Showing posts with label Pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pop. Show all posts

6/07/2023

Have Alia Tempora created a new mainstream?

Besides being blessed with so many metal music coming in it's also a pleasure to go beyond the borders of this music genre. Having started out with Pop music in my childhood days the love for refrains that stick in my mind stayed inside of me when I moved on to Metal music some years later.

Alia Tempora mix different elements into their sound for the open minded music fans.

Alia Tempora made me think back of those Pop music days when the brand new single "Fake It Till You Make It" found it's way into my inbox. The constant pumping beat forces the attention to constantly stay present. In the further duration time more and more synthetic elements are packed into the music. 

One by one they draw you more and more away of the melodic metal basis into a space of danceable music.Sometimes the beat changes into patters not always expected making it a even more exciting time to listen and explore the single release. Pay attention to the vocals - some metal flies in when you least expect it.

Make sure to add this single to your Spotify collection. The full album called "Prismatica" should see the light of day this summer 2023.

3/05/2019

Voyager set a Brightstar at Australia

Some bands are giving me exactly what I need. Voyager, a progressive band mixing up metal with pop-like elements has brought a brand new (video) single to life.

The cover already gives a idea that something special is about to come your way...
It demonstrates once more the band's ability to express softer, melodic elements that touch the soul and give room for dreams and atmosphere. On the contrary there are always rougher corners showing up making clear how much of the agression, raw power and heavyness also lives in the soul of the band. Along with bright pictures of nature and technique it's a overwhelming feeling that floats through me listening to "Brightstar".

If you're living in Australia don't miss out the chance to see Voyager live these days. They hit the road with the excellent Twelve Foot Ninja, a crossover act that also didn't leave my mind once I heard them.

Here are the dates:

Friday 8th March - ANU, Canberra

Saturday 9th March - Download Festival Sydney

Monday 11th March - Download Festival Melbourne

Friday 15th March - Miami Tavern, Gold Coast

Saturday 16th March - The Valley Drive in, Brisbane

Saturday 23rd March - The Gov, Adelaide

TICKETS - http://twelvefootninja.com/shows

The single is up for purchase from Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon Music and more.

Check the band's Facebook for updates and more info.

9/21/2015

Live-Review: A Place To Fall / FiftyFour Planets / Acoustic Steel - Lingen 19.9.2015

So this past weekend hopefully will stay some time in my mind. It was time for the local town party. The whole city of Lingen is changed into a big open air location at the end of each summer offering a wide variation of music to check out for free for everybody.

This big wheel gave the chance to take a impressive look from ca. 35 meters above over Lingen

As part of this event you can find one place that offers a special section that keeps it mostly a bit heavier for the younger people of the city. It's called "Rock am Pferdemarkt" and it had a good line-up this 2015 edition offering three of my favorite local bands on Saturday. A note: there were more bands playing but I will ignore those here since they don't fit to the musical style of my blog so I will stick to the heavy bands of the line-up

First out were "A Place To Fall" which offer a mixture of Hardcore / Heavy Metal along with a fine mixture of melodic riffs and melodies. I arrived early to the show so I was able to see the band doing the soundcheck. The band was going to lay it down heavy that was made for sure. They had brought along a good package of speakers so they were really playing loud. Plus they had prepared the stage with some whistle blowers which they used every here and there at the show. Finally the band took the stage and got into the set very well. Most of all vocalist Sebastian Molleker gave a good signature of his abilities. It payed off that he doesn't had to play the bass guitar anymore and could concentrate of the vocals. On one song he screamed the parts as if he was collecting them up from deep inside and was letting off some real pressure. That was towards the end of the set and I feel that he was getting better with every minute that allowed him to get out of himself a bit more.

Malte Hornung, the lead guitarist showed some cool riffs and it was a good mixture of heavyness with fine melodies put inside that made me curious on the upcoming release that the band is currently working on. Make sure to check out the track below so you won't miss out them. If the band had been given a stage time in the later evening time I'm sure the band would have had the chance to gather a lot of new fans. At this time it was too early for most of the people to show up. Keep in mind that the show already started at 18:50 h so I thing you can imagine it. I for one was very happy that I didn't missed them out. I would have really regret if I had chosen to stay at home.

   
Afterwards it was time for the change over which turned out pretty short. The crew and bands really kept things short and quick but nevertheless made sure the sound was kept in good quality. Next to go were "FiftyFour Planets". Having seen them twice before I was curious what the band was going to do with the big stage since they previous shows were at a small live club here in Lingen called "Alter Schlachthof". The band used the place really well, most of all the Synthesizer Christoph jusmped around a lot as he seems to enjoy a lot. :-) The band has a own idea of sound mixing up classic Punk Rock elements with Synthesizer sounds and a good potion of Hardcore heavy elements. So on some parts they really keep it straight forward to the direct classic punk attitude just to go over without further ado to the hardcore parts that make a pushing, raw sound while the synths give some fine melodies to your ears you won't forget so fast anymore.

It's these versatile mix of sounds that keeps in your ears and makes the music thrilling and you can never know what's comes next. The drum patterns are sometimes kept unusual giving it a even more own character. You should definitely check out their noise in the tube player below. The only thing I still cannot feel fine with is the reaction of the audience. Why not give some applause to the band, why not show some enthusiasm? The band really layed it down heavy so there was absolutely no reason to hang around calmly and not giving the slightest form of reward to the band. The vocalist was right as he counted the applauding people and pointed at them (I was one of them :-) and thanked them for their reaction.



Last to go on my list were "Acoustic Steel". As their name already let's you guess they are drawn towards the heavier side of music but in a acoustic form. That said you may expect the usual tracks to be heard, mostly slow stuff and ballads. Sure the band has them in their set but most of all they also pick up tracks from the really heavy depths of metal like Slayers all-time classic "Seasons in the abyss" that you wouldn't even think of to be remade in a acoustic version. But this band manages to do so in a serious way, so all of the typical elements of the original tracks are kept intact, it's just that they rework them to fit to their attempt to the music. It's even cooler that the drummer uses Cajons and percussion to play his parts and that fit's also to the picture. Their set was filled with a lot of classics amongst them some Iron Maiden numbers like "Run to the hills" and "Fear of the dark" but they also weren't afraid to pick up Body Counts "Copkiller" for a acoustic version. The audience reacted quite well and showed some cool sing-along with dancing and giving a lot of applause to the band which was well deserved.

The peak of the show in my ears was their cover of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" which I never had thought the people to go along so much on it. I guess the australian rocker may even have liked to see this performace for themselves. Anyway here I've got their current videoclip for you to check out. Besides going serious on the music the band also put's out some fun stuff making sure they never take things too serious so it's also good for having a smile on this very monday. The only thing I would wish for is the band to write own songs and play them. I love their covers but it would also be cool to see them performing their own numbers. But I've hope that this will happen since they aren't around for too long yet.


All in all it was a cool evening and I enjoyed every minute of it. Please keep the good work up all you people at the team of the "Rock am Pferdemarkt" as well as all of the bands showing up there. Hope to see you all around again!