Vapula

Moonstone Project – Rebel On The Run(2009)

Someone might say that music is like food. You have a favorite food but if you eat the same thing for days you will hate it! Everyone needs a change. So after being bombarded with doom and “gothic” Metal bands, I wanted a change. And this second album of MOONSTONE PROJECT came like a blessing!

This project is the child of Italian guitar player Matt Filippini. In 2006 their debut album “Time To Take A Stand” was released. Filippini wrote the whole album with a little help from songwriters that were close to him. Since I haven’t listened to this album, I’ll stay [......]

Dream Evil-In The Night(2010)

Fifth full album for devoted Euro-power metallers DREAM EVIL, and what we have here is a known recipe, closely followed and embellished with lots of talent and skill. DREAM EVIL have come a long way to establish themselves in an already crowded genre, and what one hears in “In The Night” is a mature band that plays power metal so confidently as if it had been around since the 80’s.
“In The Night” is old school metal played in the new millennium by a band that knows very well what it is doing. Power metal almost by definition enjoys the great-vocals property but it is important no[......]

Dodsferd-Suicide and the Rest of Your Kind Will Follow（2009）

Greece’s favorite hate-spewing machine is at it again. Dodsferd is Wrath, and he lets you know it on every album, and the newest album Suicide and the Rest of Your Kind Will Follow continues that tradition. However, it isn’t what I expected, it’s even better than that.

Suicide and the Rest of Your Kind Will Follow takes a decided dark turn into the world of epic blackened doom metal, with only two songs making up the 36 minutes that the album has on there. Taking a break from the “black and roll” that he has been known for, Dodsferd takes a thought of five minu[......]

Fear Factory-Mechanize(2010)

After a long road from 2005’s Transgression, Fear Factory have resurfaced once more to give us a new lethal dose of industrial discipline.
This mutated version of FF only had one thing in mind and that was to erase the last 8 years as if they never happened, Burton C. Bell at some point claiming he lost interest in heavy music pretty much signalled what could have been the end for the band but it was thanks to the newly reconciliation between him and long time co-founding guitarist Dino Cazares that restarted the machine that laid dormant for a long time. The aim of the game this time is[......]

HIM-Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice (2010)

’I am scared to death to fall in love,’ admits HIM’s front man Ville Valo on second track “Scared To Death”. To understand the irony of that statement, one must be familiar with HIM and have had listened to some of the band’s previous albums from the past. All throughout their career as a band, Finnish rockers HIM have crafted albums that all center around the lyrical subjects of darkness, vampires, and love. With varying ways as to how they approach each album musically, whether commercial or more aggressive in nature, the band have always held strong to their paradox blend of lyrical s[......]

Across The Rubicon-Elegy(2007)

Across The Rubicon is a Polish newborn band with members of Cold Fusion and Rukkanor (among others). It has just issued its first album of 10 neoclassical martial industrial assaults. At the first look, we gaze at the simple yet so efficient design of the booklet: beautiful blue/grey pictures, cloudy skies, marmoreal coldness and uncertain harvest… The quality of the music however is rather a certainty!

“Soldat Inconnu” is introduced with a sample of a French military song: sadly the quality sounds to be a bit 128 kbp/s, but it isn’t that noticeable and it just has not[......]

Rome – Confessions D’Un Voleur D’Ames(2007)

Now I am a firm believer that first records play with advantage. I am considering here ‘Berlin’ an extension of ‘Nera’, but the explanation of my previous statement is pretty obvious. Say when you write your first record you are 25 years old. It means you’ve had all that time, in one way or another, to be influenced by various things, to explore, discover, listen, silence. It means that you have a clear idea of what you want your project to sound. Basically this way I want to defend two postures. The first one is that the second record is mainly the most difficult. The second is that, frankly,[......]

Dargaard – The Dissolution of Eternity(2001)

Dargaard was founded by Tharen in 1997. Tharen had already played a prominent role in several underground bands by this time, including Abigor and Amestigon, both black metal bands and Dominion III, an industrial music act. Tharen was the keyboard player in Abigor, but Amestigon, Dominion III and Dargaard are entirely his projects. Dargaard was born out of Tharen’s desire to move away from black metal and express himself through more ambient and classical music.

Also joining the band was Elisabeth Toriser as vocalist. Elisabeth was also the vocalist in Dominion III and was also involved [......]

Triarii – Piece Heroique(2006)

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant. So creep Triarii on ‘Pièce Héroique’, their cindery follow-up to ‘ars militaria’, a triumphal arch of bombast and orchestral swells limned with choir and dark vocals. Encapsulating the Trajan typeface dominating the album’s cover in strong caps – puissant blocks of line, crisp geometrically carved serifs, and curving harmonic arches – so enfolds the music that launches with the opening track, ‘Le Crépuscule Des Dieux’. Accentuating a dark glory of Empire strings lend the air minatory aplomb, marching without percussion usher arteries of choir and strings o[......]

Novalis – Paradise…?(2005)

Novalis has returned to the dark music scene after their popular debut full length release on Black Rain records “Last Years Calling” in 2002. It has now been three years since most of us were originally swept away by the emotion and dark romanticism of Novalis. In the three years that have passed Novalis has added new drummer Mario Krell to the line up of founding members Stev Schumann and Marcel Hinkel. Other new additions include two violinists, a guitarist and a trumpeter as well as a new backing female vocalist all of whom appear as guest musicians on “ Paradise …?”

When I first li[......]