Schwermetall – Der Film , the first German Hard´N´Heavy documentary, filmed in 2008 + 2009 on 90 Festivals and stages all over Germany, featuring the underground as well as big names (Summer Breeze, Bang Your Head), more than 250 German and international artists and stars, is now hitting the screens. Besides Interviews, Outtakes, Live-Clips and Fanshots you can experience festivals from backstage or VIP areas and find out about different Metal styles: www.schwermetall-der-film.de. Sabaton-Cruise: Who wants more of Metal on a cruise ship should consider this one on December 2, 2010, with Sabaton, Raubtier, Steelwing, Prey, Mary Fay etc, Infos here . The Sorrow competition named HEADBANG & WIN, until Aug 30 details here . Sweden Rock Cruise will be a tribute to Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.) and will take place on Oct 7, 2010. Details at our tourdates.
Nothing surprising about the new Norwegian death/thrash metal act Second Shadow. Their debut EP Line Up (Execution Style) is pretty average for the scene they represent. Fast and furious with definite hard core vibes and nicely thought through rhythm changes. But still it´s not quite enough to raise it from the mass. The first obvious problem is the production. The guitars are weak and get run over by the drums even though the drum sound too is lacking in depth and power. This gives the whole thing a bit of a demo feel and makes you wonder should they have brought in an outside producer as they now are in charge of everything themselves. The sound problems tend to take away part of the energy of the songs especially in the more hard core parts. The vocals are very normal death growling that of course fit this band very well but other than that is pretty average. The band plays pretty well and the whole thing stays together effortlessly which is something you can enjoy once you get used to the engineering problems. The songs then again lack in, not so much idea, but personality. There are hooks here and there but only a few of them are something really interesting. When the chosen style is so inside out explored you really need some original ideas to get the attention of people. Still a balanced EP that without the sound problems lays a good ground for a full length album.
