Reviews | The Metal Resource

Grace and Thieves – Shepherd Of The Wolves

Posted by Don De Necker on May 25, 2013 at 22:17 No Responses »

May 252013

Now I have been involved in one form or another in the punk scene for probably just on 25 years. Listened to a lot of punk or punk influenced music during that time. I am not your average punk however as I have a very broad spectrum musical taste, and it broadens more and more has the years pile on. So what does this have to do with the review, well absolutely nothing. Okay so I have the pleasure to review Grace and Thieves latest offering, which is the 4 song 7inch vinyl release, “Shepherd Of The Wolves” available through Veritas Vinyl.

So who are Grace and Thieves then some might ask? Well firstly they describe themselves as playing heavy, neurotic, fast punk / hardcore. There is no splitting hairs over this, because that is what you’ll get. They further describe themselves in their description as, “Like giant sandpaper fingernails across an electric chalkboard at a machine gun festival.” So Grace and Thieves formed in 1999, are out of Salem, Oregon and the band consists of the current members who are: Justin Riley -Bass/Vocals/Lyrics, Jesse Parks – Guitar/Vocals/Lyrics, and Mickey Widmer – Drums/Background vocals/Lyrics. Continue reading »

Darkness Divided – Chronicles (ep)

Posted by John Jackson on May 22, 2013 at 22:51 No Responses »

May 222013

Darkness Divided advertises themselves as a metal band from San Antonio, TX and while purists may cry foul and label them as metalcore, they do bring more to their sound than the typical metalcore that so many of us have grown tired. At this point, Darkness Divided has released two singles, “Redeemer” and “Yoyager” after this ep and in those one can hear their sound maturing and perhaps shifting more toward the metal side of metalcore, which is a good thing.

Darkness Divided formed in 2010 as a four-piece band containing three brothers and ever since then have played shows with a number of well-known bands, even ending up on the bill for one of the Scream the Prayer Tours (STP III). Often one can learn a lot about a band by who they are playing shows with and the most recent Darkness Divided date was earlier in May (2013) when they played a show on The Hard and Relentless Tour with Saving Grace, Those Who Fear, and Ark of the Covenant, some of the better known Facedown Records bands. Continue reading »

My Silent Wake – Silver Under Midnight

Posted by WhiteMetalMan on May 22, 2013 at 22:03 No Responses »

May 222013

Ian Arkley is one of those prolific musicians that don’t seem to take a break. He always has at least one project on the boil, whether it be Seventh Angel (1987-1992 & later resurrected in 2008), Ashen Mortality (1993-2004) or My Silent Wake (2005-present). MSW specialises in gothic doom and has released ‘Shadow Of Sorrow’ (2006), The Anatomy Of Melancholy’ (2007), ‘A Garland Of Tears’ (2008), ‘IV Et Lux Perpetua’ (2010) and ‘Silver Under Midnight’ (2013).

The latest album was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Greg Chandler (Esoteric) at The Priory, near Birmingham (UK), with the exception of ‘Midnight’ recorded by Ian Frost at Kewsound, Somerset (UK). The line-up for this recording was Ian Arkley (vocals, guitar, keys, ebow, bass & percussion), Kate Hamilton (bass & dulcimer) and Mark Henry (drums). Their sound embraces progressive and gothic elements melded with metallic doom.

PelleK – Ocean of Opportunity

Posted by Don De Necker on May 16, 2013 at 20:53 No Responses »

May 162013

Music is an expression of art; its an art form by whom some are able through their mastery of it can turn it into a timeless piece of symphony that like a great painting can be enjoyed generation after generation highlighting moments of brilliance. Enter Per Fredrik “PelleK” Asly, a brilliant Norwegian musician and composer. After the success of his “Bag of Tricks” album in 2012, he comes back stronger than ever with a full ensemble of great musicians to bring us to the essence of this review, his latest release, “Ocean of Opportunity”. PelleK has this to say about his latest work inside the cd cover,”…this album truly marks the beginning of a new era. I have spent the last twelve months traveling and researching geography and the world’s cultural differences in order to take you on a unique journey of revelation, self-realization and ultimate fulfillment.”

By any account, this is a massive release, its epic and unique compositions are flawlessly executed, and put this album not only ahead of the game, but places this album and the band as one of the best things the progressive metal / power metal scene has to offer. In short they are poised for greatness if they continue along this path, and do not drop the ball. This is a concept album, but fear not, this is one of those concepts you can play all day long. Continue reading »

A Common Goal – Blessings and Battles

Posted by John Jackson on May 13, 2013 at 17:00 No Responses »

May 132013

Melodic punk rock that crosses boundaries, primarily due to the strength of the songs and the approach in lyrics and music. Sounds like a bit of a stretch unless it’s a band you’ve heard of before, doesn’t it? I’ll go out on a limb here and say that A Common Goal are pretty close to fitting this description in just their first full-length. There is a lot of crossover appeal to this album but still a certain bit of grit and punk rock attitude where you can still easily picture them playing these tunes in some seedy dive bar in front of a rough crowd.

Seems like just yesterday that I reviewed the ep For God and Country by A Common Goal and now here we have a full length with all new songs. Listening to the two releases side by side, the first thing you notice is the addition of the second guitar on Blessings and Battles and the difference it makes. The sound is much fuller, more complex, and seems more complete. Some of the songs are veering toward the poppy side of punk at least from a music standpoint, but the raspy, gritty vocals from Mike May anchor the sound and keep things from getting too pretty.

Wonrowe Vision – Pictures of the Past, Present and Future

Posted by WhiteMetalMan on May 12, 2013 at 17:52 No Responses »

May 122013

One of Steve Rowe’s earlier incarnations was the classic metal band, Lightforce (1986 to 1989). Then he formed Mortification and unleashed the first christian death metal album ‘Mortification’ in 1991. Their 1992 follow-up ‘Scrolls Of The Megilloth’ was a masterpiece of fast death metal with some doom influences. It was a mark of a great band that they were highly regarded in the whole of death metal scene at that time and ‘Scrolls’ is still considered to belong to the elite albums of that scene.

However, Steve still hankered back to those earlier days. His lifelong interest in and passion for 70′s classic heavy rock and early 80′s classic gospel rock led him to form Wonrowe Vision. It is influenced by the 70′s mainstream bands such as Status Quo, Deep Purple and Motorhead combined with the 80′s gospel, hard rock sounds of Resurrection Band, Jerusalem, Barnabas and 100% Proof.

Sinners To Saints – The Greatest of These

Posted by Don De Necker on May 10, 2013 at 18:19 No Responses »

May 102013

So it seems that the metal-core keeps going on, it refuses death, and no matter how many bullets are shot into its hide it always comes back. More so in the Christian metal-core scene. I think its the Christian scene that’s keeping the glow in metal-core from going out in a nasty explosion. Ultimately if I am to be honest with you, I won’t cry if metal-core were to be smite out one day.

So this brings me to that latest release I have had to review, which is “The Greatest Of These” – by Sinners And Saints. Its their debut release, and if you did not know it by now, they are a metal-core band in the line of For Today and As I Lay Dying. These fella’s hail out of South-Eastern Pennsylvania in America. Their message, “…. on a mission to spread a message of hope and love to every single person they come into contact with. They look to be a light and a friend in an otherwise dark place” – The bands face book page under their biography. Continue reading »

Death Dealer – War Master

Posted by John Jackson on May 8, 2013 at 00:49 No Responses »

May 082013

Looking at the cover art for War Master by Death Dealer, I couldn’t help but think this was either going to be a spoof like Austrian Death Machine or it was going to be an old-school/classic/power metal album. While I can appreciate Austrian Death Machine, I was happy to hear the classic power metal emanating from my speakers. Death Dealer waste no time in setting the tone for War Master, with the band’s namesake track starting out with some rapid-fire drumming that is joined by some high-pitched screaming vocals and fast guitars. With members sharing a pedigree including Manowar, Cage, Halford, and Lizzy Borden, you can imagine pretty well what the end product would sound like and you would be right.

One of the joys of the internet age is the relative ease at which music collaborations can happen. The supergroups of year’s past were a rare commodity as it was typically difficult or nearly impossible to get everyone together to record. Now, band members never even have to be in the same country to put together a project. In some ways this is good as sometimes egos are so big they can’t exist in the same studio at the same time, but this does lead to collaborations and bands putting together projects where there is never an intention to tour and let’s face it, when an album is great, we all love to see it performed live, so there is a downside as well. Death Dealer have said that “it’s important for us to be seen as a true band…we are very serious about the music without taking ourselves too seriously”, so let’s hope they can get together and hit the road, because this is heavy, fun music that would be great to see live. Continue reading »

Hippos Of Doom – Road Trip (EP)

Posted by Don De Necker on May 5, 2013 at 23:01 No Responses »

May 052013

So what do we have here? While for those whom who are unawares 2 of the Hippos are from The Absolved, another great Thumper punk treasure. Namely these two individuals are Byron Brumit and Bob Magana. Who let these Hippos out on society? Did they not know the inter galactic “hippobrodom” (….) that would unfold. This merry band of misfits know how to have fun and their songs are signatures of that. From hanging out with fake dinosaurs to being avid Star Wars junkies, and with a name like Hippos of Doom, would one expect anything else than an album of fun adventures. One would expect to find these guys hanging out at ComiCon or something in HIPPO suites, with a comic book stand displaying copies of say a series of comics on the adventures of the Hippos of Doom – the galactic interstellar exploits as they battle the forces of darkness, whilst in-between missions, playing playstation or Xbox.

“Road Trip” is the Hippos of Doom’s debut EP, and in my opinion serves as a platform for their debut full release coming out soon. So lets get down to the hooves of the release. The album starts off with the fun loving, “Old School Rocking Crew” , reminding me of some of those classic 90‘s Christian pop punk bands like Value Pac and Ghoti Hook, great guitar playing by Bob and Waldo, pulling off catchy riffs like seasoned Jedi’s with their weapons of choice. Continue reading »

Raised From Death – Raised From Death (EP)

Posted by Don De Necker on May 4, 2013 at 22:46 No Responses »

May 042013

As I have said in previous reviews, I struggle to bend my ears around the sound of metal-core how ever good it is at times, it might help sometimes when its infused with a bit of hard-core, but still I have strong anti-sentiments towards the genre, and its hard to be completely non-influenced by that when reviewing bands.

So presented to me for review is the band Raised From Death with their self titled EP release. To let you a little more on the band these guys are pretty serious about their relationship with Jesus Christ, and in their facebook biography do not split hairs about it. “Through his love and forgiveness he gave us new life, hope and a new perspective. This experience is what we want to share through our music, live shows and our lives with those who are still looking for hope. This is why Raised From Death is not just a band but a personal invitation for you to be “raised from death” as well. We hope that our songs will inspire you in that way.” – Raised From Death (Facebook band page). They describe themselves as a worship/hardcore/metal-core band. There is no doubt that is clearly what they are.So that will give a clear perspective on their lyrical content. Continue reading »

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