World Of Metal 2: Ragestorm, Broken Fate, Barque Of Dante

Ragestorm: The Thin Line Between Hope And Ruin (Independent)

Ragestorm hail from Italy and they play true death metal with a massive modern groove metal hook thrown in. This is their first full length and it's a bit good, full of technical riffage, harsh guttural vocals and the modern American screaming favoured by Randy Blythe. The vocals are shared by Marke and bassist vocalist Kolla neither of whom have a clean vocal between them but when the music is this fast, loud and brutal, the guitars of Tele (lead) and Rufio (rhythm) are razor sharp running through thrash influenced death metal of The Meatgrinder Theory and Idiocracy as well as breakdown fuelled American Groove of tracks like Debt Ritual and Acid Tears which has some killer drumming from Bonny and massive breakdown. This is an accomplished album from the Italians who have a similar sound to British Death metallers Bloodshot Dawn with their technical death style but with the added bonus of some chunky American style metal they have a wide ranging sound that will stand them in good stead. A good debut and for any fans of the genre. 7/10   

Broken Fate: Rising To The Dream (Independent)

Broken Fate hail from Switzerland and they play some seriously quality heavy metal with lots of great guitar riffs, drum passages and some strong vocals. The band go for the traditional Metallica set up with drums from Alessandro De Cicco, bass from Dario Stutz with lots of sterling lead guitar work and some guttural roars from Roman Leeser and the riff frenzy's of Tobias John Bänteli on rhythm guitar and lead vocals which are somewhere between Matt Drake and Tom Araya. With some amazing tracks like The Way In Your Eyes which has huge chugging riffage before exploding into Eternal Memories which turns into a Fade To Black-like middle section and then erupts into a super speed solo. The band mix modern American metal in the vocal department, but merge it with classic thrash which and some massive clean leads and lots of pit starting snarling thrash. Things slow down on the acoustically dashed Fate before ending with the instrumental. This is a killer E.P from the Swiss crew one which cannot be ignored, lets hope their debut (slated for a 2014 release) is as good as it might be something a bit special. 9/10

Barque Of Dante: Lasting Forever (Mort Productions)

China, a country not really known for its heavy metal output, but much like their neighbours Japan they do seem to be obsessed with power metal with massive progressive/symphonic influences as well as some Asian ones on tracks like the mega-ballad I Will Never Forget which is an excellent duet with a great female vocalist. Things start off with the electronic instrumental The Light Of Polaris before we are brought straight home with the title track which is very Stratovarius like, with some powerful guitars, huge keys and driving rhythms. The band all play excellently and really bring the power metal home with some killer solos, great galloping riffs and lots of keyboard and some progressive passages throughout. The band have English lyrics with vocals coming from Thomas Winkler who fans of cheesy power metal may recognise as the singer of power metal lunatics Gloryhammer, his vocals are similar to those of Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica (another band Barque of Dante sound like) as well as the Timo Kotipelto from Stratovarius. For fans of progressive power metal this is a dream, full of pomp and massive hooks then look no further, for anyone else this may be overkill. Still from a country that doesn't do a lot of metal this is a well written, well produced and most of all very strong power metal album. 8/10