Century are hailing from Sweden and have been in the scene since 2020. This is their first debut full length opus after releasing a demo and couple of singles. As far as I understand this is a duo, members are Leo Ekstrom Sollenmo (drums, guitars bass) and Staffan Tengner (vocals, guitars, bass). This one contains nine songs. Music of Century is rawer and melodic version of heavy metal, reminding me a bit of all those early NWOBHM bands, that influence is here for sure, also I can hear some eighties influences Mercyful Fate and King Diamond here and there. But, there is also fresh energy for the new metal millennium on this album with fast songs like ‘The Fighting Eagle’ or galloping ‘Sinister Star’. Vocals on this album are epic, neither mellow nor too high, just somehow right to fit music perfectly. Guitar work is impeccable and there are some melodies that you catch yourself humming to later after listening to this album with that distinct Swedish style of metal like Hammerfall coming to mind or maybe Sabaton. My personal favorites are above said songs, but also ‘Master of Hell’ and ‘Servants of the Iron Mask’ but you will have to find yours for yourselves. So, this is a fine true blooded heavy metal eighties meet modern times record with no philosophy or bullshit.
Thrash metal giants, one of the Big 4 of thrash metal are back! Metallica is back with new studio full length album, first one since 2016 and ‘Hardwired…’. This one contains twelve songs and I was a bit sceptic upon hearing they will deliver new music, but now I am totally convinced that Metallica still got something to say. If I must compare some older albums to this one, it would be a mixture of ‘And Justice For All’ and ‘Metallica’, being a thrash metal bomb yet still retaining that old spirit of Metallica history. The title song has such contagious chorus that I listened to over and over again. James’ voice is convincing and strong and although album has some weaker points it shows mainly some strong songwriting and sense of drama, melody and harshness. There are couple of more mid tempo songs on there, but also some really thrash metal speed jewels and I am glad that band returned in couple of songs to that kind of songs and not only long and epic progressive thrash metal that they applied on couple of last albums. Also, guitar solos are back, with all that wicked melodies and hooks. Although there is one very long song, over eleven minutes, called ‘Inamorata’ which closes the album and if you listen to it closely and carefully, you will hear how great that one is. One other song that I must also highlight is ‘Lux Aeterna’, short anthem in the vein of NWOBHM old school influenced style. My other highlights on this album are ‘Crown Of Barbed Wire’ and ‘If Darkness Had A Son’ being two standouts for me. This is an awesome come back and I am glad that Metallica can still make a killer album!
Flametal are hailing from Berkeley, California and they have been around in the scene since 2004. This is their fifth full length opus, first one in nine years. This is an interesting band. Why? Because, like the name says, they mix progressive metal, speed metal and flamenco into one dangerously contagious mixture of music. There are ten songs on this opus, with many interchangable parts, great melodies, almost gypsy like folk and ethno thrown in for good measure and all acoustic stuff which dominates with flamenco guitar being rounded with good old metal parts. the guys even covered ‘Bamboleo’ by Gypsy Kings in their own flamenco prog metal version and the energy of this record is just infective and double bass drumming of ‘Beyond The Horizon’ interplays perfectly with atmospheric parts and shows all the fire in the veins of flamenco. I didn’t know that this mixture could function so greatly, I enjoyed every single second of it although I am usually not a keen fan of records that are instrumentals per se. Great and innovative band this one.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 