Suld is a folk metal quintet from Inner Mongolia in China whose band name means Unleash and not Special Use Land Designation as some people believe. This band is one of many combining traditional Mongolian folk instruments such as the morin khuur, lyrics about nature and nomadism and traditional throat singing with contemporary heavy metal instrumentation centered around melodic guitar play, galloping bass guitar sounds and tight drumming. The Memory of Nomadism expresses a nostalgic return to the untouched beauty of Mongolian landscapes and promotes environmental protection to save nature. If you have ever seen pictures of modern cities like Ordos and Ulaanbaatar that emerge like monstrous entities of steel and glass in the middle of endless steppes, you can understand the band's longing for a return to a more rural spirit.

The music underlines this feeling of longing, nostalgia and wilderness perfectly. The folk instruments sound melancholic yet resilient. The vocals vary between hypnotizing throat singing and cautiously hopeful clean vocals. The guitar work at times smoothly supports the folk instruments but takes a more vibrant approach here and there. The rhythm section can be calm and peaceful but quickens up the pace at the right moments. Highlights are the diversified opener and title track ''The Memory of Nomadism'', the engaging and rhythmic ''The Beautiful Mongolian Horse'' and the appeasing and imaginative ''Oasis''. 

Suld's The Memory of Nomadism offers a perfect mixture of traditional instruments and contemporary grit and provides a truly significant message. Mongolian folk metal was believed to be a temporary trend but turns out to be alive and kicking with this vibrant release that even beats some recent records of genre veterans like Tengger Cavalry and Nine Treasures. If you want to feel free like the beautiful horses on the cover artwork, go get this album and discover another gem of Mongolian folk metal.

Final rating: 77%

I'm usually not very fond of cover records since they are often a cheap attempt at making money instead of offering truly inspired material. Perfect examples are all those bands who have recently decided to cover Toto's Africa after Weezer pulled this off successfully like Bonfire. Powerwolf's Metallum Nostrum is a different beast. The album was originally released on the special edition of Blessed & Possessed four years earlier but this version is very tough to find nowadays and the final result is so great that it deserves a separate release.

Powerwolf really managed to make the ten cover songs sound like their own. Attila Dorn's vibrant, skillful and melodic vocals sound much better than many of the original singers and find the perfect mixture between accessibility and technique. The sacral keyboard sounds by Falk Maria Schlegel add a cinematic, dramatic and epic note that keep all songs together. The guitar work is equally powerful and atmospheric. The rhythm section is solid backbone providing the necessary heavy metal energy that forms the basis for the band's concept combining traditional heavy metal and sacral sounds. It's oblivious to me why this group is often classified as power metal. The production is surprisingly organic and powerful for a release that was initially only considered a bonus disc.

It's impressive how the band pulls off songs that I hold in very high regard. Savatage's ''Edge of Thorns'' is one of my favourite songs ever with its efficient piano melodies and emotional vocals but Powerwolf somehow managed to make the song sound even better with more gripping keyboard sounds and a most versatile and powerful vocal performance that leaves an outstanding impression. Iron Maiden's ''The Evil That Men Do'' is an equally ambitious choice as the song had often been covered in more or less convincing ways. While the original track sounds a little bit rushed at times, it unfolds its full epic potential in Powerwolf's majestic version and the outstanding elements are once again the keyboards and vocals. I never thought I would find a better version of this track than the desperate original version but here it is.

Powerwolf even managed to make songs work that I don't really appreciate. I have never been a fan of Amon Amarth's stereotypical antics and superficially grim image. ''Gods of War Arise'' keeps the sinister atmosphere of the original song but adds apocalyptic keyboard sounds and ominous vocals that send shivers down the spine. Who would have known that an Amon Amarth song would have so much potential? Maybe the original band should take some notes and learn from this astonishing cover version.

Powerwolf doesn't reinvent anything with this release and if you're able to find the original version of this release included on the limited version of the Blessed & Possessed record, you can ignore this separate release. However, this cover album deserves your attention because the German-Dutch quintet managed to make these songs sound like their own. The sacral keyboard sounds and vibrant vocals are particularly outstanding. Some people wonder if there are any bands out there that could one day replace the big names like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Powerwolf is already one of them. If you haven't discovered them yet, do yourself a favour and check out this album.

Final rating: 90%

Aquaman is another exchangeable superhero movie but it's so dynamic and visually stunning that you won't care about the insultingly predictable plot and the repetitive superhero tropes.

The movie has a short and appropriate introduction before the epic adventure unfolds and ends on a concise positive note going back to its opening sequence. The underwater world looks fantastic and especially the animals like sharks are lovely. The quest that leads the main character and his female sidekick across the planet includes stunning locations like Sicily and Morocco that offer a welcome change from the seas. The settings are carefully chosen and cleverly mixed with computer animations. Director James Wan filmed everything calmly, extravagantly and precisely. Even the dramatic action scenes like the breathtaking escape sequence in Sicily avoid shaky cameras and exaggerated special effects which makes the film enjoyable to watch from start to finish. The final duel between the courageous half-breed protagonist and his sinister half-brother is visually spectacular and emotionally engaging.

You will get exactly what you expect from this movie: shallow but gripping entertainment for the whole family with a big budget. It's pleasant while it lasts but also quickly forgotten because of predictable tropes, an overall tiresome story and mostly average acting performances. Up next, let's create another exchangeable superhero movie called Airwoman, Earthtransgender or Firetiger.

Heavy Rain is an intercative drama and action-adventure game that was originally released on Playstation 3 back in 2010 but was remastered and released on Playstation 4 in 2016. It is also available as a bundle with Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. The video game was critically acclaimed and New Line Cinema even purchased the rights to make a movie based upon the video game even though a specific project hasn't materialized so far.

The game focuses on a gloomy atmosphere centered on a twisted story with numerous different outcomes that guarantees that players feel like revisiting this game. A serial killer known as the Origami killer kidnaps young boys, keeps them in secret locations, drowns them and dumps their bodies with an origami figure placed on their chests.

There are four playable characters whose actions intertwine.

Ethan Mars is a family father who lost one of his sons in a tragic accident and fell into a coma. He awoke six months later but suffers from occasional disorientation and memory loss, wandering off at night for unfathomable reasons. Tragedy strikes again when his second son is kidnapped in a park. Ethan Mars doesn't want to lose another son and does everything he can to find his son before he gets killed. The serial killer contacts him and asks him to undergo a series of more and more twisted challenges to save his child.

Madison Paige is a journalist suffering from insomnia and strange visions who occasionally moves to a run-down motel where she seems to be able to sleep much better than at home. She meets Ethan Mars at the motel, realizes that he seems to feel tormented and offers her help for mysterious reasons. When she learns more about him, she decides to investigate herself in order to help him save his son and uncover the identity of the Origami killer.

Norman Jayden is a FBI profiler who is sent from Washington D.C. to support local police force to identify and arrest the Origami killer. The profiler uses a sophisticated evidence detecting system called Added Reality Interface but his unusual methods clash with his conservative partner lieutenant Carter Blake. Norma Jayden also suffers from a severe drug addiction that cause hallucinations, headaches and nosebleeds. He soon fails to distinguish fantasy from reality.

Scott Shelby is a former police officer who was let go under mysterious circumstances. He has become a lonesome private investigator who got hired by the families of the serial killer's victims. He tries to understand the serial killer's modus operandi and soon uncovers clues police officers had overlooked. He focuses his attention on an attention-seeking playboy and son of a wealthy businessman who tries to bribe and later on menace Scott Shelby. He reluctantly pairs up with the mother of one of the victims, a prostitute named Lauren Winter, who is emotionally unstable but motivated to find her son's murderer by any means necessary.

While the story, characters and atmosphere are the game's strongest points, its weakness remains the game play. The four characters are played from a third-person perspective but the camera angles are sometimes difficult to adjust. The game also focuses on numerous quick time events that need perfect precision and timing. This can become frustrating for occasional or less experienced players.

Still, this clever game is very immersive and almost works like a detailed film noir that requests the player's participation. This sinister thriller is much better than numerous actual movies and television series. The story, characters and atmosphere are this game's greatest assets while the game play could have been more diversified and fluid. In the end, this intellectual video game is highly recommendable and has aged particularly well. 

Detailed rating:

Atmosphere: 10/10

Challenge level: 7/10

Controls: 6/10

Game flow: 8/10

Graphics: 8/10

Length: 8/10

Long-term fun factor: 9/10

Sound: 8/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Story: 10/10 

Total score:  83/100

Escape rooms have become quite popular over the past few years and it's surprising that a movie about this intriguing concept has only been released this year when this trend is already slowly declining. This film would have been much more successful if it had been released three to five years ago. The concept of the movie is really simple: six strangers get an invitation to an Escape Room game but the challenges quickly turn out being deadly. They must figure out why they have been chosen, try to cooperate as much as they can and survive the trials and tribulations.

This movie has exactly one positive element which is though so important that it makes the film bearable on its own: the different rooms are challenging, diversified and intriguing. They include the settings of a frozen lake, an old bar and a twisted laboratory among others. The riddles are diversified and vary from puzzles over music to literature. The fact that parts of these rooms are connected to traumatic events of the past for the characters adds some thrills at the right moments.

Everything else about this movie is a catastrophe. Let's analyze it chronologically. The first scene is actually one of the last scenes of the film, revealing who is believed to be the lone survivior, which takes away from the tension the movie could have built up to that point. Up next, we are only introduced to three of the six characters and this already reveals the order in which the characters are going to die. The conclusion is a shameless copy of the Cube franchise. The final scene offers a ridiculous open ending that makes no sense at all but leaves the possibility for a sequel if this movie performs well. As we all know, sequels are often even worse than the original film and since this movie is already quite bad, one doesn't want to imagine how terrible another one could be.

Here's my proposal for you: Experience a real Escape Room challenge with some friends. It will be more interactive, peak your curiosity and help you learn more about your friends and yourself. Don't watch this exchangeable movie with its average actors and lazy plot that you will forget about as soon as it's over. This movie stupidly tries to exploit a contemporary phenomenon for its own economic purposes but it fails at so many levels that one almost feels insulted watching parts of it.