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. More info: www.facebook.com/slayer
R.I.P. Jeff! Festivals cancelled: ROCK AM SEE (GER) takes a break in 2013 "lacking attractive headliners"; BURNING SEA in Croatia had to succumb to a new tax regulation; yet purchased BS-tickets can also be used to visit METALDAYS in Slowenia.
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
Mencea is the Greek band, which committed itself to progressive Metal with their latest album, "Pyrophonic" and thus showed that aggression can be transformed into insane music. My opinion is that this is better than every demonstration, but no reason to up on the screws, of course. But back to the album.
The catchy bits are occasionally similar to bands like Opeth or Nile without copying them. Subtle melodies, nice riffs, which remind one of Gojira, impulsive drums and a whole lot of grimness are the strengths of the album. However, unlike Gojira -with whom they have performed with- they have a big downside: the vocals. Vlasis Ziouvas´ continuously monotonic growls smother down the otherwise instrumental finesse. A bit more diversification, emphasis and emotion from Ziouvas would bring Mencea a big step closer to the olympus of their genre. As a tip for the tracks, I´d say „Phosphorus“, „CCC“ and the strong title track „Pyrophoric“.
