Some last CD tips for your christmas shoppings. A special edition as two of them I have not even received on CD yet myself.
Hittman - Destroy All Humans
Under the header "bands that disappeared for a long time and make a sensational come-back" 2020 gives us Hittman. In 1988 Hittman released their self titled debut album. US metal with some progressive hints and they were compared with Queensryche as happened to more bands from that era releasing albums in this style (Crimson Glory, Heir Apparent, Lethal) I loved the album and bought the LP. Five years later they were suddenly back (pre-internet days so some releases came as a surprise indeed) Viva Machina was as strong and I got the CD. Then all went quiet and I never managed to see them playing live. So when a return album was announced I was interested indeed. The first clips released sounded promising and I was ready to order. That is where the delay started as I was waiting for Large or Amazon.nl to bring this release. Well waiting in vain only last week I ordered the album directly from the No Remorse label, waiting everyday for the mailman next week. So I played this album many times on Youtube to get the idea. Opening Metal Archives for the lyrics to read along and what I found is one of the absolute highlights of 2020. So they still sound like old school Queensryche, but if that results in album Queensryche can not match since 1994 Promised Land I am not complaining. Actually quite the contrary I can't hear this album enough. Eight songs starting and ending with the longer ones with the rest around 4-5 minutes. This style of metal comes pretty close with my favorite music. Starting with a great vocalist Dirk Kennedy who lost nothing of power in his voice. Guitar solo's all over and a base of heavy metal with progressive trends. All eight songs are ace and in Total Amnesia they look back on their absence from the metal world in a funny way "Marches of Saints, warnings of Fate, When was this life that you claim I was leading". Well what count is that they are back and how. Now bring them over to Europe in 2022 and I am prepared to travel to see this live.
Vulkan - Technatura
Sometimes you read a review and decide to check the band out on bandcamp. If then your next decision is to hear the full album at once, the only next step can be buying the album online. That is what happened with Vulkan for me. This album came out much earlier this year, but I missed it. I found it at Angry Metal Guy under the header Things you might have missed in 2020. Well what an interesting release this is. These Swedes mix two languages on a concept album and my Swedish is limited to "I don't speak Swedish" and "two strong beers please". So there goes the storyline. Well not to worry as the music speaks for itself. It is progressive rock, although as heavy as some progmetal as well many times. Basically having all the ingredients that should make younger prog rock/metal fans happy (those who go and see Haken, Leprous, Caligula's Horse, but avoid the originals (Hittman)). A very nice album indeed, which also is still to arrive on my doormat, but might be tried by you before that within the year.
Contrarian - Only Time Will Tell
This one I do have on CD. Reason is that I pre-ordered as soon as I learned of the album, based upon last year's very strong Their Worm Never Dies. Another year, another album, another vocalist, another drummer and another bassist. Result? same highclass OSTDM. The drummer/vocalist was George Kollias of Nile fame, being replaced by two different band members. The vocals now only do grunt and some spoken parts The music is another Sci-fy concept album that clocks slightly under 35 minutes. this is OK for me with this style of music. The title track is instrumental and according to the booklet a variation of the song 4th of July by U2. Not knowing that original it did not hinder me. Not sure if I will see this band playing live anyday, but pretty sure I will see bassist chapman stick player Bill Bodily as he just joined Flotsam and Jetsam as well. For anyone into Tech Death a tip, although also OSDM lovers might appreciate this album.
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