Altered Sky - Without Wonderland

(words by Gareth Burra)

Here we have Without Wonderland from Scottish pop rockers Altered Sky. I have seen this band play a good number of times (and in most instances, I shared the stage with them, in my Led by Lions days). I can say that every single time, there was always a very good live show with a fantastic stage presence, and I have always been impressed with how well front-woman Anna performs vocally. They were a band that I'd actually heard live first before hearing a record, so when it came to checking out their stuff I had a very good idea of what to expect and was looking forward to hearing it.

The production on this album is spot on for this type of music; it is on point for all instruments as well as the powerful vocals - there's a perfect, big, dramatic pop rock sound here (just like their live show). Something for everyone here really too, a nice mixture of pop rock anthems (i.e "Bury It All", "Waves") as well as some piano ballads ("Imagine Adventure"); some really high quality sounding material throughout.

Highlights include the massive sounding "Waves", and the slightly heavier toned "White Witch". Overall, a great sounding album, from a very hard working band.

For fans of: 

Avril Lavigne, Paramore, Tonight Alive

Black Sun - Twilight Of The Gods

Black Sun are (or possibly were) a three piece from Scotland. I think (from lending CDs off the Doomfinder General) that they pretty much started out as a one man industrial/noise project before evolving into a full band. They self-released a bunch of stuff before this final full length dropped on Future Noise and Head Of Crom. Twilight Of The Gods is a solid album through and through. The best way I can quickly describe it off the top of my head is to imagine Swans and Iron Monkey having a fight in a methadone clinic. Oh, and Oxbow is there as well, just because.

The record bursts into life with "Code Black", re-recorded from the 7" split with They Are Cowards, quickly followed by the excellent "Terminal Velocity". "Gethsemane" is a perfect example of one of the album's gut-wrenching crawlers. "Black Angel" (possibly a nod towards Death In June with that title?) and "Warhead" remain two of my favourite songs ever. 

I'm not entirely sure what became of Black Sun, but leaving us with this record seems like a pretty good way to go out. 

Scumpulse - Broken Reflection

Scumpulse are a crusty black metal band from Edinburgh, all the way up in Scotland - that distant and mysterious land just above the flat and boring desperate shithole that is mainland England. Broken Reflection is a nifty little tape single (can't remember the last time I saw a tape single, I'll be honest) featuring two tracks ov blackened crust in the vein of Skeletonwitch-meets-Darkthrone-meets-Discharge (yeah that's a subgenre of crust now, okay?). 

The title track is the A side here (who am I kidding, I streamed it on the fuckin' Bandcamp page). It is the faster of the two tracks; a lovely cider-swilling pace in fact, perfect for spilling the dreaded West-Country rot all over your friends as you mosh about during good times. The second track, "Hide" is a bit slower, but a lot more nuanced, with a savage vocal delivery and even a surprise guitar solo to round things off. 

You can stream these lovely ditties from the band's Bandcamp page or get your grubby tobacco-stankin' fingers on a copy of the physical cassette, which is limited to 50 copies.