CD Review: Michael Schinkels Eternal Flame - Man Or God (Melodic Metal, 2026)

A look upon the cover will surely wake a lot of emotions in everyone of us. It is a scene of contrast and surely not a too nice moment in time that can be seen.

Michael Schinkel and his band open a new chapter in history with the "Man Or God" record.

Such a album sleeve starts a interaction in me. What is it all about? Why is such a hard moment captured? 

The music answers a lot of it. What you see is what you get this time. "Man Or God" comes with a sound that is very noble. It's a production with a lot of majestic melodies inside. Those are brought to life by the guitars and the keyboards along with the strong vocal performance by Marc Boals. It's all held together by the powerful drums and bass guitars surrounding these elements.

While the opener "Run" comes around as a speed metal song don't take this as a sign for the rest of the album. Most songs vary the tempo and they need this pattern to give room for the atmosphere the songs spread. The music breathes the topics of the lyrics, it's like you can feel them. I've heard the songs first before I picked up the detailed booklet. A good choice if you want to feel the music.

Associations of old Egyptian culture came to my mind. To me this album is a story of one of the well known rulers of the old civilization that builds the pyramids. He seems to recall his life before it comes to a end and the music reflects his time he spent with a lot of ups and downs.

The music varies in the running time of the album. Hard passages and silk one's go hand in hand and the vocals reflect the topic of each song intensively. Some songs are lighter (So strong so wrong) while other one's are harder to take (the title track). At any time the music demonstrates the power of the musicians and the full motivation to create something special for the listener.  

The record is build by the compositions of Michael Schinkel and keyboarder Helmut Kohlpainter. Happily it's a balanced recording. All musicians count and contribute to the sound. The whole band gave it's power to bring these songs to life and this can be felt.

"Man Or God" comes with a booklet that let's you discover the lyrics and band members in a full album style. Together with the high quality Digipack It feels to me like a book holding a epic story. It's worth a purchase - you will be rewarded with lasting songs that can be listened to many, many times. 

Just check out the stream below to find out if this album is something for you. A download or the Digipack release is available at the Bandcamp page of the band's label Fastball Music.

More information on Michael Schinkel's Eternal Flame are available at the official homepage of the band.    

Let's speak with Saiseiga (Melodic Groove Metal, 2026)

At the time I listened to this band it quickly became clear that they put a lot of energy and heavyness into the music but at the same moment it's fine to hear that it's never overloaded. The riffs always stay sharp and clear in the sound. Power is always present but never ruins the sound with being brutal all the time. 

Saiseiga create hard music that's very melodic at the same time.

So who is this Japanese band and why do they release so many live DVDs ? The whole band gave answers to the questions I've send over. That's something that doesn't happen everyday so I'm very happy for this detailed insight into the band's way to work on new music.

Heavy Metal Underdogs: How did the band come together in the beginnings?

Saiseiga: The band I was playing was finished its activity and there was no plan at that time.  However, all gigs we planned before our final one were all cancelled due to that Covid, and we have this band to an end not seeing members and our fans, which made me have something on my mind since I could not fulfill what I wanted to do. After a while, I had been off from playing drums and music related activities, listening to myself and finally made up my mind that I shall do what I could not do when our last band broke up. This made me form a new band.  

I asked Katsuki whom I played with before to do a jam session in the studio and we were creating a new band's musical direction together. At the same time, I asked Regan to join this new band since I really  wanted her to be a vocalist in this band so badly. 

Wakkun was introduced by Regan's friend and he was also delighted to join this band when he heard our sounds and we hit it off. So, here we came as a SAISEIGA.

(Tohko)

What are the lyrics of your songs all about?

At SAISEIGA, I could check out demo songs with almost completed version.  Most of the times, I can get some inspiration from those sounds. 

Sometimes, this song title was almost ready and I can work on lyrics from those titles. 

Human beings, Strongness, Gentleness, Feelings, Justice and those answers are really varied. I have been very much interested in daily and large-scale questions. 

Those current thought of my findings are derived from demo songs and reflected to my lyrics. 

(Regan)

I've seen on your website that you've released some more live DVDs as well. Do your fans favor to see you perform instead of "just" listening to your music?

Needless to mention, we would like to have many people to listen to our studio albums but the essence of SAISEIGA is our live performance. By expressing our emotions and energy at those gigs, our audience can feel the unitedness, which no other occasion can offer. 

SAISEIGA's wide variation of songs can be experienced at our live performance.  We are delighted if our fans can have some fun to check out our music visually.  This is why we are releasing our live DVD often.

(Tohko)

Are you working out the songs together or has everyone his role in the band?

Our roles are divided naturally.  

We are four people, who have totally different personalities. So, there is no reason to try to take others' roles.   

Main composers are myself (Katsuki) and Tohko. Regan writes most of the lyrics.  

Wakkun does not compose songs but I asked him to compose a couple of songs since I wanted to have some idea from the guitarist's point of view. 

Once again we each have our own different personalities. 

I am in charge of all arrangements. Before I share demo songs with other members I normally make arrangements as if they are almost completed. 

However, I do have one contradiction. For one thing, I believe composing songs is one of the most important things in this band. On the other hand, I do not want to spend much time composing. 

This is because I want to compose songs with some driven emotions. 

I often see more values created by incidents. 

In order to proceed, we often play only with drum and bass to do jamming rather than composing. 

On the contrary I composed songs just by myself focusing and spending much time to make it complete, which I felt was very fresh. The bottom line I do not want to keep the same process to compose songs. I always want to feel very fresh feelings. 

This thought is a musical concept of SAISEIGA. (Katsuki)

Do you feel inspired by mangas or anime movies?

Yes. This is my personal point of view. And I do have lots of inspiration from those. 

In addition to anime and manga, I have much inspiration and influences from game music..  For exmaple, I got some inspiration from fantasy type of music which has a kind of nostalgic melody lines. 

On my guitar solo, I do have some kind of phrases sometimes. (Wakkun)

More details about Saiseiga can be found on the official website of the band. Make sure to listen to one song below so you won't miss out on this fine and unique melodic groove metal band. 

Album Review: Portal - Anno Mundi (Doom, 2026)

The brand new Portal album still speaks to all the lovers of the traditional doom metal genre. That's surely not a surprise to anyone who has ever heard songs of them. Anyway the newest output comes with some small changes every and there that made me listen closer. At the end of the day I was filled with enthusiasm for the new material.

The new Portal album shows a wide variety of guitar sounds.

This feeling came up through the riffs that are present on "Anno Mundi". Just take the heavyness of Wholly Roller. It's crushing riff rolls right over you. On the other hand it comes with soft vocals and lot's of melody inside all of the brutality. Others then that you've got very high sounding melodies like in "The Bronze Age" along with extended solo sections.

It's also a direct album that comes more to the point. You don't need to think too much around the corner once "Paschal Lamb" is running on your device. It's a compact number but changes towards the end where it goes in a rougher and harder direction. 

If you like to dive deep into guitar sounds then I recommend the title track "Anno Mundi" to your attention. Those layers are going up and down many times and they are much more present in the front of the sound that other tunes of the album. It should make all guitar players listen closer to find out how to play this. 

"A Charmed Life" shows the more faster and grooving side. It calls out to headbang to it and is a pure dose of fun to listen to. It's so fine to hear that the guitars shake the riffs all the time that it's hard to stop listening. 

Finally "Thunderclap" comes a lighter way with softer riffs and vocals. It's a unusual song for a band like Portal but put's a good balance in contrast to most of the heavier album content.

The vocals should be pointed out, too. They are going with more intensity. You can feel that they're sounding more direct and slightly heavier on this album. This put's a much welcomed change into the sound.

You can hear three songs of the record on thedoomportal.com for free streaming. The album is sold as high quality wave files at the shop tab of the website for six dollar each copy.   

EP Review: Final Coil - 1994 (2026, Grunge)

One of the reasons why I love listening to releases by this band is that you never know what comes next.

In recent years Final Coil became well know for the progressive sounds mixed with thoughtful and in-depth lyrics. But between the full albums the band always found time to put together smaller albums that were different of the usual sound.

It has been like this with Somnambulant as well as with the Somnambulant II mini-albums and now we have the 1994 EP in front of us. It's a love-letter to the grunge era of the 1990s. What I love so much about the four songs is the direct sound. It feels like they were done direct at the rehearsal space by the input of all of the band members. No time has been wasted but the band recorded the feeling and spontanity that has been hanging in the air on the recording sessions.

This feels great to me in a time of over-thinking and the "need" to be perfect. I love that it's so raw and not running around trying to archive something. Instead it gives me the feeling of hanging with the band and listening and watching them perform the songs of the EP.  If you've ever been at such a place you surely know what I'm speaking about. It's Grunge like Grunge has been meant to be. Direct and in your face. Nothing else.

Since it's such a great journey back to 90s I recommend to pick up the cassette or CD digipack edition or better the Cassette /CD bundle that are available of the band's Bandcamp page. The tape comes in a coloured case with a NFC chip inside. The Compact Disc has been put into a 4-panel-digipack with liner notes by Phil Stiles. 

Back in those days there was a need to visit a record store in the occassion of such a release but those stores have become rare. It would be great to see a copy of this in a record store anyway.   

Voices Of Extreme kick off the year properly

How to start the new year? I think one of the best ways is to listen to the brand new single by Voices Of Extreme. 

The song "Stoned Babies" feels like a call to action for all you've thought about to achieve in these times. With it's massive vocals and strong guitars it feels like one of the kickass songs that give you this "now it's time to start something new" feeling.

Voices Of Extreme introduce themselves with the kicking "Stoned Babies" single.

I like the way the song builds up with the drums by Rod Morgenstein kicking it in. The vocals jump on the train instantly and before you start to realise you're already in starting to rock straight away. The vocals in the refrain are rough but it feels organic. A solo section shows some variations of the sound and the abilities the band members are able to perform on the instruments. This is something not to be found in songs like this usually. Finally the drums close the song - a great way to finish it.

"Stoned Babies" is the first single taken of the upcoming album "Faith in Action" which is going to be released on BraveWords Records in 2026. The band will play some shows this year so make sure to check the band's website from time to time for details.