The German epic death metal newcomers KAMBRIUM are set to release their new studio album “The Elders’ Realm” on July 29th through NoiseArt Records.
Today, the band has released the lyric video of the brand new track ‘Shattered Illusions’ via YouTube.
Check it out here:
The track “Shattered Illusions” will be the first digital single, which will be available on June 17th.
The band states: “Our first single “Shattered Illusions” is a bloody fast song with catchy melodies, impelling riffs and awesome solos. It’s not our most epic song though, but it will show you what we’ve got! “
Track list:
1. Abyssal Streams
2. Through Shades And Despair
3. Conjure The Lost
4. The Elders‘ Realm
5. Shattered Illusions
6. Colossus Of The Seas
7. Reckoning Of The Great
8. Season Of The Sea Witch
9. Layer Of Spores
10. Furious Decay Of A Dying World
With only two releases, “Shadowpath” (2011) and “Dark Reveries” (2013), KAMBRIUM have already become one of the most talked about bands in the underground. Their unique blend of melodic death metal with symphonic elements have quickly made them a favorite with fans and critics alike.
The German epic death metal newcomers KAMBRIUM announced their signing with NoiseArt Records recently. Now the time has now come to unleash their new studio album, their label debut, on an unsuspecting world: It’s titled “The Elders’ Realm” and will be released on July 29th.
The band states: “We are happy to announce that our album ‘The Elders’ Realm’ will be released on 29th July via NoiseArt Records. We are even happier about the fact that the album will be a digipack! And we are looking forward to read and hear your opinions about it because we think that this is our strongest album so far.”
The atmospheric artwork for “The Elders’ Realm” was created by Colombian artist Felipe Machado, who is already known for his work with great bands such as Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, Xandria.
With only two releases, “Shadowpath” (2011) and “Dark Reveries” (2013), KAMBRIUM have already become one of the most talked about bands in the underground. Their unique blend of melodic death metal with a symphonic elements have quickly made them a favorite with fans and critics alike.
Finnish Dark Folk Metallers FROSTTIDE will release a new album on February 27th via Noiseart Records, entitled „Blood Oath“ and will be the next step to their 2013 debut. This has led to better compositions and arranging. The album follows the same air as “Awakening” as these are both connected. But this is all taken to the next level!
Comments the band: „Blood Oath“ is going to be aggressive, heavy, melodic, bombastic and with very deep and beautiful atmospheres.”
Also, the band kept their trademark and returned with another concept album: “When recording “Awakening” we decided to make a set of brother albums. We saved one song from “Awakening” to be on the second record. So, even though this is our second record, we decided to base the lyrics on the story that occurred before “Awakening”.
Making this a prequel. The story allows the listener to know where everything originated and what led to the arrogant and greedy attitude that can be seen in the protagonist of “Awakening”.
Also the cover artwork is unveiled, see above. The band will be on Paganfest tour in March, check out the shows below:
Finnish metallers THAUROROD have revealed details about their upcoming album via their official facebook page:
THAUROROD leapt out of the Finnish underground in 2010: after the newcomers made quite some heads turn with their first three EPs, their debut “Upon Haunted Battlefields“ put them right on the map with the big players of metal! No wonder they were picked as support act for SABATON`s EU tour– and in 2011 THAUROROD gained even more fans on tour with SYMPHONY X and NEVERMORE.
Their secret for success? Their unique version of epic symphonic metal and power metal! The sixpiece is often compared to genre overlords SONATA ARCTICA, DRAGONFORCE and STRATOVARIUS, but the band has managed to carve a niche of its own.
Just like it was the case with “Upon Haunted Battlefields”, the cover artwork for “Anteinferno“ has been taken care of by Ken Kelly of MANOWAR fame. “I found this masterpiece with all the strong colors of the flames and a warrior on a horse and thought it would fit perfectly, but also would reflect the battle themes and the theme of the last song which is about the world’s biggest horse breed, the Shire horse, which was used in medieval battles ages ago. So I would say it’s a pretty perfect cover for this album!” explains Pasi Tanskanen.
Tracklisting “Anteinferno“:
1. Planet X
2. Heart Of The Lion
3. Overboard
4. Far From Home
5. Victor
6. Marked For Diablo
7. For The Rose To The Grave
8. Anteinferno
9. Path
10. Riders Of The Shires
The album will be released in Europe on December 20 through NoiseArt Records and will be available as CD and download. In Japan, the record is due on December 11 via Spiritual Beast featuring an exclusive bonus track called „Japskin Syylä“.
Review by Larry Paterson Artist: FROSTTIDE Album: Awakening Label: NoiseArt Records Release Date: 30 August 2013
Tracklist: 1. Winter’s Call 2. Awakening 3. Quest For Glory 4. No Turning Back 5. Dawn Of Despair 6. Siege 7. Ruins Of Defeat 8. Unwritten (Engraved In The Stars)
A four piece (they don’t appear to have a permanent bassist), FROSTTIDE hail from Jyväskylä, Finland and describe themselves as a Melodic/Folk Metal band. So, before I begin the review (my first for MSF as I am a new boy), I’d like to point out that I have no particular love for squeezing bands into tiny sub genres and generally I actually have no idea what the sub genre actually means. For me, I like metal….and as sacrilegious as that may seem to people that basically goes from AC/DC to Sepultura, stopping at all good points in between.
So what do we have here……
‘Winter’s Call’ opens the album; a truly beautiful piece of music that would not out of place on the big screen providing a soundtrack to imagery from Lord Of The Rings, or perhaps more appropriately, the viking film Pathfinder. Which makes the arrival of ‘Awakening’ all the more spectacular. Huge riffing from both guitars and bass, coupled with tight drumming to punctuate and accentuate every beat, kicks proceedings off. The keyboards sit in the background providing an orchestral vibe throughout the album, occasionally coming to the fore for some of the instrumental passages, but never overpowering the sound. Vocally, Joni Snoro has the kind of snarl that may not appeal to everybody, but fits the feel of this band perfectly and helps to keep the feel dark and intense. There is not huge variety in the vocal delivery, but with so much going on around them they never outstay their welcome and as they fit so well, they become a strong point of the band. Guitarist Juho Patinen provides backing vocals that match Joni’s and beef up proceedings here and there.
‘Awakening’ is well constructed and atmospheric and leads perfectly to ‘Quest For Glory’ which has a main riff that perhaps showcases the folk element of FROSTTIDE’s style. ‘No Turning Back’ follows with a small drum intro and at 2:44 has my favourite tempo break on the whole album. Yet again the riffing has perfect precision, the slower orchestral passages never outweighing the weight of the faster parts.
‘Dawn Of Despair’ provides an interlude of more atmospheric soundtrack style music, before ‘Siege’ kicks in with swelling riffs and solid double bass drums. Probably my favourite track on the album; tons of atmosphere and perfectly played. I also can’t claim to be able to follow the lyrics on all the tracks, but can hear them best here on ‘Siege’, bringing the album’s theme story to life more for me. The entire album is a concept piece, according to vocalist Joni, telling the story of a group of warriors who go to the aid of a village facing an enemy invasion (this is taken from the NoiseArt Records website). ‘Ruins Of Defeat’ comes next, with its stronger hints of folk in the main riff again. Love the riff/drum interplay that sit either side of the vocal passages. I’m guessing with a title like that, that things may not have gone so well for the group of warriors.
They save their longest track until the end, ‘Unwritten (Engraved In The Stars)’ clocking in at over 14 minutes (although the last minute appears to be silence…unless my battered hearing is missing something). Personally I am not always a fan of extremely long tracks unless they have something special to say. It seems that since the days of Metallica’s ‘Justice’ album many bands have felt the need to pad tracks out and make them longer when a more direct ‘trimmed’ version could work better. However….this one does indeed work. A song of many parts; blast beat drums alternate with tasty progressive bits of unusual time signatures, but all moving the song forward rather than feeling like an exercise in cleverness. Mass melodic vocals, tight and interesting riffs, time changes, orchestral keyboards, acoustic guitar, an achingly emotive piano piece….all combine to give a brilliant end to a great album. FROSTTIDE formed in 2009 and released their first EP, ‘Dawn Of Frost’, the following year. ‘Awakening’ is their debut full length album and it bodes incredibly well for their future.
Rating 8/10
Band Members: Joni Snoro (Vocals, Guitar) Juho Patinen (Guitar, Backing vocals) Joonas Nislin (Drums) Felipe Munoz (Keyboards) Lauri Myllylä (Bass player in Heidenfest 2013)
Danish melodic death metallers MERCENARY will release their seventh album, “Through Our Darkest Days”, on July 26 via NoiseArt Records. The CD was recorded at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark with longtime producer Jacob Hansen (RAUNCHY, VOLBEAT, NIGHTRAGE, HATESPHERE, PYRAMAZE). The cover art was created by Mircea Eftemie (guitarist of MNEMIC), who has previously worked with SOILWORK, ILLDISPOSED and others.
“Through Our Darkest Days” track listing:
01. A New Dawn
02. Welcome The Sickness
03. Through Our Darkest Days
04. Dreamstate Machine
05. A Moment Of Clarity
06. Beyond This Night
07. Starving Eyes
08. Generation Hate
09. Forever The Unknown
10. Holding On To Serenity (bonus track)
The song “Generation Hate” can now be streamed in the YouTube clip below.
MERCENARY comments on the cover: “Last year when we were busy with pre-productions, we considered reaching out to Mircea to ask if he’d like to give our new cover a shot, because we liked his recent stuff and wanted to try someone with a fresh approach. Against all odds, however, he actually beat us to it and contacted us first with the exact same offer, so it very much seemed as a collaboration that was meant to be.
“After a few sketches, we quickly locked on to the main motive of the cover, which we felt was both iconic, mysterious, and not least, oddly disturbing. Most importantly perhaps, we also felt that Mircea‘s artwork had managed in a natural way to combine something fresh with the style of our older album covers and their dark and atmospheric vibes.
“As our new album is very much a combination our latest material with a lot of the more traditional melodic and melancholic elements of previous MERCENARY albums, we felt that this was a perfect visual expression of MERCENARY‘s sound and identity in 2013.
“The cover symbolizes a darkness that we have gone through as a band, which we feel that we have finally been able to put behind us.
“The title of the album is meant very positively and thematizes both the journey through existential darkness as a general theme and the ability to break through it.
“The lyrical universe is very much about making the most of life and not getting caught up in negativity.”
Adds Eftemie: “I wanted to make something that had a direct visual relation to the album title, but also follow the design patterns of the older MERCENARY album covers, to keep their identity and brand intact. After swapping ideas back and forth, we ended with a piece not too abstract, but dark and disturbing enough to portray the concept of the new album. It was absolutely a pleasure working on this piece!”
MERCENARY 2013 is:
Jakob Mølbjerg – Guitar René Pedersen – Bass, Vocals Martin Buus – Lead Guitar Peter Mathiesen – Drums
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Artist: FROSTTIDE
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