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chaos_orb
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:30 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Bavaria, Germany
PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:45 pm 
 

Scanner, german metal legend from the 80s, will finally return with a new album.
As Axel Julius, the only remaining original member of the band, announced on his facebook page, they will release their new album in autumn 2013.

https://www.facebook.com/axel.julius?fref=ts

For the non-german-speakers, he says that they are currently looking for some background actors for their new video called "Eutopia".
The actors will be representing different figures and wearing different costumes, starting with ancient medieval ones through the different wars all over the last centuries to some futuristic ones from the "glorious" land called Eutopia.
The video will be about a man who finds a time machine and travels trough the centuries, visiting different locations and people. He sees wars, meets rulers and dictators and sees the life and pain and suffering of people throughout the centuries, which will be represented by the actors...
Further he says that the new album will be in the vein of their melodic power metal albums like "Ball of the Damned" and "Hypertrace", with a strong metal sound, and the so-called "punch into the face!"...

Well, i'm really looking forward to this because Scanner has always been a favorite of mine, but i'm really hoping the album is more in the vein of "Hypertrace and "Terminal Earth", which are real german metal classics, rather than "Mental Reservation" and "Ball of the Damned", which are just medicre and pretty forgettable albums.

What do you guys think?

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Metal_Detector
Reticular Modular Unit

Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:15 pm
Posts: 2176
Location: Japan
PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:55 pm 
 

God I love this band's first two albums, especially Hypertrace (just check my title). I doubt it will be up to those records' quality, but if it is, I'll be fucking stoked. At the very least I'll check it out. :)
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ENKC
Veteran

Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:28 pm
Posts: 2711
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:57 pm 
 

They've been on my radar (heh) for a long time now. Their early stuff is floating around on Bandcamp at one of the specialist labels. I can never have too much 80s German metal ala Accept, Warlock et al.
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HellishHound
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:37 am
Posts: 370
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:03 pm 
 

Holy shit! I just find out Mortuary Drape are releasing new material and now this!? I really hope it leans towards Hypertrace, that album was gold!
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As a mature adult with refined tastes, I'm now smart enough to know that riffs are god, metal rules and hail satan.

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AlexMaiden
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:49 am
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:11 pm 
 

This is great news indeed, Hypertrace really delivered an amazing amount of speed metal awesomeness, but it was 25 years ago...

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Oddeye
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:24 pm
Posts: 2281
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 1:02 pm 
 

Well this was unexpected! I love Hypertrace and I'm curious to see if they can live up to the legend of that album.

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MrMcThrasher II
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 6:01 pm
Posts: 1321
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:16 pm 
 

These guys are still around? I didn't they released anything after the first two albums! I must check them out.
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TheDefiniteArticle wrote:
Also hopefully they take it as a sign they're not meant to make more albums.

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soul_schizm
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:55 am
Posts: 764
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 5:27 pm 
 

Well, Axel Julius is still around, and every once in awhile he pokes his head up with a new lineup & album.

Looks like he's finally put enough pieces together to make one more run.

I'd be very surprised if it sounds like Hypertrace. But I like some of their later stuff, too, so I'll check this out.

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LegendMaker
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:24 am
Posts: 1872
Location: France
PostPosted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 6:10 pm 
 

Don't get your hopes up, guys. This album sounding anything like the legendary 80s Scanner albums is just about as likely as Metallica's next opus sounding like 'Kill 'em All' outtakes.

The Teutonic power/speed metal masterpiece that is 'Terminal Earth' dates back to 1989, 24 years ago, and it was by no means the brainchild of Axel Julius alone: Tom Sopha and S.L. Coe both were equally vital to the songwriting, arrangement and awesoness process, and the rest of the line-up, the rhythm section, kicked a lot of ass. Without any of those assets except Julius and no one else from the original, legendary band, two subpar albums were painstakingly released in the 90s, the less ancient of which, 'Ball of the Damned', was released 16 years ago. Its crown jewel was a good song highlighted by a guest appearance by Ralph Scheepers. Five years after that, 11 years ago, came out a load of horrible poppy/progressive/techno/somewhat-EuroPM-infused mess, 'Scantropolis', which had effectively lost any faint resemblance to the band once known as Scanner the two previous fillers may have had. And then, there was silence for 11 years. Now Julius comes back, and aside from one obviously bullshit "back to the roots" statement (he's apparently mistaken enough about the band's discography as to mistakenly assume 'Ball of the Damned' is deserving of being mentioned alongside 'Hypertrace'), he tells us zilch about the new line-up and the new album, but a plethora of uncalled-for details about a fucking videoclip he apparently thinks is something anyone interested in Scanner needs right now.

Now go find me a single sign that isn't bad about that.
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Osore wrote:
I would like to hear some recommendations of black metal bands/albums that sound depressive, yet sad and melancholic at the same time.

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soul_schizm
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:55 am
Posts: 764
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:20 pm 
 

The best I can offer is the rough mix youtube vid he posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y4BwcopTkE&feature=youtu.be

To my ears, it sounds like a mix of Scanner, Primal Fear, and Helloween. It's certainly got more energy than Scantropolis. Not too sure on the originality front, though.

Again, just a rough mix/demo.

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Spiner202
Veteran

Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 3:32 pm
Posts: 2738
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:45 pm 
 

soul_schizm wrote:
The best I can offer is the rough mix youtube vid he posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y4BwcopTkE&feature=youtu.be

To my ears, it sounds like a mix of Scanner, Primal Fear, and Helloween. It's certainly got more energy than Scantropolis. Not too sure on the originality front, though.

Again, just a rough mix/demo.

That sounded wicked. It didn't sound like a rough mix either; I hope the final production sounds like that.

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LegendMaker
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:24 am
Posts: 1872
Location: France
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:45 pm 
 

Okay, it's not great, not even very good or interesting, but it's decent, and I expected far worse. This marks the return to power metal of the Scanner franchise. It's nowhere near the type of intricate, bombastic power metal that graced 'Hypertrace', nor is it the type of tight, flawless, all-around killer power/speed that took the world by storm with 'Terminal Earth', but as I said, it has no reason whatsoever to be: this isn't the same band. It's not too far removed from the clumsy, imbalanced, overly complex and slightly off-base power metal found on 'Mental Reservation' and 'Ball of the Damned', only less complex and more repetitive.

The main riff is noticeably similar to that of 'Warp 7'. I suppose that's what Julius was getting at when he mentioned 'Hypertrace' as a reference point... I had hoped for a less literal and more worthy way of referencing it. In the "new tricks" department, we also have more than a few Helstar-ish riffs (or, more precisely, riff transitions, played on the Barragan Scale and à la Barragan) and oh! yes: a Santa fucking Chorus. The former is good but out of place with this type of generic EuroPM, while the latter sucks balls by definition; neither gives Julius any bonus points for personality or authenticity.

We also meet a dime-a-dozen singer with no personality and only basic chops (for this style), and I perceive no passion at all from the overall performance and arrangements. It really feels like the "band", whoever it includes, is going through the motions. They're paid to make a power metal album, and business is good.

Bottom line: this is technically a huge leap from the shit stain that was 'Scantropolis', but Scanner's good name is still in no way benefiting from dull, impersonal shit like this. I think I can safely update Scanner's status from "inactive and frankly it's for the best at this point" to just about where it was before 2002: "if Julius finally takes the fucking hint and begs Sopha, Coe and/or Knöblich to come back, another good Scanner album might still eventually happen...". Not holding my breath, though. So... yaaaay. :|
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Osore wrote:
I would like to hear some recommendations of black metal bands/albums that sound depressive, yet sad and melancholic at the same time.

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chaos_orb
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:30 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Bavaria, Germany
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:44 pm 
 

Well, Scantropolis was at least better thean Mental Reservation and Ball of the Damned...
At least in my opionion!
Scantropolis at least was different because of the female vocals, while Ball of the Damned and Mental Reservation were just pretty boring albums with no highlighs... :wink:

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