After an absence from both this site, and also a bit from the metalscene, the first CD that I get to review after my come-back HAD to be a sampler… On itself, I have nothing against samplers, but there are 14 different bands on this CD and I need to find interesting, fitting discribtions for all of them… Nice welcome! ;-) …Anyways, to the task at hand. Lyra was kind of enthusiastic about Metalmessage volume 1, so I was eager to check out the second. As said, 14 songs from various bands with a total running time of over 70 minutes. Most of the songs are in the black and folk metal genre. I’ll just give short describtions of each song and my opinion about them.
The CD kicks off very good with a song from the familiar Japanese black metalband ‘Tyrant’. The varied song consists of both aggressive and calmer passages, and during the songs I can even hear a tiny bit of Borknagar-eske music but that might just be me. Awesome song. Germany’s ‘Unlight’ is next, it’s song kicking off as deathmetal but suddenly turning into furious Marduk-style (chorus!) black metal. Some parts of this track are good, others need to be worked on.‘Weird Fate’s song is a nice try, but it lacks consistency, doesn’t really sound as a whole, and has weak production. I hear some good idea’s, but this band still needs to grow some more.‘Knowhere’ from Switzerland managed to write a song that actually worked on my nerves a little; it made me think of a convulsing sort of Finntrol. Musicianship is okay and the general idea of the song is also good, but it just sounds…wrong!
The band ‘Wolfchant’ contributes to this CD with a decent celtic/folk/black song that has a very nice intro. First and only (Doom-) Deathmetal song on the CD comes from ‘Suffering Souls’. Long, fairly slow song, with a nice grunt. Don’t really have much to add to that. I have trouble pinning ‘Convergence’ from Austria down on a specific genre, but I can say I liked the song, especially the vocals. It is generally mid-tempo, and is a little ‘moody’ in a good way. Not all songs can be good. ‘Schattendasein’s’ song, sounds a little uninspired, with a weak sound. Overall it’s not a very interesting track. That doesn’t count for ‘Nebelhorn’, however. After the first tones have passed, I suddenly get overwhelmed by some very awesome black metal-blasting. I got the same impressed and enthusiastic feeling with those passages as I had with such bands as Vital Remains. Bugger that the last 1,5 minutes aren’t as good. The ‘Odroerir’ song is folky with good male and female vocals (in German). Nice.‘Horn’ sounds as if they recorded the song in a large empty hall, and is mediocre. Their folk-black metal mixes clean and raw vocals, but I’m not too impressed. The strangely named Klabautamann contributes a solid black metalsong, of which I don’t have a lot to say as it simply sounds okay. Australia’s number one metalband is ofcourse Sadistic Exekution, and ‘Baltak’ sounds like a less talented nephew. Their track sounds like it is build up in a high-speed train way: straightforward with hysterical vocals. ‘Black Messiah’ is in the right place as the last band on this CD, not because they are bad, to the contrary, but because their melanchonic and atmospherically rich song is the perfect last track after all the sonic violence on this CD. My impression of this sampler is generally good, there are always songs you like more or less on CD’s like this and Metalmessage 2 is no exception. Mediocre and good songs are both present, and a metalfan who wants to know what’s going on in the Underground won’t be dissapointed. I was already familiar with several bands (most notably Tyrant and Baltak), but I will definetly keep an eye on some of the other bands as well. Note: Volume 1 was limited to 500 copies if Lyra was right, and I don’t know if this is the case here too. So if you’re interested, I suggest you react fast, just to be sure. Only things that remain to be said are that Tyrant and Nebelhorn are represented with the best songs on this album in my opinion, and that the overall score of this CD is:
8/10 Points – reviewed by Bloodreaver
official Website: http://www.metalmessage.de