Fifth Son Of Winterdoom

Out of print for some time, Bruce Soord freshed up the band's second album.  Originally released back in 2001, this version of 137 features a new mix, new 2018 mastering, and even new artwork.

"Hard to believe it has been four years since the last Iron Savior record. In that time I almost thought we'd never hear anything from Piet and co again. Boy am I glad they're back, and with the Condition Red line-up to boot. While I felt Megatropolis was a slight musical misfire, The Landing sees the band firing on all cylinders again.It should be no surprise that this album sounds quite a bit like Condition Red in places, with a hefty kick of Unification and Battering Ram for good measure. This is pure unadulterated German power metal played by one of the granddaddies of the genre, Piet Sielck is the man, and he displays his mastery of this style all over The Landing. Kicking off with a mid-paced cruncher armed with sublime hooks, and a majestic chorus, "The Landing" is a great start to the show. However it is in "Starlight" that the album really kicks off. I was overcome with joy when I first heard this song. Iron Savior at their best: blazing riffs, double kicking, and a massive chorus; this track could have be long lost from the Unification recordings.Throughout The Landing Iron Savior continue to assert their authority; everything from production to performance is nothing short of excellent – which should be expected of these masters. The guitar tone is concrete middle ground between the more compressed tone of Battering Ram and the natural feel of Condition Red. They album ticks all the boxes that need ticking in an Iron Savior record, "March of Doom" nails the heavy power metal track, with badass riffs and the finest pre-chorus of the album. "Heavy Metal Never Dies" takes the "Warrior" approach and is a great fist pumper, and coupled with "R.U. Ready" tick of the worship of heavy metal approach. Finally we have the quality "Before the Pain" which ticks off the ballad.All in all I believe The Landing is a complete and utter success, vastly preferable to the latest releases from stalwarts Gamma Ray and Stormwarrior. Highly recommended to all power metal fans, this is without a doubt one of the finest releases this year. While it doesn't reinvent – or innovate for that matter, that isn't important as Iron Savior were never about that. Recommended." - Metal Crypt

"With 1985's Metal Heart, German metal institution Accept attempted to add catchier choruses and melodies to their high-octane guitar riffing in a clear ploy to crack the American market. Not that this move in any way upset the balance of their thus-far smooth-running metal machine, which had been gaining momentum with every release since the start of the decade. No, Metal Heart was certainly a step toward accessibility, but a cautious one at that -- and, frankly, there was no toning down when it came to the lacerated larynx of gifted lead screamer Udo Dirkschneider. You gotta hand it to Accept, they sure knew how to make an entrance by now, and the apocalyptic title track is about as dramatic as it gets (the operatic "Bound to Fail" comes close), with guitarist Wolf Hoffman taking the helm on a long, mid-song solo excursion containing equal nods to Beethoven (very nice) and Edward Van Halen (get real). First single "Midnight Mover" is next, and along with the even more melodic "Screaming for a Love-Bite," it places obvious emphasis on hooks and melodies (and proved to be the toughest to stomach for the band's more hardcore fans). But despite another strange detour into jazz territory with the bizarre "Teach Us to Survive," Accept still packed amazing power, heaping on their Teutonic background vocals for the ultraheavy "Dogs on Leads" and gleefully pile-driving their way through relentless moshers like "Up to the Limit" and "Wrong Is Right." The brilliantly over-the-top "Too High to Get It Right" finds Dirkschneider screeching like never before, and to cap things off, the band really cooks on "Living for Tonight" -- arguably the best track all around. A winning set." - Allmusic Guide

"Can it be possible that we've got to 2014 without me ever having heard a studio album by Lazuli? Yes, ladies and gents, that is possible, I can assure you. Whilst I vividly remember Lazuli live in Tilburg some years ago in 2007 at the Symforce Festival and actually finding them making a huge impression with their live performance, I simply never got around to either buying nor listening to their studio albums. Shame on me for not doing so. More so as I now fully realise what I have been missing in music for quite some years. What a joy it was to hear the Lazuli sound again and now on a new album as well.For days Tant Que L'Herbe Est Grasse has been spinning its rounds in many CD players, be it in the car, at work or on my home system. Opener Déraille with its environmentally engaged lyrics gets on its way with a fine rhythm and very varied sounds and immediately draws you deep, deep into the world that is Lazuli's. I must add that Dominique Leonetti's passionate singing and the way his vocal lines, to these ears, are almost an instrument in their own right set them apart from many other bands. It may just be that you get drawn to listening to the lyrics even more and try to understand them that much better.Une Pente Qu'On Devale has the slightest bit of a Marillion vibe that reminds me a wee bit of the feel of their semi-acoustic tracks like Man Of A Thousand Faces, yet this is more modern and Lazuli rock out towards the end. There's also some fine, fine soloing in there too.Homo Sapiens just grabs you. It's more ballsy and reminds a bit of Riverside whereas the second half of the song tips its hat to latter day Fish, that is before the band start again and we get a fine Léode solo. The Fish vibe also appears to shine through on Tristes Moitiés and L'Essence Des Odyssées, yet it is not that these songs make Lazuli sound a 100% like everyone's favourite Scotsman; not at all, yet there is a comparison in sound that, to me, flows back to the Raingods with Zippos days. Fish himself features on J'Ai Trouvé Ta Faille where he gets to sing in the second part of the song. Another fine song on this very fine album, but there is plenty more to hear before we actually get to that one, the eighth song on the album.What Lazuli have delivered here is an album rich in sound and where all band members get to shine, be it individually yet moreover in how much this album is a band effort. On first listen you might find that the songs are just songs, but their build has more to them than appears on first listen. This is an album that grows each and every time you hear it. There are parts that are prog, world music, folk rock, storming out and out rocking moments and they are all brought together in this album. As I once more listen to Tristes Moitiés Lazuli again fully draw me into their realm. What is it that makes albums present themselves as ever growing in beauty? The textures, the soloing, the intricate drum and percussion parts that get to you more and more with each and every listening session. I dare say that this album has all that and, as already mentioned, there is the great singing!Multicolèlere, a play on the words "multicoloured anger", speeds things up once more and shows a heavier Lazuli. This whole song very much gets to me and perhaps there's another bit of Riverside, but let's just cut to the chase; this band sounds every inch like Lazuli should. And there is only one way to find that out for the not yet initiated and that is to just go and listen to this fine gem of an album. Don't think you can do like me and miss out on one of the finest prog bands around - why should you? You'd be missing out on real beauty. And yes, listen to this album all the way through, you won’t find that hard at all as J'Ai Trouvé Ta Faille is another beauty as is the closing song, Les Courants Ascendants, the only song to reach beyond the 6 minute mark. But count that as an asset that Lazuli have to their songwriting; they succeed in writing compact songs that are all very varied throughout the album." - DPRP.net

"Fortunately, part four of the quadrilogy, the blissfully laidback Ghost, will provide the perfect rest and recuperation at the end of that torrid ordeal.“Deconstruction is a complicated album. It’s got elements of Strapping without all the nihilistic, suicidal tendencies. For the people who want a heavy statement that’s very complicated, I think it’s gonna be the “be all, end all”. However, Ghost is a much more risky record on a lot of levels. It’s a really beautiful, folky, acoustic record with flutes and a real peaceful sentiment. I really like subtlety. That’s why I love Ghost so much. Deconstruction is about as subtle as a boner in sweatpants and that’s great too!”"

"The UK progressive synth group known as Zoltan have been turning heads since arising in 2010 as one of the most interesting projects signed to a then-fledgling Austrian label by the name of Cineploit Records.Fast forwarding four years later, both Zoltan and Cineploit are hitting a creative stride in their partnership, as the Sixty Minute Zoom LP will strongly attest. This sophomore effort from Zoltan follows up an EP for famed British doom label Rise Above-an audio take on director Amando De Ossorio's classic Blind Dead series of horror films-as well as a Cineploit-released tribute to John Cameron's score to the equally iconic Seventies film Psychomania, while at the same time leaving nearly every prior release from the band in the proverbial dust, so epically addictive and immensely blissful is this sound.Sixty Minute Zoom takes the building blocks of influence carved from the likes of film composer Fabio Frizzi, Italian prog giants Goblin and Pittsburgh duo Zombi and erects here a monument to their own creativity and unique compositional eye. Indeed, every aspect of Sixty Minute Zoom sounds more focused, confident and actualized as keyboardist Andy Thompson, bassist/keyboardist/guitarist Matt Thompson and drummer Andrew Prestidge lock into each others' musical strengths and unleash what is most certainly the defining Zoltan release up until this point in the band's career.Highlight tracks such as "The Ossuary" pulse with a malevolent bass drone and swirling, atmospheric synth, while the album's epic, twenty minute closer "The Integral" moves effortlessly between horrifically mood-setting soundscapes and low key electronic experimentation, anchored by an absolutely amazing drum performance from Prestidge. The drummer's lock-tight groove at the thirteen minute mark through the track's sizzling finish is bested perhaps only by the subtly powerful groove Prestidge hits upon as the Thompson's growling synth stabs lift the opening movements of "The Integral" as the best soundtrack theme never featured for an Italian horror or giallo film.No hyperbole or exaggeration here: Sixty Minute Zoom demands immediate attention from electronic music fiends and Eurocult soundtrack buffs the world over, as it bucks the late year trend as one of the finest albums of 2014." - The Examiner