Abandoned: Private Little Hell (D)

Arkhan: Dead Lady’s Diary (CH)

Davidian: Entertainment (D)

Eclipsis: The Shadow Of My Soul (D)

Edge Of Thorns: Dark Magician (D)

Equilibrium: Unter Der Eiche (D)

Nordafrost: Battle Of The Winterhorde (D)

Obnoxius: Final Chapter Closed

Odium: Chaotic (D)

Pantheion: Friedensbringer (D)

Saintsbleed: Twisted Truth (D)

Sorrowfield: Well Waters (D)

Svart: Disarmed (D)

Syre: Psycho (D)

review by Boris "Azrael" Witta ___         

So, this is it, the fourth part of the sampler ”The Reaper Comes” from the German underground-label Heavy Horses Records. Like on the preceding samplers, there is a good mixture between Extreme Metal (Black & Death Metal), old-school and modern Thrash Metal and also “normal” styles like True and Power Metal. Most of the bands really deserve to be on this sampler, because they have a lot of potential but no label which supports them, so the sense of “The Reaper Comes IV” is always clear, the only two bands with a deal are Nordafrost and Equilibrium. I don’t know why there are only bands from Germany and Switzerland on this sampler, I know that there are lots of good, interesting and original bands from Austria too, and this country is not too far away, so… but perhaps it was a financial problem, I don’t know. But as I said before, the mixture is exquisite and if you want to support good underground-bands, “The Reaper Comes IV” is a good possibility to do that, because all of the bands on it have albums or EPs which should be tested from the Metal-community. So let’s now come to a short overview of all songs:

Abandoned “Private Little Hell”: Cool old-school Thrash Metal in the tradition of Bay Area-heroes like Slayer and Testament, with characteristic lead guitars and an aggressive, powerful rhythm. Singer Eric “Kalli” Kaldschmidt has a great voice which reminds a bit to Tom Arya from Slayer. Important: As listener, you always have the true feeling, that Abandoned play this music from their hearts.

Arkhan “Dead Lady’s Diary”: Arkhan is one of the most interesting Swiss underground-bands, which play a mixture of Death and Black Metal, sometimes epic, melodic and full of emotions, then again aggressive, harsh and destroying. All musicians have a very good ability, and also the change between growling vocals and infernal high screams fits very well. Beside of that, “Dead Lady’s Diary”, which contains some obsucre acoustic and some Piano-parts, is very bangy.

Davidian “Entertainment”: This is the first real good surprise: Davidian also play Thrash Metal (like Abandoned), but this time more the Teutonian Way, I think the biggest influences of the quintet are Destruction and old Sodom. Big production by the way, and the level of aggression is always very high. The only thing which could make troubles is the voice of Chris Prendergast: It’s special and origin, you rather like or very dislike it. After listening to “Entertainment” (from the first album “Abuse Of Power”), I’m very tensed how Davidian are live. Looking forward to the Metal Forces Festival VIII…

Eclipsis “The Shadow Of My Soul”: This is what I would call Progressive Death Metal. The basics are deep riffs and a brutal voice, but there are tons of different elements, which create a very special atmosphere, melancholic and kind of beautifil. The vocals are changing between growling, screaming and a fantastic clean voice,  and also the tempo changes a lot of times. The production is very rough, but this doesn’t really matter. Very good, very origin!

Edge Of Thorns “Dark Magician”: The first True Metal-band. Edge Of Thorns play hard and fucking great Power Metal with a pounding heaviness, aggressive vocals during the verses and high choirs. The keyboards lay the perfect background and “Dark Magician” just rocks. There are also some influences of Speed and Melodic-Metal. Hell yeah!

Equilibrium “Unter Der Eiche”: Bombastic Viking/ Pagan-Metal with folky melodies and great keyboards. I think Equilibrium are well known, and they could become a very big band. The production is very good, the guitars hard, the voice aggressive or hymnic-clean, and “Unter Der Eiche” spreads a feeling of nature and old spirit.

Nordafrost “Battle Of The Winterhordes”: Do I have to say much about Nordafrost? I guess no. Great old-school Black Metal (remember Immortal), cold, frozen riffs and a crushing voice plus fantastic blastbeats. One of the biggest newcomers of the year 2004!

Obnoxius “Final Chapter Closed”: This band plays an crazy mixture between Power and Extreme Metal. The refrains are a bit disharmonic, but the band shows a great spectrum, you can discover almost ever kind of Metal in “Final Chapter Closed”. Mostly open-minded fans should like Obnoxius.

Odium “Chaotic”: Back to straight and hard riffing Thrash/ Power Metal. Nevertheless the melodies never come to short, “Chaotic” is aboutely aggressive and I have to say that Rainhard Runkel (great name by the way!) has a very own voice, sometimes melodic, sometimes brutal, I don’t find any comparison for it. Also the guitar-solo in the middle of the song is remarkable. Good band, good sound, good song.

Pantheion “Friedensbringer”:  Yes, the first Melodic Black Metal-attakk! Opulent and sacral keyboards introduce “Friedensbringer”, and the blastbeats dominate the song. Unfortunately, the prodcution is weak, most of all the drums sound bad. But with a bit tolerance, as Melodic Black Metal-fan, you should like Pantheion, because also the vocals are great, totally hysteric, and the song itself is very good, full of dark melodies, but has a strange title.

Saintsbleed “Twisted Truth”: H-E-A-V-Y M-E-T-A-L! Doublebass, feeping guitars, fast rhythm, True Metal-vocals, fast and virtuous guitar-soli, melody, heaviness: This is Saintsbleed, Heavy Metal full of spirit! Bangy as bangy can and “Twisted Truth” just makes a lot of fun!

Sorrowfield “Well Waters”: A melancholic atmosphere, tragic vocals and emotional melodies are the trademarks of Sorrowfield. I would declare their music as Dark/ Gothic Metal, not really hard, but good to open a good bottle of red wine and relax a bit. Fans of To/Die/For and The 69 Eyes: This is your turn!

Svart ”Disarmed”: The name Svart reminded me automatically to Black Metal, but this band plays Melodic Death Metal, modern, fresh, but absolutely not Nu. Future-keyboards (like Fear Factory) and a clean chorus are the best things of “Disarmed”, which contains 50% aggression and 50% fragile melodies.

Syre “Psycho”: Another Melodic Death Metal-bands closes “The Reaper Comes IV” and it’s a good end of a good sampler. More heavy than Svart and with tons of groove, “Psycho” takes no prisoners, altough I don’t really like the vocals, too modern and Crossover-like for me. But beside of that, “Psycho” is a strong thunder and a very good end of “The Reaper Comes IV”.

Quintessence: “The Reaper Comes IV” is very worthy to be supported, not only for underground-freaks. Give your ears to these bands, they deserve it!

No rating, but a warm recommendation

Boris Witta 

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