This summer brought me new CD's too. Here are same you might want to check out.
Ard - Untouched by Fire
In 2022 Ard came to us with a stunning debut Take Up My Bones. Stunning mostly as in original. Mark Deeks known from Winterfylleth went solo and doom. His music holds male choirs, very calm rhythms and heavy undertones. Most important is his storytelling as he obviously knows a lot about Northumbrian history. So his debut album overwhelmed me, what does Untouched by Fire do? I still love the album, but I am already curious what he does next. A bit like Zeal & Ardour. After two highly original new mixes of styles you need to develop. For now I like this hstory lesson and hope not to miss hime when he comes to Holland next time.
Cloven Hoof - Heathen Cross
Now here's a surprise. Cloven Hoof are 45 years old and debuted in 1984 with their first LP. Over the past decades their vocalists did a Spinal Tap drummerś caroussel. The surprise is that this time Harry (the Tyrant) Conklin takes care of vocals. This results in one of the best Heavy Metal albums of the year, including the necessary high screams. After an instrumental opener Redeemer kicks of in perfect fashion. Lee Payne is the original band member metalling the band forward. He managed a strong line-up on this record and it must be among their best even if I don know all albums. Today in two weeks they headline Mearfest Flameś Friday night. One to look out for already.
Daath - The Deceivers
Daath released twenty years ago their debut album, but I never dug into the band. That changed when in an interview I read they now have Rafael Trujillo on guitars. My Obsidious alarm bells went ringing immediately. Rafael proved on record and on stage to be among the very best in Tech-Death. So I checked out some clips of this album and ordered thereafter. This is great Tech-Death with melodies always nearby due to great guitars. Talking about guitars Jeff Loomis and Per Nilsson guest too on this one, need I say more?
Disgrace and Terror - The True Will of Evil
Disgrace and Terror or from Pará or Belem to be more precise. That means we get some northern Braziliain death thrash metal here. I picked up their album after seeing them live in Lazarus some months ago. So they are Brazilian and they do sound Brazilian to me. That means dirty, fast and menacing metal in the fast mode. Live they managed to pull these speeds of very well, so a return to Holland shall make me be there. Laus Satanus.
Octoploid - Beyond the Aeons
Olli Pekka Laine decided to start an all star mainly Finnish melodeath project, or is it a band? He is known from Amorphis by Lida, but I was more interested that with his Barren Earth background too he asked Jon Aldera as well to sing on a song. Most vocals (3 songs) however are coming from Mikko Kotamaki of Swallow the Sun fame. With six vocalists involved the album sounds surprisingly cohesive. This must be because Finnish Melodeath is the basis of all songs. Not sure if this lot will ever tour, but this album is recommended also due to spacy mixes on cover and at times in the music.
Rhabstallion - Bat Shit Crazy
Mearfest is coming soon and I did prepare myself for the older bands on the bill. Rhabstallion is typically a band I never heard of in the early eighties. They released three demoś and one single at the time. In 1994 a compilation CD was released Day to Day and when hearing that on Youtube I went looking for it at shops onliine. Than I bumped into this 2024 release. So I started with their current line-up, sound and album. Rhabstallion are one of them reformed bands who actually sound pretty good still. OK they shall not surprise you with their sound, as they do play NWOBHM after all these years.. Yet I like the songs and performances, curious how they will sound live.
Transit Method - Othervoid
I don't remember how and when I bumped into Transit Method. This band from Austin Texas sounded to me immediately as if The Offspring would play progmetal, with at times notches to Voivod too. Catchy as Monkeypox 1 and musically still very interesting. So I did check their bandcamp page and found they printed 100 digipack CD's. Problem is that they broke my rule of shipping costs being 150% of the CD price. Luckily we had visitors from Texas staying with us last month, so here I am, possibly the only holder of a Transit Method CD in Europe. If you like catchy. punky progmetal tunes that make you smile, check these guys out.
Witherfall - Sounds of the Forgotten
Witherfall are among the best new bands of the past decade. I follow them since 2017 debut Nocturnes and Requiems. They play a blend of Us Metal with progressive, power and heavy metal traces within. Jospeh Michael is among the best voices in current metal and Jake Dreyer is one of the current guitar heroes in heavy metal. So this double guarantees the sound of the band. On Sounds of the Forgotten they open fast and furious, but the album further holds lots of calmer intermezzos to full songs. We all know what we miss by them and that is a headlining tour through Europe. With now 4 full lenghts and one EP of the highest level it shall be hard to decide on a setlist. Bring it on I say and I will be there.
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