Manilla Road to the World - Part 10: Sands of Time (Spiral Castle)

Spiral Castle was released just a year after Atlantis Rising and this is where Hellroadie became more established with his vocals. Bryan tends to handle the higher pitch vocals whereas Mark Shelton deals with the lower and rougher vocals. This is where Manilla Road truly took a doomier direction with their music and Spiral Castle is where the doom metal elements are as big and loud as they could possibly be. They offer crunching riffs from the title track, enduring doom metal epic with Merchants of Death and... an acoustic instrumental with a middle eastern feel? Let's find out!

Sands of Time is the instrumental finale for Spiral Castle. Starting off with an acoustic guitars that gives off quite an atmosphere for the instrumental piece. There are various unusual instruments used such as the percussions that certainly don't sound like they're from the drum kit and they're very oriental. In addition to that, Manilla Road throw in some violins and these violins are very strong and passionate for this particular track and makes it as part of a character for the track. Mixing this with the other instruments makes it all for one unique piece but at the same time it makes you think of the settings from Aladdin. There's a strange progression but those 7 1/2 minutes will go quick simply because it feels very relaxing and you'd want to sink in this track after 40 minutes of epic doom chaos.

Week 18: Heidevolk - Alvermans Wraak

The artist: Heidevolk are a modern heavy metal band forming in 2002 and releasing their debut album in 2005. Heidevolk come from the Netherlands to offer kickass folk metal to the metal world. These guys aren't very big right now but there's confidence that they'll climb their up the ladder over the next few years as they release more great albums and attend bigger shows. They've had a boost of popularity with their appearance at Heidenfest 2010 and here's hoping more will discover them soon enough.

The album: Uit Oude Grond is the third and most recent album by Heidevolk released only last year. Just like the other two albums, all the songs are spoken in Dutch. While having a very folk-ish sound to their band, they also provide some heavy riffs. Although many folk metal bands have succeeded this, one would think Heidevolk would be much lighter with their music but Heidevolk don't hesistate to play loud and certainly not in this album considering the first few tracks.

The song: Alvermans Wraak (Alverman's Revenge in English) is one of the instrumentals in Uit Oude Grond starting off with an acoustic intro. The song is shortly introduced with the drums and a violin to go with the acoustic guitar. The violin even goes as far as having its own solo which is badass! This might not sound metal enough to some listeners so far but Heidevolk insured this song is easily classified as metal with some guitar riffs and solos that add to the great atmosphere Alvermans Wraak. This is an instrumental that makes you feel like you're in a tavern from long ago and enjoying yourself with other customers at the place having a few pints and dancing along to the music in the background. That's the imagery that should be in your mind, especially the minor vocal appearance at the end that reflect on those customers at the tavern. Overall, Alvermans Wraak is a great instrumental from Uit Oude Grond which is definitely worth hearing along with the first two tracks Nehalennia and Ostara.

Week 9: Annihilator - Schizos (Are Never Alone), Pts. 1 & 2

The artist: Annihilator are a classic thrash metal band not from America or Germany but Canada. Annihilator have released 13 albums since they started and went through many changes but the one man who keeps the band alive is Jeff Waters. Although from a personal view I've only listened to two of their albums, the first two (i.e. Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland) are some good stuff.

The album: Alice in Hell is Annihilator's debut album and easily their most recognisable one from their catalogue. This is the only album to have Randy Rampage on vocals for the band. Randy left the band after the tour for this album. Annihilator found Coburn Pharr to take care of the vocals but he doesn't quite shine a light in the candle like Randy did for the band.

The song: Schizos (Are Never Alone), Pts. 1 & 2 is the instrumental of the album along with the intro track Crystal Ann. Although the lines "Schizos are never alone" are spoken several times throughout the track, it's still considered as an instrumental for the band to be metal thrashing mad without relying on any vocals for 99% of the time. There's always a charm in thrash metal instrumentals and Schizos (Are Never Alone) is one of them. The song starts off fast-ish but the whole band then turn up the pace and Jeff Waters offers you fast and catchy riffs. The instrumental changes its tempo a few times giving it some nice twists to it. Overall, Schizos (Are Never Alone) is a metal instrumental that needs to be heard and shouldn't make the listener bored at all with its various changes throughout.