The song begins with a Jimi Hendrix kind of guitar section. The guitar effects are reminiscent of the 70s and his playing is so intricate, unique, and multi-layered. The drums, bass, and rhythm guitars beautifully complement the lead guitar in ways that the music world probably hasn’t known since 70s rock.

The vocals are ethereal, and before every vocal section and new movement begins we get another beautiful melodic solo- a rather creative song structure and artistic decision. I’ve also got to mention how impeccably beautiful and eloquent the lyrics are. This song has to be one of Matthew’s most poetic songs on the new album, and it succeeds in creating this sense of having a bond with nature and indulging in its beautiful scenery with all your senses.

With the song drawing near to a close, all the melodic and percussive elements that we heard at the beginning come together to make a very impressive and proggy bridge section. I’m not sure if the beat and timing go into an odd time signature or if it’s just a creative drum line that creates this sense, but it made me think so much about it, and I had to repeat to understand and take in all the details of that section. I wish I could sit and have a chat with Matthew O’Neill to ask him how he made this section, and this whole masterpiece of a track for that matter. “Disagreement” is out now on all platforms, as a part of Matthew O’Neil‘s album ‘Ancestor’s Wheel’, so be sure to give it a spin.

The song begins with a chord progression and a harmonica that puts you in a beautiful countryside setting and Charlie’s soft vocals follow shortly after. He’s one of those singers who are so grandiose by being subtle. None of the notes are overdone, his breath support while singing long sentences is unmatched, and most important of all, he makes it sound effortless. His tone is gritty and grounded and the way he enunciates is so elegant.

The song has a pretty straightforward structure with soft verses and big hooks. And I loved that they had a small guitar bit before the bridge that sounded like an acoustic solo- True to the genre, but also very rock n roll-ish. The song closes in a beautiful way that doesn’t interrupt the continuity of the chord progressions and how they flow into one another.

All in all, this is a song that sounds like heartbreak and a lost love in the countryside. It’s got some of the most beautiful vibes from Country, Americana, Blues on one side and Singer-songwriter rock n roll on the other. One of the year’s best finds for me. Check out Charlie Freeman on all streaming platforms now.

The opening song, galactic groove, reminds me of Shooting Stars and that same vibe of those trendy dance songs. However, It is uniquely composed and the beat grasps you on your first listen. cray has a different genre and song structure and shows you how proper trap and trip-hop should be made…it reminds me of my favourite video game soundtracks. 

Stuck In My Mind changes the vibe once gain, into electronic/Alt-rock this time around, and it’s got the right kind of riffs and strumming patterns to keep you hooked, but its drum and bass beats are so catchy that they work well with the dance songs that came before it. It sounds like a rock band attempting to do a house/trance song, and they successfully ace it.

Showtime brings back the electronic beats, but this time in a more modern hip-hop way, due to the pads and electronic kicks. The piano on this song will lure you into a story that the composer wants to tell us without using a single word or lyric.

Sleep – kevkov remix is a cover of a friend’s song, and it’s the first song to have full-fledged vocals in the album. The vocalist/MC raps over a pretty dynamic and multi-layered beat with an awesome attitude and a few instances of higher phrases and higher notes to decorate his performance. 

Summervibes in Wintertime starts with a heavily effected piano and another dark beat, it has an ominous feeling to it but the scale of the music is somewhat upbeat and dancy..a contradiction that kevkov beautifully masters throughout this record.

Rage Beat starts with a distorted synth, a heavy bass, and more electronic drums. The song has a mix of electropop, darkwave, and synthpop elements throughout. However, it still feels like movie and TV show soundtracks because of how every verse has a story to tell- one of kevkov’s many talents on thai album.

Videogame Breakcore is really what the name suggests. Its a break-dancing beat decorated with synths and percussive instruments that all feel like a main character moment in a retro video game moment. This one’s my favourite on the whole record by far. 

Life Continues is a serious number amid all the dancy and retro-sounding songs. It brings back the guitars and creates a melancholic vibe by mixing them with different types of synths, including a choir synth that just felt so spot on.

The tenth and final track, Esper, sounds like anime soundtracks mixed with the videogame music from earlier tracks, but some heavy bass and lo-fi vocals/humming give it the right vibes it needs to become a fully-fledged track. It has its psychedelic moments and dark trip-hop elements, I loved it so much.

In conclusion, this is one of my favourite instrumental albums of the year (excluding the track Sleep) and it’s a highly experimental album, so I have to give kevkov credit for being one of the few non-rock and non-metal artists I thoroughly enjoyed this year. Go check it out on all streaming platforms. 

The song begins with bells jingling and a typical Christmas vibe sound and is immediately followed by clean guitar strumming and a strong bassline. The song’s main aspect is the synth and vocals that carry the melody in a synth-wave/synth-pop fashion akin to the most popular 80s classics. The guitar solo is one of the most catchy gimmicks they managed to implement in the song, too.

While the song doesn’t have a definitive genre, it remains true to the 80s vibe by blurring the lines between rock, pop-rock, and synth. You can hear the rhythm guitar complement the bass, and the bass complements the synth line. My favourite aspect of this song, however, is the vocals that contradict the 80s vibe with an Arctic Monkeys and a modern 2000s indie vibe. The mix sounds wonderful and the Christmas vibe pertains through it all.

All in all, this song has a lot of different influences from many different decades, genres, and special music movements. It is truly a powerful Christmas song though, and it’s got the sweet vocal harmonies that will make you sing along with the chorus for days after you listen to it. Go check it out on all streaming platforms now.

The live performance begins with the crowd roaring and cheering, and a drum march begins to set the energy for what’s about to come. 

The moment the verse begins, the mix of Christmas and gospel vibes begins. The vocals are sweet and ethereal, and they instill a sense of goosebumps and chills with every note and every word spoken due to powerful emotional delivery and enunciation from the duo. 

The most attractive and surprising quality of this song and this performance though, is the powerful vocal harmonies. How the strong and grounded male voice shines in juxtaposition with the airy, heady, soft one has something very divine and calming about it. In conclusion, this live performance is one for the books, and its energy tops that of an already masterful song in its studio version.

The instrumental is a mix of electro-pop and pop-rock with a bunch of melodic guitars and drums that sound like 80s drum machines to delve deeper into that synth-pop/synth-rock sound. I really love how the instrumental is well thought out and well-mapped with the vocals; such a stylish and catchy beat deserves to be on the pop charts everywhere.

Now when we talk about Mr Dunlop’s voice, I really don’t know where to start. There are places in the verses where he does the heady kind of pop voice that’s popular since the ’90s and 2000s, and he does it effortlessly. But there are some sweeter parts where he has a deeper grunt/growl sound that immerses you in his emotions. The bridge section was brilliant, too, cause it’s the most softly sung, and it almost sounds like spoken word, but he still puts some intonation into the way he does it. Just pure brilliance.

The lyrics of that bridge section speak so much to me and how I wanna know people a bit more deeply than all their small talk. Check this out:

“I’m a crowded tapestry 
I’m a book with torn up pages 
I’m all the answers I can’t find
I’m rejections and embraces 
 
Tell me something I don’t know 
Go deeper than the weather 
Who you were and who you are 
How you hold you hold yourself together”

So if that alone isn’t enough to hook you up with Gareth Dunlop and his lyrics, then I don’t know what will. This man’s impeccable emotional delivery and brilliant choice of vocal styles and registers is something you don’t find many artists doing nowadays, and for that, I believe “Small Talk” is worth your while.

⇒ WATCH “SMALL TALK” MUSIC VIDEO HERE! ⇐

With the re-release of this song, I found it to be a beautiful track about moving forward and persevering in life even when you don’t fully understand the fuller picture. Kama’s voice sounds so soothing and he sings from a mostly head-y and light place, showing his bright tone and how honest his emotional delivery is.

The upbeat and uplifting rock vibe of the song feels inspired by 2000s alternative rock, and surf-rock to a certain extent, but as Kama always does…there’s a twist. Highly detailed and multi-layered keyboards and synths drive the song with the rhythm guitars, and the thumpy sound of the snare drums further increase that feeling.

The song is also unconventionally structured, with a long bridge/movement section in between the verses that allows all the instruments to shine, and shows us a bit more of Kama’s vocal range and how he emotes with it. All in all, this one of Kama Tala‘s most special songs because it’s one of the most positive-sounding and uplifting ones, and Kama does it with style, authenticity, and relatability that you don’t find many artists doing nowadays.

• Hello and welcome to Rock Era Magazine, it’s always a pleasure to have an Egyptian band with us, and when it’s a very special and vintage metal-styled band like you I turn into a nerdy fanboy and I start overanalyzing every detail of the music and imagery. With whom am I speaking? And please introduce your members to us.

My name is Mina George and I’m the vocalist and founder of this band, members are Ayman Ibrahim on rhythm guitar, Osama Mohamed on lead guitar, Ahmed Saad on bass, and Hazem Sherif on drums.

• How and when did you guys meet?

Well, I have known Ayman since 2014 or sth, we used to see each other so much when we had plenty of concerts back in the day I knew Ayman because of his online store that provides us with plenty of kickass merch nowadays, and we became close friends in 2017, I asked him to join the band twice and because the genre was somehow new to his ears he didn’t agree at first but when the original guitarist Rami Elsherif left I asked him if he can join and he was cooperative and helped me a lot when this band was just an idea.

I give Ayman the credit for playing all the instruments because btw this was supposed to be a studio band, we never expected the rest of the band to join.

Osama is the second member of our band and he joined firstly as a guest soloist, I chose Osama in particular because of his expertise in playing this genre, especially after he released his first single with his band “Junkdigger” and it was called “The Odds” it caught my attention so much due to the huge Bad Brains influences it got.

Afterwards, Osama became the third member of our band to join PERMANENTLY and I consider him as one of the creative driving forces in this band.

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Ahmed Saad is the third addition to this band on bass, we have known each other since 2017 and we used to play a similar style in an old project called “Warhound” which sounded in the same vein as Midnight and early Sodom (Obsessed By Cruelty era) back in 2018 until 2020 and he played both guitar and bass but unfortunately, this project dissolved before the inception of Hellrider.

Ahmed joined as a session member but he didn’t take time to prove his worth because of the great chemistry we shared between me and between him and the rest of the band and due to his great knowledge of the recording process which helped us not to hesitate to decide that he will be a constant and permanent asset to our wrecking crew.

The last band member we recruited was Hazem he was Ahmed’s friend and he was introduced to the band by Ahmed they jammed together before they both joined Hellrider.

• How does a band like Hëllridër come into existence? Especially with all the (for the lack of a better word) evolution that the rock and metal spectrum has undergone…what made you choose the specific brand and style of music you did?

We chose this specific approach because it is all about the genres that we all love and enjoy, we wanted to merge all these genres in one cup to make a unique sound

I guess it is the first time this scene witnessed such an approach, we never cared about stunts or technicalities, it is all about sounding shocking, raw, relentless, satirical and offensive At the same time we didn’t want to sound generic with a very vocal sonic and visual identity.

I was driven to make this band satirical as much as possible because I’m tired of people who pretend to care and because they sound too cliche to our ears.

Although we have our moments we are talking that seriously about global politics and social issues such as capitalism, apartheid systems, colonial imperialist ambitions to wipe out  the 3rd world and steal its resources….etc

we are serious whenever we want to be without jumping on the bandwagon and without milking such topics just because it is relevant to discuss nowadays.

Als,o we want to revive that D.I.Y spirit because such an economic crisis makes such an approach flourish, I think that’s the most suitable time for punk to emerge.

• A lot of other pages and reviewers and some friends in the Egyptian metal scene call you prototype black metal, others call you punk, and there are some people who say that it’s a mix. While it’s really impractical to define a band’s sound to one sub-genre or style moniker, if you had to sum it up and categorise it, what would you call the genre that Hëllridër plays?
  

We would like to mention that we are all of these styles infused together, you can call it “black rock ‘n’ roll” if you wanted, we are a band that I consider a wet dream to every old school maniac since we have so much influences under our belts such as speed metal, both first and second wave of black metal, doom metal, and various hardcore punk approaches like D-beat, crust punk and traditional hardcore sound.

• I’ve seen a Latin American fan compile a bunch of clips together to make an unofficial video for your song Speed, Booze, Rock N Roll. It was a bit hilarious to be honest. How did you guys react to it and how did it make you feel to have fans that far away from you?

Well this was hilarious and it cracked us up ,the guy who made it is considering  us as one of his own personal favourites which is kinda flattering,to be honest won’t judge because OH MY GOD!!! I can admit that the equipment we used to record this single is even cheaper  than the internet bundle he used in order to make this video,but anyways it really makes us proud that someone from the other side of the planet likes our music.

• So you’ve been together for some time but you’ve only released Speed, Booze, and Rock N Roll so far. Should we expect any more songs in the future? Do you have some unreleased finished songs that the world has yet to hear?

We have plenty of unreleased stuff ofc that we plan to release on a full length and a single then we are planning to release another full length.

• If you had the time, money, and connections required to play any venue or festival in the world, what venue would you choose and why?
  

Obscene Extreme especially when you know it features plenty of metal/punk bands whether they’re grindcore, death metal/punk (ala Nunslaughter), D-beat, Crust…etc. and Nuclear War Now Fest of course, because I consider this festival a household for every single band we admire and consider personal favourites.

• If you could tour the world with any artist or band, living or dead, who would it be

Motorhead and Triumph Of Death.

• What are your future plans and future releases, if any? And will we see you in concert any time soon? I hope I can see you play in Cairo or Alexandria some day.

We have plans to play live performances mainly in Cairo since it’s our hometown. Anyway, we will see the available options, and hopefully, we can hit the stage by the start of the new year.

• What would you advise a group or an artist that are about to kick start their career, especially in our small and uhm…complicated scene?

Start small, do not mainly focus on equipment but mainly focus on your music and make sure it reflects your experiences as a fan, because we are fans of this genre before becoming musicians, make your very own original persona and imagery according to the topics you highlight, don’t look like any other local band, do not raise your expectations especially when you know that our scene suffers like you mentioned various complicated circumstances that I can consider as a stumbling block.

Prepare and rehearse a lot not necessarily in a studio but at home to avoid wasting time and money and when you’re going to jam, prepare the material you’re going to play for the same reason to exploit every second during the rehearsal.

You can make rough demos via WhatsApp conversations.

Listen to and check different styles of metal bands or similar bands within the genre you play to ease the creative process and make it fruitful.

• Thank you for giving us some of your time today, it’s such an honour to be among dedicated musicians who pay attention to their image and the entire state of mind that comes along when you listen to them. Be sure to check out Hëllridër on BandCamp and YouTube. Cheers!

The song starts with the sound of a studio door busting open, and soon after that the main riff starts, and I’m immediately reminded of 2000s Breaking Benjamin and Seether due to the chords being played and their seamless progression. The guitar tone is brilliant and it’s heaviness will appeal to fans of that 2000s era.

The verses after that make use of a groovy bass, I believe the bassist uses a pick if i’m not mistaken, but it sounds perfect either way. The pre chorus and chorus have a tribal beat that starts and stops, and the loud chant “Between Me and God” sounds so iconic and it seems it’ll be a crowd pleaser when they play it live.

After the second chorus the song moves into a heavier bridge section and the vocals are somewhat spoken/rapped and you can tell that the range these guys have is impeccable. The song ends with a powerful outro, making a statement that these guys have a strong and iconic career ahead of them, so go check out Moletrap on all platforms and I’m sure you’ll get their music stuck in your head.

First of all, the song starts with the sound of an engine revving followed by a crash/accident, and the riffs hit us soon after. The licks of the song and the drums are very reminiscent of pure Punk Rock from the mid to late 80s, although the drums and vocals will remind you of speed and early black metal due to their eerie mix of clean and harsh. It’s almost like the lead vocalist is speaking in rhythm without intonation, but it’s actually there. 

The song has a sort of second movement with heavier riffs, and a melodic guitar solo. It’s worth mentioning that the lo-fi production and the sort of raw and primitive recording quality increase the 1st wave black metal feeling even if the song isn’t super fast or heavy. The song ends abruptly with a gimmicky burping sound, that with the song’s name and the artwork put you in the state of mind and the entire audio-visual experience of the 80s.

Whether this is a prototype for evolution, or a new style of Black/Punk mix on its own is a matter that the band will show us with their future release, but so far, this song is a killer and thrashing raw endeavour into the rich world of 80s extreme music. Check out Hëllridër on BandCamp now.