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Volker - Dead Doll

25/7/2017

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death rock / punk / hard rock
Overpowered Records
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Bordeaux, France, to most people probably known as one of the world's greatest wine regions. But if you thought the Bordeaux was a place of vineyards, cheese and tranquility, you're wrong. Bordeaux is also the birthplace of Volker, a dark rock entity that makes a lot of noise and defies genre classification.

Fronted by an energetic Jen Nyx, Volker effortlessly blends todays heavy scene with those of the eighties and nineties. Yet, before you expect something grungy or glamrocky, Volker seems to prefer the darker things in life and thus also in music.

The result is a massively varied dark rock album where death rock, gothic doom, hardcore punk and hard rock meet. I can hear flashes from The Misfits, Ramones, Moonspell, Christian Death, Guns 'n Roses and even some bands in today's metalcore scene. Metalcore fans will adore 'Yell', a vein cutting ballad, while deathrock aficionados will undoubtedly fill the dancefloors whenever 'Freaky' starts to play. There is truly something for everyone in the dark music scene.

The majority of the music on this album aims for either the mosh pits of the dark dance floor and in that aspect the horror punk smasher 'Voodoo Baby' is my favorite track. Jen Nyx goes pretty damn wild here, as she often does, which places this excellent old school punk rocker into a modern day metalcore thing that even I can appreciate. Needless to say perhaps, but this album rocks and obviously that's a good thing. So yes, dark rock fans of around the world, check it out, this would make an excellent addition to your collection.


​Serge

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Brieviews 23

20/7/2017

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Lucifer's Dungeon - The Dark Army Raises

black metal
Grimm Distribution
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Once upon a time, this now Russian band started out as a one-man black metal act, residing in Thailand. Today, it's a full blown band with an excellent debut. 'The Dark Army Raises' is a long album with 15 songs, ranging from gloomy dark ambient pieces over blackened experimentation to intense black metal. Personally, I'm quite fond of the dark ambient pieces but that's not really a surprise since I'm mostly an ambient fan. However, if you're into the bleak, aggressive and haunting sounds of black metal, you surely want to check this one out. It's an excellent album, promising great things for the future of this act.

Lød - Folder

krautrock / post punk
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Hailing from Denmark, Lød delivered a surprising and immersive debut with this 'Folder' EP. It was presented to me as a blend between Neu! and Joy Division and in a way I fully agree with that. On three of these four tracks, you will hear a lot of krautrock goodness, pretty much like Caudal does. On the other hand, the gloomy side of eighties new wave also comes lurking around the corner, mostly in the vocal performance. And then there is 'Træder Ind, Bukker, Bukker', a strange electronic experiment which could have actually been the intro. Anyway, this is a weird but highly interesting debut. Check it out.
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Last Bullet - 80-69-64

hard rock / grunge
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Last Bullet is a Canadian quintet, influenced by Velvet Revolver, Stone Temple Pilots and Led Zeppelin. Opener 'Sin' is a world class grunge meets hard rock song, 'Gimme Time' is fuzzy blues rock. 'Bright Lights' is almost a classic grunge ballad. 'Southern Lips' is a searing hot southern rock anthem. 'Smoke And Ashes' could have been written by Alice In Chains. Closer 'Little Miss Filthy' is exactly that, a filthy grunge tune. In all, this ep is a stunning example of modern day grunge and hard rock, a clear proof that these genres are far from dead. Everyone who has ever been into the aforementioned bands should get their hands on this ep, for real!

Svartsinn - Collected Obscurities

dark ambient
For dark ambient aficionados, Norwegian act Svartsinn is definitely no stranger. Jan Roger Pettersen has been creating his gloomy masterpieces since 1999 and has been a landmark in the genre ever since. Now, Cyclic Law has released an excellent compilation of both album tracks and collaborations. Many of these tracks have been released between between 2002 and 2012 and have been unavailable since, until now. So yes, for fans of dark ambient this is an absolute must-have. It's a 75 minutes lasting overview of the obscure and enigmatic music from a talented artist that you just can't miss.
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Dominique Charpentier - Esquisses

classical
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How wonderful it must be to be able to touch a piano and create wonderful music. That's exactly what Dominique Charpentier can and does.I've been amazed by his previous work and I'm amazed again. His new ep 'Esquisses' contains five new piano pieces, here and there enhanced with strings. The songs are uplifting but also melancholic or just downright sad, like my favorite, 'Esquisse IV'. I can imagine the pianist, on the streets of Paris, gently pouring out these blissful melodies. I don't think it can get more romantic than that. This comes highly recommended, no doubt about that.

Putrid Offal - Anatomy

grindcore
Xenokorp
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After a gentle piano album, I'll blast some filthy, disgusting grindcore through my speakers. You know, just to feel manly again. Well, here is 'Anatomy', a six track serial killer that slashes, cuts and scars just for the fuck of it. If you like extremes, like grindcore and pieces of flesh flying through the room, this surely is your thing. Personally, I'd place them somewhere in between Cannibal Corpse and Macabre. With two brand new songs, two re-recordings and two live autopsies, Putrid Offal comes to rip off your testicles and gnaw themselves a way through your intestines. You have been warned...
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Moon Circle - The Cosmic Penguins

stoner rock / psychedelic rock
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Oh my god, it all comes together now. I've been fascinated by penguins for most of my life. I love rock music and I want to know everything about the cosmos. And now here's Moon Circle, a French psychedelic rock band that creates the sounds of penguins in outer space, or something like that. No wonder I love the music. It's old school psychedelic hard rock with an enormous jam-factor and heaps of fun. This ep is recorded live and, although the sound quality isn't perfect, the music can easily drag you into the joy of witnessing these guys live. I hope some good label signs these guys and puts them on the road soon. This is amazing.

Misantronics - Contraformance 3

drone / ambient
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Belgian experimental ambient act Misantronics returns with part 3 of his 'Contraformance' series. This time however, bandcamp claimed that the 21 minutes track was too big so Misantronics had to cut it up into three parts ('Tar', 'The Acrobat' and 'Peril'). The album opens gently with calm drones and soundscapes but gradually gains momentum and intensity, especially when Misantronics' typical drums & percussion come in. The CD version contains the entire track, inspired by previous cooperations and recorded in one take. Both versions contain the bonus track 'This Is Not A Painting', a piano inspired drone tune.
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Mutank - W​.​H​.​A​.​T​.​S​.​T​.​H​.​A​.​T.

thrash metal
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The title of this EP by Canadian crossover thrashers Mutank stands for 'We Have Alotta' Thrash Songs That Have Abbreviated Titles' and sure thing, the release contains five of those. It's funny, I admit, but what I'm more interested in is the music. And that music is good old fashioned thrash metal, reminding me of acts like Anthrax, Megadeth, Overkill and so on. On the other hand, somehow Mucky Pup comes to mind too. So yeah, these guys are somewhat stuck in the nineties but I guess many thrashers are. If you are one of those, you have to get your hands on this EP. You won't be disappointed.

Totengott - Doppelgänger

doom metal
Xtreem Music
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Spanish doom trio Totengott have been influenced by the old school of the style and you can clearly hear that on their debut. In fact, this album pays homage to Celtic Frost and their 'Monotheist' era, without blindly copying it. The three songs on 'Doppelgänger' are simply excellent vintage dark doom metal tracks, here and there influenced by thrash metal. Besides that, the trio manages to add a great deal of atmosphere to the whole thing, mainly with eerie soundscapes. Above all, this is a great debut, promising intense and immersive live performances. Doomers, check this out. I'm sure you will love this.
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Neverending Winter - Хиус

black metal / folk metal
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Black metal, inspired by the nature and the eternal winter of Siberia, an extremely remote and hostile region. Yet, somehow this blackened folk metal trio perfectly manages to illustrate both the isolation and the beauty of their surroundings, which is my opinion is a clear proof of talent. The music is complex, grimm and not easy to digest but on at the same time it's immersive and energetic. Obviously, the folk influences bring a lot of variation to the whole thing, as well as flashes of progressive metal and punk. I'm not going to say that this is a masterpiece but a band that can create something vast and bleak like this, is talented, no doubt about that.

Tristan da Cunha - Soçobrar

post rock / ambient
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Speaking about remote areas, Tristan da Cunha is an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, one of the remotest inhabited islands of the world.It's also an Italian post rock duo, consisting of an ambient producer and a krautrock drummer. Together, they have created four deviant compositions, ranging from gloomy ambient and post rock to jazz and almost noise. A bunch of other bands come to mind but in a way ​Tristan da Cunha brings a fresh, somewhat harsh approach to the scene, which in my opinion is a very good thing. So yeah, I think this EP comes highly recommended; and I hope I'll ever get the chance to see these guys do this live.
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A Pale Void - Songs Of Sirens 

electronic / downtempo / psychill
Mindspring Music
Amazon
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And now for something completely different, a decent dose of psychedelic, electronic ambient, or "psychill" as people call it. This album by A Pale Void consists of five long tracks where all kinds of soundscapes, drones and electronic sounds freely float in an out. Here and there you can find some vague flashes of rhythm but for the majority this is a splendid album to meditate to, or simply to relax. Perhaps title track 'Songs Of Sirens' is my personal favorite here but that's a tough decision to make. If you're a fan of electronic ambient and meditative music, you surely have to check this one out. 

Santiago Niño - Cosmic Clearance

electronic / downtempo / dub
Mindspring Music
Also from Mindspring Music but a bit more danceable, this highly enjoyable four track by Santiago Niño delivers a good dose of psychedelic electronics. Opener 'Alien Force' also reminds me eighties EBM acts, especially that groovy, immersive bassline. In that aspect, this is a great crossover between the two genres, 'psychedelic EBM' if you will, like Project Pitchfork meets Eats Static or Front 242 meets Hallucinogen. I also really dig the samples in this one, scientific and somewhat conspiracy theoretic vocals samples about atoms, illuminati, alien life and so on. Take it from me, this is great stuff.
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Elder Devil - Graves Among The Roots

grindcore
bandcamp
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When the beginning of an album reminds me of Napalm Death's 'Evolved As One', I immediately get interested. This American grindcore duo combines the same noise with the same sickness and throws it all into a bunch of unforgiving grindcore anthems. The result is something devastating, something that barks, grinds, gnaws and pulverised. Not only that, in these short songs, you can find elements from hardcore, death metal, noise, black metal and sludge and it all comes with only one purpose: destroy this planet and everyone on it.

Elizabeth Shaw - I

drone / black metal
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Named after the protagonist from the 'Prometheus' movie, this mysterious Swedish entity combines raw, harsh black metal with haunting drones and ambient soundscapes. You might say, "now, we've heard that before" and that might be true but this band seems to excel as masters in their trade, which they call "xeno-black metal". The music is dark, impending at times and harsh on other occasions. In all, this is a dark, obscure and highly immersive release, something that definitely makes me hungry for live performances. Check it out, play it loud and be amazed by the splendor of xeno-black metal.
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Show of Bedlam - Transfiguration

doom / avant garde
Sentient Ruin
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Named after the infamous St. Mary of Bethlehem insane asylum in London, this Canadian doom horde comes up with something dark, occult and somewhat disturbing. Perhaps I can best compare this music to Diamanda Galas fronting Neurosis, but there's more to this than just psychotic doom metal. This music comes laced with haunting ambient passages, avant garde guitars and the dark, creepy atmosphere of eighties goth rock. In the avant garde scene, this certainly is a brutal masterpiece. Music rarely is this fascinating and scary at the same time. I recommend either this or a lobotomy. The choice is yours...
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One Last Shot - Even Cowboys Have Sundays

17/7/2017

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hard rock / metal
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Time for a firm dose of good old fashioned rock 'n roll, courtesy of Parisian quintet On Last Shot. This debut is loaded with denim and leather, beer and whiskey, drums & guitars. In fact, the only thing I'm missing here are the girls dancing on top of the bar. I hope that they fix that in the upcoming album, or at least on the cover.

But for now, put on your boots, grab your helmet and ride you chopper to the raunchy pub where these guys are playing. It's going to be a party, I promise you. By the end of it you'll be completely drunk and broke but you'll know it was worth it.

The album opens with 'I'm a gambler', an excellent hard rock tune that somewhat reminds me of Guns 'n Roses.With that, One Last Shot sets the tone for the entire album. We're here to rock, that's for damn sure. In that aspect, 'One Night Stand' is an early highlight, one of my absolute favorites on this album. It's a groovy but heavy hard rock song, perhaps a bit punk induced. 'Embrace The Fire' takes on a more Southern rock approach, not bad, not at all.

I'm having a lot of fun with this album and I'm beginning to think that the French are exceptionally good at producing this otherwise typically American sound. One Last Shot can easily stand between their fellow countrymen like Flayed and Zoe. They're excellent musicians and they know a great deal about having fun. 'Thou Should Be Drunk', for example, is a well written song with great guitar solos and a tempo that will get many heads banging.

I'm not going into a song by song description for this album because I know you'll get the general idea by now. Rock 'n roll, influenced by thrash metal, punk and alcohol, that is exactly what you get on this album. If you love anything between the earlier mentioned Guns 'n Roses, Motorhead, Black Label Society and Volbeat, you don't want to miss out on this one. So check it out, bang your head, start that mosh pit and hope me in joining that these dudes cross the French borders soon.


​Serge

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Tornado Kid - Hateful 10

12/7/2017

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hard rock
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You know what the hardest part of being a music reviewer is? It's having to sit down and write about the album while that exact album makes you want to party your ass off. Currently, I'm in my couch, trying to find a decent balance between typing and headbanging. It's not easy, certainly not with this music.

It sounds like it comes directly form a searing hot desert in Texas, caused by a meeting between hard rockers, punks and thrash metal fans. It sounds like they're partying hard on beer, whiskey and gut piercing riffs.

But in fact, it comes from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Tornado Kid was formed in 2013. After releasing three EP's and several music videos, they have now released their debut full-length. That full-length is simply stunning. It's packed with pounding drums, flashing guitars and heaps of alcohol. The band members claim it's "Booze&Blues" but if that's true, it's damn heavy blues. Besides, it's way more than that.

The entire album is dedicated to the rock 'n roll life. Girls & guitars, beer & bass, that kind of stuff. So it's no wonder that the music is an awesome combination of Southern rock, hardcore punk and thrash metal. And even then, here and there a heavy version of Papa Roach comes up. On other occasions you're bathed in irresistible groove metal. Zakk Wylde comes to mind, along with Agnostic Front, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Foo Fighters, Black Stone Cherry, Andrew WK and Slayer.

Yeah, I know, that's a shitload of names and quite some different ones too. But this album simply is varied, heavy, groovy and immersive as hell. Every rock 'n roll bar in the world should have this thing in its collection. Every rock 'n roll DJ should play at least one of these songs at parties. There are plenty of songs that will get people off their feet, banging their heads of starting a mosh pit. It's just that bloody good. 


​Serge



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Kabbalah - Spectral Ascent

7/7/2017

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psychedelic rock / doom
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By now, there's no denying that psychedelic rock and doom metal have been making a huge comeback in the past few years. Once frowned upon by the metal scene for being soft, slow and boring, doom metal now is a widespread subgenre that includes sludge, post-metal, psychedelic rock, space rock and stoner rock.So it's no surprise that there are plenty of bands converting to the power of the riff and the glory of the fuzz. With it, the influences from the world of the occult also seem to return and blend in with the music. Personally, I think that is a good thing. There are still plenty of amazing songs being written and coated in that awesome, vintage seventies sound.

This album by Spanish trio Kabbalah contains eight of those songs, plus a perfect, creepy intro. Not only to these women come up with excellent occult psychedelic rock music, they also enhance it with great vocals. Somehow they make me imagine The Breeders taking on the music of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. Other bands that come to mind include Coven, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, L7 and so on.

While opener 'Resurrected' follower 'Phantasmal Planetoid' are my absolute favorites, all of these songs would fit perfectly in your psychedelic playlists. Furthermore, on 'The Darkness of Time' they prove to know a thing or two about old school blues rock. 'Dark Revelation', another firm highlight is a groovy rocker that will get young and old hard rockers off their feet, no doubt about that. 

In all, I think this is an excellent piece of occult rock, psychedelic rock or old school doom metal, whatever you would like to call it. I admit, perhaps not every song is as strong as the next one but they all have that gloomy, mysterious atmosphere which gives the whole thing a nice conceptual feel. So yeah, I can only recommend this album and I hope that I'll get the chance to see these women perform these songs live one day.


​Serge

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Grained - Tunes From The Void

20/6/2017

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hard rock / stoner rock / grunge
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Tunes From The Void is an album by hard rock/grunge German group Grained, released on June 2. Forty three minutes and twenty five seconds long, the record has nine tracks: Gasoline, 35°28'N 138°39'E, Floods, Circus, Shadow Of The Sun, Deadlock, Closure, Interlord and L.O.R.D. A very interesting and rejuvenating album, with a sensible anatomy, designed over fluctuating rhythms increasing in an ever expansive and sophisticated sonorous dynamics, Tunes From The Void departs from a somewhat amazingly fresh, free-flowing, intense and delicate combination of hard rock and grunge, with a contemporary flavor that ads to their music a flexible perception of higher artistry, that easily matches a modern mosaic of graceful melodies with the more hazardous hardline of an explosive, but simple, convergence of savage freedom.

With engraving melodies, beautifully adorned and astoundingly elaborated, at the same time – being exceptionally radio-friendly –, the group has great possibilities of achieving a wider audience through airplay (if radios in their home country give them this chance), since Grained is certainly one of the best hard rock bands to come recently from Germany, in particular, and to appear on the global underground scene, on a wider scale. With a very original sound that doesn’t renounce nor try to renegade its roots, Tunes From The Void, track after track, reveals itself to be a captivating and lancinating piece of awesome and incredible originality. With filthy, abrasive, aggressive and thoroughly genuine guitar lines, Grained remembers a little the best bands of the genre, being a lot more superior than mainstream groups like Seether and Creed. 

Sincerely, I only have the best to say about this album. Track after track, you get surprised, with explosive melodies, beautiful and even poetic harmonies – driven by softly inspirational and deeply reflexive emotional intonations of serene imponderability –, as well as an everlasting feeling that comes from a universe where the music is perpetually seen as a detachment from our own soul. Summarizing, I have to say that, besides surprising, Tunes From The Void has it all: hostile and delusional guitars, pungent and perfectly aligned vocals, sensational and profound melodies, sidelined by a formidable eschatology of disturbed furious sincerity and disgrace, and amazingly graceful horizons of rhythmic dissonances dancing over gray oceans of joyful rapture. Really, there is no other album like this one. A masterpiece that has soul and intensity, in each and every note of its perfectly envisioned music.         

Well, what more can I say about Tunes From The Void, besides the fact that this an almost perfect album, an amazingly vibrant masterpiece, a colossal and astoundingly balanced mixture of hard rock and grunge, elaborated with the authentic gracefulness of creative values, like you have never heard before in your life? Well, that I’m dying to hear it again, of course!        
       

Wagner

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Nekromant - Snakes & Liars

20/6/2017

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hard rock / heavy metal
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Snakes & Liars is an album by Swedish heavy metal group Nekromant, released in June 16. Only thirty six minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Stoned to Death, Doomed to Die, Funeral Worship, Black Velvet, Ashes & Rain, Inside Yourself, Mardröm, Never Saved, Snakes & Liars and Spelmannen. Obviously influenced by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne – given the striking similarities in musical style and vocals –, despite the fact that traditional heavy metal is not one of my favorite genres, Snakes & Liars caught me by storm, revealing itself to be all the way through a surprisingly awesome, astoundingly decent and powerfully great album. With amazingly written guitar lines, a majorly conducted, but mostly ordained ferocity, an elevating respect for tradition – but never repetition – and the development of a mature, secure, genuine and singular style, Nekromant gives to its audience, with Snakes & Liars, a thoroughly overwhelming work of art. This album deserves all the compliments a contemporary heavy metal record could ever aspire to. Given the fact that the genre has mainly exhausted its possibilities, the gracious level of authenticity and creativity that Nekromant displays on this album is no minor achievement.

With soft guitars that can be constructively aggressive and inherently inhospitable at the same time, their style is not only profoundly cohesive and coherently consistent, but – easy to recognize – solidifies a reliant sonorous identity that ostensibly could characterizes them as, possibly, the major representatives of the genre in the underground scene for the years to come. With one song better than another, Snakes & Liars reveals itself to be a gracious collision of ideals, that masterly punctuates the genre as the sacred epitome of an infinite creativity that would never expire.           

If one negative aspect can be pointed out, is the notion that their style sounds too similar to Black Sabbath for the greater part of the album, mainly the Ozzy Osbourne era, given the fact that the voice of the singer is practically identical to that of the heavy metal icon. Nevertheless, despite this feature, Nekromant is not merely a generic band. They have developed a great sound in formidable and vivaciously dynamic attributions, like no other band in the contemporary history of the genre. Although they do have their musical references, that are easily recognizable, their vivid musical creativity outstands every other qualities (or deficiencies) that a listener may find. With cohesive harmonies, honest and masterly designed melodies, delusional guitar solos and sensational abilities that enables them to be one of the best bands of the genre not only in their native Sweden, but certainly in the whole underground scene in general, Nekromant is a fabulous and decisive heavy metal group, that has everything to be a household name in the global scene. 


Talent, they have too much. And as it would be expected with a band on this category, Snakes & Liars has revealed itself to be a very state of the art work. One that you shouldn’t dare not listening to. It would be the biggest heresy you could ever commit.  


Wagner

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