The beauty and variety made Finnish underground scene one of the best European scenes. Ode in Black are part of that scene. After releasing their first ep in 2014.they toured a lot before they embarked upon a mission to release their debut album
2018.saw the coming of “Seeds of Chaos” and it consists of eleven tracks of melodic gothic metal/dark rock not unlike the early releases of their countrymen To/Die/For. The guitar structures and riffs are sharp enough to be metal, but all is packed in very dancable gothic rythms, and I can imagine their songs being played in some dark, smokey gothic club and bunch of goths dancing to these tunes. I loved the interaction between male and female vocals in “The sea in which we drown”. The album as a whole is very upbeat and melodic, but what I love about all Finnish bands, whether black metal, gothic, metal or death metal is a sense of quiet despair and melancholy that revolves as silent mist through the songs on their albums. Ode in Black is no exception to that rule. They just took the dark humour and metal of Sentenced and gothic sensibility of To/Die/For and 69 Eyes and packed it in one excellent package! Top songs: “The lone wolf”, “Burn the candle from both ends”.
Genus Ordinis Dei come from Italy, the city of Crema. I must admit I have never heard of this band prior to this record, but I am really glad that I have heard them now, because this is excellent stuff.
They play some sort of modern melodic symphonic death metal with a touch of progressiveness in the song structures. If I must compare the music of this band to someone it would be like Edge of Sanity circa “Purgatory Afterglow” era met Ex Deo. I am talking symphonic parts with choruses, some nice keyboard haunting backgrounds evolving to main melody, catchy guitar hooks and memorable song melodies. Thats how I like my death metal to sound:epic, bombastic, grandiose and aggressive at the same time. Vocals are various and that makes them more enjoyable meaning there are growls, angry almost hardcore like shouting and melodic clean singing. Certainly one of the highlights of the album is for sure “Salem” with guest vocals provided by none other than Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil but this is not the best song on the album, because they are all equally awesome.
VersOver has been on the scene for more than 20 years now being formed in 1997. This Brasilian band released their new record and I reviewed it for this zine.
The new album contains 12 tracks of modern and melodic power metal. The production and the sound of the band is awesome. There are a lot of progressive metal influences in the song structures, and these guys really know how to handle their instruments. I loved the anthemic chorus of “Howl in Pain” and progressive music landscape of “Human Condition”. In their promosheet the guys say that they have been influenced with wide range of bands from Megadeth to Rush and it is true. The wide spectrum of influences only made the music more positive. Their music is somehow the amalgamation, the sum of their influences, but leaving a healthy dose of originality. Awesome album!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 