Tag Archives: Germany

(review) Dead United – Fiend Nö​.​1

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Long time no great horror punk on the pages of this zine. Dead United are hailing from Wurzburg in Germany and this is their new opus. As you probably guessed it, they play horror punk and there are 12 songs on this record. Germany has superb horror punk scene with The Other, The Crimson Ghosts, Mutant Reavers, Jamey Rottencorpse immediately come to mind and Dead United can proudly be named along with all other great bands of that scene. What I love about their music is that there is enough melody, yet also harshness and sharp guitar riffs to satisfy melodic and brutal fiend in me. Clever use of samples between the songs is something that I encourage and love and that is another plus for them. Guitar work is superb, delivering melodic hooks and punk aggression and vocal melodies and backing vocal harmonies are something that is so great that makes my fist pump in the air and sing along from the top of my blackened horror fiend heart. Songs like Green Glowing Skulls made me smile with grim satisfaction, Unusual is a cover of Tom Jones in horror punk version and it is so sweet and eerie that I listened to it couple of times in a row. Of course with music of this band we can not compare comparisons with some of the scene greats like Blitzkid for example, but this band is no mere clone of original scene purveyors, quite the contrary they deliver punches and make their own path of horror. My other personal favorites on this one are Scream! Oh Baby, Scream! and It Came From Above. But, if you love horror punk, this is mandatory, have a listen and discover your own favorites.

https://deadunited.bandcamp.com/album/fiend-n-1-2

(review) Empyrium – Uber Den Sternen

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I first heard Empyrium from Germany about twenty years ago. Then, every Wednesday me and couple of friends had theme metal evenings. One of my friends had a vacation house in the hills so we went there and listened to new music on tapes, one Wednesday it was doom, one was black metal, one was gothic and during one of these doom evenings I heard Empyrium´s Songs Of Moors & Misty Fields and I was enchanted by melody, melancholy, vocals, keyboards and every song was a hit and it almost brought tears to my eyes and goosebumps on my skin. Fast forward to 2021. I was so happy when I saw that this new album came out and it was a long journey to releasing it. This one offers eight epic songs of melodic mixture of doom metal with gothic, post metal influences and neofolk. Music has harsh guitars sometimes, but also many atmospheric passages, acoustic miniatures in the song structures, epic work of keyboards which only add to the grandeur and beauty. Vocals are mainly clean, sung beautifully or sometimes spoken and whispered, but there are couple of excursions into harsher vocal ranges. I love how the songs, although most of them being longer, do not get boring or repetitive in any second. Another superb album, welcome back Empyrium! 9/10