picture by Andrew Hayball
The End Of Grace have been reaching out to people since they were formed a few months ago. This weekend, while recording the vocals for their upcoming EP (expected to be released late this spring), singer Kriss, guitarist Jimmy and drummer Marcus filmed a video answering some questions their fans had asked on their Facebook page. Here’s the result:
Deathcore Burned Blood have been away from the studio since 2009, when they released the EP “Hanged By The Hands Of Perfection”. But they seem to be back, at least for a single. A few days ago “Condemned” was released on YouTube:
After the video for “This Pain”, the heaviest song in their third album “Life & Death”, metal/pop/punk Blowsight explore the other side of their sound and present us now a video for the most pop track in that same work - “Hit On The Radio”. So put your dancing shoes and let your body go:
Portuguese thrash/death/metalcore Gates Of Hell have just released on YouTube the title-track of their upcoming debut full-length, “Critical Obsession”. The album will be released on April 15th via Rastilho Records and a release party will take place at Hard Club (Porto) on April 13th.
The Portuguese metal festival has announced at midnight three more bands of this year’s edition (first news on this subject here). Some rumours had been flying around regarding Moonsorrow and they turned out to be true. Iced Earth were also welcomed by VoA’s Facebook community, but Secret Lie has been causing some controversy, given its alternative rock nature and therefore being somewhat misplaced among such heavier bands.
Vagos Open Air official website (in English)
After something that Jimmie Strimmel might have posted in his Instagram account and long days of cryptic writings on Dead By April‘s official website, the pop-metal band from Göteborg has just confirmed the singer’s departure. Apparently, Strimmel has been struggling with some personal problems for quite a while, affecting the stability of the band, whose other members have finally reached the limit of their patience (read the full statement here).
But they have already found a replacement in Christoffer “Stoffe” Andersson, who sings in both By Night and What Tomorrow Brings, and plays guitar in the latter too. A couple of years ago, he also gave a hand, or should we say, a voice to Sonic Syndicate when their original growler left, so he has more than proved his skills. An EP and European tour are on the way to convince the more skeptical fans.
Portuguese groove metal band Equaleft have been making quite a stand in the underground scene of their country given the adrenaline rush of their live shows. After the very acclaimed EP “The Truth Unravels” (read review here), the band enters the studio today to start recording their long-awaited debut full-length. The recordings will take place at Soundvision studios, in Vila do Conde, with producer Paulo Lopes (Crushing Sun).
Hardcore Superstar
“C’mon Take On Me”
Released on 1st March 2013
Sleaze Rock / Street Metal
Released via Nuclear Blast / Gain Music
When Hardcore Superstar released a best-of compilation (“The Party Ain’t Over ‘Til We Say So”) a couple of years ago with no particular reason, like an anniversary or something like that, I thought the band would take a break and the intermission between “Split Your Lip” (2010) and its follow-up would be longer than usual. I’m glad I was wrong.
“Cutting The Slack” is probably the weirdest intro in the HCSS history. The first few seconds make you feel like you’re about to witness some scene from a fantasy movie, sounding as an epic soundtrack (and yeah, well, it WAS written by Swedish soundtrack composer Anders Ehlin). But then the mystique is soon replaced by some kind of fairground music, although it’s rather creepy than actually cheerful.
The cheer kicks in right afterwards with the title track, where you can hear all the band’s trademarks – the fast, sharp drum sequences, the vibrant guitar licks, the happy catchy chorus… Which doesn’t mean that they’re repeating themselves. They’ve come up with this unique formula back in 2005, resulting in something too heavy for any kind of rock, and yet too sleazy for your average metal band. Street metal is what they call it, and they do it in such a way that you feel that characteristic essence, you recognize it as an HCSS song, but you don’t think it sounds the same as any previous song. It will sound fresh and new, but familiar at the same time.
“One More Minute” is another bright example, probably brightest, and hence the choice for the first single. Heaviness mixed with loose melody, spiked up with a very sing-along chorus and you have here one of the most earlicious cocktails of the album.
A more rocking track follows suit, with more guitar embellishments, showing a more easy-going side of Hardcore Superstar – so “Above The Law” was the obvious second single.
“Are You Gonna Cry Now” raises the bar as it gets harsher in the heavy parts and quite sensual in the smooth ones. And speaking of smoothness, an acoustic bluesy “Stranger Of Mine” sends out a relaxation vibe, the same kind of vibe of Guns N’ Roses’ “You Ain’t The First”.
Then comes a bunch of sleaze rock songs, each one with a riff or a hook or a solo that make them all worthwhile. Must add that part 2 of “Won’t Take The Blame” is just an extension of the first, as if the band got carried away and just kept playing the chorus in party mode.
The final track is anything but party, though. “Long Time No See” is a beautifully sad song, a ballad with a whiff of Aerosmith in the main chords and lots of emotion through and through.
Two whole months into 2013 and I’m pretty sure already that “C’mon Take On Me” will be featured in my yearly best-of.
5 / 5
Renata “Pieni” Lino
Portugal’s most prestigious metal Summer festival, Vagos Open Air, has just confirmed SAXON, LACUNA COIL and TARÂNTULA for this year’s edition (the fifth).
The fest will take place on August 9th and 10th, in Vagos municipality, although the place isn’t the same as in the previous editions – 2013 will welcome the festival at Quinta do Ega instead of Lagoa do Calvão.
Valkyrian Music covered last year’s event and you can see the pics here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.416722411697970.84569.206896606013886&type=3
After the recent departure of Jimmie Strimmel, who left to focus on his main band Dead By April, The End Of Grace announced today what most fans already knew/suspected – Kriss Panic is TEOG‘s new singer. What came as a surprise was that bass player Robert Karlsson had also parted ways with the band. But fear not, as an awesome replacement has been found already in Ferbie Chez.
The boys and girl continue working hard on what will be the first milestone in their discography and released this little teaser a couple of weeks ago:
For more updates, follow them on Facebook.
Fastball Music, label of metal/pop/punk band Blowsight, has posted on its official Youtube channel a video featuring behind the scenes footage of the Swedes’ “This Pain”. You can check it out here:
As for the video, if you haven’t seen it yet:
Hatebreed
“The Divinity Of Purpose”
Released: 25th January 2013
Metalcore
Released via Nuclear Blast
This has been the longest period between albums that Hatebreed fans had to endure – 3 years and 4 months – but I believe they’ll agree it was worth it. Singer Jamey Jasta stated prior to its release that “The Divinity Of Purpose” would be “all pit, no shit”. And the man knew what he was saying: the 6th full album of one of Connecticut’s finest (7th if you include the cover album “For The Lions”) is a bag of metalcore treats.
The album kicks off with a very punk-ish track, the one which was actually released on Youtube last November as a preview of what was to come – “ Put It To The Torch”. It bears that stripped-down harshness and loose speed of hardcore punk, as well as rebellious and aggressive vocals. Same can be said about “Indivisible”, whose bass line adds an even stronger feeling of punk to it.
“Honor Never Dies” and “Own Your World” both push more to the ‘core side of the album, the gang vocals and breakdowns emphasised.
Then a thrashy/heavy/speed metal touch to “Before The Fight Ends You”, “Dead Man Breathing” or “Bitter Truth” gives you a more intense and edgy vibe when it comes to the riffs.
Hatebreed intermingle various elements of other genres to their metalcore basis, but in a way that won’t compromise its nature. The result is a strong structure with enough details to make the songs stand out of the ordinary and yet keep that straight-forward and raw sound that will make it a pit-friendly album, such as their frontman claimed it would be.
4 / 5
Renata “Pieni” Lino
The 69 Eyes, Generation Graveyard
O2 Academy Islington, London
12th February 2013
The 69 Eyes, a.k.a. Helsinki Vampires, have been touring Europe in support of their latest release, “X”. On February 12th, they sank their goth’n’roll fangs in London’s O2 Academy Islington.
But before that, local death punks Generation Graveyard had the honor of warming things up. Their music may be “a little harsher” than what most of the headliners’ fans are used to, but in general the crowd went along with it pretty well. Someone screamed something less pleasant at some point, but as singer Max pointed out, that someone had paid a ticket and was watching him and his band, so…
They kicked off with “Abominate/Desolate”, showing right away how serious they were about delivering a very energetic gig. An 8-song setlist that included “Suburban Suicide”, “Deletist” and “The Empty”, and which ended after 40 minutes with the title-track of their EP “Poison City”. Maybe somewhat out of place, but they did play a great show.
Before Generation Graveyard got on stage, the background music had been Rage Against The Machine. Now that the stage was being set for The 69 Eyes and the Finns were about to get on stage, the mood changed completely into a Deep South vibe – something singer Jyrki 69 is known to appreciate. Then at 21:20 the Helsinki Vampires “met” the Southern Vampires of “True Blood” as Jace Everett’s “Bad Things” echoed and the lights went down… and the crowd screamed, knowing the show was on.
It started for real with what drummer Jussi 69 claims to be “one of the best rock songs written in years” – “Love Runs Away”. And it felt like one of the best rock performances played in years.
Later on, when introducing “Black”, Jyrki said it was a song with a very philosophical theme – a song about how he loved girls dressed in black. “And I bet you’re all wearing black tonight”, he added in the end. Well if it wasn’t “all”, it was pretty close to it.
Timo-Timo picked up a semi-acoustic guitar and so it was no surprise to hear Jyrki say they would play the second single from “X”, “Borderline”. Despite its softer nature, the bodies kept moving to its rhythm. Same with “Red”, the “real” ballad of the night, where Bazie got carried away during the solo and extended it a bit.
Focusing on “X”, they still played classics such as “Gothic Girl”, “Dance D’Amour” and “Betty Blue”. And some more “contemporaneous” hits like “Perfect Skin”, “Never Say Die” or “Devils”. After the latter, the band left the stage. About an hour had passed, just like that, proving the old saying that “time flies when you’re having fun”.
When returning for the encore, and after Bazie fooled around with the chords from “The Chair”, Jyrki took the chance to thank us for being there that night and supporting them. That they’ve been around for 23 years, and that they can do another 23 “if you want us to”. The applause and roars were even more deafening than when he called us The London Vampires.
“The Chair” was then properly played, followed by “Brandon Lee”, and someone who had been shouting “Lost Boys” for at least half of the show, finally had her wish come true. “You wanna rock!”, Jyrki screamed, and as always, he wasn’t satisfied with the screams he got in return. Also as always, he said that the previous night (Paris) had been a lot louder. Again as always, we booed and destroyed our vocal chords in that final song.
As the band was saying “thank you” and “goodbye” and throwing the usual souvenirs (picks, drum sticks, setlists…), another tv theme was used as outro – “Sons Of Anarchy” “This Life”, performed by Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers. What a bloody great night!
Text & photos by Renata “Pieni” Lino
Bonemud
“Challenge Accepted”
Released: 12th December 2012
Rapcore/metal
Self-released
I’m not sure when Bonemud was formed, but I’m guessing it wasn’t that much before the release of their debut album “Tokoloshe”, in November 2010. It seems their line-up wasn’t very stable though – apart from founders guitarist Remi Makulec and singer Scott Allen – until late 2011. In January 2012 the band claimed to be “stronger than ever” with Nick Shaffer on drums and Thom Wood on bass and this “Challenge Accepted” is here to prove so.
I labelled them as “rapcore” because it’s how they’re commonly known as. But then I had to add a broader term – “metal” – because if the first track, “Homiez”, leaves no doubt about its rapcore/nu-metal nature, the other three reveal much more than that.
Right up next comes “Lil’ Whore”, which is a strong I-don’t-want-to-love-you ballad and could have been performed by a modern rock band. I’m not saying this in any derogatory way – by the contrary. It’s a catchy song, with cranking but melodic riffs, and totally different from what you’d expect from a rapcore band. That’s what I meant before – they’re capable of playing all kinds of genres and subgenres of music.
Then “Something I Am” goes back to the nu-metal path, the one that’s closer to the industrial neighbourhood. At least in the first minute and half, before the first chorus, you hear an enhanced electronic structure and heavy beats.
And the best way to describe “U&I” is alternative metal – nothing “core” about it, but too harsh for rock-something.
Not sure if a whole album will work with this formula, consisting in no formula at all and every song pushing into a different direction. But in a 4-track EP you don’t have time to get confused and such a “mess” of elements and subgenres becomes kind of interesting.
4/5
Renata “Pieni” Lino
The End Of Grace, the newest metal wonder from Göteborg, Sweden, has just made available on YouTube the song they recorded with Lillasyster-singer Martin Weststrand.
The band is currently working on their debut, but meanwhile you can check both on YouTube and Reverbnation another 3 songs besides this “Fist Face Bleed”, so you can have an idea of what’s coming your way soon.
