Nargaroth – Jahreszeiten


You don’t have to be my number one stalker (you know who you are) to know that, at least nowadays, I mainly listen to metalcore and things that go into that general direction. However, I pride myself in the fact that I listen to a lot of different genres and that I can usually at least draw one aspect out of each one of them that keeps me interested. I actually plan on writing some more “special” reviews in the future, but I don’t want to promise anything. Today, however, I want to write an unusual review about an album that some people regard as one of the more unusual ones out of that genre.

Before I get into that I’d like to preface it with a warning of sort: only about 75% of the following paragraphs will be about the actual music, the rest is sort of a personal reason as to why I love this record as much as I do. If you haven’t deduced it by the title or the fancy picture yet: I’m going to be talking about Nargaroth‘s Jahreszeiten which was released in September 2009.

Those of you that are either fluent in German or have a vague knowledge of it will know that the title of the album stands for “seasons”. The songs are named after the four seasons in chronological order: Frühling, Sommer, Herbst and Winter. The general concept being that each song is supposed to evoke certain feelings associated with these periods.

The first track fascinates me a lot since it’s full of antagonisms in form of a spoken word in German by Ash, the artist formerly known as Kanwulf and the only member of Nargaroth. To delve into it too much wouldn’t do it justice so I advise you to check it out for yourself, I for one can identify with more than one sentence from it. After Prolog, the album starts off for real with a very atypical riff that I remember captured my attention right off the bat when I first listened to it. Many people mockingly refer to it as a fun fair melody since it’s a really cheery melody…which is exactly what it’s supposed to be since it describes the joyful feeling that people generally get as spring begins to drive away the cold weather. The song then transgresses into a slightly more dramatic tone before ending with the same happy tune. If by this point you have not turned off the song you have either nothing else to do or you have grasped the concept of the whole thing. I hope it’s the latter since if you keep that in mind throughout your listening session you will get a lot more out of the experience.

Instead of taking apart every single song I prefer to leave it up to you to make up your own mind. However I want to say a few things about the general production and lyrical content: the production is, for a black metal record, very clean which is one of the things that amaze me most. Because even though it’s probably as far from the much acclaimed Black Metal ist Krieg as it can get in terms of “grittiness” it still manages to be aggressive and raw in the parts where it is supposed to be, mainly so on Winter. In terms of lyrics it’s full of metaphors, as is usually the case on Nargaroth songs, which are related to the artists personal past and which, I must admit, I don’t understand most of the time.

This concludes the main review and if you don’t feel like reading a bit about my own reasons for liking this record you may stop here. But be sure to check out the song below and head to the official website where you can buy the CDs and get recent news. If however you want to continue, there’s more below the video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvfQqJeNF08]

In the same year as Jahreszeiten was released I had to be hospitalized in December due to a medical emergency, so to speak. It was only a brief stay of two nights and since I generally don’t like hospitals as well as the visits there, I decided that I didn’t want any visitors. On the first night I slept peacefully and rather early since I was to go into surgery the day after. I opted for local anesthesia as it was only going to be an incision of about four centimeters and the whole thing went by without any greater complications…well, apart from the fact that I caught a cold in the operating room. On top of the fact that I don’t like hospitals very much I’m also not a fan of painkillers so most of the time whenever my IV drip was empty I didn’t contact the nurse, nor did I ask for any pills or whatever. The cold however didn’t care much about me being a bit special in that area so I was coughing and sneezing like no tomorrow; pain ensued. Yet, instead of pussying out I simply did the one reasonable thing: I listened to music. And I’ll let you take a wild guess which album I listened to from 1AM to 4AM in a dark hospital room in a mild state of delirium of pain coupled with a slight high from the remaining effects of the anesthesia and IV drip. And this is the story behind that album. Maybe I’ll do something along these lines in the future, if inspiration strikes.

Jumalation – The Church Of Isaac

Finland seems to really have grown into a small Metal nation since the early 1990s. Mostly known for their Black Metal and Death Metal bands, here we now have the greatest Thrash Metal album released since 1992!! I kid you not!

Jumalation, sadly, seem to have been a one time thing though as most members are active in Força Macabra. The band was formed in 1997 and The Church of Isaac was recorded in 2006, released on CDR in 2011 and, finally, on vinyl in 2012.

I came across the band when I received a newsletter and Infernäl Mäjesty stuck out in the description. For those who don’t know, Infernäl Mäjesty released one of the top 5 Thrash Metal albums ever. Of course I was skeptical at first, however Infernäl Mäjesty were not very unique to begin with. So I decided to give it a chance. Jumalation do sound like Infernäl Mäjesty, the main influence being Slayer though, which was also the case for Infernäl Mäjesty. I also hear a lot of Onslaught, Exodus, Destruction, Sepultura and Exumer.

The singer has the tendency to let his voice go up in the weirdest spots, kind of like Paul Baloff (Exodus) or Darren Travis from Sadus. Whenever he uses a hoarse growl or Hardcore shouts he reminds of a young Chuck Billy (Testament) or, at times, even of Roger Miret (Agnostic Front). His accent also reminds of Brazilian bands. Really weird but entertaining to have a singer with a split personality.

The church of Isaac is a thrash metal odyssey. Jumalation do not sound like a copy of a classic band, they sound like a follow up to a classic Thrash metal album. The music sounds familiar, yet the songs are new. Unlike most of the newer Thrash bands, they do not just steal familiar riffs to create generic songs. Jumalation created an album by sitting down and analyzing what Thrash is really about and wrote songs in the vein of certain classic Thrash albums, omitting the friendlier Bay Area sound for the more aggressive Teutonic and Canadian styles. They hit the right spot for me, this is how I love my Thrash!

This is a guitar album, riff upon riff upon riff. It is just amazing how many awesome riffs they come up with, especially on side B. The only notable exception being Tormentor, an 8 minute long mid-paced, doomy song. Here the band pretty much kept it simple riffwise, but have leads and solos allover the place. Sounds like the more progressive Sacrifice songs released on their Forward to Termination and Soldiers of Misfortune albums.

I can not recommend this album enough to any Thrash Metal freak!

Sadly most people will never get to listen to this masterpiece. I emailed the band asking for merchandise and everything is sold out. The CD version was in fact a CDR limited to 99 copies. The vinyl, which can still be bought on eBay, is limited to 500 only. So what are you waiting for??

Thrash or die!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfWNrhOPbRk]

Kyūketsu Shōjo tai Shōjo Furanken aka Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

After the really great Tokyo Gore Police in 2008, Yoshihiro Nishimura one year later decided, together with Naoyuki Tomomatsu, to direct a new movie: Kyūketsu Shōjo tai Shōjo Furanken aka Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl.


In the beginning there are already two hints at which direction the movie will take. First of all, there is co-director Nishimura, a gore and blood aficionado with an inclination to the surreal, bizarre and perverse. Secondly there is the title of the movie to savour: Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. Try to imagine a scenery or just one image of the movie, and let me tell you that you have no idea!

In short, the plot is quite simple. It is all about the vice-principal/science professor of a “common” High School who with the help of some vampire blood, discovers that he is able to make nails come alive (YES nails!!).

As his daughter fell to her death from the roof of the high school during an argument between a vampire girl and the former’s chosen one, the vice-principal decided to create a Frankenstein daughter by killing other students in order to get the strongest and best human body parts and guts. I won’t go any deeper into the plot but I can assure you that this movie is the most mental tragic love triangle and jealousy story I have ever seen.

It is not the story in itself which makes this movie what it is. What I really liked was the fact that the detached imagery and scenes with the movie evolving always go one better until the final blowoff. The movie is filled with tons of blood, guts and is a celebration of insane black comedy best shown when the directors make fun of inter alia “Japanese” alternative fashion trends like Ganguro and wrist cutting with the 13th nationwide high school student wrist cut rally (!!).

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is a typical absurd postmodern Japanese Punk movie including tons of weird, messy and obscure manga-esque fantasy creatures and unreal Troma-like violence. This time Yoshihiro Nishimura seemed to be in a better mood because unless in Tokyo Gore Police, the atmosphere is less dark with more fun moments and a massive amount of blood spilling human beings and hydraulic monsters.

This movie has absolutely no depth and doesn’t strike me as an interesting flick but one thing is sure it is god damn entertaining and jaw-droppingly amusing. Check it out if you are bored with nowadays pseudo-intellectual movies.



Dreadnought – Demon


To most Luxembourgish metalheads that visit local shows the name Dreadnought will at least sound familiar since they’ve played quite a few shows in recent times. Now they’re finally here to invade your living room with their demo Demon which they released on June 16th!

For those of you that don’t know: Dreadnought play melodic black metal paired with thrash riffs. Now, as you might have noticed from my previous reviews I mainly listen to metalcore nowadays and while I’m not uninformed about other genres, my knowledge is limited to a certain extent. Which is why I have to say that the combination of those two genres sounded weird to me at first but my fears were soon cast aside. It actually adds quite a nice twist to the, in some cases, boring “let me write one riff and repeat it for the rest of the song with a little variation here and there” approach that some more traditional, so to speak, black metal bands have.

The demo starts with a short acoustic intro and then kicks into gear with, what my ears seem to identify as, a completely untriggered drum and a rich but in no way overproduced guitar sound. That sentence might come across as negative but it actually makes the album sound way more natural and raw, which is exactly what they intended to do. Not every snare, tom or base hit sounds the same and in some parts I noticed that the beat was slightly off but, even though I love big (over)productions, it just adds so much more charm to this little seven song endeavor.

The guitar front is, as mentioned, packed with diverse riffs that alternate between the “classic” black metal-type type and the heavier thrash type. The bass is also easily audible throughout the whole demo which is always a plus for me since it generally tends be undermixed on other albums.

The vocal duty is fulfilled by the Kraton singer who sings in a more screechy voice to fit the genre and I can honestly not find anything bad about his performance. The only thing that bothered me was that I kept trying to think of a voice that his reminds me of but I couldn’t quite come up with one except maybe Satyr on the older material of Satyricon…but don’t quote me on that one. Be that as it may: he doesn’t need to be compared to anyone and stands his own ground quite nicely.

All in all I’m impressed by the quality of both the songwriting as well as the recording of this quintet’s first effort since it’s entirely self-produced and I’m looking forward to their first non-demo release to see what else they can come up with. Hopefully more Luxembourgish songs à la Hänk dech op since that’s something that’s been missing for a while in our metal scene in my opinion.

Be sure to check the band out on Facebook and listen to their album below.

Metalucifer – Heavy Metal Hunter


Metalucifer have been in existence since 1995 and Heavy Metal Hunter is their 2nd release.

The Ep is a classic release for various reasons. The main reason being the music. It just is that great! Especially if you know something about the history of Metal and how bad the scene was back in 1996 when this Ep first came out. Another reason being the fact that it is a Sabbat side project. For those of you unaware, Sabbat are one of the oldest Black Metal bands in existence. They started out as Evil in 1983 (!) and play, still to this day, in the old Venom vein.

Each song can be found on multiple other releases, albeit in different versions. Personally, I do enjoy every version of each song. The band does not just record the same song over and over again but each version is different (vocals in English or Japanese, different solos, different lyrics, etc).

The Ep starts off with their classic Heavy Metal Hunter, a hymn to the genre and the bands mentioned in the lyrics. One does not simply sit still while listening to the song. I know that I cannot help myself imitating Gezols‘ accent when singing along to “Heavy Metal Hunta…HUNTAHH!!!”.

Monster of the Earth is a slower number in the vein of early Iron Maiden (as is most of the material this band has ever released). The funny thing here is that it sounds very Japanese in an Anime way, meaning that I can imagine this song being played in an 80s or early 90s Japanese Anime. It has the silly lyrics, overly melodic guitar solo, etc.

Fallen Angel has that classic 80s Venom vibe and sounds more like a Sabbat song. In fact it might just be that as I know that some Metalucifer songs already existed in the 80s and were played/recorded by Sabbat (Wolf Man being one of those). Anyways, another great song for fans of 80s Metal.

Wolf Man starts off with a Speed Metal riff and might be the fastest song on the Ep. It is one of my all time favorite Metalucifer songs. Just listen to that chorus once and you will never forget it, EVER! I can not count the times I found myself singing “Oh woulf-uh man aww uh ooh”. This song, along with the next 2, is in Japanese….apparently. See, the thing here is that you just can’t tell because of Gezol. His English does sound Japanese at times and when he does sing in Japanese you don’t realize it. That is not meant as criticism though.

Bloody Countess is another song that I own on countless Sabbat/Metalucifer compilations/singles as a demo version. Same as with Fallen Angel, this sounds more like a Venom/Sabbat song and, in fact, it was written for Sabbat in the 80s. The middle harmony part is total Iron Maiden worship and leads into an awesome solo. That part always reminds me of Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden.

Headbanging is another fast Speed Metal song with a sing along chorus and sounds like faster Accept songs or even early Metallica.

I am reviewing the recently re-released 12” which, apart from the original 6 songs, has a bonus track in Thrash Metal Hunter. The song is, sadly, not a new one as I have it on the Heavy Metal Hunting compilation, if not on more releases. Former Death and Massacre drummer Bill Andrews sits behind the drum kit on that song.

It basically is Heavy Metal Hunter with different lyrics. I do not know if I am just used to Heavy Metal Hunter or if the lyrics don’t go down as well. I just prefer the original version.

All in all, I do own 3 different versions of this Ep and they all seem to be rare and hard to find. Chances are you will have to get this re-release if you want to own it. Personally I would recommend the first CD and vinyl re-releases just because they have more bonus tracks.

Either way, this is great music, so it does not matter which release you get, as long as you get it!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymUEpF0YXkI]

Trash Monday XXV


Poor, poor Eamon. Whining about his ex who cheated on him equals one hit wonder. Chubby English girl (*cough* Adele *cough*) whines on her album how hard the breakup was, over and over again… equals multi-platinum success.

Boys don’t cry, eh? And where’s the equality, for fuck’s sake?

Check it here since embedding isn’t working.

Manos: The Hands of Fate


Before I start I have to point something out: Manos: The Hands of Fate is NOT the worst movie ever (this one it shall be). But it is pretty nasty too and I completely understand why it is recognized as one of the worst ever. I highly doubt that anyone involved in this movie knew something about film. The story is completely boring and makes sense only half of the time.

In short, Manos is about a family getting trapped by a polygamous fucked-up cult (I wonder if the members are neighbors with the charismatic chainsaw loving incest psychopath family we all know from another movie). While the cult weirdos are arguing about what they should do with the family, the latter one constantly tries to escape. Even though the story is boring as a porn movie without a donkey, it is by far not the worst. Ok, there are important illogical and redundant scenes which sometimes seem to be completely isolated from the main story (check out the master’s bitches breaking out into a silly fight, which reminds me of the silent film era). In Manos: The Hands of Fate it seems that they forgot the sound-effects or simply weren’t able doing multitasking, so they had to choose between the effects and the music.

Talking about music, I have never heard such a miserable, pseudo free-jazz shit in my whole life, needless to say that it is completely unsuitable and miss-placed throughout the whole movie. Not even that the music completely sucks, there are also many volume disparities and synchronization mistakes between the music and the so-called dialogues, which puts me on edge (it is said that the used camera wasn’t able to record any sound, so everything was dubbed in.)

Actors and dialogues suck big hairy monkey balls, both are completely implausible and abysmally bad. Even the body and especially facial expressions don’t fit to the different vocal tones (emotions) or are very hard to interpret.

Manos is really a pain in the ass and I am not even talking about the utterly bad camera work (check out the filming while the family is driving in their car!). If you chose to work with a 16mm Bell & Howell model, you definitely should know something about editing and cutting.

Finally I am very happy that the movie isn’t a serious attempt in creating something artistic as it only was a result of a bet.

Manos is a public domain movie, so you can check it out everywhere on the web. Thanks God for that!!


Interview with Plankton Waves

Last May, the electronic duo Plankton Waves released their first single called Cloud Caravan. Their sound combines familiar electro-beats, poetry, songwriting and mysteries. In our interview we talked about the path from rock to electronic music, about nature and the 80s.

El Gore: One of those questions you can read again and again (but which I like to ask anyways) is about the change from loud guitars to the synthesizer. Is this always due to a broad taste or were there other reasons in your case?
Plankton Waves: Not using guitars anymore in fact wasn’t a conscious decision but the result of an unexpected and, at the same time, natural process. Guitar and bass always were important elements in our former bands and the songwriting was based on those instruments. We had our first electronic experiences with Minipli, but still the guitars stayed very dominant. With Plankton Waves, and after becoming a duo, we experienced many musical changes but we continued with the setup we were used to.

Our first record Unduriel released in 2010 was an important first step indeed, but it didn’t feel 100% right in a certain way. We felt like heading into a dead end and we realized that we had to change something to let our visions become true and find the right sound. So we decided to backtrack for a while in order to find new ways and learn the technical and creative know-how that would let us implement our ideas. During that process we built up a little studio and fell in love with analogue synths after having only worked with digital or softsynths until then, mainly because they were very easy to operate.

We knew that the analogue stuff was the right deal for us after having used one for the first time. It animated our sound and gave it the right depth we had been missing. On the one hand, old devices have natural and warm aura in their sound. On the other hand, their handling is way more intuitive. This is why the guitars had to stand back more and more, because new worlds opened for us, paving the ways for our visions.

We’re still using instruments like pianos, accordions or shakers, but every time we tried to integrate a guitar in one of the songs it just didn’t feel right anymore. Of course we won’t exclude the possibility of using guitars again one day. We don’t want to limit ourselves in any way, neither do we want to force our sound in one direction. We try to find out what a song needs, and at the moment none needs any guitars.

EG: What are the challenges in this musical style, especially when not being mainstream?
PW: Our ambition is the music in itself, so we don’t think too much about challenges. For us, the important thing is to get our sound close to what we hear inside our heads and to make our songs distill into their essence. That’s why we experiment a lot while recording, both creatively and technically. During our live performances, we try to underline the essence and the atmosphere of the music by wearing special clothing or make-up. We want to extend this in the future by adapted light shows, projections etc…

Being not mainstream and a small band in general, the biggest challenge probably is about marketing and promotion. This means a lot of work but it is an essential part of spreading one’s music. We have a very lively music scene in Luxembourg, but it is also important to get abroad on a permanent basis, especially if you are more ambitious and don’t see your music as being only a hobby. And this means patience, work and endurance. But first of all there is the creative aspect.

EG: Your lyrics used to be always sung (at least as far as I remember it from John McAsskill) in different languages. Was this a cultural or a substantial, artistic decision?
PW: We use English most of the time. It just emerges like this. English is a good language to sing in considering its flow, and it still is the international music language, so to speak. But there are a bunch of songs who demand another intonation. This often becomes clear during the first jam or lyrical improvisation. In the past, we had songs that were sung in pseudo-Spanish or in a fantasy language. On our new single, there is a song in German, namely Cloud Caravan, where we used a part of a poem written by Jakob van Hoddis. Both, language and poem, just perfectly fitted for that song. We tried an English translation but it just totally changed the whole flow. This wasn’t a bad thing in itself, but in the end we decided to go with the original language. Language, in this sense, seems to be more an artistic decision, but of course it is a big chance that we’re able to speak different languages due to our cultural background.

EG: Your sound is like a composition of a strong relationship with nature and with music from the 80s (at least in my ears, correct me if I’m getting lunatic). Do such mixtures arise automatically or is this something you wanted to be a part of your style?
PW: We know what you mean. Actually, we don’t think too much about a song when we start writing it. One idea leads to another or just totally changes the original idea. It often is an intuitive and also very long process, which we don’t always control and after which we’re often surprised about the output. There are of course conscious decisions, but they’re subordinate to the creative aspects and mostly they concern technical things.

We understand your feeling about nature and the 80s. We always preferred the countryside. Of course we often love to be in cities, they can be very inspiring, but in the length of time they feel too bright and loud, like an anthill in which everyone falls over everyone else and in which you can’t hear yourself anymore. That’s why we prefer living and working outside cities, where it is calm and where we are more surrounded by woods than by cement. On a musical level this state of mind probably results in a warm, natural and organic sound.

And, of course, we both grew up in the 80s and 90s, that’s were our musical origins lie, and that’s what shaped us, if we like it or not. It becomes obvious in songs like We Are while it’s less obvious in other ones. We rather don’t have any inhibitions to create such references, but we don’t do it purposely, so in the end, it is just an half-conscious process.

EG: Is a more pessimistic undertone inevitable or rather an unwanted side effect?
PW: We don’t necessarily hear a pessimistic undertone in the songs, rather a kind of melancholy or a form of gloominess, which is nothing pessimistic for us. Our songs don’t have a negative basic statement, even if they seem gloomy. You can find a glimmer of hope in each of our songs, or at least the hope of finding hope. In all of our songs we’re looking for a kind of beauty, and every beauty has a certain melancholy and gloom inside. This may not be obvious at first sight but you may feel them at certain moments. In this sense a kind of darkness is unavoidable for us. We think that this is more fascinating than the‘sunny side’, because the sombre part is the one giving the beauty its depth, being hidden under the surface.

EG: Which are your main influences?
PW: Spontaneously, we can’t name musical influences. We have a pretty eclectic taste and there are lots of interesting artists in many different genres who probably influenced us more or less consciously. Just to name a few ones that influenced Natalie and me (Michel): Sonic Youth, early PJ Harvey, Diamanda Galas, Sergio Leone, Portishead, Tocotronic, Soap & Skin, Verdi, Le Tigre, Kyuss, Gorgoroth, Vangelis, DAF, Nirvana, The Knife, Fever Ray, A Silver Mt. Zion, Beethoven, 2 Unlimited. My (Michel) personal main influences are my dreams. I dream a lot and very intensively. When I work on a song, I often have one of my dreams in my head and I try to orient myself by it or to capture its mood.

EG: One question that immediately came to my mind when I read the news: how did you get in contact with an Australian merchandise agency that used your single as their video soundtrack?
PW: We coincidentally “met” on Facebook a few months ago. Boa Campbell liked our sounds and she asked us if she may could use our single when we released it. She may also found us because of Belle Sauvage, a fashion label from London for which we already had done soundtracks for two of their promotion films. This is definitely one of those internet stories for which we just love social networking.

EG: Considering the future, what are your short-dated plans and do you already have long-dated ones?
PW: We’re playing a concert at the opening of the “op den 3 Eechelen” museum on the 15th of July and on the 21st we’re playing at the “Graffiti Jam” in Lorentzweiler. After this we’re going to shut ourselves away again in order to finish our record. We’re also planning a few concerts in Luxembourg in autumn and winter, but we mainly want to organise concerts abroad starting in late 2012. There will also be another video and some other audiovisual stuff.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR5bVUM42Is]

Memphis May Fire – Challenger


Memphis May Fire is a band that I first stumbled upon around May 2011 because Danny Worsnop, singer of Asking Alexandria, tweeted one of their lines and I ended up looking them up. The lyrics were from their back then fresh album The Hollow, to which I listened to countless times in the following months. Needless to say I was surprised yet excited when they announced in early 2012 that they were working on a new record already, and several weeks later the release date was set for late June.

The new album Challenger was teased prior to its release by two full songs: Prove Me Right and most of all Vices. Both those songs were killer and got me severely stoked for the full release, mainly the latter song because of its topic, but more about that later. So when I finally held the CD in my hands I was a bit giddy to hear what else they had come up with and on my first listening session I was kind of disappointed.

But let’s rewind: the album has a clean and powerful production which puts you in the proper mood right from the first riff that is played during the intro. The drums have a slightly industrial note to them and sound really over-triggered all throughout, but that’s already been the case on the predecessor and thus it’s kind of part of their trademark sound. The guitars have also kept their powerful sound and only the bass seems to be more pronounced on this record, which is very enjoyable to me since I am usually unable to filter out the bass lines in metalcore…but then again I’m no musician.

The vocals are also at their usual perfection in both the clean and scream department and there are quite a few very melodic vocal passages that are almost bound to stick in your head at the latest after the second listening. On top of that there are two guest vocalists: Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens and Danny Worsnop from Asking Alexandria. Since I enjoy both their voices I was truly looking forward to their performance but I ended up being partially let down. The song that Quinn appears on is, lyrics aside, the weakest on the album and his singing was kind of boring, especially if you compare it to his guest appearance on Pierce The Veil‘s song that was released around the same time as the first teaser for Challenger. Worsnop’s song however put everything right for me again since it’s the exact opposite: among the top songs of the album and an equally fitting performance.

Now, you might ask yourself why I was disappointed after my first listening session…easy answer: I listened to the album without having the booklet with me. Let me elaborate. I’m the kind of person that pays a lot of attention to lyrics and the ones on this album had some very interesting topics. They’re about the difficulties in the music business, the touring stress, love lost and alcoholism. The latter is the theme of the aforementioned song Vices to which I could relate to in some parts.

All in all I can safely say that Challenger is probably not an album that you’ll like from the get go but which needs some time to settle in your head first…if you give it a chance. But even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll end up finding the one or the other interesting riff or breakdown here and there. Be sure to check out the band’s Facebook page as well as the video to my favorite song below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I8cVlZDOT4]