Souldrown-Evil of War (Demo rough mix '00)

Self-Release/Independent
2016

Souldrown is a progressive rock-infused hard & heavy power metal band that hails from Athens, Greece and can trace it's roots all the way back to 1993. The material on "Evil of War" was recorded back in the late 90's/early 00's for a demo release that for whatever reason never materialized. Here it is some 16 years later and the band is finally releasing this material and for what it's worth this is some pretty solid stuff! Early on the group was influenced by the likes of Accept, Helloween, Stratovarius, and Warlord before turning their sights to bands such as Tool and Dream Theater. From the sounds of it Souldrown was hoping to combine heavy/power metal with genres like dark metal and progressive rock. As a result of these huge changes in sound and style the music on this well-crafted 5-track EP cuts a fairly straight line between those two areas. In other words this is heartfelt/sincere heavy metal/power metal that has been given a lifesaving intravenous (IV) line of complex progressive rock/metal. Toss in some inspired lyrics and a more than capable front-man and you end up with one EP that is a steal of a deal at only $1.10! In addition to the bandcamp link that appears above you can check out this respectable demo by heading to Youtube.

Ghost Season- Ghosts Like Her

Self-Release/Independent
2014

You will have to forgive me as I'm showing up late to the party that is Athens, Greece-based band Ghost Season. With a full-length album planned for sometime later this year it was just this month (March 4th to be precise) that I was first introduced to the band's debut offering, "Ghosts Like Her". Unfortunately I promptly went and tucked this EP away in a "To Do" folder and then (seeing as it is Mr. Flaky here that we're talking about!) I forgot all about checking that folder until today! Compounding the issue is the fact that I have far too many similarly-titled and themed folders which I desperately need to clean out. So, let me then be the first to apologize to Ghost Season and the nice folks over at Metal Revelation Promotion who first sent this EP to Metal Mark for consideration. My bad. Hopefully I'll be able to make it up to everyone once Ghost Season's new album comes out as I'd really love to review it! With all of that out of the way let us now move back to this Greek band that was formed during the summer of 2013 by bassist Dorian Gates of Clairvoyant, Night Guest and Madleaf fame. Those first two names are of the metal variety whereas Madleaf is a stoner rock/grunge-like band.  That is worth mentioning seeing as Ghost Season's sound comes at you from many different angles and it represents many different styles. With a total running time of 20 minutes and forty two seconds this highly recommend EP finds Dorian and his crew combining older hard rock and heavy metal ideas with newer alternative and modern rock influences for a sound that is all at once charmingly retro yet current and (you better believe it friends) majestically hip! Further credit most go to the surrounding cast of characters which includes highly-versatile lead singer Nick Lountos, guitarists Nash Sinner (ex-Station 11) and Nick Christolis (ex-Potergeist) and drummer Chris Grekas as (collectively) the five members of Ghost Season serve up a EP that is all at once rock-radio worthy while still loud enough for the hard and heavy crowd! And as referenced by the "alternative and modern rock" line the music of Ghost Season seems as if it would be just as capable of wining over fans of the nineties modern rock scene as it would those who still have an ongoing subscription to Alternative Press Magazine! Yes, a lot of that has to do with skilled voice of lead singer Nick Lountos, but the band's occasional foray into melancholy rock territory doesn't hurt either. Really, there is something for everyone going on here (if you are a rock fan that is) so hopefully the upcoming full-length from Ghost Season will not only capture that magic but expand upon it! Available to download on iTunes, Ghost Season's "Ghosts Like Her" is a praise-worthy debut and it's one EP that I hope to add to my personal CD collection as soon as humanly possible!