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.    

CD Review: Brutai - Born (Modern Metal/2016)

Seldomely has a band impressed me the way Brutai did with their first album. Usually the first previews of many records sound good but the finished album later on may not be as fullfilling as you hoped for.

Introduction
Happily that's not the same with "Born". Having heard the first track "Deep" I was thrilled for more to come. Seeing that the band was very busy with playing gigs wherever they had the opportunity and other stuff they had to work around like a writing blockade I thought that a EP would wait around the corner. But what we have here is a full album and that's even more impressive if you keep in mind that all of this happened in a time of under one year!

The cover of Brutai's first full length "Born", (c) by Brutai, used with kind permission

Summary
So what's inside of the package? First of all it's a modern metal record but one with a special note. While most of the songs have a rough edge to the riffs and the pushing, uncompromising rhythm it's the vocal's core that always centers the music back to some melodic and softer tonality. It's great to hear that along with some catchy melodies the record always remains one you love to listen to. Most of all the sound remains natural and intact not letting the all too modern production ruin the product in the end. You never have the impression that it's overpolished or impossible to play this but instead always can imagine that this is handcrafted music of real humans.

The first three tracks are a good intro in a row. The album slowly takes you into the world of Brutai. With every step you sink in further. While "Relapse" is a rhythm-oriented opener to the album, "Deep" adds the progressive elements just to finally push you to the riffing monster "Of Ashes".

The absolute peak of the record is reached with the songs starting with "Lucidity" up to "Dear Emily" - all the tracks grow further from one song to each other. They're all heavy and will give you a great feeling through the whole duration. I simply had to headbang to these tunes.

The middle sees us taking a breath with the modern half ballad "Valediction", some pretty complex piece of music yet is has a infectious melody spreading all along the track. Just when you thought it's over after the eight track "Over now" the band returns for two more songs.

"Visitors" has some great keyboard melody going through the whole track - it touches you and has been circulating in my mind for a long time. "The Border" is the heaviest track and a full surprise to the package. It's a long pushing heavy crusher that never seems to end but it gives you this special feeling to it that the band has put out something great with the debut "Born" and that you definitely need to see them live.

Purchase Link
Make sure to pick your copy early. All CD and T-shirt bundles are £20 for a limited time only... Prices will increase after 'Born' is released on November 25th. You can place your pre-order here.

Album stream
I've picked the track "Of Ashes" as a quick check- in song for you. Besides the great music it comes with a nice animated album cover. If you'd like to listen to the full album, just check out the Facebook page for the Heavy Metal Underdogs Blog - at this direct link you can hear the whole album that the band has uploaded to YouTube.


Contact data
Make sure to keep a eye on the band through Facebook and mark your calenders when the band hit's the road in January 2017 with The Devil You Know in the UK. For detailed tourdates check my post.