Reviews: Winterage, Withering Scorn, Steel Bars, Plainride (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Winterage – Nekyia (Scarlet Records)

If you thought the last Blind Guardian album wasn’t folky enough, or epic enough, Avantasia had lost their power metal roots or that Rhapsody Of Fire weren’t as conceptual or grand anymore then let me introduce you to their Italian compatriots Winterage. Like Howard Shore combing with a metal band, Nekyia is cinematic, reaching levels of bombast only band such as Nightwish, Epica and Blind Guardian achieve. 

Full choirs, orchestral sections, operatic parts and celtic folk all are brought into this third album, as they achieve their broadest sound range to date. Nekyia sounds colossal, epic compositions such as Metamorphosis, A Macabre Ritual, where the metallic beginning transcend into Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns, the violin of founding member Gabriele Boschi augmented by the rest of the metallic throws, in unison of styles I’ve not heard since Avantasia or Trans Siberian Orchestra. 

Yes the fingerprints of the American juggernaut are all over this album, with the symphonic power metal of Simurgh The Fire Bird followed by the blasting metal of The Cult Of Hecate, Boschi’s violin and orchestrations valued above all else but Gianmarco Bambini’s guitars shred and riff, Matteo Serlenga’s bass gallops, Luca Ghiglione’s drums are rampant, the ‘metal’ side of this band tougher than on previous albums, through those power metal beginnings shine through on the folky Numen. 

The other highlight of this album are the vocals of Daniele Barbarossa, he has a huge range, carrying both the metal and operatic sides well, he’s astonishing on La Fonte d’Essenza purely an operatic piece smack bang in the middle of the album (and Middle Earth). Its brave bold and bombastic, Nekyia will attract a very particular audience, but they will absolutely adore this record. 8/10

Withering Scorn - Prophets Of Demise (Frontiers Music Srl)

Another band formed by ex-Megadeth members, this time brothers Glen (guitars) and Shawn (drums) Drover, the former only playing on United Abominations while the latter was there until 2014. Both now play in other bands including King Diamond and Act Of Defiance but the siblings have come back together with their new band Withering Scorn. 

Prophets Of Demise is their debut album and it’s a ‘proper’ heavy metal album, heavy thrashy and designed to get you moving, the brothers background in thrash and power metal bands colliding with the melodies of the power metal guitars driven by the propulsive kick drums of thrash metal. The band is rounded out by ex-Fates Warning bassist Joe DiBiase and behind the mic is the always brilliant voice of Henning Basse (Metallium, ex-Firewind). The band was formed in 2020, the foursome unified by their love of heavy metal, create music that will be enjoyed by fans of Firewind, Mystic Prophecy, Gamma Ray or that guitar-centric, heavier style of power metal. 

With Shawn unleashing barrages on every song (the man knows one speed: fast), DiBiase gallops and grinds away with the bass as Glen shreds and solos. The influences of all their previous and current work can be heard from the King Diamond-like Pick Up The Pieces and Dark Reflection, Basse stretching his voice here, while they move towards thrash again with Dethroned, classic metal on Never Again, but it’s the finale of Eternal Screams that brings to mind bands such as Nevermore, due to the dynamics and atmosphere it creates. 

Having spent 3 years creating this album, Prophets Of Demise is a powerful debut statement from Withering Scorn, heavy metal done by veterans, good stuff all round. 8/10

Steel Bars - Steel Bars: A Tribute To Michael Bolton (Frontiers Music Srl)

Just when you thought it was safe to like melodic rock. It turns out that as well as loving pairing vocalists together and putting old hands with young guns on collaboration projects Frontiers head Serafino Perugino loves a tribute album too. This one; Steel Bars is a tribute to Michael Bolton, the man with the finest hair in AOR, but more specifically his earlier career where he was more of rock singer than the smooth soul crooner he became. 

In order to pay tribute to everyone’s favourite fictional cinefile (thanks Lonely Island), the Frontiers honcho brought in the labels newer vocalists and established voices, backed by a sturdy in-house band, and cover some Michael Bolton ‘the rock years’. Girish Pradhan is first with Everybody’s Crazy, which has a sleazy swagger to it, before the AOR treat of Fools Game is sung by the velvet tones of FM’s Steve Overland. If I’m honest I’d listen to Overland do all of these songs as he’s got that Bolton-like delivery down. The most interesting song is How Can We Be Lovers, a megahit in its time establishing Bolton as a force of nature. Here the relatively unknown Dave Mikulskis has the honour of singing it and mark my words you’ll hear him on many Frontiers releases to come. 

Most of the compositions stick to the style of the originals, the temptation to ‘rock’ them up avoided for plenty of slick AOR music, this means the vocals are the highlight, each song suited to the voice of the singer, or singers as the two voices from The Big Deal take Wait On Love, making it closer to a Heart song. There’s a lot of ground covered here, the album a showcase for the vocal talent that feature on Frontiers, be it the soulful Gui Oliver (Landfall), the powerhouse of Ronnie Romero (MSG/Rainbow) or the gritty James Robledo (Sinner’s Blood), whether you knew these were Michael Bolton songs or not you can enjoy this as another quality collaborative album from Frontiers Music. 7/10 

Plainride – Plainride (Ripple Music)

Self-titled albums? Usually a way for a band to either introduce or reinvent themselves and it seems Cologne band Plainride have gone with the latter. Having seen them support CoC on their recent tour I was impressed by their fuzzy, heavy rock, it was fun, filthy and bit dangerous, so I was looking forward to this third album. 

However I was going to let the more experienced Ripple scene lovers who write here take the wheel of the review. Unfortunately they found this album difficult so I took it on to give it my expert critical ear. A band that has never been afraid to experiment with different genre styles, I feel they perhaps have gone a little too far with their reinvention on Plainride. 

Fire In The Sky, is a funk rocker with some Stax horns, attempting Clutch but not quite making it, it’s decent enough but moves away from the stoner style they made their mark with, Hello, Operator continues with the stomp clap of gospel, a track closer to Joe Bonamassa’s use of the genre or his work with Rock Candy Funk Party, though Clutch is still the similarity. Even in the esoteric lyrics and quotes from noted writers, they do feel as if they are trying a little too hard to be Neil Fallon and co. 

Soundtracking a 70’s action flick that has yet to be made, the organs/theremins/mellotons and brass are all used well, it’s just very different to what they have done before, it’s a little jarring. Wanderer goes down the classic rock route now favoured by Crobot or Monster Truck both of whom moved from stoner roots to something a bit more radio friendly. 

The middle of the record lulls with Wanderer, Siebengebirge and Ritual one after another, none really grabbing a hold of you. Shepherd is a slow burner but again there’s nothing to get you excited, it feels like experimentation for the sake of it, due the support of the Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, it’s like they’ve received a large amount of money so have blown it all on going into White Album realms rather than focussing on their heavier style. 

Maybe that was the idea all along, to be contradictory, if so mission accomplished. While I’m not as unfavourable about this album as some of my more stoner loving colleagues, I don’t think this is the best work from Plainride, it tries to be wildly innovative but for me becomes a little derivative of a much bigger band. 6/10