Hello again

Hello again fan of music... This blog has been for some (long) time been "dead" but we are soon back again... Keep on listening, keep on creating and enjoying music

Happy New Year!!!!

I wish to all authors and readers a happy new year. I wish that this year music will accompany us even more in every occasion and fill us with pleasure and sentiment. Let the music fill our hearts and brains. Happy new year!!!!!

INVERACITY - Extermination Of Millions (Unique Leader Recs, 2007)

Here comes the second LP of the Greek brutal death metallers INVERACITY, following the excellent “Circle Of Perversion” one. The new album steps on the well-known American brutal death metal style of the band, in the path of SUFFOCATION, but not so mush influenced from that monster band, as the previous album was.

We can hear the band's progress on all levels, associated with changing new members. That gave new prospect to the band and maturity to the songwriting. This fact has as a result to say that "Extermination Of Millions" is one of the best death Metal releases of the year, on the globe!

The album contains not only ultra fast songs, but also some really sick mid tempo parts, that can be heard with total ecstasy from all the Metal fans. The heavy riffs along with the constant, but not annoying, drumming, have created an atmosphere that made the dragon voice of George to cause absolute terror! Only death lives here and you can smell it.

P.S. For further information for things about R.C. visit :

http://www.myspace.com/inveracity

INVERACITY DISCOGRAPHY :

Inveracity - Defeated Human Raped Demo 2000
Inveracity - Insision Split, Revenge Productions 2001
Inveracity - Circle Of Perversion Full-length,
(Unmatched Brutality Records2003)
Inveracity - Extermination of Millions Full-length
(Unique Leader Records 2007)

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month October)

1) DODHEIMSGARD - Supervillain Outcast (2007)
2) HELLOWEEN - Gambling With The Devil (2007)
3) HELLOWEEN - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt I (1987)
4) AT THE GATES - Slaughter Of The Soul (1995)
5) ARCH ENEMY - Rise Of The Tyrant (2007)

LIVE REVIEW: DODHEIMSGARD - Naer Mataron (21/10/2007 - Gagarin 2005, Athens, Greece)

When I heard, about two months ago, that Dødheimsgard are gonna visit Greece for 2 live shows, the first thing that I did was to “be launched” from my chair and to jump around my room like a crazy. Dødheimsgard except from being one of my favorite bands, I believe that they are pioneers to the Black Metal genre. Their composer and mastermind Vicotnik (or Mr. Fixit) is one of the two, most gifted musicians in the Norwegian scene (the other is Carl-Michael Eide, ex-DHG drummer) and in parallel that the whole band consists of top musicians, was a guarantee for a magic evening. Finally, I think that my initial estimation confirmed, but let’s take the whole thing from the beginning.

The doors opened at 20.00, as stated to the ticket, but the show didn’t start at 20.30 as it was arranged. Naer Mataron was the support band and they started at 21.04. The Greek blacksters appeared on stage with their typical corpsepainting and some stage scenery, such as two big inverted crosses and a big textile on right of the drumset. The Greek band was unlucky, since their guitarist had an accident and they were forced to play with one guitar on the show. The sound, at the whole duration of the live, wasn’t an ally to the group since the bass was too loud and as a result the guitar wasn’t easy to be heard properly. Despite this, Naer Mataron proved why is a big band, since they performed very well their songs, which were a selection from all their albums, and some of them were “Faethon”, “Steppe” and “Skotos Aenaon”. They also performed a song from their forthcoming album and they left the stage after one hour, with a warm applause of the crowd.

After a long wait of about an hour, the time was right for the first appearance of the “Norwegian Innovators of Black Metal Anarchy”, in front of the Greek audience. The band entered the stage after the sound of “The Dushman” song, and when this ends, the dream, or better…, the “nightmare” begins. The band starts the show with “The Crystal Specter” song and the venue is on fire. The sound is very good from the beginning and it is very clear that the band is in great shape and ready to offer us great moments. They were painted in different colors, with a highlight the new frontman of the band, Kvohst, who was painted with red color and he was dressed with a, like from the winds, torn cloak and a hood to cover his head. Kvohst hails the crowd and he states that DHG came to their "spiritual home", Greece. The audience goes crazy and DHG performs “Vendetta Assassin” and “The Snuff Dreams Are Made Of” songs from their latest album, "Supervillain Outcast". It’s pretty clear that the band doesn’t use on their live shows all the electronic elements, included to their two last albums, with a result the songs to sound heavier and nearer to their black metal basis. Continuing to that motive, they performed the “Starcave, Depths and Chained” song, from their first album. “Apocalypticism” was next, before the time for the “Final Conquest” came right and for us to understand that Khvost is a worthy substitute of the talented Aldrahn, ex-singer of the band. Except from his unbelievable vocal virtues, he had an imposing appearance on the stage and with his movements and expressions, he gave another dimension to the show. Back to the first days of the band and “En Krig å Seire” song, before the “Oneiroscope” intro and the following “Traces Of Reality” song, which was dedicated to Aldrahn. “Monumental Possession” and “21^st Century Devil” were next in line, until the final song of the show which was the “Supervillain Serum”. The band finishes the show thanking the audience for coming and leaves the stage. The lights are kept turned off and in the middle of the screams of the crown, asking for more, DHG retuned to the stage in order to satisfy our demand. The band plays two songs as an encore, with “Ion Storm” to be the last one. It is worthy to say that despite the high level of the sound, during the show, it was very hard to discriminate the lead melodies from the guitar at the last song (also in “Traces Of Reality”), since the guitars seemed to sound somewhere in the back, comparing with the other instruments. Anyway, the show comes to the end after 80 minutes in the about, and the audience applauded the band for the magic show they offered us.

Despite the fact that DHG were absent from live shows for over seven years and being a completely different band from then, they proved that can offer special moments to their fans and not only. Their music can be supported excellent from their special stage appearance and they are able to perform their music on the stage, precisely as it can be heard on their albums, which is a difficult matter. Ending, I wish DHG to visit Greece again, since their live show is a monumental experience for the fans of extreme music. All hails!!!

INTERVIEW: DEATHMASTER (DoomSword)

Interview by Thanasis Mpogris.

Doomsword formed in Italy and for 10 years now, they offer us thrilling
moments with their songs, which are shine for their quality, passion
and emotion. With the release of their new album “My Name Will Live
On”, we had the chance to interrogate Doomsword’s vocalist, mainman
and composer, Deathmaster. Let’s see what shared with us.

Thanasis: Hails to you Deathmaster. First of all I would like to
give you my congratulations for your new album "My Name Will
Live On". Would you like to give us some information about the
creation of the album and the comments that you have received,
so far?

Deathmaster: The album was created in unusual circumstances, as
we don't all live next to each other and we don't have the possibility
to rehearse on a regular basis like most bands do, but we soon
adapted to these circumstances, even because we didn't have much
of a choice, and established new routines and way to exchange ideas
that worked out great in the end. Now DoomSword have picked up
the pace and will be able to produce albums with a normal rhythm of
once every year and a half / two years. The comments so far were
great. People started to get that DoomSword have a unique sound
which is always evolving, which makes comparisons between albums
difficult and not very meaningful anyway. As a result, instead of
concentrating on the old "I prefer the previous albums..." dispute,
DoomSword fans simply enjoy the next boulder of epic metal which
has been dumped on their heads. 

Th: I noticed some changes to your sound, such as higher
speeds, less doom parts and some catchy melodies, mainly
at the refrains. Did you want to experiment embodying these
elements to your songs, or it was a natural process?


Dth: It was a completely natural process, there has been
experimenting going on, but none of it was planned sitting at a table
and discussing strategies. The real drive has been the will to give
DoomSword fans something that would sound classically DoomSword
without repeating ourselves and without creating a “Resound the Horn
II” or something like that. To be honest, I don't even think all these
elements can be considered so much as "new", most of them were
already in our songs, just scattered across different albums.

Th: Despite these changes to your sound, your identity remains
unimpaired to the path of Bathory and early Manowar. Would
you like to name us some of your influences?


Dth: The spectrum of our influences for this album was very broad.
We still take most of our inspiration from classic US metal from the
80s, Cirith Ungol, Warlord, Omen, Manilla Road etc., though we
took inspiration by bands such as Rainbow and Rush, and a lot of
underground metal. Manowar of course are a major influence for us,
whereas I would say that “My Name Will Live On” is the least
Bathory sounding album since the times of the “Resound The Horn”.

Th: I think that your new album, stands into the best metal
albums of the running year. Do you believe that the album
is able to introduce Doomsword into a bigger audience,
and outside the boundaries of the epic sound?

Dth: No. I don't mean that I don't believe the music contained in
the album isn't capable of that, but breaking into a bigger
audience is a whole other story, made of promotion, distribution
and accessibility. If you want my genuine opinion, DoomSword
have melodic elements but we don't sound commercial enough
to be appreciated by the masses.

Th: You are a permanent habitant of Ireland, anymore.
This fact, in connection with the changes to your line up,
do you believe that can affect your function as a group?
Technology, for sure is a helping hand, but not having
a base to a common place, is an obstacle?

Dth: This has been quite a common question in this round of
interviews. The answer is that by living in Ireland we've
increased our level of determination and commitment towards
the band, and we work now at a much faster pace than when
I was living in Italy with the rest of the guys. I know it might
sound strange but this is the reality, and we're pretty happy
with our situation. The only aspect of DoomSword suffering
from this distance is the number of nights out drinking.

Th: I noticed that you choose again as a cover artwork,
a piece of paint, and more specific a painting of
L. Royer. Can a suitable, to the album,  artwork give
another dynamic to the songs of an album, when the
listener has it on his hands?

Dth: Absolutely! Or at least, it counts for me. Take Cirith
Ungol, for example. Their cover certainly shaped the
emotions in the mind of the listener, especially those
who knew Moorcock and Elric. Same goes for
DoomSword. I believe part of our success and the
status we gained is due to the imagery we chose,
scenes representing something epic and dramatic,
like DoomSword's music.


Th: Except from your 1st album, the title of each
new Doomsword album is relevant to something
taken from the last album. It's too early for this,
but on our review for your new album, we made
an attempt to guess the title of your next album,
and this was "Once Glorious". I would like to talk
about this habit and for our estimation.

Dth: You are correct; the title of our albums is taken
by a sentence in the lyrics of the previous one. Your
guess is a plausible one. It's good to see that people
figured this aspect out and started to guess the title
of our next album! The real reason for this kind of
choice is that we want to always make clear to
DoomSword fans that we will stay true to ourselves
and that our sound might evolve, but the core of Epic
Metal will always be there, and that DoomSword will
always offer the same emotions in all the years
to come...

Th: Which are your plans for the future? You have
a solid core of fans here in Greece, would you
visit us again for a live show?

Dth: We will come to Greece again, no doubt about that.
It might not be in the near future, it might take us some
time before we can work that one out, but don't worry,
we realize how important the Greek scene is and the
support we received from it throughout the years, so we
will come again.

Th: Ending, I would like to thank you for the time
that you spent with us and to wish you good luck
in every attempt that you make. Raise the horns!

Dth: Thank you! 

Steel at side, horns up high, you are the Riders of Doom...

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month September)

After a long break we are back here, hoping to be more frequently with you. Unfortunately this is a free time activity and sometimes the lack of free time, does not permit us to write articles as often as we wish. Anyway, in one way or another, what we do here includes our true love and devotion for this kind of music. Stay heavy and take care.

1) ARCH ENEMY - Rise Of The Tyrant (2007)
2) DOOMSWORD - My Name Will Live On (2007)
3) AMORPHIS - Silent Waters (2007)
4) GAMMA RAY - Somewhere Out In Space (1997)
5) CANDLEMASS - King Of The Grey Islands (2007)