Album Review: Heaven Shall Burn - Invictus

My review - originally published on MTUK:

...Hopelessly lost in meandering, Euro-friendly melodeath, 'Sevastopol' is a step backwards but when you've got balls-to-the-wall, sure-fire headbangers like 'Against Bridge Burners' and 'Return To Sanity' as well as surprises like the double-pronged vocal attack (with Sabine Weniger providing the top-end contrast) on 'Given In Death' to back it up, you can almost forgive the filler. Yep, 'Invictus' is more than just a mere completion of a project, it's a forward-looking album loaded with old-school integrity, yet blessed with a fresh-faced ingenuity.

Full review = http://www.metalteamuk.net/may10reviews/cdreviews-heavenshallburn.htm

Album Review: The Las's - Callin' All

My review - originally published on TLOBF:

The bizarre story of Liverpool’s The La’s is without equal. They are a band that formed in 1983 and, theoretically, are still in existence, and yet they have only ever released one studio album. They are also a band with more former members than there are numbers on a dartboard; many of those rarely lasting more than a few months. The reason for such personnel profligacy undoubtedly lies at the door of Lee Mavers, the band’s co-founder and singer-songwriter. Leading up to that eponymous debut, back in 1990, Mavers continually shuffled his deck of bandmates and producers (often having it forced upon him by record label pressure), and made them record and re-record tracks over and over again in an attempt to perfect every note so that each song mirrored the particular emotion he desired so badly. Even after it‘s release, it became clear that still all was not well. With Mavers’ self-doubt now stronger than ever before, and with him rarely appearing in public, producer Steve Lilywhite has tellingly suggested that the reason the band have never made another album is because, according to Mavers, they are yet to complete their first...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/05/the-la%E2%80%99s-callin%E2%80%99-all/

Album Review: Mutiny Within - Mutiny Within

My review - originally published on MTUK:

Mutiny Within started life as a Children Of Bodom covers band - that’s the kind of damning fact that can follow your career around like a bad smell - but the band have reinvented themselves, seemingly with ease. A lot of the impetus for this new sound comes in the shape of new vocalist Chris Clancy, an Englishman who they discovered by means of a YouTube video. The simple fact that a major label like Roadrunner have snapped them up so quickly is clear proof that he’s the real deal and the band have obviously been doing a lot of things right. So, got the singer, got the shreds, got the record contract; no fuss, no mess, piece of piss. So the album rocks right?

Well, they clearly still have a sneaking penchant for the Children Of Bodom theatrics, piling Clancy’s almost operatic vocal outpourings onto a vast canvas of spiralling solos, scattergun riffs and drumming thunder. What, however, comes pouring out at you is an intriguing blend of metalcore and power metal, characterised by Bullet For My Valentine‘s clean lines, Dragonforce’s neurotic speed, and Unearth's push-pull structures...

Full review = http://www.metalteamuk.net/may10reviews/cdreviews-mutinywithin.htm

Album Review: Chrome Hoof - Crush Depth

My review - originally published on TLOBF:

The first spoken words of Crush Depth are pure comedy gold – “What section am I in?” It’s the very question that flashes across your mind as you head inexorably towards your own personal pressure threshold. How clever of them to always be one step ahead; how classy of them to help lighten the mental load, so preparing you for the mighty ruts and hillocks of this overtly psychedelic and resplendently proggy blend of jazz, disco, electronica and rock...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/05/chrome-hoof-crush-depth/

Gig Review: 65daysofstatic & Loops Haunt – Junction, Cambridge 09/04/2010

My review - originally published on TLOBF:





















As soon as 65daysofstatic walk onto stage and fire up the twinkling ‘Mountainhead’, the sensory overload steps up to a whole new level. Not only have we now got volume levels that threaten to take your head off but also a series of brutal strobes and searchlights that flash on and off, attempting to burn holes in your retinas. With such an overexposed image before us, it’s easy to compare the experience to whacking up the bass boost on your iTunes whilst switching on the fluorescent kitchen light first thing in the morning. During ‘Await Rescue’ some begin to retreat to the back of the room to lurk in the shadows, whilst the 65kids, front and middle, are only spurred on to embrace the inevitable oblivion. Wonderfully, ‘A Failsafe’ locates and flicks off the “overkill” button and things improve from here on in...

Photo © Rich E

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/05/65daysofstatic-loops-haunt-junction-cambridge-09042010/

Album Review: Black Breath - Heavy Breathing

My review - originally published on TLOBF:

For Heavy Breathing, Black Breath’s debut album, the Seattle quintet travelled to Godcity Studio in Massachusetts, workshop of the Converge kingpin Kurt Ballou, to try and inject some real menace into their hardcore. The result is a coming together of the most vitriolic punk and the blackest of metals; enough to send even the meanest looking two-stepper diving for cover. Coming from a band that’s toured with acts as diverse as The Accused, Nachmystium and Book Of Black Earth it’s no surprise that some of that pungent evil has rubbed off...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/05/black-breath-heavy-breathing/

Album Review: 65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway

My review - originally appeared on TLOBF:

We Were Exploding Anyway is a wonderfully amorphous fusion of instrumental, percussion-heavy electronica with incessantly progressive patterns which sees delicately-layered splinters of sound slotted firmly into place only to be achingly withdrawn without warning. What 65daysofstatic have created here is a beautiful piece of art with bold, colour-soaked flourishes and flowing rhythmic structures, yet still characterised by razor-sharp lines and perfect finishes. Before I get all Antiques Roadshow on you, let me explain where we are in the band’s life-cycle...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/04/65daysofstatic-we-were-exploding-anyway/