Single Review: Not Another Prayer - Against the Wall (2022, Progressive Nu Metal)

Beware! This track comes kicking straight through your door. In fact I've hardly heard any band coming out of the speakers so clear and with full of energy.

The roughness at the beginning may feel a bit hard to take first but it fits to the lyrics, since I think we shall feel smashed to the wall first.

The band comments on the lyrics: "The lyrics talk about how we feel "against the wall" because of the restrictions, distorsions and discriminations of society, but we also invite the listener (and also ourselves) to wake up, because everything is falling apart and we need to stop it!"

A fine picture of the band Not Another Prayer.

But it's not just a rush of violent riffs all the way. The clou comes in after half of the duration is gone. The new offering changes it's side into a beautifull melancholic number letting us fly through a dreaming like atmosphere. A lot of work has been put in here you can easily hear with vocal effects and layers added to the wall of sound.

Finally the newest release pumps up some drive again but much less hard than in the beginning. It's more mid-tempo and feels great as a outro.

You can also listen to this song on Spotify.

Make sure to connect to the italian band. Where to will they go next ? How is the next release going to sound like ? I'm looking forward to see and hear.

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Lords Of Salem spit fire in these silent times

In this time of no live shows it feels like water in the desert when you're able to see a artist perform at all.
 
I had a lot of fun as I checked out Lords Of Salems newest live recording. The  heavy Rock band seeds a heavy potion of power in the 25 minutes of the video duration. It reminded me a lot of a mixture between harder Alice Cooper songs and the abrasive vocals of Udo Dirkschneider.  

Besides that I warmly welcome the directness of the sound Lords Of Salem perform with. You can rock out straight to the music without need to dig in too deep into the sound. That's the fun we need in these times!
 
Besides that the video has a very professional presentation on a bigger stage with fine lightshow and fire effects and even a girl spitting some fire.
 
Make sure to purchase the first EP "Hell Over Salem" produced by Achim Köhler so the band can continue to spread more fun in the future.

CD Review: Midnight Blackout - Hangover (Post Hardcore, 2018)

Heavy to the brim. But still slightly melodic so it remains tasty enough to listen to it.

The cover says it all what the topic of the EP talks about.

Post Hardcore seems to be a style many bands aim at these days. The only downside in my eyes is that the overall heavyness often tends to make the music less enjoyable. Happily Midnight Blackout have not chosen to go this way.

Instead they composed their music to be more melodic and most of all straight forwards. That's also a point I love. Whilst other Post Hardcore tunes are a bit complicated when it comes to song structures this french based formation keep all the power going directly from the mind to the music without fiddeling all around. This means that you can easily headbang to the stuff like you used to do in the older days of metal.

The only weaker aspect for me was the overall too loud mastering of this record. Sure listening the loud way helps to push the mood but here the guitars scream it out a bit for me. Less of the high notes would make listening a more silk and less rough experience. 

My personal favorite is the song "In Sheep's Clothing" that the band also picked as a single for the promotional music video.

Also this one comes around as a EP the duration feels like it's goin forever. You get a good bunch of music for your money served directly onto your favorite device through the band's Bandcamp page. But listen here for yourselves.

Make sure to create a account on Bandcamp before purchasing. The excellent plattform for up and coming bands let's you re-download music you once bought there. This means that as long as the service is up and running you can always download a copy if you lost your old one or changed your device (e.g. bought a new smartphone and forgot to transfer the tunes to the memory card before the old device broke down).

Finally check out Midnight Blackout's Facebook page and give 'em a supporting like on over there.

CD Review: Trap Lord - Drowning In The Wave (Classic Metal, 2017)

Wow, it's not to be heard often that young bands completly give their passion to the classic days of Metal. This record shows that roughness can be found out there if you're tired of all the polished music.

The front cover of Traplords "Drowning In The Wave" record, (c) by Traplord, used with kind permission

Summary

Having heard the songs of Trap Lord several times it gave me a deep reminder of how I started out with music. I used to listen from tapes. They give a direct and raw rendition of the music and that's what these track do for me, too.

Drawing inspiration of bands such as Motörhead and Saxon the music that can be heard sounds as if taken of a live show or rehearsal recording. The band doesn't give too much on polishing their music but instead cares more of the pure heavness. The guitars scream it all out on this one while drums and bass give a very basic note to it as if taken directly of the instruments without any other preparation done instead of attaching a microphone to it.

The fine thing is that slight modern elements have been sneaked into the sound with cleverness. They mix up the straight on forward sound every here and there but never ruin the listening enjoyment. The tempo varies and many groove parts add to the fun of the music. Most tunes come with shorter duration but less can be more - it's better in my ears to have straight good material instead lengthy stuff that doesn't hit the point.

Don't let the raw sound of this package give a negative impression. I enjoyed every minute of it. It feels natural this way and having started out with analogue equipment it inspired me to resurrect my tapes once again.

Album Stream and Purchase-Link

If you'd like to have a quick tip I  point you to the track "Idle Minds" (Song five). It gave me a great intoduction to this band and I hope it will make sure you jump on the train quickly.

The full release is available digitally on the band's Bandcamp page or check out the Heavy Baby Records Bandcamp page to get one of the limited physical copies of the release.

Contact Data

The band shows up on Facebook so make sure to follow the guys over there.

Warfield release old-school thrashing video for "Barrage Fire"

Allright, the weekend has finally arrived for all of us. The perfect time in my eyes to let some pressure burn that has been built up in the recent days. One of the best ways to do so in my eyes is to grab some good old thrash classics and then headbang like there's no tomorrow. :-)

Happily young bands are still around that haven't forgotten all the lessons of the classic past but also maintain the style with adding own trademarks to the typical rough and pushing sound of this metal genre. A good example for that are Warfield from Germany.

(c) by Warfield, used with kind permission

While their sound reminds me on a first listen a lot of old school Bay Area bands and german classics such as Sodom or Destruction it also quickly becomes clear that they've added a straight forward feeling to the sound. It's not that monotone soundwise it goes with more diversity and most of all it's more direct and heavy leaving behind everything that could lead to a feeling of "the band has fiddled around to much with this and that". It's easier to go out of yourselves with the music. Just try it with the video below and have fun.



Lyrically the band set's a focus on political and social mistakes and also keeps a eye on the wars going on these days.

The band has put out a EP in 2014 entitled "Call To War" which you can purchase right here. 

You can see Warfield live during the following shows in Germany:

10.10.15 Zweibrücken
11.12.15 Mainz
16.01.16 Landau
12.02.16 Kaiserslautern

Also make sure to check out their social sites such as Facebook, Youtube or BackstagePRO.