Who would believe that the –once- mighty BAL Sagoth had spread seeds for a new style? These youngsters from Bavaria (fell in the hands of a Bayern freak!) that made good impressions to the north - European audience with both their 5 years ago demo and their full-length debut in Black Attakk in 2005, sound like they come from 1996 (remember bands like Kampfar, Einherjer etc.?). That means black metal with a lot of rhythm changes and emphasis on heavy/thrash with the strong presence of blast beats though.

Their epic feeling is defined in their sound by the dominating keyboards and their lyrics with the German and Scandinavian tales (sagas). Their sound is concrete and massive despite the constant flow of keys, yet the riffs sound weak and common. It sounds to me that if the Sagoth/In Extremo ideas were omitted this would sound quite uninteresting. On the other side keys don’t work for the hardcore black metal fans, even if the drummer is ripping the double-bass!

Equilibrium is a band for fans of all the bands mentioned and they will definitely kick the asses of those. The lyrics are in German and this gives the band more passion and strength but also a chart position at number 30 on the official German charts! Nuclear Blast is promoting strongly with a European tour in November and a video for “Blut im Auge”. This isn’t really my cup of tea but it’s really popular up where they’re from and don’t be surprised if you see them on the next Wacken Open Air line up!