The Prague-based gothic rock band Cathedral In Flames presents their new single, “Release The Pain”. The track is a ballad about the contemporary unlearning of the perception of death and pain through social media.

Vocalist, Phil Lee Fall says, “When the song was written, I was having a pretty bad time. I was taking long night walks through old Prague and I realized that all the people I meet are going to die sooner or later.” And Gatsby adds: “Release The Pain” is a catharsis for our whole band. For me, there is so much emotion in this song that if it doesn’t knock you on your back, nothing will.”

The band debuted in 2019 with the EP “Children Of The Blackest Hole”. The band consists of two key members which are vocalist Phil Lee Fall and songwriter/musician Gatsby. They are joined by singer Ambra von Bernstein and guitarists Billac deVille and Mr Theorodick.

“Release The Pain” is available now on all major digital platforms.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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(Photo by Michael C Madsen) On May 12th, Danish ambient composer Christian Balvig is set to release his debut solo album “Night Poem”. The album is an ode to and from the night, a rebellion against constant stimuli, and a meticulous hunt for ghost notes and the almost imperceptible sound of piano keys. Today he has shared the first single to be taken from the album, “Where All Is”.

Christian Balvig is known for his work scoring the hit Scandinavian drama series “Cry Wolf (Walter Presents)” as well as his work with Danish band Efterklang, renowned orchestras like The Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic and The Danish Chamber Orchestra. This will be his first album as a solo artist.

Of his new single, Balvig says: “The track is based on a live recording from my family cabin, recorded on my fathers childhood piano. It’s circling around the fact that every object has a hidden history that might be of equal importance as the condition or appearance of that same object. The piano is far from mint condition and has lived a long life, but still, it is one of my absolute favourite instruments to play, cause I feel so connected to its hidden history. Later I added the universe of synths and choirs. ‘Where All Is’ is placed as the ending track on the record Night Poem, with a hint of sunrise at the end of a long night of stories and dreams.”

Balvig had been commissioned to compose a work for a string sextet in response to Schönberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”. That in turn became a night concert, the live recording of which was some of the first material the composer brought to the summerhouse where he continued to rework it.

“I spent a lot of time awake in the nighttime, playing on top of those recordings,” he explains. As a result “In The Night” is made up primarily of live recordings from that night. Here’s a first track, “Where All Is”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Out now via Warsaw Recordings / AWAL is the new Helax EP, “But it wasn´t a dream. It was real”, a 6-track dark ambient release recorded in Autumn/Winter this year in a studio in Berlin.

Coming from Uppsala. Sweden but based in Berlin, Helax is the brainchild of the Swedish producer John Alexander Ericson who’s behind the dream-pop duo The Ghost Of Helags.

Most tracks on the EP (like “Lichtenberg” and “A Place With No Memory”) were written and perfected on long night drives on the Autobahn on the outskirts of Berlin. Going back and forth between various mixes. The lead up single “We Are Only Light” released on May 7 holds sampled horns and analogue arpeggios built around a lofi blues vocal sung by Australian singer Carrol.

Check the EP out below.

Here is the video for “We Are Only Light”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Genre/Influences: Dark-rock, goth-rock.

Background/Info: Norwegian formation Long Night has already been active for a few years now. There was a first work released in 2016, but “Barren Land” is the band’s official debut album featuring nine songs.

Content: Long Night is clearly driven by dark-rock music, but also by 80s cold-wave influences and other more psychedelic-rock music. I sometimes get the impression of hearing an offspring between The Cult and Pink Floyd. The guitar playing is a very important element from the album and especially because it injects a truly spirit in the songs.

+ + + : The guitar parts have something elevating, even transcendental. The song “Black River” is a fully accomplished dark song with such a great hypnotic feeling. It’s maybe somewhat different from the other songs, but it’s a brilliant composition. Long Night also reflects such an impressive maturity in the songwriting. The songs are well crafted and all influences together create an efficient and homogenous result. There also is a noticeable psychedelic touch emerging from some songs, which will definitely please guitar freaks.  Last, but not least I also want to say a word about the great artwork (digipak) of the album.

– – – : From a very personal point of view I would have liked to hear more darker influences running through the songs or to hear more songs in the style of “Black River”. The title track is definitely not my favorite one, being maybe too psychedelic-like.

Conclusion: “Barren Land” is a delicious crossover between different influences resulting in something personal and promising.

Best songs: “Black River”, “It’s All Gone”, “The Rain Still Falls”, “The Night’s Ablaze”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: https://longnight.no / www.facebook.com/Long.Night.Tau

Label: www.facebook.com/SwissDarkNights

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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