Album review overview: Gavin Friday, Ellie Goulding and more

Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are too many to listen to, let alone review them. It ensures that too many albums are left behind. And that’s a shame. That is why we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors in short reviews today.

Photo (c) Jorge Fakhouri Filho

Kingcrown – Moonfall

Kingcrown is a French power metal band formed in 2018 by brothers Jo and David Amore, ex-members of the cult band Nightmare. In 2015, they started the project ‘Oblivion’ after their departure from Nightmare. After the first album “Resilience” (2018), the brothers decided to change the band name to Kingcrown, which better suited the music they were playing. Kingcrown’s musical style is rooted in European and especially German power metal. Kingcrown actually sounds more German than German. The band is inspired by bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Masterplan, and that is clearly audible. “Moonfall” is a good power metal album, with the only point of criticism being that it lacks originality. (Ad Keepers) (7/10) (Rockshots Records)

Emil de Waal Old News – Novelties

Clarinetist Elith ‘Nulle’ Nykjær passed away in 2023, and with that, the Danish group Old News lost a musician who left a heavy stamp on the band’s sound. It could have been the end of Old News. However, drummer Emil de Waal, also active in Kalaha, decided not to disband the group, but to keep going and take a new path. In Henriette Groth, a new clarinetist was found, with her own style and precisely because of that, once again defining the sound of Old News. Although “Novelties” suggests otherwise in its presentation, De Waal mostly plays in the background. With subtle drumming he does steer the pieces, but nowhere does he push himself forward. “Novelties” has thereby become a very different album from what we know from Old News. To start with, this album contains no covers, but only original compositions in which the group draws from various jazz genres. ‘Scrap Rag’ is the most “classically jazzy” track on the album. ‘I Am Nobody’ with vocals by guest singer Randi Laubek would not have been out of place on many a prog or art pop album. “Novelties” is a varied album, although much still revolves around the clarinet, which in itself is a nice tribute to Nykjær. Sometimes dreamily improvising, then playfully fluttering in a baroque-like theme as in the closer “Nuntii Veteres”, Latin for old news. But if “Novelties” is one thing not, it is old news. (Jeroen Mulder) (8/10) (April Records)

Apocælypse – Fænix

“Fænix” is the debut album of Ira Black, who is mainly known as the guitarist for bands like Vio-Lence and Metal Church. With Apocælypse, however, he taps into a completely different musical vein. Not only does he now sing as well, besides the fact that he plays guitar, but he also makes different music. The thrash metal has made way for modern metal in the style of Disturbed and Five Finger Death Punch. Not surprising when you know the names of the rhythm section. Bassist Matt Snell played in Five Finger Death Punch and drummer Lonny Pasillas previously earned his living with Kill Devil Hill and Deadsett. The line-up is completed by Ira’s son Ira Black IV, who, like Ira himself, plays guitar on “Fænix”. The album balances between classic thrash and modern groove metal. As a result, it is musically neither fish nor fowl, and both thrash fans and modern groove metal fans, as well as the undersigned, will not really know what to make of this debut album by Apocælypse. (Ad Keepers) (6/10) (Napalm Records)

Gavin Friday – Decadance, The Ecce Homo Orchestra Reworks

‘Behold the man’, or ‘Ecce Homo’, was Gavin Friday’s latest album from 2024. His album output is of a brief nature, but look: two years later, Friday actually comes out with an orchestral rework of the music from “Ecce Homo”. Even though the word ‘orchestral’ is far-fetched in this context. It is in fact a fully electronic album, on which reworks of a number of tracks from the original are forged together into one continuous electronic whole. The electronics function as an orchestra that welds the music together in a distinctly decadent style. The time of ‘Just a Penny for the Poor I Ask’ is now long behind him. However, Friday has always had a preference for electronic music, as his sparse solo albums also testify. On these reworks of “Ecce Homo”, those electronics get almost completely free reign. There will undoubtedly be enthusiasts for it, although others might drop out. Anyone who sits down for it for a moment, though, gradually discovers more and more layers, which slowly reveal themselves as the album progresses. Whether this release should stand completely on its own feet, or could just as well have appeared as a bonus CD with the original album, is up to the listener. Decadance it certainly is. (Bart van de Sande) (6/10) (BMG)

Ellie Goulding – I Know Too Much

With “I Know Too Much”, Ellie Goulding delivers her sixth studio album, the successor to 2023’s “Higher Than Heaven”. The British singer presents a record that oscillates between gospel-tinged pop music, as on opener ‘Black Prada Dress’, and subdued folk, audible in ‘Always Think Of You’. Thematically, the album revolves around self-deception and the painful truth behind failed relationships, something Goulding aptly expresses in ‘Misremember You’. Yet the execution regularly gets stuck in superficiality. Songs like ‘Jealousy’ and ‘Nobody Dances’ sound polished but hardly daring, and miss the sharpness that the lyrics promise. Producer Jack Rochon chooses breezy synths and tight electronic rhythms, which works out well on ‘For Your Entertainment’, but elsewhere creates a somewhat distant atmosphere. Closing track ‘Ravers’, Goulding’s first solo dance track, ought to give the album a clear perspective, but looks more like a standalone experiment than a logical follow-up to what preceded it. “I Know Too Much” shows an artist searching for a new direction, without fully finding it. Anyone who knows Goulding from her earlier work will mostly hear a cautious intermediate step here. (William Brown) (7/10) (Polydor)