EP Review: Shulaak - Rubedo (Heavy Metal, 2020)

Music has the possibility to share truth and great stories in my ears. Shulaak put these thoughts into good practice with the release of the "Rubedo" EP shortly before 2020 came to it's close.

The music on this mini album reminds me back on the classic days of metal. This sort of music shared a mystical truth for me. So besides the great melodies there was a chance of having truth revealed. Sometimes in a direct and clear way, other times you had to dig deep into it to find out for yourselves.

Shulaak are more of the last sort. Their songs tell of mans hunger to do great and glorious things only to see them end in death and depravity. This is packed in songs that are classic metal like those of Judas Priest and Omen to me. The riffs are set on softer tonality yet they fit well to the metal style.
 
The groove follows the compositions on the guitar. The high-toned voice set's the crown to the four songs plus one spoken intermission. Those vocal elements take the most part of the sound. They come out in a wide range. Sometimes they are high pitched, other times they transcend into the raw regions and finally end in dark style. "The Azoth" which is presented in two parts stands out for me.
 
While "Ancient Sins" and "Scourge of Aeons" take the direct path with straight riffs and the more high notes it's the last two tracks that need the closest listening to fully spread out their atmosphere. Be sure to be prepared because they will take you on a ride of emotions with it's complexity of melodies and multi-layered vocal work.   
 
The music is well worked out with much eye on details. It may not be the longest playing time this EP provides but the intensity is great so 5 Euro is okay to hand for a download of the Rubedo EP on Bandcamp.

More info on the band can be found on Shulaak's homepage.

Follow them on Facebook for all the latest updates.

Queen Elephantine add mediative elements to psychedelic music

One of the nice things when running a blog like this one is the chance to discover not only unknown bands but also sometimes unravel mysterious bands than go different ways than other combos do. One of them seems to be Queen Elephantine, a band which saw many lineups as well as changes of locations they are living in. Their vita lists New York, Hong Kong or Rhode Island as places where they made music and as different as these places are so is their musical journey going which can be called a collection of dark psychedlic tracks that have a deep meditative sphere in them.

Queen Elephantine live in Boston 2013, (c) Quenn Elephantine, used with kind permission

It's with a lot of pleasure that I can bring you one track of their recent output called "Omen". The whole record which the band speaks of as a EP has a playing time of around 70 minutes. It goes all in all in a sort of drone and psychedelic music direction outliving the extremes of the musical spectrum but I think people open to taking new courses in their musical journey will love to have the chance to discover something new and unique in here.

Don't let the unusual song structure confuse you - the track slowly builds up over it's duration. The drums keep a static rhythm while the guitars add to the monotone form. Slowly distorted vocals keep coming in and the whole procession moves on forward until some sort of climatic ending comes in.



If you like this track don't hesitate to head over to the Bandcamp page of Queen Elephantine and have a listen to the rest of the album. That's also the place where you can  purchase a copy of the band's current output. The album has been released through the French label Atypeek Music on further plattforms such as Amazon, or iTunes.

Also make sure to take a look upon the band's plattforms throughout the Internet such as Soundcloud, YouTube or go the traditional way and take a look at the band's homepage for more detailed info about 'em.

Omen to tour Europe and new song from Hammer Damage online

The legend Omen will show up in Europe! Yeah, I was also very surprised when I got to know from their Facebook site that the band is going to do a round of headliner shows already in March 2015!
Here is the list of tourdates, supportact will be Masters of Disguise:

07.03.2015 Athen (GRE)
08.03.2015 Athen (GRE)
12.03.2015 Jam, Koblenz (D)
13.03.2015 Little Devil, Tilburg (NL)
14.03.2015 German SwordBrothers Festival, Lünen (GER)
15.03.2015 UJZ, Uelsen (GER)
16.03.2015 7er Club, Mannheim (GER)
20.03.2015 Schlachthaus, Dornbirn (A)
22.03.2015 Rockfesthall, Hamme (B)

And there's one more good message: the band has uploaded a new song from the long awaited new album "Hammer Damage". Countless obstacles kept the band from releasing the album including a change of the singer plus a water damage at the studio the band was recording resulting in a loss of stuff which had to be re-done by the band.

Anyway, enjoy the new track "Hellas" which is a pure pleasure for me to listen to. Just thing of the good old times, I think this one will perfectly fitt into the long list of classics the band has put out so far.