Ethereal Blue - Black Heart Process

There are quite a few Greek bands that have moulded from the ethernal ground. Before there where black metal bands like Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh, but here i will present to you a new and upcomming; Atmospheric Death Metal Band:

Ethereal Blue - Black Heart Process [Deadsun Records 2005]
Melodic Death/Black Metal I recently received a promo from a Greek band, which granted my attention as i started to hear what theese guys have put on disc...

The band started up in 2002.
They have previously recorded a demo called: "A Mourning Ocean"

This was a copy of their debut album: “Black Heart Process”. The music can be described as melodic and atmospheric death metal, with some mixed influences of black metal.
Theese guys have contributed a great manifest of a debut album. I liked the contrast and variations, which was a sign of a well co-ordinated band. The guitars lies steady as rock's, with melodic fragments by keyboard. The music gave me a certain feeling of bands like Graveworm & Ancient Ceremony, when i played the first round. But later on, i clearly see that they have their own style... This is an album you have to play some rounds in the stereo before you really understand it’s potential.... [U can buy the cd here]

Song By Song:
1. Intro: Your Mechanical Ego - 1:54 Unexpected opening, with some industrial elements. Symphonic inspired track.

2. Destination: Denial - 6:14 Trash or die... This song is straight forward and easy to get. The lead guitar is basic layer here, with the death vs clean vocals as the direct oposite to each other. One of my favourites...

3. Despair - 6:42 High speed, trash & die... Death Metal!!! Guitar oriented, with clean and death vocals. I had to play this repeatedly, for some times.

4. War - 3:28 Mid-tempo with hunting vocal... One of the tracks that did hit me straight away. Constantly changes in composition makes it a little progressive as well.

5. Black Heart Purification - 8:52 Here you can find links to Gothic and Black styles. There are very good contrast's in both lyrics and music. Vocals are grim as hell, followed up by a clean “hunting” "backup-vocal". A well played interlude builds up to the climax, of a ending, on the track. My personal favourite.

6. Transplanted Images - 5:13 Clean vocals opens this song. Not much to say.. In the end you get somekind of a “soft vs raw” vocal. This can be a little boring in the long run though..

7. Licking the Wounds - 6:43 Straight on it, Pure Death..... But again, contrast's in music is a phenomena within metal music. I think you can draw paralells to Graveworm/ and other melodic metal-bands.

8. Noi, Tu, Loss - 8:57 Melancholic opening here... Burst into fast and powerfull death/black- metal. Under this layer you find great symphonic elements and the well known clean vocals.
Total Running Time – 48:03 + The band is coordinated, and both music and lyrics are well performed. - The vocals could have been more visible in some of the songs. Some minor details on the production. (Sound and mix) I have only one thing to say about this album.. Buy it.

5.8/6

Lineup
Efthimis V. - vocals Fokion S. - guitars George A. - guitars Miltos D. - bass Dimitris K.- drums Akis P. - keyboards and piano
Check them out:[myspace/etherealblueband]

Alice Cooper - "From the Inside"

Alice Cooper - From The Inside

I remember buying this CD, I had just recently started to listen to Alice Cooper, and at that time my favourite Cooper was Trash and Constrictor. And this wasn't what I expected when I put it in my CD-player. This wasn't the heavy metal I expected, and it actually took years before I realised it's greatness. These days I think From The Inside kicks both Trash and Constrictor's asses. Here Alice Cooper seems to have been inspired a bit by progressive rock in the area Rush operates, but without making a progressive album. This is rock, but not a very hard and aggressive form of rock. You can almost call it old mans-rock, but whatever you wanna call it, it works! Hell, the use of the piano has simularities with the way Elton John use the piano, and even that works! Songs like "Jackknife Johnny", "Inmates (We're All Crazy)" and "Wish I Was Born In Beverly Hills" are all great pieces of music. So if you are musically openminded, check it out. You may even like it. And just for the record, I don't secretly admire Elton John, I don't like his music and I certainly don't like his glasses! Points:

5/6.

[R. Naaden]

Kamelot - "Epica"

"Epica" came out in 2002 on Noise Records.
Epica is loosely based on Faust by J. W. Von Goethe and Ariel's inner journey, you can read more about that at Kamelot's homepage.

Here Kamelot plays a melodic power metal with some progressive influences. The songs are well "built" up, and Roy Khan shows what a great vocalist he is. It kicks off with a prologue, that glids elegantly into "Center Of The Universe" who drags you in from the start. It goes on with strong contribiutions as "Wander", "Descent Of The Archangel" and "The Morning After (Carry On)".
All in all a very strong album from Kamelot
.

Points: 5,5/6.

Line-up: Roy Khan - Vocals Thomas Youngblood - Guitars, B. Vocals Glenn Barry - Bass Casey Grillo - Drums

[R. Naaden]

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant

 "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" are together with "Stormblåst", Dimmu Borgirs best CD, with Stormblåst as the best. Here Dimmu Borgir perform a monumental symphonic and atmospheric black metal, and the sound have more body than their earlier releases. It starts of with "Mourning Palace", the best song on the album. Also "Spellbound (By The Devil)" and "Tormentor Of Christian Souls" are great contributions.
What I really like about this CD is the atmosphere it creates, an atmosphere of hatred combined with great music. All in all another masterpiece from Dimmu Borgir, and certainly a CD you should have in your collection. It came out in 1997 and where released on Nuclear Blast.

Points: 5,5/6.

Line-up:
Shagrath - Guitar & Vocals
Erkekjetter Silenoz - Guitar
Tjodalv - Drums
Nagash - Bass
Stian Aarstad - Synthesizers & Piano

[R. Naaden]

Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked

"No Rest For The Wicked" where released in 1988 on Epic Records and are in my opinion a classic heavy metal album. This release are influenced also by hard rock, but I prefer to call it heavy metal.

This album just crawls with great stuff, like "Miracle Man", "Tattooed Dancer" and "Breaking All The Rules".

But my two favourites are "Demon Alcohol", which tells us about Ozzy's relationship with alcohol, and "Bloodbath In Paradise", a nice little song about blood on your walls and the family of a certain Charlie, in other words about Charlie Manson and his little family of crazy hippies.

There aren't any songs on this album I don't like, but "Fire In The Sky" and "Devil's Daughter" are little weaker than the rest. No Rest For The Wicked are my favourite Ozzy-album.

Points: 5,5/6.

Dimmu Borgir - Stormblåst

"Stormblåst" This is the Cd Dimmu Borgir had major breaktrough with. After their first album; “For All Tid”, there was a time for changes in musical exploration. The Music here are more symphonic and melodic, something you hear already on the first track: “Alt Lys Har Svunnet hen” [All Light has Faded]. This is their best known song ever. If there is one song i would like to put up as my second favourite on the album, that must be the instrumental track “Sorgens Kammer”. Stormblåst is rather melancolic, and i would say a little folk-inspired. All lyrics in Norwegian.

Points: 5.5

Windir - Arntor

"Arntor"

Nationalromantic Dark Metal with black vocal/screams. That’s what this album is about.

Valfar created Windir as a "one-man-band", and on “Arntor” he did most of the work himself, altough he hired in session musicians.

Unlikely the previous album “Soknardalr” this album is fully based upon historical and cultural-subjects. This was more a “concept-album” which spun around the farmer Arntor, who raised anger against the Norwegian King - Sverre in 1184.

Musically it can be described as “dark” and “raw” folk metal.

Points: 5.8/6

Manowar - Warriors of the Wold

"Warriors Of The World" came in 2002 on Nuclear Blast. This is Manowar as we know them. Real heavy metal with lyrics ibnfluenced by battle, death and glory. Unfortunately they are also influenced by 9/11, and that makes this album vary from awesome to stupidity.
Manowar are best when they stick to what they do best, and songs such as "Call To Arms", "Swords In The Wind", "Warriors Of The World United", "Hand Of Doom", "House Of Death" and "Fight Until We Die" are all great, but "Hand Of Doom" are my personal favourite. "Valhalla" are OK as a intro to "Swords In The Wind", "Nessum Dorma" is a funny little piece. "An American Trilogy" is boring and "The Fight For Freedom" just makes me sick with it's too obvious references to 9/11.

As I said, Manowar are at it's best when they stick to what they can and stay away from the too obvious references to 9/11. All in all an album that vary from greatness ("Hand Of Doom") to garbage ("The Fight For Freedom"), but luckily there are more good songs than poor ones, so 4 points seems about right.

Points: 4/6.

Line-up: Eric Adams - vocals
Joey DeMaio - bass guitar
Karl Logan - guitar
Scott Columbus - drums

[R. Naaden]