Sweden’s Deathstars are back with new, fifth studio opus. This is the first studio full length since 2014 and their last album ‘The Perfect Cult’. Anyway, this one contains ten songs of industrial cold, almost inhuman robotic metal like we are used to from this band. I was glad when I saw this album was announced because I like this band very much. Although they mix industrial cold metal with gothic, there are couple of really catchy and melancholic melodies in their song structures and their songs always had an appeal to me that was hard to grasp, but it was there. Vocals are gothic-like, sometimes almost spoken not sung but they evolve into great melody in many choruses backed with excellent female backing vocals that are somehow already a trademark for this band. This is not their best work ever, but songs like ‘This Is’, ‘Midnight Party’, the title song or ‘An Atomic Prayer’ are for sure killers and winners for me on this album. Good one indeed and welcome back Deathstars!
Battle Born are hailing from UK and this is their first full length opus. This one contains eleven songs of wonderful true power metal with all the warrior ethics and something that I admired in this kind of metal since its inception. This is at times aggressive and fast speed metal combined with epic guitar melodies, even better vocal lines and backing vocal harmonies. Vocals are very important in this kind of metal, so I must say that singer Jack Reynolds delivers fine job with his voice not being too high but fits perfectly to the songs. I love the use of backing vocal quires in ‘Blood and Fire’, also songs that I must mention are ‘Down Your Drinks and Raise Your Swords’ and ‘Ride North for Winterhold’. As you can see the story around lyrics are swords and sorcery plus fantasy heroism just made to pump your fist in the air and sing along at gigs. Battle Born also use keyboards but they also belong to the richness of sounds this mighty band delivers. A really, really strong debut opus.
Švedsku okult rock senzaciju GHOST pratim još od davnih dana njihovog prvog opusa kada su još bili na Fenrizovoj ‘Band of the Week’ listi i moj frend mi je tada skrenuo pažnju na njih. U međuvremenu su porasli na arena senzaciju zahvaljujući mastermindu i pjevaču Cardinalu Copii(Tobias Forge) koji je osmislio cijeli dizajn, kostime, priču iza sa promjenama vokala tobožnjim, svim onim papama koji su pjevali, a zapravo je bio on, kao i maskama. Ovaj bend ili voliš ili mrziš, nema ti druge, ja ih baš volim jer prodaju Satanic panic spiku za 21.stoljeće i niko zapravo ne zna koliko je tu skrivenih angažiranih i pametnih poruka između redova tekstova. No, nakon zadnjeg studijskog albuma evo nam Ghost EP-a sa 5 pjesama, sve coverima. Ovo nije prvi puta da bend objavi sličan projekt, često su im između dugosvirajućih albuma padale na pamet takve stvari. Ovdje se radi o obradama Television, Genesis, Iron Maiden, Tine Turner i The Stranglers. Meni je nekako najbolje legla obrada ‘Jesus He Knows Me’, u originalu od Genesis, onako baš u Ghost fazonu napravljena i pasala bi u live set ziher uz ostale autorske hitove. Dobra je i ‘Phantom of the Opera’ od Maidena, onako mračnija zericu od originala, a i ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ od Tine Turner je lijepo otpjevana balada gdje se ističe Tobijev odličan glas. Nisam inače ljubitelj cover albuma, ali slab sam na Ghost.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 