Seraphim are a very solid symphonic metal band from Taiwan that focuses on strong and very professional female lead vocals as well as some death growls, many guitar harmonies and solos and only a couple of keyboards to focus on a rather vivid sound that gets heavier towards the end of the record that features surprisingly great riffs. As far as I know, the record exists in two versions with Mandarin and English lyrics. If you get the Mandarin version, you surely have an exotic and rare to find gem from the Asian market that sounds rather interesting. If you get your hands on a copy with English lyrics, you will realize that the sound of this band is very close to the leaders of symphonic metal in Europe as Edenbridge, Epica or Within Temptation and that the lyrics are well pronounced.

The problem of the record is that it kicks off with two rather mediocre tracks after a short interlude where the vocals sound thin and the riffs exchangeable. But as the record progresses, the music improves and "Immortal Silence" or "永恆的沉默" is the first highlight of the record and even my favourite song on the entire album. The female vocals sound very fresh and positive while the male death vocals are energizing and build a strong and addictive contrast which creates a very atmospheric, diversified and dynamic flow. Happiness meets darkness in this genre highlight and apart of the great vocal performances, the song features some very emotional guitar solos.

Other highlights on this record are without a doubt "The Soul That Never Dies" or "不死魂" with its great bass guitar lines and a lot of progressive changes of style. One must also mention the epic "Mind's Sky" that starts as a slow and atmospheric ballad before it gets a little bit heavier but always comes back to a refreshing laid back sound as in the addicting middle part that is dominated by acoustic guitars for example.

In the end this is one of the better records out of many albums that were riding on the wings of the popularity of the symphonic metal genre around bands like Nightwish. From a technical point of view, the female singer comes close to the standards of Nightwish and Edenbridge and the growls are also enjoyable for those who like bands like Atargatis or Eternal Tears Of Sorrow. Musically, it's enjoyable that the band focuses on the guitar and not too much on sound effects and overwhelming orchestral elements. The record sounds down to earth and gets very energizing towards the end. There are still some fillers on the album. The band might improve their transitions in the epic tracks and get a more progressive touch. On the other side, I would like them to simply focus on their short and sweet songs, work on some catchier choruses and keep their sound tight. I will definitely try out more records from this band and may recommend this record to fans of grounded and honest symphonic metal music without too much drama.

Tang Dynasty are often cited as one of the first Chinese metal bands that ever existed and they are even less respected than many of their exotic brothers in arms like Aria or Loudness. When I first stumbled over the band and discovered that the band had produced many truly well done video clips for several songs on this album, that the lyrics are very poetic and well written as far as I can judge it with my minor Mandarin skills and that the sound of this record is nearly as good as of any other classic Western heavy metal record from the eighties, I never thought that this was the debut record of a band as they already sound very professional.

The opening track, probably their most famous song to date and only track that got some minor airplay outside of Asia is already an absolute killer. Each time I start the record, I'm not even able to get to the second song because I push the repeat bottom at least twice after the amazing opener. The song starts with a mystic and epic intro that creates many images in your mind and makes you think about Chinese culture, history and nature. "A Dream Return To Tang Dynasty" is indeed already accomplished after a few minutes. When the might drums get in and create a hell load of tension you can't wait for the song to kick off after the majestic introduction. When the track finally starts, it's even better than what you might have expected. The melodies are catchy, the vocals very emotional and somewhat high pitched and operatic but always diversified and never annoying. The chorus is unforgettable and you simply have to sing along to it which mind sound and look very ridiculous in my case. The Chinese vocals fit surprisingly well to the classic heavy metal guitar solos that could directly come off an Iron Maiden record. The atmospheric bridge leads to heavy riffs filled with emotions and come back to the excellent chorus that lead to an energizing fade-out. Yes, energizing fade-outs exist to my big surprise and even though I usually don't like this technique, it sounds very well on this song.

What can you do as a band when you pull off an album with a one hundred percent killer track like this? You can't top this kind of heavy metal song and the band did the right thing. After so much energy, they put a very calm, inspiring and truly meditative song on the second position with great acoustic folk passages. You really feel "The Sun" rising while you listen to this track. The calm and hypnotizing vocals, the great tribal drums and the mysterious back vocals and acoustic guitars lead to one of the best choruses on the whole record. It has a great folk feeling and is truly addictive and touching. Once again you sing along to one of the band's masterpieces. This track is nearly as perfect as the opener.

To keep it short, these two songs are extremely close to perfection and remain my favourite tracks on this excellent debut record. The other songs are all very good but not as essential. There is not a single stinker on the whole record that varies between classic heavy metal, calm hard rock and diverse folk elements. Great guitar solos, very charismatic vocals and poetic lyrics dominate all songs on this release. Just to give you an idea, the track "Choice" even has a very dominating bass guitar and reminds me of glam rock bands such as the legendary T.Rex in the chorus or the music of Cat Stevens in the laid back passages. This means that the band has a high degree of influences and is truly open-minded. At the time of the release, classic heavy metal bands didn't release heavy metal albums of this high quality anymore and the Chinese keep the flame of that genre alive and add their very own touch to it on this album.

Even the Chinese version of the "Internationale" is truly epic and fits to the rest of the record. While the other tracks praise the Chinese culture and history, this album closer was omitted from the original release for political reasons and it's though somewhat sad that this great album has this song as a bonus song now because art and politics should be separated. In many Chinese albums, books and movies, there is though quite often some kind of political propaganda which seems annoying to a person like me that is not very patriotic. In fact, the socialist revolution has nothing to do with the fascinating and long era of the Tang Dynasty and I think one should not have included this closing track on the recent reissues of the album.

Any fan of melodic and epic heavy metal and hard rock music with some folk elements and an exotic touch should definitely try to purchase this record and spread the word about it. This band is definitely in my all time favourite bands of the classic heavy metal genres and one of the greatest things I discovered in music this year. I never thought that there were so many amazing Chinese metal bands out there but the discovery of groups like Tang Dynasty, Screaming Savior (who did a quite good symphonic black metal cover of this record's opener that you should definitely check out), The Last Successor, Fu Xi, Magic World Fantasy and many more proved me wrong and I start to dig deeper and deeper into this emerging and fascinating metal scene. Thanks to globalisation I discover more and more outstanding music from these countries that were still rather isolated from an artistic, cultural and also political point of view not even three decades ago. I hope you also take a chance and ride on these wings of tomorrow to open up your mind for this kind of music from a very charming country that offers much to discover.

After more than thirty years Overkill still stand tall and haven't changed a bit. They are as hungry and wild as in their early years and after the brilliant thrash metal revival that was "Ironbound", the Americans deliver another genre highlight only two years after the last strike with the energizing "The Electric Age". This record is not as brilliant as the last one but comes quite close after all and should be a must have on the list of any thrash metal fan out there in the universe.

Already the opening track "Come And Get It" takes no prisoners. The vocals sound angrier and hungrier than ever before and the song itself is filled with many interesting changes, killer riffs and an amazing bass guitar work. All over the record we can hear punk influences from bands such as The Exploited or Sex Pistols, classic heavy and power metal bits and pieces that make me think of Accept or Grave Digger and also some stuff reminding me of Black Sabbath or the genre colleagues of Metallica in the calmer tracks of the record. Anyway, the final mixture definitely sounds like Overkill but I want to underline the excellent mixture of straight riffs and surprising diversity.

My personal highlights apart of the brilliant opener are the retro banger "Save Yourself" that dominates with multiple energizing vocal parts, once again an excellent bass guitar performance and a sharp solo in a perfect running time without any lengths. Everything is said in not even four minutes which has become a very rare quality in the metal scene that perpetually tends to produce overlong and often boring epics, even in the thrash metal scene.

If bands might work on pieces with a longer running time, they should at least be of the quality of the third highlight of this record which is "Good Night". The track starts with soft guitar sounds that make me think of Metallica's "Fade To Black" or "To Live Is To Die" but the track turns quickly into a pitiless piece of excellent thrash music that makes me think of Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" or the more recent "Cyanide" because of its multiple breaks and atmospheric parts. This track is without a doubt the most diversified song on the entire album and my personal favourite. I wish Metallica would write this kind of music nowadays instead of doing weird experiments with aged rock icons and releasing shallow bonus tracks from old recording sessions.

Even if there are a couple of only solid tracks on this release such as the rather ordinary "Wish You Were Dead" that seems to be written as a straighter piece for some live performances and "21st Century Man" that sounds too much like any other classic Overkill track which are the reasons why this release is not as strong as the last Overkill album or some of their earlier works, this is still a top notch thrash metal record with many new hymns, a few diversified experiments and several future live anthems. I also feel that more complex tracks such as "Electric Rattlesnake" grow each time I listen to them once again and that this album has indeed some serious long time potential. This record is nothing really groundbreaking or new but a hell load of fun to listen to. After this release, I also definitely feel the need to want to see these guys in concert. So please come and get this release!

With their very first album that presents a potpourri of songs from early demos and smaller releases plus a few new tracks, Waltari definitely introduce themselves as a party band. These guys don't take themselves too serious and you should be open to different kinds of music from dirty funk over fast paced punk to alternative rock. There are also some more metal orientated tracks with some hevay and thrash bits but they are not very numerous on this release. This band doesn’t give a damn about genre limits, logical flows or mainstream accessibility. The Beatles cover “Help!” is a beautiful example for this rebellious attitude.

The band definitely delivers more than just a few surprises on this album. Some tracks are inspired by punk bands such as the Finnish Terveet Kädet as in "I Was Born In The Wrong Decade", other tracks definitely sound like the contemporary records of the Red Hot Chili Peppers like "Rap Your Body Beat" and some more progressive songs have a certain experimental Voivod touch like "Ride". At some points, the band reminds me of the modern and very diversified Japanese alternative metal band Monkey Pirates or the Canadian alternative rock scene around bands such as Groovy Aardvark.

To keep it short, this record is quite diversified and never gets boring. After some confusing moments in the beginning one gets used to weird potpourri of styles that the band offers on this release. On the other side, the band doesn't sound coherent, profound and unique enough to convince and still seems to look for its very own identity on this first release. Surprisingly, the calmer tracks like "Sad Song" or "Universal Song" turn even out to have the best potential on this album in my humble opinion even or maybe because they don't quite sound like the rest and are hard to be compared to other bands.

Anyway, this album is highly entertaining if you like open-minded rock music of all kinds and is definitely worth to be checked out. I will probably put this record on for my next party and am sure that nobody will hate it as everybody might find something he or she likes on this crazy release. This release is far from being perfect but a hell load of fun and merits a solid rating after all and ultimately convinced me more than I initially expected.

Darkane from Sweden play a quite interesting mixture of modern death metal passages and pitiless thrash riffs with a dark and desperate vibe that could also please to gothic metal fans. This variety means that this kind of music may be worth your attention as it could please to fans of a bunch of very different bands such as Absu, Children Of Bodom, Communic, Meshuggah, Nevermore, The Old Dead Tree or Watch Tower. Their music has a very technical and almost progressive approach at some points. The band is able to mix technical ecstasy with atmosphere and emotions which is a thing not all of the mentioned bands are able to do. The basis of this record seems to be very promising but there is a little something that disturbs my full appreciation for this output.

The problem we have in here is that the tracks sound all quite similar and the well sought song structures get a little bit used after a while. Especially the beginning of the album kicks off on a rather low note and the band only varies significantly towards the end of the record. The last three tracks vary between profound and harmonic progressive parts as in "Maelstrom Crisis", bass orientated thrash monsters with a few doom undertones as heard in "Decadent Messiah" and very aggressive, fast and technical stuff like "Creation Insane". These tracks offer a lot to discover but need some patience until they grow as they are hard to follow and sound strangely complex and quite straight at the same time. All in all, this album is though a little bit too straight and everything is said after a while. If you have listened to previous records of the band it seems as if they haven't changed a thing in their formula to progress in any artistic way. There is no real need for a purchase of this record if you aren't a very loyal collector and true fan of the band and you might as well pick any other album of the band or wait for a compilation release.

My favourite song is though in the middle of the album. The title track has epic a very hypnotizing dark vibe, a simple but extremely catchy chorus, a pitiless and energizing middle part followed by beautiful guitar harmonies that awaken a melancholic spring in this grey winter of despair. The band is able to create a truly addicting atmosphere which is definitely one of their strongest points and this track represents the band very well and in top form. If these guys would be able to catalyse this precision between diverse technical ecstasy and addicting atmospheric hooks over the whole record, they might easily be part of the top technical death or thrash metal bands in the world but there is definitely still some way to go as they are only slightly above good average right now.