Hello again everyone, recently I have presented a few vinyl records that I have added to my collection and now it's time for the CDs and soon the cassette tapes will come - all those that I have added to my collection. You might be asking, why am I doing this? Well, because the music needs to be recognized as the music of the soul - and not necessarily the music I'm presenting, but the metal music as a whole. Having said that, I'm also including rock music, because without rock music there wouldn't be metal music. I am no expert in music, just presenting my preferences.
I shall start (and continue) randomly - no particular order. First album to present comes from the band Dark Driven with their first album called From The Unbeliever. This is a new band - didn't know them before, and probably wouldn't know about them weren't I be following their label that are sending through email upcoming releases, and so I gave a listen to one track they had released.
The song that I listened to is Dressed Divine and liked it a lot and so... here I have their album in my possession.
Next album comes from the band Ereb Altor and their latest release Hälsingemörker. I just now remembered seeing the front sticker that it's the same label with the above band - I ordered those two albums together.
My connection with this band started with their previous album and I just won't overlook bands that I like, if I like their style and atmosphere, then I'll try to get their albums in my hands sooner or later. Also just remembered they appeared live here in Athens this year in a festival among other bands, but unfortunately didn't go and didn't see them live.
Moving on, next album is from the band In Flames and it's a live album that I didn't have and received from a good friend as a birthday gift. This live gig took place in 2000 and keeps me grounded to how this band sounded back then. Of course I have to consider that the band were younger and also bands keep growing and progressing musically and things don't just stay the same forever.
Next album is from the band At The Gates and their album At War With Reality. It was originally released in 2014 and it's the first album that I had listened to from this band. The self titled song conquered my interest and I had also bought it in cassette tape format. The shown cd version (along with the next album shown below) I bought it through a buy and sell group in facebook as second hand but very good in condition.
This album was released after a long hiatus of almost 20 years from the band and marked a strong come back from them. The sad new came in August this year that their fontman Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg
had been treated for adenoid cystic carcinoma, which was diagnosed in December 2023. This resulted in him having a big part of the roof of his mouth removed, followed by radiation therapy, and ongoing problems with finding some of the cancer remaining. This was revealed as the reason for the band's continued silence on activity and new album progress.
Later came the final rock
On 16 September 2025, David Isberg (formerly of Opeth) announced on Facebook that Lindberg had died from the disease earlier that day.
which made me realize a very true thing that we are very fragile even though we don't initially sense that.
Moving on to the next album we have the band Sentenced and their album Frozen that was released in 1998. I hold this band with this lineup dearly in my mind.
Next in line come a greek band Automaton and their album in greek ΤΑΛΩΣ = TALOS. They have released two full length albums, initially I didn't know them, but going to a live show to see a festival, if I remember correctly they appeared first and seeing them and listening to their music they won my attention and so I decided to go ahead and buy this album from them.
Talos was a mythical guardian of the island of Crete. He was gigantic, anthropomorphic, and had a body made of bronze. He is considered the first robot ever constructed or created from imagination.
It's worth mentioning that this concept goes back to the ancient years and it has been found depicted on Didrachm of Phaistos coin of the year 280 before Christ.
Next we have another greek band which are Kawir with their latest release so far under the greek title ΚΥΔΟΙΜΟΣ. The musical style they're playing is pagan black metal and in ancient Greek mythology, Kydoimos was a spirit who thrived in the frenzy of war and who personified the confusion and turmoil of battle.
I also have attended a live performance of theirs mid last year and recorded one of the tracks that belong to this album and can be watched
The spirit of the album revolves around the dark atmosphere of war.
Next album comes from the band Evergrey with their album Hymns For The Broken originally released in 2014. I got to know this band through a good friend with whom we used to talk about music and bands and so I listened to a track at the time this album came out and loved it, two albums later we attended a live gig and saw them live (and bought a vinyl record of their then newly released album with two members signing it) and much later I purchased this album going with another good friend to a shop.
Now reaching the end and leaving a couple of albums out - I have very recently placed another order and I'm waiting for it to arrive to me so I can present them together, last album to present here and now is from the band Shade Of Sorrow and "their" debut full length album under the title Upon The Fields Of Grief. It's an one man band and having released a few singles first and made his introduction to the world and then the full length album.
And here we've hit the bottom, I'm going to make another post of the remaining albums I have to present and then in a separate post the cassette albums I also have. Kind Regards for any attention this post gets and tata.