Some CD tips of albums released in February. Warning some extremly addictive gems among them.
Todd La Torre - Rejoice in the Suffering
Todd La Torre is nowadays known from Queensryche. I saw him first live, when he toured with Crimson Glory. In both cases he managed to bring the eighties material back to live. This album is a duo project with Craig Blackwell who plays guitar, bass and keys. Todd apart from singing also drums. In the booklet they declare they wanted with this album to go back to their roots, where they came from. Well they succeeded more than a bit as this album oozes good old Heavy Metal. A bit heavier than Todd's work with Queensryche we get some proper Heavy Metal songs on high speed. During Vanguards of the Dawn Wall at times I think during the verses we are building up to Painkiller. This album shall please all who like Todd and Craig grew up with Heavy Metal of the eighties. Songs with a bite and when he does go slower for an intro or verse Queensryche does come closer, because his voice is current Queensryche. During the last song (or third bonus track) One By One Todd shows that he can also be called by any melo-death band taking care of clean/grunt voices. A versatile album that deserves wide audiences.
Iotunn - Access All Worlds
How often does it happen that on one day two bands release an album that blows you away. Further both released EP's in the past, but you never heard those. Well 26 February was such a day and Iotunn was one of the bands. The first name that stands out is Jón Aldará, since he is also known from Barren Earth, Hamfered and Clouds. His mix of clean and grunting voices is impressive again and does leave a mark on the music. Giving all the credits to him would be very wrong though as the songs make this album. Be it short at 4:40 or epic at 13:47 we are getting seven beautiful songs. Moods and music change constantly between the grunted and clean sung parts. Reading reviews in magazines and online makes me confident that enough people got their message and Iotunn will be the next big thing. Access all worlds indeed so to say.
Moonspell - Hermitage
After spending many weeks/months over the past five years in Portugal, there is no escaping Moonspell really. I never knew them that well before 2016, but I loved their 2017 album 1755. Especially the story being told in Portuguese fitted the music well. I also realized I need to get one day the live album Lisboa under the spell as it holds full perfromances of three of their best albums. Still having to do that I meanwhile did pick up my copy of Hermitage (btw also 26 Feb released, but not the one I referred to) This album must be harder to get into for diehard fans of their early days , than it is to me. This melancholic album seems at times to step in the gap left behind by disappearing Anathema. Just listen to songs like All or Nothing or Entitlement and you hear what I mean. Overall the album is just a notch heavier than latter day Anathema and at times vocals go growling, but never for long. Actually this album might break open whole new markets for Moonspell as I defintely hear traces of my beloveth progmetal in their music as well. Hope to catch them next time they play Beja.
Paranorm - Empyrean
Paranorm is that other newly discovered band that released a stunning album on 26 February. These Progressive thrashers from Sweden gave me with Empyrean the album I by far played most this year. I can't stop going back to it. Just listen to the opening drums and riff on first song Critical Mass and it is hard not to get hooked within five seconds. What follows are eight songs of incredible instrumental work, filled with guitar solo's and wonderfull riffs. The voice might not be for everyone and is at the lower end of thrash, close to grunting. At times I wondered if the voice of Alan Tecchio or Warrel Dane would have made this an even better album but I'm not sure as now it all perfectly fits together. Maybe some of my generation fans struggle a bit more now. Still is it possible not to be amazed by these songs being either around five minute bangers or the longer epics. I can only say that everyone should hear this album and it is a pity that Aardschok seemed to have missed it. I know February is early and Paris is still far, but do we have a candidate for my album of the year in hands, yes we definitely do. Go check them out at Redifing Darkness Records or Bandcamp. First lot of CD's is sold out a bigger bunch is arriving. Now I should try to get these guys to play Musicon, but with Covid and overfull agendas when concerts can happen again that is a bit of an impossible planning task for the time being.
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