Apparently Athenians Floating Worlds class themselves as Soundtrack metal, which is an interesting concept, I’d say they sounded more Teutonic than anything as musically and vocally they play a style of music more associated with German bands. Battleship Oceania is their third album and it’s a concept record about the titular battleship, be aware though this isn’t pirate metal this is more akin to the militaristic power metal of Sabaton make but set to a naval theme. Floating Worlds have never been shy about their cinematic leaning so here you get a lot of additions to the music, synths, flutes, sound effects etc. It starts with an instrumental that works as an overture to the album but the first song proper is the string-laden Sailing In History where we get the first glimpse of the vocals and a lot of scene setting about the creation of the ship.
Those vocals and they are very high almost with a nasal Tobias Sammet-like tone as the first track builds as the orchestral swells come in before New Mission gets things moving a little with galloping power metal nailing down what Floating Worlds are, they are power metal band and on this concept record they are attempting and Avantasia-style rock-opera, without the numerous vocalists. They succeed for the most part as The Empire Of The Media pulses like an AOR number, The Curse and Retribution are both darker numbers that tell of peril, while Game Of Thrones is not about the Book/show of the same name but a majestic ballad. Battleship Oceania is very big, overblown rock/metal epic made for fans of Avantasia and the countless other rock/metal operas, a very good album that really took me by surprise if I’m honest! 8/10
Αίθων (Aethon) : Order Through Chaos (Straight From The Heart Records)
Αίθων (Aethon) is an ancient Greek word meaning “burning” or “blazing”, it is usually applied to horses in Greek mythology featuring as the name of horses for Helios, Ares and Hector. Αίθων the band are a Greek thrash/punk band who open their album with an instrumental track called My Name Aethon which is a pretty anthemic instrumental that builds up before Into Lazarus Pit bellows out with blastbeats and tremolo picking, before City Of Insolence brings some more groovy riffs. Sounding like a mix of LOG and Hatebreed Αίθων don’t really have a huge amount of information about them so I can only judge on the music and this album has a lot of aggressive music with touches of thrash and hardcore but also tonnes of traditional metal guitar solos which makes it a rewarding listen, as both the guitar and bass work is excellent, the latter especially on Blackbull and Awaken. With 12 musically dense tracks and some very good harsh vocals (that are understandable) Order Through Chaos did sort of come out of nowhere for me. I know nothing about the band except that they are Greek yet they have produced an album full of chunky groove metal that balances some musical virtuosity too, especially on instrumental Nostos which does sound like Mike Oldfield. Well worth checking out! 8/10
En-Stigma: Reforming The Universe (New Dream Records)
Well this is a complex piece if there has ever been one, I’m unsure if it’s a musical tribute to Thanos but there seems to be a lot of galactic implications to the storyline, built around the cinematic compositions of bassist Vonifatios, contributes most of the music along with George Tzachristas (lead guitars, keys, drum programming, growls) and Anastasios Seremetis (oud). Musically this project is progressive, symphonic metal that aims for MaYan territory but doesn’t quite reach it due to the production and a few dud songs, funnily enough these are the tracks that feature female vocals (Operation Infinity) with the mixes of clean male and growled vocals working much better on songs such as En-Stigma while the fully growled The Transcendental Force Of The Universe which has cracking thrashy riff and some spacey synths. It’s all a little lacklustre and you can hear the drums are programmed not natural. Also none of the clean vocalists are that great but they certainly don’t detract from the overall album due to this and the production it never really reaches its full potential but it’s an easy enough listen for fans of theatrical death metal. 6/10
Well this is a complex piece if there has ever been one, I’m unsure if it’s a musical tribute to Thanos but there seems to be a lot of galactic implications to the storyline, built around the cinematic compositions of bassist Vonifatios, contributes most of the music along with George Tzachristas (lead guitars, keys, drum programming, growls) and Anastasios Seremetis (oud). Musically this project is progressive, symphonic metal that aims for MaYan territory but doesn’t quite reach it due to the production and a few dud songs, funnily enough these are the tracks that feature female vocals (Operation Infinity) with the mixes of clean male and growled vocals working much better on songs such as En-Stigma while the fully growled The Transcendental Force Of The Universe which has cracking thrashy riff and some spacey synths. It’s all a little lacklustre and you can hear the drums are programmed not natural. Also none of the clean vocalists are that great but they certainly don’t detract from the overall album due to this and the production it never really reaches its full potential but it’s an easy enough listen for fans of theatrical death metal. 6/10
Dark Messiah: Echoes Of War (Drakkar Productions)
Oof ready to worship at the altar of Satan and wage war on the forces of God? Good so are Dark Messiah. Hailing from Kozani, West Macedonia (the proper one), and this trio of self identified blasphemers play a raw style of black metal influenced by the world class Hellenic scene. They have been on hiatus since 2012 since the death of their guitarist, but now they have returned as a three piece to continue the band, with the vocalist taking up guitar duties. The obvious comparisons would be early-Rotting Christ and Varathron as the riffs come at lightning quick pace and the blastbeats beat down like a blitzkrieg, (maybe not the best phrasing as the band also cites Mayhem, Impaled Nazarene and Darkthrone as influences). The album artwork and their tag of war metal may raise a few flags, but musically it’s nothing out of the ordinary for so many black metal bands with raw feel to their music, Echoes Of War will be enjoyed by the trve cvlt black metal fans but many may feel it’s a little too rustic for them. 7/10
Oof ready to worship at the altar of Satan and wage war on the forces of God? Good so are Dark Messiah. Hailing from Kozani, West Macedonia (the proper one), and this trio of self identified blasphemers play a raw style of black metal influenced by the world class Hellenic scene. They have been on hiatus since 2012 since the death of their guitarist, but now they have returned as a three piece to continue the band, with the vocalist taking up guitar duties. The obvious comparisons would be early-Rotting Christ and Varathron as the riffs come at lightning quick pace and the blastbeats beat down like a blitzkrieg, (maybe not the best phrasing as the band also cites Mayhem, Impaled Nazarene and Darkthrone as influences). The album artwork and their tag of war metal may raise a few flags, but musically it’s nothing out of the ordinary for so many black metal bands with raw feel to their music, Echoes Of War will be enjoyed by the trve cvlt black metal fans but many may feel it’s a little too rustic for them. 7/10
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