Arcana XXII : Self titled demo, hailing from Namibia this Metal band could be a revelation. When I have heard the first track " Ramses" I felt on my ass, this track is a pure Heavy Metal song and with a professional mix bringing them to the highest step of the Undergorund bands. Unfortunetly my pleasure got down to the desolusion when I heard the two other tracks, this is the kind of band who has many musical tastes and try to mix them into their music. The second track "Breathing in me" is a Gothic like song and very bad mixed and played! (what a shame) The kind of song you don't play to anybody such it needs a lot of work to be done, the third song is a bit Thrashy but here again the band try to input different elements from other musical styles and you have a woman voice that you can hear in the first track but just talking like you find into Gothic and Black Metal bands, the mix is not and it is a rough demo but still better track than the second one and if we have to remember something from this band and maybe give them an answer: they can be an excellent Heavy Metal band and get a big recognition but certainly not playing Gothic in which they can't fit at all!!!

Moratorium: "Stripped of all Sacred" UK. This is the following to the review on the top. this time the album is done and everything is layed down. From the cover to the music. This is still a Demo CDR with laser copies.It looks like an album so maybe it will be pressed professionnally but we can say that the result of the thing is well done and a big work for this one man band. Musically it is more compressed or MIxed so the sound is less messy than the 1st CD. we can hear the music and the construction of the songs is well done, in the overall this is a good job. But vocally it is more into screams and sometimes growls, but I would categorise Moratorium as a Cradle of filth copy and so to be classed as a Black Metal album. Much keyboard and changes in the voice . What we can say is that it is really an Underground Metal musician as we can hear he's influences into the UK metal scene such as Infestation, Ackerkoke, Liguature...I think that UK scene in general doesn't evolve and turn in circle copying each others and stuck into the English London scene.

Fury: "Slavekind" This brilliant Thrash Metal band hailling from Australia is back with a full promising album and showing again how good they are, the design for the cover is execellent and so the music. Power is the best word to describe what you will get in your ears. This band shows that we always get better and can kick ass. When you'll play this CD let know your neighbourood as it will blow your speakers off the wall!!! Stop buying the known bands that give the same albums every years, buy this underground Metal album and support this band to become the new revelation!!! Great riffs, great songs, powerfull voice... influences from Slayer, Vio-lence, Sepultura and as always Testament. Of course this is just to give you a rough idea , the sound is even better than Machine Heads first album and you'll get what Fury can do and they do it very well. This should be THE album of the year ! Get it now by clicking on th e Bands link.

RAM : Heavy Metal band straight from SWeden, I love to review an underground bands's first CD not even out yet as they are looking for a label. WE have 6 tracks of pure Heavy Metal, a real dedication to the music that has made ours youth.Pretty amazing band, this is for me a real pleasure to hear that a band these days still know how to make real METAL. I revive!!! The first track "Sudden Impact " is well chosen as it will takes you straight into this great adventure that some might have forgotten, you have the impression to listen to Judas Priest Turbo album, but this is better as this band is really creating and you hear the influences but this is noway a copy, this is pure Heavy Metal in your face with the recipe of our favorite bands. Where this first track is most amazing and keeps you 'till the end is the singer. I mean this guy is one of the few to change is vocal chords so much! Imagine listening to a Judas Priest best of from their beginning to the turbo album. THis singer just on this first track is kicking your ass with a panel of the voices from mister Rob Halford!!! yeap this is right he can change is voice from the younger to the older Rob Halford's voice. But this is not finished! The track regroup also voices from King Diamond... This is just the first track!!! All along this EP you can hear Iron Maiden, Dokken, Annihilator, Danger Danger, Bad English, Bonfire and many others you can imagine!!! Influences from the biggest of the eighties and also with a new sound from the nineties, and most a singer who's voice is on the edge of Power Metal sometimes such his getting high pitch!!! This is THE album that you should all Heavy Metal maniacs have in your collection, definitively a band that will make a big WAHOO in the Metal scene.

Gaia Epicus: "Satrap" Power Metal band from Norway, this band is amazing by its originallity. It will please many real Metal fans, the begining of the CD is more into Thrash Metal must inspired by Helloween 's "Judas" album mixed with some Metallica " Kill'em all" rythms played very fast!!! Speed is the real defination of this band's style. The Power Metal is due of course by the keyboards, that finally plays a small part from this excellent music. This album will take you to your heart and you'll get to hear an origianl band! That's pretty hard to find these days but they manage to give us an album that kicks ass and even though you can catch the inspiration it's still great to listen to cos you have difficulties to find a ressemblance with another band such it is well done, a creative band for sure. A beautiful mix of Metal styles played with originallity. The voice is sometimes similar to Klaus Maine from Scorpion and the second song sounds like a tipical Scorpion song played extremely fast, I just can give much respect to the singer who has lot of work to sing and play as he does, a big surprise really. At the end they have an instrumental track that mix Progressive Metal and technics really interesting one, we can hear that they have the passion and love for this music and creation. We can only wish them to keep their name and make it big in the Metal scene because they deserve it really much, I love this album and many will do!!! Buy it now!!!

Shadow Season : "Frozen" Norway & Ireland Dark metal band. This is a band that regroup most known musicians from the Black Metal scene who wished to have another band in the scene so there is not much surprise about this album. The cover shows you the Dark style of the bands from these days but the music stays straight edge Black Metal with some differences in the compositions but mainly we can say it will please the fans from Aeturnus and Dark Funeral. The fact that this ablum has something to give is in fact the breaks that can be found in Thrash or even simple Metal making a fresh new style, maybe we could in the new generations find a new DarkBlackThrash Metal or a Black Metal mixed with NUMetal or something that kids listen to these days. Who knows Black Metal is already so old and has nothing to bring anymore for the creation and maturity. I think only old fans will follow this style but it will probably change someday and I think this band is the first real one to go on that direction of new Black Metal for the new century!In the overall of course a great sound and great play nothing to say against those fact, a great album for the Die hard fans!!!

Rupture Christ : "Molesting the entrails of the disemboweled " USA Porno Grind Metal band. Well what could we say about that band?! Nothing much really, the cover and title tell it all!!! The CD starts by the listening of a Porno movie so you can imagine the scene in your head if you love that kind of films... The music is pure Heavy Grind with voices you don't even think he really sing and just the stuff for the fans of that style. It's difficult to find any differences with another band from that kind. A pure Grind band to add in your collection!!! Buy it from

Honey For Christ : "Forging Iron will" . This Irish Heavy Metal band hasn't finished to surprise me, what is sure is that they are forging a strong and powerfull style that they can be proud to have constructed since their begining and which becomes stronger everytime they have a new CD. They have in fact many taste in music and so we can hear from Heavy , Thrash and now in the new CD Death metal influences!!! Like this it can sound strange but it is not at all once you have listened to this new great creation!!! The singer has the feeling and emotion in his voice and the strength and the power are into the drums ,the speed is in the guitar, as for the bass he got the groove and all of these 4 caracters give this excellent band that knows how to write good songs with the emotion needed to feel exactly what you have to when listening to a song, it grows and explode to give you that great sensation. They KICK ASSES!!! This is a band the new generation should listen to 'cos it regroups the real Metal influences mixed to please everyone. A band who could easily pass the frontier of ignorance and those fight between Metal style. This is pure Metal !!! To get into your Metal collection!!! We can only ask a label to sign them and get on the front covers of known Metal magazines 'cos they fuking deserve it!!!

Son of Nothing : UK Punk, Hard, Rock ...band. This young band made up with four differents personnalities who like different kind of music. They enjoy mixing genres and if you listen to their music you can hear a Metal song, a punk song or even a poprock one. This give you an original band who don't have limits nor specific place in the music and can please anyone. What they play is listenable by many even if some will prefer the Metal song which could make think of Machine Head's The more thing change album, others will prefer the rock pop song in the vein of Red Hot Chilli Peppers or for the punky attitude of Green Day. Well a cool band with its originallity. I think they have a good futur if they continue to create songs like this. They bring a fresh blood in the music world.

Dust Under Dirt : USA Hard Rock / Progressive Metal band. 5 tracks each one different, I think the band wants to include all of their influences into one demo. The 70's are very present into most of the songs. Black Circle the first track starts with a Black Sabbath/ Jimi Hendrix intro, the voice remindes me 80's Roxy Music's singer Brian ferry. This put this opening track into Pop/rock music with this straight edge and cold sound we find into progressive music. Lonely nigthmare is a more active song and really want to move people's ass. My fear reminds me the rock'n roll Metallica's Fuel song.(originaly inspired by punk bands...) Ocean sounds like a song from the belgium prog band OBSIDIAN interviewed in the second mag. Ride is like a "joke" as it sounds like a cover but it's not one! once again we find this Metallica punky inspiration that has just the wish to funnily move people into fun.(reminds me Uk NEONBOMB Glam punk band interviewed in the second mag) During gigs they must have a moving pit!!!

Denata : " Art of the Insane" Swedish Thrash Metal maniacs, for the ones who still don't know this band they sound like Whiplash first album "Power and Pain" and you have missed two albums that should be in your collection so get those ones quick. This is the third masterpiece of these great Thrashers! Tomas Axe is swinging better than ever and Ponta 's screaming are replaced by Tomas himself getting crazier than ever! He even touches Death and Black Metal on some songs which will please a hell of Metal maniacs outhere. The sound is getting stronger and better but we can easilly recognise the Denata sound. The songs are pure old Thrash Metal and we will hear sometimes Kreator 's Extreme Aggression riffs. But what most surprises me is that the songs are well written and we can still appreciate the creations without thinking of a specific band. This album should definitively get them on the high step and promise to become one of next generation's favorite band. The lyrics are excellent and "The chainsaw massacre" is a baby compare to Denata's insanity!!!

Holy Dragons : "Cymfkh ßotor" Russian Heavy Metal, as you can guess the lyrics are in Russian language except the last song which is a real dedication to the German Hard Rock band The Scorpions. This band has digged into old school Heavy Metal and you can hear it easily even though they probably would like to be categorised as Power Metal, the roots are here! Just right into the 80's! The first song sound a bit Thrashy like Metallica first debut. There is a song that sounds like a famous one as I 've heard it somewhere in English perhaps?! The language isn't a problem as the music is really taking you into cachy riffs and guitar solos melodies. Only the sound for me isn't that great as it reminds me my demos onto a 4txs with a drum machine and that's what we hear on this CD. The songs are well written and the overall is a great album but would need a propal mix into a professional recording studio with real drums of course. For the Heavy Metal fans of Scorpions, Maiden, Running wild, Gamma Ray, Iron Savior...

Offroad : "Make it Through" Russian Aor Hard Rock band, this one is in English and really sounds like one. They could easilly be taken as an American band and should get a great popularity which seems to grow in the UK for the moment. We could also hear their songs onto teens or funny movies, a typical radio music edit. Good for the hears of everyones from the teens to people who loves rock and soft Hard Rock usually called FM. The cover and album title reminds a certain cover album from Def Leppard but musically they aren't that hard. A professionnaly recorded album nad played! This should explode the music business quite easilly. In the veins of Bon Jovi, Vixen, Aerosmith, Kiss, greatwhite, Pretty Maids,Dokken, Mama's boys, Poison, Warrant,Whitelion...and all of the bands which write love songs.

Methusalem : "MethusaleM" Holland Heavy Metal band inspired mainly by Iron Maiden and Helloween. This band will bring you back into the real old Heavy that we used to listen to back in the 80's when we were kids. A promising band that will get a big love from all of these old Metalheads that might have forgot or left what made them what they are. And above the new Metalheads who discover Heavy Metal will be served! Well done guys.

Vicious : "Chains won't hold it back" Swedish Melodic Thrash / Death Metal band. This band got lot of power into their music giving you straight into the ears a strong music that kicks your ass with the old rythms from Thrash metal and the voice from Death Metal with a melodic approach from Heavy guitarists. This brilliant mix makes it out of the crowd and above all a great brand new band that deserve to get heard by the masses of Metalheads!!!

Unchained : Swedish Heavy Metal inspired by Iron Maiden 's "Seven son album" . It's amazing how the singer sounds like Bruce Dickinson! One of the song has an effect on the voice we hear on Pop/Rap bands sometimes on the radio so they must have lot of influences other than Metal. A cool band for all the Eddie's fans this band is like a legend reborned into the underground. They just signed to SOUNDRIOT the label for very melodic Metal bands!