Some CD's I bought last month and did not get to recommend yet.
Crimson Glory - Chasing the Hydra
27 years after Astronomica Crimson Glory present us a new full album Chasing the Hydra. The last years they already played some shows and at Progpower we could see it was good. Their first two albums are in the absolute classic must have category. For any band returning after such a long time the question is "did it make sense to record a new abum?". Well I can be short there, in Crimson Glory's case it did. At first hearing I was not fully convined yet, but replaying the album a few times made me like chasing the Hydra better by each spin. And yest Travis Wills is no Midnight, since he was a one of a kind. Still his voice is good and at times comes close to eighties Midnight. The songs are varied enough as well, with some calmer intermezzo's just like the old days. So my conclusion is a welcome return of the band.
Hardline - Shout
A few weeks ago I went to see Hardlline at de Boerderij. Their tour was promoting this album, but the focus was on their 1992 album Doube Eclipse. A perfect melodic rock classic with next to the Gioelli brothers also Neal Schon and Deen Castranova in the band. 1992 so that melodic hard rock album was not followed up soon. In 1999 they reforemd and the band released several albums over time. For me this was the first CD I got by them after a very good show. This is just uplifting melodic had rock with as seen live exceptional good vocals by Johnny Gioeli. A great band he has around him and when the songs are catchy like this it is probably an album I shall go back to many times still.
Ram-Zet - Sapien
Another band coming back after a hiatus, even if this time only 14 years Ram-Zet. I loved their 2002 album Escape and do own one more album. Now they are back with Sapien and they amaze again. They play Black Metal of the avant-garde kind. This time though many of the vocals are sung by Sfinx. a woman who does not go all operatic on us. This makes the album less heavy than their past and at times moving in the direction of fellow Norwegians Madder Mortem. Still Zet's black metal shriek appears at times too. A very long album this is with 72 minutes, but it is diverse. My favourite song is Bozzadevil, but I explain that later with a clip of the day. A very good come-back that can be presented at ProgPower or Samhain for me.
Triumpher - Piercing the Heart of the World
Another CD I picked up after a strong live show is the latest by Triumpher. These Greek epic metallers were good live and great on album too. Yes I can mention Manowar to set te ballpark. But where the original did not release any decent album in decades, this band seems to spit out epic metal pearls every two years, with this being album #3. In order to play this style of metal a good vocalist is a must and with Mars Triumph that is very well covered. Further it helps if the songs about battles and epicness are brought with power and feel. Again no problem and this is a band to love and follow closely. If they than even add some lyrics in Greek, we know we can write EPIC in capital letters.
No comments:
Post a Comment