INNOSENSE- Outcast (2011)

Some sort of actual review will be up later, for now I'll let you check out this greek prog metal band and judge for yourself. My oppinion? Best 2011 prog metal album I've heard till now.

ABARAX- Blue room (2010)

ABARAX is a German band playing some sort of Pink Floyd inspired prog rock. Till now they have released two albums of which the second one presented here is the best. What we get here is a beautiful album of melodic, atmospheric and stretched out songs that set a nice mood. There's some early Scorpions influence in there too, especially in the vein of songs like Fly to the rainbow, epic ballads with a symphonic/pompous tone. The guitar adds some moments of magic, there are some really inspired solos going on in songs like Life, which you can check out below. Don't expect any jazzy wankery, the stuff is extremely melodic, harmonic and tranquil. It's just on the brink of being psychedelic, but I'm very cautious about using this term, it got a little bit misleading with all sorts of post rock/experimental/drone/shoegaze bands claiming to be psychedelic. Nostalgic and moody may describe it better, but is has the ''close your eyes and drift away'' effect for sure. You can check their interview on the 2nd issue of Lonely Road by downloading the pdf file on the right column of the blog.

ATTICK DEMONS

In case you feel bored by the last efforts of Iron Maiden, if you can trace no spark in their songs and get lost in their attempt to get progier, more epic or whatever they are trying to do (and failing bigtime I might add), then Attick Demons from Portugal is your solution. Very much like the first couple of albums by Machine Men, Attick Demons are HEAVILY influenced by Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson. In fact, if Iron Maiden loosened up a little and went for the kind of catchy songs they did in the 80's, this is what we would get: a bunch of great sing along songs in the tradition of classic 80's heavy metal with the sound of today. One might say Attick Demons are just copycats, but to me approaching a great band with love and conviction is always respectful. If only we had such ''copycats'' for every great 80's metal band...

Before you bash the band for being too retro I have to make something clear: This band obviously loves Iron Maiden and 80's metal, but they don't go for a 100% retro 80's metal sound in the vein of Enforcer, White Wizzard etc.. That's were bands like Edguy come in, more in terms of sound and approach towards the past. Singer Artur Almeida on the other hand is obsessed with Bruce Dickinson, you could swear this is a side project of Maiden's frontman. He sounds exactly like Bruce does since his triumphant return to heavy metal. I've mentioned earlier that Attick Demons have catchy songs. Well, they don't just write catchy stuff, it's also very strong too. Picking highlights from the album can get very tricky, because the band wisely put only 9 songs on their album and they are all awesome! There's lots of enjoyable guitarwork going on and more than memorable melodies.

In conclusion, the guys got themselves a new fan. This is a cd I will go out and buy and in case they show up near distance I will be in the front row. Up the Irons! Up the Attick Demons!





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLEgrJhg3GM&feature=related