My friends from YASMINE TOURIST have sent me three tracks which are taken from “The Blue Moon” EP which will be uploaded on MySpace as final version on Monday, September 14th. I know these guys since my school days, especially mastermind Dominik Gerwald, so it was a pleasure to write something about their new songs. The version I had a chance to listen to is still the unmastered version. But anyway it sounds almost perfect due to Johnny Park from Submarien who was acting as recording engineer.
The first track is the title track “Blue Moon” with a very positive attitude – just guitars, voice and brushes. This is an approach to country music which I did not expect but without loosing the alternative music basis. The lyrics are very encouraging, the steel guitars give the feeling of freedom. To the end the song is somehow getting to a climax. First there are hardly drums but in the end there is a groovy and driving rythm and a piano / steel guitar solo with a typical country ending. “Pour yourself” is quite different with a very unique vocal line which is emphasized by a piano from time to time. Yearning lyrics are expressed by the music – again becoming more and more heavy with even electric guitars at the end and uprising vocals. But this time the song has a kind of break which ends in a great guitar solo before the song tranquilly dies away. The last song with the amazing title “Neon coloured” is spreading a melancholic mood with just a little percussion in the back. This could be a soundtrack to a Tarantino movie. I can see a man walking a road – lonely but still with strength. Again, the song is escalating. After a calm break which is making room for sentimental vocals, kettledrums are dominating over underlaying ambient synthesizers and voices whispering in the background. Crescendo – and it is over…
Conclusion: A unique alternative / songwriter band is coming the way with really outstanding piano parts, steel guitars and some unique vocal lines. So if you are interested in quite unconventional alternative music you should check out their MySpace page on Monday.
YASMINE TOURIST on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yasminetourist
I will put up another review fom this genre the next week – FLORIAN OSTERTAGs “The Constant Search” (Jens from Maria Records was nice enough to send it to me the last days).
As promised this is the first on-the-fly review in history. TOROGDIL sent me a track entitled “Furchtgewandt” which is home recorded and produced. It is from their upcoming album.
After an epic and heavy guitar intro with a very heavy guitar sound the song starts raging. As expected from the guitar sound it can be described as harsh black metal with a lot of death metal influences. Unfortunately the drums are from a drum machine – I would have loved to hear this song with a real drummer. The vocals are a mixture of whispering and traditional black metal vocals presenting us German vocals. If I was to tell you a similar band I would say DORNENREICH and CREATURE. It is a lot faster and darker than you might expect from DORNENREICH and in a way more epic than you might expect from CREATURE.
The song is quite varied although the same theme is reapeated very often in some parts over a playtime of almost 6:30 minutes. My conclusion is that you can hear very nice songwriting ideas in this demo song and the band is definitively trying to be different from other bands. But as you can expect from a young band this song is not as mature as it should be for a real album release – in my opinion and with my high expectations for new music. BUT I definitively would like to hear this band live and “feel” their sound not as sterile as on this recording – not to mention of a real drummer…
P.S.: You can rate now yourself using the rating feature on the top of the post…
I was really exceited about this band listening to their old stuff and wanted to hear what they have been up to lately. A new album is finished and ready to release. I gave “Promo 2009″ a listen and it sounds very familiar. Is that Amon Amarth coming through at some points? Well actually the Germans are more varied and therefor a lot more attractive to me. But the vocals slightly changed from deeper Death Metal growls to higher pitched vocals which sometimes even build a bridge to Black Metal. I do not know whether this album is really interesting or if it is just “usual” as it seems to be something inbetween. Again, the great guitar solos and lead guitars make the difference – otherwise this album would be very characterless. For all who are into death metal like Amon Amarth – this is for you – check it out!
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pathofgolconda
I will not reveal that much details but I was listening to the upcoming UNDERTOW album. They have finished the recordings and are already preparing the artwork stuff for the full product. The album is entitled “Don’t Pray To The Ashes” and contains 9 songs with the typical UNDERTOW style. There are some really melancholic and slow songs as well as pounding and driving pieces. Guess this is the right music for people loving Crowbar, Down and the sorts.
This is for surely an album worth to check out when it is released.
Check out these guys at http://www.myspace.com/undertow
And write some comments here how you like their music – this would be really appreciated!
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