Sad news: The music world mourns the loss of Ray Manzarek (74), founding Member and keyboarder of The Doors, White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte (44) and Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder (63). R.I.P.!
German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. R.I.P. Jeff!
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
Usually when faced with a one-man project and something that hints at Black Metal (like the title "Spellbook"), I tend to hide under the kitchen table, begging for mercy. Yet it´s worth to risk a glimpse from under the table because there can be positive surprises.
Haiduk, this Canadian one-man-project, namely guitarist Luka Milojica, is such a positive surprise. First, nothing to do with Black Metal (well, at least not much) - it´s a fistful of Old-School-Thrash right in your face right from the start. When STALKER colleague Fuchs found flaws in the sound of the previous release, I cannot find anything to criticise about the sound on this one. This self-release can compete with "professionals" in every aspect, also regarding artwork, booklet layout etc - all very well done, and nice graphics for the lyric sheets.
As those 10 songs hardly display any of those BM criteria I was so afraid to hear, I am pleased indeed. Only "Hex" features BM elements, a more epic-atmospheric sound and moderate groove. Otherwise I´d compare this mix of technical Thrash-Death, aggressive and precise Speed-Riffs, Blastbeats and a devilish growl voice with early Slayer or Morbid Angel. And I can hardly find anything to complain - well, a bit more diversity in the songwriting maybe and I´d given even more points. For Slayer-fans this must be a 10 out of 10... a good album indeed, recommendable!
