Nightwish

Spoil Engine – Stormsleeper EP

cover-spoil-engine-stormsleeper

Once upon a time, there was a band that seemed to have something very special going on. With a woman behind the microphone, the heavy Arch Enemy attracted people because of their music, and because of this screaming and grunting female appearance. The music business has changed since then. The metal world has been thoroughly convinced that women can, actually, scream, grunt and gurgle as good, or even better, then men. This is why the Belgian Spoil Engine shows off their freshly appointed vocalist Iris Goessens on their new EP ‘Stormsleeper’.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Skeptical Minds – Omega-Thanatos

Omega Thanatos Cover Print

Last time we discussed a record, we were talking about Phantasma, a trio of musicians which included a short novel on their album ‘The Deviant Hearts’. Including a book with the album turned out to be a fantastic choice, but also an interesting one. How could a band make a record so very special, that everyone should have to buy the physical copy and not just download one? The Belgian band Skeptical Minds got the idea to include a comic book with their latest effort ‘Omega-Thanatos’.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Energy Of The Elements – 30:03 DeHuman Rise

cover

Quite recently, Vly guitarist Karl Demata gave an interview in which he said that Italian progressive music is quite complex and bombastic. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I can personally tell you that not only the progressive Italians are complex, the symphonic metal musicians from the Mediterranean country are quite exquisite as well. From the city of Turin comes the symphonic metal formation called Energy Of The Elements and recently they released their debut album called ’30:03 DeHuman Rise’.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Kari Rueslåtten – To The North

To The North digital cover 1500

For me, as a symphonic metal fan of a different generation, Kari Rueslåtten is an unfamiliar name. It’s a shame that I never got to know about this lady earlier. She has been the inspiration for so many fantastic symphonic metal bands out there these days. She is also part of the female vocal three-piece called The Sirens, which I can fully understand. With a background in symphonic metal, but a future in Nordic folk music, miss Rueslåtten has a chosen the softer sound. ‘To The North’ proves, again, that the choice was absolutely a good one.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Xandria – Fire & Ashes EP

613_Xandria_CMYK[1]

When you look at the history of most symphonic, female-fronted metal bands, the vocalist is a very important person, who barely parts ways with a successful band. Most of the time the woman behind the mic is an iconic figure, the eye catcher in front of the band. But that’s not really how the German Xandria works, apparently, because they already made it to their fifth vocalist. To showcase Dianne van Giersbergen’s abilities Xandria releases the EP ‘Fire & Ashes’.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

End Of The Dream – All I Am

All I Am Cover Art

You might think that I’m promoting Dutch and Belgian bands more than others, because they’re close to home. That is not the case, but it’s true that I get a lot of Dutch bands for review. It’s also true that the Dutch symphonic metal scene is blooming like never before. Following the footsteps of bands like Delain, Within Temptation and After Forever is End Of The Dream. ‘All I Am’ is their first album and it’s very solid.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Interview: Fire Within

Fire Within from left to right: Arjon Bimmel (Keyboards, Backing Vocals), Dennis van de Bor (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Lars van Mourik (Drums, Backing Vocals), Robbin van de Bor (Bass-guitar, Backing Vocals)

A lot of bands these days start a Kickstarter campaign to finance their new record. We hear a lot of the success stories, about the already well-known bands, or new bands that manage to pull off an amazing campaign. But last week we had a chance to talk to a band that started a Kickstarter, but the campaign failed, because of various reasons. Brothers Dennis and Robbin van de Bor had the time to tell us how you get over such a disappointment and how they managed to still pull of the release of their self-titled debut album.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

Review: Scarved – Dynamite

scarved%201a (2)

In the modern Metal industry the so called female fronted metal bands are mostly long haired women with a high soaring vocals. Bands like Nightwish, Amaranthe and Within Temptation have thrived on that genre for quite some years now. But Scarved is delivering us something completely different. This female fronted rockband, formed around vocalist Caro, delivers us the powerful rock album ‘Dynamite’.

Read More

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment

New Nightwish Single Announced!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

To all who think this is important: the symphonic metal band Nightwish will release their first single ‘Élan’ on the Thirteenth of February!nightwish elan single cover
Nightwish will release their new album somewhere in the spring of 2015.

This will be the first album to be sung by the Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen. Also, drummer Jukka Nevalainen has passed on the recording of the album due to a severe case of insomnia.
His place behind the kit will be taken by Kai Hahto, mainly known from ‘Wintersun’.

For more info on the new Nightwish release and the recent line-up changes click here.

Please follow and like us:
Share
Ruben Borger Leave a comment