ANGUANA is another band from the mighty Italian underground scene. This is their new EP containing 6 songs, two of them being atmospheric instrumentals which serve as kind of intermezzo between the songs. Anguana play mixture of raw old school black metal, melodic atmospheric black with touch of folk influences which can be heard in the song structures, like in the title song for example, which starts with folk metal guitar work, evolving into fast, aggressive, yet melancholic melodic black metal song, like Italian bands do. I love the use of choir clean vocals, reminding me of Bathory behind the black metal vocals which at times reminded me of Satyr from Satyricon with similarity of voice. Lyrics are in Italian and local dialect and deal with witchery, folk tales and tradition, this band being from Venetian region, meaning north of Italy. The usage of synth is sounding more dungeon synth and fits perfectly to the whole atmosphere of this opus, making it even more versatile and interesting for listening. This is good band and I am looking forward to the full length one day.
LANAYAH are based in Southern California and they are releasing their third opus with this one. This is a concept album and it was first imagined as one song album of fourty minutes, but was later cut into eight pieces which complement and fit one into another perfectly. Now, the music of LANAYAH is not easy to describe. It is a bit experimental. I will try to describe it as mixture of doomgaze, post rock, post metal and some post black metal influences thrown in the song structures. I can also hear some sludge over and undertones making this music musty, heavy and hard to process if you are not into such kind of music. But, when you listen to the album carefully as a whole you will get the bigger picture and come to grasp what the band tried to create with their wall of sound, tortured vocals, noisy riffs, thundering bass distortion and some electronics thrown in for good measure. My personal favorites are heavy hitters like ‘Staring Blankly’, ‘Knife Mirror’ and epic ‘Carrying Fire’ which is longest song of the record but it was an interesting listening for me. If you are into something different, you will love what Lanayah does.
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.
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