ATROCITY – hailing from the grand Metal country of Germany, has their musical origins tracing back to 1985, while their Atrocity roots date back to 1989. The early years of Atrocity has them as a bona-fide Death Metal Band, with changes in their style taking them in the Industrial Metal and Gothic Metal directions. This brings me to this Atrocity EP – Cold Black Days, a bizarre and chilling track list of four songs. The bizarre adjective used prior, borders alongside haunting. Understandably, these are the adjectives one wants to hear when Gothic Metal is being discussed, it goes with the Gothic territory. To say the songs heard on this EP from Atrocity are a soundtrack to a vampiric slasher film, makes all the sense in the Gothic scheme of things. There are those times when one needs to take a nibble before they order the complete meal, lending an ear to EP’s makes sense… it’s sampling a band before an entire album purchase is made a reality.
I won’t tell a Metal fib… I like this Atrocity band and all of the Gothic nuances that go along with their music. From the articulate arrangements heard on the single Cold Black Days to the eerie atmospherics, with lead vocalist Alexander Krull narrowly hypnotizing my senses with his sinister delivery. I am not running for cover… I am now more intrigued by Atrocity than ever before. Antediluvian World is for all intents and purposes, Gothic in it’s mood and overall heavy appeal. However, this song plays out with some Thrash meets Symphonic, interwoven with a sliver of Hardcore. A wonderful blend of extremities I hear in Antediluvian World, while a dark Gothic cloud of mourning hovers over it. Atrocity has succeeded in welcoming me into their mysterious and melancholy world of Gothic Metal, thanks to this Cold Black Days EP.
ATROCITY, as they appeared on Cold Black Days EP:
Alexander Krull – lead vocals
Mathias Roderer – guitarist
Thorsten Bauer – guitarist
Chris Lukhaup – bass guitarist
Martin Schmidt – drummer
Cold Black Days – EP Track Listing:
Cold Black Days
Cold Black Days (Radio Mix)
Antediluvian World
Cold Black Days (Das Ich Remix)
Cold Black Days EP was released on Napalm Records/SPV in 2004.
Lullacry is a Gothic Metal/Hard Rock band straight out of Helsinki, Finland. I stumbled upon this band, by perusing the incredibly insane selection of Metal Music – over at Century Media Records online, (CM Distro.com). What caught my attention with this Lullacry “Fire Within” EP were two things: the price was $2 for the CD (!) and this band does a cover of the legendary W.A.S.P. song – “L.O.V.E. Machine”. Hey, for two bucks it seemed like a pretty risk free proposition… especially since I never listened to this band before. (I purchased several items on this order, therefore my shipping cost per CD was low). One of the recurring living on the edge moments of my life is when I purchase a Metal CD without really knowing what I’m getting. Well, what I did get with Lullacry, is a darned solid and sound Gothic Metal/Hard Rock band that has raised my curiosity in their other albums out there. This is the only Lullacry CD that I own… delving deeper into their catalog of music might be a Metal option for me in the near future. Before I go any further, this band is not for every Metalhead out there, the overriding Metal sound is Gothic, due in large part to the lead vocals of Tanja. This female vocalist is very reminiscent of Amy Lee, (from Evanescence fame), on the song “Crucify My Heart pt. II (piano version)”, as Gothic sounding of a song if there is one. This song is definitely a Gothic ballad, Tanja emits quite a captivating voice here, in my Metal opinion.
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