JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C 12/10/09
SIGN OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS / …OF
MOUTAINS AND MOONSHINE
Wow! where the hell did these guys
come from, I was totally blow away by “Dead Skies” when Season Of Mist sent me
a prom of the track and have been playing it ever since, now I’ve got the whole
album this is one of the best debut albums I have herd, for a band of unknown
musicians they sure make a damned fine impression, they deserve to known to all
metal fans.
The band are a three piece from
North Carolina and musically they are in the same ballpark as Down and Black
Label Society, Southern Metal at its best, so they are in good company for
starters, they lead vocalist / guitarist sounds similar to Phil Ansalmo and
this give the tracks like “Purge”, “Dead Skies” and “Unwelcome In That House”
the Down / Pantera feel but Southern Cross still retain their own
identity. The track “Eating The Sun” is
a 7 minute epic that starts off with a very haunting single note and just
builds into a great heavy epic track sounds like it could easily have come off
the last Down album, “Huck Fin” is a shorter but non the less just as good and
is a tribute to the legendary, fictional character.
I cannot recommend this CD too
highly, this is so good that you have to hear it in its entirety, without doubt
the best debut album of 2009 and it is guaranteed a place in my top 20 already,
no problem, you can expect to hear more tracks from this on my Hfm and Pipeline
shows, as the bands song title say’s “The South Is Rising”.
WEBSITE http://www.myspace.com/southerncrossband
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 68 mins + 13
GLORIOUS TRACKS
SCAR SYMMETRY / DARK MATTER
DIMENSIONS
Swedish Melodic Death Metal doesn’t
get much better than this, this is the bands 4th album and is more
Progressive than its predecessors and the album is better for it, it adds a new
dimension to the bands sound and really sets them apart from the competition.
In places the band also has some
Industrial influences, reminding me at time of Fear Factory, you only have to
listen to the superb track “Nonhuman Era” to see how the band have progressed,
yes the great Death Metal riffs are still there in abundance and fused with
some very good Melodies but the Progressive tinge that the song has is like
icing on the cake, it just finishes it off nicely. The track “A Parenthesis In Eternity” would
have sounded very different if it had appeared on the last album and so would
the brilliant tracks “Mechanical Soul Cybernetics” and “Sculptor Void”.
If you haven’t come across this
great band before but like Melodic Death Metal then you cant go wrong by
purchasing the fantastic album, it will bring you many hours of pleasurable
listening for years to come.
WEBSITE http://www.scarsymmetry.comm
& http://www.nuclearblast.de
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 53 mins + 12
PUMMELING TRACKS
W.A.S.P. /
Its 25 years since WASP released
their first single “Animal” and 2009 finds Blackie Lawless and crew still
pumping out the Heavy Metal in fine style, this release is even better than
their last release Dominator.
Right from the first track you know
that they mean business, “Crazy” tells it like it is, no frills or fancy
trimmings just good, honest, hard hitting Heavy Metal and we wouldn’t have them
any other way. Just to show that the
first track is no fluke “Live To Die Another Day” comes hurtling out of the
speakers like a freight train, just as Heavy and just as unstoppable, “Thunder
Red” and “Seas Of Fire” are just as intense and just as unstoppable. There is a really good cover of the Deep
Purple track “Burn” from the David Coverdale era, very few bands cover anything
from this era and this proves just how good the song is. They always include the bands trademark,
Power Ballad and
Its good to see the band have still
got what it takes and can still teach you young pups a thing or two about
Metal, if you’ve lost touch with the band then buy this CD, you wont be
disappointed, I guarantee it, the man of Metal has spoken.
WEBSITE http://www.waspnation.com
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 43 + 9 ROCKIN’
TRAKCS