#sorcerer — Public Fediverse posts

Sometimes a new band starts up and chooses a godawful name—like Illwind. I’m not just referring to associations with flatulence either—though that certainly doesn’t help. It’s just a difficult name to research, especially for a band with such a small web presence. Google will direct you to the Radiohead song, “Ill Wind,” or a 1960s psychedelic band from Boston called Ill Wind, among other surprisingly numerous use cases for the term “ill wind.” In fact, I began to have some doubts the band was real, but further research shows they do have a label (Personal Records) as well as a list of band members who have a history in Peruvian bands like Arcada, Argul, and Cobra.1 Having established this as a legitimate act with some experienced musicians, the final piece of the puzzle to solve is whether Illwind’s debut album, The Unfolding at the End of Light, is any good.

Illwind is a stoner doom outfit that creatively blends genres in some pretty groovy ways. Epic opener “Crimson Skies” gives you the first hint that things aren’t what they seem on the surface. After the song opens with the slow, plodding pace of funeral doom, vocalist Marcos Coifman’s baritone upends expectations by calling to mind the epic tones of Sorcerer and Visigoth. The funeral doom transforms into classic stoner doom with hints of Black Sabbath before ending on a series of elaborate guitar solos that have the spirit of ’70s rock acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the psychedelia of Pink Floyd and Blood Incantation. That The Unfolding at the End of Light ends on a cover by The Stooges, “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” tells us that Illwind doesn’t exactly have modernity in mind, and yet what they have crafted sounds fresh and sometimes exciting.

At heart, this is a work of stoner doom, with a plodding, relaxed pace and enough reverb on the guitar to give off the genre’s usual chill vibes. Illwind aims for exploration, falling securely in the school of Windhand, YOB, and Black Sabbath. They’re in no hurry, but they also don’t hold back the hooks. The guitars from Mauricio Guerrero hit all the right notes, providing distinctive stoner riffs from one song to another. And just when the tracks are about to hit their quota of stoner, he and fellow guitarist Andrés Rhor get creative with solos that transport you to another time and place like Bill and Ted stepping into a magic phone booth. It’s no hallucination if you see their solos come to life—they breathe and grow and take over a tune in a way that can be exhilarating.

How much you enjoy this depends on your level of tolerance of the stoner doom genre itself. Illwind are at their best when they go off the stoner script. The main issue is their stoner stuff can be a bit generic. This is especially true of some of the longer songs, like “God of Sleep” and the thirteen-minute “Lucifer’s Mule,” which grow repetitive. It works best in smaller doses: “Portal” and “Wanderer,” both around five minutes, provide the perfect amount of stoner riffs before breaking into the classic-sounding solos. Coifman’s voice, similarly, is good in doses, but over time his monotonous delivery adds to a feeling of stagnancy. Admittedly, though, when he opens up “Lucifer’s Mule” by singing “Tell me Lucifer” in his best impression of Ozzy, it’s a highlight of the record.

The Unfolding at the End of Light proves a good debut for a band whose members have experience in a mix of genres, from black metal to heavy metal to stoner doom. As innovative as Illwind proves to be in blending several old school genres, they’re not quite so innovative in their base genre of stoner doom. They write and play some good stuff, and with some refined songwriting, they could perfect their blend of genres or even give their stoner riffs a little more pizzazz. In the end, though, I think Illwind achieve success. This is a chill record with some outstanding moments that will have you stop and just say, “Whoa.”

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Personal Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 3rd 2026

Meet Zagrea Afxbis.

Six generations ago, a young Tiefling named Urxikas Afxbis was playing dice in a loud bar and caught another player cheating. He called it out. There was a scuffle. The scuffle became a brawl. The brawl became a full-room catastrophe -- everyone involved, furniture flying, chaos wall to wall.

Everyone except the Green Hag sitting alone in the far corner.

Urxikas got thrown across the room and landed near her. Scrambling up, he stepped on her pack. Something inside shattered. She screamed. The whole bar went quiet.

She walked up to him slowly. Got close. And in a voice barely above a whisper, she told him exactly what she thought of him and every red-blooded, tail-dragging devilspawn that would come after him. Then she blew a handful of sand in his eyes and walked out.

That was six Afxbisses ago. The curse has been passed down faithfully through every generation. Uncontrollable magic. Skin that changes color every time a spell fires -- bright green after poison, bright red after fire, eight colors counted so far, possibly more to come. The Afxbis line has learned, generation to generation, how to ride the magic, how to keep it from swallowing them whole. The skin, they never figured out.

Somehow, Zagrea is a happy guy. Charismatic, warm, a little prone to exaggeration when he's telling stories. He finds joy in most things. Most people like him immediately.

But spend enough time with him and you'll see it -- something behind the eyes. Something that doesn't quite rest. He keeps moving because standing still was never really an option. He wasn't welcome most places, growing up. So he kept walking, kept adventuring, and somewhere along the way started looking for something that resembles peace.

He hasn't found it yet. His powers are getting stronger by the day.

---

Zagrea Afxbis is a tall Tiefling Sorcerer with almost no muscle to speak of, wearing colorful striped overalls and a cape long enough to wrap himself in -- both striped vertically in white, red, vermillion, orange, amber, yellow, chartreuse, green, teal, blue, violet, purple, magenta, and black. He attacks from range and relies on his arcane knowledge when his spells don't cooperate. He can will his bare hands to strike like a club, dagger, or handaxe, and can summon a vibrant shield of light from his own arms when pressed. He is a lifelong adventurer, a walking folk legend, and arguably the most colorful person in the room -- sometimes literally.

#iTA #isThisAnything #DnD #TTRPG #Homebrew #CharacterIntro #Sorcerer #Tiefling

Flamekeeper – Flamekeeper Review

By Kenstrosity

Our mischievous promo handlers love to play mind games with us lowly writers, practicing to deceive us by teasing with unexpected genre combinations. Labels and bands do this equally as often. The reasons behind this trend are legion, I’m sure, but in every case it’s a double-edged sword. On one side, it grants us the privilege of discovering killer tunes we might not have otherwise considered. On the other, we occasionally encounter something that fails to deliver on the promise of something novel and unique. Italian/Swedish one-man trad/heavy newcomer Flamekeeper captured me with an alluring combo of power metal, heavy metal, and black metal tags. A genre-bending mind-fuck like that I could never resist, and so I snapped up their self-titled debut LP without hesitation. To my slight dismay, what I thought would be an exciting mashup turned out to be merely a mixed bag.

Believe it or not, we’ve covered Flamekeeper mastermind Marco S. before, under his blackened death metal project Demonomancy. It stands to reason, then, that Marco knows what black metal sounds like, but there is almost no trace of it in Flamekeeper. An occasional dalliance with quicker gallops verifies some measure of power metal heritage as well, but at the core this music is tailor-made for raising swords and pumping chests in the traditional way—think less Morgul Blade and more Manowar. Despite heavily accented vocals, Marco proves himself a competent singer for this style. His smooth, but understated baritone complements the simplistic but highly effective instrumentation behind him. His sense of rhythm—as displayed through his choice of beats, bass guitar work, and vocal cadence—elicits just the right kind of triumphant swagger to give each of these nine tomes respectable motivation. Somewhat predictably, and despite similarities to the music of trad metal legends on the surface, Flamekeeper can’t hold a candle torch to those classics, though it does an admirable job at steel worship nonetheless.

In fact, one of Flamekeeper’s greatest strengths is memorability despite its rather generic nature. Opener “New Wild World,” slightly awkward lyrics and all, emits an irresistible charm that allows it’s chorus to lodge in the grey matter. The unexpected recall to Shocking Blue’s “Venus” in the title track similarly secures its permanent installment in my memory. “Raise the Banner” features some of the album’s strongest percussion, leads, and riffwork, but Marco’s spitfire verse work steals the show instantly with its clarity and accuracy. The album’s true highlight, however, is penultimate track “As One with Light.” Using this opportunity to flex epic metal musculature, Flamekeeper soars in this track with highly effective vocal and guitar leads, thrashy power metal rhythms, and a killer chorus, resulting in an unqualified heavy metal triumph.

Regrettably, Flamekeeper’s approach is far too reserved to make the meteor impact I think Marco intended with this record. Epic metal requires a certain undeniable grandeur and sense of scale to complement traditional metal’s adventurous and eager spirit. Think about bands like Sorcerer and Manilla Road, who each set souls ablaze across the world. This phenomenon is no accident; deliberately gigantic sound, gutsy performances, and a seemingly limitless thirst for battle and victory define the style and inform the standard by which genre standouts earn their names. With Flamekeeper, a distinct lack of all three of these qualities leaves me almost totally unmoved, with the exceptions of “Raise the Banner” and “As One with Light.” These highlights alone awaken the red-blooded warrior that lives in me as it does in all of us, but even then, they don’t make that warrior feel powerful enough to take on whatever the world dares throw my way.

Instead of empowering and enlivening me as a listener, Flamekeeper leaves me terminally starving for more POWERS. While this debut is, for the most part, enjoyable on casual spins, it fails the mission statement of epic, traditional metal. In my mind, a record of this type needs to make me feel absolutely invincible, as a paragon of battle-hardened strength and fierce will. Flamekeeper, on the other hand, feels almost tentative, uncommitted to achieving ultimate victory at all costs. A fine proof of concept for Marco, but nothing greater at this time.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: facebook.com/flamekeeperofficial | flamekeeper.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: May 10th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Demonomancy #Flamekeeper #HeavyMetal #InvictusProductions #ManillaRoad #Manowar #May24 #MorgulBlade #Review #Reviews #ShockingBlue #Sorcerer #SwedishMetal #TradMetal #TraditionalMetal

Flamekeeper – Flamekeeper Review

By Kenstrosity

Our mischievous promo handlers love to play mind games with us lowly writers, practicing to deceive us by teasing with unexpected genre combinations. Labels and bands do this equally as often. The reasons behind this trend are legion, I’m sure, but in every case it’s a double-edged sword. On one side, it grants us the privilege of discovering killer tunes we might not have otherwise considered. On the other, we occasionally encounter something that fails to deliver on the promise of something novel and unique. Italian/Swedish one-man trad/heavy newcomer Flamekeeper captured me with an alluring combo of power metal, heavy metal, and black metal tags. A genre-bending mind-fuck like that I could never resist, and so I snapped up their self-titled debut LP without hesitation. To my slight dismay, what I thought would be an exciting mashup turned out to be merely a mixed bag.

Believe it or not, we’ve covered Flamekeeper mastermind Marco S. before, under his blackened death metal project Demonomancy. It stands to reason, then, that Marco knows what black metal sounds like, but there is almost no trace of it in Flamekeeper. An occasional dalliance with quicker gallops verifies some measure of power metal heritage as well, but at the core this music is tailor-made for raising swords and pumping chests in the traditional way—think less Morgul Blade and more Manowar. Despite heavily accented vocals, Marco proves himself a competent singer for this style. His smooth, but understated baritone complements the simplistic but highly effective instrumentation behind him. His sense of rhythm—as displayed through his choice of beats, bass guitar work, and vocal cadence—elicits just the right kind of triumphant swagger to give each of these nine tomes respectable motivation. Somewhat predictably, and despite similarities to the music of trad metal legends on the surface, Flamekeeper can’t hold a candle torch to those classics, though it does an admirable job at steel worship nonetheless.

In fact, one of Flamekeeper’s greatest strengths is memorability despite its rather generic nature. Opener “New Wild World,” slightly awkward lyrics and all, emits an irresistible charm that allows it’s chorus to lodge in the grey matter. The unexpected recall to Shocking Blue’s “Venus” in the title track similarly secures its permanent installment in my memory. “Raise the Banner” features some of the album’s strongest percussion, leads, and riffwork, but Marco’s spitfire verse work steals the show instantly with its clarity and accuracy. The album’s true highlight, however, is penultimate track “As One with Light.” Using this opportunity to flex epic metal musculature, Flamekeeper soars in this track with highly effective vocal and guitar leads, thrashy power metal rhythms, and a killer chorus, resulting in an unqualified heavy metal triumph.

Regrettably, Flamekeeper’s approach is far too reserved to make the meteor impact I think Marco intended with this record. Epic metal requires a certain undeniable grandeur and sense of scale to complement traditional metal’s adventurous and eager spirit. Think about bands like Sorcerer and Manilla Road, who each set souls ablaze across the world. This phenomenon is no accident; deliberately gigantic sound, gutsy performances, and a seemingly limitless thirst for battle and victory define the style and inform the standard by which genre standouts earn their names. With Flamekeeper, a distinct lack of all three of these qualities leaves me almost totally unmoved, with the exceptions of “Raise the Banner” and “As One with Light.” These highlights alone awaken the red-blooded warrior that lives in me as it does in all of us, but even then, they don’t make that warrior feel powerful enough to take on whatever the world dares throw my way.

Instead of empowering and enlivening me as a listener, Flamekeeper leaves me terminally starving for more POWERS. While this debut is, for the most part, enjoyable on casual spins, it fails the mission statement of epic, traditional metal. In my mind, a record of this type needs to make me feel absolutely invincible, as a paragon of battle-hardened strength and fierce will. Flamekeeper, on the other hand, feels almost tentative, uncommitted to achieving ultimate victory at all costs. A fine proof of concept for Marco, but nothing greater at this time.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: facebook.com/flamekeeperofficial | flamekeeper.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: May 10th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Demonomancy #Flamekeeper #HeavyMetal #InvictusProductions #ManillaRoad #Manowar #May24 #MorgulBlade #Review #Reviews #ShockingBlue #Sorcerer #SwedishMetal #TradMetal #TraditionalMetal

Flamekeeper – Flamekeeper Review

By Kenstrosity

Our mischievous promo handlers love to play mind games with us lowly writers, practicing to deceive us by teasing with unexpected genre combinations. Labels and bands do this equally as often. The reasons behind this trend are legion, I’m sure, but in every case it’s a double-edged sword. On one side, it grants us the privilege of discovering killer tunes we might not have otherwise considered. On the other, we occasionally encounter something that fails to deliver on the promise of something novel and unique. Italian/Swedish one-man trad/heavy newcomer Flamekeeper captured me with an alluring combo of power metal, heavy metal, and black metal tags. A genre-bending mind-fuck like that I could never resist, and so I snapped up their self-titled debut LP without hesitation. To my slight dismay, what I thought would be an exciting mashup turned out to be merely a mixed bag.

Believe it or not, we’ve covered Flamekeeper mastermind Marco S. before, under his blackened death metal project Demonomancy. It stands to reason, then, that Marco knows what black metal sounds like, but there is almost no trace of it in Flamekeeper. An occasional dalliance with quicker gallops verifies some measure of power metal heritage as well, but at the core this music is tailor-made for raising swords and pumping chests in the traditional way—think less Morgul Blade and more Manowar. Despite heavily accented vocals, Marco proves himself a competent singer for this style. His smooth, but understated baritone complements the simplistic but highly effective instrumentation behind him. His sense of rhythm—as displayed through his choice of beats, bass guitar work, and vocal cadence—elicits just the right kind of triumphant swagger to give each of these nine tomes respectable motivation. Somewhat predictably, and despite similarities to the music of trad metal legends on the surface, Flamekeeper can’t hold a candle torch to those classics, though it does an admirable job at steel worship nonetheless.

In fact, one of Flamekeeper’s greatest strengths is memorability despite its rather generic nature. Opener “New Wild World,” slightly awkward lyrics and all, emits an irresistible charm that allows it’s chorus to lodge in the grey matter. The unexpected recall to Shocking Blue’s “Venus” in the title track similarly secures its permanent installment in my memory. “Raise the Banner” features some of the album’s strongest percussion, leads, and riffwork, but Marco’s spitfire verse work steals the show instantly with its clarity and accuracy. The album’s true highlight, however, is penultimate track “As One with Light.” Using this opportunity to flex epic metal musculature, Flamekeeper soars in this track with highly effective vocal and guitar leads, thrashy power metal rhythms, and a killer chorus, resulting in an unqualified heavy metal triumph.

Regrettably, Flamekeeper’s approach is far too reserved to make the meteor impact I think Marco intended with this record. Epic metal requires a certain undeniable grandeur and sense of scale to complement traditional metal’s adventurous and eager spirit. Think about bands like Sorcerer and Manilla Road, who each set souls ablaze across the world. This phenomenon is no accident; deliberately gigantic sound, gutsy performances, and a seemingly limitless thirst for battle and victory define the style and inform the standard by which genre standouts earn their names. With Flamekeeper, a distinct lack of all three of these qualities leaves me almost totally unmoved, with the exceptions of “Raise the Banner” and “As One with Light.” These highlights alone awaken the red-blooded warrior that lives in me as it does in all of us, but even then, they don’t make that warrior feel powerful enough to take on whatever the world dares throw my way.

Instead of empowering and enlivening me as a listener, Flamekeeper leaves me terminally starving for more POWERS. While this debut is, for the most part, enjoyable on casual spins, it fails the mission statement of epic, traditional metal. In my mind, a record of this type needs to make me feel absolutely invincible, as a paragon of battle-hardened strength and fierce will. Flamekeeper, on the other hand, feels almost tentative, uncommitted to achieving ultimate victory at all costs. A fine proof of concept for Marco, but nothing greater at this time.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: facebook.com/flamekeeperofficial | flamekeeper.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: May 10th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Demonomancy #Flamekeeper #HeavyMetal #InvictusProductions #ManillaRoad #Manowar #May24 #MorgulBlade #Review #Reviews #ShockingBlue #Sorcerer #SwedishMetal #TradMetal #TraditionalMetal