MORTALICUM - The Endtime Prophecy (CD)

Swedish doomsters Mortalicum returns with their second effort. I was really impressed with the debut, but when listening to the follow-up I realize I definitely have to pick it out again. Damn, this is good! The band name may sound a bit death:ish, but Mortalicum draws influences from classic Black Sabbath with a touch of Swedish doom colleagues Sorcerer, especially when it comes to singer Henrik Högl’s clean excellent vocals. Great guitar work, tight and heavy rhythm section and killer songs with riffs that cut glass. The band does play doom, however not the slow Candlemass style, but more mixed with classic seventies hard rock and a bit of 80s UK doom such as Witchfinder General, actually a bit reminiscent of Grand Magus at their best. There’s honestly not a weak track on the entire album. This is one of the rare cases where I say: Buy or die! This kicks major butt!

Janne Stark

Label: Metal On Metal

Year: 2012

Country: Sweden

Link: www.mortalicum.com

CHRIS BICKLEY -Tapestry Of Souls (CD)

It’s great to see melodic shred ain’t dead. Chris Bickley definitely proves this. What I like about this record is that there are actual well constructed songs, not just musical excuses to shred over. Furthermore it should be notes this is not a 100 % instrumental album. Chris uses the talents of Cactus singer Jimmy Kunes who adds his great bluesy feel to the track This Time It’s Gonna Hurt, while Baton Rouge/Norum/Schenker singer Kelly Keeling sings on Crying Shame and Yngwie Malmsteen/Obsession singer Mike Vescera adds his voice to A Step Behind, not forgetting the excellent Outloud singer Chandler Mogel, who sings the melodic metal track Lead You Astray. The vocal tracks are nice interludes between the instrumentals. Bickley is more of a melodic pentatonic player than an all out shredder. I really like his use of bluesy licks and nice melodic riffs. The production, by Bickley and Vic Steffens, is not flawless but good enough. I like Chris solo style where he plays with the song as apposed to play over it. I however notice there’s slight lag in some places, like as if there was a slight latency in the lead guitar channel. It may be my ears playing tricks on me, but I reacted to this a couple of times. Well, minor thing. A really good and solid record.

Janne Stark

Label: Shredguy Records

Country: USA

Year: 2012

HOUSE OF LEAF (CD)

To be honest, this was actually the type of album I was expecting and even hoping I would hear from top notch singer Leif Sundin. Leif has been heard in bands like John Norum Band, Michael Schenker Group and Great King Rat. I truly love Leif’s rough edged bluesy voice when he does heavy rock, but I’ve also really heard him shine in ballads. House Of Leaf is all about singer/songwriter style melodic pop/rock with a slightly bluesy vibe. Not being the authority in this genre I would however compare House Of Leaf to the stuff I know and like such as John Waite on Temple Bar, Mark Spiro and the excellent underrated CD by Micke Nord Andersson and Johan Norberg. What I didn’t know and really surprised me was that Leif is also an excellent lead guitarist! Very tasteful playing indeed! Bluesy, sensitive and with great accuracy! The ending solo of Broken Old Record is really outstanding. The song material is really strong with great catchy choruses, but without being in any way cheesy or overly commercial. I’ve spun this CD at least ten times already and it’s just keeps getting better with no sign of being worn out so far. Highly recommended, indeed!

Janne Stark

Label: self-released

Year: 2012

Country: Sweden

Link: www.houseofleaf.com

SOUL SIGN - Life In The Dark (CD)

Yngwie Malmsteen’s excellent bass player Björn Englén formed the band Soul Sign way before he teamed up with the Swedish guitar hero, and he released a MCD with the band ages ago. A good effort it was. Now he’s decided to give it a new shot. Besides Björn handling the bass, the band is an all American unit featuring guitarist Rob Math, drummer Mike Taylor and former Leatherwolf singer Michael Olivieri. Soul Sign plays heavy guitar driven metal with a touch of Black Label Society at times, but also a bit similar to bands like Black Water Rising and Brand New Sin. Modern heavy rock with some good solid riffing going on. I’m unfortunately not really a big fan of Michael’s vocals in this context. He did a great job in Leatherwolf, but to me he doesn’t fit this genre as well. Probably a matter of taste though. Great bass playing from Björn who works great together with drummer Taylor while Math delivers on the guitar parts as well. The song material is good, but at times a bit generic and without any real highs, or lows for that matter. A good album, but I think there’s room for stepping up the game a bit on the next one.

Janne Stark

Label: Grand Mercy Records

Year: 2011

Country: USA/Sweden