NaMinimumu from Zadar, Croatia is by no means stranger to the pages of this webzine. I reviewed their release back in the day. NaMinimumu is a one man band from Zadar, Croatia and plays rock, punk and metal, with lots of melody and energy. This is is the second album in English language and it contains seven songs. It is a concept album with themes of transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and cosmic evolution. It tells about a story of a future where humans can upload their minds to digital platforms, achieve immortality, and interact with cyborgs and robots. However, this utopian vision is not without its dangers, as some of these entities may have sinister motives and pose a threat to the natural order. Musically, this album is very catchy, with lots of guitar melodies, yet not missing harshness, some delving into doom metal sector like for example ‘Life to Eternity’. Production wise album is superb. Vocals are melodic yet harsh at times when they need to be harsh, with catchy choruses with melodies bordering on anthemic. I love this album and songs like ‘Cyborgs’, and ‘Children of the Stars’ being my favorites with above mentioned ‘Life to Eternity’, also ‘Upload Your Mind’. Go get this one because it is a good piece of music.
This is a split release of mighty two bands, five songs each delivered to this record. American Sathanas deliver five songs of raw mixture of black and thrash metal with black metal vocals which are a mix of growling and screaming, but you can understand most of what is being sung so that is another plus for the band. I like melodies and some catchy hooks guitars provide and there are some slower songs on this one like pumping ‘Defiled’, songs like ‘Hail Lucifer’ or ‘Jaws of Satan’ are to become your favorites. I can also hear a bit of Venom in Sathanas’ song structures, which is great.
DeathEpoch are hailing from Poland and this band delivers five songs on this record. This band creates dark and almost touchable thick atmosphere with their vision of black/death metal, but they also create eerie sounds with keyboard, samples and electronic which fits perfectly to the song structures like for example in awesome ‘B.D.’ All songs by DeathEpoch on this release are somehow made of initials like for example ‘D.W.’ (personal favorite) or ‘G.O.M.’. Vocals are very deep and very brutal like in death metal rather than black metal. Guitars create some epic melodies and blast beats create brutality with elements of war metal thrown in for good measure.
This is an excellent split release by two underground bands, but I somehow prefer Sathanas side of record more, but that is a matter of personal taste.
Great Master are hailing from Italy, and have been active since 1993 but I must admit I have never heard of them until this album. This is band’s sixth album and it is a concept album about story written by Alexandre Dumas, ‘Count of Montecristo’ and the music is epic and nice, ultra melodic power metal with some symphonic and prog metal touches thrown in for good measure. Atmosphere is different on this album’s 13 songs depending the part of the story where we are currently and what part of the story are we listening. Keyboards and flute only add to already great songwriting thus creating epic verse melodies, choruses full of harmony and some songs just made for pumping your fist in the air and singing along to at gigs, which I am sure are fantastic judging by listening to this album where every detail of the album fits just perfectly into its place with superb vocals, backing vocal harmonies which are important for music such as this. If you are not familiar with the story, go check out this classic novel, it would be my recommendation for you. If I must choose some songs as a highlight for this album it would be ‘Where The Shame Lives’, ‘My Name’ and ‘Final Revenge’. If you love your power metal ultra melodic, concept based and above all with great songwriting check out this album.
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