Monday, February 28, 2011

WarCry - El Sello de los Tiempos



This is the second album WarCry released, notably, the same year as their first album.
I like it better than the first album. They sound like a band here, with more diverse compositions.


WarCry - El Sello de los Tiempos

Tracklist:

1. El Sello de los Tiempos [The Seal of Times]
2. Alejandro [Alexander]
3. Hijo de la Ira [Son of the Wrath]
4. Capitán Lawrence [Captain Lawrence]
5. Tú Mismo [Yourself]
6. Un Mar de Estrellas [A Sea of Stars]
7. Un Lugar [A Place]
8. Dispuesto A Combatir [Willing To Fight]
9. Vampiro [Vampire]
10. Hacia Delante [Forwards]
11. Renacer [Rebirth]

Friday, February 11, 2011

WarCry - WarCry




This band, named WarCry, played an amazing concert in my city last Sunday. To celebrate the occasion, I have decided to share with you, my good readers, the awesome music these guys have made.
WarCry is a progressive power metal band from Asturias, Spain, formed in 1992, but wasn't really a serious project at the time. Split up, reunited in 1996 to record a demo (titled Demon '97) and split up again in '98 to reunite yet once again in 2001, WarCry is the creation of vocalist Víctor García (the Spanish surname by choice, you should know!), and by 2001 he would show the logo and ideas he had for WarCry with drummer Alberto Ardines, both former members of Spanish power metal band Avalanch.
The 2001 version of the band was merely a side-project for García to write stuff he didn't feel would fit in with the creative aspirations of Avalanch. But soon after, he would be expelled from Avalanch after his bandmates learned of García plans to record a WarCry album. This album, no less.
Despite the fact that García wrote for and contributed much to Avalanch, he was only credited with two songs in that band, one of which would become one of the band's most famous and well-liked songs despite his then bandmates barely accepting the song.
After being expelled, he took the obvious step of showing the WarCry logo and demo to Ardines, who thought it was great and an "open path", making WarCry their main band; and it would go on to become more successful than Avalanch ever was.

This album was recorded, admirably, with Ardines on drums and García on vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards, employing Fernando Mon and Pablo García as session guitarists for some of the solos, and it was released in early 2002; a second album would follow in December that year, as those guitarists, keyboard player Manuel Ramil and bassist Álvaro Jardón would all officially join WarCry.

Today, WarCry has released six albums and a live album which went gold in Spain. They have toured all over the hispanic world with other famous bands like Mägo de Oz, Barón Rojo, Soziedad Alkoholika and Saratoga.
WarCry is one of those amazing bands that are moderately well-known to Spanish speakers but that sadly dwell in absolute oblivion in the anglo-parlant world.
To encourage more anglo-parlants to discover this amazing band, as well as others, I have taken the time to translate some of their lyrics (and continue to work on it on my free time) right here.

Every WarCry album is quite different, and this, being their starting point, is obviously the least evolved of their works, closer to typical power metal, yet with its own distinctive style. Heavy in double-bass drumming, keyboard melodies and lyrical themes dealing with epic events (the story in Samson in "Señor"), battle ("Nana", "Al Salir El Sol") and heavy metal brotherhood ("Pueblo Maldito", "Trono del Metal", "Hoy Gano Yo"), and such topics.
Finally, I recommend this album and band to anyone who likes power metal, and also to those who like power metal with balls and honesty, a power metal band that became famous through playing great, not through imitating others or appealing to a target market that buys cheesy keyboards and girly screams over double-bass drumming. And I especially recommend this to those who enjoy great lyrics, if you can understand them.

WarCry - WarCry

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Luz del Norte [Northern Light]
3. Quiero [I Want]
4. Nadie [No One]
5. Pueblo Maldito [Damned People/Town]
6. Cada Vez [Every Time]
7. Señor [Lord*]
8. Al Salir El Sol [When The Sun Rises]
9. Trono del Metal [Throne of Metal]
10. Hoy Gano Yo [I Win Today]
11. Nana [Lullaby]
12. Amanecer [Dawn]
Text between [ ] represents the translation of the titles.
* = The word "señor" can be translated as any of the following words: sir, sire, lord, mister, master.
In this particular context, the appropriate translation was applied.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Adorned Brood - Hiltia


As promised, here's Adorned Brood's amazing debut album, Hiltia.
I said I might explain this album better in the previous post about this band. I have decided against it, but I'll say this: it's quite simply full of really cool riffs, and the folk bit seems well thought out; it fits in perfectly with the harsher black metal sound. Unlike the way I perceive many of these so-called folk metal bands who really play black metal with "folk" instruments here and there, the melodies are a very nice complement to the awesome metal, and it sounds purposeful, not like the bursts of not very memorable black metal other bands seem accustomed to play.
I say the more straight-forward metal bits here are also often quite reminiscent of thrash metal

Definitely, this would interest fans of black metal, viking metal and folk metal of the harsher variety, but the awesome riffs and melodies are enough to please most metal fans.

Adorned Brood - Hiltia

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. For Honour And Land
3. Hiltia
4. Unehrenhaftes Feindesblut
5. Furor Teutonicus
6. Donerhamer
7. Undisclosed Treasures of The Mortal
8. Adora
9. Kissing The Heathen Amulet
10. Die Rede Des Erhabenen
11. Outro