ILLUMINANDI - In Via
Independent Release
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Illuminandi hails from Poland and this is their 2nd fullength album.
Musically they play symphonic death metal giving us an unique smorgasbord of cello, violin, growling, clean vocals, catchy hooks and crunchy guitars.
Really enjoy the cool combination of heaviness and catchy harmonies!
The music is both varied, symphonic and heavy and the production is excellent.
Music is really majestic and at times the music make you feel like you are moved back in time to a royal castle a
few hundred years ago. On the negative side however a few tracks at times lose the melody and becomes too progressive and complicated for their own good. That's my only remark. So, to sum it up this is a really cool album. Still waiting though for the
band's masterpiece, maybe next release...
References: A must have if you are into heavy & crunchy Symphonic Death Metal with melody!
Orderinfo: Available from the band's website below.
Website: http://www.illuminandi.kdm.pl
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ILLUMINANDI - Illumina Tenebras Meas (Illuminate My Darkness)
Independent Release
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Illuminandi from Poland is back again, this time with a five track CD.
Musically they have really found their sound now with a heavy yet catchy mix of cello, violin, growling, clean vocals and crunchy guitars.
As you may have guessed now, the music is very varied, symphonic and heavy, maybe I should just call it symphonic death metal.
Compared to previous releases this is heavier and has a better quality overall on everything from songwriting and vocals to the production.
Talking about production it's excellent.
The Rider is the first track and it gives a good feel of what's to come with its catchy and heavy rhythm mixed with the beautiful sound
of cello and violin. Second track "the 40th Day" is the only filler on the cd. It is way too chaotic to my liking. Best track is the fantastic
heavy worship tune Hymn of All Creation. This has to be one of the best Praise Metal tunes ever!! The lyrical inspiration comes from
Psalms 93, 95 and 96 and musically it's incredibly catchy and heavy and really makes me wanna sing along and praise our Mighty and Powerful GOD.
Fantastic track and it's even better than The Light from Demo 2. I would say that it's worth to get this cd just for this tune alone cause it's
so extremely good! Don't have anything else to add, except that this is a must have to anyone that like brutal metal with melody.
References: An absolute must have for anyone into brutal music, especially if you want to hear some heavy & crunchy Symphonic Death Metal!
Orderinfo: Available from the band's website below.
Website: http://www.illuminandi.kdm.pl
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ILLUMINANDI - The Beginning
Bombworks Records
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Illuminandi from Poland delivers a own mix of metal. Typical for their unique sound is that they mix clean vocals and growlning with a massive portion of strings. Another thing that makes the band stand out is that their setting consists of seven persons! Illuminandi has earlier released two demos and both are on this fullength album. Besides the demotracks the other half of the albums contains live tracks. The soundquality of the tracks is good though, so you can hardly hear that they are recorded live. The cool thing with Illuminandi is that they dare to do their own thing and create a sound of their own. At times they even manage to create tunes of worldclass. A good example of this is the track The Light, which is a wonderful mix of catchy hooks and fast strings. Illuminandi sings in Polish but all lyrics are translated to English in the lyric sheet. Lyrics are mostly from the Bible and there are Bible references to all tunes but one. Illuminandi is a good band but to reach the top they need to improve their composing skills. On some tunes they completely lost the melody and it feels like the tune stands still on the same place. As a whole though the band has did a great work with the album and it gives good promise for the future. If you like the mix of strings and metal this cd is a solid buy. I give it a 3+.
References: Recommended to anyone that likes symphonic metal.
Orderinfo: Check with the mailordercompanys listed here
Website: http://www.illuminandi.kdm.pl
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ILLUMINANDI - Demo 2
Independent Release
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Poland is a little land when it comes to metal but now things are starting to change. A proof of this is this new band called Illuminandi. Typical for their sound is that they combine violin, cello and metal! This combination gives them an unique sound. Cd has three tracks of which I like the two first, last track is too progressive. Especially the second track The Light is very moving and atmospheric and has plenty of hooks. Lyrics are Christcentered and two of the tunes are sung in polish.
If they keep on doing tracks in the same caliber as the first two tracks future releases will be very interesting. A promising band indeed. This minicd leaves me hungry for more!
References: Recommended to anyone that likes symphonic metal.
Orderinfo: Check the band's website below
Website: http://www.illuminandi.kdm.pl
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IMMORTAL SOUL - Lines In The Sand
Silent Sky Records
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This is not the Finnish band Immortal Souls but an American band. Can't understand why they had to choose a name so similar with an existing band.
Anyway, this band plays their own kind of hardrock/metal. At times it's really heavy and crunchy. Unfortunately though these moments are way too few.
This band also has way too little hooks and harmonies to grab me. So as for now it falls short. On coming releases they need to
incorporate much more hooks, harmonies and guitarsolos. They also need to improve their songwriting, variate the vocals more and add much more variation to their sound.
They got the heaviness and crunch, but that's enough. They also need to improve the other areas I just mention if they want to succeed.
References: Fans of Hardrock/Metal with heavy groovy rhyhtmes may give this a try.
Orderinfo: Check with the mailordercompanys listed here
Website: http://www.immortalsoulband.com
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IMMORTAL SOULS - Under The Northern Sky
Little Rose Productions
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Finland is here with some more frostbiting metal to enjoy! Typical for Immortal Souls is that the lyrics often talks about that the beauty of Winter is a clear evidence of God's existence. Under The Northern Sky is their first fullength album and it shows that they matured and got more skilled and tight. Cause what we got here is a real quality release of melodic death metal. It is not pure death metal though since it has a lot of classic metal harmonies incorporated in their sound. Music is fast and crunchy and easily got you headbanging. I would say that this is the perfect christian alternative to secular bands like In Flames and Children of Bodom. Typical for Immortal Souls sound is that it is fast, crunchy and melodic. On the negative side a few tunes at the end gets slightly repetetive, but when most of the tunes is this good it doesn't really matter that much. To sum it up, this is a brilliant release of melodic death metal you just shouldn't miss.
References: A must have to anyone into melodic death metal! Recommended if you like Schaliach but want something faster. Fans of secular bands like In Flames and Children of Bodom should also definately check this out.
Orderinfo: Check with the mailordercompanys listed here
Website: http://listen.to/immortalsouls
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IMMORTAL SOULS/ MORDECAI (Split - CD)
Little Rose Productions
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This is a split-cd featuring Immortal Souls and Mordecai, two of the best bands from Finland. Immortal Souls starts things off with their tune "Snow Soul" that can also be found on the compilation From Kaamos To Midnight Sun (read review). It's too repetitive to me so I skip to Divine Wintertime that sounds much better. My favourite tune is Christ Mass, a fast heavy and crunchy tune that talks about the wonder of Christmas when God became man and walked among us. This band also seems to like Winter since that's the theme of most of the songs.The music is mostly death metal reminding of the secular bands At The Gates and In Flames. Nice to finally have a good Christian band in this genre.
Mordecai's sound is very atmospheric and full on black metal. Really nice harmonies too. The lyrics are Christ-centered and two of the tunes are totally praise songs.(Black Metal Praise, nothing for your grandma! :-) Good shrieking voice too. Best tunes are Dawn Eternal and The Last Winter. At times the music gets repetitive but that's the only bad thing I can say about this band. So all in all we have two good and promising bands that are truly worth to check out if you like brutal stuff.
References: Recommended to people that like the christian bands Schaliach, Antestor and Deuteronium and secular bands At The Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquility and Dissection.
Orderinfo: Available from Little Rose Productions You can also check with the mailordercompanys listed here
Websites: Mordecai &
Immortal Souls
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IMPELLITTERI - Screaming Symphony
Music For Nations
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Here is a quality band from the US with lots of talent. The mainmembers in this band are Rob Rock on vocals and Chris Impellitteri on guitars. The style is guitarshredding metal with lots of solos. If you like Rex Carrols guitarplaying you will have a new fave.
It can be compared to Narnia but this is faster and heavier. Chris Impellitteri is truly one of the best guitarists in the world, which shows off especially in the instrumental tune 17th Century Chicken Pickin'.
Woah, what a shredder he is! And the production is superb! It's good to see a Christian Metal album where the production is just as good as the Mainstream counterparts. My opinion is that the production
has to be good to really compete. Rob Rock also have a great voice that fits good with the music.
The music on the album is heavy, crunchy and have real hooks in the choruses. The lyrics are pointing to Christ in a both thoughtful and straightforward way.
The only bad thing I can say about this album is that it's a bit repetitive. Besides that it shreds. I like this album more and more for each time I listen to it. First I didn't really like it but now I love it!
To sum it up this is a great album that I highly can recommend. It's awesome to see this new wave of good Christian
Metal again! With bands like Narnia, Impellitteri and Lightmare the future looks great!
References: A must have for metalheads that love guitarshreddingbands like Narnia, Yngwie Malmsteen etc.
Website: http://www.rapture.net/impellitteri
Check with the mailorder companys listed here
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IMPLACABLE - Behind The Veil
Independent release
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Plenty of metalbands are coming out from the deep norwegian forests. Implacable is one of them. Unheard by many despite their talent. Musically Implacable plays atmospheric black metal reminding of Antestor. Not too fast but rather pretty slow with plenty of beautiful melodies that reminds me of Schaliach. The lyrics are very biblical and full on for Christ. Something that makes this band stand out is their great sense of making enjoyable melodies. On the negative side I can only say one thing and that is that the vocals are mixed too low on one of the tunes. But that's the only bad thing I can say about this mini-cd with 5 tunes. Plenty of talent in this band! Check'em out. With a promising sound like this they can go very far...
References: Definately something for black metallers that are into Antestor, Vaakevandring and the likes.
Webpage: http://home.sol.no/~kbnessa/implac/
Orderinfo: Contact the band at kbnessa@online.no You can also check with Nordic Mission and the mailordercompanys listed here
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IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH - Scandinavian Compilation
Endtime Productions
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Endtime productions have released many quality releases. On this compilation we can get to know some of them. Vaakevandring got a new tune, mostly ultrafast black metal but also with some tasty melodic riffs. Not quite as good though as the track. Og Sorgnet Stilnet i Smertens Vand from their demo-cd. Lengsel follows next, technical and melodic death/black. Interesting band, I look forward to hear more from them. Next is a brand new tune with Schaliach! It's a great tune and fans of melodic death will be happy to hear it. Very tasty guitarplaying.
Crimson Moonlight also got a new tune on this compilation. It's called Blood covered My Needs and shows Crimson Moonlight when they do what they do best, fast black metal with plenty of atmosphere that is. Unfortunately this is also the last tune with their talented keyboardist Alex. Antestor is next black band to follow. Spiritual Disease shows the typical Antestor sound. A really enjoyable tune of atmospheric black metal. The tune is taken from their newly released album Martyrium. Extol kicks off with Inferno, brutal and technical as usual. I'm not that much into this band or tune but Extol fans will enjoy it that's for sure. The tune is taken from the european verson of Extol's latest album Undeceived.
Anaemia also got a tune from their album on this compilation. It's the title tune and a really good one with Anaemias characteristical thrashy style. Atmospheric black metal band Sanctifica follows next with Riket, one of the best tunes on their cd Spirit of Purity. Vardöger is a pleasant surprise and one of the highlights on this cd. Viking Metal at it's best! Atmospheric black influenced by folk music. Singer is no other than Peter Dahlbakk from Schaliach. Plenty of melodic harmonies and a great shrilling voice to enjoy here. I'd love to hear more from this band!
Another great surprise is Absurd which is another highlight on the album. A brand new black band. The tune is for the most part ultrafast and extremely crunchy! Very very promising band. They have two singers, one male and one female, both with great shrilling voices. Drottnar ends the compilation with Trellebaand Maa Brista. Real Black Metal but nothing that makes it stand out. I miss something. It gets better in the end though. In The Shadow also have 4 industrial cuts with Mental Destruction, Nebulon, Parca Pace and Sanctum but since I don't like this genre at all I can't judge if they are good or not.
To sum it up this is a great collection and a must have to everyone into black and death metal. It's almost as good as the compilation From Kaamos To Midnight Sun.
References: A must have for everyone into black and death metal
Website: www.endtimeproductions.com
Orderinfo: Check with the mailorder companys listed here
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