Deviser are Greek black metal band with roots going back to 1989. That means over three decades of metal and much respect for keeping the black flame alive all these decades. This is their new opus containing ten songs and it is their fifth full length in all, first one in last twelve years. I am always fascinated how Greek black metal scene sounded and still sounds different than their northern Europe mates, being more melodic and warmer so to say than the rest, yet still retaining the melancholy mixed with aggression not necessary delivering speed blast beats but quite the contrary through mid tempo songs, like Deviser has, choir parts, clever mixture of guitar aggression and melodies, synth backgrounds adding to the atmosphere and drama with occasional excursion into some faster parts of the black metal songwriting. This band sounds like Greek bm sound of the nineties with Rotting Christ and Necromantia immediately coming to mind, but it is not a copy or a clone, quite the contrary this aforementioned bands contemporary so it is nice to hear this music played that way so many years later. My personal favorites are ‘Absence of Heaven’, ‘Where Angels Fear to Thread’ featuring guest performance by Heljarmadr of Dark Funeral/Gra fame, also ‘When the Lights Went Out’ featuring guest performance of Efthimis Karadimas of Nightfall fame. Great melodic black metal album.
It is finally here! Gothenburg, Sweden’s melodic death metal legends In Flames released new full length opus with Nuclear Blast! After listening to the EP that went with Metal Hammer a week ago we got a taste of what is to come, but only a taste, now here is the full meal. Here are twelve songs of melodic death metal that take In Flames to their old school era leaning more on death metal than on influences they had in their songwriting as decades moved with them. There are still some electronic effects behind the riffs, some excursions into some more melodic and mellow waters but I love how Anders’ voice transforms between growling and clean melodic singing on epic choruses, sounding better than ever! Besides hits that were already on that EP like awesome ‘State Of Slow Decay’ and ‘Foregone Pt I’ and ‘Foregone Pt II’, there is also superb ‘Bleeding Out’, a perfect combo between harsh death metal and epic melodies. But, one of my personal highlights is for sure almost ballad like ‘Pure Light Of Mind’ having such gentle and beautiful lyrics topped with Anders’ vocal melodies and having almost pop influenced undertones beneath metal, me having Roxette in mind for a few seconds hehe. ‘In The Dark’ and ‘Become One’ are also songs to add as highlights. This is for sure to become one of the candidates for album of the year, it is an album of the month for sure.
Delain from Holland were formed by keyboardist and mastermind Martijn Westerholt and this is their seventh full length opus. What is new in Delain, all the members except Martijn quit the band couple of years ago and it became a solo project again, but here is the new line-up, hence the new opus and it is mighty good. This one contains eleven songs, one being a piano version of one of for me best songs on this opus called ‘The Quest and the Curse’. For those who don’t know, Delain play symphonic gothic metal, bombastic sympho passages interplay with great guitar melodies topped with dramatics and beautiful voice of new singer Diana Leah. What I must also mention that this opus includes guest performances by Paolo Ribaldini and ex Nightwish bassist/vocalist Marko Hietala especially in song ‘Invictus’ which is also one of my personal favorites on this album. Some bands playing this kind of metal tend to lose their edge and become too soft, Delain on this album kept their metal edge especially in ‘Tainted Hearts’, melodic gothic metal mixed with fine dose of metal marching guitars. Songs that I must also mention as being superb are ‘Moth to a Flame’ and ‘Queen of Shadow’. This is a great sympho gothic metal album by legends of the genre.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 