Therapy? - "Iron Man" (live in Firenze, Italy, 1994)

Therapy? is an outstanding hard rock / metal band from Ireland. Influenced by such stylistically diverse bands as Black Sabbath or Hüsker Dü they managed to build their own distinct sound, based on a wall of noise constructed from loud guitars and powerful drums on the one hand and melodic vocal lines, catchy tunes and clever emotional lyrics passionately delivered by the singer Andy Cairns on the other hand. A concert bootleg is probably not the very best start if you do not know Therapy? yet, in which case I encourage you to check out the albums Troublegum and Infernal Love, but should be interesting for every fan of this great band. The highlights of this album are rare songs Auto Surgery and Totally Random Man coming from an early EP, a poem by A.A. Milne sang a capella, a crazy cover of the Black Sabbath's Iron Man with the changed lyrics, an early version of Me Vs. You - again with different lyrics and finally extended Lunacy Booth with an insane speech of Andy Cairns. This release of the 1994 Firenze concert has been compiled from two separate sources: 1. "Shock Treatment" [bootleg CD, Octopus Octo 010] 2. "Iron Man" [bootleg CD, On Stage Records CD/ON2339] The first source had inferior sound quality, but it included 2 more songs. The second source had two songs missing (Isolation and Nowhere), but its sound quality was better and it included longer breaks between several songs. Tracklist: 1. Therapy? - Stop It You're Killing Me [03:24] 2. Therapy? - Trigger Inside [04:04] 3. Therapy? - Potato Junkie [02:49] 4. Therapy? - Auto Surgery [02:21] 5. Therapy? - Die Laughing [03:09] 6. Therapy? - Totally Random Man [02:23] 7. Therapy? - Accellerator [02:11] 8. Therapy? - Hellbelly [03:55] 9. Therapy? - Halfway Down The Stairs (A.A. Milne) [00:55] 10. Therapy? - Unbeliever [03:30] 11. Therapy? - Teethgrinder [03:09] 12. Therapy? - Brainsaw [04:04] 13. Therapy? - Femtex [03:15] 14. Therapy? - Turn [04:04] 15. Therapy? - Isolation [04:14] 16. Therapy? - Knives [01:48] 17. Therapy? - Screamager [02:39] 18. Therapy? - Nausea [03:24] 19. Therapy? - Nowhere [02:15] 20. Therapy? - Iron Man [05:24] 21. Therapy? - Opal Mantra [02:48] 22. Therapy? - Me Vs. You [03:38] 23. Therapy? - Lunacy Booth [06:25] Playing Time.........: 01:16:01

Wikipedia Biography Official Website Official Merchandise (please support the artist, if you can afford it)

Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: 2457CD468C0FAAC677A885778A77AABB58DA9263C559E5ECF986650B1A5E9C7A avax More by Therapy?: Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995) Therapy? - "Lonely, Cryin', Only" [CDS] (1998)

Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995)

Therapy? is an outstanding hard rock / metal band from Ireland. Influenced by such stylistically diverse bands as Black Sabbath or Hüsker Dü they managed to build their own distinct sound, based on a wall of noise constructed from loud guitars and powerful drums on the one hand and melodic vocal lines, catchy tunes and clever emotional lyrics passionately delivered by the singer Andy Cairns on the other hand. The final vocal line on Infernal Love might be "There is a light at the end of the tunnel," but there's no denying that Infernal Love is anything but optimistic; it's an unrelentingly dark and sometimes bluntly turgid record. Anyone familiar with the band had grown accustomed to Andy Cairns' spins on depression, anger, bitterness, and self-destruction, but even the most devoted listener probably screamed "Snap out of it!" while first listening to this third record. Darker chords and slower tempos prevail, and the pop-punk hooks are all but washed away. The sequentially buried, bouncing "Loose" is an anomaly, sounding like a refugee from Troublegum that reads like a dystopian "Jack and Diane." Other than that, it's nothing but despair and heartache. [Read more --->] Tracklist: 01. Epilepsy [3:50] 02. Stories [3:11] 03. A Moment of Clarity [6:02] 04. Jude the Obscene [3:32] 05. Bowels of Love [2:53] 06. Misery [3:40] 07. Bad Mother [5:46] 08. Me Vs You [6:24] 09. Loose [3:00] 10. Diane [5:00] 11. 30 Seconds [5:25] Playing Time.........: 48:42

Wikipedia (band) Wikipedia (album) Biography Review Official Website Official Merchandise (please support the artist, if you can afford it)

Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Log translation at http://eachelper.uphero.com/ EAC extraction logfile from 2. June 2004, 11:59 for CD Therapy? / Infernal Love Used drive : TEAC CD-W54E Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure with C2, accurate stream, NO disable cache Combined read/write offset correction : 0 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Used output format : D:\audio\Monkey's Audio\MAC.exe (Monkey's Audio Lossless Encoder) High Lossless Compression Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Track 1 Filename F:\upload\(01) Epilepsy.wav Peak level 94.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 4F055E5E Copy OK Track 2 Filename F:\upload\(02) Stories.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC D7397074 Copy OK Track 3 Filename F:\upload\(03) A Moment Of Clarity.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8B90DBA8 Copy OK Track 4 Filename F:\upload\(04) Jude The Obscene.wav Peak level 96.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC AF417E90 Copy OK Track 5 Filename F:\upload\(05) Bowels Of Love.wav Peak level 96.1 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 2ACB71A1 Copy OK Track 6 Filename F:\upload\(06) Misery.wav Peak level 91.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 533D3C19 Copy OK Track 7 Filename F:\upload\(07) Bad Mother.wav Peak level 94.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC CDC707C3 Copy OK Track 8 Filename F:\upload\(08) Me Vs You.wav Peak level 95.4 % Track quality 99.9 % Copy CRC 213EC073 Copy OK Track 9 Filename F:\upload\(09) Loose.wav Peak level 95.5 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 3F0B381C Copy OK Track 10 Filename F:\upload\(10) Diane.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8E224C1C Copy OK Track 11 Filename F:\upload\(11) 30 Seconds.wav Peak level 96.3 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8D4F532F Copy OK No errors occured End of status report ----------------------- DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE ----------------------- PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5 Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved http://y-soft.org ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2 Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved. FILE: 11 - 30 Seconds.flac Size: 40209506 Hash: E3ED3AEADDF1E8964F4FBF371602E64E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: AD73A19782887B20675BF0B4FAF17B377B490168 FILE: 10 - Diane.flac Size: 29755009 Hash: 24179F579E36AC07264A625EE7B36329 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 9FC334D429754AEE6A46D36F077A8EBDA269BEB6 FILE: 09 - Loose.flac Size: 24402481 Hash: B7519DE6AC8FBA2B7923B41FE7849742 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: AE7138CAD9FF9D6A3736CECF92EEAC8D8E13C5A5 FILE: 08 - Me Vs. You.flac Size: 39218855 Hash: FD5571B7F3AB751BEFAF76472A178102 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 46317E4B51EB5CF729FB65DA79AE6E62C44D3B98 FILE: 07 - Bad Mother.flac Size: 39890190 Hash: 15845B49729F86CCE9D48CC1D96F294F Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: E2CE5AC6D1DCA2960A28E2BF0E3AB99802678648 FILE: 06 - Misery.flac Size: 28434375 Hash: 01AEFCF6D4B94D207E9F3FC85F16B771 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: AF16F9E12DB5044B5A6066ADD1E78E06F1D54E0F FILE: 05 - Bowels Of Love.flac Size: 20155063 Hash: 3CFB348D9AA91AB645BC743B76D8E541 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 2D8D3962B0DA487C966ED38CD113286F2B0E0AD0 FILE: 04 - Jude The Obscene.flac Size: 27292041 Hash: BF2402ED26E602A473D0D9555B0507F2 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: DC97E8FB0297938B5E6AD9B37BB39DCD3ED11070 FILE: 03 - A Moment Of Clarity.flac Size: 39232592 Hash: D4139D794D19B34C1E5804AB7879683E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 0AB60D56781A96B6BF138802CC328EDB4FDC9F1D FILE: 02 - Stories.flac Size: 23991853 Hash: D3A20D4B89BBD232B13F51C90BB505DC Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 62F32917559ACF21CF0884022339527ED4ADE85D FILE: 01 - Epilepsy.flac Size: 27855181 Hash: F80285E5C0AE4BA0E62B8B3870D05480 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: BB917F85ACAE54BFBC9EC42A1ECC4913A7394DB7 Disclaimer: As you can see in the EAC log, the person that ripped this CD used some settings that make "secure mode" much less secure: use of C2 pointers, use of cache, 1-pass rip (no test). Further, "Combined read/write offset correction" set to "0" probably means there are some missing samples (but it does not mean these differences are audible - it just means the copy is not "exact"). I carefully listened to this rip and I heard no audible ripping errors. CUETools database contains 4 different pressings of this album and all the checksums are different to this rip. I suppose it means this release is from another pressing (or maybe it's the result of the wrong offset set in EAC?). Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: E3ED3AEADDF1E8964F4FBF371602E64E avax More by Therapy?: Therapy? - "Iron Man" (live in Firenze, Italy, 1994) Therapy? - "Lonely, Cryin', Only" [CDS] (1998)

Therapy? - "Lonely, Cryin', Only" [CDS] (1998)

Therapy? is an outstanding hard rock / metal band from Ireland. Influenced by such stylistically diverse bands as Black Sabbath or Hüsker Dü they managed to build their own distinct sound, based on a wall of noise constructed from loud guitars and powerful drums on the one hand and melodic vocal lines, catchy tunes and clever emotional lyrics delivered by the singer Andy Cairns on the other hand. "Lonely, Cryin', Only" comes from the Semi-Detached album and it was released on A&M Records on May 18, 1998. This single reached number 32 in the UK Singles Chart. Semi-Detached is not the best album by Therapy? and "Lonely, Cryin', Only" is not the best song on this album. Still, it leaves many contemporary rockers' efforts behind. But forget the single track - you can find it on the regular album, anyhow. The B-Side tracks are much more interesting and should be more than enough for a fan to get this single. "High Noon" is a cover of the song by DJ Shadow, a prominent DJ and electronic music artist. It sounds like a typical Therapy?'s song, while still being faithful to the original and catchy as hell. Brilliant work. The remaining two songs are reworked versions of their past masterpieces, so they should be interesting for fans as well. Tracklist: 1. Lonely, Cryin', Only [02:40] 2. High Noon [05:09] 3. Diane (new recording) [06:23] 4. Teethgrinder (new recording) [03:20] Playing Time.........: 17:34

Wikipedia Allmusic Official Website Official Merchandise (please support the artist, if you can afford it)

Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 9. January 2012, 11:26 Therapy? / Lonely, Cryin', Only Used drive : PLDS DVD+-RW DH-16AAS Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : No Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 6 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : Microsoft PCM Converter Sample format : 44,100 kHz; bitów: 16 ; Stereo TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.32 | 2:40.18 | 32 | 12049 2 | 2:40.50 | 5:09.65 | 12050 | 35289 3 | 7:50.40 | 6:23.20 | 35290 | 64034 4 | 14:13.60 | 3:20.72 | 64035 | 79106 Track 1 Filename c:\Temp\01 - Lonely, Cryin', Only.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.42 Peak level 97.9 % Extraction speed 5.6 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 81932BF9 Copy CRC 81932BF9 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F1CE457A] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 2 Filename c:\Temp\02 - High Noon.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:00.44 Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 6.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 7FDF3991 Copy CRC 7FDF3991 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1FB82682] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 3 Filename c:\Temp\03 - Diane (new recording).wav Pre-gap length 0:00:01.04 Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 7.1 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 66849A63 Copy CRC 66849A63 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E6098FCD] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 4 Filename c:\Temp\04 - Teethgrinder (new recording).wav Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 7.8 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 31FD2F75 Copy CRC 31FD2F75 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F1873252] (AR v1) Copy OK All tracks accurately ripped No errors occurred End of status report ==== Log checksum 25C424B4DAF3FB88973024500FE33EE14245F51AFF39BEA175B276584764B8F9 ==== ----------------------- DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE ----------------------- PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5 Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved http://y-soft.org ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2 Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved. FILE: 04 - Teethgrinder (new recording).flac Size: 25396288 Hash: F0D0B8ECE2724FD85F91176E3A99D8EF Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: F518522A3EEDCD61746CDD9E39542BB042D1083E FILE: 03 - Diane (new recording).flac Size: 38254952 Hash: 67C06C3E0E427378C85D95FB3545F71E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 269056DC7834188E663FE0459106EA1934F45B32 FILE: 02 - High Noon.flac Size: 33888957 Hash: C5A8EDBDADF93B4B4D40CD2B8FBF1CBD Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: 4192DBB3B37AF2255525FE4AFB69564AB729E916 FILE: 01 - Lonely, Cryin', Only.flac Size: 18672938 Hash: 8F7BE53FE2D672429917A5023B7C76C7 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 23BB8FF9F8821ED51EC9BFDCAA0CF5AC2E7476D2 Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: 25C424B4DAF3FB88973024500FE33EE14245F51AFF39BEA175B276584764B8F9 avax More by Therapy?: Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995) Therapy? - "Iron Man" (live in Firenze, Italy, 1994)

Narcis - "Shining"

Quite good mixture of grunge, punk, metal & pure rock (6/10) Narcis, groupe alternatif de la scène alsacienne, a écumé bon nombre de concerts dans l'Est, se forgeant une solide expérience (première partie d'Eiffel à la Laiterie, festivals divers) avant de s'éteindre en 2002... Il était formé de Manu (Guitare-chant), Nico (Basse-chant) et Sam (Batterie)... Cette page Jamendo est donc pour vous, auditeurs, afin que ce groupe ne tombe pas dans l'oubli, et qu'il garde une trace sur la toile de son activité à travers les deux albums proposés ci après. Le premier, eponyme (surnommé le "poisson rouge"), date de 1999, le second, Shining, est beaucoup plus abouti et montre les reelles orientations du groupe, entre Smashing, Nirvana et autres groupes des 90's... Quite good tunes. One thing I didn't like much, were vocals, especially on track no. 2, which is almost unlistenable. But all the others are definitely worth listening. I would especially recommend tracks 01 (really great riff here) & 08 (instrumental, with a catchy semi-oriental melody). SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org]

Silence Industry, the - "Edge Of Illusion, the"

Songwriting skills vs production skills (7/10) The 4th release from The Silence Industry. This time The Silence Industry can be heard refining their unique sound which combines elements of post-punk, industrial, noise, dream-pop, psychedelia and goth-rock. "The Edge of Illusion" is a reference to our dispossession and our struggles to overcome it: a theme that runs throughout the release. It is sad and frustrating. Because this band truly knows how to write great gothic rock/metal songs. Even if they borrow heavily from Fields of the Nephilim, these tunes are so good that it would not be a problem. So why is it sad? The reason is all the work and talent they put into songwriting is wasted because of lack of production skills and/or equipment. This album sounds like recorded in a bucket full of water, but with the mikes placed not only outside the bucket, but also in another room. The mix is flat, with all the instruments forming an undistinctive mass of dull sound. The vocals are particularly awful, unintelligible and buried deep in the background. Yuck. I pondered how to rate this work and I am giving it 7/10, but only because the songs themselves deserve 9 or even 10. The quality of sound deserves 2 or 3. One could say it should not matter - Jamendo is not for professionals and I should rate only the quality of songwriting. But what if poor production makes the recording almost unlistenable? Should I award 5 stars to the album that I can barely listen without my ears aching? No way. That is not going to happen. Re-record this album, guys, and I will be happy to give it full 10 points. The album has been released on Jamendo as well as by the now-defunct netlabel Ekleipsi and is available for downloading at the following locations in mp3 and ogg formats: Jamendo / Jamendo mirror at archive.org / Ekleipsi mirror at archive.org You can also download it directly from the artist at Bandcamp in a variety of formats, including a lossless FLAC version. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation at Jamendo or Bandcamp. I would choose Bandcamp to support sharing lossless music.

[Artist's Myspace]

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

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

Xenophobe - "Episode 2"

One of the best bands you have never heard of (8/10)

2nd CD of 4 track recordings mastered to digital compact cassette. Transfered to CD by Brian Lipski in 1997 Very interesting recording supposedly featuring electronic reworking of music by Warfare, a metal band from the 80-ties, completely unknown to general public. Warfare's Myspace profile (yes, they have one!) says they were: "Thrash band from the Jersey shore in the mid 80's. All songs recorded live at band practices through headphones onto cassette..."

If this is true, it is another proof that talent hunters at the record labels are deaf and you need just a massive luck to be accepted. Why? Because these songs are great.

Of course even in these reworked versions you can hear the limitation of the poor equipment and recording conditions. But what counts is that they are catchy and energetic and if these guys were given a chance, they could easily turn them into metal masterpieces.

OK, but what about these updated versions? Well, they are still merely of a demo quality, because they were recorded in the nineties on cheap analog equipment. Yet these tunes are so well crafted that I enjoyed them very much despite their extremely lo-fi sound. The album starts with an earthquake - an industrial metal riff of the first track "Mad". Equally powerful is the third track "Dawn Of Time". No. 4 is a little slower, as to make some room for handful of strange samples. No. 5 "Phat and Funky" seems to contain a vocal line by Les Claypool of Primus, although the album's description does not mention that. Maybe it's someone else perfectly imitating his voice, though it feels unlikely, when you know how distinct Claypool's voice is. So anyone thinking of using this music commercially, should take double care, because it may contain some copyrighted material.

From the track no. 6 the arrangements change from industrial metal into synthpop / new wave, but keeping their main feature - catchiness. Another stylistic change comes in track no. 9, where we meet hip hop, followed by rap metal in the next tune. In track 11 we go back to metal. The album ends with two crazy renditions of "Wild Thing" (probably still copyrighted too!).

The only weak track is no. 2 "Acoustic Song" - with a primitive melody, and low quality plastic-sounding samples (not that electronic sounds in other tracks are of exceptional quality, but in this one they are truly terrible).

To summarize - this album is a true gem and I recommend it to anyone ready to listen to very good music in not so good quality.

The album has been released by the NoiseCollector netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 and ogg format.

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.

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

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]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by buying it on CDBaby website. Do not buy it through Amazon or iTunes - not only are they evil, but the artist won't see a single penny from your purchase.

TriFace - "3 Saucisses Dans Une Bulle"

A little better than the first album (6/10) Formé en décembre 2003, composé de musiciens ayant fait leurs "preuves" dans diverses formations, TriFace, "trio hardcore" plus bruyant qu’un quintet, propose une musique radicale, souvent très rapide, parfois lourde et puissante mais malgré tout mélodique. TriFace s’articule autour de la réelle complicité entre ses trois membres : Cédric Tam (guitare/chant), Thomas Boncour (basse/chant) et David "TMX" Grousset (batterie/chant). Les textes sont simples, drôles si l’on s’arrête à leur premier degré, mais à reconsidérer pour certains si l’on prend le temps de s’y intéresser. Loin des stéréotypes inhérents à ce genre de musique, TriFace dégage une énergie positive et sincère sur scène, amenant un public toujours plus nombreux et plus diversifié à les soutenir. TriFace se revendique "hardcore" mais ne réserve pas sa musique à des initiés. This album is a little better than the first one, but most of the tracks still lack any features that could make them truly memorable. They are nothing more than regular fast and loud rock songs, like so many others being recorded each day. The only tune that stands out of the crowd is "02 - New Bitch".

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

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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TriFace - "Premiers Jets"

A solid piece of hardcore (6/10) Formé en décembre 2003, composé de musiciens ayant fait leurs "preuves" dans diverses formations, TriFace, "trio hardcore" plus bruyant qu’un quintet, propose une musique radicale, souvent très rapide, parfois lourde et puissante mais malgré tout mélodique. TriFace s’articule autour de la réelle complicité entre ses trois membres : Cédric Tam (guitare/chant), Thomas Boncour (basse/chant) et David "TMX" Grousset (batterie/chant). Les textes sont simples, drôles si l’on s’arrête à leur premier degré, mais à reconsidérer pour certains si l’on prend le temps de s’y intéresser. Loin des stéréotypes inhérents à ce genre de musique, TriFace dégage une énergie positive et sincère sur scène, amenant un public toujours plus nombreux et plus diversifié à les soutenir. TriFace se revendique "hardcore" mais ne réserve pas sa musique à des initiés. A solid piece of hardcore. But nothing more. It lacks any distinctive features that could distinguish this effort from so many similar works. It will probably appeal to dedicated fans of hardcore, but for me it was a little boring, despite being very good from the technical point of view. The best track is no. 4 - Apologies. If only the rest was as energetic as this one...

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Tuta, Jakub - "Fuck Me"

Good compositions - bad production (6/10) Jakub has a composing talent - his tunes are catchy and atmospheric and would be great. Unfortunately, he lacks production skills. Completely. He has a lot to learn, before his songs will be fun to listen. As for now, bad production kills all the fun, so 6/10 rating is all I can give. So learn hard, dear Jakub, or hire a producer. Oh, some progress can be seen already - this time he at least managed to mix channels properly.

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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.

Behedos - "Arghh!"

Listen on mute (0/10) Absolutely terrible rock demo. It's not worth even the time required to write a review, so I will try to be brief. I suppose the band tried to take a parodical approach to several genres of rock music. But they failed, because of their absolute lack of skill. They are so totally inept, it hurts. They cannot sing, they cannot play, they cannot write music or lyrics, they cannot record. Change the hobby guys. Or at least don't record your sessions. Or - if you really have to record them - don't publish the results. Have mercy for humanity. The album has been released on Jamendo and is available for downloading in mp3 or ogg format.

[Artist's website]

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

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