This is the debut e.p. by Sirius, from Athens, Greece. I listened to it and reviewed it for this webzine.
Sirius was formed in 2007. they practiced and made songs and brandished their skills by live concerts through the years. After setting some lineup changes, they released their debut e.p. This record contains 4 songs of melodic heavy metal with power metal influences. When I first heard the title track I immediately thought of Bruce Dickinson because the vocals reminded me a lot of the legendary Maiden vocalist. The song structures are in Maidenesque sphere and I can hear a lot of old nwobhm masters in the songs like for example Saxon or Accept and that is not the bad thing. Of course, Sirius collected the best from the old school metal masters and added to their songs something new and fresh without sounding lame or boring. “Shadow in my heart” holds the awesome guitar solo which I can imagine being chanted oooo ooo by the fans live. “The Last Angel” somehow reminded me of above mentioned Bruce Dickinson solo records. It is somehow in my opinion the most technical and rythmical song on the record and it also has a chorus made for singalong. “The Fury Within” is somehow in my opinion the hardest and most awesome song for me on this record adding strength to the great melody. Nothing new, but decent heavy/power metal.
Ratbreed is the band from Finland and their new record is coming out via Inverse Records so I was able to listen to it and review it for this webzine.
Finland is the land of metal as everybody knows, this relatively small European country holds a great number of excellent bands be it melodic like Stratovarius, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica or Impaled Nazarene, Finntroll, Children of Bodom, to name only a few more known bands. Ratbreed comes from melodic approach to heavy metal playing a combination between classic pumping heavy metal and fast power metal. This record contains 8 songs plus one cover song by Warlock. The songs sometimes remind of the 80-ies classics for example Helloween or Gamma Ray and early Hammerfall in the second half of the 90-ies. Vocalist Jasmin is convincing with her voice and not trying to sound like anyone´s copy so, that is another plus for this band. Musically, the band is incredibly tight and the production of the record sounds great like a metal record of this kind should sound like. My personal favorites of the record are “Blaze from Below” and “Through the flames”. This is nothing new or special or revolutionary but it is a decent metal album.
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 