Reviews
The Second album by the germans doomsters Voodooshock entitled “Marie’s sister’s garden” continuing their first album release “Voodooshock” back in 2002. Once again the influences of St Vitus, The Obsessed, Electic Wizard and of course Revelation are recognizable from the first time someone listens to it. “Marie’s Sister’s Garden” can easily be parted in two sections, the more classical traditional doom tracks and the more melodick stoner rock influenced tracks.
This Is the second and the last release for the Finish band Minotauri. Minotauri is another band of true, traditional doom metal. The Band started back in 1995 and because of the fact that doom metal in Finland is not so popular, they managed to release some 7 Inches and two Full Length Albums in 12 years, the last of them meant to be their swan song. The album “II” it’s all about pure traditional doom metal influenced by bands like Pentagram, Reverend Bizarre and more epic elements.
\r\n2007 brings\r\nus amongst other releases, the new album by the Americans “The Hidden Hand” The\r\nband is the brainchild of the well known Doom / stoner metal guru Scott "Wino"\r\nWeinrich (ex-The Obsessed, ex- Saint Vitus, ex- Spirit Caravan, ex- Place Of\r\nSkulls).after he splited up Spirit Caravan in 2002. Having a back catalogue of\r\n3 Album, 2 E.P.
One Of The best bands of true, traditional Doom metal are the Finnish Reverend Bizarre. They returned with their third and last album “So Long Suckers”. They have once again their monolithic, awesome doom sound. Double CD, including 8 tracks of total playing time 2 hours and 10 minutes, with two tracks “They Used Dark Forces/Teutonic Witch” and “Anywhere Out Of This World” reaching total playing time 30 each one.
\r\nArcane Grail is a Russian sextet founded in December 2001 whose past agenda boasts one performance with legendary Austrian death-metal group Pungent Stench. "Mysteries Of Ancient Charnel" is their debut album released in August last year and from this June on ’Mysteries Of The Ancient Charnel’ is distributed in the Netherlands by HDG Distribution.
\r\nAwake is a British band founded in 2000 and which is often presented by the press as "the saviors of English progressive metal" or "the English Evergrey ".The first given title is rather presumptuous but the second one seems totally justified when the various ingredients of the album, the voice, the riffs, the pomped-up keyboard atmosphere, the melodic passages, all return invariably to Evergrey. Tom S. Englund of Evergrey has done even the production of this album.
\r\nThe Russian Goth outfit Atomica was founded in 2002 in Saint-Petersburg by two guitarists Sid and Blind and later on Mania joined them as a vocalist. In November 2006 Atomica has recorded its new album, mixed on Astia Studio, which was released in June of this year. The first thing that struck me in this album was the fact that the lyrics are both written in English and Russian and are there and some German verses somewhere there in between?
\r\nThis is the fourth full-length studio album from Swedish heavy metal band Astral Doors, titled “New Revelation”. Formed in early 2002 from Swedish guitarist Joachim Nordlund and drummer Johan Lindstedt, Astral Doors oscillate between hard rock and heavy metal with their roots strongly thrusted deep into the metal’s lavishing ground of the eighties in vein of old Dio and Deep Purple.
\r\nTribute albums come & go all the time. You either love them or leave them. While most bands seem to go the safe route and cover popular bands or songs. There comes a time when one must observe and show respect to true legends of Metals history and perhaps there’s no more of a legendary band than Angel Witch. So the time seemed right to conjure up a tribute to one of the heaviest bands in history and the Unbroken Metal label unleashed a gem onto the world. 15 bands where selected and songs from the first album make there appearance along with some from 2nd & 3rd albums.
\r\nFrom what I’ve read American Angel was a late ’80s Hard Rock band that eventually got into a hiatus somewhere in 1992. This is their comeback album on Chavis Records (how original these days!!!) with only one remaining member from the original lineup, the singer Rocco Fury. (Sigh!!!) What have I done to deserve this?