Wrath Of God – Holy In Hell

A few weeks ago Frantz from the desert rock band Dirty Crows, Denis and I decided, quite spontaneously, to go and see our friends from The Majestic Unicorns From Hell who were playing a gig in the centre of Luxembourg. I didn’t know anything about the other bands playing and to be honest, I also didn’t expect anything “good”. This may be due to the fact that they were supposed to be hardcore bands. Don’t get me wrong: I do not hate this genre, it simply doesn’t mean anything to me, although I think it has a quite unique and honest scene. So, the first band playing that night was a quite young Austrian hardcore band which flashed me from the first moment on and that’s why I have their new EP Holy in Hell rotating in my CD Player for days and I now try to write a few lines about the record.

As I already noted I was quite a virgin when it comes to Hardcore but Wrath of God have created something which transformed me from an abstinent priest into a promiscuous admirer. Holy in Hell consists of 6 simply-constructed songs with only one passing the three minute line and with the last one called nearly five seconds which is standing on its own. Wrath of God is a live and surprisingly also a record band which usually is very hard to find. There is often a loss of abrasiveness, harshness when a band tries to put its music on a record, especially in the “extreme” genres. With the Holy in Hell EP this is not the case as the music is still intense and aggressive, in a very positive way, which is also due to the DIY sound of the EP. I really love this oldschool sound as this is an important personal identifying feature for some honest uncompromising, dedicated and high principled stuff.

You should give these guys a try, they really blew my mind! Excellent stuff. Check them out on Facebook.

Jason and the Argonauts

When I was still a child, me and my family quite often visited my mother’s aunt and uncle. Even though the latter one had a hard shell, he always had a soft heart towards my brothers and me and I always felt a certain warmth when I entered their house. My mother’s aunt who was some kind of a grandmother to us and still is, is one of the nicest and most supportive women I have ever known. But it was my mother’s uncle who peaked my interest in movies.

I remember him as a grumpy man sitting on his sofa, smoking cigarettes, watching old spaghetti western and pirate movies, telling the grown-ups to shut up, so that he can watch his movies quietly.

One evening, we were invited over the house again and I immediately entered the living room to check out which movie was running. “Something with pirates” the old man said and I hoped very sincerely that it wasn’t Cutthroat Island because I had already seen this one a hundred times before. Well, it turned out that it wasn’t a pirate movie. It was something I never had seen before and it captivated me for the next 104 minutes and in some kind influenced my way affection for monster movies and the love for hand-made special effects. The movie I was watching was the incredible Jason and the Argonauts.

I never was into the Greek mythology, its themes, or interpretations, but Jason’s adventure always got me and still does. So, let’s start with a short summary.

Jason decides to go on a quest for the “Gift of the Gods”, more precisely a golden fleece in order to claim his family’s throne. On the one hand he denies Zeus’ offer to help him with a ship and a crew but on the other hand he accepts Hera’s help (screw you Zeus!). After building his own ship and assembling his own crew with amongst others Hercules and Acastus (sent by his father Pelias in order to sabotage Jason’s attempt), they start the journey. Hera guides Jason to the Isle of Bronze where they can find some supplies but shouldn’t take anything else with them. It is Hercules who fucks everything up and makes Talos, the keeper of a treasure chamber, really angry. Talos comes to life and attacks the crew. This is the first time when Ray Harryhausen’s absolute brilliancy is shown.

After having killed Talos but lost Hercules and Hylas, Hera guides the rest of the crew to the blind Phineas who, punished by Zeus, has to constantly fight two Harpies tormenting him. Jason and the Argonauts help Phineas to catch the Harpies who in return give Jason further details and an amulet. To reach the land of Colchis (where the fleece is supposed to be found) the ship has to sail through the clashing rocks which “kill” everyone who dares to pass them. The ship of course gets trapped in the wild sea and Jason seems to be that fucked-up that he claims the end of the gods and throws the amulet into the water. All of a sudden Triton, the messenger of the big sea appears and holds the rocks back long enough for Jason to pass them.

After Jason and the Argonauts passed the rocks they find three survivors of another ship, with Medea among them. When they altogether arrive at Colchis they immediately get captured by the King Aeëtes who doesn’t want Jason to find the Fleece. Shortly after, Medea already fallen in love with the latter one, helps him and his men to escape the dungeon and Jason has to fight the seven-headed Hydra which is the keeper of the fleece.

Still pursuing Jason and his men, King Aeëtes creates an army of skeletons out of the Hydras teeth which attack the men. Unfortunately not all of them survive this epic battle. Jason is able to escape to his ship where his companions and Medea start their return. In the end, Zeus is telling Hera that he let them rest for a while but will call upon Jason and his Argonauts again in the future.

So far for the storyline, which in itself is epic enough and accompanied with a timeless score by Bernard Herrmann but to be honest it is Harryhausen’s work which makes this movie so special for me. Nearly twenty years after I saw that flick for the first time I am still stunned by his spectacular and amazing stop-motion work.  I nearly pissed my pants back in the days when I  saw Talos coming to life.  The monsters really got me but I hadn’t any idea of how much time and sweat Harryhausen put into this flick. The skeleton scene for example only lasts for a couple of  minutes but he worked several months on it. If you ever have done some clay animations you know what I mean. I highly respect Ray’s work and especially his full dedication to (this) film. This movie is more sincere than most of today’s CGI infected bullshit movies à la Transformers. Jason and the Argonauts is a monumental flick in the history of cinema!



One year of El Gore and the winner of our big number two


Yup, you read that correctly. 366 days ago we published our first review and since then we’ve published a total of 41 movie reviews and 53 music reviews. We’ve also reported from the Food For Your Senses festival and the 10th anniversary concert of the EMF. 2012 has also seen the addition of three new members that have helped make our goal of world domination come closer…we’re getting there.

We want to say THANK YOU to you, dear readers, and we promise that we’re far from being done!

As you might have noticed, we have changed our design…which is only half true: we departed from Tumblr and migrated to WordPress. And we hope to bring you an updated, custom design in the near future. So keep an eye out for that.

And last but not least, the winner of our anniversary contest is: Carole. Congratulations!

-El Gore team-

Rival Sons – Head Down


Another chapter in the long book called “Modern bands that sound like old ones”. You may not be the kind of person claiming that everything was better in the past, but this certainly will have the potential to remind you of the good old times. I’ll really try not to make too many allusions to a very well known English band formed in ’68.

It will, however, be inevitable to think of Robert, Jimmy, John Paul and John (especially John!) for the listener of this album (or for the reader of this review). So, since we’re all here: this is the modern version of a certain English band formed in ’68, but this won’t be the end of the song, because Head Down has much more to provide.

Despite the cliché, Rival Sons not only focus on classic riffs but also try to make you put on your dancing shoes after the opener Keep On Swinging, filling the album’s character with funky blues and psychedelic parts, without forgetting the base provided four decades earlier. Another thing to point out would be moments like in the wonderful Jordan, taking just a few seconds to make you feel melancholic like Forrest Gump sitting on a bench in Georgia, or Manifest Destiny parts 1 and 2, trying successfully to tie on epic rock opera songs right from the 70s.

The hardness may be lost sometimes, in case you presuppose a kind of it from classic rock. Head Down is a grower which shouldn’t be classified as another boring homage to a certain English band formed in ’68 – influences from many other artists from that time are unmistakable, but they don’t outshine the very own and authentic groove of this quartet from L.A.

The funny fact that the vocalist sometimes sounds like George Michael shouldn’t prevent anybody from enjoying this perfect soundtrack for a road trip through the Californian summer, or whatever is your favourite part of the states. There’ll be plenty of old school moments to discover, combined with the freshness of four men who enjoy living in the past of rock music.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ijOlAR3zs8]

Perish With Pride – Domination


After an exploration of different musical spheres last week, it’s time to go back to the heavy side. So today I chose to review the debut album Domination of the Luxembourgish band Perish With Pride, which was released in 2010. This young quartet has taken the great ambition of recording twelve songs entirely by themselves, and before I say anything further I’ll just spoil the ending: they mostly succeeded.

Musically they wander the path of melodic death metal (contrary to what I claimed in my live review…shame on me) and the thematic of the songs is mostly sociocritical, safe for one. This means that you won’t get much time to rest, especially at a show, since it’s very straight-forward which isn’t a bad thing to me.

The drum sound is quite enjoyable and actually sounds like a real instrument; so fear not, you won’t be treated to something over-produced. One minor gripe I have though is that they generally lack variation, at least on the hand-level…the footwork therefor impressed me more than once. This however doesn’t really put down the album as a whole but it’s definitely a point that can easily be improved in the future.

The guitar-work on the other hand is more diverse and delivers several neck-breaker riffs, the same goes for the sound which is pretty clean and nice on the ears. Special mention for the mini-solo at the beginning of Pull The Trigger.

The vocals are the one thing where I’m still a bit on the fence: essentially they’re good, but they lack something, which I can’t even put into words, that doesn’t quite convince me. Maybe it’s part of the mixing or because the CD is a bit older, but when I saw them live the voice impressed me more.

Even though there is quite a bit of critique, there are two major selling points for me on this forty-two minute album: the first one is a completely unexpected funk interlude on one of the songs which I won’t name now, as to not ruin the surprise. And the second one is the second-to last song Tribute To Metal: probably the greatest collaboration in the history of the Luxembourgish metal scene, yes…that good. To sum it up, it’s basically a shout-out to the entire metal scene featuring the vocalists from local bands like Arkaeon, Dreadnought, Asathor and Desdemonia, amongst others.

To finish up I can only say that Perish With Pride have made it onto my “list of local bands that I will follow in the future” and that you should absolutely check them out to make up your own mind. Be sure to check out their Facebook page and the video below. Please note that the version below is not the final mix, so it’s not as polished yet.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaB9doOLFpk]

Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloß Kottlitz

Well, well, the Germans tried to be funny again but unfortunately they failed miserably. The story is ok even though nothing special but as I always say: “when it comes to movies you do not have to reinvent the wheel, it suffices when a horror flick is creepy, a comedy is funny and B-movie is trashy”. But there is the rub, Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 is neither fish nor fowl. The movie simply has nothing to offer and besides that: the whole Nazi B-Movie genre died a few years ago.

Talking about the cast, I did not expect anyone being familiar with the art of acting but in the end it was the most famous actor, Oliver Kalkofe who was the worst. Even though Kalkofe played a very small part, he nearly made me jump right into his face and wring his neck. I laughed more during Titanic than to any joke this dude has ever told in his life. Ok, I have to admit that I can’t stand “German humour” because it, most of the time, is superficial, stupid and mediocre. Fanatic Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen SS Otto von Grimm, Knorkator‘s credit song and the film locations are three positive alternations to the rather average B-Movie.

Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 is a 45 minute long German trash comedy (without being funny) which was filmed in only 15 days. The movie is supposed to be a homage to the Exploitation movie genre and was Lasse Nolte’s graduate thesis film (respect for that!!!). According to director Nolte humans lost their ludic drive through conformism, the mainstream and the eternal search after a veracity, existential orientation, after a congenial visualization of the Zeitgeist. In his eyes Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 is the inevitable, new iconoclasm of the postmodernism. Well, my dear friend this all sounds really nice and there for sure are some exploitation elements and one can see that he knows his stuff but as I said before it doesn’t really work in the end.




Angel At My Table – In A Heartbeat


Right off the bat: today I’ll delve into a very different region of my musical spectrum, however it’s one that has always had its own place for me. I’m talking about the pop punk genre; especially the one with female singers. Enough suspense: today I’ll talk about Angel At My Table‘s new EP In A Heartbeat.

This is the second EP by the five youngsters hailing from Luxembourg and the predecessor City Romance already entertained me quite well. Even though it didn’t reinvent the wheel it had a nice vibe to it and quite catchy songs. The same can be said for this latest effort since it’s nothing new in terms of music but you can clearly see an impressive evolution: everything sounds more mature and better arranged. And there’s nothing wrong with that because why try to fix something that isn’t broken to begin with?

The first thing that you notice when you pop in the disc is that they’re using crowd vocals more prominently which is always a plus in my book since it allows easy sing-alongs at shows. The second thing you’ll notice, if you’re familiar with bands from the genre, is that they’ve drawn more inspiration from bands like Paramore and Tonight Alive than before. Especially the riffs reminded me a lot of the former band’s album Riot, which is totally fine by me since it’s one of the better records of the genre. You can rest assured though that, as far as I can tell, no riff is stolen…if that’s what you’re thinking now.

The drums are what they should be: not too complicated but at no point boring. This is mostly due to a ton of small drumfills that round the whole thing off nicely. Another nice evolution in comparison to the debut where they were rather straight forward.

Vocally I’m not noticing a huge difference but then again they already were at a high level to begin with. The biggest addition is a guest appearance by Mike Rodrigues of Falling Promises on one song which, against all odds, fits in quite nicely. My personal favorite among the six songs, on a lyrical and performance level, is definitely the “ballad” Silverlight.

To sum it up I can only say that you should keep an eye out for Angel At My Table since they’re conquering the (Luxembourgish) music scene in a heartbeat (see what I did there?) and for a good reason. Check out the band’s Facebook page to keep up with their tour dates and possibilities to buy the EP. Also be sure to check out their brand new video Eclipse below!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTfWTX5OgQ]

EMF 10th Anniversary Concert

Last Saturday the El Gore team went on a little trip to the west of the country; to be more precise to Folschette where the E.M.F., short for Éisleker Metal Frënn, held a big concert for their ten year existence. The five of us arrived a bit before 4PM and were greeted with our backstage passes and some catering, i.e. beer. Over the course of the day we ran into many familiar faces, made some new acquaintances and generally-speaking had a blast. We decided to take a different approach for the live reviews this time and we’ll have reviews from two different people: Yannick and Dave. Enjoy!

The first band of the day was Dead Eyes Memorial who managed to attract a respectable amount of people despite the early stage time. Despite this only being their second show so far the stage presence of the singer and the drummer impressed me. Because they had the longest sound check before the show they actually had the best sound of the evening I would say, but more about that later. The genre they play is kind of hard to define for me since there’s various “traditional” hardcore elements, coupled with thrash metal elements, but in the end: does it matter? They ended up being an enjoyable opener and that’s what is important.

The second band were the Dirty Crows who were kind of the outsider of the day with their desert rock. Unfortunately a lot of the crowd was elsewhere but the few that remained did seem to enjoy the performance thoroughly, especially the bass got a lot of praise from the people I talked to, although the amp was forced to its knees a couple of times. Since I’ve seen them several times in the past I can say that they managed to pull off a good show, despite many sound difficulties, and to animate the crowd that was hiding at the back of the hall. Fun fact: this was actually the first show out of two that day for the guys.

The next band were Perish With Pride who delivered a nice little change of pace in the form of metalcore. Even though I was a bit underwhelmed by their stage presence at first, they warmed up after the first two songs and managed to deliver after all in that department. I, for one, enjoyed it a lot and they were the main reason for my hurting neck the day after. Definitely my surprise of the day.

Next up were Faraday’s Cage, a heavy metal formation with high-pitched vocals. Since I’m not a huge fan of that type of voice, I took care of a quick errand and missed half their set but what I saw was not really my thing. The keyboard however did add a nice touch to the whole thing.

The fifth band of the evening were Abstract Rapture, local metal matadors, and therefor awaited by many. The crowd went wild as they opened with their hit Dematerialized and continued with a handful of older songs from the first two records before breaking into the new material. Sadly, the show lost a lot of its usual power because the sound was very weak, especially the drums were far from their usual heaviness. The band threw in a tribute song to the E.M.F. which sounded a lot like a AC/DC‘s TNT, but don’t quote me on that.

The second to last act was Girlschool, an all-female rock band who’ve been around since the early eighties. Despite being in the business for more than three decades they still brought a lot of energy and charisma to the stage. A fact that was proven by the amount of people that found their way into the hall. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the genre I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it, despite the still persisting sound issues.

Last but not least were Gama Bomb, who interestingly enough celebrated their ten year anniversary as well. Their speed thrash metal was well received by a lot of people, especially the denim jacket club in the first row who headbanged and moshed around like no tomorrow. I always enjoy watching an old school moshpit without the ever-so-present violent dancing and I was not disappointed here. Even though the sound was slightly better it still didn’t do it justice and failed to capture me in the end. We ended up leaving just shortly before they finished their set since we were all pretty much exhausted.

To sum it up: the metalheads were given a great variety of bands but the sound was a huge downer in most cases, which was a pity. But I can say that it was a great way to celebrate an anniversary and I hope to be there when it’s the twentieth one instead of the tenth.

~Yannick~

Dead Eyes Memorial: Absolutely not my genre but local band with tons of friends in the audience not letting the band down in terms of welcoming them onstage for their second gig (first ever nationally). The set was plagued by mistakes but the band did not let that bother them, nor did the crowd. Friends/fans surely loved it.

Dirty Crows: My winners of the night, again not really my genre, but the music they write/play does not need to hide behind more popular international acts and that alone deserves a lot of respect. Also having the guts to be the outsider band made them gain my respect. Probably the band with the best sound that night.

Perish With Pride: Sound better on CD than live. Sadly that could be said about every band that played that day as the sound was just horrible throughout the night. Not much to say about the band. Melodic Death Metal with some modern metalcore elements, pretty much everything I hate. Sorry guys.

Faraday’s Cage: Progressive Rock/Metal with eunuch vocals. While many seemed to go outside while the band was playing, it did not put me off. I enjoy the style, but the band wasn’t really memorable songwise. The riffs were basic and generic at best. The awful sound swallowed any attempt by the keyboard player to add his touch to the music. A band with potential for fans of the genre.

Abstract Rapture: The local heroes I suppose…but not my cup of tea. Too modern and groovy for me. Crowd were into it obviously. If you enjoy the genre you’ll love the band, I happen to hate the genre. I think that others have more to say about this gig than me.

Girlschool: Classic band, classic Hardrock sabotaged by the sound nazis. Lots of fans came from abroad to see them and the place seemed somewhat packed from here on. Short set but other than that nothng bad to say. The band obviously knows how to play a gig as they have been around for decades. Good fun!

Gama Bomb: Band delivered their set while handing out beer to fans in the front row. Nice blokes really. Generic speed/crossover thrash with a singer you have to love to enjoy the music. I don’t.

-Dave-

And that’s it, folks. The El Gore team really enjoyed their time with the E.M.F. and felt right at home from the first minute. Special mention for the superb organisation: there was no disturbance or fight whatsoever thanks to the security provided by the competent Crazy Crew, the beers were always served quickly and fresh, the food was delicious and reasonably priced and there was even a little metal market so fans could spend a bit of cash on goodies. Only two minor gripes: first of all, the location was rather remote, and in a more easily accessible place the thing could have had even more visitors. Secondly, even though it’s been mentioned many times already: a better sound could have made this evening even more memorable. Nevertheless it was a night to remember for which we want to thank the E.M.F. and we wish them all the best for the next ten years!

Reminder: don’t forget our competition where you can win a poster signed by ALL of the bands!

-El Gore team-