Metal in all its forms and colours

[Mendalla]

A couple more from this week.

I have talked about Lovebites before. For my money, they are the best of the current crop of metal bands from Japan. Two fantastic guitarists, a killer rhythm section, and a terrific vocalist performing fast, energetic power metal. Wow. Here they are last fall in Tokyo.

And then Eluveitie are a Swiss folk metal band. Their sound goes quite heavy as folk metal goes, even heading into black metal territory at times. New album dropped yesterday. Here's a couple tracks from it.

 

[Mendalla]

Blackbriar gives full vent to their dark, gothic tendencies on their new song and video, 'The Fossilized Widow".

New album due in August. The band are doing their first headliner tour in conjunction with this one.

 

[Mendalla]

One of the things that has drawn me into metal and kept me there is the sheer diversity of sounds. From the dark rumbling guitars of Sabbath and other early bands has sprung a large, spreading tree with myriad branches. And I seem to just keep finding new branches on that tree as I spend more and more time in that world. For instance, I am now watching videos by Jon Barbas, the Heavy Metal Philosopher. He leans extreme, talking a lot about death metal, black metal, and variations thereof along with ventures into things like metalcore and deathcore. However, this week he introduced me to Paula Teles, who has created her own subgenre of symphonic metal that brings in Portuguese fado music. I mean, I listen to a lot of folk metal that brings in sounds from the music of various places, usually in Europe, but fado and metal is a combination I never would have thought of. And it is wow.

 

[Mendalla]

A couple new ones from this week so far.

Ukrainian band Jinjer released a new video for a song from their last album, Duel, which came out in February. Song is called "Fastdraw" and is one of the album's heavier songs, featuring all harsh vocals from lead singer Tatiana Shmayluk and some stellar playing from the rest of the band. Video footage is taken from last year's tour.

And then from Finland, the amazing voice of Noora Louhimo graces the band Battle Beast. "Last Goodbye" is a new single but no indication yet of when an album might be forthcoming.

And finally, a recent discovery of mine is Moonlight Haze from Italy. "Awakening" is the third single from their next album, coming May 23. The lovely voice belongs to Chiara Tricario, who also writes the lyrics.