Osea - Make me feel track review

Year : 2017
Genre : Synth Pop
Where to check the song out : >-here-<
Origin : Italy

Osea's track "Make me feel" reveals pop sensibilities rooted in an era that has shown interest in drawing pulsations that are in a constant sync with the intriguing thrills of the night. Anatomically, the piece showcases the straightforward compositional tactics, and you probably would have no qualms if to hear this statement smuggled neatly and secretly into any and all sensual compilations .

What's particularly interesting, is Osea's mixed voice singing, as he is so authentically past over any and all anxiety of how he sounds, that the mere act of witnessing him embracing his own acumen, - without any obtrusive effects unleashed, mind us - is a liberating experience, and, by the end of the logical conclusion of this elegantly simple and simply elegant effort, you find yourself being curious of a consecutive track, which hopefully is under construction already.

Check out "Make me feel" at Osea's SoundCloud here.
 
GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Heavy Star - Electric Overdrive review

Year : 2016
Genre : Heavy Metal with a Rock & Roll tint
Origin : Italy

Italy's Heavy Star brings a super-traditional method to the metal, through which a deep appreciation of the most classical and well-founded genre-tropes are observable.

Times are not seldom when the disc evokes feelings and sentiments reminiscent to those meticulously established by the original glam metal era of the '90s, only-, and THIS is a BIGASS only: there is a more eloquent definition of BALLS on display, and this consideration, luckily, is of key importance - both in the context of intensity and compositional techniques. As such, a good amount of the content will revolve around the longing for the quintessential woman. Which is perfectly valid, as there is not much else worth longing for while occupying a male body or two, anyway.

The songfract is everything in this style, and this time, it is channeled according to the strict-, yet imaginatively interpreted-, ingrained rules of the game. The band does not seek to re-invent the steel, as they are perfectly aware that it is working trustily, and they came merely to wield it. With a soberly paced flow optimized for 8 hefty declarations of elegantly concealed romance, Heavy Star is truly having a blast showcasing mature variations on this hilariously sexist - therefore fun - brand of metal, administering it with apt skills showcased in their collective acumen. Read on to know more.
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Forgotten Tomb - ...And Don't Deliver Us From Evil review

Year : 2012
Genre : Blackened Doom Metal
Label : Cruz Del Sur Music
Origin : Italy
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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I have no clue whether THIS Forgotten Tomb is the same one that has featured the band frontman and his insecurities contained in a bath tube on an early '2000s LP, but, in case it IS the same formation, then it is safe to say that the music has changed a lot since the inception of the "Songs to Leave" album. The content of the "... And Don't Deliver Us From Evil" contribution is a rather eloquent and well constructed flow of easily accessible - yes, I have said it - blackened doom, and, if you think that this very attribute harms the legitimacy of sheer heaviness, then, in my opinion you are purely mistaken. Read more to know more and necessarily desecrate the Forgotten Tomb in the mere process of knowing more about it.

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Australasia - Sin4tr4 review

Year : 2012
Genre : Instrumental Progressive Metal with a Black Metal flavor
Label : Golden Morning Sounds
Origin : Italy
Official Site : > - here - <

Italy's Australasia has cultivated a music format which is ripe enough to base a full length debut on without having to reinvent its premiere components. The reoccurring central agenda is to summon music from a tame direction at the start, THEN the more intense side of metal is revealed, almost always through two variations : mit-tempo, and finally, with considerable speed that  finds pleasure winking at stone-traditional thrash metal rhythm patterns - a positive, not a negative. By the time a certain song has showcased all the aforementioned structural elements of different modal tints that are calling the song into life - it already has a healthy amount of content to offer intriguing variation without you even noticing it. It is pretty safe to say that the disc has no weak moments, and this is the result of how the album realizes its own current capacities, and decides to wrap things up before they would start to recycle their previous statements. Read on to know more.

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Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal Gothic
Label : Century Media
Origin : Italy
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Lacuna Coil attempts to bring the energy of Rammstein to channel the music of Kidney Thieves, and, as soon as someone attempts to do so, it deserves immediate attention. The key-, minor deficits of the current formation are quick to reveal themselves, as are the beneficiary soul contents and other goodies the squad is able to deliver. The best potentiality of the record lies in its honest-, nevertheless elegant bubblegum character : the structures hardly-, if ever deviate from the standard compositional technique of verse-chorus, verse, breakdown, biiiigbig chorus, yet, as long as the served elements are able to please your receivers, this template is still quite efficient. The album's most favored song length of 3 minutes - only two of 12 pieces topple this length - seems to solidify the impression that the prime agenda herein is to deliver a hefty, easily accessible Goth soulride for the whole family, your secret latex gimp in the closet, - HA! - included. Read on to find out more about this slick release.


Dark Adrenaline shows capacity to exhibit a diverse set of moods, fortunately. Opening track "Trip the Darkness" has a pronounced leaning towards a dangerous, sanely limited fairy tale register, while "Fire" - much later - is a cybernetic soulhack inviting you to rebel without a pause. The hooks are coming your way in the forms of the choruses, primarily, and they bow to no boundaries regarding the tools and sets of moods they seek to utilize to administer steady entertainment. As for the moods, a good portion of this release sounds as traditional alternative - oops! - metal to me, and, to be honest, it is great to hear an LP that does not take its Gothic sentiments to the perplexedly extremely serious. The content herein has dignity, and a good amount of hooks.

Now for the good old fashioned beating. The absence of a Free Dominguez and an Animal like Corey Taylor is regretful, as the fronters herein - one female, one man - are giving acceptable and mediocre vocal performances, respectively. Their accent is tolerable, even cute at times, yet I not always am content with the "emotional" renditions they are portraying. The male fronter has only one favorite style of singing, and that is the bluesy rasp you already had the chance to bore yourself to hell and back with, while the female singer has a more diverse set of singing rhetorics. At track 11, "Fire", the chick fronter starts out the fray in comic book Free Dominguez fashion, and must say, she does quite a decent job at that. Yet, this rabid kind of borderline intensity is a rare invitee of the release, as Dark Adrenaline has a more tame character as its prime attribute, instead of angst. This, of course, is not a blemish, rather a probable heartfelt decision of the band, and, as such, this factor should not be subjected to criticism. On occasion, Lacuna Coil is able to reveal superb mid-tempo harmonic environments, like the chorus of track 7 "I don't believe in tomorrow" : this hook reeks Slipknot's "Sulfur" without ripping it off, so : Kudos!

Lacuna Coil's Dark Adrenaline is a solid offering all in the spirit of Italian gothcybermetal, yet, with a more pronounced spiritual leaning towards the peaceful than this particular Italian beauty. Lacuna Coil's latest weighs in as a serious addition to the first month of this particular year, and, the fact that it is largely free of gloom, appeals to me greatly. A safe, immediate recommendation and I like it.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Amantyde - Mädchen review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Red Pony Records / Audioglobe
Origin : Italy
Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Amantyde's latest features an effect craver cover art and a lead singer chick who has the bar code sticker removed from her mouth already. This Italian act, for the most part, is a less aggressive variant on the music primarily proposed by bands like Kidney Thieves and Solsikk, and this conscious utilization - or, rather non-utilization - of less aggression and less adrenaline both make this release a solid "peaceful variant" on anxiety-fixated borderline metal music. One that exhibits a mid-tempo character, and shows no particular desire to communicate bloated boring misery via "radical" shortcut ways like the worthless fry screaming. While over-the-top raw intensity, one would think, is inherent to-, and a must for this genre of analogue alternative cyber metal, Amantyde's latest actually registers as a particularly strong LP despite its natural stance that knows and bows to no fixation of going speedy all the time. Which is somewhat of a trademark of this musical direction, as it becomes obvious when its absence emerges evident, courtesy of this Amantyde release. Read on to find out more about this fine contribution.


This LP, interestingly enough, has a capacity to reveal a blend of cybernetic industrial and hasty sludge at its core, - delicate chorus of track number 2 "Join Me In the Desert" is a great example to this, according to my personal percepts - and it never sinks into the need of the furious tempo in order to come through as a force you have to reckon with. Largely mid-paced in character, Amantyde's latest packs particular aptness to entertain the ears with soulful, relevant, delicious choruses, coming through as very efficient stimuli replacements to ease the burden on the verse as an entity. Not that it is anything wrong with the verses, either. Quite the contrary : this sounds to be a pretty song release from a musical point of view, with great awareness placed on playing through a good amount of sonic registers via changing keys flamboyantly and bravely in a way that the character/the message of the music still remains faithful to the general mood of inventive, colorful borderline comic angst. Which, to make this clear, is a very entertaining mood to be immersed in.

During this sexy spin, the intentions of the lead singer chick are quite easy to grasp. While her voice is somewhat generic female to me, - which would be the number 1 reason to kill if I would be a female singer, so excuse me - at least she does not delude herself into thinking that she needs to do THIS affectation or THAT mannerism to sound more like a borderline woman who is about to bite neighboring man noses off. Her affectations are absolutely minimal and well tamed if there is any surfacing at all, and there are compositions on this release that are pretty kickass contributions for the "mere" genre of analog cybernetic alternative metal they seek to inventively enrich. And with what superb efficiency! The chorus of track number 1, "Creepy Crowlies" is one Kidney Thieves' fronter Free Domninguez, too, would be glad to sing to you, and, amidst 6 or 7 more, one particular track also comes to mind that I find utterly relevant as it packs a great and successful summoning of what this genre wants. Track number 6, called "My Enemy" probably is the most aggressive one on the whole spin. Herein, a little distortion is applied on the voice of the lead singer girl, and a good verse gives place to a totally out of control chorus that I personally love, and I think you should check it out, too.

The weaker parts of this otherwise surprisingly likable and tight delivery are some relatively lame-, nevertheless entertaining verse structures, like in the otherwise pretty good song "Nothing But The Rain". In the verse, the lead singer chick delivers a performance of rapping/singing, kind of early Nina Hagen-like, only Nina Hagen is fucking borderline indeed, so you can imagine the difference. This album has a cover of the song called "Zombie" by the Cranberries, too. Regarding my percepts of this cover, I totally like how they approach the song : they are giving it the relentless metal heft, and the song likes it tremendously.

Amantyde's Mädchen is a brave, musically inventive package that has all the chance in the whole wide world to grow on you to make you more, courtesy of its abundant supply of legit, exigent musical hooks and well articulated compositional ideas. I'm especially happy to see the band's decision of coming forth with 39 minutes of legit music than coming forward with 5 minutes of delicacy riding on top of oceanic mediocrity. Hopefully, that never ever happens again, and this would be a solid night wish, as well. Blehe. I'm a snob and I dare say that you can't go wrong with this Italian analogue cybernetic borderline alternative metal delivery. You want this.

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Ancient Bards - Soulless Child review

Year : 2011
Genre : Symphonic Power Metal, Epic Metal
Label : Limb Music / SpiritualBeast / Universal
Origin : Italy
Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Italian symphonic power/epic metal squadron Ancient Bards brings with itself an ornamented tome of rather healthy size sealed by a platinum guitar token and a platinum sword token, and also filled with stories even Edgar Alan Poe would show honest interest in, - no, Mr. Poe did not oblige, neither did The Wall. If YOU would, then you are about to be late with that already, because in a blink of an eye Ancient Bards slip out of the shadow to pop the cover up without remorse or hesitation, only, this time, the "muhaha" remains absent, and its mere absence is free to emerge as the mere fun for a change. This, no doubt, is a dainty, valiant symphonic metal statement from top to bottom, and also one that remains able to communicate itself along the dark fairy tale register without turning into the kind of Camembert that is about to be ready to move in space at its own free will. That's where cheese begins, right?

The release has full blown-, but much welcomed fixations it simply can not live without. The name of the primer game herein is up-tempo power metal of complex, gritty, yet playful character, one which proudly lacks all capacity and all the tools to hide what it really wants to do at heart without any regard to any other considerations whatsoever. The favorite patterns of the band are not hesitant to address their defining traits in full efficiency in a short amount of time, and the one simple thing that makes all this work superbly, is that the band members are aware of a flamboyant - and also soberly limited - variety of those. You will get accustomed to this album in 5 minutes, or not in five eternities. Because, in that case, you probably will remain a grandmaster-douché who gets bitter sex exclusively from dwarfs wearing pig masks. Ladies and gents, let's talk about the music.


As hinted, Ancient Bards' Soulless Child is not at all occupied with coating its primer, true intents into alienated variation. The tempo, most often - in fact, almost exclusively - is furious and fast enough to stick a smile on a pneumatic driller, the harmonies are dainty and brisk, and the whole build is complimented by a symphonic fabric in the background. Aggression is not too important here, in fact, not at all. Melody - rampant-unalloyed is more important, as you will see. The patterns I have been telling you about are expressing themselves in the rhythm section, primarily, as the LP exhibits a very straightforward, efficient methodology : you have the harmonic build with a momentary drum pattern to it, - the drummer has about four favorite drum patterns, and ONE particular carpet bomber pattern he is the Grateful Slave of and will make YOU one, too - and you have the female - aaaaaaaa - lead singing on top, that which finds absolutely pleasant directions to achieve the sense of dark tone fairy tale register which the record really is all about. One especially nice trait of this declaration is its reoccurring readiness to go rabid and exigent on the instrumental builds with crisp keyboard and guitar solo work.

As for the symphonic quality, that is not an irrelevant component of the fabric at all. It brings to mind an immediate reminiscence to fellow Italian group Fleshgod Apocalypse, - thunderous roar IN - thunderous roar OUT - only, this time, the music is more tame at heart and sports Gazelle anatomy instead of the composure of a juggernaut-grade reality eradicator the death metal specialists reveal on their latest contribution.

Regardless of a relative proneness of virtually repeating itself, - says the dudette with the letters - the release shows elegant interest to stay away from the safety shortcuts the genre offers for the antitalent at discount prices. As result of this TRULY commanding determination, the power metalish communist marching song vibe now gets traded for a much more intriguing vibe, that which is reminiscent of the ethos of dramatic musical theater, - oxymoron? - even opera, giving you a mood that invites to mind and soul such concepts as the musical atmosphere of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and the kind of "dark" fantasy that is out for no blood, instead it is out to seek and point out "mere" secretive significance in the mighty fabric of the shared world experience.

Lead singer Sara Squadrani delivers a performance that is very easy to decide you like, and here is why : Miss Squadrani is not trying to be the immediate oh!, so most relevant Presence in a sonic fabric she is part of, she instead reigns in the state of "just" being there, - which, in a woman's case, is just sufficient - provoking a valiant fight with the sonic mass, which, in a while bows and bends to her will. Her tools are a great "as hard as I can!" attitude and splendid set of lungs and no regard whatsoever of what you think of her singing. In other words, Sara Squadrani is Your Metal Goddess Who Happens to Be There and Is Not Afraid to Prove That. And, usually the singers who fail to give a damn of what others think of their singing, are the ones THOSE others will enjoy, too. Squadrani's voice packs the raw-, but tender she-wolf a female metal singer virtually is worthless without, and her REAL, non-effected track sits in a very well researched place in the mix. I especially like the way she delivers her loooong long extremes wherein a song demands so. All in all, I like Sara Squadrani's singing and I'm pretty sure that you like it, too.

All in all, Ancient Bards' Soulless Child is a robust symphonic power metal delivery that brings to you a whole lot to soak your grateful ears into, and, courtesy of its homogeneous character, this without doubt is a record that simply weighs in as intense, flamboyant fun to listen to.

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony review

Year : 2011
Genre : Symphonic Technical Death Metal
Label : Nuclear Blast Records
Origin : Italy
Rating : 9.3 / 10

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If you want to come up with one of the most masochistic schemes a random mind could conceive to kill time with, then counting the number of bass drum beats this here release from Italy's premiere symphonic death metal act features, is a choice you can surely and safely rely on. Agony packs pretty much maximum level intensity by playing out even the one last, secretive, remaining remembrance of holy shit out of death metal, making this outing nothing less than a - in respectful freestyle after mixed martial arts legend Ken Shamrock - hymn to living death.

This album, while represents, maybe, even defines a kind of over the top extremity, brings with itself subtle tools of profound elegance to project light on the monumental sonic surface it emerges to crush you to a sticker as. Once you are ready to open your mind to the fact that Fleshgod Apocalypse writes the story into a Space Odyssey monolith using titanium jackhammers, - with a casual symphony as accompaniment - then you are good to sit on board, and are likely to experience something you and your receptive mind had no part of before. Be wary though, because these jackhammers are ever-present and persistent enough to put a superbly short end to the lazy ear. To these ears, only a classic saying remains, one which you can find at the closure of this review. Read more to find out - among other things - what that is.



Agony is a layered affair, as it consists of two simultaneously occurring flow of autonomous and co-existent events. You have a functional, full-blown and tastily orchestrated symphony, caught up in the relentless machine gun fire administered with almost no end by the band's tremendous death metal minigun arsenal. The question here isn't if this rampant spin features parts of double bass - the question is, if it features parts that have no double bass. Sure, it does. The LP's raw power charisma is constructed solidly on a sober sense of balance regarding jackhammer-engagement periods, as the mere rumble the traditional death metal components - drums, guitars, bass - are producing herein, no doubt reign as the most pronounced presence of the affair. This rampantly mad and madly rampant death roar is teased constantly by the underlying background symphony, that which never loses its capacity to enrich, and, in a sense, to assuage the relentless mayhem of the persistent death rumble addressed above.

To topple an already quite functional concept, Agony exhibits the keen and quite fruitful readiness to give the definitive finger to its own nature on occasions, with nothing else in mind than to submit to the much more tenderly silhouetted aspects of music. The record features smartly positioned safe zones, so to speak, musical spaces that will entertain the ears with extremely straightforward classical intermezzos. Having zero concept nor awareness of the act of deceit, they come with a white flag, operated by the unalloyed intent of throwing a grasp of recreational breath into the mix here and there. Fortunately, these intermezzos have the tendency to surprise you even while the record is having one of its notorious onslaughts. Agony exhibits superb craftsmanship and features advanced compositional techniques, venturing forward on occasions to such surprising and functional territories as opera, and, rather efficient opera at that. How it is efficient? It is such, because the tracks feature only little glimpses of it, but those glimpses are reflected in eyes you will remember, eyes you want to soak yours into again.

Though it is easy to regard the aforementioned rumble created by the drums and guitars as a sonic mass, on careful observation, the mere immensity of this mass starts to account its own shapes and forms, and this act of consciously "going-after-it" is what is required on YOUR part in order to get the full experience the outing is capable to offer as its ultimate value. It is a waste of good suffering to resonate the evident and state that Agony is not an easily accessible record, primarily because being easily accessible is exactly the last one of its concerns. Fleshgod Apocalypse delivers the memorable full musculature hybrid of symphony and extreme metal, and the magic simply is formed by the sheer sonic volume these combined elements are rabidly occupying. Symphony is elegantly liquidated in its nature, and it keeps its capacity to live and shine even if a wartank is in constant siege beside it. Death metal is wartank, symphony is oil in its engine. A combination that might very well emerge as one of the most significant deliveries of the year. Oh, and, for the lazy ears, and, for the lazy ears only : this is better than it sounds to - you. Listen again, maybe?

Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Blood Edition - Cutting the Director review

Year : 2011
Genre : Death Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : Italy
Rating : 7.5 / 10

Italian trauma trio Blood Edition attempts an attempt on your me(n)tal and anatomical health via the popcultural appeal of a Manhunt poster, teaming up with radical lamentations of hospital horror antics being taken seriously.

There is music included as well, and this one is not a tad worse than what you would righteously expect from an extreme death metal band eager to show off their concept of proper and manic guitar abuse stacked on top of atomic blast beats, quite suitable to convince your friendly neighborhood to consult their real estate agents or an ideal hitman.

The album spins for a 40 minutes of 40 eternities, as there are no pauses or any notable decreasement in the radical intensity that characterizes the output right from the beginning to the very last audible note of it. The question remains : what can the Italian trauma trio do with 40 minutes of death metallic "and-you-don't-stop" in order to keep your ears and imagination entertained? Read on to find out, while you're making yourself comfy on that stretcher over there.



The 9 tracks - 3 bonuses are included at the latter portion of the LP, making it a 12 shots spin - cultivate a similar blueprint throughout the record. As mentioned, radical intensity is pretty much omnipresent, yet the bold rhythmic variations of the drums, combined with the tendency of a low tuned stringed section to throw around intricately raw and rawly intricate riffs, manage to keep your ears entertained and your curiosity engaged. The only obvious downside that becomes noticeable right when the second track starts off, is the fetish of the band towards the deepest possible musical note they can produce on their stringed instruments. The compositions themselves are acceptable, yet it sounds like the majority, if not all of them are exhibiting a valiant urge to gravitate towards that particular deepest note. While there is not much wrong with this at all, and effectively nothing, in case you plan to listen to one or two tracks during one sitting/rampaging, it remains safe to say that the record delivers its content along one particular prime sonic resonance level, as a good portion of tracks utilize the same musical key. Surely enough, you could regard this as a benefit, as opposed to regard it as a deficit. Can't argue about tastes? Wrong. Only tastes you can argue about.

The production is thick, naked and packs a legit bite, with each pivotal component of the overall mix standing muscular, rabid, and clearly audible. The kick, the snare, the hi-hats, the growl of the guitar, the hum of the bass are all there in their respective full glory to immerse you in this roller coaster nightmare-ride, while the vocal inputs are coming in the classical death metal registers, consisting of two kinds of furious modes of passionate declaration : the low-pitched growl, and a higher pitched scream, each delivered by a separate - no pun intended - dismember. Band member, sorry. Pig squeals are abundantly offered, as well.

If you find 40 minutes a tad less than what you would expect to get from an LP, then rest assured that you will be totally content by the sonic beating you will find yourself legendary suffering in when the spin reaches its middle point. After all, 40 minutes of hospital horror are 40 minutes at the shores of hell, and intensity itself does not like to be over-intensified. As such, the complexity and anger this record communicates itself by, guarantees an exhausting and thorough ride for that 40 minutes, because, remember : brakes are NOT included on that stretcher of yours.

Rating :

7.5 / 10

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