The first strike of this Speed Metal band from Edmonton formed back in 2007 is entitled “Road Warrior” and includes four regular tracks plus a bonus song as well as a GRIM REAPER cover. The five young Canadians also rereleased the songs from this EP on a new special edition of their first regular studio record “Eyes in the Night”. If you are able to get your hands on that combined package, don’t hesitate to grab it.

The six songs released on this twenty-six minutes long record in 2009 are all very energizing and quite a fun ride. The opening title track “Road Warrior” makes clear right from the start that these crazy Canadians are one of the best Heavy and Speed Metal revival bands. The track is guided by powerful piercing falsetto screams and an excellent variable clean vocal performance. The speed metal riffs and the powerhouse drumming are straight in your face while the almost Power Metal driven chorus won’t leave your mind anytime soon. The slightly more modern bonus track and live anthem “The Keg That Crushed New York” hits a similar vein but features a more distorted guitar sound and a modern breakdown that adds a rather unusual idea to the genre.

The band also shows some variation on this short release. “Lord of the Sword” is more of a classic mid-tempo Heavy Metal track with great guitar solos while “Dark Heart Of The City” is the most diversified track on here with a calm introduction and beautiful guitar melodies before one gets the best ingredients of American Power Metal, Speed Metal and even a few Thrash Metal influenced parts.

These guys are clearly influenced by legends such as ANNIHILATOR, CRIMSON GLORY, EXCITER, GRIM REAPER, JUDAS PRIEST, KING DIAMOND, VICIOUS RUMORS and so on but they manage to sound fresh and honest to not sound too old school against their own good. These guys don’t reinvent anything but they do what they do with conviction and passion and you really can feel this spirit on this EP. Among many other similar bands these days like EVIL SURVIVES, RAM, RYDER, STEELWING, WHITE WIZZARD, XSPENDX and so on STRIKER are clearly among the best thanks to their positive party attitude and some good skills on the instruments. Genre fans should definitely get their hands on this record but the upcoming regular albums are still clearly better than this first strike.

(Online June 21, 2013)

THE WALKING DEAD ORCHESTRA is a quite young French Extreme Metal band from Grenoble that just put out its first full length release entitled “Architects of Destruction”. Let’s set a few things straight right from the beginning: the word “orchestra” might appear in the band name but what you get on here are thirty-five minutes of technically impressive straight Death Metal and Deathcore.

It may sound strange to you but a few tracks eventually grew on me after a couple of spins. After a first try, almost all songs sounded quite alike and seemed to focus only on a quite brutal attitude. After some time, I discovered more and more details with my headphones on and started to appreciate this record more and more even if this genre is usually not my cup of tea. I’m a very curious listener though and open for almost all kinds of metal music and I immediately felt that these five men have enough talent to stand out among so many similar bands coming from the United States of America and Indonesia these days.

First of all, I like the fact that the dominant aggressive Death Metal vocals and the more Black Metal orientated vocal parts harmonize very well. Even though the death metal vocals are rough you can still understand parts of the lyrics which is always a good sign to me. The Black Metal vocals are less used but almost always in a quite efficient way. The brutal and simplistic guitar riffs meet a few surprising breakdowns. Many tracks have a slower and more modern middle part that develops some atmosphere and gives you a short break from all the musical madness that surrounds it. Let’s not forget the vivid and colorful powerhouse drumming on here. The technical abilities of this band should clearly not be underestimated.

My favorite track on here is “Catharsis for the Fallen”. The slow and almost industrial middle part creates a good contrast to the pitiless but nevertheless diversified beginning and ending of the song. That’s what I call a diversified and passionate high quality Extreme Metal song. The longest song on the record and album closer “Locusts” is of a similar quality but takes a few more spins due to its numerous rhythm changes and sounds a little bit less accessible to me at first try.

Other great tracks on here are the fast, modern and in an atmospherically positive sense sterile and quite nihilistic opener “Swamp Fever”, the slower and more atmospheric grower “A Mandatory Bloodshed” with distorted guitar effects and a few samples of burning fire and also the versatile “Entombment Of A Monarch” that develops a quite bleak atmosphere and which is probably the most haunting song on this release.

In the end, I’m very positively surprised by the first strike of this rather unknown band. They made me appreciate a genre I know and like less and they surely wrote a couple of quite diversified but uncompromising tracks. The balance between brutality and technical abilities is very good on here. Genre fans should definitely not miss this new band and check them out. I hope that they will soon get further attention and some credit for what they have already achieved in the first two years of their promising career.

(Online June 20, 2013)

“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” four 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 a record that kicks off very strong but falls flat towards the end. The album kicks off 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. This track sounds like a mixture of BLACK SABBATH and METALLICA and that wasn’t to expect before but it simply sounds very addicting. The following 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 its 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 don’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, modern and 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 band 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.

(Online June 12, 2013)

HYMN ABOVE TRAUMATIC EMOTION is a brand new Japanese Melodic Death Metal band with a few evident Metalcore influences. The band just released its first EP entitled gThe Opening Of HATEh which consists of three songs that have a total running time of a little bit more then eleven minutes.

Despite this short release, the band already impressed me because they manage to mix a dark and dramatic atmosphere with a technically impressive instrumental work. Fast and pitiless riffs meet catchy choruses and gripping hooks. All three songs have a darker but also a quite catchy side. Despite its title, there is definitely not only hate or darkness in here but emotions of almost all kinds in some kind of a dark fantasy world. There is a lot of hit potential in this. The balance between beauty and brutality is quite perfect in all three songs.

The most intriguing things are the vocals. The main vocalist varies from Death Metal growls over unchained screams and shrieks to a more melodic attitude in a few seconds only and stands out with an entertaining diversity and a surprising technical talent. In two tracks one can also hear melodic female vocals. In comparison to many female Japanese singers with amusingly childish or rather thin vocals, the performance on hear has this special Japanese intonation but never sounds inappropriate. The female vocals sound surprisingly grounded and powerful. They harmonize well with the brutal male vocals and create an almost cinematically driven conceptual contrast.

In the end, fans of Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore should definitely keep an eye on this promising newcomer band from the Far East. Imagine a mixture of DIR EN GREY and SOILWORK with a few female vocals. If this combination intrigues you as much as me, HYMN ABOVE TRAUMATIC EMOTION is a band you should not miss.    

(Online June 11, 2013)

Let’s admit that the idea to create another metal opera project isn’t all too original in times when projects like AVANTASIA happen to be more successful than ever. The fact that this record only appeared a few weeks after the sixth AVANTASIA output and that this record even features quite similar guest musicians and singers isn’t a coincidence as well. The European Power Metal mastermind and signature guitarist TIMO TOLKKI has though gone through hard times after his chaotic departure from STRATOVARIUS, his short-lived new project REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE and the personal disaster of the SYMFONIA super-group and it’s great to have him back in form. Initially, TIMO TOLKKI only wanted to release a new solo record entitled “Classical Variations 2: Credo” that would have followed his first studio record back in 1994 but he canceled his PledgeMusic campaign to work on and eventually put out what we have here. This being said, I still hope for an eventual release of his solo record.

“The Land Of New Hope” might not have the most original concept even though the story itself is clearly superior to the latest AVANTASIA concepts and lyrics in my opinion. The fantasy and science-fiction lyrics fit much more to the musical style than the sometimes too emotionally driven lyrics by Tobias Sammet’s project. On the other side, this new record is clearly Timo Tolkki’s strongest release since the commercially successful Power Metal hit album “Infinite” he released back in the year 2000 with STRATOVARIUS. This record goes back to the basics and delivers typical European Power Metal with a few Symphonic Metal elements. Let’s cite the gripping and powerful opener “Avalanche Anthem”, the emotional, fast and highly melodic “To The Edge Of The World” with its slight DREAM THEATER touch and “The Magic Of The Night” that reminds me of a track in the key of STRATOVARIUS’ “Hunting High And Low” thirteen years ago as typical genre highlights that fans are going to adore and haters are going to criticize. The usual symphonic ballad comes along with “I’ll Sing You Home” but it’s not as boring and commercial as the last AVANTASIA ballads and reminds me rather of the STRATOVARIUS track “Mother Gaia”. The true highlight of this release comes with the closing epic title track “The Land Of New Hope” that has intriguing arrangements reminding me of HELLOWEEN’s legendary “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” epic. This song is all European Power Metal is about and MICHAEL KISKE definitely delivers an outstanding job on this amazing album closer. Despite its length, this track never gets boring and is easily the best song on here.

That being said, the guest musicians are very well chosen for this record. Instead of adding too many cooks that spoil the broth, TIMO TOLKKI invited only six singers plus a soprano vocalist. These singers really add the cherry on the cake and add the essential enthusiasm, power and spirit to the solid arrangements. Let’s cite the powerful rocking vocals of ROB ROCK who is involved in bands such as IMPELLITTERI and who works a little bit like JORN on the AVANTASIA releases. One must also point out the grounded, powerful and style quite variable vocals of AMARANTHE singer Elize Ryd. This Swedish powerhouse is one of the best female singers in the metal scene and should become the next big thing as well. I had heard a lot of positive comments on her before but I didn’t expect her to be that enthusiastic and technically skilled as she appears to be on this record. I will surely take a closer look on her career by now. MICHAEL KISKE only appears on the closing title track but he easily delivers his very best vocal duties since the golden age of HELLOWEEN back in the late eighties. He doesn’t seem to have lost anything of his impressive vocal range in the last twenty-five years and his vocals still send shivers down my spine. Other singers are Sharon den Adel of WITHIN TEMPTATION, Russell Allen of SYMPHONY X and Tony Kakko of SONATA ARCTICA. They deliver solid jobs but can’t keep up with the other three ones. Let’s not forget about the musicians who are all big names of the Power Metal scene as well. We get drummer Alex Holzwarth of RHAPSODY OF FIRE as well as three keyboarders in form of Mikko Härkin of CAIN’S OFFERING and who has already been part of bands like SONATA ARCTICA, STRATOVARIUS keyboarder Jens Johansson and finally Derek Sherinian who is actually with the band of BILLY IDOL and who has already been a member of DREAM THEATER. As you can see, there was a lot of quality personal involved on this project and I already can’t wait to listen to the upcoming two records that should complete what is supposed to become a trilogy.

In the end, this release doesn’t reinvent the genre and somewhat jumps on a current trend train but it’s a truly well-crafted European Power Metal release that reminds you of many classic songs and records that have been written in the last three decades. This release has an interesting background story, a beautiful cover artwork, a very good production, a clear and coherent guiding and a bunch of highly talented guest singers who really make this record stand out. Genre fans should definitely get this release because of its surprisingly great quality. Anybody else can skip it because this release doesn’t offer anything really new.

(Online June 9, 2013)