Circenses from Finland started as one man band project by mastermind Severi Osala in 2016. The band is hailing from Seinäjoki, Ostrobothnia. This is the album released on Inverse Records and I listened and reviewed it for this webzine.
The album contains 9 songs of melodic death metal combined with some prog elements. The whole thing sounds to me like more aggressive version of Edge of Sanity and I love this album because of that. I think that metal flows in people´s veins when they are born in Finland and this is no exception. I loved the melodies combined with blastbeats and keyboard background in “Lunacy” or tender and prog death metal parts in the title song. The vocals are harsh but understandable so this is one more plus for this album. As always, I am fascinated by the feeling of melancholy that Finnish bands create when doing their music and how their art sounds sad but also really majestic in my heart when I listen to it. This is great record, so go get it!
Second To Sun are hailing from St Petersburg, another mighty band from the awesome Russian underground scene. This album is in fact re-release of their previous album, which was instrumental only, but this time the guys recorded the vocals and I had a privilege to listen and review it for this webzine.
This record contains 10 songs of melodic post black metal with some groove metal influences and in whole it sounds really dark and dismal. The production on the record is awesome and sounds really mighty and takes you to some dark places whether you want to go there or not. Although the bio of the band says that they are like purveyors of groove post black metal, you scene purists don´t give up on this record because this is black metal pure with bleak and great atmosphere of despair, anger and depression. I loved “Region 13” being for me the best song on this record but I also loved “The Fool” and its rolling rythms complexity and some eerie background sounds making it sound awesome. All the other songs are also excellent, so check out this record you won´t regret it, cause it is a fine piece of Slavic metal.
Russia is a huge country with huge and awesome proactive underground scene. Coming from Moscow, this time REMARK is here for me to listen and review for this zine.
This e.p. contains four songs, two of them being the band´s own songs, and two covers being “Shout” originally by Tears for Fears, and other “Too close” by Alex Clare. The first song “Comeback” was not something I liked very much because I never loved grunge when it was big in the 90-ies and this song sounds just too grungy for me, like Stone Temple Pilots or bad version of Alice in Chains. The second song “Purple Haze” was also grungy but not too much and has a nice melody making it enjoyable and the best song on this record. Tears for Fears cover was okay, predictable, nothing special but okay. The other cover I have never heard originally, so I can˙t judge but I guess it was also okay. Too grungy for me, but maybe fans of such music will love it!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 