Bloody Hammers - Spiritual Relics (CD Review)

01.Whats Haunting You
02.At The Well Of Nazareth
03.The Transit Begins
04.The Source
05.Colour Me Blood Red
06.Night Of The Long Knives
07.Shiver
08.Flesh Of The Lotus
09.Path Of Sorrows
10.Science Fiction

Anders Manga (Vocals/Bass)
Devallia (Organ)
Zoltan Von Bury (Guitar)
Doza (Drums)

American doomsters BLOODY HAMMERS have completed work on their sophomore LP titled Spiritual Relics. This is the follow up to the North Carolina occult metal band's critically celebrated, eponymously titled debut and boasts ten titanic tracks revolving around ironclad themes of classic horror, stories from the coven and chilling evil.

Produced by towering front man / bassist Anders Manga, Spiritual Relics builds on the strong wall of sound BLOODY HAMMERS created on last year's debut.  The artwork was created by Brazillian artist, Caio Caldas.

Named in homage to the singularly atomic Roky Erickson & The Aliens song of the same name, BLOODY HAMMERS' hallucinatory heavy music has been called "a psych / hard rock / horror fan's dream come true."

This is a slab of 10 fuzzed out psych/doom monsters, very much with a nod back to late 60's early 70's sounds created by bands like Blue Cheer with that occult sound created by the legendary Coven.

At times some beautiful guitarwork and haunting vocals mix in with the more traditional heavy drum and powerchord that you expect when the word doom is mentioned.

Rating 10/10

For fans of : Cathedral, Purson, Electric Wizard, Moss, Jex Thoth, Uncle Acid & Deadbeats

Tarja - Colours In The Dark (CD Review)

01.Victim Of Ritual
02.500 Letters
03.Lucid Dreamer
04.Never Enough
05.Mystique Voyage
06.Darkness
07.Deliverance
08.Neverlight
09.Until Silence
10.Medusa

Tarja Turunen (Vocals/Piano)
Alex Scholpp (Guitar)
Julian Barrett (Guitar)
Kevin Chown (Bass)
Doug Wimbish (Bass)
Christian Kretschmar (Keyboards)
Mike Terrana (Drums)
Max Lilja (Cello)

Guest Musicains
Thomas Bloch (Glass Harmonica)
Saro Danielian (Duduk)
Justin Furstenfeld (Vocal on Medusa)
Caroline Lavelle (Cello)
Naomi Cabuli Turunen (Vocals On Lucid Dreamer)
Mel Wesson (Synth)

At the end of 2005, Turunen performed several classical concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain, and Romania.Since she expected to participate in another Nightwish album, several concerts and the release of her Christmas album Henkäys Ikuisuudesta were the only activities scheduled for 2006. Turunen again played at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2006, In November she performed at the charity concert “Tomorrow's Child” with the Tapiola Choir as a benefit for the UNICEF Children's Fund. On December 6, Turunen performed a big concert at the Sibelius Hall and was nominated for the Finnish Emma Award as Best Soloist of 2006.

The following year, Turunen recorded vocals for the track "In The Picture" on the Nuclear Blast All-stars album Into the Light.
Her solo album'My Winter Storm' was released featuring various styles, including symphonic metal with classical “operatic” lead vocals.

In November she embarked on the Storm World Tour to promote My Winter Storm. She performed 95 concerts throughout Europe, North and South America and ended the tour in October 2009 at the O2 Academy Islington in London.In December 2008, the EP The Seer was released in the UK and the new extended edition of My Winter Storm released on January 2, 2009.

She also contributed three songs to the Finnish charity Christmas album Maailman kauneimmat joululaulut,In December 2009 she recorded her vocal part for the song "The Good Die Young", a duet with Klaus Meine which is included on the final Scorpions album Sting in the Tail.

Turunen recorded her third album, What Lies Beneath, in 2009 and 2010; it was released in September 2010. The album combined metal with classical “operatic” elements in an out of the box approach.[52] She started the What Lies Beneath World Tour performing in several festivals, including the Wacken Open Air and the Graspop Metal Meeting, with special concerts at Miskolc Opera Festival and at the Masters of Rock, when she performed accompanied by a full orchestra. The tour is scheduled to last until April 2012.

Turunen with her support band at the Wacken Open Air, August 6, 2010
On February 27, 2012 during her What Lies Beneath World Tour concert in Brussels, Turunen announced that she will be working on a new album after completing the tour. During the concert she already presented 2 new songs.
In March 2012, Tarja won the title 'Europe's best crossover performer' with over 100.000 votes.

In May 2013, Tarja announced the title of her 4th solo album, Colours In The Dark.
The name of the album, as the cover image, came as a metaphor from the idea that life has a large range of colors and the dark absorb all of them, containing every color.

Its a Tarja album, so you know what you gonna get lots of superb vocals over symphonic rock and metal music, and thats exactley what this is, have to pick out a few tracks though such as 'Never Enough' which is very dramatic and heavy, 'Mystique Voyager' for its classical theme with amazing chorus vocals.

The Peter Gabriel cover is pretty good, but the last track featuring Justin Furstenfeld (WHO?) is a bit average.

Rating 9/10

For fans of : Nightwish, Epica, ReVamp, Within Temptation

Turisas - Turisas2013 (CD Review)

01.For Your Own Good
02.Ten More Miles
03.Piece By Piece
04.Into The Free
05.Run Bhang-Eater, Run!
06.Greek Fire
07.The Days Passed
08.No Good Story Ever Starts With Drinking Tea
09.We Ride Together

Mathias Nygård (Vocals)
Jussi Wickström (Guitar)
Jaakko Jakku (Drums)
Jesper Anastasiadis (Bass)
Olli Vänskä (Violin)
Robert Engstrand (Keyboards)

Just in case you have been on another planet for the last 16 years....Hailing from Finland, Turisas (named after a Finnish God Of War) formed in 1997 and then released 3 demos, one of which contained an epic version of 'Thse Were The Days' by Irish folk singer Mary Hopkin.
Ever since the debut album ”Battle Metal” (2004) came out, the band has become known as one of the most energetic, innovative and exciting metal acts both on record and onstage. Turisas has made its name through hundreds of shows and headline tours in Europe, the US, Russia and Latin America, and wherever the guys have set their foot, they have triumphed.

Often labeled as simply a folk/metal band, the band defies easy genre definitions. Incorporating elements of symphonic power metal along with elements from prog, punk and death metal.

The album ”The Varangian Way” came out in 2007 and was followed by ”Stand Up and Fight” in 2011.

This ones a bit weird or perhaps i should say "ecletic" ?
The first track sounds like something from a musical, a very operatic vocal over some piano work, it picks up to a quite poppy sound.

'Piece By Piece' picks up to the old sound (a bit) but just seems way to commercial, whats happend to their edge?

'Into The Free' has some of that epic vocal work and quite fast drums but still kinda seems "off".

The weird 'Run Bhang-Eater Run!' is a great ethnic sounding song then its full on old school style Turisas, Awesome!

But overall this is a very patchy album, not what i expected from them at all.

Rating 6/10

For Fans Of :  Finntroll, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Gogol Bordello

Messer Chups - Church Of Reverb (CD Review)

01.Cemetery Beach
02.Surf 'N' Rolla
03.Less Playboy More Cowboy
04.Mickey Rat
05.Zamboanga
06.Paore Pizzicato
07.Sallon "Bloodweiser"
08.Rockin' Zombie
09.Black Saoole
10.Dracula Hates Photoshoots
11.Human Jungle
12.Hula Tikula
13.Harlem Nocturne
14.Popcorno Revenge

Zombie Girl (Vocal/Bass)
Dr.Boris (Drums)
Gitaracula (Guitar)

Messer Chups is an experimental band from St.Petersburg, Russia. The band was founded by Oleg Gitarkin who had previously performed with Oleg Kostrow under the name of Messer für Frau Müller. Messer Chups is often considered a "spin-off" band of Messer für Frau Müller. The band was originally a duo of Gitarkin on bass guitar and Annette Schneider who played the synths. In period 2000-2002 Messer Chups consists of Gitarkin and Igor Vdovin on Synth.

In 2003, the producer of Messer Chups and head of homelabel Solnze Records, Oleg Tarasov, invited the world famous theremin player, Lydia Kavina, to join them. Together they have released several albums and reworked their previous releases. In 2005, Messer Chups became a duo consisting of Gitarkin and ZombieGirl on bass. In 2007, they became a trio, with drummer Denis "Kashey" Kuptzov from the famous band, Leningrad.
In 2008, they changed their drummer to Alexander Belkok, and Alexander Skvortzov became their vocalist.

Messer Chups' music often features a foundation of surf drums on which they build collages of samples from odd sources, like jazz, east European animation soundtracks, and American B-pictures. On top of that they lay guitar solos and theremin.

Sounding like a mixture of the "Chantays" and Dick Dale the majority of these tracks are classic surf/rockabilly instrumentals.

'Rockin Zombie' has a great vocal sounding like vampira, also some great sax playing in the mix.

'Dracula Hates Photoshoots' is a great fun song and to be honest the whole album is fun!

Rating 9/10

For Fans Of : Dick Dale, Fuzztones, Misfits, Link Wray, Vince Ray

Edens Curse - Symphonies Of Sin (CD Review)

01.Symphony Of Sin

02.Break The Silence

03.Evil & Divine

04.Unbreakable

05.Fallen From Grace

06.Losing My Faith

07.Rock Bottom

08.Great Unknown

09.Turn The Page

10.Sign Of The Cross

11.Wings To Fly

12.Devil In Disguise

13.Where Is The Love?

Nikola Mijic (Vocals)

Thorsten Koehne (Guitars)

Paul Logue (Bass)

Steve Williams (Keyboards)

Pete Newdeck (Drums)

Formed in 2006, EDEN'S CURSE have risen from their humble beginnings as an internet studio project to a full blown touring outfit with four studio albums and several tours behind them.

"Symphony Of Sin" is their first fronted by new Serbian vocalist Nikola Mijic and former Dragonforce and Powerquest keyboarder, Steve Williams, alongside founding members Paul Logue, Thorsten Koehne and Pete Newdeck. 

This album carries on where their last album "Trinity" left off with the band delivering arguably their most consistent collection of melodicyet-thunderous songs to date. Opener and title track 'Symphony Of Sin', clocking in at just under the 8 minute mark, features the epic sonic wall of a 46 piece orchestra, soaring vocals from Mijic and topped off with razor sharp riffing from Koehne. 

'Evil & Divine', which the band will release a promo video for, is a sumptuous moody-yet-melodic pot boiler and has "live classic" stamped all over it, whilst the heartfelt 'Unbreakable' sees the band step into the uncharted waters of Pop Metal. It has hooks galore, a radio friendly chorus, yet somehow effortlessly manages to retain the powerful sound.

All in all pretty good, not the greatest power metal album ever made, but certainly not the worst.

Rating 7/10

For fans Of : Firewind, EdGuy, Queensryche

DevilDriver - Winter Kills (CD Review)

01.Oath Of The Abyss
02.Ruthless
03.Desperate Times
04.Winter Kills
05.The Appetite
06.Gutted
07.Curses And Epitaphs
08.Carings Overkill
09.Haunting Refrain
10.Tripping Over Tombstones
11.Sail
12.Shudder
13.Back Down To The Grave

Dez Fafara (Vocals)
Jeff Kendrick (Guitar)
John Boecklin (Drums)
Mike Spreitzer (Guitar)
Chris Towning (Bass)

At the age of fifteen, bassist Jon Miller had formed a band with drummer John Boecklin and guitarist Jeff Kendrick in high school. The band was called Area-51 and played cover versions of Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera. Miller, Boecklin and Kendrick met Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara while he was in the process of recording the album Dark Days with Coal Chamber in 2002. The three were playing in a local band and talked to Fafara who said he was thinking about leaving Coal Chamber. Fafara said "Hey you guys write some heavy shit, and I want to get out of Coal Chamber".Fafara hosted several barbecues after moving from Orange County to Santa Barbara and would jam with musicians he met, which led to the formation of the band. Guitarist Evan Pitts met Fafara in a restaurant and gave him his phone number for a jam session, while John Boecklin who originally played guitar then played drums, met Fafara at a bar.

The band was originally known as Deathride, but later changed their name to DevilDriver because Fafara felt there were too many bands with that name; a band in Norfolk, Virginia, and a bicycle racing team. Another problem was that the band's label, Roadrunner Records were unable to secure copyright. The members compiled a list of roughly two hundred names to go for a more original approach. Fafara's wife had a book by Italian witchcraft author Raven Grimassi on Stregheria, and came across the term 'devil driver'. The term 'devil driver' refers to bells Italian witches used to drive evil forces away. Fafara thought it was appropriate because it sounded "evil", and thought the term "suits his life". The band's logo is the Cross of Confusion, which has existed for thousands of years and refers to "question religion, question authority, question everything around you". Fafara was brought up to "question everything" and was exposed to Italian witchcraft through his grandparents.

The band then set about making some of the most brutal heavy metal going, creating a massice fanbase all over the world and some of the biggest circle pits ever!!!

This is the first Devildriver album to feature new bassist Chris Towning who was a touring member from 2012 until joining permanently in February 2013. Recording of instrumental parts took place at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida and the album was produced by Mark Lewis.

Man thats what i love about this band a nice quiet little intor into some full on metal! 'Oath Of The Abyss' shows that the band have no sign of slowing down.
This stays the way for every track, screaming vocals, superfast drumming and epic riffing! but then we get to 'Sail' originally by indie band Awolnation (Dez Fafara was turned on to the original by his teenage sons!) its kinda different, slowish, musical, sounds like female backing harmonys - On a devildriver album?????

Fortunatley 'Shudder' and 'Back Down To The Grave' return to form.

Rating 9/10

For Fans Of : At The Gates, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Machine Head

Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (CD Review)

01.The Eater of Dreams
02.Copy of A
03.Came Back Haunted
04.Find My Way
05.All Time Low
06.Disappointed
07.Everything
08.Satellite
09.Various Methods of Escape
10.Running
11.I Would for You
12.In Two
13.While I'm Still Here
14.Black Noise

Trent Reznor (Vocals/Various)
Pino Palladino (Bass)
Lindsey Buckingham (Guitar)
Adrian Belew (Guitar)
Eugene Goreshter (Bass)
Alessandro Cortini (Keyboards/Guitars)
Ilan Rubin (Drums)
Joshua Eustis (Bass)

Looking back Reznor has had an intresting and very diverse career working alongside people like David Bowie, Josh Homme, Marilyn Manson, Al Jourgensen to Tori Amos and Busta Rhymes, doing numerous film sountracks and endless side projects.

The career of NIN began with 'Pretty Hate Machine' in 1989. It was a moderate commercial success, and was certified Gold in 1992.Amidst pressure from his record label to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference, resulting in an EP called Broken (1992). Nine Inch Nails was included in the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1991, and won a Grammy Award in 1993 under "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for the song "Wish".

The second album, 'The Downward Spiral' remains the highest-selling Nine Inch Nails release, recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive mansion, where the 1969 Manson Family murders took place.He built a studio space in the house, which he renamed Le Pig, after the word that was scrawled on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood by her murderers. Reznor told Entertainment Weekly that, despite the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record there because he "looked at a lot of places, and this just happened to be the one I liked most".
This somewhat contrived approach helped gain his repuatation and along with controversal videos, and songs with "Fuck" in it gave the kids a new band to piss off their parents with.It did contain the song 'Hurt' an emo anthem if ever there was one, but a song that when covered by legend Johnny Cash found new meaning and true soul.

Nine Inch Nails toured extensively over the next few years, including a performance at Woodstock '94, although he admitted to the audience that he did not like to play large venues. Around this time, Reznor's studio perfectionism, struggles with addiction, and bouts of writer's block prolonged the production of a follow-up to The Downward Spiral.
But there were many follow ups over the years and eventually scored a huge pop hit with 'The Hand That Feeds'.

In February 2009, Trent Reznor stated, "I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while."
But he has returned and recruited King Crimson's Adrian Belew and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham to provide the guitarwork.

So an albums worth of sub techno/dance with downbeat ambience, a somehwta waste of talent from the musicians involved, this just sounds like another one of Reznors extended suicide notes set to his own music.

That said 'find my way' sounds a bit like ultravox's vienna, 'everything' could be a new order song and the end piece 'black noise' could have been from the industrial noise master Boyd Rice.

The albums called Hesitation Marks', this refers to the marks left behind after an attempt at self harming or suicide, so in many ways this is a Hesitation Album, an attempt to make a statement but falling short.

Rating 5/10
For fans Of : Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Skinny Puppy