Video premiere: Angel Vengeance revive the time of great metal hymms

Do you remember the days of singing along to songs of great melody? Those tunes that constantly kept ringing in your head again and again?

Angel Vengeance who greet from Thailand have released a brand new lyric video that holds such a magic when it comes to finding these words and notes.

It's fast but silk at the same time. The vocals and song structures remind of Helloween and Stratovarius classic but with the vocals being less high they are more enjoyable. The solo section features extended guitar solos. Even the bass guitar player shows some finger picking techniques so make sure to tune in.

A great side note is that Piet Silck, who is well known for his band Iron Saviour mixed and mastered this great piece of music. The digital single will be released on 31.01.2020 on Downfall Records.

Keep in touch with Angel Vengeance on Facebook.

Demo Review: Souldrown - Evil Of War (recorded 2000 / released 2016)

Sometimes things happen that seem to have been lost in time... A demo release in the style of early Helloween and Stratovarius but evolved further to a much more complex and diverse style.

Introduction

Souldrown has its origins back in 1993. They began as heavy-power band, mainly influenced by bands like Accept, Helloween, Stratovarius etc. As the years went on, they radically changed the style towars a darker, more complex and progressive direction, mainly influenced by Tool, Dream Theater etc.

Unfortunately, the band never gave themselves the chance to have an official release.

Souldrown recorded some stuff in the late 90's-early 00's, for a demo release, from which some rough mixes have survived. This is what can be heard on the "Evil Of War" demo right here which finally sees the light of day in 2016...

The cover of Souldrown's "Evil Of War" demo, (c) by Souldrown, used with kind permission

Summary

This is a demo with two sides of the story. The first two tracks are clear in the structure, high vocals and dominant bass guitars. Tracks 3-5 are a bit different. Those are much more complex in the structure and sound and it needs some time to get to the point of them. I see some potential in this band since they have not only sticked to the sound of their favorites but dared to evolve it further. I think this kind of music needs some fresh kick and this band could provide it. It would be great to know what this band has on their minds after all these years.

This goes especially for the vocals. The vocalist keep them in a high region but also makes sure to keep them a bit more in the middle peak which makes them enjoyable and keeps the voice authentic. This prevents the tracks from being destroyed by a too loud noise that would make the melodies not identifiable anymore.

In detail Evil of War is clear and round for me. A grooving rhythm pushes throughout the full track duration and makes it a lot of fun to listen to it. The vocals are high and the refrain comes with various layers something not many bands work with. The bass guitar sets apart in the sound straight from the start. Last Hours is my favorite on the tape. A double bass cracker with fine keyboard parts packed in a roundly sounded package. It's typical melodic power metal. It feels more as a story than a song but it's something I like.

Track 3 Talk Hard offers more variations in the rhythm section while the overall speed is set to midtempo. Melody is set on top again but it comes around differently when you look at the style of it. More keyboards to be found in this one. The fastest track on the digital tape is called Dragons Lair. It's the hardest to get by anyway. A complex song structure makes it hard to get a grip on the sound. The vocals form a guiding light through the whole song.

See The Signs closes the release. This one is more complex than the previous track and comes with a high-tempo format. We hear the typical high notes in the vocals that seem to be a trademark of Souldrown. Some vocal effects can be heard, too. Those give the vocal performance some more variation and will hark back. They sound unusual so you'll want to re-listen after a first round.

Player / Purchase Link

The whole tape can be streamed for free here in the player. You can download a digital copy for only one euro on Bandcamp so please give the artist a sign that they should continue.

Contact Data

You can keep in touch with Souldrown via Bandcamp.

CD Review: Eternal Dream - Reign Of The Skies EP

Note: If you have a own band or project that you think might fit in well here for a review or as a presentation / introduction please drop me a line or two in a E-Mail. Please see my profile for my E-Mail adress. I appreciate new suggestions very much so please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm also interested in band news / updates / tourdates so please keep the stuff coming. Thanks!

If you're having troubles writing in English please send me a E-Mail in your preferred language or use the free Google Translator to transfer your message to English. I also use that tool, it's of course not perfect but I think it will mostly likely work out for our purposes.

Short introduction

Eternal Dream was founded back in 2007. The band sees their roots in european power metal bands in the style of Rhapsody (Of Fire), Nightwish or Stratovarius. At the beginning of 2008 they closed the line-up and began to prepare their first demo, published at the end of that year with two songs: "Frozen Salanthine" and "Waters of Reality".

In a year and a half they placed in the metal scene of Málaga, with several concerts and high ratings in recognized contests like "Málaga Crea Rock", among hundreds of bands, and "Marbepop".
Their first EP "The Seed of Naryll", totally self-produced by Niko Hartmann (also guitar player of the band), is published in September 2009.

(c) by Eternal Dream, used with kind permission

In the summer of 2010, Álvaro Sabín entered the band as lead guitarist and they began to prepare their first LP. "The Fall of Salanthine". The record has been released in 2011 and for first time in the band history the album is also available as a original pressed CD. The band ever since continued their work on new material and has released their brand new EP "Reign of the skies" at Christmas 2014.

Summary / Player / Download Link

This EP has a superb quality, no question. If you like bands like Epica or Nightwish you should go straight on forward and listen and download the EP. As a addition to the mentioned bands Eternal Dream keep things more straight forward. Where some of the other bands sometimes tend to fiddle around a bit too much the spanish band comes more to the point and keeps it soundwise a bit heavier than compareable bands. That's what makes them to be preferable to those acts in my eyes if you like music to keep pushing forward instead of playing around too much with single parts and elements.

The download comes totally free of charge directly from the bands website.. This is already a reason to be happy to be given such a fine piece of music. Looking closer into the provided zip File you'll recognise that it even holds far more than "only" the mp3 files. It comes completely with a text interior sheet, something I've seen very rarely even in comercial releases. What a nice gesture! In addition there are's also a front and a back cover included in the releases. All files come with the maximum possible quality data rate for mp3 at 320 kb/s.

Don't miss out to follow the further band activities on their social site like Facebook, Twitter or myspace.




If you want to give something back for what you've taken or support the band on their further way you may buy the first full album "The fall of Salanthine" on a physical CD including a 16 page booklet for only 5 Euro plus shipping and handling through the band's website.

Track-by-Track Review

Reign of the Skies
The keyboards at the beginning already tell the maintheme of the song. It's a midtemo song with a direct and clear riff and a blast refrain. Very impressive, high pitch vocals that take you to another world. It is like you're living in a epic story like in a movie such as The Lord of the Rings. Good music to bring your thoughts on a different level far away from the world of everyday troubles.

Reign of The Skies (instrumental)
Of course the vocals are missing in this one. It reveals the instrumental epicness of the track in all it's beauty. You get a sharper look on the aggressive, dark and heavy riffs used in this track than put a contrary to the harmonic vocals. In addition more of the keyboards can be heard making it clearer which role they have in the band's sound.

Neoclassical Fantasy
The one comes in sharp contrast to the other two tracks. The opening riff already makes it clear that it is a much different song. The track is much faster and the vocals are rougher and set in a higher tone. A very edgy piece of music.  After the rough opening the song breaks like a fragile building and builds up slowly again piece by piece up to the chorus followed up by a long solo section. Afterwards it remains a fast, heavy and direct song. The majestic chorus ends the whole song and the EP.

Fresh stuff from Stratovarius,Heaven shall burn and Kamelot up for listening

While I'm typing this the snow is falling outside. The perfect weather to enjoy some fine music. Happily nowadays a lot of bands are putting up their new stuff online for listening so you can check them out before you might buy them. Stratovarius just recently did put out their actuall release called "Nemesis". I'm listenig to it while writing this one down. Sounds like the band did tape some very cool tracks which tend more into the powerfull direction. The last record I've heard from them was "Polaris" which turned out great for me but had surprisingly a lot of slow songs on it. So head over here and find out how the new album is.

Heaven shall burn are quite a different kind of music. Their sound is more set in the heavy, raw and hardcore direction. The new album will be called "VETO" and the band has now set up one song called ‘Land Of The Upright Ones’ for free download. There just one thing you need to do before downloading: solve the sound puzzle. Will you solve this quest? Try your luck here. 

The last band in this little round up are Kamelot, a much underrated symphonic powermetal band. Their newest album has been released autumn 2012 and was called "Silverthorn". They recently released two single's from that album and will follow this path with another single called 'Falling Like The Fahrenheit'. Since lyric Videos have become very popular these days the band has decided to set up a proper one for this track. Judging from the lyrics it looks like someone lost someone who he/she was in love with or what do you think? 

Have a ear on new stuff from Stratovarius, Paradox and Helloween

The next albums are comin' near and I'd like to present you guys some footage of stuff that is already out there to give you a first glimpse of what's to come.

Let's start with Stratovarius, a great band from Finnland. Also Timo Tolkki, the bandleader and main composer left them some years ago they are still pushing forward with fine melodic power metal. Thir next album "Nemesis" will feature these 11 songs and will be released February 22.

01. Abandon
02. Unbreakable
03. Stand My Ground
04. Halcyon Days
05. Fantasy
06. Out Of The Fog
07. Castles In The Air
08. Dragons
09. One Must Fall
10. If The Story Is Over
11. Nemesis

You can listen to some snippets right here, right now:
The second one on today's row are Paradox, a classic old-school thrash band from germany. They remind me of Xentrix quite a bit and their straight forward songs are fun to listen to. Actually their next longplayer  "Tales Of The Weird" is  set for release on 12-14-2012.
Here are two songs to check out for ya, one of them is a lyric video which is a fine way of listening combined with reading the text while doing so. Anyway don't miss out "Escalation", that one has been posted on soundcloud for your enjoyment.
Finally last in line for today are Helloween, their next album will be called "Straight Out Of Hell" and the tracklist goes as follows:
01. Nabataea 02. World Of War 03. Live Now! 04. Far From The Stars 05. Burning Sun 06. Waiting For The Thunder 07. Hold Me In Your Arms 08. Wanna Be God 09. Straight Out Of Hell 10. Asshole 11. Years 12. Make Fire Catch The Fly 13. Church Breaks Down
Limited-Edition Bonustracks:
14. Another Shot Of Life 15. Burning Sun (Hammond version; dedicated to Jon Lord)
Check out the opener "Nabataea".