Welcome to another week’s collection of reviews. Last week, I was spurred to do a good clean out of the overflow as the pile was getting ridiculous. If you are a fan of my harsher reviews there are a couple of those for your reading pleasure. We shall see if I manage anything else from that collection this week.

The 69 Eyes: Back in Blood

Imagine Motley Crue at their best, doing goth metal instead of Hollywood glam, and you would be close to this lot. They are Finnish near-do-well goth, trash-vampire glamsters who know how to combine just enough of their fave genres to sound fresh, but recognizable. It's sort of catchy, upbeat, goth hard rock. That probably sounds a bit of a contradiction, but it's true.

This is heavy rock when all the goths want to dance to something upbeat at their local club. It is truly catchy as stink. They drop influences into their tracks, there is a touch of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in “Night Watch”. You know, enough to evoke the tune, but not enough to be considered a copy. The title track to this release evokes hard rock anthems of the past. It speaks this lots penchant for taking the piss out of the whole Hollywood scene of the 80s. One of their previous albums contained a track mocking the obsession with uber-thin blondes on the strip.

The 69 Eyes don’t produce bad albums. They have mastered the act of genre skimming to come up with something that is cool, gothy and catchy all at the same time. This is the type of music you wish your fave hot goth chick would like.

Submission: Code of Conspiracy

This lot are a bunch from Denmark and produce some heavy tunes in the mode of Fear Factory and others of that ilk. Not the most original stuff in the world, it has to be said, but that doesn't mean it does not have its merit. Songwriting on this release show an attempt to distinguish themselves from their influences and the rest of the pack. And we all like to see a band making an effort to improve themselves from album to album.

What is interesting is they got a new vocalist who is more thrashy than death metally in the throat department. Instead of the grunt and groan, it's balls out, thrashtastic, yelling metal. Now a cynic (not the band) would suggest this might be an effort to tap into the whole new wave of thrash trend that is exciting so many journalists and fans alike. At least the guy is not some metal-core wannabe.

Article Author: Marty Dodge

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