The End has officially signed Eurovision champs Lordi for the US: https://www.digitalmetal.com/news.asp?cid=7896
The band's most recent album "The arockalypse" will be released over here on March 20 with bonus tracks and a DVD. The band will play the Bamboozle Festival in May and will hopefully add more dates to their itinerary soon.
Finnish melodic metal act Ghost Brigade will be entering the studio on January 6 with engineer Mikko Poikolainen to record their debut album for release on Season of Mist in 2007. In the meantime, the band's four-song demo is still available for download: https://www.ghostbrigade.net/ghostbrigade.rar
Imagine Katatonia with gruffer vocals and you'll have a good idea of what to expect. I dig it.
IAT favorites C.Aarmé are looking for people to remix their newly recorded, last-ever track "The abyss song": https://blog.myspace.com/caarme
Absolut Noise talks to Andreas Nilsson, guitarist for Silverbullit and visual artist for The Knife: https://absolutnoise.blogspot.com/2006/12/interview-andreas-nilsson.html
The Knife is offering up "Christmas reindeer" for free download again, as in year's past: https://www.theknife.net/
The new Isolation Years single "Landslide" is now streaming on myspace: https://www.myspace.com/isolationyearsmusic
The band's new album "Sign, sign" is easily one of my most anticipated 2007 releases.
Pitchfork reports on a new live EP from José González that magically appeared on iTunes yesterday: https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/40151/Jos%C3%A9_Gonz%C3%A1lez_Releases_EP_Readies_Album
Note that besides working on his own sophomore album, José will also be releasing a new EP with his full band project Junip in 2007.
Eskju Divine
Heights
Imperial Recordings
Eskju Divine could have made it big if they came from England, they've got the same sound as lots of bands over here, most of them derived from a love of Radiohead, or lately - Coldplay. It's unexciting, uninspiring and highly unoriginal, "Heights" is a collection of bland songs that feature "emotional" vocals that sound pretentious. I don't mind music like this now and then, if it's done in another more interesting fashion. Eskju Divine just tread boring territory that's been treaded many times over and they're just bringing another plain offering to the table of dullness. No thank you, I rather eat in silence!
- Simon Tagestam
Frida Hyvönen
Live @ 93 Feet East, London, UK 12/06/2006
Perhaps a half-empty venue where too many people in the back are chatting away, might not be the ideal venue to experience Frida Hyvönen in concert, but this gig still didn't live up to my very high expectations. I thought the gig was going to be something amazing, I even tried to get a bunch friends to come along, so I found it quite unfortunate that Hyvönen seemed to lack that spark that could have turned the gig into something really good. She's got the material, but for her to be able to give them justice being alone just behind a keyboard, it takes a lot of skill, a skill that was sadly not present in its full capacity last night. The highlights of the night were "I drive my friend", "Once I was a serene teenaged child", "The modern", and a new song that I don't know the name of.
- Simon Tagestam
The Idealist
I am the fire
iDEAL Recordings
The Idealist, an ambient project of Joachim Nordwall, also of the Skull Defekts, threads relatively well explored waters of the likes of guitar-based ambiance, probably the most well known proponent of the genre being Fennesz. "I am the fire" is actually not that exciting in that there is nothing that I would qualify as new or exceptional in there despite the fact that it is well-done and honest. That said, the album is quite enjoyable on its own and makes some pretty interesting background noise but there is really nothing to grab my attention like many other ambient and dark ambient acts do.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Jens
If you've seen me lately please tell me where I've been
Goddamn I'm a Countryman Records
I'm glad getting this review out of the way, since it means I don't have to listen to this album anymore. Jens play basic alt-country, nothing special at all, even though some of the melodies aren't that bad. The vocals are the weakest point, they're way too plain to excite. Perhaps the odd song from this record would be ok, but I find listening to these eight songs in a row seriously boring, despite some duets with a girl and the odd flute playing. If you're of opinion that Wilco are way too experimental for their own good, you might want to try a bit of Jens out.
- Simon Tagestam
Johndoe
Dødvinkel
JHND
All of a sudden my life is revolving around things Norwegian; I'm currently obsessed with author Knut Hamsun, I've been listening to Johndoe constantly the last week and yesterday I even bought something Norwegian for my girlfriend for Christmas (can't say what, in case she reads this). Johndoe is very much my cup of tea - melodic punkrock that's highly infectious and it sounds like a mix between Håkan Hellström, Randy, and a less "spikier" Mattias Alkberg BD, but sung in Norwegian. Can it get any better? Not sure what the lyrics are about, but they seem pretty normal to me. I'm definitely going to try and catch these guys live if I ever get the chance, I'm sure it's a riot.
- Simon Tagestam
Loveninjas
The secret of the Loveninjas
Labrador
Nikola Sarcevic, I'm taking back my 'Most improved in 2006' award and bestowing it upon Loveninjas. Their debut EP "Keep your love" was utterly dreadful - a near-perfect embodiment of most everything I despise about tweepop. Let it be known: I do not hate this. Upon hearing the chatter about what a changed band they'd become with the release of the single "I wanna be like Johnny C", I figured I ought to give them a second chance. I'm glad I did because that song is fantastic - a shining pop marvel that harkens back to the time when alternative music was still known as college rock. Unfortunately, glimmers of the olden days still pop up now and again ("She broke his penis in two" for example) and the rest of songs rarely rise above mediocre status. Still, that's a heckuva lot better than I expected, so let me call it at 'inoffensive' and hope you understand I mean it as a compliment.
- Avi Roig