heavyharmonies

It's not uncommon for bootleg labels to advertise/promote themselves as being in a country half way around the world from where the real manufacure is occurring... misdirection. If memory serves, Reborn Classics was the ultimate example of this.

Another solid heavy metal release for 2014... this year is shaping up to be a better year for heavy metal than melodic/hard rock...

This album has actually turned out pretty solid...

Yesterday's game may have been the biggest asswhuppin' ever delivered in the sport of soccer. Brazil looked beyond pathetic. Biggest margin of defeat ever by a host country... and they DOUBLED the previous record. A choke job for the millenium.

Moving sucks. No seriously, moving is one of those pain-in-the-ass joyless endeavors that never seems to end. After the last time I moved (1994), I vowed that the next move I make will be feet-first.

This one is quirky... but catchy. Euro power/folk metal at its core, with occasional death metal elements, and quite a few hard rock/melodic rock elements. Blind Guardian meets Kissin' Dynamite? I find that I'm replaying it quite a bit. Released in May on AFM Records. Band website: http://www.elvenking.net/album/the-pagan-manifesto/ A few of my favorite cuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT6lCY89Aow

Listening to the album "Into the Open" right now. Good stuff! Part metal, part modern hard rock... nice.

I think the question was about Internet radio stations, not artists per se. A Google search for "christian metal radio" pulls up these at the top of the list: http://www.live365.com/genres/christian%20metal http://www.fuelradio.fm http://www.reignradio.com http://www.theblast.fm

I'm actually surprised there isn't more discussion about this release. Personally, some production issues notwithstanding, I think it's exceptional. It's getting a lot of replay from me. Samples of all tracks over on the main site:

Yeah, I was wondering the same.

Better than expected video. Interesting Matrix-esque vibe.

A transvestite with the name of "wurst" (sausage)? I disbelieve. Are you sure this wasn't published by The Onion?

Actually, Stefan's contributions are greatly appreciated. As long as people don't copy and paste reviews from other resources implying that the reviews are their own, I'm perfectly fine with information of interest to the community being posted. -Dan

Agree with the analysis thus far. Musically it's wonderful... but it feels a bit restrained. They needed to let themselves rip and go over the top. BF's music is just perfectly suited to bludgeoning you over the head repeatedly with choruses and lushness and, to use the popular phrase "go to 11". They stopped it at about 9.5. There are more than a few places where a key change combined with ratcheting up the volume and punch would have just taken you into oblivion. As with the LRS album (but better), it feels like they played it safe in places. Don't get me wrong, it's a great album, well worth the wait, but with a few tweaks it would have been an alltime great. I think part of what they're fighting against is that it's no longer new. It's not hearing BF for the first time, so perception is a bitch. You can't "unhear" the first two albums. Also, it's impossible to reinvent yourself every time out and still retain a signature sound. Within Temptation fell victim to this exact same effect this year with Hydra... it's a GREAT album... but it loses points being in the wake of The Unforgiving, which is an alltime great. It's the same thing, and I don't know how you combat it. It's almost as if a band has to have a clunker or two for a few years to then come storming back. Well, should we really penalize a band for being consistently good? When you set the bar high right out of the gate, there's not room to go up. That's one of the reasons I thought Andrew's rating of W.E.T. S/T at 100 was a mistake. I actually think Rise Up is a better album, so does it then grade 103/100? I don't think there is such a thing as an absolutely perfect 100/100 album... by definition it can't exist. By rating an album 100/100, you're in effect saying that the artist in question cannot possibly ever do better, which really does them a disservice. In the here and now, in the heat of the moment, visceral reaction can make an album *seem* like "the perfect 100" but the test of time, in conjunction with subsequent releases, may prove the rating incorrect. Anyhoo, circling back around: had this been BF's debut, it's likely we would be shouting it from the mountain as the greatest thing ever, but in light of their first 2 albums there are places where it feels like the new one could have been just a hair better. P.S If it sounds like I'm cutting down the album, I'm not. It's like faulting Mila Kunas for not being quite as hot as Jessica Alba. Can you really consider yourself a loser in either scenario?

Nicely epic... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dNUUXSQFZk And complete awesomeness:

Audio samples from all of the following added to the main site. Click on an album cover to go to that page and listen.

It's full length, but there is a definite difference in SQ between that and the video on Youtube. The streaming version sounds like it is overly compressed.

Man, I do NOT want to wait another month to get high-rez audio of this. It doesn't look like Spinefarm has started any U.S. promotions of this yet. (The streaming link above is enough to get the flavor, but is obviously demo material or it was being recorded in a live setting... the audio on the Youtube video is considerably better quality.)

Not viewable in the U.S. Bastards.

Think Blind Guardian but with slightly smoother vocals. More guitar solos than BG too. Same folk/Tolkeinesque vibe though. I dig it! This video is awesome! Office Space meets Lordi.

Once the disc is actually available, I hope to be getting one from Pekka or via Spinefarm. Can't wait, actually.

Sometimes things just fall through the cracks I guess. I've got 100GB of music on shuffle here at the office, so I'm occasionally stumbling across material I don't remember having listened to.

Superb stuff. Really reminds me of is Astrology-era Cage. Shitty video, but great title song:

Reserving judgment.

Samples of all tracks over on the main site: http://www.heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/glamcd.cgi?BandNum=5112&CDName=Let%27s%20Get%20Serious