Artist: Atlantean Kodex
Country: Germany
Label: New Iron Age Records
Formats: CD
Year: 2007
Just after the split 12” with Vestal Claret (on Metal Coven Records, earlier in 2007) German epic metallers Atlantean Kodex comes up with something they decided to call “The Pnakotic Demos”. Though this can’t be seen as a demo CD as this was released by the not-too-old German label New Iron Age Records (owned by the bands’ vocalist and guitarist) and professionally pressed on a shiny silver disc.
Anyway, the music, which they christened as ‘regressive epic metal’, has got some terrifying resemblances with the loudest band on earth, Manowar. Yet, a lot rawer. The Manowar resemblance doesn’t stop with just a few of the same musical ingredients, even one of the original Manowar members joined in to play a guest part on the first song on this recording – none other than Ross “The Boss” Friedman. “The Pnakotic Demos” shows different sides of the band, both the more epic side (“From Shores Forsaken”) and the more up tempo heavy metal side (“Marching Homeward”), yet it might be clear that Atlantean Kodex are in no way reinventing the wheel (steel?) or trying to be original at all. In fact they are hailing the kings of heavy metal and this can be seen as a true homage to the genre. Listen, for instance, to “The White Ship” which has breathing Manowar all over it, consisting out of spoken word/acapella vocals over some howling winds – well, you can’t get it anymore Manowar than this. The last of this four-tracker is a partly re-recorded version of the song that was originally released on the aforementioned split LP with Vestal Claret, only the vocals are replaced with Markus Becker’s who replaces Phil Swanson (still to be heard on the split LP). Becker’s are not of a whole different mark, so it doesn’t result in sounding completely different, if you heard the split LP, you can rest assured.
