Reviews roundup – Scatterface ~ Prefix ~ Burner ~ Veritas ~ Lyonen
SCATTERFACE
2020
Echozone
Turns out that Chris Techritz, who is Scatterface, is also Prophet from the German synth-metal band =fudge= whose “Dust To Come” album I reviewed a wee while back.
What he’s done here is use that there internet to collaborate with musicians across the globe and even though it’s not a million miles away from his day job there is less metal and more synth on this solo-ish project. And rap. And goth. Which means that there’s quite a lot to take in although the synth work does tie everything together. I’m not going to lie, some of the songs here do nothing for me and it’s when he roams into gothy realms that things work best for me.
To that end ‘State Of Change’ and ‘Lust II’ are the out and out highights. The former is quite a plaintive wee number with vocals from the UK’s Alice Banister. while the latter features Argentinean singer Stephie Lune. It’s a cracking goth rock number. If you’re looking for some metal then the Dub War sounds of ‘Null’ should keep you going. He even goes a bit prog metal on ‘Apocalypse’ which comes with bonus cello. The best of the bunch is probably ‘Endless Rain’ which is, quite simply, a great song with a Within Temptation vibe and a great vocal from Italian singer Maria Grazia Zancopè.
Some of the dubstep moments and raps weren’t for me but the one thing that really impressed me is the quality of the production. I’m guessing that most of the contributors were recording at home so a huge tip of the hat to the mix which pulls everything together immaculately. There are considerably more hits than misses here and I always admire people with vision. Chris Techritz is definitely one of them.
https://echozone.bandcamp.com/album/2020
PREFIX
Oriund
independent
The Swiss hard rock combo Prefix may have been around for 20 odd years but this is only their third album. They claim their influences for this record were Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple although if you only heard the opening track ‘Patria’ you’d be impressed by how well they hid it. It sounds like generic indie pop rock and did nothing for me.
Fortunately, a riff arrives on the next track ‘Tir’un fil’ which is very welcome indeed. It’s still very melodic and that seems to be their actual thing. Modern melodic hard rock. Which is fine. No complaints about that. Of course I’ve no idea what they’re singing about as the lyrics all appear to be in Romansh. For the ignorant among you it’s the fourth language of Switzerland and comes from vulgar Latin, the common tongue of the Roman Empire. So, on the one hand, fair play for sticking to your roots. But bang goes the international audience.
Back to the music and ‘Do’m tieu maun’ is a fine power ballad that should certainly get the some radio airplay in their home canton while ‘Gif dal muond’ has the best riff on the record. Eventually they unleash their inner metal but you have to wait till the very end to experience the nine minutes of ‘Ülfur’. It’s an actual beast of a track where everyone gets as good as they can get. If you just heard that song you’d be looking for an entire album of top quality metal with NWOBHM style vocals. You’re not getting that but it’s still worth a listen through.
PS – there is also a hidden track at the end so don’t hit the stop button too soon.
BURNER
Baptised In Gasoline
Time To Kill Records
To Sweden for some dirty biker rock. They do like that sort of thing over there. And you’ll get no argument from me seeing as how my first metal gig was Motorhead / Saxon. And, goodness knows, how many Supersuckers shows I’ve been to. A: A lot.
And it’s Motorhead that will inevitably come to mind should you lend an ear to this as vocalist Björn Ohlson is definitely channeling his inner Lemmy. The opening number ‘Hey, Hey’ is deceptively mellow but when they crash into ‘Hammerdown’ then all becomes well as you launch into some neck snapping action. Almost made me feel young again when I could hop up on booze and speed and stay up for three days rocking like an utter bastard. Good times.
This is their debut record but I’m guessing from their photo that they’re, um, veterans of the rock scene. A classic three piece with bass player Mats Thuresson, the aforementioned Björn Ohlson on guitar and vocals alongside drummer Jan Andersson with the latter sounding like he has a personal vendetta against All the Drums who will be punished.
This is a band who perform a ditty called ‘Kill You Til You’re Dead’ and you can’t help but wonder if it’s vaguely autobiographical. I really (really) liked the mid-tempo ‘Run Like Hell’ which has a martial feel to it while I shed a bucketload of tears over ‘8 Million Reasons To Cry’, the heartbreaking tale of 40,000 barrels of whisky catching fire. Which must be the saddest sound ever. Can you imagine the lugubrious squeals of terror? Horrific. I’m not going to keep banging on about the Motorhead comparison but they also have a song called ‘The Burner’ and a song called ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’. And have a listen to the drum track on ‘Gasoline’.
Thing is, it’s tremendous fun, it’s well produced and well performed. A definite keeper.
https://burner-ttk.bandcamp.com/releases
VERITAS
Threads of Fatality
Veritas Rocks
To Kansas City for some prog metal, courtesy of Veritas. The goddess of truth, no less.
Well the truth here is that they’ve been around for a few years, punted out an EP in 2019 and that this is their debut album. Their thing is old school prog metal so anyone who liked Fates Warning and their ilk back in the day will be right at home here.
Like a lot of bands lately, Veritas start off with a nondescript song that really doesn’t do them justice. But once you get into the meat and bones of ‘Frail’ you start to get a feel of what they’re about. There’s plenty of hard riffs here while vocalist Denny Anthony can hit some heights as well as getting a bit gruff when needed. ‘Far Away’ is a really good tune that has a lot more prog under its belt than some of the other tunes. There was also a strong reminder of the fact that I don’t read press releases before listening to albums as track number six is called, wait for it, ‘Fate’s Warning’. Yes, really.
Musically the band are extremely good at what they do and for an indie release they’ve managed to get a pretty good mix going. This is an odd thing for me to say but considering the musical genre they’re operating in some of the songs are a wee bit on the short side. Most of them are between 3 and 4 minutes and on something like ‘Eyes Of The Blind’ I really wanted another instrumental part after the skyscraping screams. It’s also a bonus that he only pulls out the scream when it’s needed rather than in the showboating manner that many prog metal vocalists go for.
For fans of the genre this comes really highly recommended. A good one.
LYONEN
This Is Lyonen
Ideoedetn
A one man band project from US based, Venezuelan born musician Luis “Tato” Rivas. His thing is classic power metal with a few folk, symphonic and prog influences thrown in for good measure. And when it is good, it’s very good.
His day job involves audio mixing for a TV station so it’s no great surprise that he’s managed to come up with an excellent sounding album. He’s another who says he’s influenced by the likes of Iron Maiden and Helloween but he actually lives up to it as he rattles through an excellent set of song. He’s written, produced, played guitar, bass and keyboards and definitely knows what he’s doing. Even the programmed drums sound surprisingly good. He does everything bar sing, something that is taken care of by a chap called Craig Cairns. Who may or may not be the Liverpudlian singer with Midnight Prophecy. It probably is as I remember checking out his YouTube covers after seeing them on a multi band bill last year somewhere in time.
Back with Lyonen and his power metal leanings which are very good indeed. The riffs are uniformly excellent and when the arrangements get a wee bit playful then it’s a real treat. Take a listen to ‘No Borders’, probably my favourite, for a perfect example of that. There are a few instrumentals dotted about which don’t really float my boat as I kept on waiting for a vocal to arrive. But it’s all worth it when a riff as memorable as the one on ‘Angels Of Freedom’ kicks in or a jig as enjoyable as ‘2 Hours To Go’ arrives, you can forgive a lot. Proper metal, that one.
There is a lot to recommend on this one and in these times when there is no touring, his lack of a band won’t, for once, be a hindrance. An enjoyable one.
St Columba’s Hospice Tribute Fund for Linda Hamilton
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The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
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