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Ugly Kid Joe, those dirty bum rockers from the “Neighborhood” that hated “Everything About You” and were born as a joke – the evil twin of “Pretty Boy Floyd” are officially back! Yay!
“Stairway to Hell” is a 6 track self-released EP to herald their return to the scene. And I am guessing that I genuinely have missed these guys. Grungy and dirty, but certainly NOT grunge, they both had fun and were funny too, while on occasion they were getting seriously heavier and grittier, especially, towards the end, before they went on a decade plus long hiatus.
DieVanity are coming from Italy and they have released only one EP, “Objects in Mirror are Closer than They Appear”… although they had been formed in 2006. After several live shows and the EP… they started recording their debut album. Having various influences from bands like: HIM, Negative, The 69 Eyes, Charon, Reflexion among others… they have obtained a more Scandinavian gothic rock, embellished with metal, atmospheric, hard rock, alternative, modern rock, pop-rock, love metal (hehe-what?!-this is so gay!) elements, music style. They look more on the commercial side of this genre and that’s quite noticeable.
Being one of the top European heavy/power metal acts entails sacrifices, consistency & inspiration. Sonata Arctica have proved all these years, since 1999, that they had what it takes to go further. Since, “Ecliptica” is considered to be a “classic” heavy/power metal album, not only by me, but also time has shown so… they’ve got nothing to prove to anyone any longer.
