Feb 06

Act Noir, Shape a new Start

By bruce album review, new album release No Comments »

4 years after their first release, the all Italian band Act Noir release their second album, Shape a New Start.  Released in January 2010 under Milan’s Eibon Records, the new album features the new vocalist Gaetano Notarnicola.  Their music and vocals blending sounds like a mixture of Depeche Mode, A perfect Circle with a spice of Placebo.  Although their electro rock roots still remain strong, this time their musical direction is more melodic.

The overall album construction is like a spiral in which the electro music, rock and vocals fit very well together.  It all starts with the loud ‘Shatterproof Beauty’, featuring good heavy guitar riffs and drum works, accompanied with very catchy electro beats.  The way guitars and synths exposure changes, fit well the vocals style.  With a mixture of heavy electro beats in ‘Set Fire’, excellent drum loops and guitar melodies in ‘Wrong Places’ and a perfect balance of synths and guitars on ‘Redemption’ make this album a must listen to.

The closing track, ‘The Higher I Went, The Deeper I Feel’ is most probably the best track on the album.  After this electro rock journey, it is only appropriate to close with a slow, melodic and atmospheric track, which suites well the theme of the lyrics.  The lyrics explore the need to shape a new start, as the album title suggest.  Personal redemption of the past and the need to make changes and amendments is a need which cannot be ignored.  A journey back to the roots of humans and a look forward to start the much needed change!

and I cannot see the end
all my efforts all my hopes
to give this world another go are lost
down in the deepest blue
where everything is staying still
and no one wants to rise above and see the truth

The album is available from Eibon Records, where some samples from the album are also available.

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Jan 30

In the Woods… first release; HEart of Ages

By bruce album review, talking about music No Comments »

In my teens I used to own a number of black metal albums from Cradle of Filth and some other black metal bands.  Although I do appreciate the talent needed to play such genre of music, I never managed to stick to such fast and noisy music while not understanding a word from the lyrics.

But I just listened to Heart of Ages, an album from the Norwegian band In the Woods… This was their first official album, released back in 1995.  Surely they left a good impression and this was their stepping stone to attract a huge number of worldwide fans.  Unlike today’s releases, Heart of Ages has that “not so perfect and polished” sound, which makes it sound more realistic.  Also, this album cannot be classified as black metal.  It’s an interesting and experimental blend of progressive Heathen metal, black metal and a hint of doom metal, and an influence of classical music as well.  The slow and athmospheric parts contain clean guitars, dark atmospheric keyboards, clean male and female vocals, which blends really well with the fast and high pitched guitar riffs and grunts.  Therefore this makes it impossible to label these seven symphonies as one genre type.

Good combination indeed!

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Nov 06

Depeche Mode – Sounds of the Universe Review

By bruce album review 1 Comment »
After the 4 years of silence, England’s electronic band are back with their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe.  Like everybody else, before listening to this album, my expectations were not really high, for a couple of reasons.
In the late 90’s, Depeche Mode didn’t really deliver what was expected.  They weren’t able to surprise us much like they used to do in the 80’s and early 90’s.  It is like they got stuck in the same waters of the monotonous 90’s commercial pop culture.  Though with the release of their 11th studio album, Playing the Angel, finally they delivered what was expected and much awaited from their fans.  So after such a great album, it is quite hard to expect a lot from them.  Few bands managed to release a back to back master piece.
Though with the release of Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode took another evolutionary step, far and far away from today’s radio played dance and commercial pop music, and surprised us again.  They dug deeper into their adolescence dark electronica.  Finally, it’s like they went back in time to some Gothic age, and found themselves again in the Black Celebration era.
Don’t let yourself be influenced by the non commercial success of this album; e.g. their first single “Wrong” only made it up to number 24 in the UK single charts.  Not making a commercial success means something.  As I said above, Depeche Mode ran away from the commercial music genre that today’s generic public likes, and got back to their roots.  Therefore in 2009, Depeche Mode released an album which can still be enjoyed from any hardcore Depeche Mode and electronica fan.

After the 4 years of silence, England’s electronic band are back with their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe.  Like everybody else, before listening to this album, my expectations were not really high, for a couple of reasons;

In the late 90’s, Depeche Mode didn’t really deliver what was expected.  They weren’t able to surprise us much like they used to do in the 80’s and early 90’s.  It is like they got stuck in the same waters of the monotonous 90’s commercial pop culture.  Though with the release of their 11th studio album, Playing the Angel, finally they delivered what was expected and much awaited from their fans.  So after such a great album, it is quite hard to expect a lot from them.  Few bands managed to release a back to back master piece.

Though with the release of Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode took another evolutionary step, far and far away from today’s radio played dance and commercial pop music, and surprised us again.  They dug deeper into their adolescence dark electronica.  Finally, it’s like they went back in time to some Gothic age, and found themselves again in the Black Celebration era.

Depeche_mode

Don’t let yourself be influenced by the non commercial success of this album; e.g. their first single “Wrong” only made it up to number 24 in the UK single charts, or Rolling Stones album review, where Sounds of the Universe scored only 2.5 out of 5.  Maybe Rolling Stones are more into promoting new commercial artists like Lady Gaga, then masters like Depeche Mode.  After all they want to find a way how to sell their magazine, no?  Not making a commercial success means something.  As I said above, Depeche Mode ran away from the commercial music genre that today’s generic public likes, and got back to their roots.  Therefore in 2009, Depeche Mode are still able to release an album which can be enjoyed from any real hardcore Depeche Mode and electronica fan.

Sounds-Of-The-Universe

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Sep 15

Proscriptor – The Venus Bellona

By bruce album review No Comments »

Proscriptor McGovern, a well known extreme metal drummer founded a one man band in 1995, called Proscriptor.  His first project album, called ‘The Venus Bellona’, was released in 1995.

The album contains twenty two tracks, and is a combination of new wave and experimental music.  Apart from keyboards, Proscriptor also used a mixture of folk instruments in this recording.  As a matter of fact, the album got hints of free-form folk music as well.  The music is accompanied from his witch like voice, which has a range of 4.5 octaves.  The blending of his witch like voice with the advanced rhythmically and undisciplined music writing, make the album sound like it has originated from something supernatural, and sometimes it can be quite disturbing.

According to Proscriptor website, “His lyrics are often so serious that they become humorous in a way; rambling discourses on the relationship between ancestry and immortality in medieval Scotland. The whole album has a wonderful, weird-like feeling about it, especially since it features a whispered rendition of A Flock of Seagull’s “I Ran (So Far Away).”"

I would definitely suggest buying this album if you like to listen to something different, unique and weird at the same time, though you need to be in the right mood to listen to it, since it is not an easy album album to listen to. You can listen to some samples of his music from here.

The Venus Bellona

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