Alogia ‎– Elegia Balcanica

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 043

Format:

CD, Album

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2014

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Power Metal

Tracklist

1	Almagest
2	Callis Ad Astra
3	Galija
4	Vreme Je
5	Elegia Balcanica
6	Lilith (Ona Zna)
7	Inferno
8	U Tišini
9	Intentionally Blind

Band steming from Serbia and comprised of very skilled musicians, AlogiA play a slightly prog-oriented power metal, bringing back to memory the best moments of Kiske-era Helloween with a dash of early Dream Theater or Crimson Glory. The band seems to have gained some fame in their own country, even topping the charts and performing sold out gigs in stadiums. The reason for this success lies probably in the delivery of catchy choruses in serbian, and a strong focus on the balkan Identity in their lyrics.

Regarding the music, we are in for some catchy tunes, where shy verses (like on "Galija") or more agressive (like on "Vreme je") turn to anthemic choruses with cheerful vocals. All along the record, we are exposed to galloping rhythms, hasty drumming, above-the-standard guitar playing, at times harpsichord-sounding keyboards when they are not filling out the space in an orchestral or enchanting way, and singalong-driven chorus. Some arabian-sounding violins in the first half of the album also add a traditional touch to the whole ("Callis ad Astra", "Galija", "Elegia Balcanica"). Altogether, all those elements interlock quite well, even if originality is not outstanding.

On a final note, this album can be recommended to anyone who is into the more melodic branch of power/prog metal. The use of local language is not so common in this category, and we can salutate the band for this courageous endeavour. 

 

Alogia ‎– Elegia Balcanica

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 043

Format:

CD, Album

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2014

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Power Metal

Founded by the Branković brothers in 2000, Alogia is a Serbian progressive/power metal band who released their fifth full length album, Elegia Balcanica, in 2014. While the band generated quite a bit of fame early on in their home country, it wasn’t until their third full length, Secret Spheres of Art, that the band gained a sizable fan base outside of Serbia. Alogia played a fast paced, highly melodic brand of progressive/power metal, steeped in thick keyboards and Mediterranean scales with a Middle Eastern flair. Or at least it was until the release of the band’s 2012 full length, Priče o snovima, which served a decisive blow to the band’s fan base with it’s alternative rock structuring and decisive lack of energy.

Alogia - Elegia Balcanica - YouTube
Elegia Balcanico might retain a touch of rock, but it’s fairly safe to say that the band has moved back toward their metal roots. While this isn’t as fast and punchy as Secret Spheres of Art, the band takes a more mature and varied approach to power/prog. The majority of the album features fast paced guitar acrobatics from the Malmsteen school of shredding, but rather than showboating along, the focus remains on crafting catchy and memorable songs. Loads of thick keyboards hang in the air, creating a deep wall of sound that the bass has a difficult time cutting through. In between the nimble solos, the band’s sound centers on chunky palm muting; frankly, it’s fairly typical power metal stuff. The vocals a rather fresh breath of air, as Nikola Mijić’s vocals are shrill and high, yet with the majority of vocals being in Serbian the band gets the benefit of sounding different just because it’s in a different language than usual. Adding to the ethnic flair, the band fits Mediterranean scales and slight Middle Eastern influences into the songwriting, be it keyboard flourishes or a quick guitar lick, which the title track features plenty of both.

Alogia - Elegia Balcanica (Official Video 2013) - YouTube

As good as the instrumentation is, the band trips themselves up quite a few times, be it choppy transitioning or pieces that just don’t quite mesh with the rest of the music. These quirky moments aside, there are a few moments that sound almost like J-Rock or pieces to anime theme songs, like the choruses during “Ona zna (Lilit)” and “Galija”. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these ultra-catchy choruses, it just really seems out of focus with the rest of the album. Being that this is a catchy, power/prog album, why wouldn’t the band include a progressive death metal tribute to Chuck Schuldiner? Complete with the growled vocals and choppy and chuggy guitar-wizardry of later period Death, “Intentionally Blind” is a decent track, but it’s still difficult to fathom why Alogia included this track here.

Alogia may not have brought themselves back up to the level of Secret Spheres of Art, but they have certainly come a long way from their previous abomination. Perhaps tighter song structures and a little less variety show appeal could reign this beast in. It’s a solid album for those looking for interesting, ethnic progressive/power metal, but there’s a good portion of filler mixed in as well. These guys certainly have the chops to impress, but the songwriting isn’t really up to par. Elegia Balcanico manages to combine prog, power metal, J-rock and tinges of traditional instrumentation, so it’s not a complete loss, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this could have been so much better.

Sakramentum ‎– Beyond The Dark Mountains

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 009

Format:

CD, EP

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2012

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Black Metal, Death Metal, Symphonic Metal

Eerste EP van het Servische Sakramentum, een female fronted metalband met uiteenlopende interesses. Ivana Savic is een eyecatcher en in dit geval ook een earcatcher.

Beyond the Dark Mountains is een symfonisch black/death-plaatje geworden dat niet meteen voor de hand liggende combinaties laat horen. Siebenbürgen/Graveworm-melodieën, vaak op een black metal-blastbeat, inclusief sprookjessynths, worden aangevuld met eerder naar death metal klinkende screams en grunts. Het contrast tussen de vocalen en de frêle tunes is vaak erg groot, misschien heeft de opname in de Paradox Studio daar iets mee te maken. Hoe dan ook, het is geen evidente mix en slechts weggelegd voor luisteraars met een brede smaak. Luistertip: When Darkness Surrounds.

Tracklisting:

1. Dark Trail of the Ancestors
2. Victims of War
3. When Darkness Surrounds
4. Relentless Angel
5. All Beauty Must Die

Line-up:

• Marko Dragutinovic Max – Bass
• Dimitrije Vasic – Drums
• Goran Truca Zivkovic – Guitars
• Coa Lukovic – Keyboards
• Ivana Savic – Vocals

 

Concrete Sun ‎– Sky Is High

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 011

Format:

CD

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2012

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Southern Rock, Doom Metal

I remember when groove metal happened back in the early 90s. Pantera released their masterpieces Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power, and suddenly the metal scene exploded with groovy bands - many of whom were established thrash bands who embraced the groove to various degrees, while the rest were upcoming new bands. Soon the scene consisted of a few original bands surrounded by a mass of Pantera-clones, and suddenly the groove metal star went supernova and imploded on itself, falling out of favor before the 90s ended. This is partially because of the mass of sub par Pantera-clone and because the groove was embraced and, in many cases, dumbed down by the nu metal bands of the late 90s and later by the metalcore bands of the noughties, while a more interesting and, dare I say, true version of the metal groove was kept alive in the underground sludge metal scene.

It seems now that new life has been blown into the groove metal monster - probably thanks to the increasing popularity of sludge metal - and, with releases like Diretone's upcoming eponymous debut and "Sky Is High" by Serbian rockers Concrete Sun, which was released earlier this month, there is focus on both quality, originality and homage to the great groove metal acts of the 90s.

"Sky Is High" is a massive riff-based grooving monster of a rock album. While there seems to be a clear influence from sludge metal, Concrete Sun's sound is much tighter and less twangy than the typical sludge sound, and Sky Is High has more sonically in common with the thrash metal bands who went groovy in the 90s in the sense that, while the groove is in focus, Concrete Sun also appear to be aiming at precision and tightness in both riffage and in the overall performance. I would say that, if one were to compare this album to releases from the golden era of groove metal, the best point of comparison would be releases like Overkill's "I Hear Black", Anthrax' "The Sound of White Noise", Sacred Reich's "Independent", and perhaps Exodus' "Force of Habit". Now all of these releases were not exactly popular when they were released, but what I like about them is that they were different from the undefinable mass of groove metal releases the came out at the time, and I think it is great that Concrete Sun sound more like those releases than the many Pantera-clones that made up the major groove metal population. I mean, obviously, the Pantera-inspiration is there and is reflected in some of the riffs, but we are not talking rip-offs here.

Not only is "Sky Is High" solid and groovy, most of the tracks are based on some awesome drives and then, for a groove metal album, it is also quite varied with tracks like 'Just a Beginning', 'Euphoria' and 'Hide Behind' being groovy motorcycle-friendly metal rockers, while the title track is heavy and melodic, and a tune like 'Ruff Song' is an all out old school hard rocker, whereas 'Last Man Under the Sun' is a dark and heavy blues-tinged alternative rock/metal track. The vocals also deserve mention, as the vocalist has a really unique voice (think Bobby Blitz meets Manic Frustration-era Eric Wagner with a touch of Wolfsbane-era Blaze Bayley in the more mellow parts); it may take a spin or two to get used to, but his vocals are rock 'n' roll as f*ck and really fit the music perfectly. Another thing that screams rock 'n' roll are the guitar solos which steer clear of any sort of shredding, instead drawing on the blues and are more akin to the solos heard in much 90s alternative rock.

Fans of groove metal as well as sludge metal and even alternative metal/rock should definitely invest in "Sky Is High".

 

Concrete Sun ‎– Eight

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 040

Format:

CD

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2014

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Stoner Rock, Southern Rock

Concrete Sun is a Novi Sad line-up founded in 2007, which after four years of work realized its debut album "Sky is High", initially as a free download, and with the agility of Miner records it was reissued in cd format, at the end of 2012.

The debut album presented them as a convincing musician, immersed in the American heavy, grunge and stoner sound of the first half of the nineties. Enumerating the impact would take time, but let’s just mention the ones immediately noticeable like Down or Alice In Chains. There are also those less noticeable that can be discerned only after a few auditions (for example, the occasional mild echoes of Exodus from the "Force of Habbit" phase or the overtone of the Testament from the same period, primarily in singing). It is obvious that Concrete Sun positioned its sound completely at that time in the mentioned time period, but what is a plus for them is that the material recorded on the album "Sky Is High" sounds fresh and not too retro. This year's new album, "Eight", brings a partially more modern sound, less stoner vibe, the songs are faster, the riffs are shorter and more sharp. The production seems to be a shade more successful (and the debut album had a good production for the local conditions), and the bass guitar got more space in the arrangements. Strahinja Cerovina has once again confirmed himself as one of the better singers on the Serbian heavy scene and he sovereignly leads the band through eight new songs (hence the title of the album). The order of the songs is not the happiest, so after five songs that make up the most impressive part of the material, there are two slower, longer and bulkier "Vagabound's Dream" and "Silver Tear" (a video was recorded for the latter). Thus, the second half of the album is subordinated in quality to the first, and for the very end, an unnecessary stylistic rehearsal on the theme of the southern sound "Chained Up & Out Of Blues" was left. The cover was performed very pompously and all congratulations to Miner records, which enabled them a booklet of twenty pages with lyrics of all the songs and accompanying, solidly ambitious, photos. On the other hand, I was unable to decipher the connection between the album title and the photo on the front of the cover, as well as the connection between the photo on the back of the cover and the rest of the booklet. It is a band with obvious potential, which has two noticed albums behind it and the support of the record label, and which on the next album might finally turn things around in its favor and achieve more noticeable success outside the heavy scene. This is supported by the current video for the song "The Galley", and the announcement of the release of the album on vinyl, but it would help the band to continue to remove the influence of other bands from their sound and continue to form its original author's stamp. In the end, "Eight" will surely, despite some objections, find its place on the lists of the best metal albums of this year released in the former Yugoslavia, but perhaps it would be more important than that to be presented as much as possible at live performances.

 

Concrete Sun ‎– Sky Is High

Label:

Miner Recordings ‎– MR 011

Format:

CD

Country:

Serbia

Released:

2012

Genre:

Rock

Style:

Southern Rock, Doom Metal

Imagine if you will, your ears being scraped alongside the rusty innards of a pickup trucks back end, now add the dull thud of a hangover, that is how this album made me feel and I hadn’t even drunk the night before.

Now don’t get me wrong I love Southern Rock, from “Down” to “Black Stone Cherry”. But “Sky is High” left me wanting more, as if I had been sat in front of a buffet of Michelin star food and instead was made to eat dirt.

The thing that annoyed me by far the most on this album was the lazy songwriting, for example, “D.A.N.U.B.E” and “God Forsaken Prostitute” are almost identical at the beginning, I may be being pedantic but since when has every other song on an album had to start with exactly the same chord, tone and tempo? We all love palm muting, but let’s not do a Zakk Wylde, who at least can pull off using the same technique over and over again.

Concrete Sun suggest they have taken influences from “a blend of southern rock, blues, stoner, groove, sludge and grunge”, but that doesn’t mean they should have taken all those influences and turned them into one gelatinous lump.

But enough of the terrible analogies, I will try and give some constructive criticism, firstly, the voice, either it was recorded badly or it just isn’t up to scratch, and I say that as there were points at which I thought the voice had a certain quality to it, but nine times out of ten it sounded like a bad mix of James Hetfield and M Shadows.

The guitar-work is lazy; there is a lot of potential as sometimes I find myself picking out in the bottom of the mix a good lick and wonder whether it was lost in bad production or if nobody thought to say, look you CAN write, so write more like that three seconds just there. And my god where are the bass and drums? I had to strain my ears to hear the bass and when I did I was pleasantly surprised, the bassline was good, really good in fact, but I had to crank my sound up to find it.

Overall then, the album is dull, lazy and perhaps quite typical for a debut release. It needs work, there’s good to be found, but it’s hidden amongst the muck

 Band: Concrete Sun

 

Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Album: “Sky Is High”

Concrete Sun is a Southern/Stoner, Sludge, Grudge band from Novi Sad, Serbia. Yes that’s right, muthafuckin’ Serbia. Southern fried metal reaches deep into all parts of this planet for sure.

Listening to this freshman release from these boys I instantly hear their influences and I would imagine their heroes, such as the mighty Pantera, Down, COC, which all was birthed by Sabbath. Having said that I would really love to hear a little more dynamics from their own sound and input then hearing those other bands mentioned above, which isn’t easy as it sounds, hell I know that from experience. These guys are awesome musicians, no doubt, so let’s begin with some tracks I feel are key to making this a slammin’ cd.

Track one is “Just A Beginning”. This heavy grooving ,really catchy intro with a tasteful quick solo added, kicks off this album. I like the overall feel and vocals that is slammin’ all the way through. Track three is a very commercial radio friendly track, that if the right people and money behind it could have possible put this band on the map not just a small loyal fan following. With a great intro that is very similar to Down’s “Stone The Crow”, this track is very bluesy, heavy sludge riffs that we all love to jam too. Chorus is also catchy and full of life that I’m sure is a crowd favorite. Another track that I really dug was “Junkyard Dog”. Kicks off with that old Pantera slam. Heavy chunkin’ riffs with that awesome drum sound that Dime and Vinnie brought to life, completely infectious!

Overall this a decent freshman release from these guys. I’m sure with hard work and the right producer their songs will continue to improve with every album they create. This band isn’t going anywhere but up ,lets just hope they stay together and on the radar.