BREAKER
“Accept”
Auburn Records
rating: 4 of 6
“Breaker”…? “Accept”…? Have I heard it somewhere before…? Anyway, (un)surprisingly it’s hard rock and surprisingly it’s a good one. And no, I wouldn’t say it’s heavily reminiscent of ACCEPT. Just plain hard rock, although it’s pretty hard to compare it to anyone, since these guys somehow seem to have their own face in terms of approach to music. What I liked most of all, is the fact vocals didn’t irritate me like it often happens with suchlike bands. Jim has rather pleasant voice, that’s true. Even though, it obviously sounds less impressive at the earlier songs (as this MCD is comprised of tunes recorded at various sessions throughout 80ties and 90ties, also including “Breaker’s” cover and a demo track from 1982). Musically it’s nothing extraordinary, however did you really expect it to be innovative??? Good effort with no trace of commercialization. Expect their double-CD coming this year… (Herr Stalhammar)

DUST EATER DOGS
"King Kong Fist"
Bullroser / Little Rose Productions
rating: 5 of 6
Bullroser appears as a some kind of sublabel to Little Rose, well-known Finnish record company for all kinds of brutal... and christian music. Well, if I'm not mistaken, this single-CD is a second offering from Bullroser, and to be honest, if DUST EASTER DOGS' upcoming full-length effort will be similar to this one in terms of quality (and my personal perception), it should be a killer! Wondering what the hell does this band sound alike? Well, it's highly enjoyable, fresh and exciting mixture of hardcore, alternative and crossover; in fact, one of the best ones I've heard recently. Astounding band, indeed. As to this CDS; it's comprised of "Motor"-track, which is actually the only original song featured here, since the second one is a "storebror" edit, while the third one turned out as quite crappy video. Why crappy? Oh... isn't a video crappy if it comes in a slowed-down shape, even though I have rather high-speed CD-Rom (50x)...? Let's forget about the video, anyway... and'd better impatiently await their debut CD. (Herr Stalhammar)

KANARY
“Porno Church Of The Ugly Man”
RSE, Inc.
rating: 4 of 6
Pretty good hard rock with a female singer and somewhat thought-provoking lyrics… yeah, sounds fine. Quite gloomy as well, by the way. I wouldn’t say it makes me to recall anyone else, therefore it seems like KANARY contrived to deliver pretty original work this time. Actually, I don’t even know what to add here. Well… should I? (Herr Stalhammar)

MAVRIK
“Neformat”
Classic Company
Rating: 4 of 6
Quite a powerful album was produced by Sergey Mavrin (ex-ARIA guitarist). Although when he left ARIA he made a statement that heavy metal is dead for him and he is not going to play any heavy music anymore, he proved himself wrong. Album turned out to be half heavy (great drums and thrashing guitar), and half… strange: it is a mix of trash, heavy metal, art rock, something inspired by DREAM THEATRE , RAMMSTEIN and shitty pop music (rap-like vocals on the 2nd song).  As far as I know they don’t have analogues in the world.  The weak place on the album is the vocals.  Arthur Berkut (vocals, ex-AUTOGRATH) left the band at the time of the recording, so the singer was Stas Vitart, not a bad vocalist but not as powerful as Arthur. Sergey Mavrin (all guitars and keyboards) got trapped in the world of guitar processors, so his solos don’t show great skill, but show great computer effects (still sound nice!!!).  Despite this he stays one of the best Russian guitar players.  The album on the whole contains interesting professional material.  It is stronger than their previous one in fast songs, but weaker in ballads (they sound too pop-alike on “Neformat”).  The cover reminds me of MEGADETH’S “Cryptic Writings” - actually it is virtually the same – gray and meaningless.
Verdict: visit their gig (see “Live Reports”) and then buy the album as a great memory of the show.  Listen real loud and turn up the basses.  You’ll enjoy it (especially if you are drunk as fuck – I thought it was a masterpiece then) as it creates a lot of strange philosophical images within your mind.
(review by Silvanus and Alena)

MOZART ROTTWEILER with SINISTER UNDERTONES
“Rage Against The Night”
Nervous Wreckords
rating: -
Erh… This issue I’ve definitely got too much stuff which (once again – definitely) doesn’t fit my mag’s criteria at all. That’s the case with Mozart Rottweiler (what a handle!!). They say it’s gothic pop / rock, however I wouldn’t define ‘em that way. In fact, the list of influences says it all, I believe: Jimi Hendrix and Chuch Berry are among other names, so here you go. Bluesy rock’n’roll mixed with some kind of almost jazzy passages and psychedelia. It’s neither bad, nor good. I really like few tunes off this CD, such as “Night Is In Black And White” and “Johnny B. Bach”, however it’s so far from my tastes, so I simply couldn’t give it any kind of rating. (Herr Stalhammar)

SORB – I – TOL
“Piste”
Plastic Passion
rating: 5 of 6
This is very weird release. At least, I’ve never received anything like that… SORB – I – TOL, a band (or more likely, a project) led by Jukka Sillanpaa (whose main band is AS DIVINE GRACE, I believe), delivers some really strange stuff, kinda “soundtrack music from agent / police movies from 70's (Dirty Harry, Shaft and Bond movies for example)” appealing to Jukka’s own words. In my comprehension, it’s a unique mixture of many music styles and genres, like acid, techno, ambient, new age, jazz and so on, and so forth; varying with each track. It’s deeply atmospheric, and, what’s really important, you should relax before listening to this CD, otherwise you won’t get high on it – as I did. In the end, I feel I have to say that “Piste” is comprised of two parts, one executed at the studio and another (featuring three tracks of enormous length (up to 15 minutes)) performed live. Excellent. (Herr Stalhammar)

THE GREAT KAT
“Rossini’s Rape”
TPR Music
rating: -
It starts to irritate me. This CD lasts for six minutes… and I guess, Kat’s next offering will be twice as shorter. I could understand if it would be selling at the price of at least 5$, but it is NOT! And I bet that such justifications as “ALL CDs in the HIGH-SPEED future will be 4-song, fast, short CYBERSPEED CDs” (these are the words of oh so “great” Kat) don’t appear as good explanations, being some kind of weak attempts to justify the fact the artist isn’t capable of bringing forth the light more than four 2-minute long compositions. And yes, definitely it is a “Rossini’s Rape”. Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” sounds incredibly horrible in Kat’s interpretation. And she’d better do not include pieces of her own, “Sodomize” and “Castration”, the ones which are utterly incomprehensible. This CD is a piece of shit from an old nymphomaniac woman, if you want my opinion. (Herr Stalhammar)

UNLEASHED POWER
“Absorbed”
Verdict Entertainment
rating: 5 of 6
It happens very rarely when I discover a CD by thrash metal band in my mailbox, however it DOES HAPPEN anyway. Ok, this is US-based combo (strangely featuring Jorg Michael on drums) and their style is what you would get combining early, “Walls Of Jericho”-era, HELLOWEEN, GRAVE DIGGER, MACHINE HEAD, PANTERA (circa “Cowboys From Hell”) and perhaps SLAYER (let us recall “South Of Heaven”). Sort of harsh, energetic, though very well thoughtout and various thrash with plenty of heavy metal reminiscences. Vocals vary from painful shouting-alike voice to “clean” vocals, and that’s no surprise since there’re two singers in the band. This MCD comes with five tracks, whilst “Calendar” is the best one. All in all, despite thrash seemed to die out, UNLEASHED POWER doesn’t sound archaic, more likely – rather fresh and exciting. Fine work. (Herr Stalhammar)