ALBUM REVIEW: XX Years Of Steel – Nanowar Of Steel

On their expansive, multi-decade spanning career retrospective Italian parody rockers NANOWAR OF STEEL prove that, despite their solid musicianship, brevity still remains the soul of wit. Founded in Rome in 2003, five-piece NANOWAR OF STEEL take aim at power metal acts such as MANOWAR and classic metal greats like IRON MAIDEN with galloping riffs and tongue-in-cheek lyrics in both English and their native Italian. Recorded live during a sold-out show at the 3000 capacity Alcatraz in Milan, XX Years Of Steel takes the listener on a thirty seven track, two and a half hour long, self-indulgent journey through their twenty year history which struggles to justify such an extravagant length.



While parody metal has managed to find an audience with bands like TENACIOUS D and STEEL PANTHER making their impact on the mainstream, XX Years Of Steel stands out as exhaustingly unfunny, dragging one-note jokes out into songs that last far longer than any novelty. After a brief introduction in Italian the band launch into their first full track Sober which sees the members of NANOWAR OF STEEL take on the guise of pirates who, rather than throwing back mugs of grog, prefer to stay sober and drink milkshakes or mineral water, a premise with maybe a minute’s worth of comedy potential that’s stretched out to over four minutes of energetic shouting. While dedicated fans may enjoy a live career retrospective such as this, XX Years Of Steel spends its two and a half hour runtime fighting an uphill battle to find an audience outside of the crowd present for the album’s recording.

Props have to be given to NANOWAR OF STEEL for their appropriately solid musical chops, delivering chugging riffs and scorching leads against a backdrop of thunderous rhythms. If not for its tiresome and unfunny lyrics the track Tricycles Of Steel could pass itself off as a rejected JUDAS PRIEST B-side with suitably grandiose guitar solos and wacky percussion bouncing off dual vocalists Carlo Alberto Fiaschi and Raffaello Venditti’s falsetto leads. While XX Years Of Steel shoots for the lowest hanging fruit comedically, NANOWAR OF STEEL’s musical competence at least softens the blow when their jokes fail to land.


While the first twenty eight tracks of XX Years Of Steel cover NANOWAR OF STEEL’s extensive back catalogue through energetic live recordings, the final nine bonus tracks are brand new studio recordings with a few covers, a couple of originals and some hits re-recorded with special guests. As a career retrospective this bonus CD sums up NANOWAR OF STEEL far better than the previous two hours of live hits despite sharing the same bland, toothless comedy songwriting.

This ranges from an IRON MAIDEN parody that’s decades too late to the punchline to chugging covers of MARKUS BECKER’s German novelty song Das Rote Pferd and VENGABOYS’ We’re Going To Tortuga which do little more than throw distorted guitars into already ridiculous novelty songs. Perhaps as a standalone release celebrating NANOWAR OF STEEL’s twenty year history this collection of bonus songs would’ve been a treat for longtime fans, however, stapled onto the end of a two hour live album these extra tracks just act as a reminder of how much the band have outworn their welcome.

If you’re not already a fan of NANOWAR OF STEEL from the beginning of XX Years Of Steel then go and listen to something else, this two and a half hour, thirty seven track slog is sure to put you off the Italian parody metal crew for life. While NANOWAR OF STEEL nail the power metal aesthetic and deliver a handful of solid riffs, their self-serving repetition drains every ounce of humour or joy from what should be a celebration of their history.

Rating: 3/10



XX Years Of Steel is out now via Napalm Records.

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ALTERNATIVELIVE REVIEWSMETALCORENU-METALPHOTO GALLERIESREVIEWS LIVE REVIEW: Thornhill @ The Key Club, Leeds December 17, 2024James Weaver

Reaching the middle of their European and UK headline tour tonight, THORNHILL took to the stage in Leeds, at the well known rock and alternative venue The Key Club, supported by LOVE IS NOISE and GRAPHIC NATURE.

Love Is Noise live @ The Key Club, Leeds. Photo Credit: Jessica Bowden

First up are LOVE IS NOISE, described to have a heavy layered sound and shoegaze melodies. They immediately bring the crowd to life with their first song In the shadow of your former self., followed closely by their newer single, and what seemed to be a fan favourite from their performance, Jawbreaker. The room reacted immediately, opening up the first of many mosh pits to appear throughout the night, this continues on until the crowd settle for a moment, as vocalist Cam Humphrey introduces one of their slower tempo songs Boutique, one by one the room is lit up with a sea of flashlights, creating a powerful atmosphere from start to finish. As the final notes of their set reverberated through the venue, it was clear that LOVE IS NOISE had set the tone for the night.

Rating: 9/10Graphic Nature live @ The Key Club, Leeds. Photo Credit: Jessica Bowden

Next in support are GRAPHIC NATURE. They are known for their heavy breakdowns, with an almost menacing sound that certainly caught everyone’s attention. The venue had now filled from front to back and the stage was engulfed in eerie green lighting. It seemed they had many fans in the crowd as there was an amazing reaction and immense energy in the room as soon as they stepped out to their songs Locked In and Blinded from their most recent album Who Are You When No One Is Watching?.

The vocals and lyrics are full of emotion and grit, which all comes to light as vocalist Harvey Freeman takes time to speak on mental health awareness between songs, which was followed by loud applause and appreciation from the audience. As well as covering a lot of their new album during the set, they also included a few tracks from their older album, last year’s a mind waiting to die, such as Killing Floor, which had everyone on their feet, head banging, moshing and two-stepping along until the very end. Exhilarating!

Rating: 9/10Thornhill live @ The Key Club, Leeds. Photo Credit: Jessica Bowden

With the venue full of eager fans, basked under the haunting green and orange stage lights, it was finally time for Australian metalcore crew THORNHILL to take to the stage of their sold out headline show. Walking out with a one-two punch of The Hellfire Club and Arkangel, the band ignite chaos from the first note and as fan favourite songs, such as Coven and Views From The Sun, get airtime, it didn’t take long for their first mosh pit to break out.

As the night progressed, the pits surged in size, doubling and splitting the room in two. As well as the favourites, they also played newer single Obsession, that a lot of their fans seem to have quickly fallen in love with, as well brand new single, nerv, a bruising number that we’re confident will follow closely in its footsteps.Thornhill live @ The Key Club, Leeds. Photo Credit: Jessica Bowden

The first crowd surfers of the night appeared not long into the set, gliding one after another on to the stage, screaming the lyrics back at the band, before leaping back into the chaos. The style and stage presence of THORNHILL was like no other, their enthusiasm and passion was clear, they had the room captivated from start to finish. A triumphant set from one of Australia’s leading lights in metalcore.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Leeds from Jessica Bowden here:

































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DOOM METALFEATURESHEAVY MUSIC HISTORY

In the depths of Upplands Väsby – a suburb of Sweden’s picturesque capital city Stockholm – in 1984, songwriter/bandleader Leif Edling and drummer Matz Ekström formed what would become one of the world’s seminal doom metal bands, CANDLEMASS. The band have gone on to have a glistening 40 year career and alongside the legendary BLACK SABBATH no less, they have had a defining influence on the doom metal genre. Labelled as epic doom metal, CANDLEMASS’s sound combines semi-operatic vocals with thunderous BLACK SABBATH-esque riffs. Debuting in 1986 with their genre defining album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, they have since being hailed as one of the “big four of doom metal” along with PENTAGRAM, SAINT VITUS, and TROUBLE.



Before becoming CANDLEMASS the band were known as NEMESIS (1982-1984). When that band broke up bassist Leif Edling started CANDLEMASS with vocalist Johan Längqvist, – who was a session member at that time – drummer Matz Ekström, guitarist Mats “Mappe” Björkman and Klas Bergwall. This initial lineup would see the release of the band’s most influential album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus – which is dog latin translation rendering of “Epic Doom Metal” and is the name of the genre they helped pioneer.

Ironically, the band were dropped from their label Black Dragon Records after the album was released on 10th June 1986. However, it gained a cult status with Eduardo Rivadavia of the online music database AllMusic referred to the album as “a pillar of classic ’80s metal” offering “the strongest, most consistent songwriting of the band’s career”, although it “was let down by vocalist Johan Längqvist, whose performance failed to deliver with the power and command of his immediate successor Messiah Marcolin.”


With Epicus Doomicus Metallicus almost instantly securing their status in 1986, original vocalist Längqvist was replaced as vocalist by larger than life Messiah Marcolin (a.k.a. Eddie Marcolin). This would be the start of a revolving door of band members. When CANDLEMASS were he adding to the studio to record their second effort, Nightfall, in 1987, Bergwall and Ekström had left the band. Upon the completion of Nightfall, the gaps on the drums and guitars were filled by Jan Lindh and Lars Johansson respectively. The band released two more albums; Ancient Dreams (1988) and Tales of Creation (1989) alongside one live album simply called Live.

As 1991 rolled around, there was a dispute between the band members which lead to the departure of vocalist Marcolin. CANDLEMASS recruited Thomas Vikström to replace Marcolin to record they fifth studio album Chapter VI in 1992. However the album was unsuccessful and the band called it quits in 1994 after a turbulent initial run. With Edling starting another experimental project ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA.

Ultimately though, ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA was unsuccessful so Edling suddenly recruited a new line-up under the CANDLEMASS name and recorded the album Dactylis Glomerata (1998). The album was a combination of songs for a new ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA album alongside some new material. A year later the completely new line up released a second album From the 13th Sun, both featured vocals by Bjorn Flodqvist. After these two seemingly rushed but well received albums, in 2002 Edling reunited with and old school CANDLEMASS lineup including; Johansson, Björkman, Lindh and most noticeably Marcolin – differences has been put aside it seems.

This lineup played several live shows to the delight of fans and recorded a second live album. Alongside remasters for four of their albums and a documentary DVD being released called Documents of Doom. However, while the band were looking for a record deal to release their new material differences struck again and the band disbanded. The reunited again in 2005 and won a Swedish Grammy for their new self-titled album. In 2006 the band announced another album was being written and in 2007 it was announced Marcolin was out of CANDLEMASS for good.

From 2007 onwards CANDLEMASS have had significantly more stability with vocalists in two separate eras – one with Robert Lowe (2007-2012) and the other with Mats Levén (2012-2018). During the Lowe era the band would release King of the Grey Islands (2007), Death Magic Doom (2009), and Psalms of the Dead (2012) – the latter being released via Napalm Records and was slated to be their last studio album. Lowe would leave in 2012 and would be replaced by Levén, who didn’t feature on any new music.

In January 2013, CANDLEMASS were give the title of greatest Swedish hard rock/metal band of all time by the writers of Sweden Rock Magazine, Scandinavia’s biggest hard rock magazine. Despite the earlier claims that Psalms for the Dead would be their final album, bassist Edling stated that he was open to recording new music again.

In 2018 the band would release their twelfth album; The Door to Doom after reuniting Längqvist who had been out of the band for 32 years. The band stated “We wanted to find our way back to the roots of CANDLEMASS, back to the soul and essence of the band. Johan Längqvist is back and we hope this will give us some new energy and kickstart the heart of doom again”. The additional surprise with this album is that BLACK SABBATH‘s Tony Iommi, contributes to a guitar solo to one of the album’s tracks Astorolus – The Great Octopus. The band released their thirteenth album Sweet Evil Sun in November 2022.

CANDLEMASS have had a turbulent history over the last 40 years, yet their story is a testament to perseverance. While Edling is the consistent driving force of the band, the revolving door of band members has been a blessing and a curse as they have been able to adapt continuously but lacked consistently. Even so, the band have had a cult following since their inception and the seminal nature of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus has meant that they have stayed at the top of the doom scene despite the perpetual turbulence. Now they’re stronger than ever and continue to prove why they’re one of doom metal’s Big 4.



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MIKE MANGINI SHARES DRUM CLINIC PERFORMANCE OF DREAM THEATER'S "OUTCRY" (VIDEO)

Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini has shared a new clinic video along with the explanation below:

"This version of the Italy clinic contains the album track to 'Outcry' by Dream Theater, with my drums on the recording and here live. To hear just the drums, which is a tough thing in matching the album exactly lest I get flams, which you'll hear when I start. I'm hitting very lightly for the room and situation. see the sister video here."

"Outcry" is taken from Dream Theater's 2001 album, A Dramatic Turn Of Events.

WHITE TOWER - NIGHT HUNTERS

Been two years since the Teutonic-minded Greeks released a highly enjoyable debut. While their musical geography hasn't changed, the intensity of the delivery has multiplied, adding a thrashy consistency to the old Accept (circa Restless & Wild) template. Cranking and dive bombing guitar runs scream from the speakers, on the introductory "Total Evil" (which follows a 93 second "Blood" sound effect).

Guess they wanted to show off the upgraded (and totally new) guitar tandem, right away! The title track follows, another hot blast of hyper riffs. Subtlety, thy name is not White Tower...everything about the presentation (including the occasional high pitched yelp: see "Knife In The Back") is OTT.

Somehow, the aggressive, no-holds-barred, borderline thrash construct recalls the early mentality of the ‘80s underground and sub-genre defying speed metal of Savage Grace, in particular. "Banshee" possesses more melody than its sequential neighbors and despite the title, never unleashes its namesake vocal inflection.

MORAL DECAY - TO BUILD AN END

What an absolute gem of resurfaced 1989 Canadian thrash this one is, Supreme Echo on a metal tear lately, reissuing the only recorded material from Victoria's Moral Decay here.

Opener “When I Die” is as good as thrash gets, smart, slightly tech, totally rocking, and moving in a way that few thrash bands managed to be. Musically, Sacrifice definitely comes to mind, but there's way more of a crossover/punk vibe as well, The Accüsed being a strong reference point. But what makes it a cut above are the vocals of Dave Wenger, who went on to be in some very great but very non-metal bands like Breakwater, M Blanket, Ache Hour Credo, and Daddy's Hands.

No doubt the late Wenger was an artist, and he put his all into all his projects, as the vocal performance on “This God” (which rules but certainly could have some fat trimmed at 8:59) proves, Moral Decay delivering thrash with passion, ambition hinting at prime-era Metallica pretty hard here. There's five songs in half an hour on this LP, and they're all great, the amount of potential—and maturity, shocking considering their youthfulness—this band had sort of tragic, but it makes what's left behind all the more special; “Winds Of Death” is the best example of the band's smarts beyond their years, musically and lyrically.





There's a booklet with interviews and photos, and this comes with a sticker too, so it's hard to find any reason to pass up this excellent, unsung piece of Canuck metal history.

MORAL DECAY - TO BUILD AN END



Greg Pratt

Rating: 8.5

ANTHRAX - FAN-FILMED VIDEO OF ENTIRE KATOWICE, POLAND SHOW AVAILABLE

Anthrax are currently on their 2024 European Tour with Kreator, and special guests Testament. On December 11th they played at Spodek in Katowice, Poland. Fan-filmed video of the entire show can be viewed below.

Setlist:

"A.I.R."
"Got the Time" (Joe Jackson)
"Caught in a Mosh"
"Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't"
"Madhouse"
"Metal Thrashing Mad"
"Be All, End All"
"I Am the Law"
"Medusa"
"Antisocial" (Trust)
"Indians"
"Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)"