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
Being an Austrian, this band name makes me smile – because in our German variation it means „yeast“. And sometimes it´s better neither to take band names nor genre definitions (Atmospheric Black Metal/Rock) in band infos too seriously. Germ is an Australian One-Man-Project (Tim Yatras, Austere, ex-Nazxul) and surprises with a strong tendency towards Pop-sounds, reminding of Pink Floyd when it comes to keyboard and vocals) or Dire Straits for the guitar sound, plus a touch of Anathema when it comes to melodies. The rather easy-going groove that would even invite to dance has something of early Lake of Tears, the backing choirs refer a bit to Therion – it´s only the un-human screeching now and then that connects this album to the Black Metal genre. Even blast beats are rare (Breathe In The Sulphur /A Light Meteor Shower) and sound pretty tame, too. The opening of Your Smile Mirrors The Sun finally has a strong Black Metal attitude, before the instrumental title track Wish puts a melancholic tone to the finale.
A surprisingly pleasing release containing music that has a strange positive-uplifting effect on me. And I am really not sure if this was the effect the mastermind intended … but a good album that might rather appeal to people outside the Black Metal scene.
