CD Review: Solitary - XXV (Thrash, 2019)

I need to admit that I had some initial starting problems with this band. Their newer output always felt a bit close soundwise to Metallica to me so I always choose to not review them. This brandnew EP changed that for the much better.

The cover of Solitry's upcoming anniversary EP XXV, (c) by Solitary

25 years are Solitary already thrashing around their brand of music. These days the band put's out a EP that celebrates this with three re-recordings of classics plus two live recordings of older material.  What convinced me this time so much? It's the high pressure the UK based band put's into their sound. I've seldomely come around any combo that set's such a massive bar when it comes to creating their noise.

It almost feels like using a high pressure cleaner. You know cleaning with water helps in normal situations. But this one blasts every little thing of dirt away. But it's not only the brutality. It's also the changes and little part's included with the songs. There are always intermissions present that give room for letting off some of the steam. They leave space to headbang all around. You know the change to a more midtemo format. It's all those stuff that makes you smile once you've gone through the tracks.

The live tracks "Architects Of Shame" and "The Diseased Heart of Society" are something special in my ears. It's one thing to be heavy in the studio but another one to be so live. Solitary prove with this unpolished tunes that they can give it live in the same brutal way.

I love the drums sound. This high pitched snare along with the much deeper bass drums kicks it the perfect way. Especially the last track shows that more complex and progressive structures are also something they learned to master in their long lasting carrer.

The EP will be released on August 9th. Currently there's no preview snippet available. Keep a eye on Facebook, maybe something will show up in the coming time.

Support the band with a pre-order of the EP through Solitary's own website. It will help them to tour more and put out more music. Next stops on the touring schedule are Aggressive Music Fest this weekend (19th and 20th July 2019) and Bloodstock Open Air 2019.

CD Review: Reclvse - Evil Lvrks (Doom, 2016)

This EP from Reclvse shows impressively that a band can evolve a lot from one record to another.

Introduction
 
Thinking back on their debut recording in 2014 I had in mind that these guys prefer a sort of doom that comes around slowly in terms of speed and with lots of majestic vocals. Having turned on their their current output that has been dropped in August 2016 a surprise came my way and it already began with a much more decent and detailed cover sleeve.

The cover of Reclvse's "Evil Lurks" painted by Bvrzerk, (c) by Reclvse, used with kind permission

Summary

The EP starts with a short bell intro and the title track makes clear that the band has started to open up a new chapter with the release of this one. While the overall tonality remains true to the classic and oldschool doom formula the songs itself are kept in a much more faster way. In addition to that they are much more groove oriented and the song structures are set in a more precise and sharper way. You can jump into the sound straight from the start without knowing too much of the band beforehand.

"Evil Lurks" itself is only the beginning. The record pushes the mood of the listener further with each track until it explodes in the third number named "Inn Modern Times". Another surprise - the fastest number I wouldn't have expected ever from them. The last two tracks are live recordings. Both numbers help you to come down a bit again. They are held in the style of the first two songs of the EP. Check the title track if you want to find out quickly if this band fits to your musical taste.

Purchase-Link and Album-Stream

Overall this recording should be a fine discovery to all those people out there loving the old days of Black Sabbath. Riffs, simple groove and straight vocals are the essence of this recording. The recording is up for a "Pay what you want" price on Bandcamp. Please consider giving some bucks so the band can continue to provide you with more fine doom metal and let you enjoy liveshows that we all love and need so much.

Contact-Data

Make sure to keep the contact with this Doom band located in South Wales through their Facebook page offering a lot of nice bonus-content.

French version of Download Festival to be streamed live plus VOD

Yeah, Open Airs are going on to no end in the upcoming months and so do the livestreams. :-)

More Open Air stuff is going to be recorded and streamed by ARTE concert

Just got the news coming in that the french version of the traditional Download Festival is going to be streamed online via ARTE concert this year. You can watch it on the subpage of ARTE concert or directly here since the people behind the TV station have been so kind to let the people share the stream via their website/blogs.

And this is what you can expect to see (all times MEST):

Update 2016/06/11: the complete schedule for the livestream along with the recorded material has been released:

15:00 Lofofora
16:00 Avatar (Replay)
17:00 Children of Bodom
18:00 Beartooth (Replay)
19:00 Rival Sons
20:00 Apocalyptica (Replay)

Sunday 12th June 2016

15:00h  Lofofora
17:00h  Children of Bodom
19:00h  Rival Sons

More stuff from the other festival days including bands like APOCALYPTICA / AVATAR / BEARTOOTH will be available on the streaming page as videos on demand. That's also the place where you can find more information on the bands if you don't know them yet.

Rock Hard Festival 2016 to be streamed and recorded by Rockpalast.de

The open air festival of the paper magazine Rock Hard has become well known in germany and many other countries around the world. It's based at a small location at a historical theater in Gelsenkirchen and features mostly smaller bands. It's said that the bands don't play there to make some cash in but instead play for the fans and thank them this way.

Most of all the Rockpalast crew confirmed on Facebook that there will be a live stream this year. So far Turbonegro has been announced as a band that has agreed to have their show streamed online.

The Rock Hard Festival 2016 will be streamed and recorded by the legendary TV format Rockpalast

Info on the Festival-Livestream

But there's more to come - here is the timetable for

Friday the 13th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Year Of The Goat       16:00 - 16:40 h
Satan                          17:05 - 17:50 h 
Tankard                      18:15 - 19:15 h
Destruction                 19:45 - 21:00 h
Sodom                       21:30 - 23:00 h

Saturday the 14th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Grand Magus       15:35 - 16:20 h
The Exploited       16:45 - 17:45 h
Kadavar               18:15 - 19:15 h
Metal Church       19:45 - 21:00 h 
Turbonegro          21:30 - 23:00 h

Sunday the 15th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Orden Ogan                                15:15 - 16:00 h
Moonspell                                   16:30 - 17:30 h
Riot V                                         18:00 - 19:00 h
Best Of Rock Hard 2015            19:05 - 21:00 h
Blind Guardian                            21:15 - 23:00 h 

You can find the livestream at the homepage of the Rockpalast web presence.

I'll update the schedule on the upcoming days if things should change. You can also connect with Heavy Metal Underdogs via Facebook - I'll post updates on the streaming schedule there as well.

Update 2016/05/24: In case you missed out the livestream of the Rock Hard festival 2016 or want to watch some of the gigs again follow this link. The first batch of live recordings is online now thanks to the hard working people of the Rockpalast crew.

Update 2016/05/14: Rockpalast has uploaded some live footage as well as interview material and pictures of the Rock Hard Festival 2016 on their homepage.

For all those who can't make it to the festival or watch the stream the legendary german TV format Rockpalast will also make recordings of the performances and air them later via the TV station WDR.

 

Info on the TV broadcast

Here is the TV broadcast schedule for the recorded material (all times are MEST please keep that in mind).
There is a livestream of the TV station available from their homepage but I cannot say if you access it from outside of germany.

Update 2016/05/24: Updated the schedule once again. The show on 27th June 2016 is a completly new announcement.

Update 2016/05/20: Updated the TV broadcast with exact starting and ending times and added the bands that will be shown during the shows.

23. May 2016, 23.55 - 03.25 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
SODOM
KADAVAR
TANKARD
YEAR OF THE GOAT

30. May 2016, 00.05 - 03.35 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
TURBONEGRO
DESTRUCTION
THE EXPLOITED

6. June 2016, 00.45 - 04.15 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
BLIND GUARDIAN
RIOT V
MOONSPELL

27. June 2016, 02.15 - 04.15 h @ WDR Fernsehen
METAL CHURCH
SATAN
GRAND MAGUS
ORDEN OGAN

The following band list shows which other band will also play at the Rock Hard Open Air 2016:

BLIND GUARDIAN
TURBONEGRO
SODOM
CANNIBAL CORPSE
METAL CHURCH
DESTRUCTION („Mad Butcher“-Set!)
MOONSPELL
THE EXPLOITED
RIOT V
TANKARD
KADAVAR
GRAND MAGUS
SATAN
ORDEN OGAN
TRIBULATION
BLACK TRIP
NIGHTINGALE
YEAR OF THE GOAT
SULPHUR AEON
SORCERER
ACCU§ER
DISCREATION

More information on the festival itself can be found on official Rock Hard Festival Homepage.

Happy Halloween with free Freakangel Live DVD

Happy Halloween weekend everyone! Tomorrow night is the night of horror. :-) Have you prepared yourselves for trick or treat? I have done at least a little decoration for my flat. This shows the windlight mummy I've build with simple parts.

My self-build windlight mummy :-)

Here's how to build your own one: all you need is a old and clean sausage glass. Wrap it with a gauze bandage. You'll need to fix the beginning and the end of the badage with some tape. Don't overleap too much or the candle won't shine through enough. Finally take some black paper and make two black dots with a perforator. Cut out two round pieces out of white paper. Affix both on the bandage and put a lighted tea candle inside of the glass.

As for the real metal treat I've found this nice one for you:
It is the full concert DVD of Industrial-Metal artist Freakangel who have released their live DVD "The Show Of Violence" for free. It includes is a 45 minute live performance video that was filmed during Freakangel's "The Ones To Fall" tour in the winter of 2014 in their home town of Tallinn, Estonia. The full DVD-HD recording can be streamed for free via the bands website as well as Freakangel's YouTube Channel. Freakangel states "They have made the video available for free to thank their fans for the many years of support". The video can be found below.

"The Show Of Violence" is also be available as an eleven track live album. It has been released as a digital only album by the Belgium based label Alfa Matrix. It can be purchased HERE. Finally: have a good Halloween party!

Rock am Ring 2015 shows to be streamed online and later on demand / TV

Yeah, the festival season has opened up it's doors. Next to go is the famous "Rock am Ring" festival which will take place the coming weekend from Friday 5th June to Sunday 7th June 2015.

You can also be part of the show if you can't make it there (like me)! There will be a free and legal livestream available on the websites of SWR (german TV station), DasDing and on the sites of Ring Rocker. All the streams start daily at 18 pm (CEST, german time) and will run up to 3 am in the night.

The exact timetable and the list of the bands that will be streamed will be released in the upcoming days. So far it is confirmed that the gigs of the Foo Fighters, Slipknot, Beatsteaks, Broilers, Eagles of Death Metal, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Clueso,Bad Religion, Kraftklub, Slash, Interpol, Papa Roach and Yellowcard will be shown online.

I'll update this article as soon as I have info on that so please keep checking back from time to time. 

Update 2015/06/08: Is it all over now? Yeah, the festival is over. But streaming is not. :-) This week TV station EinsPlus is showing Best Of stuff from Rock am Ring 2015 starting today until coming Friday. Best of all: you can watch the stuff online at this location.

Update 2015/06/07: Here we go again. :-) This is day three and the final one of Rock am Ring 2015. Today we can look forward to some special shows I think. Let's hope the stream capacities and our internet connections will keep going strong. Always keep in mind that there's also a audio only stream out there. That one worked out fine for me yesterday. :-)

Livestream 1: EinsPlus	Livestream 2: SWR3	Livestream 3: DASDING
00:00 Slipknot
21:30 Foo Fighters	20:30 In Flames
19:15 Beatsteaks	20:00 Beatsteaks
18:55 Parkway Drive	18:55 Parkway Drive	19:15 Beatsteaks
18:35 Eagles of Death Metal / Godsmack	17:10 Papa Roach	16:30 Papa Roach
18:00 Papa Roach / Frank Turner	16:10 Frank Turner	16:10 Frank Turner
	15:25 Godsmack
	14:55 Eagles of Death Metal	14:55 Eagles of Death Metal

Update 2015/06/06: Here comes the timetable for today (Saturday). I still hope they will show the set from Slash as announced some days ago. Let's hope and see...

DASDING

21:50 KIZ

21:35 Prinz Pi

20:05 Kraftklub

18:45  Fritz Kalkbrenner (showing for the second time)

18:00 Bilderbuch

17:00 Interpol

SWR3

21:50 KIZ

21:35 Prinz Pi

20:05 Kraftklub

19:35  Fritz Kalkbrenner (showing for the second time))

18:25 t. b. a.

18:00 Bilderbuch

17:00 Interpol

EinsPlus

01:45 Marsimoto live

01:05 KIZ

23:35 Deichkind Live

22:50 Interpol

21:55 Prinz Pi

20:20 KraftKlub

19:35 Bilderbuch

18:25 t. b. a.

18:05 Feine Sahne Fischfilet

Update 2015/06/05: The timetable for friday has been released. The shows will be shown on three different webpages. Each site features one stream that will only broadcast a part of the festival. Here's the exact overview with direct links to all the three streaming sites, all times are CEST.

If you prefer to listen only to the shows then you might be happy to know that the Ringradio also streams the shows but they start airing off stuff not before 18h daily.

Livestream 1: EinsPlus	Livestream 2: SWR3	Livestream 3: DASDING
01:35 Uhr Fritz Kalkbrenner
01:00 Uhr Concert-Highlights
00:40 Uhr Bad Religion
23:45 Uhr Mighty Oaks
23:10 Uhr Concert-Highlights
21:55 Uhr Clueso	21:55 Uhr Clueso	21:55 Uhr Clueso
21:30 Uhr Yellowcard	20:25 Uhr Tocotronic
20:25 Uhr Tocotronic	18:20 Uhr Broilers
19:20 Uhr Donots	15:50 Uhr Bad Religion	13:45 Uhr Donots
18:20 Uhr Broilers	14:50 Uhr Yellowcard
18:05 Uhr TÜSN

For all those living in germany it should be mentioned that the show of Die Toten Hosen will be aired exclusively through the TV station Das Erste. From 8th to 14th June special broadcasts of the format "BEATZZ in concert" will daily show off stuff of the festival starting each day at midnight.

Prior to the Rock am Ring fest a radio stream will update people in germany and nearby of the things going on in the festivak location Mendig. For all those who don't live there: you can listen to it through the apps for amartphones. Pick your copy for the iOS or get the version for the Android smartphone system.
A webbased version of this so called Ringradio can be found on the website of SWR3.

After the festival you'll find some stuff of the festival online from 8th June to 12th June 2015 on the websites of SWR and DasDing.

Most of all: have fun through the festival days and enjoy summer!

Motörhead 2014 show to be broadcasted by Rockpalast TV show

This sunday in the night from 14. to monday the 15th starting at 00:15h (Central European Winter Time) the next issue of the Rockpalast TV show will air a live recording from this years Motörhead performance at Düsseldorf, Germany at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle. The show took place on 12th November 2014. The shows of both opening acts, Skew Siskin and The Damned will be shown as well.

At the moment you can already check out one full live video from "The chase is better than the catch" at the website of the show. The whole website has been reworked in the last weeks so it comes with a fresh optic these days.

There's also a webstream of the TV station available but I can't tell if the show will be available there as well or if they have a regionlock activated. Anyway, just try your luck I think it will be worth checking out. Maybe they'll also add the show to their archive later. If they do, I'll add the proper link here once it's online.

Update 2014/12/16: Alls shows have been added to the video streaming archive. Just click on the proper band name and enjoy! BTW: you can see the full setlist under the video and also select single songs if you don't want to watch the whole show.

Motörhead

The Damned

Skew Siskin

In Flames concert Cologne 2014 to be aired by TV show Rockpalast

Update 2014/11/25: All the broadcasted stuff has been added the online archive of the Rockpalast homepage! So here's your chance to check the stuff out in case you missed it:

In Flames
While She Sleeps
Wovenwar
Papa Roach


The german TV music format "Rockpalast" is a legendary show. Since nearly 40 years the format has become famous for recording live shows from all of the well known artists, amongst them The Who, David Bowie, ZZ Top and many, many more plus a lot of young and unknown bands.
Check out their massive Video archive to see a list of the bands and have a look at some of the material, they stream all of the offered stuff for free!

On 31st of October 2014 the shows of In Flames, While she sleeps, Wovenwar and Papa Roach were recorded by the Rockpalast team at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany. At the moment you can already take a look at some of the stuff at the Rockpalast homepage (interviews with bandmembers as well as single songs of the show).

In the night from 23. November to 24. November 2014 the full concert will be aired at the german TV station WDR starting at midnight. There's also a webstream of the TV station available but I can't tell if the show will be available there as well or if they have a regionlock activated. Anyway, just try your luck I think it will be worth checking out. Maybe they'll also add the show to their archive later.

Rewind to Wacken 2013 and 2012 with german TV station zdf kultur

It has just been announced that Wacken Open Air 2014 will be broadcasted by the german TV station 3Sat live. Great news!

For all those of you who would like to re-live some of the (hopefully) sweet memories of the both past events I've got great news as well:

German TV station zdf.kultur will broadcast stuff from Wacken Open Air 2013 and 2012 on the upcoming Saturday night 19th to 20th of April 2014.

For exact timetable and bands see the notices below, all times are german time. Maybe these stuff can also be seen through the webstream of the TV station at the online-webstream of the station but I don't have proper information if there is a region-lock active so go and just try your luck.

Update 2014/04/20: Missed it out? The TV station still streams all the shows on demand for free. Same here with region-lock so just click on the artist name to see if it works outside germany,too. Bandnames without a link seem to have given no permission for streaming.

Besides that there are many more goodies to find there,too. Just click on this search-string to show off what there is, for example interviews but also the big cut-together shows seem to be still up for viewing. Keep in mind that this might only last for a limited time, so better hurry.

20:15 Wacken 2013: Alice Cooper und Motörhead
21:15 Wacken 2013: Deep Purple
22:15 Wacken 2013: ASP
23:15 Wacken 2013: Lingua Mortis Orchestra Featuring Rage
00:10 Wacken 2012: Dimmu Borgir & Orchestra und Cradle of Filth
01:10 Wacken 2012: Sepultura & Les Tambours du Bronx
02:05 Wacken 2012: In Flames
03:05 Wacken 2012: Testament
04:05 Wacken 2013: Anthrax

End the year with a day full of music

German TV station 3sat is broadcasting on 12/31/11 live show recordings of several artists for 24 hours 'til New Years eve! Include are shows from Ac/Dc,Bryan Adams,U2,Herbert Grönemeyer,Freddie Mercury tribute show,Linkin Park and many,many more. Go to their website for all details including broadcast times (german time).

http://www.3sat.de/programm/?viewlong=viewlong&d=20111231&dayID=ClnDaN31&cx=59 g