nocius@hotmail.com 
116985384 Admin of artists : The Love Dictators
Website : http://http:/www.nocius.de
Joined : July 09, 2007
There is not much to say here. If you haven't checked out NanowaR yet, you're missing one of the best parodies of heavy metal.
Awesome musicianship, goddamn hilarious lyrics and great ideas make them second to none, not even established artist like Knorkator or J.B.O.
Definately a 'must-load'.
When I first saw the not-so-professional album cover, I thought "Oh, please not another one of these cheap hard rock bands with standard riffs and zero innovation.". I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is by no means the case with NMDV.
Although the album cover is anything but professional, the music in fact is. When listening to the first song, I asked myself: "Heck, why aren't they signed to a major label and tour the world already?". Both the music, their technical ability and the recording quality are comparable to established artists in their genre.
But what is their genre? Generally, I'd say it's some kind of hard rock. With progressive elements. But there is lot more to it. Despite of their very heavy metal-like riffing, keyboards and vocals partly sound like borrowed straight from the eighties. It really seems that new wave had a big influence on the six.
Apart from the songs itself, it's Sebastian Piepke, the singer of the sextet, who contributes to this very characteristic sound. He sounds like a blend of David Gahan and Glenn Danzig, perhaps with a tiny nuance of Hansi Kürsch.
Altogether, this creates a very interesting and unique music, which is definately worth listening to. The only weak point is, that some of their (mostly calmer) songs don't really seem to work well with Piepke's voice.
All in all, Nomore D-Vision are carrying the heart of very different styles to a new millenium and succeed with creating a characteristic and unique sound.
At first, I expected a typical orchestral video game or movie soundtrack. Different soundscapes, very different emotions, ranging from epic orchestral overtures over calm interludes to fast-paced action themes.
I was surprised to see the opposite. There are absolutely no surprises on this album. The atmosphere on the album stays calm and relaxing all the time - and although the tracks stir different types of emotions, all of them are in some way soothing.
This would certainly make this album a not-so-great soundtrack, since a soundtrack is supposed to acoustically support a game or movie. And no one would ever watch a movie which was soothing all the time and not a single bit thrilling.
Aeon, however, works great as a standalone album and although there is no great variation between the tracks it still won't get boring.
But how does Matti Paalanen achieve that?
It's simple, he is able to catch this soothing, harmonic and calm atmosphere so extremely well, that all the tracks seem to flow nicely. All the tracks seem to produce some kind of unity. The instruments used for this production, mainly harps, piano, strings, woodwinds and mellow percussion sound very close to real ones and the mixing is extremely well done.
So why only eight of ten points?
It's simple. This certainly isn't music for everyone. You really have to be in the mood for this kind of music and you have to except that none of the songs get stuck in your head. The melodies flow nicely, but you won't find yourself whistling them since there are absolutely no stand-out tracks. Although soothing and atmospherical, Aeon is nothing more than that. And it's alright that way.
The record is simple, yet beautiful as it is. And thus, perfect music to listen to after a hard day in the office or after hours of traffic jam. But nothing to put your media player on repeat for.
▼
