“ปรากฎการณ์ ปรากฎกาย” or “Phenomenon Appeared” is the sixth and until now final record of Thailand’s metal pioneers Donpheebin. This record released in 2000 somehow closes the circle that once started with “โลกมืด” or “Dark World” seven years earlier. It’s a sad thing that these three outstanding musicians didn’t release more records but at the same time, this album is a very good swansong if they won’t come back in the future.

This album continues the more atmospheric and progressive vein of the last two albums and even completely abandons the band’s thrash metal most of the time. The opening title track which is still among the harder songs including a few thrash metal elements is already hold in a more melodic mid-tempo pace and includes a few melodic shouts next to the less impressive guttural vocals. Most of the other songs even go further.

This fact is underlined by three instrumental tracks among nine songs on the band’s longest album. While the instrumentals “...คือชีวิต” or “Life Is…” and “Return To The Nature III” are very appeasing, folk driven, ethereal, laid back, mysterious, nature bound and spiritual, the third instrumental “Judgement Day” starts like a brilliant rock ballad before it gets a slightly harder touch towards the middle of the track.

The album’s epic “เพียงเริ่มทาง” or “Just Beginning” also underlines the laid back direction of the band’s sixth output. What we have here is a really calm and slow paced epic with multiple laid back vocals, a versatile but never thunderous drum play and a great mixture of acoustic and electric guitar play. The song reminds me of a Metallica ballad that meets an experimental ballad of Amorphis’ third or fourth album. We have to wait for more than two minutes and a half before melodic vocals set in and they only remain one element among many others. While the instrumental parts of Donpheebin have always been more important than the rest, this is the album where this fact becomes most evident. Once the vocals are there, they sound more natural than before and fit in very well though. This record and especially this song sound as if the band was in peace with the entire universe. And isn’t that a great way to close the short but impressive career of a stunning band?

In the end, this record is definitely the calmest one of the band. Its sound can be compared to the calmer songs of the band’s very first effort seven years earlier while the song writing itself has matured and sounds more progressive than ever. This record is dominated by appeasing and still powerful acoustic and electric guitar melodies. Fans of instrumental albums and progressive metal should try this album out while fans of the band’s more thrash and death metal bound releases may only like a few songs on here. I really like the album but I think that it ultimately probably is a little bit too calm for its own good. You really have to be in the right mood to dig this record because three instrumentals and almost all songs that mainly focus on the instrumental parts can be too much for some of us.

Originally written for The Metal Observer

As much as I love the German medieval rock scene, I must admit that no band ever managed to come close to the status of the genre’s first important bands such as Subway To Sally, In Extremo, Schandmaul or Saltatio Mortis. Saltatio Mortis peaked the charts with the enjoyable Das schwarze Einmaleins last summer, In Extremo released a really strong record entitled Kunstraub at the end of last year, Schandmaul came around with the softer folk rock orientated Unendlich earlier this year and Subway To Sally has just released its best record in a long time called Mitgift which is a conceptual album featuring eleven tracks about crimes and murders. Everything has somehow remained the same in this genre over the past ten years. A couple of promising bands such as Cultus Ferox didn’t make their breakthrough, the versatile Schelmish split up and more classical bands like Corvus Corax released a couple of less convincing records. It’s really about time for the genre to come around with a few fresh faces, new noises and thundering tracks.

Ingrimm are a younger band that was founded in 2006 and they already come around with their fourth release Henkt Ihn! this winter. Obviously, I have heard about this band before but I had never checked out an entire record. Their new album has a rather heavy sound somewhere between industrial metal and a few thrash metal parts. This could be an interesting base but the problem is that the musicians are not exceptional and that many songs sound quite alike after a while. As a reference, I would maybe cite Saltatio Mortis’ Des Königs Henker or Subway To Sally’s Engelskrieger which were their heaviest outputs respectively. Ingrimm put more metal but less folk influences in their sound. There are a few bagpipes, hurdy gurdies and violins in the songs but they don’t play anything addicting that gets stuck on your mind most of the time. Sometimes, it rather feels as if the folk instruments were alibis to get the attention of the medieval rock scene for a Neue Deutsche Härte band. Ingrimm somewhat sounds like a mixture of Grantig, Saltatio Mortis and Stahlmann. It’s not really bad but nothing revolutionary either.

Henkt Ihn! still has a couple of energizing and promising moments but you really have to dig their mixture of genres. “Carpe Diem” kicks off like a Neue Deutsche Härte track in the key of Megaherz and gets faster to sound a little bit like Tankard. The vocals are raw and even feature a few exceptional growls. The chorus is though very melancholic and almost slow and features hypnotizing violin and bagpipe sounds. When the chorus is repeated for the last time, blast beats suddenly kick in and end the track with a bang. It’s interesting to fusion these different elements but the mixture doesn’t sound fluid to me. The song has some potential but sounds somewhat odd. If the band worked on its song writing, this mixture could become a winning element in the future. 

Apart of “Carpe Diem”, the mixture of medieval folk passages, Neue Deutsche Härte buildups and thrash metal riffs works best in the catchy potential single “Asche auf mein Haupt” and the dark grower “Schwarzes Gold” in my opinion. On the other side, the record gets somewhat repetitive towards the end despite its short length of only forty minutes. The closing epic “Engel” drags on for far too long for example and sounds rather predictable. The song has a mid tempo pace, features more romantic lyrics and tries to sound different from the rest but it feels too constructed and doesn’t end the record on a high note.

In the end, fans of the aforementioned bands and genres can give this band a try. I would maybe purchase this record at a reduced price and put a few good songs on my playlist. Ingrimm might be rather appealing live as well and you should try to catch them up during a festival if you can. On the other side, this record is pretty unspectacular. It’s not bad but it’s not excellent either and that’s maybe the worst thing for an artist if you sound irrelevant and are neither adored nor hated by the masses. After all, if you don’t care or know about the bands mentioned in this article, Ingrimm should rather not be your first choice to get in contact with that particular German sound.

Originally written for The Metal Observer

Sparta is a band that was founded in Mansfield, United Kingdom as early as 1979. At its earliest stages, the band had been known as Xerox. The five young men were part of the popular New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement and released two promising singles back in 1980 and 1981 as well as a split record in 1981. That’s when the story of the band went slowly downhill. The band recorded a couple of demo tracks and toured in their home country but wasn’t able to catch up with the genre’s most popular acts such as Diamond Head, Girlschool, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Samson, Saxon, Tank, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Witchfinder General and many more. When the genre became less prominent towards the end of the eighties, the band decided to call it quits as well around 1990 without having released one single full length record.

Now, in early 2014, the time has finally come for the reunited band. After the release of two great compilations with Sparta in 2006 and especially Use Your Weapons Well in 2011 that are basically a collection of old classics recorded somewhere between 1979 and 1990, the band comes now around with a record featuring nine brand new genre anthems. Welcome To Hell features all authentic trademarks that made the genre so popular over three decades ago. A raw and energizing garage production meets mid to up tempo heavy metal tracks somewhere between four and seven minutes including gripping riffs, melodic twin guitar solos and grounded vocals singing about death, hell, war but also about freedom, rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and women. The band sounds as if it was 1981 again. This is a charming approach but also a little bit predictable and old-fashioned.

I’m especially enjoying the more courageous songs on the record. The atmospheric concept track “Soldier Of Fortune” brings the horrors of war to life while the diversified album closer “Kingdom Of The Sky” convinces with almost occult acoustic guitar sounds and longing vocals but also a few sped up passages with energizing hooks. Any heavy metal fan should feel perfectly at home in these two tracks. The record also features a few dirtier and meaner songs such as the opening title song “Welcome To Hell” that cites the famous 300 movie and proves us that the band has at least somehow landed in the twenty-first century or the faster “Arrow” that could also come from Motörhead if the vocals were a little bit more dis-harmonic.

The more I listen to that album, the more I like it. Many riffs and hooks got quickly stuck on my mind and the band doesn’t lose anything of its juvenile energy. It’s a shame that this record only sees the light of day as an underground release in 2014. If the band had released this record 33 years earlier it would surely be called a genre classic today. But a late release is better than no release at all. The band surely doesn’t reinvent the genre but those who still care for pure heavy metal and are sad to see the old genre dying these days must give this release a few well deserved spins.

Originally written for The Metal Observer

I was really enthusiastic to cover a record by Omnium Gatherum since I had seen them live earlier this year. The band managed to mix energizing melodic death metal with highly atmospheric, enchanting, and melancholic progressive passages and especially the longer tracks had amazing and profound buildups. I decided to discover more of this band and stumbled over the reissue of its fourth full length release The Redshift that had been released back in 2008. Reissues and especially re-recordings don’t always make sense. This is also the case for this package. The band included the original album on this release plus four bonus tracks. Instead of offering anything really new, the additional material is composed of one live track, two demo versions and an alternative version of a song taken from this release. If you can still get your hands on the original release, I would simply go for this.

It took me some time to accept that this record wasn’t what I had initially expected. There are no highly atmospheric, epic and progressive tracks on this release. The longest track is only five minutes and a half long and the album even includes many shorter and faster tracks between two and four minutes. The only faster and more diversified track that really impresses me is though the inspired opener “Nail” which is maybe even one of the best tracks on here.

Despite a first disappointment, The Redshift is an album that easily surpasses anything that had recently been released by genre colleagues such as Dark Tranquillity or Soilwork for example. Instead of only adopting the sound of the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene, the sextet added something very Finnish to their sound that I can also find in my favourite metal band Amorphis or in almost any Finnish band I have ever known from Apocalyptica over HIM to Stratovarius. It’s this uniquely sweet melancholic feeling that gives the songs a longing touch. This is this band’s winning element to stand out and it’s mostly transported by floating guitar melodies, a clever use of keyboards and the use of diversified vocals between unchained growls and fragile clean passages to build up some magic atmosphere. Many songs are too short and fast to fully develop this element but each time it appears for a while, the band completely grabs my attention.

A good example is the less aggressive and more atmospheric “No Breaking Point”. The slow and menacing but at the same time hopefully longing spirit of “Shapes On Shades” even almost reminds me of a harsher Amorphis song and is a definite grower. The melancholic and slow hymn “Greeneyes” that almost starts like a Dream Theater ballad sounds a lot like contemporary Amorphis by using only profound clean vocals. This particular tune manages to touch my mind and my soul. It’s somewhat the hidden gem on this record for me. The floating and progressive instrumental interlude “Song For December” reminds me of the eerie atmosphere of Opeth and it’s a pity that this song is so short. Omnium Gatherum shows us glimpses of its incredible talent in many places but I’m still missing an absolute breakthrough anthem on here.

After several spins, these bittersweet and thoughtful passages get omnipresent. They grow on you and make what seemed to be a good average album at first try a pretty amazing record. Omnium Gatherum definitely need some more time to open up on a studio record than in concert but once the magic unfolds you are absolutely stunned. The patient listeners will get rewarded for sure with this band. If you care for atmospheric, emotional and profound metal music in the key of Amorphis, you can’t get around this band anymore. Omnium Gatherum would really deserve to get some more recognition for their recent works. Go and check them out now.

Originally written for The Metal Observer

“Hope In Hell” is the 15th record of the legendary Canadian heavy metal institution Anvil that finally got some well-deserved and needed attention after the release of the documentary “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil” five years ago. What followed was some sort of rebirth for the band with a strong record entitled “Juggernaut Of Justice” and two years after, we get this follow-up.

This record is the perfect example of an album that kicks off very strong but falls a little bit flat towards the end. The album starts with a bunch of energizing and also diversified songs. The opening title song “Hope In Hell” has a slight doom metal influenced tone but also a few riffs reminding me of slowed down thrash metal influences even though it doesn't directly sound like groove metal. This track sounds maybe like a mixture of Black Sabbath and Metallica. The following and truly energizing “Eat Your Words” is a lot dirtier and sharper and should be a fan favourite during the next concerts. This track isn’t a far cry from Motörhead for example. ”Through With You” has an opening riff that reminds me a lot of “Smoke On The Water” from Deep Purple but it’s far more than just an uninspired copy of it. The track is in fact a very catchy mid-tempo rocker with diversified vocals. This was one of the songs that already remained on my mind for quite a while after a first try. The band continues to deliver some of the most energizing and catchiest tracks I have heard in the traditional heavy metal genre for quite a while. Short and long, slow and fast, melancholic and joyful, dirty and melodic songs appear in a quite balanced way and the record seems to never get all too boring even if Anvil doesn’t try out anything truly new. I would also like to point out the track “Flying” which is a sympathetic rendition to the band’s fans all around the world and one of the best potential live anthems on the record. Let’s mention that the bonus tracks are also quite energizing and if you consider buying this release, you have no choice but to get them in my humble opinion. Especially “Fire At Will” is a firework of energy and a true monster of a song.

But despite all these positive elements, this record falls somehow flat in the last third which is rather sad because this release would have made it straight into my top five records of the year. During the last few tracks, you can’t help but feel like you have already heard these tracks before on the record because they are less original and unique. The simplistic hard rock driven “Badass Rock ‘N Roll” is such a track. Another good example is “Time Shows No Mercy” which is not a bad song per se but another typical mid-tempo track that worships the heavy metal style of the early eighties. Don’t get me wrong, these songs are still performed with passion but with a running time of over an hour things start to get redundant after a while and the concept starts to feel a little bit worn-out. A little experimental track or change of style would have made the final result a little bit fresher, more modern and more relevant in my humble opinion. Another possibility would have been to replace these tracks by the bonus songs and cut the record down to nine or ten songs only.

In the end, I’m not that much an expert of Anvil but I really liked a couple of energizing, honest and straight hard rock and heavy metal tracks on here and this especially in the first half of the album. This band is clearly better than many of those boring heavy metal revival bands with members in their late twenties who sound musically more closed-minded than their own parents. This record is a must have for somebody who still adores the pioneer years of heavy metal and wants to get back to this style without looking for old and dusty vinyl records in the attic. I don't really understand the negative critics concerning this album as it really is a worthwhile fun ride in my opinion.

Originally written for The Metal Observer