metalhead gallery

The Lay Of Thrym is a forthcoming album by the Faroese Viking/folk metal band Týr. It is the sixth full-length album from the band. The name of the album comes from one of the best known poems from the Poetic Edda, called "Þrymskviða", "The Lay of Thrym".

The Lay of Thrym (2011)http://www.mediafire.com/?zd77ce8cc01j2ln

Back Through Time is the third studio album by Alestorm and is to be released in the early June 2011. On December 18 Alestorm announced on their Facebook and MySpace page that they were going back into the studio on January 10 and revealed an early tracklist. The album will be available in jewelcase, digipack, LP, and Special Edition Boxset formats which will include extra bonus songs that Alestorm covered. To celebrate the new release, Alestorm will be going on a Back Through Time World Tour starting in Australia and New Zealand.

Back Through Time (2011)http://www.mediafire.com/?zeik7wdjjdr549x

I'm sure I wasn't alone in being taken aback by the advance art and cover image for the latest HammerFall album, which perhaps was more fitting to the next Left 4 Dead sequel, or perhaps 28 Decades Later. A power metal band taking zombies head on? Would it be a concept album with a sequential narrative? A gaggle of songs about horror topics? As it turns out, Infected, the Swedish mainstay's 8th full-length is not necessarily such, but instead a pretty standard and inconsequential effort not unlike the last handful. There was some dread, some apprehension that the band might be trying to go all groove and heavy here, but that's not at all the case. This is business as usual, a selection of rather mediocre tracks with a few highlights that aren't enough to heave it over the threshold of quality.

No, this is not the Glory to the Brave II that many HammerFall fans of old have undoubtedly anticipated, and in fact it's not even the measure of their last, average record No Sacrifice, No Victory. What stuns me is the lack of effective or memorable chorus sequences throughout, just a lot of humdrum and melodramatic fist pumpers that go absolutely nowhere, a few borderline offensive as they're so damned cheesy. Do we really need a crappy acronym anthem for "Bang Your Head", "B.Y.H."? For that matter, do we really need another song called "Bang Your Head"? Only one of them matters folks, and it's not fucking this one, a dreary and uninspired anthem that must have taken Dronjak and company less than 10 minutes to fully compose. Then there's the actual zombie epic, "Patient Zero" which I had hoped might justify its tacky film-like intro, but winds up just an assortment of pretty average riffs and no real vocal payoff.

Other sodden compositions here include the militant flag waver "One More Time", the drippy ballad "Send Me a Sign" (hoorah for creative song titles), and the totally dorky "I Refuse" which sounds like Captain Planet and his Planeteers trying to write an AC/DC tune. "Let's Get It On" and "Redemption" are your standard HammerFall filler, and probably the only two songs I got a positive reaction on were "The Outlaw" and the faster speed/power piece "Dia De Los Muertos". It's true that the band do cover more occult and horror topics in the lyrics than usual, but there is no real unified undead concept, and the music itself is so typically uplifting that it creates a bizarre contrast with the theme and artwork. And not in a good way, like, say, Powerwolf.

Don't get me wrong, there's enough professionalism and production quality here to ensure that Infected doesn't fall wholly into the suck-pile, but for the songwriting it's got to be the single worst HammerFall album to date, and I was really hoping it might turn out to be the cusp of a cool new direction for the band. It's your typical, shoddy, big budget power/heavy metal album out of Europe, with clean performances, next to no wanking, and unfortunately, next to no songs worth hearing. These Swedes just don't do 'dark' very well...

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (from zero the counting has begun)

http://www.hammerfall.net/

Let's have a show of hands for anyone who gives a damn about the new 'mascot' Udo has chosen for his solo career? Nobody? Count me entirely unsurprised. Udo Dirkschneider does not need a mascot, least of all some retarded icon redolent of an Insane Clown Posse paint job gone King Diamond on a bad hair day. Dirkschneider is a god among men, having fronted more great albums than Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or Bruce Springsteen. Udo deserves tributes of wine, women and gold that he even lets us breathe the same air as he. So why, so late in his career was this unnecessary decision made? Needless to say, after viewing the covers for both this and the Leatherhead EP preview, I was worried...

Not that Dominator was an eye catcher, mind you, but the music at least lived up the legacy, for the most part. Rev-Raptor is perhaps the first case in many years in which the legend has begun to falter. There is nothing remotely terrible about this album, and it even manages a few decent anthems that the usual suspects will latch on to if they fancy Metal Heart, Animal House and all the guy's many classics, praised and unsung, but very few of the songs leave a lasting impression. "Fairytales of Victory" is your mid-paced Udo standard, pumping simplistic bass line glazed in cutting chords and a massive chorus. The slamming power of "Dr. Death", "Renegade" and "Terrorvision" are both quite effective, if nothing new for this band; and "Underworld" also has a huge set of balls that take you back to when every arena shaking Dirkschneider performance was the last thing you needed to witness before you could safely pass on from this world.

The rest of the album, is well...drab and uninteresting. In particular, the songs that were issued with the EP ("Leatherhead" and "Rock'N'Roll Soldiers") do nothing for me, solid but lacking in the fire and fun that made an album like Mastercutor so masterful despite itself. By this point it almost feels as if the guitar riffs are being recycled and paraphrased from Udo's own extensive backlog, so few times do they evoke anything compelling, and while these guys all play tight on both stage and in the studio, you get the feeling like they should attempt to stretch themselves more towards the limit. I mean, listen to the latest Accept album. Certainly they are trying to write with more intensity and intricacy, while Rev-Raptor sort of stagnates.

Dirkschneider can still deliver his lines with all the air raid torment of his youth, and as noted, there are several blockbusters here which stand aloft from their peers to get the head banging and the blood stirring in the listener's circulation, but overall, this is perhaps the lowest point for U.D.O. since Thunderball back in 2004. There's a song here called "I Give as Good as I Get", with THE MAN at the helm. How does that not just explode? Sad to say it doesn't (and that's one of the damned video/singles!) Not enough hooks, it just attempts to sail along on its own precedents, and in my opinion, that's just never enough for guys like Stefan Kaufmann and Udo Dirkschneider who have been my heroes for a damned eternity. Rev-Raptor isn't as bad as it might have been with that gaudy derelict of the mascot parade featured front and center, but neither is it worth remembering.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

ttp://www.udo-online.de/

You'll find progressive/power hybrids like Stilllife hiding in almost all corners of the United States, but relatively few of them ever seem to cross my desk in recent years. Granted, there's a good reason for this: the genre seems to possess a wide gulf in quality between the bands who have made it (Dream Theater, Fates Warning, etc) and those who must forever solicit the shadows of such names, and I'm sad to say that Requiem remains quartered in that second group. Stilllife are a group of guys from Michigan interested in conceptual lyrics affixed to simple, bold and soothing guitar rhythms. This is not the sort of progressive metal stoked upon its complexity, needless wanking or excess. The band attempt to engage you with directly with the inherent melody of their riffs, and a decidedly Ray Alder like front man.

Unfortunately, this guy is no Ray Alder, and whether it's just the fact that his vocals are up far too loud in the mix, or that he simply doesn't hit all the notes quite perfectly, I found myself very often unnerved in listening through the disc. They're at their worst in the opener "A Godless World" and the slowly developing ballad "Requiem, Pt. I: The Oracle", and strangely enough, they seem to clean up when he projects himself into a higher range, but they provided a clear obstacle for my appreciation of the music as a whole. The remainder of the album also feels a bit unpolished, with the guitars rather raw for this style and the drums a fraction too tinny, and I'm sure they'll want to polish this up for future releases. The writing itself is not necessarily so weak, and the band channel between some basic thrash and trad metal chops with inherent versatility, peaking upon the 10+ minute beast "Hypocriticism/The Becoming", or "Fruit of the Fallen Tree" in which the music and voice seem to gel fluidly.

It's ever unfortunate to be underwhelmed with an album like this, because Stilllife is clearly not interested in what's hip or trending, but in developing a distinct aesthetic for themselves. Granted, this is not entirely novel, and Fates Warning (1988 on) is clearly the precedent, but Requiem is not entirely indebted to that sound, as its incorporates some crushing groove sections amidst the gleaning melodies. I'd be lying, though, to deny that Stilllife has a LONG way to go if it wishes to advance itself in this field. The vocals, production and writing will all need some work to sate the attention spans of the Kamelot and Evergrey-starved international power/prog audience. At 63 minutes, Requiem at times feels like an overly bloated demo, but I've certainly heard worse, and if they can persevere through the adjustable setbacks here, they might breed some interesting ideas in the future.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/stilllifehome

Allen/Lande is a melodic rock/heavy metal band project formed in 2005 by guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Starbreaker) with two high acclaimed metal vocalists: Masterplan vocalist Jørn Lande and Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen. The songs, all written by Magnus Karlsson, feature a variety of hard rock and heavy metal songs with a progressive metal touch.


The Battle - 2005

Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow or Blackmore's Rainbow) were an English rock band, controlled by former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1994 to 1997. It was originally established with former Elf members, though over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. In addition to lead singers Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner and Doogie White, the project consisted of numerous backing musicians. The band started out combining mystical lyric themes with neo-classical metal, but went in a more streamlined commercial style following Dio's departure from the group.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - 1975 (with Dio)

Demonlord adalah Melodic Power Metal band dari Gyõr, Hungaria, yang dibentuk oleh Gábor Kovács, András Nagy, Zoltán Világi dan Balázs Jurásek pada tahun 1997.

Gaya musik Demonlord dipengaruhi oleh Melodic Speed Metal / Power Metal band dari Jerman, Helloween. Lirik Demonlord bertemakan tentang perjuangan.

Setelah beberapa demo album "Capital Punishment", "Vengeance", dan "Valley Of Life",

The Barque of Dante adalah Melodic Power Metal / Symphonic Power Metal band dari Mianyang, Sichuan, China, yang didirikan pada tahun 2004.

Nama "The Barque of Dante" terinspirasi oleh karya seni terkenal pelukis Perancis, Eugene Delacroix.

Lirik The Barque of Dante bertemakan tentang fantasi, perang dan kepahlawanan.

Pada tahun 2004, The Barque of Dante mulai merekam demo album, "Paean for

It's pretty rare that a power metal band in today's climate can tackle the supernatural antiquity of werewolves, witches, and blood sucking things of the night appropriately. Powerwolf seems to do a good job in this terrain, but perhaps its their excess use of organs and tongue in cheek lyrics that win out. Other stabs, like Iced Earth's Horror Show, were average at best, and now Germans Wizard have decided to deviate from their usual Norse Myth 101 ramblings to capture the subject, basing their lyrics on a historical horror trilogy of novels by the author André Wiesler called Die Chroniken des Hagen von Stein. This is a curious choice, as the books are only a few years old, and most fantasy metal bands focus on surefire classics, but hey, why the hell not? After all, werewolves, witches and such are quite the trend in all media these days.

...Of Wariwulfs And Bluotvarwes is certainly the most colorful title the band have chosen for an album to date, leaving behind such minimal, lacking fare as Odin, Thor and Battle of Metal. While I'm not inherently opposed to a power metal band veering towards darker subjects (Grave Digger is one obvious example, but there are others), I am not sure that the bright polish of Wizard's songwriting is always best affixed to the gloom of the source material. That said, this album rocks far more often than it doesn't, channeling the band's massive Manowar influence into a landscape of melodic European power anthems that are like to please fans of bands like Primal Fear, U.D.O., early Edguy and the aforementioned Grave Digger. Little to no nuance is involved here, and many of the riffs will seem derived and familiar to anyone that has followed the genre in the past 15-20 years. "Hagr" feels as if it were straight from the book of Judas Priest-isms sharpened by Primal Fear. The title track is essentially late 80s or 90s Manowar, both the opening guitar riffs and Sven D'Anna's vocal performance. Quite a few of the songs also have that grimy Kris Boltendahl pitch to them (like "Taste of Fear", "Blotvarwes" and parts of "Heart Eater").

It's not an impressively dark record by any means, but it's efficient, and I can't think of a single song that withdrew me from the headbanging hypnosis of the simple rhythms and attempts at memorable chorus parts in "Hagr", "Sign of the Cross" and even "Fair Maiden Mine", with its slightly lusher prog/power overtones. The production is pristine and glossy, they've had about 15 years or more to work through this, so it's as clear and professional as most you've heard of late in the higher tier of the Euro throng. D'Anna might lack the silky tones of an Andi Deris or the screaming range of a Henning Basse, but he works well enough with the pipes he was given, and the band never devolves into glorified self-indulgence. Granted, some might not take to the particular theme Wizard are exploring here, but its not at all a bad thing to hear them branch out beyond their Viking lore obsessions. ...Of Wariwulfs And Bluotvarwes isn't about to spin heads out of their sockets, but it's solid and entertaining for the craft, and unlikely to face charges of heresy.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.legion-of-doom.de/

It's been a good decade since Volcano has erupted on us with a new full-length, but they've kept busy in the interim with some live DVD releases and a pair of EPs. If you've never heard the band before, then you were missing out on another of Japan's untold secrets, a hybrid of power, speed and thrash metal which musters comparison to countrymen Anthem and Loudness, only with a far ballsier tone and huge, pissed off vocals that feature a strain of forced melody not unlike Flemming Rönsdorf (ex-Artillery). The band's first two albums Violent and Davi were evidence of an authentic riffing titan, and probably deserved a lot more recognition than they received. Mythology is cast in much the same mold, and though I didn't enjoy this quite so much as its predecessors, there's still a strong case to be made for the band.

One aspect I didn't enjoy here is the sparse use of melodeath vocals. A few of the tracks like "Dead Men Tell No Tales" certainly tread that territory musically, but I feel that Nov's vocal presence is so strong in of itself that such a tactic feels unnecessary. They are, however, an exception to the rule, and for most of the playtime he's cruising along with his standard style. The band does incorporate a fair amount of variation into their composition. Personally, I favor the rampant melodic power/thrash of "The Head", "Warrior's Play", "Goddess", "Strange the Strong" and especially the escalating "Shine in the Dark", which opens up with clean guitars and explodes into an amazing sequence of riffs not unlike something you'd hear from Concerto Moon. But they do deviate, as with the groove-oriented "Claim" and its series of generic, groove metal rhythms before the one decent guitar line at about :50. I also don't exactly love "Hell in the Paradise", but it has its moments.

Otherwise, Mythology is a modestly crushing good time with a thick low-end centric production and a lot of great, neo-classical guitar lead breaks with attitude that may very well thrill fans of Double Dealer, Sly, Saber Tiger, Sex Machineguns, Galneryus, and so forth. The material is more complex than their past albums, and this in part might be due to the new rhythm section of Akira and Shun (Youthquake) that joined the band in 2010. I felt that this was a more hectic experience than what I was expecting, but that didn't lead to an increased impression, and I don't feel like I'll get much distance out of this. It's fun for a few listens, with a handful of riffs to die for, but is unlikely to expand the trajectory of the band, especially after a decade of such scant output.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://4148.jp/profile_v.html