REVIEWS ARCHIVE - M |
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MACHINE HEAD "Through The Ashes Of Empires" (Roadrunner Records - provided by Bonnier / Amigo) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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This is the best Machine Head album ever since "Burn My Eyes" - there, I said it! With "Through …" Machine Head have, if not re-invented themselves, at least found that boost of energy back that made them what they are now, one of the most respected and in some way influential metal bands of the last decade. When Machine Head unleashed "Burn My Eyes" (and the singles "Davidian" and "Old") upon an unsuspecting world back in '94, they (together with Pantera and Korn) created a whole new wave of hard-hitting, uncompromising, groovy thrash metal that later on have become the backbone of many a nu-metal band. A decade of releases followed, but Machine Head never sounded as tight, as powerful or as interesting as they did on the debut - sure, "Ten Ton Hammer" and "Take My Scars" from "The More Things Change" was a good song, "The Burning Red" album had it's good moments as well, but to be honest, I never cared to listen more than once to "Supercharger". So when I got my copy of "Through …" my first thought was "oh no - not another boring album from a band that only made that one great disc". My first big surprise was when I noticed that Phil Demmel was added to the line-up - holy shit, that guy used to play alongside main man Robb Flynn back in the eighties in the brilliant thrash metal band Vio-Lence. This could only lead to a more thrashy and guitar-dominated album than ever … and oh yeah! The 80's thrash-attack is really evident on "Through …", but the way it's used is a huge compliment to the songwriting skills of Mr.Flynn, since it's integrated in the band's sound with pure elegance. The next big surprise is that many bands get less energetic with age - well, let me say this: Machine Head are still kicking ass like a young guy ready to take on life on the streets. I do miss one or two songs with the potential of becoming a "hit-single" like "Davidian", "Ten Ton Hammer" or "Old", but all in all, I can safely say that this is the best Machine Head album since the debut album 10 years ago.
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Claus
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MACHINE MEN
"Elegies" (Century Media - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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The pool of Finnish heavy metal bands seems endless - and what's even more impressive is the quality of them all. Machine Men is the latest offspring from Finland, and wisely enough Century Media have picked 'em up immediately, as they clearly can see these 5 guys are destined for something big. In some way it reminds me of another album that was released 1½ year ago by another young Finnish band - Dyecrest's debut album "The Way Of Pain". It was filled with the exact same attitude of freshness and love for the music played. Sure, Machine Men and Dyecrest doesn't sound alike, but I'm sure if you've heard both bands, you would agree with me that they both seems so un-impressed by the fact that they are now having to create an album for a big label, and that they go so head-on into the task. That's the kind of attitude I personally love, and both discs oozes with it. However, getting back to Machine Men and their "Elegies" disc, this is Bruce Dickinson worship all the way - it reminds me a lot of "Accident Of Birth" and partly of "The Chemical Wedding" album, without being a mere copy-cat. This is more a band being Inspired (with a capital "I") by the aforementioned discs, to write their own songs following the same structure and formula, and thus ending up with a brilliant album. I don't know if I would call it innovative or anything like that - after all, it's quite close to the "AOB" and "TCW" discs - but it's just really well-done and sounds so damn good, you'll get caught in the heat of the moment, and will love every second of this disc. There's one thing I can guarantee you, and that is that the German media is going to love this disc wholeheartedly! Take my word for it - you'll soon be seeing this album climbing to the very top of the charts in Rock Hard, Heavy, Metal Hammer and whatever else the big German heavy magazines are all called. And, it's well deserved!
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Claus
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MADDER MORTEM
"Desiderata" (Peaceville - provided by VME) - 3½ out of 5 point - |
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I have decided to follow up on one of the band member's words on their webpage and let the album be spun several times (not 20, ok?) in my CD player before deciding if they suck or not, and Madder Mortem definitely don't suck. I have to admit that this isn't exactly my kind of music (atonal, odd rhythm, break-based theatrical music), but I also have to give the band the credit for daring to pull off an album like this. It's more a kind of art than it is a heavy metal album. Leadsinger Agnete really has a hard time singing over all these different tones, but she's trying her best, and in a very cool Eddy Vedder style (yes, she reminds me of a female hybrid of the famous US dude), she pulls through in a magical and hysterical way that reminds of absurd theatre or something like that. It's not always in tune, but it sounds like it's on purpose. The guitars are extremely heavy and groovy, and the drums and bass are, as written above, odd-pattern'ed and making breaks all the time. Nevertheless, it fits the atmosphere of the whole album quite well. This is an album that would fit very well with 4 stoned friends and 3 bottles of red wine on a Saturday night in mid summer.
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Lars
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MAEL MORDHA
"Gealtacht Mael Mordha" (Grau Records - provided by Prophecy) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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According to the press-sheet the Irish band Mael Mordha plays "Gaelic Doom Metal", whatever that means … to my ears it all sounds like a horrible mix of old school heavy/power metal with some clean guitar/piano parts added for good measure, a noisy wall of guitar riffs and some over-the-top folk parts thrown in whereever possible. It's not good in any way, and especially the really bad vocal performance drags this way down. Imagine a mixture of Manowar, Cruachan, Tyr, Bal-Sagoth and Skyclad, but delivered with absolutely no conviction, by musicians who aren't up to their game and a production that really stinks. I'm not buying this - are you?
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Claus
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MAGELLAN
"Symphony for a Misanthrope" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Target) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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I have never liked progressive ROCK nor will I ever. It's simply too boring to me. "Symphony…" is what I would call a listenable album. Nice melodies, nothing complex. It's the kind of CD you put on when you start cleaning you apartment. It's hard for me to say what this album has to offer. It would be a lot easier to list the things that this album lacks - which is why that's exactly what I'm going to do, hehe. "Symphony for a Misanthrope" lacks balls, intensity, complexity and challenge. The End.
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Martin J
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MAGNUM
"Brand New Morning" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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I never was a big fan of Magnum, but I always appreciated their efforts in creating grandladden pompous hard rock. Kind of like a symphonic version of Thin Lizzy meets Whitesnake, with classic hard rock anthems and big epic soundscapes. However, Bob Catley's solo albums really hit with me, and I began liking his voice more and more over the past couple of years. Now I got my hands on the new Magnum disc "Brand New Morning" and I'm really digging it a lot. It has some strong songs, such as the title track and "We All Run", and it should definitely put Magnum back where they belong - in the arena's playing their pompous hard rock to the masses. Although - as we all know by now - those days with the big arena shows, just doesn't exist anymore for classic hard rock, so I fear that this will only end up in the collection of the old die-hard Magnum fans. Too bad though - it's a great disc!
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Claus
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MAIN ATTRACTION
"Keep On Coming Back" (MTM Music - provided by Zink) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Cheese-rock is what I'd call Main Attraction. It's a band (or solo project - depending on how you differ between the two) centered around Norwegian vocalist Paul Bennech Lyngboe, and without going too much in depth with the album, I'll say that it's quite simple melodic rock, but also extremely boring and without anything of interest to me. I'd like a burger and some fries with the cheese next time, please …
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Claus
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MAJESTY "Reign In Glory" (Massacre Records - provided by VME) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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Oh boy, here we go again; another dose of ridiculous "true metal" by a bunch of leather clad German freaks. Majesty is a clear evidence as to why the scene is getting looked-down-upon by the general music fan; how can you take a band serious that looks like they've just been part of a Conan-movie, "composes" songs that sounds like complete rip-offs from Manowar, Iron Maiden, Virgin Steele, Gamma Ray and even Kiss, writes songtitles like "Heavy Metal Battlecry", "Will Of the Cobra", "Troopers Of Steel" or the (*irony blok on*) fantastic and beautifully well-written chorus (*irony blok off*) of "bring metal to the stadiums that's where it belongs - into the stadiums we ride - we conquer all the stadiums with metal and with pride - into the stadiums tonight". Oh mother of all that's holy, this is f***ng stupid!!! Guys, you are NOT Manowar!!! This crap was done years ago - back in the 80's - when Joey, Erik, Ross and Scott reigned in their glory! But the thing is, this shit is very popular in Germany, and the band holds a very good name down there - so who am I to say that it stinks, when apparently lots of my "metal-brothers" love it? I've always considered myself as a real fan of true heavy metal, and I'm not so stupid that I can't see what it is in the music of Majesty that appeals to some metal dudes and chicks around the world, but I honestly don't feel that we need a band like this on today's scene; it's just not good enough, and it's definitely not a step forward for our beloved music-style.
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Claus
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MALEVOLENT CREATION
"Warkult" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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American death metal in the old school vein, but with a great modern production, is exactly what Malevolent Creation offers on their new disc, "Warkult". Malevolent Creation is one of those bands that seem to have been around forever, and naturally that sets the expectations a bit higher for them than for most other bands. I mean, with years of experience on their backs, these guys have got to come up with something really good, right? Well, yeah … there are some very good tunes on this disc, such as the groovy "section 8" or the thrashy "Shock And Awe". But at the same time I do find this style a bit stagnant and it can't really bring my blood near the boiling point. Malevolent Creation are very good at what they do, which is groovy old school death metal with some thrash elements, lots of blast beats and a brutal vocal approach, but besides the quite contemporary sounding production, there's not much else to lift them above the norm.
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Claus
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MANDRAGORA SCREAM "A whisper of dew" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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An Italian ambient post gothic act, with nice harmonies and good combination of rocking and dreaming parts.Very good female vocals with a range from whispering to clear and powerful. In some places its really extremely close to the elven atmosphere from "The Lord of the Rings". Very good piano keyboard effects. Pleasant album, but male vocals on a few tracks are not soo fantastic .. I could do without them - but OK after some spins. The lyrics a based on a vampire story, and it fits the music very well, without being too typical.
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Erik
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MANDRAKE
"The Balance of Blue" (Grey Fall / Prophecy Productions - provided by VME) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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The Cranberries meets Lacuna Coil - that was my immediate impression when I first put on Mandrake's "The Balance of Blue", by that saying that I'm talking about melodic melancholic metal. The music is very much characterized by atmospheric keyboards, which ties the music well together and gives it the right atmosphere. Without the keyboards, the music would seem rather dull to me, as Mandrake rarely lets the guitars play actual melodies, but mostly use them rhythmically - which is also okay. Now a days it seems quite popular to have a female vocalists, and Mandrake follows that trend. Still, though, I think that the vocals lack soul and personality. Sometimes it seems the vocals are performed as a just another lets-get-this-over-with job, rather than as an expression of feelings and story telling. Some vibrato in the voice would surely help, as the vocal melodies in general are okay. As a supplement to the female vocals, male vocals sometimes occur, but luckily for us - and the music - it doesn't occur that often as these vocals are boring and monotonous.
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Martin J
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MANIGANCE "Ange ou Démon" (NTS Records - provided by NTS Records) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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French is a pain in the ass language - that much is clear. But French vocals on an actually quite good melodic power progressive album like Manigance's "Ange ou Démon" should be outlawed. The music on this album is powerful and melodic. It has intensity and nerve, and it has the progressive elements that exclude it from the large number of mediocre power metal bands that overflow the metal scene now a days. The guitar riffs and solos are technical (without being too technical) and have nice variation. All in all very well played. Furthermore the keyboards put an extra dimension so the music with it's atmospheric underlying passages, thereby giving the music the depth and a feeling of completion that so many bands fail to find when writing power progressive metal. But the vocals!! Why ruin it all by singing in French? It's not that the vocalist sucks, but I mean, he sings in French!! He actually does a very decent job with finding the good melody for each song. He pitches almost perfectly and have a very good and comfortable vibrato, but.... he's singing in French!! The music itself deserves a clear 4 points (maybe even 4 1/2), but the fact that the vocal line is in French results in only 3 points. Sorry guys, but you know…. French!
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Martin J
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MANILLA ROAD "Spiral Castle" (Iron Glory/Massacre Records - Provided by Nordic Metal) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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This is really an old band! Gosh, how old can you be! I heard rumours about Manilla Road in the early 80's, but I never actually got (or took) the chance to check their numerous discs out. "Spiral Castle" is their second revival release after "Atlantis Rising" which hit the market last year. The production on "Spiral Castle" smells like authentic 80's - and is close to very bad. I don't know if that's intentional, but I actually like it, heh heh. Vocalist Patrick Bryan show a very characteristic vocal that resembles Saxon's Biff Byford to extremity, on other tracks like the second track "Shadow" the vocal are totally different, less nasal more natural. "Spiral Castles" is good album if you yearn for true metal of the 80's.
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Martin P
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MANITOU
"Deadlock" (Firebox Records - provided by Target) - 4½ out of 5 point - |
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Finland is famous for the finding of new and very highly talented bands, and Manitou is no exception from this. The play melodic power metal in a way that makes you want to put on the album several times beyond the spins needed for a review! The music reminds me a bit of a harder version of Queensryche, but with a singer that has a more full voice than Geoff Tate, speaking of physiological vocal chords here. Think a mix of Geoff and Tobias Sammett. There's anything from fast melodic power metal, with bass drums kicking away and beautiful choirs on the choruses, over mid-tempo heavy metal songs, a la Ozzy, to slow metal hymns, once again supported by those really good choruses. Great soli. Great riffin'. Manitou has managed to make the music flow in a steady stream, and it never sounds as if they are using filling to make up for lack of ideas. Great album, and a big welcome to the scene with this 2nd album from Manitou!
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Lars
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MAROON
"When Worlds Collide" (Century Media - provided by EMI) - 4½ out of 5 points - |
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German metal-core isn't everyday news around here … in fact, I can't remember any German metal-core acts that I've paid any attention to. But now the time has come for Maroon and their 3rd full length album "When Worlds Collide". Holy shit, this is some heavy stuff, graced with a superb production courtesy of our very own Jacob Hansen. From the opener "24HourHate" with it's quite death metal punch, over the extreme "And If I Lose, Welcome Annihilation", the technically challenged tune "Annular Eclipse" featuring the brilliant highpitched voice of Mikkel Sandager (Mercenary), to the stomping (and quite heavy metal styled) "Sword And Bullet", and all the way to the final blast beats of "Below Existence" - "When Worlds Collide" is one major fucked-up aggressive disc, that simply can't be ignored if you have any interested whatsoever in metal-core, thrash metal, or just heavy metal in general. Wow!
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Claus
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MARSHALL
"Pages From The Past: Tome 1" (Frontiers - provided by Zink Music) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Take a lead singer that is generally out of tune and has a very strong Italian accent, a drummer that doesn't have control over his kick pads, a guitar that is way below standard and mix it all in the most horrible sound you can possibly create, and you got this album. It is simply horrible, in spite of the good ideas that are present in the music. Marshall just don't have the skills it requires to play this music.
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Lars
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MARTIN, JEFF
"The Fool" (Mascot Records - provided by Target) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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This is one of these discs where you never really are able to say what it sounds like, as it's such a big mixture of everything - and unfortunately also a lot of "hot air" so to speak. Racer X vocalist (and drummer back in the 80's for hard rock classic act Badlands) Jeff Martin is ready with his first solo album, "The Fool", which draws on a lot of Jeff's old influences (talk about a guy wearing his influences on the sleeve): Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, MSG (Michael Schenker is playing some guitars on the disc), Beatles to newer bands such as Black Symphony (Rev Jones also particpates on "The Fool"!!!), Psychotic Waltz, Savatage or even Strapping Young Lad … okay, a bit far fetched, but … J There's a bit of everything in here, from classic hard rock, to a Beatles cover, to a John Bonham inspired drum solo, to real heavy metal, to progressive psychadelic parts, and eventually to some more hard-kicking intensity-filled modern metal. Most of it is interesting (although not really memorable), but there's a lot of fluff here, that just doesn't do anything at all for me.
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Claus
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MARTIN, TONY
“Scream” (MTM Music – provided by Atenzia) - 3 out of 5 points – |
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Singer Tony Martin once delivered one of the very best vocal performances in hard rock EVER, when laying down the vocals on “Headless Cross” – and in my book that is enough for me to raise my eyebrows whenever his name is mentioned. Besides “HC” he also did an outstanding job on the other Black Sabbath discs he participated on; “Eternal Idol”, “Tyr”, “Cross Purposes” and even “Forbidden” (how horrible that album might be). But oh … then he slipped into obscurity, when all we heard from him afterwards were shitty pseudo-hard rock discs such as Dario Mollo’s solo albums, The Cage and whatnot. Fear not though, ‘cause MTM uses the year 2005 to bring us back one of the truly great hard rock vocalists, with the solo disc “Scream”. Nine classic hard rock tunes, of which 4 or 5 of them actually wouldn’t have been out of place on either “Eternal Idol” or “Headless Cross” due to their guitar-driven heavy rock. Unfortunately the rest of the songs aren’t of same high quality and the album ends up somewhere in the middle between good and boring. With that said, the title song “Scream” is probably one of the most ass kicking hard rock tunes of the year, and that song (with it’s awesome violin solo in the middle) is worth the price of this album all on it’s own.
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Claus
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MASTERPLAN "Masterplan" (AFM Records - Provided by Nordic Metal) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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What a great disc this really is! Ex-members of Helloween, Uli Kusch and Roland Grapow, teams up with ex-Ark / Beyond Twilight vocalist Jorn Lande, to create a splendid mixture of heavy metal, power metal, progressive metal and great hard rock anthems. A nice album with lots of memorable hooks and catchy melodies - superb musicianship and a heavy as hell production. From the heavy opener "Spirit Never Die", the first single "Enlighten Me", the melodic "Heroes" (almost Helloween-like, and btw featuring ex-pumpkin singer Michael Kiske) to the heavy "Crawling From Hell" this album has no real weaknesses. And when the disc features such a superb song as "Crystal Night", I'm sold !!! My only disappointments with this album has to be the fact that the keyboards take up too much space with their kind of irritating sounds, and that Jorn's voice doesn't quite match the standard he has set himself with the Beyond Twilight as well as the latest Ark disc. Oh well, we can't have it all, but with Masterplan we're damn close.
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Claus
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MATER MONSTIFERA
"Zrozen z Hrichu" (I.F.A. Records - provided by I.F.A. Records) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Czech black metal is not really what I had in mind on a Sunday, but what the HELL … After just a few seconds you realize that the production sucks and that the band doesn't even have a drummer on the album - yup, another horrible drum-computer makes this album sound thinner than they should. The vocals are typical black metal, with the exception that you don't have any chance here of understanding what the "singer" is trying to say, as it's all in Czech language. The keyboards are the standard atmospheric/string-parts stuff we've heard from 780 other black metal bands, and the somewhat melodic guitar riffs are almost drowning in the bad production. Sorry, but no matter how I look at this disc, I can't find anything nice to say about it.
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Claus
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MEISEL, HUBI "EmOcean" (Lion Music - provided by Hubi Meisel) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Ex-Dreamscape vocalist is what Hubi Meisel can put to his business-card, and that's probably about it so far. Hubi hasn't really been one of those musicians with big success in his almost 10 years career - and "Very" with Dreamscape is the only of his releases that received any kind of recognition … so far. "EmOcean" is now being released by the small (but very well functioning) Finnish label Lion Music, and it should (if credit was handed out to those who deserve it) get some fair share of acceptance throughout the prog metal society. It's what I'd call "prog-lite"; meaning that it's progressive metal in the vein of Vanden Plas, Dreamscape (of course) and Poverty's No Crime … the softer, more gentle side of the prog-metal that bands like Dream Theater are the creators of. To make "EmOcean" stick out a bit, is a lot of emotional sounds of the sea - thus the title, I guess J The sound of dolphins, waves washing up on the beach and so on. All topped by nice melodies and the warm, but also quite female-sounding, voice of Hubi. The problem with Hubi Meisel is himself - he is a good singer, but not a very versatile one, and with his soooo sweet voice, I'm having trouble seeing him sing much other music than this. He is definitely not the right match for a power metal band, that's for sure. But here he really shines, and "EmOcean" is a very good album. An album of those that not really challenges the listener, but one of those you can listen to in any kind of mood you might be in, and once it's over, you'll feel very well at mind. www.hubimeisel.com.
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Claus
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MELANCHOLY "Fear of Emptiness" (CD-Maximum - provided by CD-Maximum) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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Let me tell you a bit about Melancholy. It's uninteresting, dull, tiresome, monotonous, mind numbing and dreary. In other words, "Fear of Emptiness is really really boring. The band got something right, though. The band name is quite suitable to the musical style! It is melancholic and domish, and the band have creatively defined their musical style as Experimental Art-Doom Metal!! To illustrate that fact, Melancholy have integrated some very strange and unexplainable keyboard sound effects on the opener, "Fear", just to mention one example, and used is as an almost solo like element. On the vocal parts I can't put a finger on anything. There is a surprisingly good mix between male and female vocals, and especially the female vocals by Vicky Witch(!) is almost too good for a band like Melancholy.
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Martin J
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MEMFIS
"The Wind-Up" (Dental Records - provided by TMC Nordic) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Swedish newcomer Memfis (stupid name, by the way!) surprises with quite an interesting blend of progressive rock, metal-core and art-rock. According to their press-biography they are to be placed somewhere between Burst, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon and Opeth. Since I'm not too familiar with Burst and Mastodon I can't really comment on those comparisons, but while I here and there can agree to the Opeth reference, the DEP comparison falls on dead ears with me. DEP is way more "out-there" and not as laidback as Memfis comes across. For some reason I do hear a bit of Psychotic Waltz in a few of the tracks (especially in "Cover it up") … I don't know where that inspiration comes from, as they are quite different to the other bands mentioned, but hey, it works great for Memfis! Anyway, who cares about comparing a band to others, right? What matters is the quality of the music and Memfis delivers in plentiful with their sometimes spacey metal compositions and their musical abilities at their instruments. As often within this genre however, the band has a tendency to become too self-indulgent. Luckily they don't drag out their songs forever (as for example Opeth and Extol have taken a liking to) and with short 3-4 minute tunes, "The Wind-Up" comes across as an interesting offer on the next Swedish band to create waves around the worldwide metal scene.
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Claus
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MENDEED
"The Dead Live By Love" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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Half a year ago Benjamin described Mendeed's debut album as a strange mixture of extreme hardcore and thrash metal, a review that told me to stay clear of this band. Now I'm sitting here with their second album in hand and have absolutely no clue if Benjamin actually reviewed the same band or if they have evolved so much over this short a period of time … Well, only one thing to do, and that is to review "The Dead Live By Love" on it's own merits; What we have here is high speed melodic death metal infused with power metal clichees, some neoclassical guitar masturbation, some modern day MTV-metal and a bit of NY-style thrash metal. In other words, imagine Mendeed as the bastard son of four fathers: Children Of Bodom, Dragonforce, Overkill and Trivium!!! I'm definitely taking a liking to this, and although the band seem to be their own worst enemy (writing songs 95% of the time in high-speed mode sure is taking it's toll on the listerners patience), Mendeed succeed in delivering a high quality product that I wouldn't be surprised to hit home with those young kids digging Dragonforce and COB bigtime.
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Claus
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MENDEED
"This War Will Last" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Mendeed is a new interesting upcoming band from England. The band is playing a strange mixture of extreme Hardcore meets Trash Metal, with a lot of ear catchy guitar melodies, which makes this band very interesting compared to other Hardcore bands or similar to this style of music. Actually I would go as far and say that these young guys play in the vein of Trivium, which of course isn't a bad comparison. If this should have been amongst the best upcoming bands, perhaps they should have taken in consideration that sometimes the music becomes a bit too messy, and hard to find heads and tails. I think if we give these young guys some more time to develop, we will be witness to a class act. But only time will show ...
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Benjamin
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MENNEN
"Freakazoid" (Escapi - provided by Target Distribution) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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I do not have a clue who the guy Joss Mennen is, but it appears that he used to be the singer of Zinatra, who ever that might be?? Nevertheless the music is what I would describe as pure Rock with an edge of Hard Rock. No matter what, it is very annoying to listen to. It might be the constant use of flanger on the guitars!! STOP IT!! To be honest this album is very boring and it is only on a few occasions that you get surprised by the music if you are that lucky.
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Benjamin
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MERCENARY
"The Hours That Remain" (Century Media - provided by EMI) - 4½ out of 5 points - |
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You have no idea how much I'd love for this album to be a perfect 5-score disc, but unfortunately it ain't so… Mercenary is undoubtedly one of the hottest metal bands out of Denmark, and "The Hours That Remain" is the album that should lift the band up in the highest league of worldwide heavy metal. Starting out with "Redefine Me" the disc really kicks in on the right path, as this song is absolutely perfect in every way - I have no complaints about anything, as "Redefine Me" is an amazing mixture of heavy metal, melodic death, progressive metal and ENERGY … I totally love this song. Mikkel is the most talented vocalist in all of Denmark, Martin and Jakob are brilliant on their guitars (listen to Martin's solo's all over the album!!!), Mike is a technically awesome drummer and Morten's keyboards have never had such a prominent impact on the band's sound before. However, already with the second tune, "Year Of The Plague" the band loses some of their originality and ends up sounding like another (albeit awesome) Soilwork-wannabe … sorry guys - the aggression here sounds forced, the riffing less interesting and the new style of doing growly vocals just doesn't seem right for Mercenary. It's still in super-high quality and with an impeccable production to booth, even the "half-way-right" songs are miles above what most metal bands comes up with these days - it's just difficult following up with any song after such an incredible opening tune. Luckily it all changes with "My World Is Ending" which easily continues the path of the first song - and so it goes on throughout the album - some totally amazing songs, and some "too-easy-and-not-original-enough" tunes in between. It's as if the band had 5 fantastic songs, and 5 songs that just didn't have the time to develop all the way. However, songs like "Lost Reality" and "My Secret Window" are right up there with "Redefine Me", and confirms my overall theory that Mercenary is a band that everybody will want to hear and all the media will want to support over the next year - I just hope, for the sake of the band and for us as listeners, that Mercenary will take the time necessary on the next disc to write a bit more of a homogenous disc, with all songs hits … and hopefully no fillers in between.
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Claus
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MERCENARY
"11 Dreams" (Century Media - provided by Target Distribution) - 5 out of 5 points - |
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This has got to be the best album by any Danish band I've heard all year, heck it's even up in my top 3 of best albums of the year overall. Mercenary always had it in them to create a real monster album - well, at least if you ask the band themselves - the potential displayed on the previous album, "Everblack", was breathtaking; a band working somewhere between the genres of power metal, death metal and progressive metal, without for one second losing grip on the melody. To be totally honest, when I first got "Everblack" I threw it away and asked one of the other staff members here to review it - I didn't even care to listen to it, since I was very prejudiced about Mercenary being a typical Danish death metal band. Luckily I witnessed the band live just a few months later, and my soul was sold to the devil's music … ever since I've been a huge fan of Mercenary, and had the chance to see them live 5 times just last year. However, "Everblack" might be one fantastic disc, but no one could have expected the furore they'd unleash with "11 Dreams" (well again, no one except themselves). From the mighty intro "Into The Sea Of Dark Desires" the mood is set - monstrous power that builds into the album opener "World Hate Center" which balances nicely between groove, thrash and death metal. The vocals are harsh and in your face, and the choirs sounds like it's a marching mob going straight for hell. Next song up is "11 Dreams", and believe me, when I say that this song could be a potential hit. It has melodies en masse, it has speed and power, and most importantly it has that certain something that just makes you want to listen to it again and again. Oh yeah, it also has an incredible solo part, where Martin Buus really lets it rip - I could say this for each and every track on the album, Martin is a guitar-hero in the making! Following with "reDestructDead", the band apparently decides it's time to let the groovy stuff get the better of them, and for almost 6 minutes we're witnessing a Danish bunch lads matching the quality of Nevermore and the likes in terms of groove-prog. I definitely like this! "Firesoul" is up next, and this MIGHT be the best song on the album. Starting of with the most hysteric vocals you'll find on the album, blended with some whispered words, the pace is set for a brilliant song. Soon Mikkel Sandager starts singing in his amazing high-pitched voice, and when you get to the chorus you're not for one second doubting that you're listening to the best Danish vocalist right now. This song ranges from melodic death metal to powerful heavy metal - it has got it all … and more. I'll say it again, Martin's soloing is amazing, and when Morten Sandager's soft piano sound kicks in after the solo, you know you're in for something different. And, yes, here comes the female vocals and breaks up the song. Brilliantly performed by Monika (Sinphonia), this adds just that little extra to the song. "Sharpen The Edges" isn't that far from "11 Dreams" in terms of being genuine hit material, however this song has a very soft and laid-back approach, that almost can be described as a power ballad. Mikkel shows the entire spectrum of his voice here, and funnily enough the song reminds me a lot of his old band Low Down. However, since it's rhythm guitarist Jacob Mølbjerg who's responsible for the main bulk of the music at hand, I'm sure it's more of a coincidence than anything else. "Supremacy v2.0" is the longest track on the disc, and it's also the song that bears most resemblance to the death metal past of Mercenary. Kral gives it in his best (???, hehe) growly voice, and for those who thinks that Mercenary 2004 has left behind all traces of their past, "Supremacy v2.0" should surely be a kick in the face. The chorus here is awesome, and the message gets through so well, partly due to the great production by Jacob Hansen, but of course also due to the musicality of the band. Now comes the biggest surprise, "Music Non Stop". Honestly, when I began listening to the album, this song threw me totally off, and actually irritated me a lot. What was the band thinking? Did they suddenly decide to go pop on us? Talking to bassist Kral over the phone, he secured me that the band definitely wasn't going to do a pop album, but that this was a cover version of a song originally written by Swedish pop band Kent. Well, how the F**K was I supposed to know that? J With that in mind I can appreciate the song for what it is, and I'm actually beginning to see it as an integral part of "11 Dreams". With "Falling" we're again back in Nevermore territory, especially the wicked drums playing by Mike is more than baring a resemblance to the aforementioned Seattle band. The vocals switch back and forth between clean, high pitched vocals, and aggressive, almost growling, vocals. "Times Without Changes" is what I'd rather call an interlude than a real song. It begins with Morten's piano/keyboard alone, and softly the voice of his brother, Mikkel, comes in and graces the song. Around the 1.45 mark Martin throws in a gentle guitar solo, which screams for attention. This song is almost like something Dream Theater could have done. Beautiful! Cross fading into the last song on the album, "Loneliness", the melody takes a sudden change to the more pompous, and simply slays all you've heard so far. What better way to end the album than with a 7:38 long epic tune, integrating all elements of what makes this album what it is, from the melodic power metal, to the progressive stuff and even the death metal parts. I've seen Mercenary being compared to the likes of Soilwork, Nevermore, In Flames, Evergrey, Angel Dust, Darkane and even Paradise Lost … and you know what? That's right, it's all in here, and more. I can't find ways to recommend this disc enough. Just get it - you won't hear something like this for a long time, trust me on this one.
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Claus
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MERCURY TIDE "Why?" (Century Media - provided by Target Distribution) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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What a f***ing boring album this is! I did expect much more from such good musicians as Angel Dust singer Dirk Thurisch, Tiamat bassist Anders Iwers and Flowing Tears drummer Stefan Gemballa, but I guess expectations aren't always made to be fulfilled. Mercury Tide has been very well received in the German media, as one of this years best debut albums within the melodic metal genre, and it bewilders me that I'm so far off touch with what the most important metal-media thinks, but none-the-less, I stand my ground, and will honestly tell you that I don't see one single reason for this album to get any thing than a low standard grading from me. Musically this sounds like a mixture of left-over tunes from Sentenced, Savatage, Tiamat or Angel Dust, but without the power, the class or the finesse any of those bands possesses. In fact, this album is what I would call a "tame confusion". A huge mix-up of different styles (melodic hard rock, power, gothic, heavy metal), which on paper could be interesting, but in reality is so boring and tame that it defies comparison. Next …
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Claus
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MERIDIAN "The Seventh Sun" (Season Of Mist - provided by VME) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Modern black metal bands are bound to move into and use stuff from other genres, like Mayhem and others did with the techno sound. It worked for Mayhem, and it also works, though to a lesser extent, for Meridian. The black metal sound is really well copied from Mayhem and Thorns, but who gives a shit in a business filled with millions of bands sounded more or less alike?
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Martin P
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MESSIAH'S KISS
"Metal" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Messiah's Kiss is not here to revolutionize the business. That's a fact. They sound as a mixture between Running Wild, Riot, Accept, Judas Priest and some other older bands that has done this kind of music much better in the past. "Metal" IS a very cool title, and it says a little bit about the attitude of the music, but it also locks itself within its small dome, as MK never gets out across the borders of anything that just reminds of progressiveness. It all sounds pretty boring and done before, lacking those small interesting parts - the details - that could have made them worth listening to in general. This is plain boring German chord metal…..God knows there are too many of these bands.
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Lars
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METAL CHURCH
"A Light In The Dark" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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This is one band fighting hard to live up to their former self … an almost impossible task considering how fabulous the first 4 or 5 albums were, and how extremely lousy the following albums were. However, Metal Church has really taken the challenge upon themselves this time, and with a set of really strong songs (especially "A Light In The Dark", "Mirror Of Lies" and the nice re-recording of their classic "Watch The Children Pray") Kurdt Vanderhoof and his band comes really close to delivering a great album. All the things that were a problem on the last album "Weight Of The World" seem to be considered and improved this time around, such as vocalist Ronny Munroe who instead of sounding dull and uninspired really pulls himself together and brings power and energy to the album. This is by far the best thing they've done since "Hanging In The Balance" and might even be closer to the quality of "The Human Factor". Powerful heavy metal with a thrash edge to it. Yup, I like this one!
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Claus
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METAL CHURCH
"The Weight Of The World" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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Metal Church used to be one of those bands back in the eighties and early nineties that got a hell of a lot of time on my turntable, but when the band returned in 1999 after six years of silence, I was everything but thrilled about the so-called-comeback album "Masterpeace". Original singer David Wayne was back, but he had lost his voice - and musically the album was extremely boring. Now the band gives it another shot with "The Weight Of The World", this time featuring the vocal talents of Ronny Munroe. Well, vocal talents might be too much, as his voice does absolutely nothing for me. He sounds incredibly dull, and the little power in his voice sounds very forced. Musically speaking this doesn't have much to do with the Metal Church we know and love - apparently Kurt Vanderhoof has used up his share of good songwriting on the first 5 MC discs, as this is boring, cheesy and absolutely not something you'd expect from a former power/thrash metal icon as Metal Church.
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Claus
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METALIUM "As One" (Armageddon Products - provided by VME) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Metalium is a band that needs no further introduction, as they have been around for quite some time now! They are now back with their new album "As One" where we are witness to the creation of Metalina the female counter part to Metalium! I could write a lot of nasty things, but I have decided to be polite about this new album J "Just kidding" or am I??? There is no doubt that this album is better then they're previous ones, but then again, it wouldn't take that much to make a better album! The music remains the same: pure Heavy Metal with a lot of energy, I would dare to say that there is much more melody on this album that there have been on any of previous, except for their debut album. I must admit that this is the best that I have heard from Metalium for a long, long time (if not ever), even though that the concept sucks big time.
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Benjamin
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MEVÂDIO "Hands Down" (Drug6/Mighty Music - provided by Target distribution) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Danish metal band that plays a mixture between Metallica/Pantera (vocals), Nu-metal (instruments) and aggressive trip metal. The combination works ok if you're listening to the songs for themselves, but in the long run the album becomes one of those albums that is more or less useable as background noise, while doing other things in your house. It is very hard to keep up the listening interest with "Hands Down". The music is too much alike on each song and in the end the screaming of Mr. Madsen is irritating. Nevertheless, I'm keeping my rate over middle level, as I see a future for these 4 young guys, if they are able to create a little more diversity in their songs.
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Lars
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MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP
"Twenty-Five Years Celebration" (Armageddon Music - provided by Target) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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I choose not to reckognise the existence of this disc! Well, at least I would love to be able to pretend I didn't get it, and especially love to be able to "force" one of the other guys to write up the review of it. But, since I'm the one with a history of loving MSG, I'm also the one who has to spend time listening to this album that does nothing but drag down the name of one of the best guitarists and songwriters ever on the hard rock scene. Come on, this is the guy who wrote the best hard rock / metal song EVER; "Lost Horizons" - this is the guy who created fabulous rockers such as "Attack Of The Mad Axeman", "Cry For The Nations", "Assault Attack", "Armed And Ready", not to mention he simply put is one of the true guitar-heroes (with all the good and bad stories that goes with the territory). But man, this celebration of his 25 years as a solo artist is wasted upon anyone with good taste. The songs are nowhere near the class of his old hits (did his songwriting skills die when McAuley left him in 1992?) and the fact that he has a really lousy lead singer this time around doesn't make it anymore pleasant to listen to. Ok, let's get that part out of the way immediately - Jari Tiura is unbearable to listen to … his voice is strained, and just totally painful. Now, "luckily" he is only singing on half of the songs, as Michael had the brilliant idea of asking his former vocalists (Gary Barden, Robin McAuley, Graham Bonnet, Leif Sundin, Kelly Keeling and Chris Login) to each sing on one of the new tunes. The result is, as one could easily guess from such a "pulled-together-project", not satisfactory in any way, and I for one will go on pretending this disc doesn't exist.
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Claus
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MIDNIGHT
"Sakada" (Black Lotus Records - provided by VME) - ½ out of 5 points - |
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It's with an extremely heavy heart I'm writing this (short) review. Midnight used to be one of the best singers in prog-metal back in the day, when he released the 2 brilliant albums with Crimson Glory (yes, I'm deliberately forgetting to mention the 3rd disc, which can kiss my ass from here till judgement day), but that's all gone now. His solo album "Sakada" is probably the worst crap I've heard in a long time - horrible "psychedelic rock" with vocals that are so far out of tune, that even if you went to the moon to search for them, you wouldn't be able to find 'em. The fucked-up thing about it is, that on some very rare occasions Midnight delivers a line or two so full of perfection that you immediately start to remember the time when he ruled supreme. Get this man back on track - throw away his alcohol supply - and get him in a real studio, with a producer who knows how to kick his ass, and a songwriter who can create something worthwhile listening to, and there might still be hope … if not, well, "Sakada" is a perfect example of how wrong it can go.
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Claus
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MIDNIGHT CIRCUS
"Money Shot" (Perris Records - provided by Perris) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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Uarghh - this album is so cliché and so damn 80's that it's not even funny. Imagine a "worst-of"-album with the b-sides of such acts as Tyketto, Ratt, Poison and Mötley Crüe, and you'll end up with "Money Shot". The production is 80's style, the lyrics are your typical teenie-bobber-wordgames, and even the cover reeks of bubble-gum pop with its hinted pornographic content. And, this is where I stop for a moment to rethink what I just said … perhaps it's all a big joke?! Perhaps the band isn't that serious? I mean, listen to how well they actually play; great drumming (although quite simple), cool guitar solos and lots of riffs, and a singer who actually can sing. Perhaps these guys are doing this as somewhat of a "fun-project"? In that case it works really fine for them, and I should give this a much higher grade. But what if I'm mistaken, and they really are serious about it? I guess I should just stick with my initial perception: outdated hair metal with no real content.
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Claus
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MIRZADEH
"The Creatures of Loviatar" (Firebox - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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Mirzadeh is from the cold north of Scandinavia, Finland, which also is a country of many interesting bands over the last decade. "The Creatures of Loviatar" is the band's second release since their formation back in 2000. Mirzadeh delivers an interesting mixture of Black, Death and Melodic metal. There is actually a great balance between the atmospheric tunes and the more aggressive melodies. The singing/screaming performed on this album could slightly have been better, but this is just a minor thing for this quite listenable record.
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Benjamin
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MISERY INDEX "Retaliate" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Brutality is the first thing that comes to mind when you put Misery Index's second release, "Retaliate", on your CD-player - and you keep on thinking it throughout the entire album. Influenced by bands such as Morbid Angel, Napalm Death and Entombed, Misery Index manage to come up with a very aggressive and dangerous cocktail mixing death metal with grind core keeping also a hardcore approach. With former Dying Fetus vocalist/bassist in front, I'm sure Misery Index will get far on the death metal scene, and the band deliver only what you could expect from a professional death metal band, and then some. But personally I defy this kind of music, hence the low grade.
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Martin J
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MNEMIC
"Passenger" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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I was riding along with Mnemic being one of the big hopes for Danish metal, and I thought that their debut "Mechanical Spin Phenomena" was really good. Their second release "Audio Injected Soul" was pretty decent to these ears as well, but not on par with the first. "Passenger" however is a well played meaningless bunch of songs. The style is still the same Fear Factory worshipping, with a Danish sound to it. I have heard this album many times, but nothing stands out except for one very Linkin Parkish part in the song Meaningless (and I do not like Linkin Park). Also I do not find myself rocking along with the music as I did so much with their first release. Maybe my expectations for Mnemic were too high, but I do not get anything out of this album. Granted, the music is very well played, and I have nothing but positive things to say about the sound. It is simply put just the compositions that bore me. Mnemic is still a quality band, but they just didn't get it right this time around.
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Mads
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MNEMIC "Mechanical Spin Phenomena" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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What happened there? This is definitely not what I had expected … not from a Danish band at least! A superb debut album made by 5 young Danes, but with a sound so mature and international, that it might as well have been a second or third release by a major label act. Mnemic (okay, they do win the prize for the stupidest name of the year) are what I would categorize as modern aggressive metal, in style close to bands as Fear Factory (the industrialized production), Soilwork (the furiousness), Meshuggah (the occasional technical rhythms) and White Zombie (the Rob Zombie-like vocals). At times the music becomes a bit too chaotic for my taste, which is why I only give it a 4 out of 5, but overall "Mechanical Spin Phenomena" is one of the best debut albums I've heard this year, and definitely an album I'll be returning to quite often. Mnemic deserves to raise to stardom on the international scene, and with Nuclear Blast behind them, the band have the necessary label back-up to get far, now only time will tell.
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Claus
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MOB RULES "Hollowed Be Thy Name" (SPV - provided by Nordic Metal) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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German power metal, in the vein of Helloween and Gamma Ray. This ought to be good and appealing to my senses. Well, I'm not the least surprised to find myself in a limbo here. On one hand, I like the music and the lead singer Klaus Dirks (who sounds EXACTLY like Rawhead Rexx's vocalist), but on the other hand, I have heard this 5000 times before. Mob Rules does not provide me with anything new and exiting, and I believe that bands must do that, in order to get really good reviews. I would probably categorise Mob Rules as a "Helloween Light" or a "semi-Gamma Ray". In an overcrowded scene, the band will be among the ones that are bound to be forgotten, if their record company do not promote the shit out of this release (which they of course do). I'm pretty damn irritated about the fact that Mob Rules has chosen to put the keyboards totally in front in the production. Metal is about guitars, and keys should be used as underground samples in my opinion. For people who like the light side of German power metal, you really ought to check out this release, as it might appeal to you. For the rest, who want the darker and rawer American power style, you're on the wrong side of town here.
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Lars
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MOB RULES
"Among The Gods" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Hehehehe…here's a song called "Hydrophobia"!!! It reminds me a lot of Iron Maiden…like it, being an Iron Maiden cover song, almost. Well, the old Maiden's made "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", and Mob Rules have made "Afraid Of The Water", :-) Apart from that, this album is pretty well performed. It's very melodic German metal, in the vein of Helloween and Iron Maiden. The problem with Mob Rules is that they never become really dangerous. The production is pretty cool, the songs are ok, the choruses are sing-along ones, the songs have the correct length for the broad mass to accept it, but it's just one of those CD's that are playing in the background, where you don't find anything that you REALLY want to impress your friends with. Melodies are flowing nicely in the living room and nobody seems to notice that the CD has ended. A thin-voiced leadsinger, and some nice choirs. A couple of nice soli. So, a generally good CD, that will go into history as…….hmmmm….INXS.
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Lars
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M.O.D. "The Rebel You Love To Hate" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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The rebel you love to hate has simply turned boring. I have no info sheet on this one, and I haven't actually been following M.O.D., since the late 80'ies, where it was fun to listen to it. Those days are over, and in the new millennium, there really aren't room for this party-music ensemble. Billy Milano is an overrated character in the business, and it is out of my understanding how Nuclear Blast can put their name behind this release. The music is old-school thrash metal, updated to the new-age sound, with aggressive guitars and hard drums. It all gets boring in 5 minutes, and M.O.D. should stop this nonsense now.
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Lars
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MOLLY HATCHET
"Warriors Of The Rainbow Bridge" (SPV Recordings / SPV - provided by VME) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Whuuupiiii (no, not Whoopi Goldberg…SLUT), this is Southern "white-man-shall-overcome" rock 'n roll. I have never dug into Molly Hatchet, since I began my trip into the metal universe with Slayer, Metallica, King Diamond and Maiden and in that universe, you don't switch to rock 'n roll, but I have to admit the old dudes in MH are doing a nice job on "Warriors Of The Rainbow Bridge". It is NOT heavy metal - be warned. But if you are into blues-rock and want some sleazy background music for your BBQ party, this IS the CD you want to put on the player. I find the lead singers voice a little bit irritating at some points. He's got this extremely throaty nasal way of expressing the words. It's a bit hard to describe, so I shall not move further into that territory. But drums are tight, guitars are bluesy and dirty as supposed to be and everything else falls under the category: approved. To put it short: do you want a rock album to relax, ride motorcycle or BBQ to? Buy this one then.
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Lars
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MOONSPELL "The Antidote" (Century Media - provided by Target Distribution) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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This album is close to be the disappointment of the year for me - sorry, but I've always liked Moonspell. Ever since their first full length album "Wolfheart" I've been an avid fan of the band, and their last two discs "The Butterfly Effect" and "Darkness And Hope" went too far into the electronic world for my taste, I still found some joy in what they did. All the big media have been talking about "The Antidote" as some sort of 'back-to-the-roots' album for the band, and thus my expectations were quite high. I wouldn't mind another album in the vein of "Wolfheart" or "Irreligious", but unfortunately this isn't what we're getting. Sure, "The Antidote" is heavier and more dark in mood than any of the last Moonspell albums, but it just isn't exciting. Fearnando is a good vocalist and have a very dramatic approach to the songs, no doubt about that, and he can save any album from being a real flop no matter how boring the songs are, but it just isn't enough to raise a half-hearted gothic metal disc from anything but an under-par release by a band usually far ahead their peers. Moonspell can do much better than this, so I'll just have to wait for the next disc.
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Claus
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MORD
"Christendom Perished" (Southern Records - Provided by VME) - no rating - |
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Well… wow… Mord is a war mongering blasphemous, primitive, twisted, satanic black metal band. "Christendom Perished" is their first full length album after a few VERY underground demos and EPs released on vinyl, so it is no wonder that this is the first time I hear about this band. The tracks on this album are all called "Opus" and then the track number. Actually I believe they could have just made it all one track, because the first time I heard this album I had it running in the background, and when I then looked over at the display because I thought "Wow… this is a freaking long and boring track" I found out that it was "Opus III" (or track 3 for the slow minded) that was playing. I guess this just tells how similar the tracks are to each other. I like black metal that is well done, and Mord - I'm going to be honest with you here - does not belong among what I consider quality black metal. But why then can I not give this stinking album a character? I'll tell you why: It is simply because after looking around on their very primitive - yet entertaining - website www.mord-horde.com I found out that this band intended their music to sound as bad as possible. And they succeeded… It does not get much worse than this, so I guess that this makes the album perfect for what it is supposed to be? I don't get it because this album is filthy and disgusting, and yet… some people like this, and who am I to judge those because I just don't understand? In some way I want to even call this art (well… if a turd in a can is art, then this is too), but let us just settle with Mords debut album "Christendom Perished" is a pile of crap pinched in a way only true, sick, filthy and perverted black metal champions can. Confused? Well, me too after listening to this black metal artillery for more than an hour straight.
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Mads
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MORIFADE "Domi<>Nation" (Karmageddon Media - provided by Target Distribution)) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Morifade is back with a new album "Domi<>Nation", after their huge success of the "Imaginarium". I remember the "Imaginarium" album as one of the big surprises that I have heard. With their new way of thinking in the ways of Power Metal, they where capable to mix great melodies and progressive metal into Power Metal, which gave the music a different dimension of what you could expect from other Power Metal bands. Now I should write that the "Domi<>Nation" album is no exception, but unfortunately this is not the reality!!! "Domi<>Nation" has become a lot more commercial compared to the "Imaginarium" album. The music hasn't changed much since the "Imaginarium" and becomes very easy to recognise the melodies that you have heard on their previous albums. Please do not misunderstand the afore mentioned as bad critic, because this is still high class Power Metal compared to what else different labels are releasing! But my own personal opinion is, that the band should have developed more than what they are showing on their new release "Domi<>Nation". Stefan Petersson's vocals performance on the "Domi<>Nation" album is a weaker performance compared to the "Imaginarium" and overall the disc is more commercial and less heavy. As a final comment I must admit that I have hoped for more that this!
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Benjamin
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MÖRK GRYNING "Pieces of Primal Expressionism" (No Fashion - provided by MNW) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Swedish black metal! But not your typical kind of black metal. Mörk Gryning separates from the majority by being very technical and at times very weird. Mörk Gryning is different from other black metal bands with their mix of blastbeats, real violins, trombones and mellotrones, their progressive elements and their melodic guitar parts that suddenly ends up in chaos and anarchy. Even the vocals aren't consequently what you would expect from a black metal band. Every once in a while the listener is presented with great arranged, clear and melodic vocals still with an aggressive touch, but of course the general vocals are the typical black metal growling. All in all these guys are very unorthodox, and they are very good at what they do, but I'm just not into black metal, hence the 2 out of 5 points. But if you like black metal and are into technical parts in music, Mörk Gryning's "Pieces of Primal Expressionism" is definitely worth a listen.
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Martin J
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MORSE, NEAL
"?" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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"?" is a conceptual album based around the Tabernacle. I admit this much, I had to read up on what the "tabernacle" stands for, and apparently it was a structure/building Moses has the children of Israel build to host the sacred relics. It is also viewed upon as the temple of God (or God personified through his son Jesus). Okay, I didn't know that stuff, but it sets the album in a new perspective, and makes me understand why the albums builds up a crescendo like a good musical should, with the last couple of songs wonderfully displaying the deliverance of God to his children. I'm not a Christian believer or anything, let's get that straight - but I love a good story as much as the next person, and I've always thought that the religious themes makes for good musical stories. Neal Morse apparently have thrown himself completely under the grace of God, and if that works for him, then all the more power to him. I choose to judge this album on the musical merits (and as mentioned, on the fact that the story is huge and interesting) and as that it's another brilliant mix of Beatles, Yes, Genesis and even a touch of Lloyd Webber … yes, progressive rock with lots of pop-like melodies thrown in. Definitely another great album by one of the best songwriters in this particular scene nowadays, not to mention one Hell of a singer (yes, I just had to get at least one "Hell" in there, now I've been writing so much about God … just to make me feel better, ok? .-)); Neal Morse.
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Claus
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MORSE, NEAL
"One" (Inside Out - provided by Target Distribution) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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First up - this album has such a beautiful cover that it took me a long time to get past that and onto the music. A cover like this is seldom seen nowadays ... it's simple, interesting, conceptual and just so awesome to look at. As for the music? Well, Neal Morse is stuck in his Beatles worshipping days - that's for sure. Let's face it, Neal Morse was best when he was in Spock's Beard; his solo albums and his Transatlantic stuff didn't impress me nearly as much as what he created when he was still in Spock's Beard. However, to be fair towards the guy, he is a good singer/songwriter, has a good grip on the idea of making the melody the main-ingredient of all his songs, and he apparently have a positive message with his lyrics. "One" is a good disc on it's own; some interesting Queen-like vocal orchestrations, lots of "simple" Beatles melodies (okay, perhaps not "simple" - but at least very melodic) and a bunch of progressive Genesis touches here and there. I actually played this disc for my mom when spending Christmas with my parents, and since she's a big fan of Queen and The Beatles I knew this would fall in her taste. Yup, she loved it :-) Let's face it, this isn't an album for prog metal-afficiendos, but much more a disc aimed at those who like good strong melodies, beautiful arrangements and don't mind listening to something we've heard before, 20-30 years ago. As said in the beginning of this review, I personally prefer what Neal Morse did when he was in Spock's Beard, but this album isn't bad at all. I just wish he never left Spock's Beard. And then there were ... One!
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Claus
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MORTAL LOVE "All the Beauty..." (Massacre Records - Provided by Nordic Metal) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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Mortal Love is new band, which follow the branch of bands like Within Temptation, Sins of Thy Beloved, The Gathering, Lacuna Coil and old Theatre of Tragedy. The lyric involves; love and death mixed in the cauldron of melancholy. Cat on vocal resembles our own Monica from Sinphonia, but she is less weird in her way of expressing her through the songs. Mortal Love is maybe more approachable than some of the above, due to the non-presence of a male growler. A few spins on my stereo have convinced me that "All the Beauty…" is well composed, well produced and beautiful, but one minus is the fact that their music is not original in any way. There are no surprises on this album, but I love this genre so they are excused.
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Martin P
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MORTIIS
"The Grudge" (Earache - provided by Target Distribution) - ½ out of 5 points - |
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Ok, what happened here? What's so bad with traditional instruments, all of a sudden? Why all these samples and drum machines? I don't know, but Mortiis seem to be quite found of it… GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, MORTIIS - IT SUCKS!!!! "The Grudge" is an entire album consisting almost only of programmed samples. This is techno-metal at its absolute worst. Well, actually all kinds techno-metal is a its absolute worst. I don't want to waste Mortiis', yours or my own time, so let's just forget this album ever existed and let's move on, shall we…
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Martin J
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MOTHER'S FINEST
"Live At Villa Berg" (MTM Music - provided by Zink Music) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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This is one of the most influential bands on the music scene in the last 30 years - serving as an inspiration to artists as diverse as Prince (the funky R&B stuff), Living Colour (the melodic hard rock/metal stuff), Clawfinger (the funky metal) or even Van Halen (groovy guitar hero stuff), the place in today's rock music has certainly been established long ago for this band. However, I'm one of those who never caught onto the sound of MF, and in fact I've always tried to avoid listening to them, as I personally think this mixture of funk, R&B, groove and light-metal is extremely boring and almost irritating to listen to. Well, I now have to review a live album by this band, (yeah, what gives?), and although I'm able to appreciate the band's influence on the music scene and I do find the sound of this live recording to be impeccable, I'm also finding myself wanting to pull out the disc and throw something else in the CD-player.
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Claus
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MOTÖRHEAD
"Inferno" (Steamheammer / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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No one has ever accused Motörhead for being original, coz they'd be wrong, as they are not!!!???!! Motörhead is probably the band in world history (together with AC/DC) that has made the most albums, sounding like each other. It's horrible and at the same time a little bit cool…I guess it's called Kitsch. I think Motörhead is only releasing an album once in a while, in order to have an excuse to get out on a tour. They have absolutely NOTHING new to offer (except for the last song, called "Whorehouse Blues" - a country blues song, where Lemmy actually sings with a semi clear voice…hard to do a clear voice, when you pump your throat with Jack D.), and I find myself incredibly bored from listening to this disc, but hey - I have to be a little objective here, and pretend I'm a rock'n roll heavy metal lover….! It would be perfect for a party, where no one is really listening to what's on the stereo, but if you like a slight fraction of mind challenging music, you don't want to spend your money on this album. A mediocre product from a mediocre band. For all Motörhead fans: Buy!
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Lars
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MOURNING BELOVETH
"A Murderous Circus" (Grau Records / Prophecy Productions - provided by VME) - ½ out of 5 points - |
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Doom metal with growl. ZZzzzzzz ... Not only are the songs on "A Murderous Circus" so slow tempo it would make a turtle seem like of fucking Ducati compared, but the shortest song is 11:45 minutes! 11:45 FUCKING MINUTES!!! I have no doubt that the objective with this album is to put the listener to sleep. Every song on this album is built up by repetition upon repetition, and on top of that the riffs are oh so boring it would make a doped up crack head look like a dancing fool on ecstasy. Every once in a while, though, a riff pops out with at least some kind of melody, which is why this album get the total score of 1/2 out of 5 points. I'm sorry, but it's hard to be objective when you hate this kind of music as much as I do.
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Martin J
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MVP "The Altar" (Mascot Records - provided by MNW) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Michael Vescara Project … do we really need this? The high pitch singer, who have been successfully involved in bands such as Malmsteen, Loudness, Obsession and Reign Of Terror, has now released a solo album of heavy metal songs with some good musicians guesting, but not much else of interest. The guestlist features such well-known guys as; Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween), Joe Stump (Reign Of Terror), Metal Mike (Halford), Barry Sparks (Malmsteen, Uli J Roth), Rob Johnson (Magnitude 9), Mats Olausson (Malmsteen, Ark) etc etc. The songs are standard heavy metal tunes, with some good ones blended with some lesser ones - to be honest, that's all I can say about it. Nothing sticks out, and I'm sure even with more repeated listens, this album won't really grow on me. It's far from a bad disc, but also far from being brilliant. Standard!
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Claus
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MY DYING BRIDE "Songs Of Darkness Words Of Light" (Peaceville - provided by VME) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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The British doom masters My Dying Bride are back with their 8th studio full length, "Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light" - what an appropriate title, haha. This is music as dark as it gets, with depressive vocals, long whining guitar wails, slow monotonous beats and simplistic keyboard plates. MDB has always sounded like this - sometimes better, sometimes worse. Luckily they've stayed true to their musical vision, and even though a couple of the discs ("34.788%" and "The Light at the End of the World") went a bit too much into an industrial direction, MDB has always been known as doom metal of the purest form. Aaron sings more diverse on "Songs of Darkness…" than before, and most of the songs are actually very very good. However, I am not getting the same feeling of being scared shit of ending up as the last man in the world, the feeling of emptiness and solitude, that albums like "Angel And The Dark River" and "Turn Loose The Swans" gave me, and because of that I'm not going to reward this disc with more than 3½ out of 5 points.
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Claus
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MY EARLY MUSTANG
"My Early Mustang" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Who the hell told Nuclear Blast to re-release Katrina and The Waves??? Whhhooooaa, I'm walkin' on sunshine here….hot damn! Some of Britney Spears' stuff is more metal than this. I guess I'm not really the right one to review this, but I have to, so I'll drag my hearing (and sanity) through too many minutes of noise-rock, as I am used to calling it (the kind of music, where you keep playing with open chords, that make so much noise it's irritating all the way through). It sounds like Blink 182, Blink 183 and Blink 184 at the same time….add some 3 Doors Down, some Westlife (vocals) and an attitude that says "I'm in high-school, and I will never surrender to age" + a bit of punk here and there, and you got this disc. I am not impressed, but as I said before, I'm not that much into this kind of "metal". I guess the younger audience who like the MTV influenced cry-rock style will grasp this one like a drug addict with 2 minutes of "free entrance - grab what you like" in a drug store.
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Lars
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MY INSANITY
"Scattered Soulpuzzle" (Season Of Mist - provided by VME) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Someone told me that a lot of dope is smoked in the HM world. This band has definitely had its share (the lion's share??) of that chemical product. I'll try to summon up on the genre: Neo-new metallic death-stonerrock with melodic goth and prog influences. Clearly not up my alley, and in general a very very bad product. Anyway, I have the task of reviewing it, so…The leadsinger has a deep raspy voice that sounds like he has been drinking 2 liters of ammonium chloride before singing. Then suddenly he sounds very clean, so maybe there are 2 lead singers?? I don't know since I didn't get my info sheet. Anyway, there are also some female vocals that go pretty well with the deep voice. The music sounds more like samples than music to me, except when the heavy guitar sets in in E-major (or minor…as long as it's the E-string tuned down). The rhythm is generally slow and without nerve, and the music has far too many breaks. Maybe this album would be good as atmosphere background at the antagonist of a rave party. I think fans of "The Cure goes heavy metal" would love this disc. Sorry, but that's the closest I can come to a comparison. Listen before buying.
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Lars
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MYSTIC CIRCLE
"The Bloody Path Of God" (Dockyard1 - provided by VME) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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I've never liked this band, and their 7th album, "The Bloody Path Of God", ain't gonna change my mind about German black metal in any way. Okay, calling them a black metal band isn't really fair, as there are much more death metal to the vocals, the drums, the guitars and the overall feeling of the disc. But yeah, there's the muddy production that we're used to from second-rate black metal wannabe's and the supposedly eerie keyboard soundscapes that we all have come to know as a part of any (not old-school) black metal band these days. Anyway, Mystic Circle never were any good, and this new disc doesn't do much for me, except I do have to say that the small breaks in some of the songs (with acoustic guitars and nice keyboards in the background) have some interest, especially in "Doomsday Prophecy" where it almost ends up sounding like an Annihilator part - besides that, the disc really sucks.
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Claus
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MYSTIC CIRCLE "Open the Gates of Hell" (Massacre Records - provided by VME) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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I FUCKING HATE BLACK & DEATH METAL!!!!!!!!!!! So know you know what we are dealing with here. Mystic Circle is a black/death metal band with grinding guitars, blast beats on the drums, "traditional" growling vocals that battle with some, also, aggressive black metal vocals. Mystic Circle offers no musical challenges whatsoever as the music consist of all too simple riffs and "melodies" (if you can call it that!). The music is fast but monotonous, uninteresting and totally unoriginal.
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Martin J
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MYSTIC PROPHECY
"Never Ending" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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When you experience jumping out of an airplane with a parachute for the first time, it's a very scary experience. The second time, as well as the following 2000 times, you get sort of used to it. THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T FRIGHTENING ANYMORE!!!! Same thing goes with the voice of Mystic Prophecy's lead singer. It was horrible and irritating the first time, it was horrible and irritating the second time, and no matter if I have now heard what seems like 4 million albums with his crying vibrato falsetto, it doesn't get any better, though I'm getting used to him. Sad, coz the music of Mystic Prophecy has definitely evolved, since I first heard their stuff. Try to imagine an album, where you are actually not able to hear any words in the chorus, because of this wailing, hoarse and almost crying voice. It ruins everything and makes it so hard to focus properly on the overall picture. Mystic Prophecy is actually plain and not too complicated heavy metal. Easy to listen to (musically) and without the big efforts to go progressive or epic. They should be awarded for that, since there are way too many bands who are dragging out their music to infinity, just because it's in right now. As we say in Denmark: Mystic Prophecy don't create a bigger bread than they can actually bake (or something like that)….only problem lies in the aforementioned vocals. Fire the vocalists ass and get a decent singer, and you get this one's vote!
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Lars
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MYSTIC PROPHECY "Regressus" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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I have been awaiting this disc in horror. Last time, I think I liked the disc a lot, but I must admit that the singer ruins it for me. The music is cool melodic power metal, and I cannot put a finger on it, apart from the fact that the bass drums are pretty un-tight at moments. Well, in these computer days, it's almost cool to hear that someone still plays without click-track (if he doesn't, he's a very poor drummer!!!!)! Back to the singer: Not bad, but irritating…sounds as if he's 10 hertz beside the note. I know that it's pretty impossible for me to hear this, but something is definitely wrong. Maybe it's his phrasing or lack of same, that gets on my nerves. The biggest problem with this band is that I feel that I have heard it all before and that they as such don't have anything new to offer, but the typical daka daka daka daka German pounding stuff….and it scares me that Nuclear Blast keeps on sending out the common stuff in stead of trying to "make" the market through their releases! Someone must have used a lot of nepotism here!
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Lars
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