JUNE 2006 - PART 4

ROCK/METAL/AOR:
ARTISAN: Lament For The Eternal Frost CD
Once you find out that this is the harshest end of black metal and that we're talking 11 tracks over twenty four minutes running time, you get some idea of just how uncompromising this thing might be - and you wouldn't be wrong, either. For a start, the vocalist sounds like he's trying to - or has already - thrown up everything his stomach will discharge - and probably the stomach with it!! This sickly sounding vocal squall is highly uncomfortable for anyone not into what they're all about, and not that comfortable for the rest. Below this, there's a band that are producing this searing sea of guitar riffs, thunderous drums and disemboweling bass that swings, drives, cascades and erupts, as this unstoppable force of metal refuses to give any quarter, wanting you so much to become a lifeless shell and this is their way of ensuring that happens. As soul-less as it gets, this is the devil set to music - the sound of satan and all that it stands for - and it's taking your soul for its own, piece by piece - 11 pieces to be precise. Say your prayers now, although that's not gonna help you one little bit. Been nice knowing you………

BIOSYSTEM 55; 2000 To Destroy CD
Italian death metal with an eye for songwriting that really works when they choose to use it, which, thankfully, is quite often throughout this brain-shattering album. Many of the tracks are founded along the bible according to Slipknot, with the predictable growelled vocal standing next to some seriously good singing that rises up and drops down without missing a note. The band spend a fair bit of the album delivering songs at a truly blistering pace, but even in there, they also have melody as chiming rolling guitar riffs underpin a sensational set of wall-of-sound guitar melodies. All of this is driven by a powerhouse rhythm section of almighty proportions. Certain songs and passages make you think of Opeth too. Overall, they erupt into one potent brew of molten metal that really works, and although it's nothing you've not heard before, it is something that you want to hear again - there's a magic to it and you find yourself thrust willingly into its supercharged worlds without any argument.

BR:GADE: Meet Me At My Funeral CD Single
Taken from the band's amazing 'Lights' album, this is the second single and it's a radio-friendly gem that still roars and shouts its name from every rooftop. Driven by a highly charged display of powerful drumming and thunderous bass, there's an ocean of guitar riffing going down, while the change from supercharged intro to chugging riffing and then the two combined is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Above this, the lead vocalist is heard loud and clear in a song that combines intelligent writing with some soaring lead vocals and mighty harmonies. A searing brief guitar lead heralds the song dropping down to a powerful ballad-like passage that provides a superb twist to the track that works superbly, before it almost stops and then the main body of the song erupts once more as the massive riffing and superb singing are driven by huge-sounding rhythm section to the sudden and abrupt end point. Essential and deserves to be heard by any metal fan who wants power and quality, singing and arranging.

CONVERGENCE: Points Of View CD
Italian hardcore metal but this is written and played with intelligence and attention to detail. The vocals are clearly in evidence, the lead singer having a definite mix of Eddie Vedder and the guy out of Slipknot, giving a set of powerful performances throughout, capable of singing songs that tower above the instrumentation and providing roaring gutsy vocal that lashes the instrumentation. Musically, it's a full-on mix of power and dynamics, intricacy and intensity, as the band launch into ten compositions and 33 minutes of molten metal with a production that brings out the best in them all. Sometimes you'll spot bits of Metallica in there too, but overall, it's a highly addictive and decidedly individual sound that really works, as each track flares into life with the band going at it full-on but unafraid to twist and turn along the way.

DISCO ENSEMBLE: We Might Fall Apart CDEP
I'm not even going to go near the arguments for and against naming a rock band with what they've chosen, especially as they're actually one explosive brew of on-fire emo-esque new-millennium rock-punk. Just a couple of tracks over 8 minutes, this is a band who feel their punk rock with every fibre of their being and inject the necessary energy, enthusiasm and explosivity into every second of what comes out. The vocals, sung well enough, still manage to rage and roar to great effect over both songs. The guitar work cuts through with the intensity of early Funeral For A Friend, something that this is not a million miles away from. Both songs are addictive, demanding you play them long, loud and often, while still being two supercharged examples of steaming, on-fire emo-rock.

EBOLA: In Borrowed Plumes Mini-CD
A 25 minute, 5-track inferno of raging hardcore from a new Italian band with a set of tracks that will drill holes in your head at thirty paces or more. With driving, supercharged rhythm section, furious sounding walls of guitars and vocals that sound like the guy's shouting in a hurricane, this CD doesn't so much leap out at you as launch straight into your skull with the power of a rocket launcher. There's not a lot more you can say about it - there are many more out there doing just what this lot do - and whether this is enough to make them king of the heap, time will tell. For now, if you want your hardcore metal to blitz you into submission, then step right up.

HERRATIK: Wrath-Divine CD
Australian detah/thrash metal band with fourteen songs, each of which is taken at a punishing pace that will have you clinging on for dear life as the supercharged maelstrom of riffs, rhythms and deathly vocals provide the scariest ride of your life, as you get caught up in its nuclear force days of reckoning, convinced that you're about to meet your maker any second. Above all this the twin guitar leads provide some smoking solos amid the thickly riffing undercurrents that form the canvas on which the massive metallic juggernaut rides right through. There's a totally hypnotic quality to the whole head-shaking display of unmitigated power, as song after song bores through your skull with the intensity and precision of a diamond-tipped drill. Quite awesome and absolutely on fire, the end is well and truly nigh.

SCARECROWN: 'Til The Last Breath CD-EP
Five tracker as 18 minutes of anthemic metal are unleashed with quality and distinction. An Italian quartet boasting a female vocalist who sings without a trace of accent and delivers an impassioned performance that ranges from quivering anticipation to all-out high-flying as she stamps her mark all over the compositions. The band are capable of some highly intricate and engaging arrangements which set a scenario for the vocals before the guitar will suddenly erupt and the whole thing turns into a molten rock flow of exquisite proportions. The second and final track are my favourites as you feel that here the band is truly ready for take-off as the solo and harmony vocals really fly. Song-wise, there's a lot in which to dive, but on first, and indeed second, hearing, there's nothing that overly sticks in your head, although the lead track certainly comes close. That said, as a variety of female vocal-led metal that isn't of the Goth or prog-metal persuasion, but carves out its own niche of anthemic metal, you can't deny that it's hot stuff.

S.K.W.A.D: The Dead Still Dance CD
Sometimes a CD comes along for review that stops you in your tracks, you switch your review mode off and just listen to and enjoy what you're hearing, and here's another one. Loved every minute of it before sitting down to tell you all about it. A trio from Wales, they have produced a 12-track album (complete with a couple of bonus demo tracks from earlier times) that's got it all. It rocks, rolls, roars and rages at one end, performs its impassioned emo-esque role at the other, while in between there's musicianship of the highest order. Essentially a smoking cauldron of intelligent punk-emo, every one of the dozen tracks will have you hooked. The song-writing is superb with meaningful lyrics and fun lyrics, the arranging just amazing as a veritable treasure trove of vari-paced songs unfolds and lights up your life with enough electricity and energy to power a small town. There are scorching punk anthems such as 'Hail To The King' next to roaring and on-fire nu-metal-esque emo such as 'Born Lie Fight Die' while 'Team Blowout' is as classic a slice of pop-punk as you'll get with its insistent chorus and excellent lyrics. There's nothing less than seriously enjoyable, quality tracks on this album and it's one you'll be playing long, loud and often.

SYNTH MUSIC:
RON BOOTS: Acoustic Shadows CD
DON'T LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU…………….this is synth music through and through.
OK - now you're on the right track, let me also tell you that this is quality synth music, synth music that's in a league of its own. There are 6 tracks over seventy minutes of music, all of them sounding strong and structured, the mark of a musician who really composes his tracks with thought, attention to detail, and a talent that ensures you hear music that sustains every one of the minutes it lasts. The problem one has with such talent is that, on a good day, there will b so much unfolding in his lengthy compositions that, to go into detail, would come out as boring to read as a Britney Spears biography. So, the overview from the camp is that this is a set of tracks, inspired by the subject of wars, where the music is very dear to both the musician's heart and the subject matter that inspired its creation. Each of the compositions has got everything that a fan of the "Berlin School" of synths music would want - but then it also has so much more. As well as string synths, sequencers, an unending horizon of synth backdrops and interweaving, flowing lead melodies, it's got heart - that human touch - the sort of emotive quality that separates the noodlers from the true composers, and this CD has all of that by the shedload. Engaging from start to finish, this fulfills your synth music needs on all levels - from dreamy to solidly paced, from soaring melodies over oceans of vari-paced sequencers and choral, string-laden synthscapes, it starts out soundly enough and proceeds to develop, build and rise up into a work against which most other Euro-mainland synth CD's should be judged. A truly remarkable set of music, this is, to my mind, his finest, most consistent, cohesive and 100% pleasurable CD to date.

LARS BOUTRUP: Music For Keyboards CD
Danish musician whose worked for years in the world of classical, soundtrack and rock music circles - and it's the first two of that list which shine through here. With an album of 9 tracks between three and nine minutes long, what you hear is the sweeping, epic nature of expansive synths/strings-dominated music that is positively filmic in both design and effect. Choc full of melody, these are tune-laden compositions which rise up and fill your horizon, a bit like some soundtrack to a film on the Grand Canyon or similar sort of thin. In other words, it's music that evokes imagery relating to vast open spaces or huge structures - that sort of thing. Epic in scope and nature, if not in length, it's music with purpose. With the sound predominantly performed on what sounds awfully like Emerson's old '70's Moog synths combined with string synths and drums, there's a decided seventies feel about it all, while the tracks themselves don't readily conform to any particular time frame - as with most soundtrack styled music - being taken for what it is. So, if you like huge-sounding compositions of a decidedly soundtrack nature, performed on synths and drums, with occasional seventies ELP styled organ, that are melodic, strong, rhythmically solid, a bit of a cross between synth and prog and accessible, then this album should suit you down to the ground.

JAVI CANOVAS: Light Echoes CD
New name on the synth scene (well, new to me, anyway!) and when I tell you that there are just three tracks that last a total of sixty six minutes, and that it takes less than three minutes of the opening title track for the sequencers to roll in "en masse", I think you'll have some idea of the area of synth music which this inhabits. Yes, we're talking "Berlin School" - now, if you are going to do something in this ever crowded musical field, you've GOT to be good, or it's simply not going to hold its head above water. So, it pains me to have to tell you, that this is good - very good - in fact pretty darned well spectacular. By nine minutes of this opening track, we're already talking in terms of 'Rubycon' and 'Ricochet', words that will bring a smile to the face of any "Berliner", and before ye doubt the word of Mr G, just go and listen to this and tell me that it's not. If you're going to "do" '74-'75-era Tangerine Dream, you might as well go the whole way and make it as close to the original as possible, which is exactly what Canovas goes and does. Over twenty five quite entrancing minutes, half a Tangerine Dream album unfolds to great effect, and this is only one track!! The next two twenty minute tracks give you more of the same - and you don't need a blow by blow account - all you need to know is that this is identikit 'Rubycon'/Ricochet' territory, of that there is no mistake. Best part is that it all sounds so fresh and alive, and even though there's not an original bone in the guy's body, what he does is eye-openingly spectacular. Despite - yawn - yet another Tangs soundalike, I regret to say that I can thoroughly and unhesitatingly recommend this album for long lasting listening pleasure.

CREATE: Biospherical Imagery CD
The opening title track on this album lasts forty six minutes - yes, we're talking epic, here. But there's been a change in the air. Those of you who might be expecting "Tangs overlaod" are either in for a shock or a pleasant surprise, because what the musician has done is produce a rolling, flowing, solid piece of music which, while full of sequencer rhythms and all the synth ingredients that you'd expect from a "Berlin School" album, also features extensive use of electronic drums to give a much greater, chunkier effect, almost like "Berlin School goes House" as the effect of the percussive and sequenced rhythms together provides a cohesion and solid foundation that simply does not exist on other such albums. The way the musician weaves the web that takes you through the cosmic splendours of the electronic music universe into worlds of strident rhythmic insistence, is a testament to a totally focused approach to the music and the result is a magnificent piece of synth music that stands up and justifies every one of its forty six enjoyable minutes. Elsewhere, you'll fine find two short tracks of space synths music that creates a more ambient sounding feel to the thing, while the final 2 tracks are the fifteen minute 'Signs Of Life' which takes the "Berlin School" sound and puts it through a blender to produce something that has the elements of the genre but is infused with so much more, while the eight minute 'The Day After' takes a lot of the elements that made the title track work so well, and distills them into a more sharper focused form. Overall, as long as you like electronic drums with your sequencers as well as endless infinities of solid sounding, constantly shifting space synths music, this one's for you.

PAUL ELLIS: The Infinity Room CD
OK, so it's irrelevant to the review, but why would a guy want to produce an album containing 6 tracks where each track lasted exactly ten minutes - definitely something I'm not getting here - either that or he's got some kind of time fixation disorder that needs due care and attention from specialists.
Anyway, on we go - into 'Tick Tock' - and, somewhat ironically, it's ten minutes of full-sounding cosmic music that kind of drifts by as you lose yourself in its charms, not a rhythm in sight, never mind a ticking. 'The Realms Of The Unreal' furthers this beginning with what is essentially a cosmic synth track with the gift of movement, so that its mix of swirling space synths, flowing drifts, occasional melodic excursions and overall expansive soundscapes, gives the impression of rhythm without actually being traditionally rhythmic at all. 'Forever Endeavor' spends the first five minutes in full-on space synths mode before this lone lead synth appears and soars overhead briefly, then string synths emerge to produce a gorgeous layer on top of the swirling synths and deep bass as the track develops a decidedly '74-era Tangerine Dream cosmic quality courtesy of mellotron and space synths, plus deep bass synth and more textural electronic to complete the picture, on what is a most superb slice of music. 'Flesh And Blood' finally breaks out into a world of melody and rhythm, but does it amazingly well, sounding more like an electro-acoustic slice of ambient heaven as the most gorgeous melody line leads the way as synths sparkle, soar, swirl and drift underneath and around the hypnotic lead lines to exceedingly pleasurable effect., even strengthening the piece with added electronic drums and flutey synths as it progresses. 'The Unveiling Moment' returns to space mode with a huge-sounding sea of cosmic synths, that soar, drift and travel, deep bass undercurrents providing the foundations on which the space synths build to great heights with a warm analogue glow infused throughout its charms. The first two minutes of 'Mirrorrim' are cosmic until this huge sounding, rapid-fire sea of sequencers is unleashed as the track suddenly takes off amid phased swirling synth layers and the sequencers dominate their solid sounding way to your heart for the whole of the rest of the track. Overall, a truly remarkable album in that it's consistent, enjoyable, not a wasted second on the album , but one that still remains immune to the "who does it sound like" question, for the most part - and that's a good thing, in this case.

HEMISPHERE: Destination Infinity CD
Reissue of the second album to honour the memory of the now sadly departed musician behind Hemisphere, Ralf Knappe-Heinbockel. Recorded originally in 1991-1992, newly remastered and with touching sleeve notes by Ron Boots, it's now available once again, with a five minute bonus track for good measure. Bearing in mind it's from '92-'92, it's still got that magic. The opening track is a twelve minute excursion through a flowing world of string synths, with interweaving Dyson-esque melodies all set to a rhythmic base that is right out of the Mark Shreeve 'Assassin' book of things, as the whole track surges majestically ahead, its mix of space synths and symphonic synths injected with a rawness that Shreeve had pioneered, sounding just superb. After this comes the rhythm-free nine minutes of 'Deep Cut', this time with more of a feel and presence like the cosmic track off Neuronium's legendary 'Digital Dream' album, only with a fuller sound and more depth. The six minute 'Turning Point' is a bit like early 'Moondawn'-era Schulze while the near seven minute 'Exciting Impression' is founded on a bed of solid sequencer rhythms and flowing strings, but is altogether much darker sounding with more of a sombre feel to it, despite the fact that there are plenty of layers working away as the track constantly develops. The eight minute 'Moments Of Darkness' is another cosmic piece, this time with the sombre tones of the previous track allied to a much more expansive feel, altogether more symphonic sounding and optimistic. The thirteen minute title track takes this space music concept and sound even further and produces this huge-sounding epic slice of soaring, flowing, rising cosmic symphonic synths splendour that proves to be truly magical. With four further shorter tracks, all of quality and cohesion, this is actually a fifteen year old album that sounds as good now as it did way back then.

LIGHTWAVE: Tycho Brahe CD
New American release for a much underrated band and much underrated album. A lot of praise is heaped on a 35 year list of cosmic synth music albums that started with Tangerine Dream's 'Zeit' and moved through such things as Schulze's 'Time Wind' in the seventies through the '80's American space music movement spearheaded by Roach, Stearns, Braheny & Burmer right up to the New Millennium space synth artists from Italy including Baghiri & Ooophoi. But, along the way, one of the best of all time, came from France and that was Lightwave. Yet they never received the accolades that they deserved. The early cassette only releases provided cosmic music with a feel that had not existed since the heady days of 'Zeit' only with more warmth, while the first album presented cosmic synth in a more challenging light, but once you dived in, there was no turning back. Forward to 1993 and the release of this album, which, as fate would have it, possessed more than just a musical connection to Tangerine Dream with ex-Dreamer Paul Haslinger guesting on 4 tracks. The album opens with a seventeen minute slice of space synths and violin, with an atmosphere that recalls the four epic tracks on 'Zeit' but introduces more sonic variation, so that while the music is decidedly cosmic music, it nevertheless carries on the Lightwave traditions of flying and soaring and drifting through uncharted territory as deep organ-like rivers recall early Schulze and electronic twitterings recall '72-era Cluster. As a seventeen minute slice of full-sounding space music with the gift of movement, it's a winner. Following this epic, the album then provides a total of 9 tracks that range from three to six minutes, and features some extraordinarily beautiful space synth and cosmic keyboard worldlets, as extra textural layers are added and you move from one glorious spectrum to another with ease and grace, the whole sense of space serenity taking you over completely. It's this movement from on idea to the next that makes this cosmic brew succeed so well a you never hang about overly long in one universe before moving on to the next, with a flow that sounds both natural and organic.

LIGHTWAVE: Mundus Subterraneus CD
With Paul Haslinger now accompanying the main leaders Chris Wittmann & Chris Harbonnier to make up a veritable space synths super-trio for the whole of this album, it allowed all three musicians to give full reign to their sense of improvisation, structure and compositional qualities. With 10 tracks between four and nine minutes, the album kicks off with the near five minute 'De Motu Pendulorum' as space synths drift endlessly but overlaid with textural effects and occasionally underpinned by rolling drum beats, for maximum impact. The five minute 'Cabinet Des Curiosites' is even darker in both mood and sound, with additional textures ranging from ghostly choral backdrops, through decelerated voices, to wells of sound that rise up from the depths, all very eerie. This segues into part two of the same track and here odd percussive clatterings are added as the mood becomes no less claustrophobic, yet still hypnotic. Most of what follows, including 3 spellbinding nine minute tracks, occupies a dark and mysterious universe of electronic cosmic music that has equally as many features along the way as you'd expect, quite busy sounding for space music, yet flowing and drifting to perfection, with all the atmosphere and magic that you'd anticipate in a seriously strong space synth album.

NATTEFROST: Absorbed In Dreams And Yearning CD
Up steps Denmark - no, it's not the Eurovision Song Contest - more like the Eurovision Sequencer Contest - with the latest one-man project to grace the genre of music previously known as "Berlin School" or what I lovingly now refer to as "Sequencer City". Still, anyone expecting a cynical, gnarled, wizened review, stand well back, because, surprisingly, I'm going to heap praise on this album. The odd part is that it doesn't sound like the Tangs or Schulze - if anything, it's more Jarre-esque - but where it succeeds is in its very simplicity. You get sequencers a-plenty, all over the place, on tracks from three to nearly twelve minutes in length, allied to melodies that are solid and cohesive, tunes that are trotted out in keeping with the rhythmic undercurrents and not conforming to something that's too twee or too complex. There's plenty going on in the music, but not too much, so that your gaze is kept focused on the main action of melody and rhythm, while all around the assorted layers of choirs, space synths, electronic backdrops and textural effects are merely the icing on the cake. It's simple but its effective, enjoyable because it's familiar but not taxing, and for once, it's a "Berlin School" album to which you can relax and float away, despite its solid rhythmic content.

OMEGA SYNDICATE: Apocalypse CD
Although they are creating long tracks with synths, sequencers and mellotrons, what they produce is wholly original, and while it can be said firmly and squarely to be "Berlin School", it doesn't always sound like a clone of Schulze or Tangerine Dream. The opening near fifteen minute title track is a prime example. Here the polyrhythmic sequencers are somewhat cyclical in nature as the whole track rather lumbers its way along like some ancient Jurassic beast rather than flying in sprightly fashion. Around these cyclical sequencer rhythms, all sorts of layers and backdrops form, evolve, fade, stay, change, drop out, as warm sounding mellotrons, phased synths, soaring space synths, distant guitar and deep bass, plus flowing synth melodies, all combine to form this pulsing energy mass which rolls along slowly and to quite hypnotic effect. After this intensity, the solid sequencer rhythms that introduce the seven minute 'The Lycanthropic Principle' come as a veritable breath of fresh air. Once again, with fuzzed guitars, string synths, soaring flows of expansive electronic backdrops, it all wells up and cruises along, before a lead synth flies in, does a brief performance, then flies out to be replaced by a searing electric guitar lead, only then for the both of them to start dueling away, the delicacy of one contrasting with and complementing the heat of the other, as the sequencers and deep bass thud, thunder and roll. The ten and a half minute 'Pixie's Playground' starts off all cosmic and we're immediately in '74-era Tangerine Dream mellotron-drenched heaven. Around four minutes in, this guitar-like synth chimes in as a lead melody as sequencer rhythms well up from below and the mellotrons fade to be replaced by multi-layers of string and expansive synthscapes. The top layer rhythm-as-melody lead comes sailing over the ever more solid sequencers, as a gorgeous sounding almost choral synth layer soars overhead. The Global Extinction Of The Wireless' is twenty two and a half minutes long, starts in cosmic space mode with synths and mellotrons, until five minutes in and the massed ranks of sequencers start to roll. Immediately accompanying them is not an expanse of synths, but a lone lead electric guitar that is, initially, quite expansive, only to be buried by this huge rolling mass of bass sequencers, but then to rise up in the mix and lead the way through an ocean of sequencer rhythms. As the track rolls on, the familiar process of layering starts to take place as the piece evolves further, the result being a finely crafted slice of relatively restrained "Berlin School" magic. Finally, a thirteen and a half minute track called 'Mosque' lights up and ends the album with sequencers, drums, string synths, wheezing space synths and more electric guitar scenery, creating melodies and tunes that are easily accessible. As a whole album, it's probably their most accomplished statement to date.

Continued...

Back to Review Highlights Intro Page
Home Page
1