Sonata Arctica - The ninth hour

Sonata Arctica is a band I have a rather complicated relationship with. I love a lot of power metal bands, but all of them are the ones that somehow break the boundaries of this genre and also use symphonic or progressive elements. At the opposite poles are the artists that rely on the same tractored riff, ridiculously long and artificial guitar solos and have this rather dumb (or shallow, to put it more mildly) musical positivity on top of lyrics that usually refer to dramatic themes. Sonata Arctica is both of those bands, depending on how the Sun shines on Jupiter or something, because one moment it can bore me to tears and the next it's so nice and lovely. And then it has Tony...

Doom over Bucharest II, Club Quantic, 26.11.16

After not catching on quick enough that the first doom-themed festival in Bucharest will be sold out weeks before the show, this time we decided to buy tickets so far back that we weren’t even sure who was playing. We saw A dream of Poe there and it was enough.

Opeth - Sorceress

After two reviews full of superlatives for Heritage and Pale Communion, I guess it's finally time to tone down a bit the Opeth fangirlism for Sorceress. It doesn't mean that Sorceress is a bad album, Opeth could make better albums than 80% of the music that's out there in their sleep, I think they're incapable of writing a bad record. It's just that it's not as brilliant as some of their previous works. What can I say, they set high standards for themselves... Then again, this being Opeth, I might change my mind after a few more spins, it seems that no matter how many times I listen to their albums, there's always more to discover and more to love.

Orphaned Land & Amaseffer - Kna'an

Ah, they’re still fine! After an All is one that made me wonder if they aren’t placing their ambassadorial role above their musicians’ role and especially after the departure of Yossi, their main composer, I was starting to get a bit worried about Orphaned Land’s future. Fortunately, this new album is here to erase all my doubts and put my mind to ease, as the lovely Israelis put out yet another great record. And while it's a collaboration and not their sole work, I do count it as an Orphaned Land album because their print is undeniable. I can't say I'm very familiar with Amaseffer so I'm not sure how much they bring to the table, but most of the songs are typical OL and have everything I love them for. There are some innovations and departures from the style we know them for, but from what I know of Amaseffer it doesn’t sound like them either, so I suppose it’s just a natural progression from both bands together, not just influencing one another. In any way, with just one unfortunate exception we’ll talk about later, it sounds very good.

Warrel Dane, Hard Rock Cafe, 13.09.16

“Just let us play the fucking song!” Ah, Warrel, such a treat! When he announced that he will play the full Dead heart in a dead world album, I expected emotion, angst and a heartbreaking burden. We got that alright, but we also got a very positive and jovial Warrel Dane. For a man who sings about despair and madness, he really doesn’t take himself very seriously, and it was exactly this unexpected combination that made the show enjoyable. But let’s start with the beginning.