Bloodbound "War of Dragons" Review

                Power Metal and dragons go together like peanut butter and jam and Bloodbound are showing this off to the fullest extent with their newest release “War of Dragons” released through AFM Records. Without a doubt, this is the definition of Power Metal, as “War of Dragon” takes you on a fantastic fantasy journey through time and space to show you the war of dragons.

                Kicking off with “Battle in the Sky” and “Tears of a Dragonheart” you get a very quick grasp of what this album with be like. Fast paced, impressive riffs, consistent and impressive musicianship with awe inspiring solos and of course, the majestic voice of Patrik Johansson. The opener “Battle in the Sky” is fairly straight forward, doesn’t toss you any curve balls and just kind of allows you to get use to what Bloodbound are here to do, take you on a journey and shred. Much like the track before it, “Tears of a Dragonheart” is much of the same, an introduction to the other part of Bloodbound. The side that instead of being straight of Power Metal, packs more of a punch, has more of a Speed Metal backing to it and the solo in this song shows it all, making the one in “Battle in the Sky” look like something a child would play.

                Instrumentally and vocally this album is impressive, beginning to end, it was unexpected to say the least. While Power Metal isn’t all that easy to find the exact bands that influenced them, there was one stand out song on that album that had a very Judas Priest vibe in the style it was written and the way it was done, specifically vocally. “King of Swords” is very reminiscent of “All Guns Blazing” off of Judas Priest’s album “Painkiller”, the vocals kick off with such sheer power that they almost sound harsh, like they’re about to belt out some crazy Death Metal vocals, before leading into something more similar to the rest of the album, while still maintaining Power and Speed.

                To round up everything stated above, this is a Power Metal album for anyone who’s a fan of Power Metal, the musicianship is incredible, the production is top notch and everything is mixed in so well that it doesn’t feel like anything is overpowering anything else, while still being able to hear every aspect of the album, which is where a lot of bands of every genre fail. If you’re a Power Metal fan, or you’re looking for a place to start, this is it. Bloodbound blew all expectations out of the water with “War of Dragons”.

100/100

Give Bloodbound a like on Facebook

While you're there do the same for us

And why not pick up War of Dragons while you're at it

Striker "Striker" Review

        Canada's premier Thrash/Power Metal band Striker are back with "Striker". The new self titled album comes complete with ten new rocking tunes to take you right back to the heydays of 80s Heavy Metal. Now, I know I sound like one of those terrible CD commercials that use to be on before the rise of digital downloads, but it's for good reason, this album kills.

        The album kicks off at an absolute high with “Former Glory”, “Pass Me By” and “Born to Lose”. The thing about Striker's self titled album is they’ve found this perfect mix of old school Thrash/Speed Metal and almost radio Hard Rock, without sounding like they’ve “sold out”. It’s the kind of Metal that a lot of people can get into and will help them find the wonderful world of Metal. With songs like “Born to Lose” I would actually expect to hear it on the radio, the song is catchy and melodic in all the right ways while maintaining its Thrash roots with its speed, power and of course, technicality in the solos. This is a formula present through a lot of the album, this is a band that found a way to bridge people from listening to Rock radio to listening to Slayer.

         A few more standout songs on the album are “Rock the Night”, “Freedom's Call” and “Curse of the Dead”, continuing to prove what Striker have to show you. Of these three, pretty much of Striker’s entire discography, “Freedom's Call” is the most standout to me. It’s a song that shows everything the band has, melody, technicality, intensity, emotion, power, you name it.

        Canada's very own Striker and their new self titled album is a push in the right direction. The bands last outing “Stand in the Fire” was one of the best impulse buys I’ve made musically in a while at the time and I didn’t know how the band intended to step up from that. The new self titled album really shows the growth of the band, a band that knows the fans like a specific sound from them but they can’t release the same album every couple of years.

90/100

Give Striker a like on Facebook

Why not give us one too

while you're at it, pick up the new album

Interview with Lucas Di Mascio of Malacoda

Hey, how are you?

I’m doing great, thanks!

Some readers might not be familiar with Malacoda and you guys have a unique experience with your albums, maybe you can give them a bit of your backstory and catch them up a little bit with who you guys are!

Originally Malacoda was a solo project that I and a producer worked on. The first album was mostly played by me, we were more of a darker alt-metal band that was compared a lot to Tool. When I decided to give it a shot and make this thing into a band I reached out to some of musicians from some of my favourite bands and we eventually came out with our most recent release. We’ve gotten heavier than the first album and expanded into a sound that people are calling “horror metal” thanks to our “Penny Dreadful” music video.

You guys released “Ritualis Aeterna” not too long ago, how has the response been?

The response has been alright. People are either really loving it or are picking out a few things that I had mixed thoughts with during the production of the EP and giving it a bit harsher of a review. We were definitely experimenting with some things on this release that I hadn’t really worked much with in metal. With the amount of stuff that had happened during the production of this EP it’s a miracle it even came out to be honest. I think I jokingly told the keyboardist that we were the “bad luck band” after a particularly bad week.

You guys have a lot of different sounds blended into the album as well, it’s almost impossible to pick out all of your influences. Would you be able to name a few that are mixed into your songs?

Yeah it’s a little over the map but it’s still somewhat focused. Organized chaos I guess. I’m a huge fan of goth rock and goth metal, bands like Fields of the Nephilim, Type O Negative, Katatonia, Paradise Lost are huge influences of mine but I’m also a super huge Iced Earth fan and love Megadeth- so I’m a thrash head too. I’m into Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Opeth, Skinny Puppy- lets not forget movie scores too. We get compared a lot to bands that most of us weren’t into enough to be considered influences- like King Diamond or Dimmu Borgir. I guess it was the over the top keyboards and super layered vocals that attributed to those comparisons.

Now I haven’t been able to follow the songs to the fullest extent yet, so I’m curious is this release a series of short stories or is it one large overlapping story/a concept album?

I’d probably say it’s more of a themed EP than a concept album. I’ve always wanted to do a concept album, but you can’t just crap one of those out and call it a day. I think even more planning needs to be done for one of those, you got to write music that really captures the emotions and mood in the story you are trying to tell- among other things. Rituals Aeterna mostly deals with exploring what horror is. Penny Dreadful is inspired by the since cancelled Showtime TV show of the same name and is about horror as entertainment, I Got A Letter was loosely inspired by the video game Silent Hill 2 and explores the emotions that permeate from horror- dread, sadness, guilt, fear. Linger Here is about being a psychologically abusive romantic relationship and the horrors that come with that. I think we’ve written one of the first Anti-Ballads with that one.

Recording can be one of the biggest issues in a recording cycle and with so many different parts to all of your songs there was so much for everyone to key in on, did you guys have any real problems when it came to recording?

It was a really interesting process this time around. I’ve been in and out of recording studios for a long time as a musician, engineer, assistant and producer. It’s fair to say I feel more at home behind a recording console than on a stage. The first album was done at the producer’s home studio, but this time around I decided to finally just build my own. Gutted half the basement, built a control room and then a live room, soundproofed it and called it Old Haunt. I had amassed quite a bit of equipment over the years so it was just putting it together in a way that made sense. I’m still tweaking some things here and there but that’s how it always is. The studio took a long time to build since I did it myself with a friend and some family members helping out. Old Haunt hadn’t had all the kinks worked out by the time we were ready to track and we had already put it off by so long so we recorded the drums at Jon Howard of Threat Signal’s home studio (Woodward Studio). Old Haunt was done a month later, I think I tracked the bass in a day, did the rhythm guitars over the course of a week or so and then Jonah did all his keyboards in a studio in the states. He sent the files over here, I got Brad to do his solos over a few weekends. Jon mixed it, wrestled with a mastering engineer for a few months and then got it mastered within a day by another dude. All the hang ups we had came from people outside of the band to be honest and had nothing to do with the recording. Now that we have Old Haunt up and running I don’t think we’ll ever need to worry about hangups here.

Obviously every band tries to better themselves with each release, although that might be giving some bands too much credit, how was recording this EP different from your debut? Was it easier or harder to finish?

I can’t really say either of them was easier or harder to finish. I mean, I engineered and produced most of this EP whereas on the first album I just wrote everything and performed most of it and left the engineering to the producer. I guess in that respect that was more work I had to do, but I honestly didn’t feel like it was harder. The difficulties came from outside forces. This EP cost less than the album thanks to having my own studio, but that doesn’t necessarily affect difficulty or quality of music these days.

Are you guys looking into setting up shows in and across Canada or even the US? Would be great to see you up in the KW area!

We’re actually thinking about hitting the studio and writing a full length. We’ve had some lineup changes and some of the new stuff I’ve come up with is super different than either release we’ve come out with so far, and some of the new guys we’ve got now have some sweet ideas. Chris, our old bassist, decided to rejoin when we got Cooper to go on guitar. We’ve got a second guitar player now opposed to just the one we had on Ritualis, so we’ll see how things go with him in the songwriting process. We’re just solidifying things with a drummer now actually. Canada will definitely be getting gigs, we’ve got some long term plans for those. I’d love to play the states- I love going to Florida, not just because it’s always hot but just the whole vibe of the place is cool and very different than Ontario. If someone can get us to Florida, then I probably wouldn’t hesitate much on that! My real interest for shows is in Europe however, but I really can’t say anything at this point on if we are going to get there anytime soon.

To close up, do you have any parting words for your fans old and new?

We’ve got some cool stuff in the pipeline, I think we’re working on quite possibly the best Malacoda release by far. We’re welcoming some old faces and ideas and blending it with a new outlook. We’ll see you soon!

Thank you very much for your time, I hope to see you on the stage sometime soon!

Thank you for the interview- we’ll see there!
- Lucas Di Mascio, Vocalist of Malacoda

Elm Street "Knock 'Em Out... With A Metal Fist" Review

                Elm Street took me a bit by surprise, when I checked out this album I was expecting something far different from this Death meets Thrash Metal album. There’s some apparent influences/bands I think this sounds like that can totally be pure coincidence, but influences are always good, it helps people find bands like bands they love to keep them occupied in that 2+ year wait in between albums normally. So without holding off any longer, let’s talk about “Knock ‘Em Out... With A Metal Fist”, the new release from Elm Street.

                The albums three opening tracks are all pretty standard Thrash Metal with some Death influence, while the opener “Face the Reaper” has sort of a “Fade To Black” feel in its intro, each song has roughly the same idea. Thrash Metal, pretty some hooks mixed into the riffs to keep you invested in the songs and a sort of Melodic Death Metal infusion into the style keeps to first 15-20 minutes of the album interesting. A bit later in the album you’ll get to the interlude “S.T.W.A.” which is a minute instrumental that leads into “Blood Diamond” the mix into “Blood Diamond” is a little poor, there’s a minor gap that makes the sound skip a little when transitioning from song to song here. “Blood Diamond” is a nearly 12 minute Thrash marathon that honestly, doesn’t need to be nearly 12 minutes. Some instrumental sections go on a few bars to long and the song just doesn’t have enough to it to keep the listener invested in it, especially with the following track “Leave It All Behind” being another 7 and a half minutes. I love long songs personally, but they have to be done right, the song had to be interesting enough to keep you invested, if it’s going to be any longer than 7 minutes, I better be hearing a real well written story.

                So in conclusion, “Knock ‘Em Out... With A Metal Fist” isn’t exactly knocking anyone out, it’s a great album, no doubt about it, the only downfall is the fact that there’s nothing to keep you from wandering off during the long songs in the album that draw out a bit too long. Although the thing I do love about this album is the sort of Revocation style Thrash Metal meets Children of Bodom Melodic Death sound and vocalist Ben Batres has a very Alexi Laiho meets Dave Mustaine (trust me, check out “Leave It All Behind” for this) influenced sound to his voice. If you’re a fan of the style, it’s an album you’ll enjoy, it’s not groundbreaking, it’s not the next big thing, it’s just a very solid album in and out.

65/100

Subscribe to us on YouTube

Like us on Facebook

Like Elm Street on Facebook

Buy "Knock 'Em Out... With A Metal Fist"

Vow of Thorns "Farewell to the Sun" Review

                Sometimes, you just have a feeling about an album and it makes you way more excited for it than it probably should. Last year while on Ashbringer were on tour they played a little venue in Guelph, Ontario and with them they brought this band called Vow of Thorns. I had no knowledge of this band before this show and they instantly shocked me, they could do something most bands couldn’t, which is not only alternate between the Black and Doom Metal sounds, but mix them together to make an atmosphere like no other. Well, nearly a full year passed since this show and now Vow of Thorns are more than happy to present to you their album, “Farewell to the Sun”.

                Lets just get started, this album kicks off with “Meeting on the Astral Plane” and kicks off with my favourite riff on this entire album! The riff actually sounds upbeat and is nice in contrast, this song gets pretty slow and has a quite upsetting atmosphere come the end of it. After a bit of this riff the song slows down and we are greeted with very obvious Black Metal influenced vocals, and with such your idea of this album will begin, this is the main idea of the album, slower riffs with vocals front and centre. The atmosphere is dark and as mentioned before, upsetting, this album actually does its job to create the kind of tension filled atmosphere that most bands aim for and fall far short of. The song will gradually slow down as it goes through is astounding 10 minute run time before eventually grinding to a complete halt.

                This album features a 3 part epic totalling a surprising 21 minutes in length entitled “Farewell to the Sun”, yeah, the title track(s) itself. They have a full build up, climax and drop off, with the songs starting off slow, blending outstandingly into one another and eventually after reaching its height around the end of part two, gradually drops back off into oblivion. These songs are the main selling point of the expertise of Vow of Thorns, between the slow, mellow sound of the Doom influence and the faster, yet just as simple Black Metal sound you can hear every aspect and feel every note of these tracks. Then there are the blending sections, where the clear Black Metal sound is slowed to create a Doomier sound and more menacing atmosphere.

                I keep talking about atmosphere; well this is where a lot of bands fall short. Many albums released in recent years lack the ability to make you feel and there’s a reason this is such a problem, many people use music as an escape. Vow of Thorns don’t lack here, “Farewell to the Sun” has an atmosphere to it that is just as great as the music itself, so rejoice, escape and blast this spectacular album.

100/100

Subscribe to us on YouTube

Like us on Facebook

Like Vow of Thorns on Facebook

Buy "Farewell to the Sun"

Scythia "Lineage" Review

                Hey Canada and everywhere else around the world, did the disbandment of 3 Inches of Blood make you unhappy? Do you need that Power and Death metal mix that they brought? Well, let me introduce you to your new favourite band, Scythia and don’t worry, “Lineage” is their 4^th album so you have plenty to catch up on here. Having an epic Power Metal sound that rivals bands like Tyr and Korpiklaani and mixing in the crushing Death Metal growls that will bring you to your knees.

                The opening tracks start off strong with “Eternal Oath” which will get you ready for the amazing sound this band has and “Laugh of the Tsar”, featuring a more personal sound most likely unlike any band you’ve heard before. Slowing down immensely, you enter “Soldier’s Lament” and you can already hear the intensity of the lyrics, this is probably my favourite track to be featured on this album. The pacing of this song is slow and filled with emotion, primarily focusing on the Power Metal sound and almost entering ballad territory, this song tells the story of a knight of the crusades back in the day, travelling from place to place to kill in the name of the god and the struggle the character faces beginning to question if he’s just being used.

                The next couple tracks go hand in hand, “Loremaster pt. 1” and “Loremaster pt. 2”, the former beginning very slow and purely acoustic. Before long the instrumentals kick in and the speed gets upped instantly, with in incredibly cool riff that sounds like something Rhapsody would have come up with. The chorus features nice contrast, with the clean higher vocals singing “I am the Loremaster” while growls can be heard in the background, there’s another section where the clean vocals are almost cut off by the growls as they continue to finish out the verse. I found this portion interesting because the first time through it sounded like an editing screw up, but after a couple more listens it’s clearly intentional and creates a crazy aggressive mood. In the last couple minutes of part one comes a guitar solo and man is it an epic guitar solo, beginning with the idea of “how fast can I play?” as the song creeps to a close the solo gains more soul and becomes more emotional before blending back into a riff that can match the slower saddened vocals. Part two of this song blends in perfectly, but I won’t ruin it for you, it’s something you’ll need to check out yourself.

                I know I related this to 3 Inches of Blood at the beginning, and when it comes to style, it is true that they are somewhat similar, but this is a band with their own identity entirely as well. If you like stories, epic Power Metal, crushing Death Metal and you think music should have the ability to play with your emotion, “Lineage” is an album you should be buying right this second. If you don’t like music with lyrical content, personal style, emotion and that create their own atmosphere as you listen to it, maybe you should skip this and stop listening to music entirely. “Lineage”, the new album from Scythia is a masterpiece in the way it’s written and performed, from cover to cover, there was no part of this album that didn’t peak my interest, so you should check it out, pick it up and play it loud!

95/100

Subscribe to us on YouTube

Like us on Facebook

Like Scythia on Facebook

Buy "Lineage" here

Artillery "Penalty by Perception" Album Review

                Heavy Metal label Metal Blade Records have a thing for finding bands that are up and coming and making them into internationally renowned bands and host some of the best older bands as well, so what surprise is there when I tell you 90s Thrashers Artillery. This is a band who has found a way to make every album sound modern while keeping true to what they’ve done from the beginning. While “Penalty By Perception” is only the bands eighth album over a 26 year career plagued with breakups it is an album that moves that band forward in sound.

                The album opens with “In Defiance of Conformity” and my first notice was the vocal prowess Michael Dahl brings to the table, after a brief nature intro (thunderstorms and crickets and what not) a riff reminiscent of something Volbeat would write kicks in keeping the guitars clean while a quite spoken word section plays out, but quickly the song kicks into the thrashy goodness everyone wants. The main riff is a fairly standard Speed Metal riff that has a gritty contrast to Dahl’s almost Power Metal style of vocals, the second time the chorus comes around you can tell this song could easily become an Arena Rock with the chant of “Fight! Fight!” in between lines. The section where Dahl is singing “In defiance of conformity” is rather unique as well, while matches the guitar’s tone before making the vocals soar higher but that’s not the truly unique part, if this section were instrumental you would still be able to hear the words as Michael and Morten Stutzer are able to make the guitars sing. The guitar solos in this song are also very misleading; the first solo is cool but lacklustre and makes you think “is that all?” before belting out a blistering, face melting solo with the main riff being cranked out in the background.

                Following the opening is “Live by the Scythe” which is one of the strongest songs although I have a very minor, kind of funny issue with the song. The song is thrashy in all the right ways and the speed chug riff in the chorus is a true neck breaker, my only stupid little issue (and maybe I’m a tad bit OCD because of it) is the fact that Dahl pronounces the “C” in “Scythe,” that’s all. Probably what I would consider the most technical and bordering fastest song on the album is “Rites of War” as soon as the guitar started I was hooked, but what I really liked in this is the consistent drumming that could somehow keep up with everything the guitars were doing and playing some of the weirdest bass patterns I’ve heard. The vocals reminded me a bit of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” as well, while being sung out over instrumentals unlike “War Pigs.” Dahl starts off low and gradually gets his vocals way up high, then start up high on the next line and make their way down, the solo comes flying out of nowhere, and I mean flying, until the end of the song with a almost cartoony/Donkey Kong riff being played under it.

                All in all, incredibly impressed with this release, I was a bit iffy to start as I remember listening to the previous release “Legions” and not being too keen or impressed. Artillery took Thrash to a whole new level with “Penalty by Perception” incorporating Power, Speed and even a little bit of Death Metal into everything. If you’re a fan of what the Big 4 USE to be, pick up “Penalty by Perception” as soon as humanly possible, it’ll restore your faith in Thrash! Oh, and they’re a power ballad sort of song on it, so you know, you can even get your significant other hooked on it and still get badass guitar solos when they keep listening to it.

98/100

Like Artillery on Facebook

Like Metal Blade Records on Facebook

Watch the video for "Live by the Scythe"

Like Animals "Feral" Album Review

               Like Animals have a new EP called “Feral” and let me tell you right now, I have no idea what to tell you about it. To start, have no idea how to categorise them but if I had to take a shot in the dark Metalcore would sound about right. “Feral” is a 5 song, 20 minute EP full of “hmm..” and I mean that in the absolute nicest way possible and ill explain it don’t worry.

                So let’s begin by talking about the instrumentals, the guitars tend change from the absolute most boring standard riffs to almost Protest the Hero sounding sections rather randomly. Drums are impressive most the time, little had to follow, little chaotic here and there and rather boring sometimes just like the riffs. Bass, not even sure it’s there to be honest with you, I personally can’t give you any examples of where it stands out or you can really even hear it. Vocally, the cleans are lacklustre and a complete turn off to me, the harsh vocals are very standard Metalcore screams but at least the band isn’t constant breakdowns.

                What would make the album better, a vocalist who’s cleans can match the tone of the music, a bit of a speed up as the guitars are played at such a minimal speed that the riffs that could very well be impressive are boring. Bass needs a crank up, it needs to be heard! No complaints about the drums, they match everything the guitars are doing and it works nicely.

                Nothing special stands out to me on this release, this isn’t a hit at the band saying give up, this is a hint saying if I had a say here’s what would give these songs the kick in the ass they deserve! Don’t feel attacked, these things happen as Metallica so kindly showed us with “St. Anger” and hell no one has to listen to me, but these are the things that would make these songs listenable to me. Take Like Animals new EP “Feral” for a spin yourself, see if I know what the hell I’m even on about!

5/100