Ahhh… there are still some German underground bands that manage to impress me! These three guys come up with one of the freshest demos I have heard for quiet some time: 6 creative songs covering a wide spectrum of dark Metal music on a high technical level without losing the feeling for the song and its atmosphere. But first a short explanation: ISLAND is the German word for Iceland (BJÖRK’s country) – thank me for learning something new – and knowing this I think that name fits the music very well. It starts with the strange sound. It is a dark production with some old Black Metal feeling in it but still the instruments sound very natural and powerful with a great old school Death Metal touch. But ISLAND play neither. Yes there is some Black Metal – it sometimes reminded me of SHINING or old ULVER albums especially for the clean vocal parts and even some epic parts. And there is lots of Death Metal – very fast Death-blasts, crunching doublebass, cool and dark vocals which reminded me a little bit of VULPECULA (does anyone still know that band?). But there is more than that. They also throw in some beautiful acoustic parts in the OPETH vein and some viking “ohhs” (without getting cheesy) just to start the next song in a perfect GORGUTS or IMMOLATION manner. And it works! It’s all mixed together but still it sounds like one band! Maybe the key is the epical songwriting giving the cool riffs and melodies enough space to develop. Almost unbelievable that they wrote “Orakel” in just two months! Respect! The band mentioned that “Orakel” is their more brutal side and that their next release will be focused more on atmosphere. Sometimes I smelled a hint of the songwriting of bands like ISIS or THE OCEAN and I am sure it will be interesting to hear how ISLAND will develop having that in the back of our minds, my friends… You can order the CD on the band’s website for 7€ (Germany) / 10€ (worldwide). There you will also find some samples to listen to. And if you like their style you can even join them as their drummer for I have heard they are looking for one. But please check first, if you are able to play that good! www.islandband.de