One of our favorite Aussie bands is back in town to rock roll some more! After the vastly successful ‘Volume IV – Hammered Again’ album, which ended up in our fifteen best albums of 2015, the stoner rock band Mammoth Mammoth is ready to destroy your speakers once again. Don’t expect to get a rest from these guys. With four, previously unreleased, tracks they are showing us something new with ‘Mammoth Bloody Mammoth’.
Napalm Records
Conan – Revengeance
Apparently, doom metal comes in a whole lot of different varieties. We’ve seen the progressive doom of AHAB, Draconian’s symphonic and here’s the stoner/doom metal band Conan, which makes “caveman battle doom”. Hailing from the mighty United Kingdom, from Liverpool to be precise, ‘Revengeance’ is their third full-length album and the second that comes blasting from Napalm Records’ vaults.
Serenity – Codex Atlanticus
So, let me get this straight. While full time Serenity vocalist Georg Neuhauser was doing his musical business, Phantasma, with Delain’s Charlotte Wessels and Everon’s Oliver Philipps, he also managed to record a new Serenity album! That’s an absolutely wonderful performance, if ‘Codex Atlanticus’ proves to be at least as good as his side project, that is. But with his qualities, combined with those of his fellow band members, I’d reckon it won’t be far from it.
Varg – Das Ende Alle Lügen
The German Varg is back again. The band who, with the ‘Rotkäppchen’ EP, released an appetizer for a new full length album. From the entertaining and funny 2015 single, to ‘Das Ende Alle Lügen’ is quite a big step. From the jolly folk metal that these “Wolves”, as they call themselves, have released, we dive deep into a heavier and more aggressive kind of music with which Varg attempts to end all the lying in the world.
Månegarm – Månegarm
Folk and Pagan bands that really make an effort out of their music, taking things seriously, without changing into a beer drinking gimmick. That’s something I can really enjoy. There are too much of those semi-serious bands that don’t seem to care and just fool around a bit. Something which is completely different with the Swedish Vikings of Månegarm. With fire and steel they are here to conquer your speakers with their new, self-titled album: ‘Månegarm’.
Phantasma – The Deviant Hearts
Quite recently we reviewed the new Melted Space album, which was a grotesque record with no less than seventeen guest musicians and vocalists. It didn’t make that much of a devastating impression, but the music was amazing. And now there’s Phantasma, the product of the soul of only three people. Backed up by an entire 100 page novel by Delain vocalist Charlotte Wessels, here’s ‘The Deviant Hearts’, and it’s a rollercoaster of emotions.
Mammoth Storm – Fornjot
There’s something going on that I cannot wrap my head around. No, it’s not the bizarre name of this band, how strange Mammoth Storm may sound. But it has to do with the fact that I just, barely a week ago, reviewed the new album by Draconian. A doom album with a great amount of good tracks. And now I find the name of Draconian bass player Daniel Arvidsson on the Mammoth Storm line-up as well. The reason you play in two bands is clear to me, but releasing two albums at the same time? Why? And how good is this debut album called ‘Fornjot’?
Draconian – Sovran
From the deep, dark, gloomy history comparable to Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and the old Anathema, the Swedish doom formation Draconian has built a foundation on dark and heavy music topped off by two top class vocalists. With this different, fresh approach, the band came to their fifth studio album called ‘Sovran’. We went deep into a gloomy, damp and dark state of mind to enjoy this new doom release.
Skindred – Volume
In the legacy of the famous reggae and hip hop nu-metallers of P.O.D., the Welch formation called Skindred went on combining root rock and nu-metal to create the ultimate mix. The sixth album by the band making “Reggae Punk Metal with a twist” is called ‘Volume’ and we took taken the time to try to sit still and see if we are supposed crank up the volume with this record.
Amberian Dawn – Innuendo
When I hopped onto this bands wagon last year, the release of Amberian Dawn’s latest addition ‘Magic Forest’ marked the first studio album with vocalist Päivi “Capri” Virkkunen. At that time I was impressed by the high quality of the music, of the vocals and of the production. Most of the music was pretty catchy and the listener could easily be carried away by the beauty of Capri and her voice. Let’s see if ‘Innuendo’ can reach the pretty high standards the band put for itself.