Harry Potter is back in his transcendent form of Serious Black – the band. And this only a short year after their astonishingly powerful firstling As Daylight Breaks. I still remember when I hit the play button the first time. It felt like being in a jet fighter taking off. Bang it went, and you just hoped, you got these shock absorbing seats that could take the brunt of the attack. And clearly at first we thought that this bunch of old guys (well, yeah..) were not able to punch this one through. How wrong: All seasoned musicians, the band pulled this off beautifully and got us a really powerful record to enjoy. … Got hooked? Raid this some more...
Tag Archives: The Rasmus
Amorphis – Circle (2013) – Review
It is the Amorphis trademark sound alright, no doubt about it. But I am still confused. Circle, the 11th studio album of Finnish metal artists Amorphis showcases its pockets of excellence very well. Actually many of them. But then also lots of elements that absolutely make no sense to me. And you just ask yourself: Quo Vadis, Amorphis?
Okay, it may very well be – as it was opined by some of my co-reviewers – that the band has been on the lookout of a different, more unique sound – somewhat confirmed in their follow-on album Under The Red Cloud in 2015, where they managed to kick it up a few gears and add some additional juice to their tune.… Got hooked? Raid this some more...
Amaranthe – The Nexus (2013) – Review
Wow! We found ourselves some nexus here. Right? The Rasmus on steroids with a taste of Britney Spears! And this featuring a female front and two more male singers – one clear voice, the other growls. It is kind of a vocalist overkill of sorts. And all that voodoo is delivered without the feathers that you would have gotten from Lauri and his gang! One could describe it as total Pop and Disco Metal, fully out of control, but with a few solos made by Olof Mörck. Those got my attention straight away by the way – not bad at all.
In addition, some of the growls would make Arch Enemy proud.… Got hooked? Raid this some more...
Serious Black – As Daylight Breaks (2015) – Review
First, I was confused. Very confused. What does Harry Potter do in my metal world? Here I am ending up listening to a newcomer called Serious Black composed by some very well known names in the metal genre – Roland Grapow (Masterplan, Helloween), Thomen Stauch (Blind Guardian), Mario Lochert (Visions Of Atlantis), Dominik Sebastian (Edenbridge), Jan Vacik (Dreamscape) and Urban Breed (Tad Morose). And those six musicians of long date and some standing decided to found a new project – sorry – a band dangerously closely named after some character in the Harry Potter series. Well, well!
But bad naming apart, then I really started listening to this and – lo and behold – it is actually pretty good.… Got hooked? Raid this some more...
The Rasmus – The Rasmus (2012) – Review
I was very worried about the not-so-stellar solo performance of Lauri Ylönen produced in his 2011 solo album New World. This sounded like some kind of a bad to worse development of former terrors, along the line of what we saw happening in The Rasmus last record. But – to our good fortune – this did not happen in this new record. Big relief!!
OK, it is now a given, folks! Their style is fully anchored in Pop Rock, but nothing bad about that – if you do not like their style, don’t bitch about it – just stop listening to it. At least they got rid of (most of) the obnoxious Disco elements that almost killed me in their last Edition of Wonders of the World.… Got hooked? Raid this some more...