SVARTBY « Hollywood Metal

February 22, 2010

Hollywood Metal Episode 83 (Oct-31-2009)

Saturday Oct 31st 2009: Dan and Emilio from LA metal band BLOODSTEEL stopped by along with Victoria for my “un-halloween” halloween party. Listen to the first mic segment and you’ll understand. Ok music for the show was heavily influenced by a Finnish metal withdrawal. So WINTERSUN, INSOMNIUM, ENSIFERUM and newcomers BARANDUIN were all featured. The first three you should be very familiar with if you are reading this but hopefully you come away liking BARANDUIN too. They only have an Demo/EP out but it is one of the best I have ever heard in the battle metal genre, you’d think this band has been around for years. STATIUS “Storm Bracing” was played at the request of Emilio and normally I have a policy of not playing the same song more than once on the program but that rule is negated if the band has actually been a guest on the show before. (read: local band) That, and the fact that the song kicks ass. SVARTBY was selected because I wanted to show Dan a great band from his homeland of Russia. If you are into FINNTROLL you will definitely like SVARTBY. They bring that heavy folk, forest party sound. This selection “Vinterkvall” (“Winter Evening’) is slightly more melancholy than the others on the new album, but it’s still a good representation of the quality on display here. I am particularly glad we played LOST HORIZON today because in double checking the set list I realized that I had forgot to record a previous playing of this band. So I went back and listened to old eps and found the mistake. Turns out episode 64 featured “Sworn in the Metal Wind”. Anyway, great band great song.. end of story. BLIND GUARDIAN is a major influence on BLOODSTEEL so it was only fitting that we ended the show with “Born in a Mourning Hall.” As soon as BLOODSTEEL has some decent recordings I will feature them on the show. Dan and Emilio are excellent guitarist so that stuff should be awesome.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: BARANDUIN, BLIND GUARDIAN, BLOODSTEEL, Brendan Biryla, ENSIFERUM, Hollywood Metal, INSOMNIUM, LOST HORIZON, STATIUS, SVARTBY, WINTERSUN — Brendan Biryla @ 5:57 pm

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Hollywood Metal Episode 80 (Oct-3-2009)

Hollywood Metal Episode 80 (audio)

Saturday Oct 3rd 2009: Grant and Mike from LA metal band EINVERA stopped by today to talk about their music and their upcoming show at the Key Club in Hollyood with ENSIFERUM, HYPOSCRISY, EX-DEO and BLACKGUARD. Their music is wide ranging and difficult to classify but blackened folk metal would be a good place to start. All 3 band band members are high skilled at their main weapons but each also helps contribute of of the abstract instruments you’ll hear on the upcoming album. Woodwinds, Cello and even horns were on display in the three songs played today on the show. If you haven’t heard these guys visit:

www.myspace.com/einvera1

“The Gift of a Ghost” “Let In Without a Name” and “A Mausoleum For the Living” were the 3 songs chosen for today’s episode. Four more songs are in the works so as soon as they are ready we will play them here. In the meantime contact the band through their myspace page for tickets to the ENSIFERUM show ($15 as opposed to $30 at the door). In addition to three great songs from those guys I also picked out four exceptional tunes from some old and new favorites. ENSIFERUM of course is on top of my mind lately with the release of 2009 From Afar so it was fitting today that we play “Smoking Ruins.” As I mentioned on the show, I like the new direction of this band which has taken a liking to utilizing chorus’ instead of a lead singer for many of the newer songs. I think it makes the way more epic and probably a lot more engaging live… can’t wait to see them live for the 3rd time. SVARTBY is another of my favorite bands. These guys are from Russia but they sing in Swedish, albeit badly. The music is of the utmost quality and even though the music sounds pretty serious it is actually lighthearted in nature. The songs are mainly about mythical creatures in magical lands so you know this is going to be great stuff. The song I selected was “Groda Ryttare” which means “Frog Riders” ,… and yup that is full of awesome! GARLEBEN is the discovery of the week though and possibly the year. Randomly came across their myspace page and I cannot believe how impressed I am with their demo material. Not only does it sound great production wise but these guys clearly know how melodic black viking metal works. Every song has a memorable melodic core with heavy rhythm crunching and searing guitars. “Die Letzte Fahrt” (The Last Ride) is the first of a few we’ll play on the show in the next few weeks. Damn these guys are good. Lastly, NORTHLAND is a band I played last week which is another melodic viking metal band that I think is going to go far. From Spain, these guys also have a keen sense of core melodic structure and impressive musicianship. “Freezing Sadness” is the title track from their EP from 2007. Their is new footage of STATIUS, EDGUY, EPICUREAN, REIGN OF AVARICE and EPIDEMIA on my youtube channel www.youtube.com/hollywoodmetalradio. Next week I will have more from SATYRICON and STRATOVARIUS.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: Brendan Biryla, EINVERA, ENSIFERUM, GARLEBEN, Grant Benziger, Hollywood Metal, Mike Talanca, NORTHLAND, SVARTBY — Brendan Biryla @ 5:46 pm

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February 21, 2010

Hollywood Metal Episode 13 (Mar-22-2008)

Hollywood Metal Episode 13 (audio)

Saturday March 22nd 2008: Episode 13 premiered the new epic intro taken from BATHORY “Prelude” off the Nordland I album. This is my favorite album intro, it really sets an epic tone for the show. Russian band SVARTBY was the first played today. These guys hail from St. Petersburg but the name of the band is Swedish for “The Black Village” and they sing in Swedish as well. (“Skogens Ursinne’) was the name of the track played and I really enjoy this one because its upbeat and the folk instruments mirror the rhythm guitars which gives the song a richer sound while keeping the song light and upbeat. Germany’s RIGER was next with (“Brandschiff”). This one is great because the melodic melody that hovers over the rhythm guitars is so clean and powerful. One can’t help but to rock during this one! Up next was Finland’s MORS PRINCIPIUM EST with (“The Unborn”) . As I mentioned on the show, I really dig how they used the keyboards in this song. It was the perfect amount and to the perfect effect of creating the uptempo atmosphere. That combined with the angelic voice of the female background singer produced a great track. England’s mighty BAL-SAGOTH were next with (“Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu”). This band produces some great keyboard driven symphonic black metal but the real gem is the band’s mastermind Byron Roberts. Byron’s signature voice over narrative vocal style created one of the most epic sounds in metal today. After a brief venting session, where I called out the loser who wrote the worst review ever about our last band on metal-archives.com, we played that very band… XIV DARK CENTURIES. That guy did not know what the hell he was talking about when he rated their 2006 album a 45% and to prove it we played (“Thing”) from that album and it totally rocked! If anyone out there writes reviews for metal archives, do the metal world a favor and write a new review for XIV DARK CENTURIES’ (2006 Skithingi).

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: BAL-SAGOTH, BATHORY, Brendan Biryla, Hollywood Metal, MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, RIGER, SVARTBY, XIV DARK CENTURIES — Brendan Biryla @ 4:50 pm

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