harsk – promise of a brave new world (2008)

i don’t usually do demos. so guess why this one landed here? to everyone’s big surprise, yes, because it was worth it.
one positive note about promise of a brave new world (and perhaps the most striking one) is without doubt the singer’s voice (rarely this steady at such a young stage of a band), staying quite harsh from beginning to end, thus fitting perfectly the band’s hard rock/heavy metal proposal. secondly, and about as important, none of the instruments ever overshadows the others. through that, harsk are able to keep the sound clean and very melodic throughout the whole recording.
the starting couple, “fight the beast” and the title track, are the heavy pair of the lot, soon giving way to a tightening and darkening of the sound. “end of me” has actually a double-faced structure, fading from a ballad-esque approach into faster tempos and a much darker atmosphere. “lazarus” brings in some even dimmer atmosphere, yet strongly supported by melody — thus staying away from any possible doomy inclination.
a videoclip of “promise of a brave new world” is also featured on the demo. it’s obviously nothing mind-blowing, being self-produced, but you can tell the guys have taken it all pretty seriously from the fact a professional hand clearly lies behind it.
harsk (“rancid” in norwegian) couldn’t be farther from playing stale. they’re good, skillful enough to play with confidence and quite a high degree of personality, but also down-to-earth enough not to let mere technicality prevail. their songwriting is clean, catchy enough to make an impression, and so is the mixing, resulting in an overall fresh and convincing sound.
to kind of close the circle, let me insist that these guys are worth a listen. it’s not that often that you come across an exception (especially in the AOR/prog area) to the it-feels-like-i-heard-this-a-thousand-times-before rule. you can find out yourself at the band’s official site, as they’ve made the demo available for download. a rare form of generosity you won’t regret taking advantage of.

thus spake the cennsor: 7/10

alestorm – captain morgan’s revenge (2008)

what would you expect from a band who label their own music as “true scottish pirate metal”? folkish, up-tempo rides across the fourth (fourths) seas? correct guess. any time i think of pirates, a word comes to my mind (don’t ask why): swashbuckling. and that’s what these guys are – and so is their first release under this monicker. in fact, some might be interested in having a listen to what these buckaneers did before signing for the mighy nuclear blast – if that’s the case, jot down the name “battleheart”, which (just as the current one by the way), already spoke for itself.
the merely musical background is expectedly some kind of speedy, up-tempo power metal – as the “true” in their own definition may suggest. the keyboards and accordions add that tasty folky flavour which is needed to set up some kind of piraty mood. and unlike too many a record, here the keyboards really do fit, providing a nice background sound which is neither invadent nor foreshadowed by the other, more noise-making instruments.
by the way, don’t let tags misguide you: no doubt alestorm have something in common with other folk, “non-pirate” metal acts – still they bring out something fresh and personal. to name but one thing: more solos than you’d expect to find on a folk metal album (along with the thrashy flavour to “death by the mast”). to name just another: the pirates of the caribbean theme “quotation” creeping out one of the songs. the melodies flow rather naturally, and before you realise, the album’s over – in a way, even too soon.
oh, and yes, there IS a beer song too. when expected things are good. what you might not expect, is to find alestorm‘s own version of “flower of scotland” as a coda to this adventurous journey. what? oh right, they did warn us, they’re scots. and proud to be.

thus spake the cennsor: 8/10