Landfall - Wide Open Sky (Frontiers Music Srl)
Frontiers Music have been mining a lot of musical gold from South America over the last few years, picking up prog metal, symphonic metal and plenty of melodic rock mainly from Brazil. One such act is Landfall, fronted by Gui Oliver but formed by drummer Felipe Souzza and guitarist Marcelo Gelbcke, rounded out by bassist Luis Rocha.
Landfall's take on melodic rock is harder edged than some other bands in the style, think Dokken or Extreme (Hourglass) and you'll be on the right track, SOS for instance is driven by some slick riffy guitar playing while When The Curtain Falls showcases the rough Steve Perry-meets-Bobby Kimball-like vocal of Gui, Running In Circles too is Journey rocking, No Tomorrow as well.
Let's just be honest Landfall are heavily indebted to Journey, from their rockers to the big ballads such as A Letter To You these Brazilian's pay homage to the American AOR heroes with this new record. There third album Wide Open Sky continues to showcase Landfall's gifts as a band. 7/10
The Big Deal - Electrified (Frontiers Music Srl)
The Big Deal return with some special guests, Anders Wikstrom (Treat) and Jona Tee (H.E.A.T.) join for some songwriting alongside songwriter/guitarist/producer Srdjan Brankovic, a man who is no stranger to the Frontiers machine.
Electrified is The Big Deal's second album showcasing the songwriting of Srdjan, but mainly it the vocals of Ana Nikolic and Nevena Brankovic which most will be drawn to the band for, Nevena also plays all the keys on the record so having those dual vocal harmonies with some big synthy melodic rock gives them a gimmick that will help them stand out on the label.
A track such as Like A Fire becomes a perfect showcase for The Big Deal, keyboard and guitar duels and the twin vocals working well on the big chorus hook. The Big Deal do other styles too with The Fairy Of White they tread on the toes of classic symphonic metal as Better Than Hell brings that 80's sheen. The Big Deal made a splash with their last album but Electrified is more expressive and better. 7/10
Time Rift - In Flight (Dying Victims Productions)
Time Rift are vintage rock n roll, fuzzy proto metal, put with 70's dinosaur rock and NWOBHM swagger, the band formed by guitarist Justin Kaye in 2017 has had various members but now consists of drummer Terrica Catwood and Domino Monet taking over the vocals from Levi Campbell who sung and played bass on their 2020 debut.
Bass on this record comes from producer/engineer Brian Vierra, but the addition of Domino is the revelation here. Her vocals are gritty but soulful, romantic but ravaged, evoking contemporaries such as Lucifer or Blues Pills and classic bands such as Thin Lizzy (Thunder Calling) and Heart (Coyote Queen).
There's a bit of Nugent on I Am (The Spear), choppy hard rocking on The Hunter, the proggy Into The Stillness has lyrics based upon the work of naturalist/poet/essayist Henry David Thoreau. In Flight is just over 30 minutes but it gallops through plenty of classic heavy metal muscle. If you want a vision of the past then jump on through this Time Rift. 8/10
Axetasy - Withering Tides (Dying Victims Productions)
Stuttgart speed metal band Axetasy formed in 2020, and they now bring us their debut album Withering Tides, unashamedly inspired by the 80's sound Axetasy that edges towards the dark side as the shredding speed metal of the German scene (early Helloween/early Blind Guardian) blends with American thrash (Kreator) and black metal (Celtic Frost).
It's raw and nasty in the vocals especially but musically they have solos galore and classic metal gallops on tracks such as Voidcrawler. With countless black thrash bands around, Axetasy do something a bit different vocally it's all growls and screams on Deadly Witch, all very Mercyful Fate but the playing is quite bright and bouncy, with the anthemic sound of trad metal/thrash.
Withering Tides flies by in a flash of wild guitar shredding, savage vocals, blasting drums, a time warp to to the primal force beginnings of the genre. 7/10
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