Indie 2006
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
28 December 2006

This is the third independent release from Finnish metal group Alliance, who have enjoyed great success on various mp3 charts such as "mp3lizard.com". Their style hasn't really changed from both of their previous releases (reviews can be found in the Archive), it's still traditional melodic metal with a strong Iron Maiden influence. Maybe the overall vibe of these songs is a touch more melodic though, which is of course a good thing in my books. They've even used some keyboards, which I can't remember them using before.

Out of the four tracks, my favourite is the melodic "Traces In The Sand", which is probably the least Maiden/Trad Metal-sounding song. The other songs have their moments as well. However, each one of the songs has something that doesn't sound quite right to these ears. Take "The 800th Lifetime" for instance - the over-the-top high-pitched vocals on the verses sound downright annoying, a make this perfectly good song less enjoyable.

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
19 December 2006

When Florida’s music scene is mentioned, the heavier bands you easily think first are bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Cynic, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Obituary, Malevolent Creation or the more creapy headbangers, Marilyn Manson. Based from this legendary place, more closely Ft. Lauderdale, From The Ashes has all the strength these Florida bands are known from and more, which makes them a refreshing newcomer.

Having released two EP's and now a full-length, this line-up of FTA has been together since 2004. Their music is based on powerful and aggressive riffs that are thundering fast forward with a typical thrash- and Florida metal attitude, although FTA's not as brutal as typical death metal bands. They’re a very skillful band delivering great melodies, grooves and smoothly played complex parts. Although they're not offering anything new to the metal scene, they're still very good at what they do. Their roots are in the 80's, mixing bands such as Anthrax, Savatage, Iced Earth, Machine Head, Pantera, Armored Saint. When it comes to FTA's potential influences, list only the greatest bands from the 80’s and add plenty more from the metal genre in general.

Indie 2006
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
29 November 2006

Here's a nice surprise from the land of TNT and A-HA (Norway). However, we're talking about excellently performed prog-metal (rock) and the aftermath of the two acts: Sea Of Dreams and Millennya. The latter act recorded an absolutely smashing indie effort back in 1998 (The Time Has Come), and I still give that CD a spin every now and then.

This is merely a 2-track demo and a short presentation of what Mayah can do. Nontheless, the tracks are full of impressive and intelligent arrangements. Keyboardist Ove Bjorn Wilson (ex-Millennya) and Bass guitarist Jon Martin Haarr at the centre of attention with some really clever ideas and progressive melodies. "The Silence Of My Sins" starts out like a 70's prog-rock tune (long and mellow bass guitar & keyboard intro) before it suddenly takes off like a rocket to the sky. It sure had me fooled at first and I really expected Mayah to be a 70's sounding prog act. Don't get me wrong though, they are still a melodic act and a hybrid of progressive rock and metal of past and present date.

Indie 2006
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
30 November 2006

Progressive Emo Pop from Finland? Yep, this is a rather experimental and indie sounding EP by the lads of At The End. It's a musical borderline case really and I'd say it's more "emo" than "prog" actually. Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Jarno-Erik Faarinen and his motley crew of buckaneers (Teemu Kiiskilä - guitar, Aleksi Kastelli - bass, Jussi Kauppila - keys, Teemu Mostonen - drums), has manage to come up with poppy arrangements with a very distinctive sound.

Indie 2006
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
30 November 2006

King's Call is melodic hardrock from Germany with an international line-up. Indeed, vocalist/guitarist Alex Garoufalidis originally from Greece returned all the way from L.A. U.S.A. to put together his own band. First to answer the King's Call? The Russian drummer Asik Bergemann and shortly afterwards came the Romanian keyboardist Hendrik Sapaldi and female bassist Martina Simon. Bloody 'ell, it's Dan Reed Network all over again (regarding the mixed line-up).

This recently recorded demo contains four tunes all nicely executed, incidentally the rather good production (especially for a demo) is due to the band, that obviously have many hidden talents among their ranks. The opening track, "All You Can Do" is without a question the pick of the bunch. This is a lovely little number in the vein of the most melodic side of Sammy Hagar. The refrain is typical Sammy Hagar material, throw in some basic melodic hardrock during the verse, and you're basically done. Simple and pretty basic rock with a nice hook.

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
24 October 2006

Now here’s something you gotta hear. Finnish MoonMadness aren’t new kids in the rock business, their names and faces are familiar in Finnish rock circles and why not abroad too, just check their website for more info. MoonMadness are still just kicking it off, though the band started forming a few years back. They recently released the one-track single called ”Thunder”, and the experience is showing in the song, the band has gotten great response to the single.

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
24 October 2006

Have we found a competitor for our Finnish vocal God Marco Hietala? Well, that's the first impression of Medley-singer Marko Salo. See, he's even got THE name! He also has some of that raving Hietala-attitude, but Salo is more of a traditional rock singer with a solid sound, and does not go for those really high pitched vocals. He still handles various styles and colours the bands music nicely with them.

Medley released their previous indie last year, which was categorized to the more thrashy genre. The guitars do heavy riffing a'la Zakk Wylde to quite straight-forward material, that isn't based on speed. Medley still have that Sabbath-Metallica edge to the songs, and each song runs with good melody passages. Along comes some grungy influences too, so their music is quite massive all in all. Yet the band has their soft spot too, shown in "Would You", the only ballad from the new songs.

ZebraFunk Production 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
9 August 2006

Going on their third indie release, Finnish ZebraFish are always evolving through each release. Now they've released three new tracks, which are also available on their website. The band seems to have calmed down some from the earlier years, leaving out most of the prog stuff, but they’re still all about making versatile popmusic with an entertaining edge to it. As before, the latest release brings in new hights for the listener.

One of the elements that keeps increasing yearly is the hiphop-kinda mood and vocals. Those who are familiar with the Finnish Don Johnson Big Band, will find similar Tommy Lindgren-type of vocal passages on this release. The funk elements and loose beats still run the show, though ZebraFish is much more gentle and not as dark as Don Johnson.

"Lockdown" is the first song, which opens the cd calmfully, moving lightly as a feather and mixing easy melodies and soothing backing vocals. "Nothing Will Be Lost" continues the eased up, airy mood, where a piano and an acoustic guitar brings in that ethnic sound so characteristic to ZebraFish, like Francis Goya on his Latino-American period. The bands sound is very clear and easily flowing, and "Strange Life", which speeds up the band a little and brings in a trumpet played by Sakari Kulmala, is good and a little different ending for the cd.

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
9 August 2006

Ocean Bed is the latest outcome from German musician Sven Horlemann, who has worked with music for over 20 years, writing songs for people and releasing many indie albums, which all represent different types of music genres. His rocker side comes out in "Ocean Bed"-release, where all the music, lyrics and melodies were written by Horlemann himself. Mostly releasing instrumentals, this release includes singer Klaus Schmuck also on credits, which gives the release more to sink into, than instrumentals do for the average listener. Being a guitarist, Horlemann does jam with his guitar too, but this isn’t a guitar record.

Indie 2006
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
16 July 2006

The Cauze are a Californian hard rock band lead by Jeff Ellis. Mr. Ellis actually wrote, performed and produced all the material on this demo CD, but these days The Cauze is a real band featuring guitarist Joel Ellis, bass player Kevin Crider and drummer Scott Misner alongside Jeff Ellis on vocals and guitar.

I usually get a bit suspicious when I get a demo that's been completely put together by just one individual. Not everyone has the kind of arsenal of talent that they can play all the instruments and sing too, not to mention that they should also act as the producer and the engineer! Therefore, I'm happy to say that Jeff Ellis does have "the arsenal". In fact, I listened to the CD for a few times before reading the bio, and not once did I think that it wasn't a real band playing...

The songs of The Cauze are mostly in the melodic hard rock style, sometimes bordering on AOR. There's even one full-on metal song here, "Last Call Woman", which reminds me of Lizzy Borden and Iron Maiden. Jeff hits some seriously high notes on it! The other songs are more to my liking though, taking their cues from classic 80'ies hard rock bands like Dokken, Ratt, Y&T and White Lion, to name a few.

Jeff's songs seem to rely on guitar riffs just as much as on melodies, sometimes even more. Almost every song has a catchy riff or two. Some of them may sound a bit familiar, but let's not start nitpicking! Anyway, the strong riffs are a bit of problem too - they'll raise your expectations about the rest of the song, and sometimes the rest can not live up to the expectations. Don't get me wrong, there are some perfectly good choruses here, like "Something Showing" or "The Chase", but some of the other tracks are missing that final touch.

Southwest Sunrise 2006
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
16 July 2006

I was quite impressed by the previous Southwest Sunrise CD, the 2-track single that was reviewed here a few months ago. Now they follow it with a full, self-financed album.

"Judges Of Eternity" looks and sounds as good as many of the "real releases" from independent hard rock labels. At the same time, I can understand why they haven't been signed to one of those labels - their kind of music might be a bit hard to market. Not a lot of new bands are playing 70'ies influenced hard rock á la Deep Purple or Rainbow these days, and most of the new releases in that style come from acts featuring some "name" members of old bands.

Both tracks from the CD-single are featured here, "Taken By The Devil" as the opener and "Judgement Day" as the closing track. Unfortunately, most of the eleven tracks in between them can't really match them. There are couple of exceptions though: the rather catchy and very Blackfoot-styled "Heat Of The Night" and the melodic "Angel", which reminds me of Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow. The other tracks are not for me, I'm afraid. I'm sure that fans of 70'ies styled classic rock will get a kick out of them though, as they are all rather vintage-sounding examples of the style.

Indie 2006
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
22 May 2006

Clown Eraser is the name of a tight and groovy power-trio unit from Örebro/Sweden. They've been around since the mid 80's and has gone through a couple of line-up changes during the past 20 years. The original line-up included ex-Motherlode drummer Bengt Eriksson, while the current one consist of original members: Kaj Roth (vocals/bass), Eddie Andersson (guitars) and new drummer Robert Persson (ex-Cowboy Prostitute).

Heavily influenced and inspired by U.S. acts such as Kiss, Van Halen, Winger and King's X, the 6-track demo is filled with interesting harmonies and arrangements. Come to think of it... they actually remind me of Dogpound (signed to LionMusic), even if the song material isn't quite as eclectic and groovy.

Indie 2006
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
22 May 2006

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
14 May 2006

Lost Detour, a finnish band based in 2003, takes a leap into both dark and light sides of life so to speak, mixing anything between jazz to deathmetal in their music. What a colourful idea, yet not new, and it works for some, but not necessarily for fans of one metal genre. ”Cause And Effect” was Lost Detours first two-song release in 2004, followed by ”Painted Veil”, which includes songs ”Painted” and ”Veil”.

The band has taken a difficult task musically doing somewhat complex music, which opens after a few listens. The progressive influences take over the small deathmetal parts, though it’s not the most complex prog. Still taking this into concideration, ”Painted Veil” and it’s over six minute songs will definately interest the progressive crowd more than the fans of deathmetal. That is, if you can tolerate the grunt vocals at all. Staying true to their first release, the band still has all the influences as heard before.

2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
9 May 2006

The Madrid, Spain based metal group Gauntlet was put together in 1998, going through quite a few line-up changes, but finally releasing their first full-length ”Path Of Nails” cd in 2005. Influenced by many ’80ies era metal bands, also thrash, Gauntlet doesn’t offer nothing new to the metal scene and plays quite lean and faceless material, but sounds like something which can only get better though hard work and time.

Gauntlet has all the basic elements to ’80ies metal, the high pitched vocals by Ivo Galenov and shredding Annihilator-like, thrash influenced guitars by Miguel Rocha and Daniel Millan, pounding drums by Alejandro Martinez and heavy bass by Santiago Garcia. They’ve learned their metal lessons well, but releasing a debut so fast wouldn’t have been necessary yet. While at times sounding quite convincing, they suddenly stumble into common timing mistakes by young bands, arrangement and vocal difficulties. All are turn-offs for anyone, so improvement is needed in co-operation. Other turn-offs are the dull and damp sound on the cd, drums included. This makes a very demo-like impression and takes a lot of edge off from the songs.

Indie 2006
Review by Satu Reunanen
9 May 2006

Mix attitude and burning ambition towards rock’n’roll lifestyle, and you’ll get Burnitude. That’s the description of the band, originally going by the name Burner. These Swede rockers started out in 1998 and released a whole bunch of high-fueled rock demos, ”Spread” was released already in 2005. It includes three light rockers, which are played with an ease and come natural from the band, who just released a new demo this year called ”I’m A Burner”. These cd’s are available through their website.

Indie 2005
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
1 January 2006

My Land is a project of Paolo Morbini, an italian songwriter/drummer. He was a member of critically acclaimed AOR group EVA, and has worked with Brunorock as well. For this project he has teamed up with vocalist Guido Priori, whose Journey tribute album was reviewed on these pages a couple of years ago. Other members of this project are brothers Stefano and Marco Andreasi (keys and guitar) and bassist Adalberto Rizzoli.

Boldly dubbed as "The Ultimate Rock Sound Project", My Land is vehicle for Morbini's AOR songs in the vein of Journey and Toto. Don't know about "ultimate", but it does sound rather good, and there are some decent songs here. In Guido Priori the project has a vocalist who has a rather personal style, with similarities to Steve Perry (naturally), Robert Fleischman and Zebra's Randy Jackson. His voice is something to get used to, and I have to admit that I'm not completely used to it yet...

The opener track "Love In Chains" is clearly the strongest track on offer, and it's probably the most hard rocking track of these. I also liked the curiously titled instrumental "Pizza, Mafia e Mandolino". However, the remaining tracks tend to be a bit too "westcoast-y" for my taste, happy-go-lucky, slick soft rockers with sometimes cheesy choruses. "Love Is Something Crazy" for example...nice and bouncy all right, but the chorus just kills the song! And while I liked Priori's backing vocal work on the Journey tribute, the harmonies on this album aren't nearly as convincing.

Anyway, if you're willing to give this indie AOR project a chance, check out their website and drop them a line - I'm sure they can tell you how to get a copy of this album. "The Ultimate Rock Sound Project" this may not be, but at least the guys are "fighting the good fight" and waving the flag for melodic rock.