CD Review: Unothera - Broken EP (Doom/Death Metal, 2016)

A EP rooted in both genres - Doom and Death Metal with extraordinaty vocal performances packed in classic songwriting format.

The cover of Unothera's "Broken" EP, (c) by Unothera, used with kind permission

Summary

This silver disc reminds me of classic gothic metal releases of the traditional acts such as Paradise Lost in their beginnings. It lives of the contrasts in the sound. On the one hand many clear and lighter sound-textured parts are part of the songs while other sections are held much heavier, darker with growls and lot's of distorted guitars rounded out with midtempo grooving drums.

On above all of this mixture melodic splitters are put inside that give a softer tonality or dominate with their high notes some heavier sections as if they were put there to light those parts a bit up. 

The high vocals deserve a special mention. They vary a lot through the whole EP and spice the whole release up. "Winter" is a good example for this. Everything is held in classic songwriting format but the slight additions mentioned above make this one to point to later on again. It sounds different from other releases of the same genre. If you're into this sort of metal I recommend you to check this EP. It may be a fine surprise to you.


Purchase-Link & Preview Track

This five track disc can be purchased directly through the Facebook page of Unothera for 5 Euro plus shipping and handling. You'll receive a burned silver media in a small slipcase but with a professional, sharp layouted small booklet that holds the lyrics of the release. That's not very common for such offerings. The disc itself comes labeled with the motive of the cover but in a different incarnation. Nice gimmick that is not to be found too often.

One track of the EP found it's way online so I've added it here as a preview track.

Contact Data

You can get in touch with Unothera via there online presence on Facebook.

CD Review: Pander - Fierce Self (2015)

A stonerrock album for all those of you who like their music raw, hard, dirty and direct. A excellent package of heavy riffs, great rhythm and diverse songwriting. Come inside for some live sounding pounding music.

Band Introduction

Pander is a stonermetal band from the norther region of the Netherlands. In 2012 they released their first record "Go". In Oktocber 2014 the band started the work on "Fierce Self" and signed with Stichting Metalization who have taken over duties for the album release and distribution.
In July 2015 the band had to face the death of guitarist and founder Andre Boumer who passed away at the age of 40 as the result of cancer. The band happily didn't gave up and completed the new album which saw the light of day on 24th december 2015. It is dedicated to the memory of their bandmate who can be heard on some of the nine tracks of "Fierce Self".

The frontcover of Panders "Fierce Self", (c) by Pander, used with kind permission

Summary

The album is like a answer to one of my wishes. I always wanted to hear a record that really comes close to the feeling of being in a rehearsal room with that feeling of the pressure the sound creates only at those places. "Fierce Self" is one of the few records I found that has this feeling to it. The tracks are also connected to each other so you have the impression that the band is doing the final rehearsal just before the tour or the next show is coming up and is playing all the tracks in a row.

Musically it's a heavy riffing album with softer vocals and a good potion of groove with it. It has a fat sounding rhythm section with it that you'll remember having listened to the music. The songs all come along differently so it'll take some replays to get all the details that can be heard on the album. As well as sounding live it's also a CD that comes with a quality at the recording technique so it's well worth giving some money away for it.

You'll receive a fine digipack CD package with a dark and gloomy artwork but if you keep the circumstances in mind that happened during the album creation it's only understandable that the artwork couldn't show up in a happier way. Even if you look at the backside of the Compact Disc itself you'll see a mention the band left for Andre Bouma. Far too many great musicians leave us these days but we can only hope that this band will push on forward no matter what comes next.

Player

The whole album can be heard from the Soundcloud widget below.


Purchase-Link

You can purchase the download directly at the Bandcamp page of Pander for 4,50 Euro or order a fine CD copy from Stichting Metalization for 5 Euro plus shipping and handling. If you prefer iTunes you might be happy to see that the album is up for purchase their as well.

Also make sure to connect to Pander using Facebook.