DEMONSPELLS SONGS TO WATCH
UNDERCOVER EDITION
Written August 1-2, 2002
Greetings, devoted readers! Unfortunately, because of the high costs of maintaining Ultimate Metals server and the need to preserve bandwidth, the forum jump has been disabled, and the areas of this page besides the forum network are not immediately accessible. Therefore, I will only be doing brief descriptions this week.
Amaran Rusty Warhorse, Karma In Flesh: Excellent female-fronted metal band with a harder edge than most in this subgenre, and these songs are very well written. Great chorus on the former. Some samples available at www.mp3.com
Amon Amarth Friends Of The Suncross, As Long As The Raven Flies: Viking metal band highly regarded by fans of the genre, known for their crushing (no pun intended) riffs and battle anthems. Highly underrated drummer Martin Lopez played in this band before joining Opeth.
Arabesque Inner Voice, Afraid To Fly: Dutch band who was inactive for a long period after an instrumental album Beyond The Veil (released before the Tristania album of the same name), who have returned with the excellent technical metal of The Union, featuring two female vocalists. Former track available on official site, latter is being championed by the Lasers Edge as a future prog anthem.
Armageddon The Contract, Rainbow Serpent: In between Arch Enemy albums, Chris Amott produced the excellent, although far too brief, Embrace The Mystery last year. Clearly a workaholic, he found the time to record another Armageddon album, simply entitled Three, in between AEs touring schedule. Former track is a slower composition featuring a superb solo, while the latter has a very 80s feel to it (with dungeons and dragons lyrics to match), but his talents still come through.
Beyond The Embrace Mourning In Magenta, The Bending Sea: An American entry in the crowded melodic death field. Some hints of doom in these tracks. The band has also recorded yet another version of the now covered-to-death classic The Trooper.
Brave Bleed Into Me, Escape: Searching For The Sun is yet another fine Dark Symphonies release. Both of these songs are intensely melodic (enough to make me ignore the formers near-pop sensibility) and feature great vocals from Michelle Loose.
Chris Brooks The Master Plan, Blue Sky Odyssey: Solo guitarist who has received comparisons to master instrumentalists like Satriani and Vai with his debut, which in similar fashion features some moments of shred but also explorations into more balanced territory.
Citizen Cain Serpents In Camouflage, Junk And Donuts: Progressive rock band (love the name) with an undeniably Genesis-influenced sound. Great keyboards on both tracks, and the band manages to carry more weight than most derivative neo-prog acts.
Dimension Strategy, Sailor: Progressive metal from the unlikely locale of Mexico, with immediate influence from Dream Theater. Former nine-minute track contains a lengthy instrumental section, while the latter features some deft time changes.
Divided Multitude Stigmatize, Falling To Pieces: Progressive metal act whose first album was released on the Sensory label, latter has been picked up by CM for American distribution. Both songs contain some great instrumental work, the latter featuring a bombastic intro best described by Progressive Worlds Stephanie Sollow as Watcher Of The Skies on steroids.
Elsesphere Mastermind, Seasons In Hell: Their Blind Leading The Blind is another in a string of promising prog metal newcomers introduced to me by the good folks at Seismic Radio. Former track is a keyboard-driven offering, while the latter features a sinister bassline running through it.
Enchant Monday, Seeds Of Hate: Blink Of An Eye is another great release for this highly consistent band unfortunately the US release has been delayed while Inside Out reorganizes. Doug Otts sensitive guitar playing is all over the former track, while the latter, appropriate for its title, has a darker feel to it, and contains a few raging solos from guest Phil Bennett.
Explorers Club Vertebrates, Gigantopithicus: Second offering from the highly pretentious Trent Gardner and his Magna Carta buddies, as on the first members of Dream Theater show up. Both tracks are unnecessarily long, but John Myung does some nice work here, and the latter instrumental is a guilty pleasure. Also notable as Marty Friedmans first appearance on a rock-oriented album since leaving Megadeth.
Fleurety Face In A Fever, Barbwire Smile: Avant garde project who has released an album with the grandiose title Department Of Apocalyptic Affairs. Both of these songs sound like doom of the more cosmic variety
In Flames Drifter, Cloud Connected: Is melodic death headed for the mainstream? Soilwork apparently is hoping so. Perhaps next months release of Reroute To Remain, which has received mixed advance press, will prove for sure. Former track features a typically propulsive lead riff and could have been on Colony. The same cannot be said of the latter, with its heavy synth presence and predominantly clean vocals it is a departure for IF, but I like it anyway.
Manilla Road The Veils Of Negative Existence, Flaming Metal System: OK, Im not a fan of these guys, although the former has its moments and the latter features some fret-pounding solos, but how can I resist mentioning perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious song titles of all time? J
Maudlin Of The Well Untitled Secret Song, A Conception Pathetic: Bostons most brilliant oddballs now have a forum on this site. Latter track is one of the highlights of their debut A Seed Combustible, featuring some eerie passages. The former track, exclusive to www.mp3.com, explains and unifies the concept of last years two simultaneous albums, according to the bands description.
Mindworm Trolley, Pentatonic Lightning: Unsigned progressive rock act from the Atlanta area (I think, if so I envy them damn, Progpower sold out in six days! More power to Glenn.) Former track has some nice time changes, while the latter is an instrumental with some great interplay.
Mostly Autumn Heroes Never Die, Goodbye Alone: British progressive rock act who has released four albums, the most recent of which is a concept album based on Lord Of The Rings. Both songs contain some elegant guitar work, particularly on the former track, written by leader Bryan Josh after his father passed on, also the title of a compilation of the bands work.
Porcupine Tree Blackest Eyes, Chloroform: As you all probably know, Steven Wilson is a huge Opeth fan, having contributed to the unforgettable clean vocal section in Bleak and piano on The Leper Affinity. Well, the experience has rubbed off on his own band, as the former from the upcoming In Memoriam features a very Opethian riff alternating with sections more typical of the bands melancholic prog. Latter track is an excellent Internet-only track being offered in a unique promotion, see www.progradio.net for more details.
Psychotic Waltz Halo Of Thorns, Strange: Ahead of their time technical metal act from san Diego, now defunct after having released four albums. Former track from a Social Grace contains some great acoustic work, while the latter displays the bands considerable talents. Vocalist Buddy Lackey, nee Devon Graves, has since resurfaced in Dead Soul Tribe.
Ram-Zet The Seeker, R.I.P.: Avant garde act on Century Media, both tracks are long excursions into progressive doom metal (best description I can think of), with some haunting keyboard work and female vocals. One of the bands that CM tends to ignore while promoting its better known (read: semi-mainstream) acts.
RPWL Sugar For The Ape, In Your Dreams: German progressive rock act who as received frequent Pink Floyd comparisons, and their music does recall the more song-oriented side of PF, especially the guitar work. Former track from Trying To Kiss The Sun (the peacenick version of Ark?) has some quirky sections, while the latter contains a memorable lead melody.
Sun Caged Sedation, Secrets Of Flight: Dutch band featuring former members of Lemur Voice and Within Temptation, who are still in the process of negotiating a record deal. In the meantime, the band has offered early versions of these songs, which are excellent progressive metal featuring some great guitar work from Marcel Coenen. Different singer than on the Dominion ep.
Twisted Tower Dire Sign Of The Storm, Daggers Blade: American entry in the power metal arena, the band has received some praise from fans of the genre, including a few Maiden comparisons. After having spent the past two years moving away from PM, these songs dont grab me by the throat, but do contain some welcome aggression and some highly competent guitar work.
Wuthering Heights Dancer In The Light, The Nevershining Stones: Danish power/prog metal band whose upcoming release To Travel For Evermore (four words or three?) will be released on the Sensory label. Dont care for the vocalist, but the songs do contain some accomplished and symphonic instrumental work. Latter song (four words or three?) available at www.lasercd.com
Thus ends this chapter next issue will contain a Progpower analysis, of both the US and Europe festivals.
UNDERCOVER EDITION
Written August 1-2, 2002
Greetings, devoted readers! Unfortunately, because of the high costs of maintaining Ultimate Metals server and the need to preserve bandwidth, the forum jump has been disabled, and the areas of this page besides the forum network are not immediately accessible. Therefore, I will only be doing brief descriptions this week.
Amaran Rusty Warhorse, Karma In Flesh: Excellent female-fronted metal band with a harder edge than most in this subgenre, and these songs are very well written. Great chorus on the former. Some samples available at www.mp3.com
Amon Amarth Friends Of The Suncross, As Long As The Raven Flies: Viking metal band highly regarded by fans of the genre, known for their crushing (no pun intended) riffs and battle anthems. Highly underrated drummer Martin Lopez played in this band before joining Opeth.
Arabesque Inner Voice, Afraid To Fly: Dutch band who was inactive for a long period after an instrumental album Beyond The Veil (released before the Tristania album of the same name), who have returned with the excellent technical metal of The Union, featuring two female vocalists. Former track available on official site, latter is being championed by the Lasers Edge as a future prog anthem.
Armageddon The Contract, Rainbow Serpent: In between Arch Enemy albums, Chris Amott produced the excellent, although far too brief, Embrace The Mystery last year. Clearly a workaholic, he found the time to record another Armageddon album, simply entitled Three, in between AEs touring schedule. Former track is a slower composition featuring a superb solo, while the latter has a very 80s feel to it (with dungeons and dragons lyrics to match), but his talents still come through.
Beyond The Embrace Mourning In Magenta, The Bending Sea: An American entry in the crowded melodic death field. Some hints of doom in these tracks. The band has also recorded yet another version of the now covered-to-death classic The Trooper.
Brave Bleed Into Me, Escape: Searching For The Sun is yet another fine Dark Symphonies release. Both of these songs are intensely melodic (enough to make me ignore the formers near-pop sensibility) and feature great vocals from Michelle Loose.
Chris Brooks The Master Plan, Blue Sky Odyssey: Solo guitarist who has received comparisons to master instrumentalists like Satriani and Vai with his debut, which in similar fashion features some moments of shred but also explorations into more balanced territory.
Citizen Cain Serpents In Camouflage, Junk And Donuts: Progressive rock band (love the name) with an undeniably Genesis-influenced sound. Great keyboards on both tracks, and the band manages to carry more weight than most derivative neo-prog acts.
Dimension Strategy, Sailor: Progressive metal from the unlikely locale of Mexico, with immediate influence from Dream Theater. Former nine-minute track contains a lengthy instrumental section, while the latter features some deft time changes.
Divided Multitude Stigmatize, Falling To Pieces: Progressive metal act whose first album was released on the Sensory label, latter has been picked up by CM for American distribution. Both songs contain some great instrumental work, the latter featuring a bombastic intro best described by Progressive Worlds Stephanie Sollow as Watcher Of The Skies on steroids.
Elsesphere Mastermind, Seasons In Hell: Their Blind Leading The Blind is another in a string of promising prog metal newcomers introduced to me by the good folks at Seismic Radio. Former track is a keyboard-driven offering, while the latter features a sinister bassline running through it.
Enchant Monday, Seeds Of Hate: Blink Of An Eye is another great release for this highly consistent band unfortunately the US release has been delayed while Inside Out reorganizes. Doug Otts sensitive guitar playing is all over the former track, while the latter, appropriate for its title, has a darker feel to it, and contains a few raging solos from guest Phil Bennett.
Explorers Club Vertebrates, Gigantopithicus: Second offering from the highly pretentious Trent Gardner and his Magna Carta buddies, as on the first members of Dream Theater show up. Both tracks are unnecessarily long, but John Myung does some nice work here, and the latter instrumental is a guilty pleasure. Also notable as Marty Friedmans first appearance on a rock-oriented album since leaving Megadeth.
Fleurety Face In A Fever, Barbwire Smile: Avant garde project who has released an album with the grandiose title Department Of Apocalyptic Affairs. Both of these songs sound like doom of the more cosmic variety
In Flames Drifter, Cloud Connected: Is melodic death headed for the mainstream? Soilwork apparently is hoping so. Perhaps next months release of Reroute To Remain, which has received mixed advance press, will prove for sure. Former track features a typically propulsive lead riff and could have been on Colony. The same cannot be said of the latter, with its heavy synth presence and predominantly clean vocals it is a departure for IF, but I like it anyway.
Manilla Road The Veils Of Negative Existence, Flaming Metal System: OK, Im not a fan of these guys, although the former has its moments and the latter features some fret-pounding solos, but how can I resist mentioning perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious song titles of all time? J
Maudlin Of The Well Untitled Secret Song, A Conception Pathetic: Bostons most brilliant oddballs now have a forum on this site. Latter track is one of the highlights of their debut A Seed Combustible, featuring some eerie passages. The former track, exclusive to www.mp3.com, explains and unifies the concept of last years two simultaneous albums, according to the bands description.
Mindworm Trolley, Pentatonic Lightning: Unsigned progressive rock act from the Atlanta area (I think, if so I envy them damn, Progpower sold out in six days! More power to Glenn.) Former track has some nice time changes, while the latter is an instrumental with some great interplay.
Mostly Autumn Heroes Never Die, Goodbye Alone: British progressive rock act who has released four albums, the most recent of which is a concept album based on Lord Of The Rings. Both songs contain some elegant guitar work, particularly on the former track, written by leader Bryan Josh after his father passed on, also the title of a compilation of the bands work.
Porcupine Tree Blackest Eyes, Chloroform: As you all probably know, Steven Wilson is a huge Opeth fan, having contributed to the unforgettable clean vocal section in Bleak and piano on The Leper Affinity. Well, the experience has rubbed off on his own band, as the former from the upcoming In Memoriam features a very Opethian riff alternating with sections more typical of the bands melancholic prog. Latter track is an excellent Internet-only track being offered in a unique promotion, see www.progradio.net for more details.
Psychotic Waltz Halo Of Thorns, Strange: Ahead of their time technical metal act from san Diego, now defunct after having released four albums. Former track from a Social Grace contains some great acoustic work, while the latter displays the bands considerable talents. Vocalist Buddy Lackey, nee Devon Graves, has since resurfaced in Dead Soul Tribe.
Ram-Zet The Seeker, R.I.P.: Avant garde act on Century Media, both tracks are long excursions into progressive doom metal (best description I can think of), with some haunting keyboard work and female vocals. One of the bands that CM tends to ignore while promoting its better known (read: semi-mainstream) acts.
RPWL Sugar For The Ape, In Your Dreams: German progressive rock act who as received frequent Pink Floyd comparisons, and their music does recall the more song-oriented side of PF, especially the guitar work. Former track from Trying To Kiss The Sun (the peacenick version of Ark?) has some quirky sections, while the latter contains a memorable lead melody.
Sun Caged Sedation, Secrets Of Flight: Dutch band featuring former members of Lemur Voice and Within Temptation, who are still in the process of negotiating a record deal. In the meantime, the band has offered early versions of these songs, which are excellent progressive metal featuring some great guitar work from Marcel Coenen. Different singer than on the Dominion ep.
Twisted Tower Dire Sign Of The Storm, Daggers Blade: American entry in the power metal arena, the band has received some praise from fans of the genre, including a few Maiden comparisons. After having spent the past two years moving away from PM, these songs dont grab me by the throat, but do contain some welcome aggression and some highly competent guitar work.
Wuthering Heights Dancer In The Light, The Nevershining Stones: Danish power/prog metal band whose upcoming release To Travel For Evermore (four words or three?) will be released on the Sensory label. Dont care for the vocalist, but the songs do contain some accomplished and symphonic instrumental work. Latter song (four words or three?) available at www.lasercd.com
Thus ends this chapter next issue will contain a Progpower analysis, of both the US and Europe festivals.
