Rockville Festival June 14-15, Kirf, GER, Festival arena, features this year e.g. More Than A Thousand, The Sorrow, John Coffey, Superbutt, Stereo Dynamite, TOS, Electrified Soul etc. Infos: http://www.rockville-festival.de 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
Haste makes waste – which could be the motto for this CD as well as for its review. Pain Confessor from Finnish Hämeenlinna are back after a 4-year-hiatus, with a powerful album that almost failed to capture our attention... And this would have been an unforgivable mistake because Incarcerated is a great album that naturally made it to Inferno Magazine´s Top 10 in the end of 2012.
The opener Oceans of Sickness definitely gives you the first goosebums with those massive epic Black Metal-ish soundscapes and alternating growl and clean vocals... this cool mix of melodies and brutal sounds is this album´s trademark – as if Children Of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir and Kiuas made songs together. Although later the pretty brutal BM sound characterizes many tracks, I´d still put the band into the Gothenburg genre. Blood Eagle and Grief (which is one of the highlights) offer more relaxed grooves, occasionally I hear Doom - or Powermetal elements (Gravel), and some acoustic parts give you some time to catch your breath. Grim River is another highlight – gooseflesh! - where everything seems done right, the brutal drumming and riffing, those majestic melodies. Tarnished Halo has a pretty epic chorus, too, but then again it´s a Thrash-Black-Power Metal bastard named Vitriol that kicks you back into reality.
Well, I liked the band even back then in 2006 when I saw them at Finnish Metal Expo, and with this album they should be able to find a wider fan basis outside their home country. This CD is definitely put into my player more often, and I´m looking forward to seeing them live (e.g. mit HEAVEN SHALL BURN and Artificial Heart, 20.3.2013, THE CIRCUS, HELSINKI)
Pain Confessor:
Make Kivistö (vocals), Mikko Kivistö (bass, vocals), Tuomas Kuusinen (guitars), Jaakko Kunnas (guitars), Pasi Laihanen (keyboards), Aki Kuusinen (drums)
