Skaut - "Mind Asylum" [EP]

Thrash is not original. And so what? (9/10) La musique de SKAUT s'appuie sur des rythmiques guitare en béton méga-armé et un mélange de mélodies et de violences. La basse, loin de se contenter de soutenir la guitare, trouve sa place en tant qu'instrument à part entière. Le batteur, avec un jeu typé metal par excellence, martèle le tout avec efficacité. Une voix alternant tour à tour des passages chantés, hurlés façon hardcore ou encore bien grave de chez Cavalera&Co. La musique de SKAUT pourrait se définir par un mélange intéressant de plusieurs styles. Nous avons opté pour une "étiquette" Power-Thrash suite à différentes opinions de la part du public nous ayant vu en live ou écouté notre démo. Power-Thrash pour des riffs guitares sans concessions et pour nos influences les plus communes (Sepultura, Metallica des débuts, Slayer etc). après une année 2005 marquée par des problèmes ralentissant sérieusement le groupe (vols de matériel, départs de musiciens), SKAUT va repartir au complet dès cet été et s'enfermer pour proposer du nouveau début 2006. This is a really great quality offer from the no-longer-existing band Skaut. This is another example of the simple truth that it is not enough to be good to get a contract with "professional" record labels. Thank gods, nowadays you may publish your music yourself and screw morons from the recording industry mafia. What? Music? Oh yes, music. The music is great. Professional level powerful thrash metal. Just check it out - not much to add, as everything works on this album like it should. People complain it is not original, but wait a minute! Hasn't thrash metal already been invented? OK. So now nobody should play it anymore, because "it is not original"? This is so stupid. You can complain some act is not original if it obviously mimics another band. But what is wrong with playing genre music? What about classical music? Shouldn't it be recorded anymore, because it is not original? Skaut does not copy anyone - they just play typical thrash metal. They do it professionally, with style, power and energy. They are great at it. And they deserve praise for that.

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

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Diablo Swing Orchestra - "Butcher's Ballroom, the"

Sell your souls, people - it really pays off (10/10) The Diablo Swing Orchestra dates back to 1501 in Sweden, where history tells the tale of an orchestra that played like no other. With music so seductive and divine that the ensemble overwhelmed audiences all over the country, and people from all social classes took them to their hearts. Their performances rapidly earned a reputation of being feral and vigorous and gained the orchestra a devoted crowd that followed them around. [Read more --->] Some time ago I decided to check out some albums from one of the Jamendo's popularity ranking lists. A disclaimer: I am fully aware of the fact that due to the constantly broken stats these lists do not tell a thing about true popularity of the albums - it's more or less just a random list. Still, some popularity is required to get there, so I was curious what else can be found there quality-wise, as I know one really terrible record that haunt these lists. I probably shouldn't bother writing this review, as others wrote everything before me. But I just have to write how totally amazed I am; I can't keep it to myself - it's unbearable. I chose Diablo Swing Orchestra's "The Butcher's Ballroom" mainly because of the great cover and because it said it's metal and you don't find many good metal albums here, so I became tired of all these electronic tunes.

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And metal it is. But what kind of metal! Not some rusty iron but true gold. First of all, these guys spice up their mainly heavy metal music with influences coming from each musical genre known to man (and several more coming straight from outer space). A recipe for disaster? Yes Sir! So, do they fail? No! I don't know how they do it (selling souls to the devil obviously comes to mind), but they succeed. They can include opera singing, ethnic instruments, classical instruments, nature sounds, growling, electronic samples, super-heavy guitars and jazzy passages within one track and it all works. You don't feel it's too eclectic, you don't feel it's chaotic. You don't feel some elements don't fit. Instead, you think: "I never thought metal could sound like that but it is perfect". And it is true. Everything is perfect on this album - singing, skills of the musicians, professional production, ability to write super-catchy and powerful tunes. The level of awesomeness of this work is inhuman (the devil comes to mind - again). It is unbelievable that such recording is given here for free. Diablo Swing Orchestra should receive a highest praise for that. Because the place of this album is right beside Metallica on the shelf labeled "thrash metal" (OK, now Metallica plays pop, but their old albums should still be there), right beside Apocalyptica under "classical metal" label and replace Nightwish in the "best of opera metal" ranking. Speaking of Nightwish - I was never a fan of combining metal with opera singing, as it usually doesn't work. The band plays their part, the poor woman screams for her life in the front and their efforts don't correspond in any way. It almost always sounds like two radio stations trying to jam each other on the same band - one with opera music and one with heavy metal. The result is embarrassing chaos. And here we have a miracle (or the devil's work) - I suddenly realized I love opera metal! Under condition that it's played by Diablo Swing Orchestra. To summarize - it doesn't matter whether you're a metalhead or a fan of opera or classical music. If only you like good music - you just have to check out this recording, because it is a landmark album that should be praised as one of the greatest works in the history of heavy metal, being at the same time surprisingly accessible for people that don't listen to this genre. PS. Considering the quality of this album, they had to sell not only their own souls, but also those belonging to their families and friends (maybe even some of the neighbors). The devil that signed the deal obviously must have got a big raise from the Satan with month-long all-inclusive vacation in Heaven. [Artist's Myspace]

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Ex Animo - "Sentience"

Modern hard rock masterpiece (10/10) Gli Ex Animo, nella nostra ancora attuale formazione, nacquero nel 2004 e già dall’inizio del 2005 cominciammo a scrivere svariate canzoni, con l’intenzione di trovare un sound che fosse di nostro gradimento, fra le sonorita’ pesanti del metal (Metallica, Disturbed, Slipknot, System Of A Down) e quelle delle canzoni piu’ dirette in pieno stile hard rock (Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters) tenendo molti gruppi come fonti di ispirazione, anche di generi e periodi molto lontani fra loro. Tra le nostre prime canzoni, si rivelarono in seguito molto valide “Free” e “What I Need” grazie alle quali incanalammo poi una serie di successi in diversi festival e concorsi. The most popular tag that journalists use for such music nowadays is "nu metal". I hate this label because it is meaningless and stupid - what "nu" would tell the listener in year 2030? So let's say this is just a hard rock album heavily influenced by metal and grunge. This work should be attractive to fans of such bands as Disturbed or Godsmack. Especially Disturbed can be pointed as a very direct influence. This is not bad though, as not every one is able to come up with breakthrough achievements. We need also talented artists who can successfully build upon the grounds discovered by their predecessors. And Ex Animo have built a massive fortress here. This is a flawless work, catching your attention from the first sound. It is full of great melodies, power and energy, decent instrumental and vocal work from all the band members, powerful riffs. Production is good, the vocalist is able to deliver English lyrics with a very good accent (for my non-native ear, of course, but so many non-English bands fail so miserably at this point that even my ears hurt). I won't mention any particular songs, because they are all top quality. This is definitely the best hard rock album I found on Jamendo to this date. GO GET IT ASAP!

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NULLL Collective, the - "Silent Night" [SP]

Totally brilliant (10/10) "The Nulll Collective" is a group of like-minded artists from around the world who are sick of commercialism and artistic conformity in both the world at large and in the microcosmic wasteland of underground extreme music. Through NULLL Infra, the NULLL collective will periodically release their music as free downloads. These tracks are all previously unreleased and will also be made available on CD. With this first release in the NULLL Infra series, we bring you a cover of a traditional Christmas song, to keep you from taking the typically hectic end-of-year mass hysteria too seriously. This is a doom metal cover of a Christmas carol. ... Yes. Your eyes are not deceiving you. You read correctly: "doom metal", "cover", "Christmas carol". Highly distorted low-tuned guitars, extremely slow tempo, growling and dark atmosphere. And a sweet melody of the famous "Silent Night" carol. A blasphemy? For some right-wing morons probably it is. And that's what makes it so brilliant. I love intelligent provocations and who thought before of such mix of the genres? And as if it wasn't enough, in the middle of the song there is a purely electronic part, equally crazy, out-of-place and brilliant. I just can't wait to play this carol during the next Christmas Eve dinner. :-> And I want a full length Christmas album, guys! You can also download this album for free in a lossless FLAC version from archive.org (OGG version is also available there).

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This piece is accompanied by a video, which can be downloaded at archive.org.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

Uncertainty Principle - "Bathe In The Black Sun" [SP]

Nice doom atmosphere, but too repetitive (7/10) "The Nulll Collective" is a group of like-minded artists from around the world who are sick of commercialism and artistic conformity in both the world at large and in the microcosmic wasteland of underground extreme music. Through NULLL Infra, the NULLL collective will periodically release their music as free downloads. These tracks are all previously unreleased and will also be made available on CD. The April Infra release brings a long-awaited massive droning funeral dirge from Uncertainty Principle. Multiple guitar layers guide you to the surface of the black sun, and beyond. This is a drone-based instrumental doom metal song. I like this genre and I quite enjoyed this work. But I can see its shortcomings. The tune is too repetitive - lack of vocals doesn't help here. Instrumental pieces require a little different style of writing, as to compensate for the lack of a vocal line. Usually, one of the instruments is brought to the front, playing a distinct melody, the purpose of which is to substitute the singer. Here we have only a long wall of drones, which may soon become boring for a listener who is not a dedicated fan of the genre. Not much is changing or happening throughout the (very long) track. Finally, production sucks a little bit. The sound is not selective, what adds to the tiring effect of this work. You can also download this album for free in a lossless FLAC version from archive.org (OGG version is also available there).

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's website]

This piece is accompanied by a video, which can be downloaded at archive.org.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

Light Among Shadows - "At The Gates Of Dawn" [EP]

Generic gothic metal - not bad at all (7/10) It's totally generic gothic metal. I mean it is completely devoid of any originality; a highly conservative product for the dedicated fans of the genre. Still, if you can cope with that, it turns out to be quite good. Musicians are skilled, production decent, atmosphere adequately gloomy and disturbing. Melodies on the most of the tracks are really great, with "Lying Among Shadows" deserving a special notice for awesomeness. And as the other reviewer pointed out - played by a real band on real instruments. Very well played. Only one track is worse: "Wastelands", an almost pop ballad with bland uncreative melody. Unfortunately, this one song makes in fact a quarter of this short album, as three of the tracks are only short instrumental intros. Nevertheless, it is quite an interesting effort, worth downloading and most of the songs are entertaining, if only one is not obsessed with originality. BTW, the cover is terribly kitschy. Yuck.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

Skneepa - "Racecourse Demo"

A significant progress, but I still hope for more (7/10) We are an unsigned thrash/groove/hardcore metal band from a small town called Hexham, twenty miles West of Newcastle, England. We take our name from the ancient Greek adjective meaning "As drunk as a Lord", pronounced with a silent 'k' (we reckon). (F.Y.I - Spelled differently, and pronounced 'pur', it also means "clit" in Icelandic (Cheers, Eli Roth)). We grew up together listening to Pantera, Metallica, Maiden ... and so many others, and found Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Slipknot (again, to mention but a few) along the way. Now we're all grown up, and we've got something we'd like you to hear. If you like it, let it show. Thanks to all for listening. P.S. SIGN US!! We're young, fit and keen, and the music is mean. .... You can download all our tunes for free from ..Skneepa Bandcamp.. or from our ..last.fm page. Strange. It seems that this band has two accounts on Jamendo, each with one (different) demo: Skneepa Skneepa_(2) If the time between publishing of both demos (only 4 months) relates to the distance between their recording, it would mean that the vocalist worked really hard. As you can see in my review of the other demo, I consider him to be the weakest link in the otherwise solid metal chain. This time he managed to restrain his desperate croaks to the point where they are almost bearable. The rest of the band is quite good, production is acceptable for a demo, so I'm going to give this recording 7/10. It is still rating on credit, considering the not-completely-eradicated croaking of the singer. But both tracks are entertaining and deserve recognition. If the vocalist completely abandons this laughable "scary" manner of singing, the future should be bright. So this is definitely the act worth putting on a watchlist. By the way, I just love the cover. It is gloomy and disturbing, but without using all the worn-out metal motifs. Well done!

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

Skneepa - "Demo"

The Tale Of A Scary Singer (5/10) We are an unsigned thrash/groove/hardcore metal band from a small town called Hexham, twenty miles West of Newcastle, England. We take our name from the ancient Greek adjective meaning "As drunk as a Lord", pronounced with a silent 'k' (we reckon). (F.Y.I - Spelled differently, and pronounced 'pur', it also means "clit" in Icelandic (Cheers, Eli Roth)). We grew up together listening to Pantera, Metallica, Maiden ... and so many others, and found Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Slipknot (again, to mention but a few) along the way. Now we're all grown up, and we've got something we'd like you to hear. If you like it, let it show. Thanks to all for listening. P.S. SIGN US!! We're young, fit and keen, and the music is mean. .... You can download all our tunes for free from ..Skneepa Bandcamp.. or from our ..last.fm page. Chapter 01. Pop Song Growling is a very difficult technique. What a pity the majority of death metal acts are not aware of this simple fact. Because of its extremity, it is very easy to cross the border between brutality and self-parody. Skneepa crosses this border on each track, but most notably on this one, what is very unfortunate, because if not for this funny croak, it would be a really cool thrash/death metal piece. Chapter 02. Parallell Nice metal piece. The pitiful growling is less intrusive on this one, so the result is bearable (but could have been great). Chapter 03. Broken Glass Dear singer - never, I repeat, NEVER try to sing a ballad again. Satan forbid. Your "clear" singing is more scary than your pitiful growling. A dull melody and annoying banging on hi-hats in the background don't spoil this track much more in these circumstances. Chapter 04. This World Is Mine Very fine, disturbing and energetic duel between the left and the right stereo channels in the beginning of the track is soon wasted because of... Anybody wanna guess? Right. Here comes the funny croaking again. Ouch! All this very solid work of the rest of the band throughout the track destroyed by the vocalist. What a pity. The moral of this story: Replace the singer, guys, or send him on a singing (and growling) course or something.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

Abralcor - "Abralcor" [EP]

Primeval chaos unleashed (10/10) Beware! By clicking on "Play" you are letting primeval chaos to enter your room. It will struck you like a ten ton hammer, with powerful guitars, machine gun drums, angry growling and totally crazy ideas. Ideas such as combining death metal with samples from French soap opera (or something like that). The first track "Nympho Man" starts with samples of arguing couple with some "elevator music" playing in the background. And then we hear a crack of a whip, followed by a scream. And the guitar arrives. These songs sound so fresh, so unorthodox, these guys play with such a power and lack of respect for any rules that I was immediately sold. This is great - and I want more! If you still don't believe these guys are totally crazy, see their cover of some eurodance shit by Haddaway. As you see, they mixed their cover with the original video showing Haddaway and his dancers. 8-0 I don't know what they usually smoke, but it has to be strong. If you still want more, you'll find other songs on their Myspace profile. Enjoy.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

Mesentery - "Behind Windows"

Producer kills the death metal star (7/10) Mesentery is Death Metal like Six feet under, Bolt Thrower, Heaven Shall Burn, Cataract with a mid tempo invasion with smashing riffs. For more details go to: www.mesentery.com.nu This album is better than the debut Jamendo album on every aspect except the most sucking one - production. When you listen to it on a good equipment, it sounds as if mikes were on the outside of the recording studio, while the band played somewhere in the basement. The sound is muffled and unselective. Just terrible. If not for this issue, I'd give 8 or even 9 points out of 10. It's generic death metal, but the melodies are good, the band is full of energy, even drums are OK this time. They even changed the cover artist and you can look at it without getting sick. In fact the cover is exceptionally good for a death metal album, as it breaks this stupid notion that a heavy metal cover art has to be full of monsters, warriors, profanity, blood, gore and "scary" lettering. Well done. But everybody with sensitive ears may consider skipping this one, because of bad production. (What?! Metal heads with good hearing? Come on!). ;-P

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Mesentery - "Blood Rain"

Nice death metal (7/10) Mesentery is Death Metal like Six feet under, Bolt Thrower, Heaven Shall Burn, Cataract with a mid tempo invasion with smashing riffs. For more details go to: www.mesentery.com.nu Nice death metal - not a masterpiece, but highly listenable generic work. It is very melodic, without losing heaviness. Growling is not overused like on so many death metal albums - you can even sometimes recognize the words! ;-) There are some cons, of course. First of all, production sucks - the mix is flat, without any space. The sound could also be better. And the drums are quite bad - for example, check out these hi-hats in the beginning of the first track - yuck! Fortunately, when the other instruments join in, drums melt in the background and stop being annoying, if only one doesn't try too hard to listen to them. So the key to this recording is to enjoy the pure power of melodic death metal, without analyzing too much (see all these 10/10 reviews). By the way - the designer of the cover art should be nailed to the cross for his/her crimes against the good taste (it has nothing to do with the naked female but rather with the picture being totally kitschy).

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]