Amorphis, the melodic death metal masters from Finland, released their new album HALO in February 2022. As I was suffering from Covid-19 in February, the issue of this article was postponed to March. Like the previous albums of the band “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”(1994), “Tuonela”(1999) and the “Skyforger” (2009) HALO is about the Kalevala, the Finnish mythological epic. HALO topped the Finnish metal charts as soon as it was released in February. Now it is the right time to take a closer look at this spectacular album.
Dark, deep and impressive are the paintings by Mario Duplantier, French technical death/progressive metal band Gojira’s talented drummer. Reflecting his impressions from his travels around the world with his band, his art underlines his deep compassion for nature and animals and asks questions about human existence.
Swedish progressive metal supergroup Soen was on a worldwide recorded live-stream from Atlantis Grammofon Studios yesterday, on the 18th of February. Supporting their latest album “Imperial”, which I believe was one of the best metal albums of 2021, they did something spectacular already on their minds for a long time. They came with different songs from past and present albums: I noticed four tracks from Imperial, another four from Lotus, two from Lykaia, one from Cognitive and a surprise track I’m going to reveal later in this article.
As devoted followers of Metal Oda Instagram page might already know, each month I pick a classic vintage car and post a short review entitled “The Classic Car of the Month”. As the first post on classic cars at metaloda.com web page, we have prepared this month’s article along with Alp Karpuzoğlu, Anesthesia Band vocalist Ege’s brother, a classical cars enthusiast and an expert in this field. For metaloda.com, Alp chose a very special classic car, the 1962 Chevy Impala SS Sport Golden Anniversary.
When I wrote about the best metal albums of 2021 in December, I didn’t tell you which one I thought was the best among them. There was one hint though about its release date for the attentive reader. As I said in this article, there was that one album in 2021 which left me speechless and this is the “Moonflowers” by the Finnish death-doom masters Swallow The Sun. When I reviewed Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu in September, I remember saying it was too early to label this or that as the best metal album of the year, although I am a great Iron Maiden fan.
Some musicians hold a special place in my heart, one good example is prog metal master Steven Wilson. In October 2021, I made a broadcast in Clubhouse Metal Oda on Steven entitled “The Genius of Steven Wilson” where we explored his music through the years. Steven was nominated for 2022 Grammy Awards at the end of November: this was when I started to write this article. Many familiar faces in Rock & Metal genre are nominated for 2022 Grammy Awards in different categories: those who come immediately to my mind are Gojira, AC/DC, Mastodon, Dream Theater, Deftones and Rob Zombie. When I checked Wilson’s nomination, I was surprised to find out it was in Production-Best Immersive Audio category and not in song writing. So, here it would be appropriate to dive a little bit into Immersive Audio.
A lot has been said and written about the album “Fortitude” by the French technical death metal band Gojira, since its release in April 2021. Now as the end of the year draws near and we go through the best albums of 2021, I wanted to say a few words on this powerful album. Read more
As the end of 2021 nears and we discuss the Best Metal Album of the Year, here is a list of my favorite ones, which I have listened to as soon as they hit the digital platforms: (remark: this is a random order, not a ranking).
Icelandic piano superstar Vikingur Olafsson who has been on my radar for many years now, has won the 2021 Limelight Recording of the Year Award with his album ‘Mozart & Contemporaries’. This little essay is the outcome of my excitement with the news. Read more
LEPROUS-APHELION 14/11/2021
Dear Metalheads,
In this first music article on my own website, I wanted to talk about the new progressive metal band Leprous album Aphelion, released on August 27, 2021. At the beginning of September, I had listened to a few tracks from this beautiful album, in the middle of all the Senjutsu and the Metallica Blacklist tumult. Read more