Adrian Smith is known to all metal audiences as guitar player for Iron Maiden, one of the biggest and greatest most legendary metal bands on this planet. But, little is known about Adrian’s second love besides music, that being angling, or fishing if you want. This book speaks about both of Adrian’s love with emphasize being more heavy on fishing and it is beautifully written and interesting, even to me who is not angler but the stories about Adrian’s fishing adventures I read with most avid interest. What is more interesting those stories about fishing adventures are interplayed with Iron Maiden’s tours and anecdotes and short stories from those tours seen through Adrian’s eyes and thoughts thus seeing the other side of only concerts, being weary travelling, some perils, food poisonings, getting to know other fellow musicians, intentionally or per pure chance. This makes this book an interesting read. I bought my book in Rockmark bookstore in Zagreb, if you are interested try to find it there.
ALL LIFE ENDS are hailing from Switzerland and this is their second opus. There are nine songs on this album. The band was founded in 2006 and they play death metal. They released two EP-s and this is their second full length opus. Although they play death metal there are also couple of metalcore and thrash metal influences in their song structures. Considering death metal, ALL LIFE ENDS lean more heavily into American school of death metal, with blistering fast blast beats, thundering fast guitar solos, which contain occasional hooks and catchy melodic short parts, also some atmospheric parts are in the songs, almost progressive death metal, along with moshing grooves like in ‘The Dreamless Void’, the longest song on this record, but in no way boring for a second. Production is brutal and grandiose, courtesy of Dan Swanö at Unisound AB Studio. Vocals are brutal and more guttural, but you can understand what is being sung about in many parts, so that is another plus for me considering this band. This album was written during covid shit lockdowns and pandemics, so one of my personal favorites on this record is ‘Pandemonic’, also song I must mention is ‘Extinction Hours’. This is quality death metal with couple of thrash and metalcore parts thrown in, so enjoy it as I did.
Wings Of Steel are hailing from Los Angeles area and they were formed in 2019 by vocalist Leo Unnermark and guitarist Parker Halub. They released their debut EP in 2022. This time, their debut full length opus is upon us. This one contains ten songs of melodic heavy metal with lots of American school of hard rock influenced songwriting. Unnemark’s voice reminds me a lot of eighties metal, first and foremost of Helloween’s Michael Kiske’s voice in many song parts. Eighties styled metal, hard n heavy prevails in guitar work with sense of dramatic and melodic, yet at times almost heroic styled metal and heaviness. Lyrics deal with mixture of reality and fantasy metal themes, like ‘Liar in Love’ or heavy hitters that made highlight of this record for me being songs like ‘Cry of the Damned’, ‘Lady of the Lost’ and ‘Gates of Twilight’. This album brought me back when I used to enjoy warm and hot city streets on a Summer night with my crew drinking and cruising around our hometown like there is no tomorrow. Total nostalgia trip, but done for new millenia. If you are into melodic heavy metal with hard rock influences like it was done old school, check this one out! Strong debut opus!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 