Helalyn Flowers – “White Me In Black Me Out” (2013)

Label : Alfa Matrix

Review by Davide Torresan

Born in 2006, the Italian Helalyn Flowers reach the goal of the 3rd album after a couple of nice works like “A Voluntary Coincidence” and “Stitches of Eden”. This duo of musicians is formed by Nøemi Aurøra and Max, and they propose a rather original sound that mixes industrial, rock, an abundant use of electronics and the beautiful voice of the singer Nøemi.

“White Me In Black Me Out”, like the title suggests, shows us the two faces of a medal: one white, calm and melodic, and another one, black, dark and chaotic with its guitar riffs and some overwhelming refrains that will punch you brutally in the face. Continue reading »

Igorrr – “Hallelujah” (2012)

Label : Ad Noiseam

Review by Luisa Mercier

I stumbled over French Igorrr (aka Gautier Serre) by mere chance on the Facebook page of another musician and after thirty seconds of listening to the linked track, I was like: What the f***k is this? He is completely crazy, dear readers and categorizing his music is impossible. He mixes every musical genre known on this earth of ours even though the more apparent influences come from Baroque music, Black Metal and electronica (schizofrenic breakcore mainly). You may think that those are very distant genres, but this is not true if you listen to Igorrr. You’ll be listening to dramatic opera vocals one moment and growls and powerful guitars the one right after as in “Damaged Wig” for example (the final part is totally unbelievable).  Continue reading »

North Diamond – “По Ту Сторону Бытия” ["On the Other Side of Being" - "Po Tu Storonu Biytiya"] (2012)

Label : Grailight Productions

Review by Vard Aman

North Diamond formed in Moscow in 2008 and play what could be described as a combination of melodic Black Metal and Death Metal. “По Ту Сторону Бытия” is their debut album; and it is just as this kind of music should be. North Diamond do not mess around: “По Ту Сторону Бытия” is a short, sharp, relentless no-prisoners-taken half hour of blackened melodic brutality that any fan of this type of music will drool over. Elena Scarlet is an expert and versatile growler, moving freely from deep Death Metal growls to Black Metal shrieks, with her own snarling growling style in between. There are some clean vocals as well – there is a guest vocalist that features on this album, Valentina Aaron, and the clean vocals could be hers (on the single that North Diamond released after “По Ту Сторону Бытия”, “Fall of Man”, clean vocals were provided by Evgeniya Rodnikova of Aura and Emerald Night). Continue reading »

THE EDGE OF PARADISE @ The Mix, Seattle, WASHINGTON, USA – 27/04/2013

Live Report and Photo by Vinnie Johnson

Edge of Paradise, heavy metal band from California stormed through Seattle WA this past Saturday, April 27th and they marked their presence. I’ve discovered Edge of Paradise a few months ago when they released their single, “Break Away”. I was curious to find out weather they are just another female fronted act or a band to watch, and they are definitely the latter. With solid and refreshing material and phenomenal musicianship, Edge of Paradise is no band to take lightly. Continue reading »

Black Sun Aeon – “Blacklight Deliverance” (2011)

Label : Cyclone Empire Records

Review by Luisa Mercier

Black Sun Aeon is the solo project of Tuomas Saukkonen, who is already involved in many other bands (Before The Dawn, Dawn of Solace, RoutaSielu). He used to keep this project to explore other sides of his music mixing gothic, death, doom never losing sight of melody. While the previous work “Routa” was mainly focused on instrumental music, “Blacklight Deliverance” has two guests singers that alternate in the seven tracks: Mikko Heikkilä and Janica Lönn (female singer from Lunar Path). The opener “Brothers” has powerful yet melodic riffing as only Finnish can craft, while Tuomas growls and Janica creates magical landscapes with her vocalising. Towards the end an acoustic interlude makes everything softer and sweeter. There is a real winter mood throughout the song that goes on with the following “Solitude”. Continue reading »