REVIEWS ARCHIVE - R |
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RACER X "Getting Heavier" (Mascot Records - provided by MNW) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Getting heavier ??? - I don't think so, that must be the last humor left since they abandoned their silly outfits. Still very guitar based with up-tempo tracks, but maybe some of them resembles one another too much. Still an enjoyable album, but a bit disappointing that they heaviness claimed was only in the text, actually the overall sounds seems thinner to me.
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Erik
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RADIOACTIVE
“Taken” (MTM Music – provided by Atenzia) - 1 out of 5 points – |
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I don’t care if Tommy Denander is a god-gifted songwriter, who has been able to have songs in the Eurovision Song Contest 3 years in a row, or has been able to play on 200 different albums within 10 years, if his blow-up doll is named Betty, or if he really is capable of getting all major-players within the melodic rock / hard rock scene together for a guest-participation on his new disc. Honestly, I don’t care! Radioactive might be the best thing since sliced bread according to the staff at MTM, but I’m seriously considering if that same sliced bread didn’t go down the wrong throat on them the morning they decided to sign Tommy Denander’s Radioactive. There’s nothing – I repeat, NOTHING – radioactive about this album, unless you count those 2 extremely bored proton’s spinning around my apartment trying to find a way to sleep while Denander & Co. gets done with this album. Radioactive? My bare ass! Now, there’s a sight for sore eyes – I bet you that the same talent-scouts at MTM would sign my bare ass, if I just could get hold of 142 different well-known hard rock musicians (including mr.Denander) to spank it for an hour.
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Claus
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RADIOACTIVE "Yeah" (MTM / SPV Records - provided by Nordic Metal) - 4½ out of 5 points - |
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A get together of brilliant musicians, doesn't always guarantee a good result - but in this case the result is indeed very pleasant. Really catchy non-wimpy melodic rock. Swedish wonder kid Tommy Denander has assembled 13 other musicians to contribute to this CD - to name a few - Marcel Jacob (Bass, Talisman, Malmsteen), Geir Ronning (Vocals, Toto), Fergie Frederiksen (Vocals, Toto), Tony Franklin (Bass, Whitesnake) …. but basically it's a Tommy Denander project. Despite so many involved, the tracks still flows naturally and gives you the best combination of typical Swedish songwriting talent combined traditional American melodic rock sound. Highlights are "Yeah", which is a great rocking opener, "Lies Fed on Lies" with Steve Overland on vocals, sounding just like Daniel Bowes (Thunder), "Fire within" which seems taken somewhere from the "Bend out of shape" Rainbow album, and "Souls on Fire" with a Whitesnake like grove. A CD that just lifts your spirit.
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Erik
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RAGE
"Speak Of The Dead" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Rage IS a classic metal band in my book, a band that never released total crap and always had a very high quality to all their releases, so with that in mind I set forward on listening to "Speak Of The Dead". At first I really liked this disc - to me it marked a comeback of sorts, or should I say, a return to their older style. You see, with Rage I haven't really gotten into their later releases that much, but the first couple of times I listened to "Speak Of The Dead" I got flashbacks to "Black In Mind", "Missing Link" and even "Perfect Man" here and there. However, after several listens I've kinda noticed that the way the CD is split up, with ½ orchestral tunes and ½ metal tunes, eventually got on my nerves. Earlier on in their career the band managed to blend the two styles together in a very clever and original way, but here it seems as if they decided on dividing these parts. Well, it just doesn't work for me … I prefer Rage to be either the full-on metal band, or the band that was able to mix their songs up with a bit of classical music - not this band that doesn't know which leg to stand on.
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Claus
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| ** DOUBLE REVIEW FEATURE ** | ||
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RAGE
"Speak Of The Dead" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 4½ out of 5 points - |
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First things first: this voice-over thing on promo CD´s sucks! Every other moment the music fades out and some dude proclaims "you´re listening to the new Rage album blablabla..." I´m aware of the recordbiz´s paranoia about downloading and stuff, but does this help? Which reviewer will give the CD more than half a spin before deciding upon giving a good or a bad review? And we all know the good albums take time. I understand the background for it, but this can´t be the right way to solve the problem. And by the Gods! If you need to do this, find someone who speaks English properly (though this isn´t as bad as the new Edguy - did they hire Arnold for that one???). In other words, you start your reviewing by being pissed off. I doubt this helps the bands. But enough - on to the music. It´s no secret that my respect for Rage knows almost no limit. What other band has steadily progressed for more than 20 years, releasing record upon record of increasing quality without any gimics, without ever selling out, and without becoming boring? Especially since bandboss Peavy assembled his multinational powertrio with Mike Terrana (drums) and Viktor Smolski (guitar) Rage has released and impressive line of albums of the highest quality. But what really makes the band stand out is that though they belong to the absolute top level of players they never shove their talent in your face. There´s remarkably little wankery here for a band of such skilled musicians. No, what we have here is SONGS! Like some bastard child of Iron Maiden, Rage produce powerful, melodic metal for the common man, without ever being stupid or silly at all. Too many bands are either annoyingly navelgazing or an ill-conceiled attempt at making some quick money. Rage are neither. And that, lads´n´lasses, takes real talent. Still, Speak Of The Dead is one of the band´s more progressive releases. It consists of roughly half a disc worth of regular, mid-length songs. The other half is the multipart "Lingua Mortis" suite. Now this is something they couldn´t have done in any previous incarnation of the band. Viktor Smolski´s influence shines through here more than ever. While it´s becoming more and more the standard to make metal records with orchestral parts, Smolski definitely has the edge on everybody here. His background as a genuine classical musician and composer - and specifically of the weird Slavic kind - is obvious. This is far removed from the cheesy, filmscore-like outings of other bands. This is the real, classical deal. And very thrilling. The orchestrations make for great moments of tension and drama, not sugarcoating. A very interesting piece of music, that I´m looking forward to give more listens, when the real CD comes out. The regular songs are extremely groovy as usual and some of Rage´s heaviest to date. There are a good deal of futuristic sounds going on here (interesting how un-Bon Jovi-like a talkbox can sound...), but the overall impression is of course the basic one of drums, bass, guitar and voice - all of which shine brilliantly the album through. There are some very cool choirs as well. Again, no cheese here, but rough voices multilayered - like Blind Guardian or Iced Earth (when they were cool). It´s all very much to the point and sounds very powerful indeed. And then there are the guitarsolos. If I hadn´t seen Smolski live, I wouldn´t believe this guy existed for real. He resides up there in the Satriani/Vai/Van Halen Olympus of guitargods. His solos are perfectly crafted excursions into the outer realms of guitarism - small stories within the songs.
It´s rare these days to hear leadguitars sound so refreshingly new. So anyway, how do you rate something like this? Is it the best Rage album ever? Does it lack hits because the long, progressive piece takes up too much of the disc? Can they make an even better one next time? I don´t know. If only the big, groundbreaking, historymaking albums should get the highest grade, this is not one of them. Rage was never about that. On the other hand it´s better than practically all else out there at the moment. So one thing´s for sure: my hat´s off to uncle Peavy and his comrades.
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Erik Ravn / guitarist in Wuthering Heights
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RAIN
"Stronger" (MTM Music - provided by Zink) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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This is one of those albums that is well-written, well-performed and well-produced, but does absolutely nothing to peak my interest. It sounds like B-side tunes from a Bon Jovi single and as such doesn't hold more interest than when you pee in your pants to keep warm (it's okay for a few minutes and then gets quite irritating). The musicians are all top-class: Michael Bormann (vocals - from Zeno, Jaded Heart etc), Tore Moren (guitars - from Jorn, Arcturus, Carnivora), Lars Forseth (guitar - from Bangkok Babes) and Per-Helge Bruvoll (drums - from Bangkok Babes). It's all really cool, but at the same time extremely boring. Hmmm …
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Claus
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RAIN PAINT "Nihil Nisi Mors" (My Kingdom Music - provided by My Kingdom Music) - 1½ out of 5 points - |
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Melancholic metal that lead your thoughts towards Katanonia and HIM, but Rain Paint manages to give their music a bit more progressiveness, which gives the songs a bit more edge than the afore mentioned bands. The guitar riffs in general are too boring to my taste and temper, and I'm not the kind of person that wants to waste my time on music with nothing but chords and riffs in minor. It's too damn depressing. But this is clearly what Rain Paint wants to accomplish, so thumbs up for their talents on that account. The only song that made me wake up for just a couple of seconds was "Sleeping Beauty" which is an up-tempo song (compared to the rest of the tracks) and it includes just the melodic and dynamic guitar riffs that I need to stay awake. The vocals are clean but with occasional growling and black metal screaming, which is not good. Other times the growling is combined with the clean vocals ... which is not good either. So stop that growling shit, and keep the vocal melodies clean and melodic! I guess this is about all I can say about this very boring album.
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Martin J
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RAISE HELL "Wicked Is My Game" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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This is fucking great thrash metal album, with a lot of groovy stuff thrown in. The difference between this album and the new (and also reviewed in these pages) Amon Amarth album is really a matter (although not same genre) of intensity. "Wicked Is My Game" has a whole lotta more balls. When listening to "Wicked Is My Game" I get associations like early Megadeth with more brutality. But that is not all; the album is full of the best thrash metal and groovyness from bands like Testament and Forbidden, to name a few. An album like "Wicked Is My Game" is not an album one should spend time on analysing, but just smack it on your stereo for full throttle.
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Martin P
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RAWHEAD REXX "Diary In Black" (AFM Records - provided by Nordic Metal) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Boring! I was holding my breath for this disc, as I reviewed RR's debut album 1½ year ago, and gave it a very good review. However, Rawhead Rexx fail miserably to continue the interesting and in-your-face style that was to set the standard for the predecessor. The songs on "Diary In Black" are……quite uninteresting, to say the least!!! German style power metal, without nerve. And to the record label: Please stop the praising of the show at the W:O:A. I was there myself, and saw that there were no more than 50 people in front of the scene when the band played…and even then, you state that: "Successful performance at the W:O:A"!!!!!!! Let's have a little truth in the HM business, shall we? Rawhead Rexx is not nearly as interesting and awestriking as the Clive Barker beast, they have taken their name from.
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Lars
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RAZAMANAZ
"Razamanaz" (Perris Records - provided by Perris Records) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Okay this should be the new era of Hard Rock?? Please let me put it this way without being too rude, this doesn't reach Skid Row, Motley Crue, Danger Danger or any of the others to their socks. This is to be honest one pile of S***! First of all you have a singer that stinks, secondly the sound on the drums and guitars sounds like a 70'ties band. Come on guys we live the new century, and no one is interested in listening to old school biker rock. If you want to be something check out the afore-mentioned bands, and if that isn't inspiration enough, I could easily write you a list with bands from which you should instead draw your inspiration.
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Benjamin
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REACTOR "Critical Mass" (CD-Maximum - provided by CD-Maximum) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Pheeew….I got through at last. Reactor sounds as if the band was developed in the actual reactor that melted down in Tjernobyl in '86!!! Industrial crap, that has less to do with music than the black stuff I can scrape out from under my fingernails, after having crawled 10 kilometres home from the city, under the influence of whatever you can be stoned and drunk by! It's more boring than watching a glass of hot water turn cold. One computer and a shit-load of samples, combined with a bad distortion guitar and a half-growling bald and fat nazi-look-alike!! That's what this album is about. I suggest these two so-called musicians try a new job in the mines of Sibiria!!!
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Lars
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RE:AKTOR "Zero Order" (Nuclear Blast - provided by VME) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Industrial death thrash…….a la Fear Factory…very bad drum sound….a little more melodic and less aggressive than FF….mixed with a bit of Tool…..strange music…….! Too trivial …getting boring, because it lacks finesse and speciality to become more than the usual wall of sound, escaping the loudspeakers. Too straight ahead…
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Lars
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RED AIM ""Niagara" (Metal Blade - provided by Target distribution) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Hmmmmmmmm…….this is one of those releases that goes in through one ear and out through the other, while listening to it. The last song on the album could easily have been the first as well, as they all sound the same to me. The only songs that stand out are the instrumental parts, as you suddenly realise there are parts without vocals. Oh!! The music is stonerrock blended with some Soundgarden riffs here and there, and it is well performed, with a good sound quality, and some refreshing ideas once in while. It's just not interesting enough to last 12 songs. Cut this album down to 5 songs and release it as a mini, and I'll recommend people to buy it.
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Lars
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RED CIRCUIT
"Trance State" (LIMB / SPV - provided by Target) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Red Circuit is the new project band of Chity Somapala, known from Faro, Avalon, Firewind and of course our very own Moonlight Agony. Chity is a great singer, and I've always loved his voice, that reminds me of a more metal-thick version of Klaus Meine (Scorpions). Besides that, Chity is one hell of a nice guy, and I really like him a lot (no, not in a gay way, hehe), so it's no wonder that I'm already prejudiced in favor of the disc before even hearing it. Joining Chity on this album is keyboardist Markus Teske, mostly known for having produced bands such as Symphony X, Vanden Plas and Ian Parry, and with that in mind the production is flawless and really suits the music. Occassionally the music have hints of Ayreon's more heavy work, but also a good deal of Vanden Plas and even some Avalon (especially with the more exotic sounds, that reminds of "Eurasia" - the last disc of Avalon) … I'd probably call this world-music meets melodic prog-metal ;-) I like this album, it's very well-done and it is one of those that opens up new doors with each listen. Besides the stupid album cover and the title that hints at something completely different, this album is one of those that people into the more melodic aspects of progressive metal should check out.
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Claus
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REFUGEE
"Affairs In Babylon" (MTM Classix - provided by Target) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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Another re-release of an obscure 80's hard rock disc that no one cared about back then and won't care about today. Oh, you mean another of the "MTM Classix"? Right! Sorry, but having released such utter crap releases as Rhapsody Stockholm, 707, Reckless, Zeno, Erika over the last year, doesn't make me want to jump out and applaud the label. This is after all the label who hosts such great bands as TNT, Dare, Wicked Sensation, Faro not to mention they released wonderful discs by bands like Ten, CITA and Harlan Cage. Why are you then still living in the past and brining out such irrelevant albums as this "Affairs In Babylon" by Refugee? Not that it's a BAD album as such, but it's totally outdated and doesn't fit into today's market (as far as I'm concerned at least). This is how Foreigner, Styx and a billion of second league power-rock bands sounded like many many years ago, and today it's not interesting any longer. If you're so hooked on re-releasing albums from that time, then go ahead and bring out Balance's "In For The Count" - that would make my day, and I will never ever say another bad word about MTM Classix … deal?
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Claus
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RELAPSED
"Into A Former State" (MTM Music - provided by Zink) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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A first look at the cover (a bandpicture of 4 short-haired guys) and the band name, made me think that this was another nu-metal/alternative-rock band. How wrong could I be??? Well … a lot :-) Relapsed is the new band of the former Caught In The Act, CITA and Guild Of Ages musicians, in other words a pure melodic hard rock entity. Comparing this album to previous efforts is obvious, and not all that wrong - however a few things have changed. The production isn't nearly as "clean" and "soft" as previously, and I've seen other members of the media slamming the band over this point … in my honest opinion it actually gives the band a new touch, and matches the hard rocking music fine. Also the keyboard driven songs have been substituted for a more guitar-filled approach, which is more suited for these day and ages. "Into A Former State" has a good deal of brilliant hard rock songs, such as the kick ass opener "Welcome To My Life", the power metal influenced "End Of The Line", the very welldone Queen-cover "I Want It All", the groovy "Broken" and the superb anthem "Mercy Pays The Debt". Relapsed might very well have created the best hard rock disc of their career - a career that would have been much more succesful have they not had to change their name so many times.
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Claus
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RENSTRÖM, RICK "Until The Bitter End" (Mascot Records - provided by Target Distribution) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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This is incredible!!! Anybody's ever heard of this guy??? Well, he has been laying down some guitars for Rob Rock in the past as well as doing a lot of other shit. The strange thing about Mr. Renstrom is that he has a physical handicap. His arms are deformed in a way that should make it impossible to play any sort of musical instrument (I am educated in this, so I should know!!!). Nevertheless, Mr. R. sat down as a kid and decided that he wanted to be the new guitar hero of the world, no matter what the odds were. It's the same as a guy with a penis of 2 inches wanting to be the new Peter North! VERY impressive, and a proof that nothing is truly impossible. The music is a mixture of Yngwie, Yngwie and Yngwie, with a little more rock'n roll in it. Very cool guitar, but unfortunately a bad drum sound that ruins the picture a little. The album has some famous people appearing on it, such as Rob Rock, Matt Sinner, Wade Black (all of them on vocals) and Richard Christy on the drums. This is pretty good stuff, but it will never go down in history as a classic. It's much too anonymous for that in most of the songs. Favourite track: "Calling On Vengeance"
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Lars
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RHAPSODY OF FIRE
"Triumph Or Agony" (Magic Circle Music / SPV - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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Rhapsody Of Fire has come a long way since introducing the "Hollywood Metal" to us all. Nowadays the term "Film Score metal" is more appropriate and the band is promoted under this label. The new album "Triumph Or Agony" is a step up from the pretty weak "Symphony Of The Enchanted Land pt 2". The titles of the songs are still pretty grandiose, bordering to the ridiculous, but I guess it has to be this way when creating this kind of music. Fabio Lione has moved back to the extreme vibrato and it is not in my taste - I definitely liked him better on the aggressive parts of "Power Of The Dragonflame", but if you like the older albums, you will like his performance on this one as well. The music is pure and simple Rhapsody (Of Fire), no more, no less. Large keyboard parts, intriguing guitars (both solo's and melodies), pounding rhythms, though the tempo is a bit slower than usual, so there's actually nothing new in this offering, but that is also the band's strength. Namely, to continue to make great music within the style that they themselves invented…and who does it better than Rhapsody Of Fire?
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Lars
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RHAPSODY
"Live In Canada 2005 - The Dark Secret" (Circle Song Music - provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points - |
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What can I say??? A live album with such a good sound can't be better. It helps a lot that it's Rhapsody of course! And then I could wish for some more material. When you have so much material in your back catalogue, you might think about doing a double live album, since it's not really enough for the fan to just get 2 - 3 songs per album. I, myself would have loved to hear some more songs from "Power Of The Dragonflame", since that's my favourite, but I only get to hear 2 songs from that album….Oh well, since one of them is "Lamento Eroico", I guess it's ok. Listen to this hymn with Fabio Leone at his best, and you'll forever like this band. I still have goosebumps an hour after listening to that opera piece in the chorus. It's pure orgasmic matter here. So 4 points should have been 5, but that would have been there with a double disc. You can always discuss about the fact that no live discs as of today are totally live, as people fuck around with the recordings in a studio afterwards, but I'd rather stay in the illusion that this is exactly what those 10.000 people heard on June 14th 2005 in Montreal, than bashing people for not staying true to the real live sound (the same people that don't mind special effects in movies or retouching of models in anti-cellulite commercials). Rhapsody is again growing stronger!
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Lars
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RHAPSODY
"Symphony Of Enchanted Lands pt. 2" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Target) - 2½ out of 5 points - |
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Try to ask me if I'm tired of Rhapsody and their Hollywood metal? YES, I'm dead tired of it…and it's so much that it's actually beginning to irritate me. With their previous release "Power Of The Dragon Flame" they released one motherfucker of an album, with much more aggressiveness than usual, and energy more present than in Bill Clinton's trouser when hearing the name Monica and the noun "cigar" at the same time. However (an unfortunate however) Cracksody has fallen back to the pompous and ball-lacking style that they did on all the other albums, if you ask me. It's simply irritating and I surely hope that the dope heads in the band finds out that it is NOT…like in NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT cool to do more about this saga!
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Lars
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RHAPSODY "Tales From The Emerald Sword Saga" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 0-5 out of 5 points - |
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…and now you're wondering why I'm giving both 0 and 5 to this release. The reason is very simple: If you're a Rhapsody fan and have all their albums, this release is totally redundant. You don't need a compilation with songs you already have, and therefore it's a 0! If you do not possess any Cracksody albums, then this is a good way to get into the band, and as such, the songs on this disc are fantastic and show the band in full. You won't dislike it - I promise…thereby the 5.
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Lars
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RING, THE
"Tales From Midgaard" (Scarlet Records - provided by Target Distribution) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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Someone had to do it sooner or later….releasing the first part of a trilogy that will become a concept album written about all 3 books in "The Lord Of The Ring" trilogy. The problem is that this subject has been interpreted 6000 times by more or less known bands, so the reason for doing this is thinner than the ice crust on an Icelandic Geyser lake on the first day of winter. The music is mostly mid-tempo Swedish folk music, transformed into metal version. It's ok, and the musicians have actually created a decent album, with a very good sound, cool melodies, nice choir arrangements, a little (hm,,,hmmmm) stealing (Read: RIPOFF), from Ozzy's Mr. Crowley, and an overall feeling of wanting to hear what they can do with the next book. As stated, this one is only about "Fellowship Of The Ring", so I presume there will be a number 2 and 3 - and for Christ sake - don't do a Silmarillion interpretation. Blind Guardian has that one covered. If you like Lefay and those kinds of Swedish HM bands, you'll most likely be happy with this disc in your CD-player. It's definitely not bad. It just lacks that final touch to make it grandiose, which I think it needs to be for this concept.
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Lars
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RING OF FIRE "Dreamtower" (Frontiers - provided by Nordic Metal) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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The eighties sure live! If you, like myself included, loved the melodic heavy metal of the eighties, with such bands as Malmsteen, Rainbow and MSG, then the chances that you'll like Ring Of Fire's new disc are quite high. "Dreamtower" is a superb heavy metal disc, with a nice focus on the neoclassical and the melodic aspects, and with a technical level high enough to also appeal to some of the progressive metal fans out there. I'd even go as far as to say that Ring Of Fire is what you'll get if you mix Royal Hunt 1997 with Malmsteen 1987. The lineup is impressive; Mark Boals (ex-Malmsteen's Rising Force) on vocals, Tony MacAlpine (shredding hero!!!) on guitars, Vitalij Kuprij (Artension) on keyboards, Virgil Donati (Planet X) on drums and Philip Bynow (ex-Steve Vai Band) on bass. Woohooo! And the music isn't far behind either … Opener "My Deja-vu" is one of the coolest tunes (and most memorable) within this style in the past decade - heck, this song alone would have been a major radio hit 10-15 years ago. Overall the songwriting is good, the production is quite nice as well, and my only complaints are that this has been done before, and that I'm somewhat annoyed by Mark Boals' high pitch vocals, since it's evident that the man actually can sing in any range he choses. So why does he have to scream his way through most of the songs? Oh well, it's a good disc, and I for one love the hell out of the cheese effect enclosed here … H80M !!!
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Claus
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RITUAL
"Superb Birth" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Scanbox Entertainment) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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The so-called neo-prog wave has some good bands, but definitely also some boring ones, and unfortunately Ritual falls into the latter category. Imagine old school Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Rush mixed with more modern sounding bands as The Tea Party, Porcupine Tree and even Radiohead. Yup, a strange mixture, and it simply doesn't work (for me at least). Sorry, but I'm falling asleep just thinking about how boring this album is …… zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Claus
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RIVAL
"State Of Mind" (Metal Blade - provided by Target Distribution) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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This album has now been played a lot of times on my stereo, as I am in total disagreement with myself to what I should think about it. On one hand it's very competent and really ok US power metal Rock 'n Roll, which I actually should like…..On the other hand, the lead singer stinks (the sound of his voice), and the riffin' is really too simple and heard a thousand times before. Overall, it all sounds very cool, but there are too many parts of the music that are being delivered without any kind of punch. As if the guys were not really convinced them selves, before doing these songs. Rival have been together since 1990, and this is their debut. I don't really know how to interpret that, but I think that their little time of glory will soon be over. Nobody will be able to remember this band in a couple of years if they don't develop and find out that they have to make an album, where all the songs don't remind of each other.
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Lars
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RIVERSIDE
“Second Life Syndrome” (Inside Out / SPV – provided by Target) - 4 out of 5 points – |
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I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but even though I were promoting the previous Riverside disc “Out Of Myself” to the European media (doing promotion work for their previous label Laser’s Edge), I really didn’t like it. You have no idea how tough it is to try to “sell” an album you don’t like ... it’s no fun, that’s for sure. So, with that in mind I decided to give the new album a spin. And wouldn’t you know, this second disc is actually brilliant!!! I had no idea the band could evolve into something this good. Actually, the band hasn’t really changed their style or anything – it’s still a mixture between prog-rock and “post-modern-metal” (or whatever people would call it). Similarities to bands such as Pink Floyd, Anathema, Opeth, Arena, Porcupine Tree, Wolverine etc can be found throughout the disc, and although I’m not really a big fan of most of those (with the exception of Arena), the mixture of it all really works well. This is a good catch for Inside Out, and quite unfortunate for Laser’s Edge (and me, since I’m not getting a second chance on promoting it).
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Claus
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ROCK, ROB
"Holy Hell" (AFM - provided by Target) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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There shouldn't be any doubt as to who Rob Rock is by now, right? The man has been around metal since 1986 and is highly respected in the name of Metal… The new album "Holy Hell" has a bit more crunch to its sound, and sounds more aggressive compared to his previous solo albums. The line up for this solo consists of the members from NARNIA, who do a pretty good job on this album. But nevertheless the album has the tendency to become slightly boring and loose its touch. The highly respected man does a great job on this album, and somehow I never get tired of listening to his voice. Rob's vocals are part of what makes the album so great, but if you listen to the music more than twice you easily realize that you have heard it all before. I do not know where I stand in the grading of this album, so I will chose the easy way out and rate it to be a bit above the middle, and state that it's another Rob Rock album to find it's place among the rest of my RR-collection.
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Benjamin
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RONDINELLI "Our Cross - Our Sins" (MTM - provided by Nordic Metal) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Bobby Rondinelli is the man behind the drums in many bands, his history is longer then my life so I have decided not to write any of his history. The music of Rondinelli reminds me of all the bands he has entered throughout the years such as "Black Sabbath", "Quiet Riot" and some influences of "Whitesnake". Neither way there is nothing new in this album other then some old folks looking for some easy money and has nothing interesting other then the names from some of the greatest bands ever, but that is all folks.
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Benjamin
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ROSE TATTOO
"Blood Brothers" (Armageddon Music - Provided by Target) - ½ out of 5 points - |
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I have never heard about Rose Tattoo before, but since it consists of very old members judging from the picture, then I guess they have a few albums behind them. And this is where I get off. Because who in their right mind would sign this boring Australian bluesy hard rock act. Crappy musicians (and if I am wrong here, they just don't show it), crappy vocals, crappy compositions. I like blues, I like Hard Rock, but I really don't like this scrappy bluesy version of AC/DC. The old Geezers in Rose Tattoo should just call it quits if you ask me.
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Mads
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ROTTING CHRIST
"Sanctus Diavolos" (Century Media - provided by Target Distribution) - 3 out of 5 points - |
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Rotting Christ have been around for many years, always being at the forefront of "extreme metal" - from their first incarnations in the early nineties as a black/death metal band, to an aggressive band in the dark gothic genre in the late nineties, and going more back to the roots lately. "Sanctus Diavolos" is a nice blend of all that has made RC the band we know them as now. There's the bombastic (almost symphonic) goth parts, the aggressive death metal and the hysteric black metal - all coming together in one nice mixture that can only be described as pure Rotting Christ. As usual they use huge choir parts, lots of atmospheric keyboards, and the sound (although being produced in Greece by the band themselves, and mixed in Sweden by Frederik Nordström) is the typical RC production (think Woodhouse type of production, like Moonspell, Lacuna Coil, Samael, Tiamat). Overall quite a good album, but there's just something missing that I can't put my finger on - perhaps it's the fact that this music doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to?
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Claus
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ROYAL HUNT
"2006 Live" (Frontiers Records - provided by Zink) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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The first question to ask ourselves is: Do we really need this album? Royal Hunt already did their double live disc in 1996, then they've done the "Intervention" and "The Watchers" EP's in 2000 and 2001 which both featured live material, and now apparently they feel it's time for another double live album (and live-DVD as well). I guess the answer to my proposed question would be a clear sounding NO! The second question would be: Is Royal Hunt 2006 still the same quality act that they used to be? Again I'll answer NO! Royal Hunt used to have something special, a kind of sound totally of their own (the unique mix of Malmsteen's neoclassical metal with Saga's symphonic pomp rock and a touch of progressive metal) - today they are just a standard melodic metal band. Then, how about the third question: Does this live album in any way deliver anything interesting? Well yeah, it actually does. John West is a superb vocalist, and for me as someone who used to love the first 4 Royal Hunt albums, I'll admit that it's cool to hear his renditions of "Last Goodbye", "Far Away", "Running Wild", "Epilogue", "Message To God" or "Wasted Time". And in all honesty, this live album sounds quite good from a productional pov. But a great singer, some brilliant old classic tunes and a good sound doesn't warrant this release. I think RH has done too many albums lately sounding all the same, and now apparently also have begun doing too many live releases. It's about time this band quits while it's been fun.
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Claus
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RPWL
"World Through My Eyes" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Target) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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RPWL is out with their fourth studio album. I have never listened to this band before, and if you haven't either, I can tell you that what we are dealing with here is prog rock. It kind of fits somewhere in between Karmakanic (which is quite okay) and The Flower Kings (which is a bit less than okay), and by that saying that this is not my idea of what makes metal worth listening to - if you can call it metal!? It's simply to boring to my taste. Nothing really happens, and the album has total lack of energy. RPWL makes frequent use of Asian percussion and other instruments, which makes the music slightly more interesting than a lot of other prog. bands, but it doesn't justify the fact that the keyword for this album - to me at least - is "boring". Nevertheless it is quite obvious that RPWL are very skilled musicians with a good sense for melodies. The absolute highlight on this album is the song "Roses". Melodically it soothes my ears, with its simple, yet nice, melodies and choruses, and I have no doubt that this song could easily be played on this countries largest national radio station - if they ever got a hold of it. Another thing that adds to the fact that "Roses" is the best song on this album, could also be that guest singer Ray Wilson (Genesis) delivers a very good job. All the other songs are characterized by an annoying and silly German accent, which makes Ray Wilson appear even better than he usually is. So all in all there is nothing new on the prog. rock front with RPWL, and people who love this genre know what they'll get, and get what they want when they buy "World through my Eyes".
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Martin J
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RPWL "Stock" (Inside Out / SPV - provided by Nordic Metal) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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RPWL started as a pure Pink Floyd cover band in 1997, and this is not so difficult to hear ! - Let me start to say that I'm not really a Pink Floyd fan, as it was compulsory reading in my high school English class, at the same time that only Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were cool. Compared to PF I find RPWL slightly more New age or psychedelic/atmospheric in the sound picture, but without loosing structure. All seems to be own material, except the opener "Opel" (Syd Barret). My favourite is definitely the marathon 10:17 minutes "Gentle art of Swimming", which really can give you a feeling of swimming with its subtle percussion representing your movement, and different keyboards and guitar effects as surroundings. This must be a MUST for anyone into Pink Floyd ! - you will LoVe it! In the promotional material its stated that the CD will be delivered as a set, with a DVD including tour video, and the STOCK tracks recorded in pure 5.1 Surround sound.
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Erik
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RUDESS, JORDAN "4NYC" (Magna Carta - provided by MNW) - 1 out of 5 points - |
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We all know Jordan Rudess can play that keyboard, right? Listening to either his past projects (solo or band) or his main-band Dream Theater, it is quite obvious that Jordan is one of the best keyboardists in the world. Fine … then how come that he spends his time on releasing such a boring album as "4NYC"? Is it because he also wants to show off his soft and mellow side? Is it because he thinks people would care for his piano playing? If so, sorry Jordan, but your acoustic piano playing might be flawless, but it's also extremely boring and holds no value whatsoever unless you're a total piano freak. Or is it, sorry for the harsh words, simply a publicity stunt to make money on September 11th? I mean - this album is dedicated to New York City, to those who died and those who survived the terrorist attack on September 11th 2001, and "a portion of the proceeds" (no mention of how much…) of this disc will actually be donated to charity. I seriously hope that this is not the case, and that Jordan's idea with this disc holds a more noble purpose than making profit on a horrible incident. Ok, let's give the man some credit - after all, he is a talented-beyond-belief musician and from what I've heard quite a nice guy. So, I'm assuming this disc is simply a display of Jordan Rudess' softer side, and as such, I'm deeming it to be the perfect album for … nothing. Boring ... next, please!
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Claus
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RUINS
“Spun Forth As Dark Nets” (Neurotic Records – provided by VME) - 1½ out of 5 points – |
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RUINS was formed before 2000 theoretically, and to be quite honest, who gives a s***, as this is probably some of the worst Death Metal to be released in 2005. The music is built up as when we other were 14-17 and thought we knew how to put songs together ... said in a friendly way; this music really sucks, and unfortunately I have forced myself to listen to it more than a couple of times in order to find at least a couple of good aspects to the music. Well, okay, to be honest it is not all on this record that stinks entirely, but it’s very close.
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Benjamin
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RUNNING WILD "20 Years In History" (Noise / Sanctuary - provided by Target Distribution) - ? out of 5 points - |
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How is it possible to put a rating on something that has been a part of your life for almost 20 years? Right, it's NOT possible. So please don't ask me to give this album a point-score, cause I can't do it. I still remember when I heard Running Wild for the first time, through a friend who had "Gates To Purgatory" and "Branded & Exiled" on cassette tapes - I was shocked and immediately had to run out and buy the albums. I also remember when I got the "Under Jolly Roger" album, and found the pirate-image so fucking cool, but were scared for my stereo system because of the warning sticker the label had put on the vinyl (something which I actually just found out now - 15 years later - was a joke) saying that the album included some loud sound-effects that might damage the stereo. I remember taking a trip with the band to the pirate town of "Port Royal", sailing the 7 seas with them on "Death Or Glory", loving their melodic tunes on "Blazon Stone" and finding "Pile Of Skulls" one heavy-as-fuck album. Unfortunately I also remember the saddened feeling with which I tried to get the music on "Black Hand Inn" to click with me, but never really did - or how the limited version of the "Masquerade" disc looked so cool with it's wooden box, while the music being more aggressive and fast paced than I ever remembered the band being. Unfortunately I also remember the band mellowing out with the songs on "The Rivalry" and "Victory", none of those discs really appealing to me that much - although I finally had the chance to see the band live in concert on the "Rivalry" tour in Germany, something which was extremely cool! And if I think back only 1½ year from now, I can easily remember my first disappointment with "The Brotherhood", which I actually have begun finding more and more joy in, since some of the tunes are really cool, although definitely a good deal different from what the band have done in the past. So, what am I trying to say with this? Well, since I can't put a rating on how much I like the different songs of Running Wild's 20-year catalogue, I'm not going to try to argue at the least with Rock'n'Rolfs choice of songs to put on the 'best-of-RW' compilation here … it must have been difficult for him to chose, just like it's still difficult for me to believe that I've been following this band for close to 20 years myself. |
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Claus
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