January 2003 Archives

CD, Interscope 1993

Track list: The Velvet Edge - Delicate Terror - Badlife - Dirty Little Secrets - China de Sade - Dimentia 66 - Final Blindness - Blue Buddha - Starmartyr - Electrical Soul Wish - 13 Above the Night - Disko Fleshpot - Savage Sexteen

13 Above the Night is a curious mix of industrial dance beats, distorted lyrics about various more or less pleasant activities, samples from various ungodly sources, all wrapped up in one big psychedelic groove jet. This is excellent party music for alternative uses. Groovy, yet dark and strange. Definitely recommended to goth dj's and like. 13 Above the Night is less useful for home use, but surely has it's fans. Who could resists music so satanically groovy? ***

CD, Sound Riot Records 2002

Track list: The World Today - A Dead Season - Gray Singer - Squeeze - The Fire Inside Me - Absent - Shape in the Shadows - Cast Aside - When the Ghosts Are Gone

First of all, credit to Fransesca di Leandro for the cover of this album: it's beautiful, dark and a bit scary. That's quite descriptive of the music, actually. Grayscale plays metal, sure, but they are quite melodic and there's a dark tone in it. And forget boring ambient synth soundscapes, Grayscale knows how to play loud when necessary! There's a nice balance of faster metal and atmospheric parts. I am not so sure about the vocalists - occasionally he's quite good, but sometimes his voice sounds a bit "amateurish", should I say. This one isn't a classic by any standards, but quite nice, still. ****

CD, Utu Music 2002

Track list: Fail - Pieces - Funeral - Nothing

Goth isn't the best label for ShamRain. I still chose it rather than rock, because there's something definitely gothic in ShamRain's emotional melancholy. Their music (lots of atmospheric keyboards, eerie guitars) is fairly subtle and stays in the background, giving room for the vocals. That's a good move, because their singer Taurus is one of their best parts. Biggest negative side is perhaps a lack of originality - even though I can't really say they are a copy of some other band, the music sounds like I've heard it all before. Still, even though it's not unique, it's well done. ****

CD, Cleopatra 1998

Track list: Unholy Roller, He Who Holds the Lightning Rod (Ranchero ReMix), Prince of Darkness (Black Version), Hellfire (Cytophuk ReMix), Prince of Darkness (Mutated Mix), The Root of All Evil (Bring Me the Head of Bob Larsen), Prince of Darkness (Laughing All the Way ReMix), Shout at the Devil, Prince of Darkness (Darkest Version), Book of Lies (Ether-eal Mix)

Unholy Roller is mostly a remix album from the happy gang of camp satanists. Prince of Darkness gets many treatments, some of which are actually quite nice. Unholy Roller is a nice anthem track and Shout at the Devil an excellent cover song. It's not the best starting point (I'd suggest Burn, Baby, Burn) and I wouldn't pay much for it; I bought mine used. ***

CDs, Ranka Recordings 2002

Track list: Nuori mies nimetön - Nuori mies nimetön (live) - Nuori mies nimetön (video)

"Nuori mies nimetön" is one of my favourite tracks on the new Viikate album, but three times the one song is a bit too much. The first version is not the same as is on the album, but the difference is small (ie. I didn't notice it). Live version isn't very good quality, in my opinion, and doesn't offer anything interesting. The video is quite cool, actually. Still, I would've preferred a new song instead of the live version. Good song, but pretty useless single. **