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Renowned siren, Sarah Jezebel Deva has recently inked a deal with French label Listenable Records. After spending 14 years in Cradle Of Filth as a backing singer, she also spent 6 years in Therion and Mortiis. Sarah has sung on over 35 albums with bands including The Kovenant, The Gathering, Mystic Circle, Trigger The Bloodshed and many others. In 2005, joined forces with Chris Rehn and created Angtoria and received an amazing response in Europe.

Although under her solo name, Sarah Jezebel Deva is a full-fledged touring band and a tight one at that. Her follow up to last year’s A Sign Of Sublime, titled The Corruption Of Mercy, will be released in late June on Listenable Records.

Sarah comments:

“We are extremely proud and excited to announce that we have signed a 3 album deal with the mighty Listenable Records. We have slowly been writing the new album The Corruption Of Mercy over the last 12 months, in between shows and other musical priorities at Escape Route Studio’s in Essex, England. A majority of the album was written by myself and Dan Abela but further down the line, we enlisted the help of Pzy Clone from The Kovenant for his amazing orchestrations and programming. Pzy Clone truly was the icing on the cake for this album. In our eyes, this album should have been the first cd released under the SJD name and we feel its totally on par with Angtoria’s God Has A Plan For Us All. The release date will be June 20th and it couldn’t come sooner for us! “

LINE UP :
Dan Abela – Guitars,
Jamie Abela – Drums,
Jonny Gray – Guitars,
Ablaz – Bass,
Sarah Jezebel Deva – Vocals

More info and new album songs will be posted shortly on SJD’s Official Site.

Genres: Melodic Death Metal, Symphonic Black Metal
Label: Mortal Music

Another killer release from the small but strong label Mortal Music, Withering Soul’s mix of melodeath and symphoblack is something just short of stunning. It sounds more like a band from the UK or Scandinavia, but these dudes are from Chicago(!).
Throat ripping vocals are coupled with great blast beats and gorgeous, dark gothic keyboards, with furious guitar and bass riffs that will shatter car windows and your very soul.
They’re pretty much perfect for fans of Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Behemoth, Dark Tranquillity, and Abigail Williams.
Favorite tracks are “Posession of Deception (Part 2)”, “The Sequitor”, and “Lifeless They Lie”.
The album is coming out in March, grab it.
8 out of 10.

Withering Soul on Facebook.
Withering Soul on MySpace.

When: Tuesday February 15, 2011
Where: Edmonton Event Centre, Edmonton, Alberta

It’s so awesome to get onto the guest list for a concert that you REALLY want to see. But it’s lame as shit to be turned away at the door due to a clerical error. But it’s even more awesome when you’re walking through West Edmonton Mall (where the venue is housed) and you see the singer for the band that you’re at the show to see walking around.
You call his name. He turns around to see who the hell just recognized him. You chat for a moment. He laughs at the situation, and basically sneaks you and your wife into the venue so that you can watch the show.
And then after it’s all over you realize: “Fuck man, I just met Blake Judd and didn’t get my picture with him.”
As we got into the show late, we ended up missing all of Turisas, except for most of the last song. All I have to say about that is LAME. They seem like a really cool live band, and there’s something kind of sexy about a hot chick headbanging while playing accordion, so to have caught the whole set would have been sweet. Based on half of one live song: 7 out of 10.
The second act, Daniel Lioneye, was really fucking odd. I did some quick research into them, and they’re a HIM side project. Their singer is in fact Linde from HIM. They played a mix of black metal, melodic death metal, and Black Label Society-esque Southern rock, all with a stoner rock feel more than sound. Pretty good, but not something I would personally buy. 6 out of 10.
Nachtmystium took the stage to barely any fanfare. Poor bastards in the crowd had no idea who Nachtmystium are, it would seem, because there wasn’t much cheering. And as the band got off the stage, there still wasn’t much cheering. I hope it’s because everyone was stunned by how awesome they played.
Seriously, Nachtmystium became one of my favorite bands after last night. The sound wasn’t as muddied as Daniel Lioneye’s, making Blake’s vocals intelligable, and keeping all the instruments fairly well balanced. It’s hard as hell to do that at Edmonton Event Centre, mostly because it’s a shitty designed venue. Throw in a band that actually fucking PERFORMS and you’ve got a guaranteed win.
Sadly, Nachtmystium do perform a style of metal that does require one to have an attention span, intelligence, and the ability to recognize more than one musical influence at a time, which is probably part of the reason there were not as many people into the music as I thought there would be. Yes, Edmonton, that is a mild insult. I hope you’ll overcome your shortcomings in the future, because this band is pure win. 9 out of 10.
Cradle of Filth had the baton passed to them, and they were really good at getting the crowd into the tunes, but I’ll be honest when I say I’ve never been a huge fan. And after seeing them live, I’m still not a huge fan. Dani’s a great frontman, but at times seems awkward with himself more than others. The lady at the keyboards is gorgeous, and while no Sarah Jezebel Deva, she does the female vocals that SJD did on the albums wonderful justice, especially in “Her Ghost in the Fog”. The rest of the band, Paul, Dave, Martin and James, brought Cradle of Filth’s Gothic-tinged black metal sound to a loud and proud level for Edmonton once again, getting the crowed pumped and the pit somewhat violent looking. The sound man obviously had not shit the bed, as pretty much everything that Cradle did was crystal clear, so kudos to him. But ultimately, I prefer Cradle of Filth’s recorded music more than their live show. 6 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Independent

It would seem that Matthew P. Davis has created something relatively new in black metal. And I’m liking it.
Picture a little bit of early Cradle of Filth, some Morgul, and some Moloch put into a blender with a flaming Bible and two shots of Jack Daniel’s. Add a dash of Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, and Labyrintheory is a winner.
A nice demo of five songs, In Memoriam is an impressive first start for this band.
7.5 out of 10.

Labyrintheory on MySpace.

NOTE: This is an old review, moved here from the Funeral Rain Zine MySpace.

Venezuelan blackened death metal act Noctis Imperium have recently released a video for the song “Unus In Nihil” from their Abyss Records debut Nihil.
Nihil was released in August of 2010 and is currently available through Abyss Records and features Nick Barker (ex-Dimmu Borgir, ex-Cradle of Filth, et al.) on drums. For more details on the album, click here.

Noctis Imperium on MySpace.