Katatonia is one of those bands I’ve often stumbled over in diverse reviews, in interviews or in many talks with other Metal fans around the whole wide world but for no truly valid reason I’ve never managed to give them a try until now. The band is though often compared to some of my favourite acts of all times such as the now split-up French progressive gothic metal band The Old Dead Tree, the dark horror metal duo of The Vision Bleak or even the highly diversified melodic metal act AmorphisS. Finally, the band’s brand new release was the perfect occasion for me to try out this Swedish quintet. The cover artwork, the booklet and even the song titles seemed promising enough for an atmospheric and profound release and that’s why I took the risk to buy this album straight away.

I guess this wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever taken. I’m negatively surprised by the faceless and weak production, the similar and unspectacular song structures and the lack of energy. Most tracks are simply keyboard driven and lack of crunching vocals, emotional guitar riffs or any progressive tones. I wouldn’t even call this a metal record but rather a depressive rock release without guts. I thought that this release would grow on me and many fans said that this album would need ten or fifteen spins at least before one would appreciate it but if it takes so long it probably means that you really want it to be good and listen to it often enough to drown your disappointment in floating depression. I gave this album about five spins and gave up. My time is definitely too precious to waste another ten hours on it.

This all sounds quite negative but I’m aware that there are still a couple of good tracks on here. “The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here” is a surprisingly warm and charming half ballad where the guest vocals of The Gathering's new singer Silje Wergeland fit well to those of Jonas Renske. The track though sounds a little bit too much like a more recent Kamelot duet and the Swedish band should have made something more unique out of this collaboration.

The strongest track on this release comes around with the closing “Dead Letters” in my humble opinion that features some small but efficient electronic samples and distorted vocals as well as a dark and intriguing riff. This song could though also come from Radiohead or Tool. If you have purchased the limited edition, the song “The Act Of Darkening” also happens to be quite decent with interesting drum patterns and a focus on acoustic guitar harmonies that give the song a longing campfire atmosphere.

A few other tracks are acceptable and there isn’t a really true stinker on here, too but the band doesn’t manage to really stay on my mind or leave a deeper impression. I’m not an expert of Katatonia but this album here is only of an average quality and it didn’t make me want to discover more of this band even though they are so often compared to some of my favourite artists.

Your Last Wish is a band that was formed in Montreal in 2003 and that started to get itself a name in the underground metal scene with their first self-entitled studio record in 2007. After this release, many members though quit the band and only lead guitarist David Gagné remained. Four years later, the band had survived and is now back with a brand new line-up. The most obvious change is that the original singer Martin Lalonde has been replaced by Roxana Bouchard, a young female singer from Quebec with Peruvian roots. The young woman who also works for Apocalypse Productions and who seems to be involved in different underground music projects such as Social Fiction or Virulys varies from higher and almost blackened screams to deeper growls. Personally, I think her technique sounds much more natural and diversified as the style of an Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy for example even though they will probably often be compared to them as many critics happen to lack of imagination.

Anyway, this little EP we have here is some sort of a promotional appetizer for the new record “Desolation” that saw the light of day a couple of months ago. The three songs we get in here are not outstanding or innovating but technically diversified and also emotional enough to make me want to try out their full length release and try to see them in concert. The band is definitely a little bit harder than other melodic death metal bands without getting too close to the ordinary brutal death metal genre or an atmospheric interpretation of the black metal genre. In fact, this band is already on its way to find its very own style instead of trying to sound popular which is a positive aspect of their musicianship.

“Authistic Mind” kicks the record off in a quite good way. It starts with a short bass dominated introduction before some versatile drums kick in and may even surprise you a little bit. After a few seconds of innovation a rather odd guitar riffs starts that is accompanied by a powerful and long scream and some pitiless vocals that keep the energy of this opener on a high level. Finally, even the guitars join the blistering vocals, the pitiless drumming and the humming bass guitar. Some more melodic and even almost progressive guitar tones take the lead and let us forget the monotonous and even disappointingly misplaced opening riff. That’s where one realizes that the whole band has got some great potential to offer.

The title song “Collision Course” is as good as the opener and confronts fast and hectic passages with a few slower and sometimes even heavier parts. The highly emotional vocals stand out once again but this time the guitars also shine. The track includes a very well done down tuned solo that gets more and more melodic and classic metal orientated towards the end. This progressive transition sounds indeed very intriguing and different from the things I usually happen to hear in this genre.

“Creep” is finally a very technical and brutal melodic death metal track including a couple of intriguing breaks and small but smartly done rhythm changes. Especially the variable vocals make this track once again somewhat interesting and save it from an average song. It’s the weakest song out of the three but still enjoyable to listen to.

In the end, we only get three short tracks on this release but they are enough for me to realize that Your Last Wish are musically talented and that they have a quite outstanding vocalist. The song writing is already quite good but could still improve with a few experiments as all musicians have their shining moments on here. Melodic death metal fans should immediately grab this little collector’s item if they can get it and should also try to catch the band up live. Let’s hope that they’ll also make it up to the Saguenay region and elsewhere in the province to spread their name and promote their new release.

Even though Iron Maiden didn’t release any new material apart of the live release “En Vivo!” in the beginning of the year and the quite average Deep Purple cover “Space Truckin’” for a compilation, this year can still overall be considered as a success for the band thanks to a successful “Maiden England” tour through North America. In the beginning of the year, guitarist Adrian Smith also joined forces with Mikee Goodman of SikTh for their alternative metal project named Primal Rock Rebellion that came as a fresh surprise. Now it’s the turn of Iron Maiden's bass player and band leader Steve Harris who joins forces with four British musicians and several session musicians for a record entitled “British Lion”.

In fact, there was a band composed of some of the musicians who now play with Steve Harris that had a band under this name and who asked Steve Harris to help them with production twenty years ago. Steve Harris initially agreed but Iron Maiden lived quite a difficult time with the departure of singer Bruce Dickinson and the search for a new front man who would later be found with Blaze Bayley and Steve Harris also had some personal issues with a tough divorce that didn’t give him the occasion to help the young band. Their members also went through some hard times and eventually split up. Several years later, a few members of the split-up British Lion band created a new band and this time, Steve Harris was able to join some of their writing sessions. This is what later became the so-called solo album by Steve Harris. This album should though rather be considered as a band project where the name of the famous bassist only helps to increase sales figures.

Honestly said, nobody would even notice this record if the name of Steve Harris wasn’t written on the cover. The band performs something like an alternative rock release with a few heavy metal influences that simply lacks of energy and innovation.

The bass guitar sound is dominant but sometimes too much and the licks and riffs are not as dynamical or original as they happen to be in Iron Maiden.

Steve Harris’ performance on here is rather disappointing but he is still better than the two guitar players who mostly play unspectacular and monotonous riffs and faceless solos.

But it’s even getting worse if you’re listening to the drum sound. One regular band member and two session musicians performed the drums that lack of dynamism and sound worse than drum computers. Too many cooks spoil the broth, especially when all of those cooks seem to lack of emotional and technical skills. The drumming on the last Running Wild record was definitely better as this quite one that is close to the bad sound of the last Manowar release. I’m though not surprised by the bad quality as the record was mixed by the overrated Kevin Shirley and produced by Steve Harris himself who has never had any talent for this kind of job in the past.

But the story’s not yet over. The vocals also fail to impress and sound horribly thin, especially in the harder tracks such as “Us Against The World” or “A World Without Heaven”. They work though better in the more alternative rock tracks of the album such as in the hypnotizing opener “This Is My God” or the warm-hearted “Eyes Of The Young” that has a somewhat charming influence of the eighties’ commercial rock scene and even a surprisingly good production sound apart of the drumming.

Let’s add to the positive side that the band overall improves its skills in the second part of the record starting with the dynamical album highlight “The Chosen Ones” in the middle of the release that gives this album a little boost.

I will try to give you a little advice right now. Just take this record as the debut release of a young alternative rock or metal band. Forget the name of Steve Harris and his connection to the heavy metal legends of Iron Maiden as we’re definitely talking about two completely different worlds. Try to ignore the highly flawed mixing and production, too. You will then realize that there are in fact a couple of quite catchy songs on the album. It’s still nothing outstanding but the record appears definitely better as it did at first sight.

In the end, I don’t know who might truly adore this kind of record as it varies too much between alternative rock tracks, retro rock numbers and a few more heavy metal driven songs to entirely please to a fan of any of those genres. It’s not a bad release but it lacks of direction, innovation and especially an acceptable production. As many fans, I would probably only buy this at a low price as a collector’s item as I also own a certain number of solo records from Blaze Bayley, Paul Di'Anno, Bruce Dickinson or the latest Primal Rock Rebellion release. On the other side, it’s definitely the weakest offering from any Iron Maiden member outside of the band and fails to impress so that one should invest the cash in a different newcomer band that really needs some support.

Therion have always been a little bit different from regular Metal bands but when I heard that they would release their new record on their own and without the support of the visionary German Nuclear Blast label, I was quite surprised. When I later heard that the new release would feature fifteen or sixteen cover version of the French chanson genre of the sixties and seventies, I first thought that this was a joke but it ultimately turned out to be true. The Swedish band plays sixteen classics that are mostly inspired by the famous French lyricist Charles Baudelaire and especially his most famous publication that was “The Flowers Of Evil” which happens to be the title of this record.

Let’s get a couple of things straight before I lose myself in the description of the tracks. This record includes almost only short tracks with a running time around three minutes. The lyrics are entirely performed in French. The female vocals on this release are much more dominant than the masculine ones. The new songs have mostly nothing to do with the atmospheric metal anthems or the classic epics of the band’s past. This record is something completely new. Twenty-five years after the band made its first steps as a death and doom metal band, they focus on an aspect that we didn’t even expect to exist: fun. You can hear that Therion are indeed having loads of fun on this release that sounds more diversified, entertaining and lighter than any other album by this band. The Swedish don’t care about fan expectations, critics or financial issues and simply do what they want to do and they do well.

Some of the tracks on here are in fact close to the originals and have a charming old school Chanson flair. A good example could be the very light “Wahala Manitou” by Léonie Lousseau or the catchy romantic ballad “Une fleur dans le coeur” by Victoire Scott.

On the other side, there are also a couple of more emotional and introspective songs on this record. There aren’t many of them though and that’s what makes them even more intense and outstanding. The best example is the sad “J’ai le mal de toi” by Colette Dereal that combines emotional female and male vocals and makes me think of a more rhythm orientated version of a Ginette Reno song. This sounds strange but it works very well. One of three promotional video clips was done for this song that is dedicated to the French singer and actress Betty Mars who committed suicide by jumping out of her apartment in the modern La Défense suburb of Paris in the late eighties. This new interpretation of the lyrics and the intense video make this song very touching. Musically, it’s maybe the best song on the entire record for me. Other longing songs on this record include the melancholic but romantic “Mon ami, mon amour” by Marie Laforêt. There are also some darker and mystic tracks on the release such as the perfectly entitled “Lilith” by Léonie Lousseau that could please to older Therion fans.

There are also a couple of truly experimental pieces on this record. One must of course cite the new interpretation of Serge Gainsbourg's “Initials BB” that includes narrative and poetic passages and needs a few spins to grow even though it’s one of the most intriguing songs on the entire record. The initial track is in fact dedicated to the legendary actress and singer Brigitte Bardot. It wouldn’t be too exaggerated to call Therion’s band leader Christofer Johnsson a soul mate of the eccentric French artist he’s covering here.

As I said, there are also a lot of energizing fun songs with a certain rock ‘n roll attitude on this release. “Je n’ai besoin que de tendresse” by Claire Nixon is an up-tempo track stylistically situated somewhere between the European power metal and the glam rock genre. The song feels like a mixture of a Slade party track of the late seventies, a Glam Metal anthem by W.A.S.P. from the mid-eighties and a funny Power Metal track by Helloween from the late eighties. A second video clip was done for this song. It shows Therion playing the track in front of a chaotic crowd that is getting drunk, fighting each other and having sex in the weirdest ways. This is definitely an image one has never seen before coming from this band and that unexpected aspect makes it so exciting.

There are only a couple of tracks that are comparable to the earlier works of Therion. A good example would be the opener and as reprise also the album closer “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” by France Gall. In the new version, technically perfect and slightly hysterical female vocals meet a few Symphonic Metal elements and truly heavy guitar riffs. A third and last video clip was done for this song. Even though this track is maybe one of the few directly accessible songs for the regular fans, the video funnily depicts the opposite. One can see Therion performing in a cheap bar once again where the crowd simply ignores the band or starts to disturb and hate the performance. Scenes of drunk and puking women, brutally fighting men and people having sex on the toilet are also shown.

Therion definitely risk a lot with this new release. No matter what one might think about it, the concept is quite courageous, entertaining and unique. I would have never expected this band to create this kind of fun ride of an album. It doesn’t sound that much like a Therion release but I happen to truly adore this addicting record. Any open-minded music maniac should try this release out and might maybe call this her or his bible of the year 2012. Any Therion fan should though stop and try this record out warily instead of purchasing it blindly and getting disappointed. This release is not for everyone but those who accept it will probably love it quite a lot just as I already happen to do.

The young Canadian band Mongol delivers us a quite mixed bag on their debut release “The Altan Urug”.

First of all, we have many amazing folk elements in the songs. The banjo play for example is very well employed in a couple of songs and not an instrument that is overused in the genre. The opening of the closing “Warrior’s voyage” is such a positive example. The accordion is not too dominant which is a rather positive fact as many bands simply overuse it and take its charm. These young Canadians rather use it in little doses but in a very efficient way. The mandolin has some more play time in several songs and is an enjoyable alternative to acoustic guitars.

Another good aspect is the film samples that give some pieces an interesting narrative touch and conceptual approach as in a radio play. I don’t really understand why exactly German samples are used in the atmospheric opener “Das Ziel” and also in the lyrics of the second song and much heavier “Kriegesmarsch” even though they are taken from a movie about Mongolian history but these strange samples give the album indeed a quite exotic touch. As a native German speaker I was quite surprised by these samples and my confusion was soon replaced by an honest but mildly amused smile.

Let’s say that these newcomers make a lot of things right to sound different from the high numbers of young folk metal bands out there in the world by using a few more exotic instruments and unusual samples. On the other side, there are also some weaker parts. First of all, the guitar sound is too loud and often hides a few interesting melodies of the folk instruments that play on in the background. Nevertheless, there are a few well done melodic death metal riffs here and there on the album but no truly gripping passage.

The keyboards could also be used in a more atmospheric way and are a little bit overused at times even though they have a certain male charm in the opening of the quite original “Eekum Bokum”.

The worst aspect is though the quite boring death metal vocals that sound way too ordinary for such a promising and otherwise quite original band. Clean or at least more variable extreme metal vocals would give the songs more authenticity and depth. The intriguing image of Mongolian culture and history is somewhat reduced to the image of a horde of aggressive barbarians with these simplistic vocals even though I got used to it after a couple of spins.

In the end, there are still more intriguing than negative aspects about this band. With a better production and an even better focus on the exotic folk instruments and a better vocalist, these guys could stand out among the high amount of Folk Metal bands from the underground. Anybody who wants to give these five young musicians from Devon, Alberta a try can do so and listen to the entire release on their Bandcamp site under the following address: http://mongolcanada.bandcamp.com/