Welcome to the EvO:R Independent CD Reviews Section.
I would like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves to everyone. The EvO:R review section features reviews from various independent musicians that submit material for our consideration.

I wanted to let you know a little about our review teams collective thoughts on music. It's important to let the people that we review know how we think of their music and how we listened to their creations.

First of all, we strongly believe that if your music stinks then the world should know about it! After all, you have the nerve to charge as much for your stuff as the majors do so it better be pretty damn good. If your material is good, we'll be glad to tell the world. I We will hold nothing back! That is a promise.
The EvO:R CD Review Team

Wheel of Doom is a Japanese rock band, consisting of six members. They are Shinn on vocal, Mitsu on guitar, Tsuka on guitar, Numa on bass, Matsu on drums, and Sassa on the sampler. They describe their music as being both oriental and chaotic. Their first mini album "Ladiatia" includes six songs. It has been sold from "Four Tune Record", an original record label the band founded in early 2002. In the fall of 2002 they journeyed to the U.S to do a number of live shows, playing at Club Roxy and the Cat Club. -editorial from www.Wikipedia.com-

I have a bit of a dilemma here as I found some older discs that have either been passed over or lost among the shuffle. So I thought I would get to these right away. Unfortunately, this is the oldest one among my very large stack. The release date is 2002 and I can no longer find anything on the internet about these guys. They could be defunct, for all I know - which would be tragic. Needless to say I don’t have any other background on this record except for the above editorial.

Even though all the vocal work is done in Japanese and their hope for gaining a large American market was probably dashed because of it, these guys rock hard. Power exudes from the speakers, so hot and angry it could melt flesh.

There are keyboards sprinkled throughout some of the tunes which add some ocean like and ethereal backdrops for this crushing hammer. There is a good blend of melodic vocal work and (what I call) cookie monster screaming. After you are literally pummeled to death by songs like Zodiac, Border-Less, and Float you get a nice surprise. It’s a seven minute track called Into Your Voices –which is a round robin of sounds and bits of musique concrete. This track actually decompresses the nerves after the barrage of mallets and hot pokers. It’s quite an interesting concept. The production is near perfect for this type of music.

I would recommend Wheel of Doom – Ladialia to anyone who is a fan of Opeth, Avenged Sevenfold (pre City of Evil), and Pantera. Conclusion: Yet another great independent record. Unfortunately, these guys have no web presence and that is a shame. You may be able to find more info on these guys if you search in Japanese, which I’m going to do right after I finish this review. The fact that the vocals are not in English (or Spanish;-)takes them out of the American markets. Despite this huge obstacle, it’s another A+ record. Musical Terms (lesson 1)

I realized after proofing this review that I used a term that may be unfamiliar to a lot of readers. So I thought I could save them some time and clarify the term.

Musique concrète (French for "concrete music" or "real music") is a form of electro-acoustic music that utilizes acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical" (melody, harmony, rhythm, meter and so on). The theoretical underpinnings of the aesthetic were developed by Pierre Schaeffer, beginning in the late 1940s.
-taken from www.Wikipedia.com Musical Terms (lesson 2)
In the above definition there is another interesting term. Acousmatic Sound is a newer term taken from Acousma or Acousmata which is -a nonverbal auditory hallucination.

Jimmy Caterine...EvO:R Reviewer.

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About the reviewer- Jimmy Caterine has numerous album credits to his name. He is most noted as founder, guitarist and co-writer for 80’s metal quartet, Sacred Rite (Capitol Records.) He has worked with top name professionals in the industry. This would include Grammy Award winning producer Sonny Limbo (Bertie Higgins) and publishing coordinator Randall Wixen (Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Brown.)

Aside from his original projects he did a 3 month stint playing guitar for the live stage production of Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1987. He was the guitarist for MGM recording artist and power house vocalist, Sami Jo Cole (Tell Me a Lie) in 1995. He has also played with classic rock tribute act Time Machine, on the Las Vegas convention circuit in ’97 and ’98.

Following a car accident in 2001 Jimmy Caterine took a break from performing. He was reluctant to return to the stage due to PTSD. In the years that followed Jimmy took an inward journey to confront his own personal demons. While away he had to come to terms with the many changes in the music industry. During his hiatus he created and released two independent solo CD’s.

In 2007 Jimmy recorded and released a reunion CD with Sacred Rite. Currently Jimmy owns Soulaire Sound which is a mobile recording/live sound reinforcement company in Phoenix, AZ. He performs regularly with his organic jazz sextet, Dream Chemistry.

If you’d like to know more about Jimmy Caterine you can visit the following web sites: