Dark Oath – Journey back home

Final Verdict: 75/100
Favorite Song: Our journey back home
Website

Last year, I did a review for the debut EP of Dark Oath. This year, I was happy to receive an email to review their latest EP, ‘Journey Back Home’. It’s good to see the band is still together and they’ve grown a lot since last year! A little background story: Dark Oath is a Portuguese Viking/Death metal band. They started out in 2009 when Ze (Jose) en Joel started writing together. They managed to find a full line up and Dark Oath was born. In 2011, they found a new vocalist in Sara Leitao (a girl who does the grunting is always +1) and in 2012 they teamed up with new bass player Afonso Aguiar. Full line up again, they are ready to take over Europe this summer!

The first thing I notice with the new EP is the quality of the recordings. The production of their first EP Under Blackened Skies was pretty good, but even better in comparison to Journey Back Home. And, even though the songs may be awesome, when they’re screwed up by the production they lose points. The biggest flaw is that the volumes drop during the songs, like someone is toying with your volume switch continually. That being said: the songs are awesome! The Viking sound is much more present on this album, and Sara’s grunts are a perfect addition to the sound. The album has a really defined sound, like the band knew exactly which way they wanted to grow with their music. Where on ‘Under the Blackened skies’ the Viking influences where subtle at least, this album is positively flowing with them.

Is funny to see a Portuguese band making Viking Metal. You’d say that in their warm Mediterranean country they wouldn’t be able to find the right ‘feel’ for the songs, but Dark Oath proves you wrong. If you wouldn’t know, they could just as easily be a Swedish or Norwegian band ;-). Dark Oath is similar to bands like Elzevir, Battlesoul and Midnattsol. It’s melodic, energetic, fun and epic 😉

Final Verdict: 75/100
It’s too bad I have to give them discredit for the bad production of the album, otherwise this EP would have gotten an 80/100. The songs are awesome, the album has a really strong unified sound, and any Viking/Folk metal lover would totally love this EP. My favorite song is probably the title song ‘Our journey back home’ but it was a close call with The Mighty Valkyries.

Tracklisting:
01. At Dawn
02. At the gates of hell
03. The mighty Valkyries
04. North wind
05. Our journey back home

Line Up:
Pedro Galvao              Drums
Joel Martins                Guitars (lead)
Jose Bertolo                Guitars (rhythm)
Sara Leitao                   Vocals
Afonso Aguiar            Bass (since 2012)

Elzevir – Rise from Knees

Final verdict: 80/100
Recommended song: Forgive me
Link to their facebook
I like to review bands that are still unsigned or underground. Elzevir is again such a band. They’re from Moscow, Russia, and play folkish death metal. I wanted to find more about them, but sadly that’s not possible. Normally, I’d check the bands mainpage. Elzevir doesn’t have one, so I’d check the second option: a myspace. They actually have a myspace, but they haven’t update since 2010. There’s a line-up on their myspace, and also the ‘signed’ checkbox is unchecked, so I take it their unsigned. They have a facebook page that has two more links on it (no bio though), but since those pages are in Russian, they’re not really much help.

After hearing this album on repeat the whole day, there’s really only ONE thing I can say about this album. OMG WHY DON’T THESE GUYS HAVE A RECORD DEAL YET???? This is the best death/folk band I’ve heard in a long time (besides the already established names). The only thing that’s wrong with this album, is that they didn’t have the luxury of a good producer. At least, I really dislike the mixing/mastering on the album (and if they had a budget they’d probably fix that first). Other than that: Great guitar/key lines, vocal harmonies, sing-along parts, epic songs, and they sing in plain English so it’s not only fun for the Russians ^^. Seriously like this album!

The mix between guitar, keys and grunts is just dead on. Elzevir plays melodic death metal with folky influences. I like the grunts, but I like it even beter when Alex starts singing. The first song on the album is We must win, and other than that I ‘m not happy with the mixing/mastering, the song is great. (Metal is best at it’s loudest, but that’s certainly true for this album. The louder the music, the less annoying the mixing/mastering sounds) Melodic death metal at it’s best. Almost a shame that I’ve never heard of this band before! Firebirth is the second song on the album. It’s a little more epic, and makes for a great sing-along song. I really find the combo of guitar and keys well played! The two lines really strengthen each other. Insanity starts of with a really dreamy key intro, which is completed by a really great guitar riff. Hearing this I really don’t get why these guys don’t have a record deal. The chorus in the song is awesome, though the vocals are hard to hear due to mixing/mastering problems. The riff of Red 20 strongly reminds me of Equilibrium which is absolutely a good thing 😉 Jeej for folk! Rain of the Day is another strong folk song, with great folky riffs and a catchy chorus. The grunts are so clear that you can sing along rd for word.

The absolute best song on the album is Forgive me, the song they also posted on their facebook. Since I’ve heard the song the melody ‘s been stuck in my head, and I wanted to keep playing the song over and over. Has been a while since that happened! Thanks guys! Alex is not the best singer in the world, but it totally works in this song because it’s supposed to be a bit frail. Another option for best song of the album would be Like Immortal. Great riffs (again guitar and keys really complement each other). Our Simple Plan starts of to be less folky but that’s quickly changed when they get to the chorus. Not the best song of the album. Dragon Catcher starts with a clean guitar intro, and has a great sing-along vocals. My Hope is the last song for the album, and they’ve chosen to end with their ballad, at least, their way of a ballad. It starts with a ballad intro, but then picks up the speed and heaviness of the rest of the songs. It’s really an ending song, and has the ballad intro again after the first verse. Really like this song too ^^

Final verdict: 90/100
This is definitely an album that will be in my top 10 for a long time. The songs are all really well written and awesome! Can’t wait to see these guys live!

Line-up
Alex Louder (vocals ,music, texts)
Orim (keys)
Anna (keys)
WarhearT (solo-guitar)
Oleg (rhytm-guitar)
GuDrone (bass )
Iwor (drums )

Tracklisting
We must win
Firebirth
Mind eclipse
Insanity
Red 20
Rain of that day
Forgive me
Like immortal
Our simple plan
Dragon Catcher
My Hope

Mayan – Quarterpast

Final verdict: 80/100
Recommended song: Mainstray of society – in the eyes of the law corruption
Visit their myspace

The dutch best metalheads got together, and created a new band by the name Mayan. That’s in short the story of Mayan. The longer version includes some member changes in their short history and some stories about how they came to release this album. None of this really matters though. What IS interesting, is to give a quick line-up with previous band info:

(note: I’ve not mentioned all previous bands, only the one that I thought were important)
Mark Jansen (Epica, ex-after forever)
Jack Driessen (ex- after forever)
Frank Schiphorst (symmetry)
Isaac Delahaye (epica, ex- god dethroned)
Ariën van Weesenbeek (epica, ex- god dethroned)
Rob van der Loo (ex- delain)

As you can see, those are all namest hat really earned their fame in the Dutch metalscene. And to make things even better, on their first album they’ve got guest appearances from these metal goddesses:

Floor Jansen (ex- after forever)
Simone Simmons (Epica)

With such a line up, I’ve got really high expectations from this band. Symphony of Aggresion is the first song on the album, and it already meets this expectation. It starts of as a typical death metal song, with a lot of progressive rhythm changes, melodic synth lines in addition to the deep grunts by Mark. Then, a third into the song, we get our first surprise. Clean vocals by Mark complemented by beautiful opera vocals by Laura Macri, their surprise from Italy. A silenced bridge, whispers, vocals by Simone, solo’s and crazy riffs and we’re already at the end of this almost 8min long song. Great opener for the album, cause you Imideately know what kind of music to expect for the rest of the album.

The next song, Mainstray of society evolves out of the last notes from Symphony and start of with a strange progressive riff. Since I love progressive music I really like the intro, but I imagine the former fans of Epica having a difficulty here. There’s a great death metal riff in this song at around 1.45 which really got stuck in my head. It’s one of those great headbang-and-grunt-along riffs. Really standard but thereby awesome. It’s great to here them combine this heavy death metal sound with the light choruses. I think this might be my favorite song, due to the riff.

Quaterpast is the instrumental intermezzo and titlesong of the album. Nothing to say about it really. The fun starts again with Course of Life. It proves to be a great classic death metal song again, save for the fact that there’s clean vocals again to start with. There’s really creepy and in my opinion not so good grunting at 1.45 min. I’m not sure what they tried to accomplish there but if that had been the normal grunts it would already be far better. This is the only bad point I can find on the song, though.

The savage messiah is, as you would guess from the title, death metal again. This song is faster and more aggressive than the former songs though, and sounds more like God Dethroned than the rest of the songs. It will appeal to those fans at least! There’s a clean vocal piece in the middle, again really progressive riffs and rhythms and stuff. After this part, there’s an even silencer bridge, with Italian samples of people talking over it, and Laura Macri singing oh’s and ah’s.

To keep in the Italian mood, after this song we go to Essenza di Te, again an intermezzo, this time a real opera intermezzo. I really like it but honestly it’s kinda strange to place it on this cd. There’s 5 more songs after this, of which Celibate Aphrodite best. The last song on the album is a instrumental again, nice way to close the album.

Final Verdict 80/100
Anyone who likes Epica and After Forever, but always felt that it would be even better if they’d be more dark and aggressive is really gonna like this album. It’s really a mix between Epica and God Dethroned. The dark, fast, aggressive riffs from God Dethroned combined with the melodies and vocal parts from Epica. Great combo in hmy opinion! We once had a discussion within our own band, to cover songs from Rotting Christ and put opera vocals over it. Well, this is what that would sound like !

Tracklisting
Symphony Of Aggression
Mainstay Of Society
Quarterpast
Course Of Life
The Savage Massacre
Essenza Di Te
Bite The Bullet
Drown The Demon
Celibate Aphrodite
War On Terror
Tithe

Dark Oath – Under a Blackened Sky

Final verdict: 60/100
Recommended song: Valande’s Tale

I got an email from Dark Oath in which they asked me to review their debut EP. After hearing a few songs from their Myspace I was more than happy to do so, so here it is!

Portugal seems to be having a pretty decent metal year this year. A week or so ago I reviewed this band, Switchtence, and now it’s Dark Oaths turn. Dark Oath started at the beginning of 2009, when Ze and Joel decided to write music together. After some songwriting they managed to get a full line-up and get started playing gigs. Dark Oath plays a mix of death and black metal with a few Viking influences. They call this style Saurium Metal, but I’m not convinced they need a new metal subgenre yet. But, who knows, maybe they can claim it with their first full length album. Oh, and I have to mention that the vocalist on the EP is no longer in the band. They’ve a female grunter now, Sara Leitao. Already looking forward to hearing that!

To the EP. When I heard it the first time, I wasn’t really being critic. I thought all songs sounded okay, and was pretty much enjoying the cd. But when I really started on this review, I was listening to the songs more closely. And the more I listened, the more criticism I found. Overall, this band is doing okay, especially for a first EP. But it IS their first EP and you can clearly hear that. There are a lot of cool riffs on this EP, but in most songs it’s just one or two great riffs. It’s as if they filled the rest of the song with really straight forward riffs, nothing original. Besides that, I really like some of the vocals parts aka the spoken word parts. That’s one big plus. Another is the subtle Viking influences. That being said, off to the individual songs.

The EP starts of with Hail Thor, God of Thunder. With a title like this, I’d expect an epic Viking metal song. However, this is not the case. I like the intro though. It’s the riff that follows that I don’t get. And sadly this riff goes on for the rest of the song. I get that this should be a real epic song, but the riffs (except from the intro part) seem to lack something. .

The Warrior starts of with a better riff (though kinda straight forward and not very complicated. But it works, though. ) But, again, there’s a strange chord progression following this riff.  This song sounds still unfinished, but I really like the bridgepart with spoken word though. That part really rocks.

Then there’ s Mensageiro. Dark Oath shows in this song that they DO have the capacity to create great songs. I like this riff (although it seems the guitarist had some trouble recording it). I really like the acoustic part that follows, but it keeps me wondering which language is spoken over it. It sounds somehow like Polish? Fits the Viking feel though. I like the grunts that follow this acoustic piece, but I would rather choose a deeper grunt, not so much of a piggy squeal. The part after this seems a bit empty. They fill this up by a guitar riff in the second parts, which makes it a little better. I somehow miss keys here, though. They should try to make their music a bit more massive. This might also be a mixing problem though, I don’t know what they sound like live.

Then there’s Valande’s Tale. In this song, Dark Oath finally gets It right. Great harmonies as well, reminds me a bit of TYR. I like the part where theresue a tquestion and answer piece with two vocalists. But why stop the song and start over again with a bass riff? Don’t try to get the energy down!

The last song on their EP is Glory to Olaf  Tryggvason. It starts off with a nice guitar riff, but than the grunts kick in. At this point there’s really no body to support the vocals. There’s guitar and drums, but it feels empty, missing something. They add a guitar solo at the end to make up for it though 😉

Final Verdict: 60/100
Im kinda doubting between a 55/100 or a 60/100 score. Since they’ve adopted a new female vocalist, they get extra credits for that, so I will give them a 60/100 score
In the end, this isn’t a bad debut EP. Dark Oath still has to develop though. They make a decent start, but their clearly still in fase one or two. I think that in a year or so, this band will deliver us a great debut album with truly Saurium Metal. Keep going guys!

Line up
Joel Martins Lead Guitar
Jose Bertollo Rhythm Guitar
Emerson Nunes Bass
Pedro Drums
Sara Leitao (not on the EP)

Tracklisting
Hail Thor, God of Thunder
The Warrior
Mensageiro
Valande’s Tale
Glory to Olaf Tryggvason

Go to their Myspace

Forgotten Tears – Words to end

Recommended song: Words to end
Final Verdict: 75/100

I don’t always listen to metalcore, but I heard the first song on this album, and I was immediately like, wow, this is awesome! So that’s why Forgotten Tears is probably one of the few metalcore bands I will review.

Apparently this band is from Italy, which surprises me because there’s mostly just crap coming from Italy. Or at least a lot of not-so-good-powermetal.Forgotten Tears show us that the Itallians actually know how to make great metal! The band started out in 2005 with singer Faust Quaggia, guitarist Paolo Beretta, bassist Andrea Giovannoni and drummer Matteo Tores. They had some strict goals for themselves: To write awesome music and make as many gigs as possible. This strategy has paid of in the end, since they joined To React Records and are ready to release their debut album this year.

Forgotten Tears plays a melodcial death core, since they have both death metal and metalcore elements incorporated in their music. It sounds a bit like At the Gates if I’d have to compare it. The album kicks of with Words to End, and there’s really no better way to describe this song as I have already did above. The rest of the album is more of the same, really. Solid sound, pumping riffs, heavy grunts.

Reflection has an intro with clean guitars. They should have tuned their guitars before recording, it sounds a tiny bit out of tune. What starts out as an slow-going emotional song, turns into thrash / metalcore after the intro! Great transition by the way. With Still nothing inside they show that deep down, they’re still emo kids, not only by the sound of the song but also the lyrics.Thoughts killed my sleep starts with the same riff as Still nothing inside, only now performed with industrial keys instead of guitar.

I don’t get their album cover though. It doesn’t appeal to me, I wouldn’t buy it if I didn’t know what band it was!

Overall I like this album. It’s not epic, but still nice enough to listen more than a few times!

Final verdict: 75/100

Line up
Faust Quaggia – Vocals, (Guitar)
Alessandro La Porta – Guitar
Allu (Paolo Beretta) – Guitar
Gio (Andrea Giovannoni) – Bass
Leon (Matteo Torres) – Drums

Tracklisting
Words To End
Inner Memories
The Truth Is For Sale
Frail Reality
Reflection
Resistance
My Fault
Still Nothing Inside
Thoughts Killed My Sleep
Final 24
Eye

Ohw, and there’s a video to Words to End!!! See below