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Fantomas is an avant-garde metal band formed in 1998 in California, United States. The band is named after Fantomas, a villain featured in a series of crime novels popular in France before World War I.
The band was formed when singer Mike Patton composed a handful of spasmic, avant-garde metal songs just before the collapse of his earlier group, Faith No More. Patton then sent the original compositions to his friends, hoping to form a performing group: guitarist Buzz Osborne (of The Melvins), bassist Trevor Dunn (also of Mr. Bungle, the band he and Patton [and Trey Spruance] formed in high school) and drummer Igor Cavalera (of Sepultura). Cavalera declined the offer, but recommended who he thought would be perfect for the project: Dave Lombardo of Slayer. Lombardo accepted and thus was formed Patton’s own supergroup
Though rooted in heavy metal, their music touches on many different musical genres, making liberal use of experimentalism and noise. Fantomas’ music is also noted for its absurdism and offbeat sense of humor; one critic dubbed their style “dada-metal,” a reference to the “anti-art” dada movement of the early 1900s. Critic Greg Prato describes their music as “completely original…especially when compared to the blah and predictable alt-rock of the late ’90s.” Patton rarely sings conventional lyrics with the group, preferring his own bizarre style of voice music or scat singing.
Posted on 31.05.08 by Doost

Off.site + MySpace + MA
Volbeat is a danish quartet, formed in 2001 from the ashes of Dominus, who plays a style of music you can describe as “Metallic Rock n’ Roll”. They have been compared to Life of Agony, but to give an understanding of their music, try to imagine a powerful mix of Metallica and Elvis Presley. The hard and fast riffs blend with splendid melodies in a vitalizing music that should be interesting for all rock and metal fans. Volbeat is one of the great bands in Danish music, and has been welcomed as such by both critics and fans.
Heavy/Groove Metal/Death’n'Roll

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Sweden’s Wolverine was formed in 1995 by Stefan Zell and Marcus Losbjer. They started out playing death-metal with melodic influences but when they released their first EP, Fervent Dream, in November 1999 the music had evolved into progressive metal. Fervent Dream got an overwhelming reception all over the world and was soon sold out. The band also played outside Sweden for the first time in connection with the release of the album. The beginning of 2001 saw Fervent Dream re-released as a digi-pack, re-mastered and with two bonus tracks. During the summerthat same year the band travelled to Germany and recorded the follow up to Fervent Dream; The Window Purpose. The Window Purpose was released in December and the response was once again overwhelming, the album saw the band gain the accolade of “Album of the month” during January, 2002 from Holland’s most important metal-magazine Aardschok. Once again Wolverine played around Europe to promote the album.In 2003 the moody album Cold light of Monday was released through Elitist Records. The album explored the really dark side of the band. The album scored really high notes in many of the biggest metal magazines, such as Kerrang and Metal Hammer. During 2003 Wolverine also opened up for Anathema in London. The band re-released The Window Purpose in the beginning of 2005, re-mastered and with renewed artwork as well as a newrecording of an old track from Fervent Dream. Later that same year Wolverine played the European edition of the ProgPower festival for the third time in their career. The band co-headlined the festival’s second day together with Pain of Salvation.After splitting with Elitist/Earache Records in 2005 the band found a new home in Candlelight Records and the time has now come to release Still, Wolverine’s fourth studio album. Recorded at the Spacelab Studio, Germany during the summer of 2005 the album holds nine tracks featuring Wolverine’s unique sound. The music is probably best described as a mixture between The Window Purpose and Cold light of Monday, powerful and filled with moods and nuances. Wolverine is back and, strengthened by the partnership with Candlelight Records, they are ready to release what the band sees as their finest piece of work to date.
Posted on 29.05.08 by Doost