HUMAN COMETH - HCII (CD)

In 2010 the first Human Cometh album, Evolution, was unearthed. A very promising release indeed. Human Cometh is actually an on-line collaboration conducted by great guitar shredder Morgan Pettersson. Some of the recordings were done in Sweden, while the drums were recorded in the USA. Now the follow-up is here. Well, I’ve done the on-line collaboration thing myself with Constancia and I know how hard it is to make it glue together and sound like you were actually recording together. Morgan and the boys have succeeded very well. HCII is one solid sounding album. Great performances, great mix and a very coherent album in all areas. Morgan is a really great and interesting guitarist with a nice tone and impeccable technique. Singer Kaj Roth has been in the shadows for years, never really getting to shine on record. Here he does a great job indeed! The bass work is handled by Björn Pehrson, keyboards by American Jay Shankman and drums by fellow country man Jon Robbins with Rob Coney handling backing vocals. The style is classic hard edge melodic metal/hard rock, sort of the same file I’d put Ozzy Osbourne and Hughes/Martin era Black Sabbath, but there are songs that deviate from the formula. One being the cool melodic rocker Challenger Deep, which gets a nice vocal facelift by Josefin Bäck. There are also some proggy moments here and there mixed in with straight ahead heavy riff-rockers such as Supervolcano. A great album, well worth checking out!!
Janne Stark
Label: Self-released
Country: Sweden
Link: www.humancometh.com
 

BULLETSIZE – The Apokalypse (CD)

Swedish metallurgists Bulletsize bring the apocalypse. Musically that is. The Apocalypse is quite a mixed bag of styles, forging death metal and thrash with quite technical overtones. The opening title track really brings the hammer down. Second track Out Of Silence however feels a bit messy. It could be the production, but at times it almost feels a bit untight. This is something I hear here and there in other tracks as well. It’s powerful and it’s heavy, still they mix in nice touches of more melodic and classic metal. With so many great death metal bands out there it’s quite hard to reach above the noise. Bulletsize have a couple of things going for them, with one being the musical mix and there are some pretty good songs on the album. The vocals are within the traditional death metal growl formula and the energy sure is there. On the downside the sound could be a bit tighter and I’m not really into some of the guitar solos which are slightly below par, like the end part of Eyes Of The Blind, while others are quite good. All in all a pretty decent release if you’re into death metal.
Janne Stark
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011
Label: Happy Minds/Cosmic Whale
Link: www.bulletsize.se
 

FREDRIK PIHL – Silhouettes (CD)

Swedish guitarist Fredrik Pihl now releases his first solo effort. The six track CD starts off with the track Above The Surface. It immediately strikes me that the main riff used is an Indian scale often played by Freak Kitchen’s Mattias Ia Eklundh as an exercise. The aforementioned guitar hero is making a guest appearance on the track so I presume it’s fully legit. Fredrik has a good tone and his playing is fine, but the production is actually quite poor. Quite bad sounding programmed drums, at times overplaying quite a bit, and a mix that sounds like it was done in a laptop with no monitors. I’m sorry, but in this day and age when the possibilities are endless and you can find someone to mix your recording at a fair price. A bad production is not a good excuse. The Demonic Masquerade has a nice melodic verse. I’m a bit surprised the keyboards are so dominant for a guitar album. The track features nice soloing from Fredrik, showing a melodic side as well as a more technical flare. Most of the songs have a fusion-oriented touch with odd rhythms which is nice. The title track, which at times has an almost folky feel, features a guest solo from Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (now in guns ‘N Roses). It’s however a bit too long to keep the interest intact without having any major changes. By The Blue Horizon is a nice melodic keyboard based piece with a guest appearance by keyboardist Lalle Larsson. Unfortunately the programmed drums are again overplaying quite a bit. Nice acoustic guitar melodies, though, while the electric guitar solo feels a bit too jazzy and scale-based to really fit the song. All in all, some nice guitar playing going on, but the songs are in my opinion a bit too dissonant to really catch my attention. I do like fusion, but I still want some nice hooks and melodies, and sure there are, but they come and go quite quickly. Also the production is an issue that really should be put in focus next time around.
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: www.fredrikpihl.com <http://www.fredrikpihl.com/>
 

NEVEREVEN - The progress Of Disaster (MCD)

I love discovering new talented band. Today’s discovery goes under the witty anagram Nevereven and is an American four-piece. I immediately hear some really nice King’s X overtones, and while doing this I read the name Ty Tabor on the cover. Well, the fact that the band used the talents of King’s X guitarist/singer Tabor to master the disc was probably no coincidence. The opener on the MCD, The World Of Tomorrow, has a bunch of King’s X in the main riff, but apart from that they do have a sound and touch of their own. Strong melodic chorus and a great sound. Gary Pickard has a great voice, too, the guitar work is great and I really like bass player Damian Peters’ intense playing. Remainder keeps the flame burning and is another great melodic piece, only small grains of the X-men here. Third track Give continues in the same vein, also with some really nice harmony vocals. They actually remind me of another excellent American band, .end of story, which is a good thing. Winterkill is a slightly darker and heavier track, but still with the really nice harmony vocals. This is a really enjoyable release that will spin a lot in my player. Finishing track Orpheus leaves off in the same vein. I like the tempo change, which is a nice touch and makes the song a bit more interesting. Great stuff indeed! My only criticism would be that if the band makes a full album they should add some tracks that varies a bit more from the format. On this release the opening track is the strongest one, while the other four tracks are great, but a bit too similar in shape and form. Highly promising, though!
Janne Stark
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Label: Self-released
Link: http://www.neverevenmusic.com/

BLACKRAIN – Into The Black (CD)

It all started under the name Just A Quick Stop, at the time as a duo featuring guitarist Ronny Blylod (Destynation) and singer Daniel Söderberg. They released a pretty promising CD. The band was reinforced by bass player John Vigebo and drummer Henrik Söderqvist and they now became – Blackrain. I first saw the band at the Rock Out Wild festival in 2011, and was truly blown away by the band’s live performance. Into The Black is an outstanding debut, I must say! If you’re into melodic hard rock with a touch of King’s X meets Alter Bridge, but with classic hard rock elements in the mix, this is a must. Heavy, groovy and melodic with singer Söderberg really taking it to the next level. The sound is very organic, in your face, honest and may as well have been recorded live in the studio with some additional overdubs added afterwards. It’s by no means over-produced and even though I really like it, I think it’s here it shows it’s a self-produced production. The song material is really great with lots of cool groovy riffs and nice hooks. The band sounds tight and they really deliver on all levels. It’s very even album with no low points, and no extreme highs either. This is however not a bad thing. I much rather have an even, strong album, that one with 2-3 killer tracks and the rest below average. This is an album you can fully enjoy start to finish. Well done! Already looking forward to the next one!
Janne Stark
Year: 2011
Label: JAQS
Country: Sweden
Link: www.myspace.com/blackrainsweden <http://www.myspace.com/blackrainsweden>