Free legal albums!

Antarhes are a metal/rock band from France. They’ve got a nice male/female vocal thing going on, and this is one of the few great free legal albums I have found in a long time (hence the lack of posts!).

If you’re a fan of metal bands with female vocals, you’ll like this, and if you’re a fan of symphonic or power metal, you should like it too. It’s great and it’s enjoyable to listen to. We’ve even got some piano parts in there, which really add to the general feel of the music.

I haven’t had a lot of time to listen so far, but I am impressed with what I’ve heard. The band have 2 other free albums available, so if you like this, I will happily upload the others for you.

This record is certainly something I am going to keep in my collection. I’ve been going off metal of any type recently, but Antarhes have kind of reminded me of what I’ve been missing. Fantastic stuff.

This is the kind of thing we need to post more of. I don’t know if it’s due to personal bias, but it just seems there isn’t so much good free and legal metal out there as there is of other genres.

I set out today to find some metal. Something great. I figured it may take a few listens to a few records before I found something worthwhile (because hey, I admit, there is a load of rubbish out there), but I was wrong! This was the first album I downloaded, and it instantly hit me as something I need to post here.

I’m not at all sure how to classify it. We’ve got death metal vocals, but we’ve got a lot of other elements in there and it certainly isn’t death metal. It’s very electronic, but I’d never call it ‘electronica’. If you like you’re music eclectic, you really need to give this a listen.

In the download, I’ve labelled it as gothic metal. It’s the closest I could get to a proper genre.

I have no information at all for you about this band. They are a side project of some other music project and are Russian. That’s the most I could get. I think in this case, the enigmatic quality adds to the feel of the music though, so I’m not complaining!

We’ve got a good deal of atmosphere in the music. Almost doomish at times, although not quite. The album isn’t particularly long, but it’s enthralling throughout, and varied. A few of the track could even get a non-metal fan interested for at least a few minutes (and that’s saying a lot!).

If you like your music traditional, or if you’re one of those metal fans who HATES electronic elements, this is not for you. I personally love it because it is so experimental. I honestly can’t tell if the lyrics are in English or Russian, but it doesn’t matter. Musically, this is excellent, and it’s professional-sounding enough to compete with anything else. I am not as into metal as I used to be, but I can still enjoy this record. It’s something you should certainly listen to, even if just for the sake of interest.

Ok, this is going to be a fairly short and simple review. Kambodge are a band from Russia, and since most of what i find about them is in Russian, i’ll just give you a short snippet of what Last FM has to say about them:

“Kambodge is a metal\alternative\mall emo band from Chelyabinsk(Russian federation). Band formed in 2005…” and “The group’s music is a blend of modern brutal-riffs and punishing-breakdowns coupled with melodic elements and guitar effects.”

I have absolutely no idea what “mall emo” is, so you should probably just ignore that part. Other tags describe them as a “metalcore/hardcore” band, which would fit the bill a whole lot better.

Onto this album…I have no idea what it is called, and i’m not even sure if Russian writing will work on this site. But if so, the album is called Ветром стал. 11 songs, roughly 40 mintues of Russian metal/hardcore/whatever music. I cannot understand a word said throughout the entire thing, but that is quite common even for English speaking bands of this genre.
Despite that, this was a thoroughly enjoyable album. It won’t get me singing along anytime soon (unless i wake up understanding Russian tomorrow!), but it did get my toes a-tappin’ and my feet a’…well, also tapping. The music was fast enough and good enough, and the singing was enjoyable enough for me to really like this album despite the language barrier.
The official Kambodge website is also in Russian, so i’m not entirely sure what is on it; but by the looks of things, they are offering 3 albums for free download (including this one). I highly recommend you download this one and check out the others if you enjoy it!
You can download this album here, and visit the official site here.

I have not posted anything as interesting as this on my blog to date (and it’s not as if I’ve posted few interesting things!). I’ve never heard anything like it, and I recommend you all to listen. It’s bloody incredible.

Diablo Swing Orchestra are a Swedish avant-garde music ensemble…and when I say avant-garde I really mean that. They’re metal…but they’re sort of…swing-metal. It sounds odd, but when you hear it you’ll realise it works so well. It’s fun music and it’s executed so perfectly. I doubt I’ll never come across a band like this. They’re definitely one of a kind. I was blown away instantly by it. The swinginess doesn’t stay constant throughout, but the collaboration or orchestral instruments does, although it’s never “symphonic” metal, so no worries about it becoming Nightwish-sounding!

Nanowar are a spoof power metal band from Italy, and it’s pretty obvious from their name who they are imitating. In 2006 they changed their name to Nanowar Of Steel, and from their website I get the impression that this was because Manowar might have taken a little action against them! The Nanowar Of Steel name however was chosen to mock Rhapsody, who had recently changed their name to Rhapsody Of Fire. The release I have posted here was released under the Nanowar name, and that is what I shall be referring to them as (also, it’s quicker to type).

Nanowar really take the piss out of power metal. When you listen closely to the lyrics it is honestly funny stuff. If you’re big on power metal and take it seriously, well, just don’t listen closely! As a power metal band they’re really catchy, and as a spoof power metal band they’re both catchy and entertaining. “Entertaining” being of key importance, since power metal has the habit of being very samey!

Personally I enjoy power metal, but I can appreciate how silly a lot of it is, so this record appeals to me immensely. Power metal with humour, what an odd thing to listen to!

If you like this record, you can check the band out/download more by them on their website – www.nanowar.it/.