove again
that the black metal scene is able to give new impulses in 2012 far
away from mainstream.

When it comes to French metal im not exactley jumping around with excitment (Unless you wanna talk about TRUST) when it comes to Black Metal there is only one band to talk about and that is BLUT AUS NORD.

So hitting play with this one does not hold any hopes, but play button it is....
Kinda wish i hadnt, every track sounds the same and its very average, my advice is to stick with Norway, Sweden and UK when it comes to all things Black.

Rating 5/10

Murder Of My Sweet - Bye Bye Lullaby (CD Review)

Since the release of their debut album "Divanity" in January 2010, and the
single that pre-ceded it in 2009 (“Bleed Me Dry” - which reached No. 14 in the
Swedish National Singles Charts), female-fronted rock/metal band
THE MURDER OF MY SWEET have become amongst the biggest hopes on
the European scene. Their individual, easily recognizable and high value sound,
has touched the lives of many fans and with its mix of modern, groovy, hard
rock, beautiful melodies, and progressive, cinematic flair. The band, led by
singer Angelica Rylin, has secured a remarkable fan base already, far from the
shores of Stockholm, where the band was formed in 2007; the name inspired
by the 1944 ‘film-noir’ “Murder, My Sweet”.
Now though it’s time to confirm and expand on the success of "Divanity" -
which, given the quality of the new album, "Bye Bye Lullaby" should be a
formality.
THE MURDER OF MY SWEET have combined all their strengths and improved
in every department. Rylin’s passionate vocal performance breaths new soul
into every song, and all tracks on "Bye Bye Lullaby" have their individual
strength meaning that it’s somewhat difficult to highlight individual songs
especially. With 13 tracks, the whole spectrum and repertoire of this wonderful
band can be celebrated: "Idolize" and "Kind Of Lousy" are just two tracks whose
melodies you won’t get out of the head for weeks, but "I Dare You" stands out
too, with its hypnotic groove. The ballad "Meant To Last Forever" is pure
emotion, and with the completion of 6-minute epic "Phantom Pain" the band
delivers the perfect successor to their song "Death Of A Movie Star" (such an
important part of the "Divanity" album). "Unbreakable" (the first single) will be
accompanied by a video clip in late April.
Singer Angelica remembers the creative process:
”Bye Bye Lullaby” has been a long time coming. We wrote nearly enough songs
for two full albums and had to carefully choose these thirteen to truly represent
the new, updated The Murder Of My Sweet. This album includes performances
from close friends Jesper Stromblad (who you all know from In Flames), Fredrik
Akesson (from Opeth) and Peter Wichers (from Soilwork), so it’s a really brave
record. The major difference for me is the variation in the songs; we’ve taken
them down a darker path, as well as on a more commercial path. It’s
unorthodox maybe, but since there are so many female fronted bands out
there, we felt that this combination had never been tried before, and would be
breaking new ground, which is way more fun.”
Composer and drummer Daniel Flores adds:
“Who doesn’t like huge variety and impact created with sound? Small fragments
of sonic whispering, say mixed with soulful performances? With this new lineup,
my imagination had no limits and you will surely be hearing an even bigger
cinematic soundscape than you all grew to love on “Divanity”!”
The new lineup, to which Daniel refers, now includes, alongside himself and
singer Angelica, new guitarist Christopher Vetter and new bassist Teddy
Westlund.

Rating 7/10

Natur - Head Of Death (CD Review)

Dwelling in the filth-ridden depths of the underground Metal brotherhood, New York's Natur have created a distinct reputation for themselves, blending the arcane and the obscure into a sound drenched in the very essence of Metal's formative years.

With their debut full length 'Head of Death', Natur expand on the excitement caused by their early demos and 7" with a set of songs exploring the mystical and the macabre. 'Vermin Rift' explores the terror of the night, 'Goblin Shark' relates the tale of demented possessed sailor out for revenge, while 'Head of Death' itself predicts the horror of what happens when your time is up.

Deliberately archaic, Natur take delight in highlighting the eerie atmospheres of the Metal heroes of yore - Mercyful Fate, Angel Witch and Venom - and adding their own twisted vision of the horror and fantastical that make up their world. With their underground cred in no doubt thanks to the patronage of Darkthrone's Fenriz, and their appearance at the Live Evil Festival in London as well as support slots with High on Fire at the invitation of Thrasher Magazine, 'Head of Death' should see Natur spread
their unholy gospel even wider.

American take on NWOBHM, pretty good too.

Rating 8/10
For fans Of : Cauldron, Skeletonwitch, Amulet

Some flyers for June