Breeze Least-Breeze Least

Shadow Kingdom Records
2016

Blood-red rare(!) eighties/neoclassical heavy metal from Japan. That's about all there is to this recently-released (digital-download only) re-issue from the wonderful folks over at Shadow king Records. Where it is exactly that they dug this mysterious gem up from I'll never know, but here's the scoop all the same. Preceded by a 1985 three-track demo, "Breeze Least" was the atmospheric debut from this obscure Japanese metal band that has (appropriately-enough) been described as a cross between Merciful Fate's "Melissa" and Yngwie Malmsteen's "Rise Force". With a run-time that clocks in at over 48 minutes in length(!) the 7-track "Breeze Least" was originally put out on 12" vinyl in 1986 (and as an independent release to boot!), but somewhere along the way this cult band lost the master tapes. That's a real shame, but at least we can all enjoy the band's self-titled release in digital format. For those of you who might be interested in the track listing (because you know why not?) I've posted it below. To that end I've also put in a one time grading system. It's easy enough to understand. One * symbol is decent, two * symbols means good, three *'s means it's great and then four * symbols translates to "Hot damn! That's some smoking awesome shit there!".  
 

1. Breeze Least ***
2. Must be Crush **
3. Dolphin Tradition *
4. Damnation ****
5. Gate Tower ***
6. Caprice No. 9 - Dread to Death ***
7. Not the Hold**



As a side note, "Breeze Least" also contains elements of epic and speed metal as well as slight
nods of appreciate towards the likes of (early) Van Halen and mid-late seventies Kiss.

Letters From The Fire-Letters From The Fire

Self-Release/Independent
2014

This Tuesday, August 19th to be more precise, Bay Area hard rockers Letters From The Fire will release their self-tiled, 5-track EP. All the rage on rock radio these days thanks to their hard & heavy take on The Beatles' single "Eleanor Rigby" and their latest single, "Zombies In The Sun" (a crunchy Godsmack-like rocker featuring nice and meaty riffs courtesy of guitarists Mike Keller and Grayson Hurd), this 5-piece outfit features lead singer (and newest member) Elliot Weber laying down decent enough vocals over-top of decent enough post-grunge/heavy radio rock. While their version of "Eleanor Rigby" is fairly solid in and of itself it is nearly ruined by unnecessary screams towards the number's end. As for their own material there's the new single, another hard rock cut called "This Moment", "Waiting" (a semi-ballad) and (for some reason) the acoustic version of "Zombies In The Sun". Yeah. The EP really didn't need that at all. Letters From The Fire would have been better off adding another fresh number to the mix or (barring that) they could have just left it as is. But, it is what it is and of the few tracks offered here it would have to be "Zombies In The Sun" (the electrified version!) and "Waiting" that serve as highlights. Fittingly (since this San Fran outfit walks the same path style-wise) the band is currently out on tour with Trapt and they will continue to support the release of this digital EP well into October.

http://lettersfromthefire.net/

My Silent Wake-Eye of the Needle

Stone Groove Records
2014

If you are a regular visitor to Heavy Metal Time Machine then chances are you will have likely noticed that UK-based death/doom rockers My Silent Wake Back (MSW) are a new favorite of mine. It was only a few months ago that I first picked up on this band's immense skill-level (thanks to a digital package's worth of prior releases) and back in May of this year I actually interviewed the band's founder, Ian Arkley (link below). At that time he made mention of an upcoming ambient release and now here it is with the calming (make that downright relaxing!), "Eye of the Needle", likely to stick with you long after experiencing it. So far "Eye of the Needle", which is MSW's 9th album overall (including two split CDs), is (sadly) only available as a digital download. Not that such a thing should stop anyone (especially fans of MSW!) from checking out this sublime (and reportedly mostly improvised) hour-plus album. Because really it's all about plugging yourself in and losing yourself anyway right? Music verses physical material should always result in music taking precedence. Or at least one would hope so! And this music can stand perfectly fine without a physical body to hold it up! "Eye of the Needle" is quite rich in it's own way although it's more comforting then anything. Here the music moves over top of your body like a deeply penetrating massage leaving you in a state of peace. I suspect though that words alone will not fully convey the enjoyment of a release like this one. One must listen to it in it's entirety to fully embrace the talent that a band like MSW has. And you can do exactly that (listen to this album in it's entirety) by heading over to the group's bandcamp page right here: http://mysilentwake2.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-the-needle where (and you can thank me for this later friends!) you too can experience the scope of MSW's latest. Released on June 8th, "Eye of the Needle" features Attrition's Martin Bowes (who actually ended up mixing three of the tracks here as well as mastering the whole album!) on additional keys and electronics (as if Ian Arkley's talents weren't enough reason to pursue an album like this one Bowes adds another element to the mix altogether!) and in the end this one proved to be a sure-fire winner! Truly "Eye of the Needle" adds to My Silent Wake's (http://www.mysilentwake.co.uk/) ever-growing legacy! That legacy will soon enough included a vinyl version of the album "Et Lux Perpetua" with the inclusion of early mixes entitled "And Everlasting Light" as well as a new death/doom album to be recorded in August and September at The Priory Studios near Birmingham. For more information on My Silent Wake be sure to visit any of the links below:

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Silent-Wake/417459134777


http://www.reverbnation.com/mysilentwake?profile_view_source=profile_box

Interview with MSW's Ian Arkley:
http://metalmark.blogspot.com/search?q=Interview+with+Ian+Arkley+