Wall of Mouths

Thanks for the comments, appreciate it!

We continue with FireForce. This band is relatively new as well, their first album March On being from 2011, but again was formed by experienced musicians who had already played in bands like Double Diamond, Gwyllion and Grinning Ghoul. No doubt this mixture of bands and influences has helped FireForce create their sound, which is a nice blend of heavy power metal with thrash. Some songs, like the almost eponymous Firestorm even have a very classic hardrock approach, so to speak. Despite this FireForce will sound more straightforward to people familiar with the genre than for instance Dyscordia - and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for the music does not lack for spirit or inspiration. Listening to Firestorm you can clearly tell these guys are in it for the fun of writing and playing music, a statement that can also be supported by their tour schedule. They have already toured internationally with Australian band Pegazus but don’t hesitate to play at smaller venues like de Rots Café regularly either.

Some music takes prolonged listening and patience to get into, but in my opinion FireForce are pretty accessible and very listenable from the first go, and this does little to change the staying power their tracks have. The songs are perfect for shouting along with a raised fist. All in all, the overall sound reminds me mostly of Gamma Ray’s No World Order! album, if I have to make a comparison. This is helped by singer Flype’s voice which is somewhat reminiscent of Gamma Ray’s Kai Hansen, although he commonly uses it in a deeper and more aggressive manner. The rhythm section is the band’s strongest section, I think, as they support the vocals almost flawlessly and really put a driving force behind each song that pushes the song on and makes it stick in your head almost immediately.

The one negative remark I have is that their lyrics do not seem particularly interesting or captivating, which I guess is a result of the band mostly trying to focus on the music and attempting to find lyrics that ‘sing and stick’ well rather than bear a much deeper meaning. FireForce is a perfect example to show off to people who stubbornly claim power metal isn’t ‘true metal’ (whatever that is even supposed to be), for these guys are as true and real as it gets; Not only here to metal, but also to rock!

Links

Songs: Firestorm, The Only Way
Myspace
Facebook

The Cult rocks. Great live band, great no nonsense hard rock with an original touch. I have Sonic Temple, Beyond Good And Evil and Born Into This. War, Dirty Little Rockstar and Sound Of Destruction are top tracks.

In which I will try to present you a Belgian metal band every week.

Dyscordia is the first band I’d like to talk about. Having stumbled upon them at Frostrock a couple years back where they were the opening act, they were thé band that convinced me to return the next year, and again they did not disappoint. A band forged from the remains of several bands from West-Flanders, it’s very difficult if not impossible to categorize their style as of yet. The vocals and guitars may contain parts reminiscent of Power or Prog Metal while the ultra-precise drums wouldn’t sound bad if pasted a Thrash song, and this mingled sound is set in a somewhat Gothic atmosphere provided by singer Piet Overstijns’ soaring, etheric vocals, which are backed by the excellent rough vocals that are slightly reminiscent of Fear Factory at times and provide the band with a solid modern touch. Though it is a very vague term, I must say the band member’s experience rubs off on them, as they sound very mature already and not as if they are still searching: these guys know exactly what they want!

Of course using such simple terms to describe Dyscordia’s sound doesn’t do them justice. At first the music may seem a little bit overwhelming, but it grows on the listener quickly. The band tends to go for rather unconventional, somewhat longer compositions and are full of smart hooks and catches while retaining a consistent tempo, but are no less memorable for it. I would describe them as heavy, but definitely quite accessible. The band plays really tight together, as you will notice from the first notes of the Empty Room (link below). It immediately struck me how well the guitars are attuned to the drums. Piet is one of the finest singers in Belgium I’ve heard. The band released their EP Reveries last year and is currently working on a full album. This is one of the bands I am very excited about because they really manage to bring an innovative sound that is not forced, and have the live capabilities to back it up, and I wonder where they’ll take it. Hopefully the first full album with hit the shelves soon and we’ll be able to enjoy this band for many years to come.

Links
Dyscordia - The Empty Room
http://www.dyscordia.com/ - Official Website
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dyscordia/107071159350796

Well that’s too bad that they refused to do it, really.

Saw these guys as the support band to Alice Cooper, and was mighty impressed. It seems to me they’re being promoted so we would like them but I don’t care, the songs are well-spirited and there’s just not so many new bands (that I know of) that play this kind of music anymore. When I first saw them I also thought the singer looked a little like Ricky Warwick, could be part of the reason I like them, haha x’) Anyone else heard of them yet? Seems like they’re on the rise.

Fyfe should make an album of just him drumming, for an hour or so. I’m pretty sure that would be great.

Which bands are just plain weird? I nominate Powerglove. Nothing has had me go ‘wtf’ more than their video ‘Batman’ (the only one I’ve suffered watching). Even if they’re doing it for laughs (and I fear they’re not) it’s still so, so weird, lol.

This album is a troll. If they had taken it seriously and were actually trying to create something good, surely they would’ve redone some of James’ singing because it’s bloody awful. At one point Lou is talking (I refuse to call it singing) about ‘running out of semen’. I mean, what?

P.S.

I AM THE TABLE

buffalo-boy wrote:

so bands had better be F%^KING AWESOME at what they do!!

Yeah, because we all know pirates only steal the bad music…

In my experience the people who only download generally have a few songs of many bands but few bands they have a lot of music of or listen to a lot, and are also not the kind of persons that go to anything but the bigger festivals (where smaller bands won’t play). I think this explains itself both ways; if you’re not ready to spend money on music you’re probably not that serious about it, and the other way around…

I could be wrong, but aren’t good album sales also a bit of a requirement for getting (good) spots at bigger festivals?

It really is a plague. It seems to me the bigger bands are still able to pull through but it really makes it hard for smaller bands to survive. Example:

Recently Dushan Petrossi, the songwriter of one of my favourite bands Iron Mask published this on his Facebook:

‘With a heavy heart, I’m forced to sell a few of my guitars, interested guitarists; mail me here. How the f. can we stop those illegal downloadings and all this internet free sharings? You won’t get any music soon, at least not from me…’

I’m pretty sure he’s not alone, this is bad for music in general if artists can’t survive if they don’t go mainstream. I’m not saying they should all be rich be but a guy who is quite widely praised for his guitar-playing skills should at least be able to get by with his music… I think it’s pretty sad.

Ok let’s not proceed on that way any further :p

In the gory deparment: Anal Vomit

Coincidentally, I blasted Death Magnetic only yesterday and enjoyed every bit of it.

Btw MisterHoppy is going to post here every time he buys another vinyl so there is no next topic :D

If the difference was that great and obvious I’m sure vinyl would’ve remained more popular.

I do like vinyls myself (my parents have a nice collection) and we’re basically saying the same thing anyway so. I just believe you don’t need a specific reason to like something and people sometimes come up with reasons just to make more sense ^^ (I don’t mean you); With Mp3’s I can safely say there is a bit of loss of quality during the conversion though, unless you want really big (compared to the average quality files) files, then it doesn’t matter.

With modern day technology, I don’t think any serious company would make a CD sound anything less than perfect. I always viewed the ‘Vinyl sounds better’ as an invalid kinda elitist sounding argument, since it’s always explained in vague terms and I’ve never seen any technical explanation for it that has managed to convince me. If vinyl was superior, why’d they start making CD’s and how would you explain their success? There is no real advantage to vinyl save for appreciation and the fun of having them, which imo is a good enough reason to buy them (for others, not for me, I spend enough money on music while everything’s available for free ) so I don’t mind it at all and even think it’s good vinyls survive the ages because people keep buying them, but if you view it purely pragmatically, the CD is just as good and likely superior. Other than that it’s just a question of what you like: I like CD’s because they’re in the easiest format (amongst other things) and dislike MP3’s (like playing them in a car) even though purely technically speaking they may have their advantages as well and I simply put it like that, I don’t need to make up another reason I can’t prove for it.

Eh, the vinyls we have here at home sound the same or worse. I can see why people would want vinyls but I really do prefer CD’s, I can play them in the car…

These bands are obviously not rusty yet, they’re all still kicking ass! =) I must say though, while Thrash metal is probably my favourite kind of music, there’s other bands in the genre I like more. I’ve tried listening to Megadeth but couldn’t get into it… But I can see why other people like it.

Alright people we have a winner: ‘Gay For Johnny Depp’. Beat that.

How exhausted you are is just a measurement for how much fun you had =)

Firepower - Annihilator

The guy from the ‘fuck you’ song, definitely.

Distortion Fest Bands
I made a list of bands and what they played for this festival in my hometown to give myself an idea of what to expect. I just thought I’d share this so the effort wouldn’t go to waste. Most are Belgian bands with Myspace sites, Contradiction is a German band you might know ‘cos they’ve been around awhile.

Old Number 6 – Hardrock
Cave on Fire – Grunge
Evolve – 3th gen Metalcore
Krijgslust – Death
The Seventh – Black
Warbeast – Thrash / Death (!) There’s actually a quite awesome American thrash band of the same name I got mixed up with these guys at first - bummer!
Drauggard – Black
Krigavar – Folk (they ‘sing’ in Dutch and are pretty WTF)
Manic Movement – Gothic
Fat Bastard – Hardrock (made me think of Danzig)
LastDayHere – Nu metal
Burnout – HardCore
Contradiction – Thrash (!)
Alestorm – ALESTORM!!!

Omg really? I heard this British (Brutish) band on the Belgian Radio the other day: Anaal Natrakh

Gonna see a band named ‘Krijgslust’ soon at a festival in my home city. It’s actually the Dutch word for ‘Battlethirst’ which would be a pretty dumb straightforward name to me but still kinda acceptable, but then in Dutch it also sounds kinda, you know…

Yeah something like that, I was wondering to which extent this would affect his solo career.

Very right! Like, We’re From Barcelona, I hate shit like that xD

Of course, this topic is mostly to discuss if it would be possible for him to join T? on another tour, I thought he was awesome and ‘Belfast Confetti’ is a great album. : )

Congrats Ricky! : ) This kinda crushes my hopes that he’ll manage to accompany T? for another tour some time but hey, it’s good for him. Was surprised to read this, really.