Founded in Patras, Greece by Dionysis Maratos, Celene are a post-black, death/doom bands who encapsulate the atmospheric darkness of bands such as Alcest along with the moody gothics of The Peaceville 3, add to this a touch of Draconian, their first album in five years, Forlorn Paradise, is a soundscape to long winter nights and moments lost. Maratos writes the songs, plays guitars and adds the death growls/deep baritone, his foil being Anastasia Kiritsi whose soaring cleans are haunting and ethereal.
Masters of the slow build, the four tracks on this album are all in excess of 7 minutes and create a misanthropic soundscape where black metal blastbeats, segue into melodic phrases on a track such as Gray Skylines, the shift between beginning and end beautifully done. Angina Pectoris comes next bringing back the screams and cleans over some post black dissonance. I’m not sure who/what handles the drums here but they are frenzied as Nick Souris’ bass is used to guide the pace both on the faster blasts and the introspective clean passage, noticeable when there’s lots of whispers on Angina Pectoris and opener Paradise.
Forlorn Paradise closes with the nine minute long, progressive, Enslaved-like lesson in dynamics, Shape Of Your Face In The Clouds, rounding out what is a very accomplished album from a band who I hope will have more material soon. 8/10
Project Renegade - Ultra Terra (Pavement Entertainment)
Coming from fne modern sound of alt/groove metal with a lot of electronic elements. Ultra Terra is their third studio album, founding members and main songwriters Marianna (vocals) and Ody (drums) still lead the band with Philipp (guitar) and Jay (bass) the other two members. Ultra Terra comes out of the blocks with 23, heavy riffs and twitchy electronics bring to mind Lacuna Coil (Bloodwitch), Evanescence and In This Moment, its got a distortion heavy chug, as Marianna's vocals soar above it.
It's a decent opener if a little basic, The Millennial March adding a bit more a more of a punch as they rally against the problems of my generation (yeah I'm a filthy millennial folks), Civil Unrest does this too but aims to be too RATM. Again nothing really grab me the way it should. The Fix Is In sounds like American grunge groove from about 20 years ago, thankfully My Oath brings a fatser thrash assault that made me take notice (only took 7 tracks). But it quickly revert back to their tried and tested Nu/Alt/Gothic metal. Radio friendly but nothing that you won't have heard before by a lot of bands in the last 20 years, Project Renegade are not as rebellious as they seem. 6/10
Thelemite - Survival Of The Fittest (Sleaszy Rider Records)
Despite having an album cover that looks very derivative of a famous Judas Priest record, Athens’ Thelemite, have very little else in common with the Metal God, in fact Night Of The Wolf, the first song here, is Jake E Lee-era Ozzy with a bit of Cauldron for the vocals. Thelemite are band who can be put in the retro loving NWOTHM, a genre dominated by Swedes and Americans, these Greeks fall more on the American side with the sleazier sound of Dokken and W.A.S.P (Black Hearted) being bigger than the epic sounds of the UK bands in the genre.
Coming from fne modern sound of alt/groove metal with a lot of electronic elements. Ultra Terra is their third studio album, founding members and main songwriters Marianna (vocals) and Ody (drums) still lead the band with Philipp (guitar) and Jay (bass) the other two members. Ultra Terra comes out of the blocks with 23, heavy riffs and twitchy electronics bring to mind Lacuna Coil (Bloodwitch), Evanescence and In This Moment, its got a distortion heavy chug, as Marianna's vocals soar above it.
It's a decent opener if a little basic, The Millennial March adding a bit more a more of a punch as they rally against the problems of my generation (yeah I'm a filthy millennial folks), Civil Unrest does this too but aims to be too RATM. Again nothing really grab me the way it should. The Fix Is In sounds like American grunge groove from about 20 years ago, thankfully My Oath brings a fatser thrash assault that made me take notice (only took 7 tracks). But it quickly revert back to their tried and tested Nu/Alt/Gothic metal. Radio friendly but nothing that you won't have heard before by a lot of bands in the last 20 years, Project Renegade are not as rebellious as they seem. 6/10
Thelemite - Survival Of The Fittest (Sleaszy Rider Records)
Despite having an album cover that looks very derivative of a famous Judas Priest record, Athens’ Thelemite, have very little else in common with the Metal God, in fact Night Of The Wolf, the first song here, is Jake E Lee-era Ozzy with a bit of Cauldron for the vocals. Thelemite are band who can be put in the retro loving NWOTHM, a genre dominated by Swedes and Americans, these Greeks fall more on the American side with the sleazier sound of Dokken and W.A.S.P (Black Hearted) being bigger than the epic sounds of the UK bands in the genre.
That being said NWO does have a bit of Priest to it, but unfortunately isn’t about Hogan, Hall and Nash, which is a shame. Frontman John has a snarl to his vocal, locking in with Zack for the galloping twin leads on The Fire Still Burns and Bad For You. Unfortunately because they are more inspired by the Glam/Sleaze style than the NWOBHM, we get a track such as Living Without You, which manages to ape Knocking On Heaven’s Door (G’N’R Version) and every 80’s tough guy ballad along with the other ballad Already Dead (a bit Alice Cooper).
They kill all the momentum on the record with the poppy White Dreams led by Nikos’ bass as In A Damaged Brain has some Winger to it and Making Love at least has some big drums from Renos to distract you from the Kiss-isms. Survival Of The Fittest, its unfortunately a little bloated and little too old to be competition for a lot of the bands in the NWOTHM, still half of the tracks are decent heavy rockers. 6/10
Sons Of Zevedeus – Sons Of Zevedeus (Ramble Records)
Released by Ramble Records who are: “an Independent record label based in Melbourne, Australia specialising in outsider music, guitar music, acid folk, avant-folk, psych, free jazz, Indian classical and avant-garde sounds from around the globe.” The keyword for listening to Sons Of Zevedeus is to approach with caution. Unless you’re a huge fan of bands such as King Crimson, Zu, Diagonal, Captain Beefheart or Pink Floyd before DSOTM, then you’ll probably freak out when listening to Sons Of Zevedeus’ new self-titled record.
This is the dictionary definition of progressive music, jazz fusion time signatures paired with psychedelic flights into the unknown, heavy metal discord and Greek/Balkan folk music, all thrown at the wall to see what sticks as these virtuoso players guide you through the weird and wonderful. It’s band leader Themis who plays the majority of the instruments from the angular guitars, to the swirling synths, he also gives percussion, melodica, glockenspiel and more obscure instruments such as the erhu (Chinese two stringed cello-like thing) and baglama (long necked Turkish Lute), bass player Giannis, who is key to the hazy Se Vouna, also plays trumpets as Anastasia plays some of the most expansive drums I’ve heard in a while, often playing one note every few seconds.
Sons Of Zevedeus – Sons Of Zevedeus (Ramble Records)
Released by Ramble Records who are: “an Independent record label based in Melbourne, Australia specialising in outsider music, guitar music, acid folk, avant-folk, psych, free jazz, Indian classical and avant-garde sounds from around the globe.” The keyword for listening to Sons Of Zevedeus is to approach with caution. Unless you’re a huge fan of bands such as King Crimson, Zu, Diagonal, Captain Beefheart or Pink Floyd before DSOTM, then you’ll probably freak out when listening to Sons Of Zevedeus’ new self-titled record.
This is the dictionary definition of progressive music, jazz fusion time signatures paired with psychedelic flights into the unknown, heavy metal discord and Greek/Balkan folk music, all thrown at the wall to see what sticks as these virtuoso players guide you through the weird and wonderful. It’s band leader Themis who plays the majority of the instruments from the angular guitars, to the swirling synths, he also gives percussion, melodica, glockenspiel and more obscure instruments such as the erhu (Chinese two stringed cello-like thing) and baglama (long necked Turkish Lute), bass player Giannis, who is key to the hazy Se Vouna, also plays trumpets as Anastasia plays some of the most expansive drums I’ve heard in a while, often playing one note every few seconds.
With additional drums coming from David Bromiras and Giorgos Holland with some flutes, the instrumentation alone should tell you how much musical talent is on display here. Like fellow Greeks Naxatras, they are mainly instrumental, the songs building from repetition much like Mike Oldfield. Sons Of Zevedeus is right on the cusp of the prog rock sphere, many will dismiss it but if you love something experimental and musically gifted there’s plenty to enjoy. 7/10
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