Niku Daruma

Sai qual è il detto più celebre nelle terre di Yamato, un Paese davvero lontano lontano? Cadi sette volte, otto volte ti rialzi. Lo conosce bene Daruma, un bambino tondo e liscio come un'anguria che non si scoraggia mai e rotola in lungo e in largo alla ricerca di ciò che lo rende felice. Lo conoscono Momotaro, Urihime e Imotaro, amici inseparabili costretti ad affrontare i terribili Orchi Dentoni a colpi di frittelle, e pure il Bambino di Fango, che per realizzare i suoi sogni finisce per creare il Monte Fuji. Nelle terre di Yamato vivono tante creature straordinarie, ma ancora più straordinari sono i racconti che vi si narrano…

Sara Pajunen and Teija Niku live more than 4000 miles apart, but their sophmore album "Ameriikan Laulu" illustrates that their talents were meant to merge. While their Finnish ancestors resided just hours from one another, Pajunen grew up in northern Minnesota while Niku remained in Haapavesi, Finland. After meeting in San Diego at FinnFest 2011, the two began collaborating and named their newfound group Aallotar after a character from Finland's national epic "Kalevala." While both women share deep roots in Finnish music, the transatlantic team also embraces the ways in which living in different countries has undeniably influenced their musical preferences and playing styles.

It is such a relief when a band comes along that I am familiar with. Italian TEMPERANCE has been featured previously here on battlehelm.com. I interviewed them back in 2016. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. It is now 2018 and here I sit with a new album to review. TEMPERANCE utilizes the dual male/female vocals but not in the beauty and beast style that is so commonly used. No, here we get two clear voices. It adds quite a bit of charm. Musically this is melodic heavy metal. Sure, there are moments when they drift towards Nightwish but then it is more latter day Nightwish. And since it is so good there is nothing to complain about. This is up tempo, high spirited heavy metal with really nice melodies. This is an album that makes me happy. There is a positive spirit to it that is hard to not take in. Anders Ekdahl

Promoción editorial: En la era Tenpô, Kônosuke Ryûdo es un samurái de nivel bajo incapaz de salir de la mediocridad. Sus difuntos padres le pidieron un único deseo: que viviera su vida como un samurái honorable. Sin embargo, Kônosuke tiene una razón particular que le impide cumplir ese deseo: su cuerpo repele el metal y no puede empuñar la espada.

There are a lot of mysteries surrounding the past of tomio- san's life. Born 1976 at an unknown place, some pretended witnesses report of a youth in a zen-monastery on an island in the gulf of tokyo. No one will ever know and he surely will not tell us the truth, but there are some evidences for the beginning of his musical career as a brilliant piano player and percussionist in different bands and solo- projects.Also one can be sure that tomio-san was the one who started a renaissance of the japanese electronic culture in middle-europe and gets his inspirations mainly out of his eurasian roots. Its fundamental occurance to see him acting live, using exclusively japanese high-end technology and playing method.