Chez Kane - Powerzone (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]
The Ultimate Power club nights have been one of the best received touring club nights in the UK for years now. There's just something about drinking heavily and belting out massive 80's ballads that really gets people going. The ones that appeal most are usually from such leather and lace glad divas such as Bonnie Tyler, Cher, Heart, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Alannah Myles etc. It's these icons that Welsh rocker Chez Kane looks to on her second full length record.
The Ultimate Power club nights have been one of the best received touring club nights in the UK for years now. There's just something about drinking heavily and belting out massive 80's ballads that really gets people going. The ones that appeal most are usually from such leather and lace glad divas such as Bonnie Tyler, Cher, Heart, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Alannah Myles etc. It's these icons that Welsh rocker Chez Kane looks to on her second full length record.
Following on from her 2021 debut, the former Kane'd has retained the creative muscle of Crazy Lixx's Danny Rexon, for 10 more, sing along, rocking anthems that will have you searching for the mirrored aviators, lace gloves and tight stonewashed denim. I Just Want You is the perfect first song, a massive chorus that evokes Benatar or Bonnie, a muscly guitar riff, huge synths and chorus with more hooks than a changing room. It firmly plants us back in the familiar territory of the debut but with more focus on capturing that particular style that is so important to club nights like Ultimate Power.
Chez's vocals are brilliant, clean enough for the emotion but gritty enough to bring some guts when things get rockier. It's vocal that feels as if it's been honed on the sun drenched avenues of the Sunset Strip not the shores of Swansea. Powerzone just feels bigger than the debut, more ambitious and accomplished, Kane's vocals soaring above the instrumentation of Rexon as tracks such as (The Things We Do) When We're Young In Love makes me think of the nostalgia often employed by Bon Jovi, Rock You Up brings Def Leppard layered backing vocals (and drum beats), the rambunctious Love Gone Wild gets some sax from Jesse Molloy.
As these rockers all lead to what for me is the most 80's sounding track I've heard in long time; Children Of Tomorrow Gone has every genre troupe you could think of but you know what this is going to kill on stage and Kane sings the hell out of it! You may think that from here it all goes down hill but no Powerzone just keeps giving! With the rocky title track bringing Heart-vibes, the anthemic rock sound continues on I'm Ready (For Your Love), Nationwide (a natural opener/closer) as Streets Of Gold owes as much to Scorpions as it does to the blue collar storytelling of Bon Jovi.
Powerzone closes with Guilty Of Love, which isn't a Whitesnake cover, (though is love to hear Chez sing it), it's a synthy AOR song that rounds out this superior melodic rock record. Enjoy watching Kane play these smaller venues on her current tour as my guess is she won't be playing them for long. 9/10
It seems like a lifetime ago that Symphonic Gothic Metal was very much my main musical go to, now as I have gotten older my palette may have become a little more extreme but that doesn’t mean that I’m not partial to a cleanser and for this occasion it comes in the form of Finland and Greece’s Sede Vacante with latest release Conium
Short introductory Furia transitions into dark melancholy riff laden Mistake followed by Dead New World which contains some wonderful harmonic vocals embedded into some sweeping orchestral parts.Title track Conium combines dual vocals with layer upon layer of varying soundscapes that really elevates it my highlight track, the solo in it is also fantastic as well is the catchy as hell chorus. Continuing the trend is Raindrops which pairs with the previous track perfectly.
Apprehensive moment time as the band decide to throw in a cover the little known Paint It Black, I jest of course it is a huge track to take but credit where credit is due is done really well, It’s slower which lets the emotion and anticipation build. I have come back to this a few times and it honestly gets better with each listen. The counteraction to the cover is Melancholy Black which gallops through into Walk On A Lie which contains to great accompanying electronic elements alongside some nice basslines. Focusing on the heavier rock side is The Bride where the fast-paced nature mixed with piano parts creates another dynamic that works incredibly well.
Penultimate offering Wheel Of Misfortune has a great string arrangement which carries nicely to final track “Tattoo” which has a wonderful ballad like quality that starts to slowly build into a cascade of emotion with its simplicity. Sweeping Symphonic Gothic Metal Goodness. 6/10
Godeater - Vespera (Baroness Music) [Matt Cook]
Boston, much like any other major city in the world, has wretched traffic problems. A 40-minute commute to work (despite living less than 10 miles away) is the norm rather than the exception. But Godeater saw an opportunity to capitalise on that with the release of their bruising eight-song full-length, Vespera. The Scottish-based tech-deathers tick all the vocal technique boxes, and most of the songs start off like a Howitzer bursting to life.
Vespera is that soundtrack you need to quell the frustration of sitting bumper-to-bumper. It features anthems that conjure both speeding in the passing lane on the highway and sputtering in stop-and-go traffic. Josh Graham, the mastermind behind the microphone, throws his weight into his bellows. Devastating shouts found on The Hatchet coupled with splintered screams on opener Self-Surgery leave no questions unanswered in regards to Godeater’s plan.
The aforementioned Self-Surgery houses rugged guitar lines that make for a stable-yet-debilitating experience. Oftentimes, tracks seamlessly transition from one to the next, again reinforcing the appropriateness of using this album as a traffic companion (though I wouldn’t advise trying to get into the HOV lane). Graham is a wizard on God Complex. The song contains thoughtful technical death metal alongside deathcore, and the vocalist organically slithers from effective clean power vocals.
Vespera is only three years removed from Godeater’s debut All Flesh Is Grass, yet Vespera at times feels like a group that has their technique and delivery down pat. The five-piece set out to lay waste to everything in their path, and since we can’t actually drive our vehicles through a swamp of idle cars going nowhere fast on the Mass Pike, a 40-minute crash course in crafting a tech-death minefield will suffice. 7/10
White Skull - Metal Never Rusts (Rock Of Angels Records) [David G]
White Skull - Metal Never Rusts (Rock Of Angels Records) [David G]
Italy's White Skull have been playing their power-infused metal for over 30 years, from a personal perspective they have always existed somewhere on the periphery of my vision. I recall seeing their 1999 Tales Of The North in a Plastic Head Distribution mail order catalogue and its cheesy cover triggering my adolescent "That looks cool!" response, before passing them over to buy a CD by some legendary act like Amsvartner. It's remarkable that over the decades, despite many close encounters, this is my first actual experience of the music of White Skull, and on the balance of this release that is somewhat regretful.
Hammer On Thin Ice opens posing as a rather fun interpretation of earlier Helloween, complete with chanted "Whoah"s, it's a nice up-tempo piece of power metal that is not overly sickly in approach and plants a rather enjoyable vocal hook. This is followed by Metal Never Rusts that in moments could convince it actually is Helloween, for example in the pre-chorus where Frederica De Boni verges on the Kai Hansen territory in vocal approach and the powerchords hold that same sense of excitable climax building. There is however a little rawness around the edges, mostly in the dated power of metal'n'stuff lyrics that obviously don't seem incongruous within the music, but I guess describing them as well worn would be ... well... worn.
It feels a bit cheap to knock some of the rather daft moments the album presents, because I guess that's just traditional power metal isn't it? Chants on Black Ship sound like "Bat Shit". Heavily Mental's painfully acted inner monologue (I assume) is easy to eye roll. Jingle Hell is all eye roll; yes it is a Christmas themed song, and no, trying to do a subversive Christmas themed song isn't an excuse. I'm sure there's other moments if I'm being uncharitable.
I don't want to be uncharitable though, because there's fun to be had. Ad Maiora Semper is an enjoyable romp that charges along at a jolly old pace and has a fluid and fun little guitar solo buried close to the back end. Weathering The Storm closes the album with a ballady affair that yes, could potentially cause diabetes, but also invites a lighter in the air and the curtains catching fire. Scary Quiet is another banger that is accentuated nicely by dramatic keyboard stabs, and despite initially thinking Frederica's voice was straining to uncomfortable places it turned out it was actually a little guest appearance from Grave Digger's Chris Boltendahl.
I'm past the point of doing this ironically now. Guilty pleasures are really just pleasures. We can acknowledge the cringeiness of something, but just like it for what it is, and where it does cross the line say "yeah, too much...". Metal Never Rusts spans the spectrum, but it hits the right spots more often than it goes too far. 7/10
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