You always remember your first review in a magazine. In my case this isn't my first review ever but it is the first review I'm writing for Metal Temple, so when I got this album to review I was really scared because ZAED were off my radar completely! So the first thing I did was canvas the web for digital footprints of the band and to my surprise I couldn't get much info from the web. Is it bad for the band or good? I've got to say that for ZAED it's really bad because you would like to think that a band that can create music like that will have a lot more hype surrounding it.

When I first saw the album cover I was surprised because it seemed like a band that had several oriental influence, however I was very surprised that when I started listening to the album I couldn't hear any oriental influence at all, never the less there are many other influences I recognized. In a nutshell: ZAED is from Norway so you can count on them having some influence from Norwegian bands such as GRAND MAGUS's early days .

In order to better review this ZAED album I listened to their previous album "I". Their first album seems more BLACK SABBATH influenced. In their new album "II: Kain's Mark" ZAED injected some more tempo, even Punk to their Stoner / Doom vibe and I got to tell you it's a great thing that they did. However don't except ZAED's album to be in the same caliber as BLACK SABBATH or GRAND MAGUS. This is not a masterpiece.

The album starts with "Devils Playground" probably the fastest tempo song around. The song incorporates nice riffs and great rhythms (to whom likes this genre) however it gives the impression that "II: Kain's Mark" is a classic Heavy Metal album, listening on asserts the feeling that overall the album is a fusion album of Heavy Metal, Stoner and even some Punk (yes Punk) as I mentioned before.

"The Salinas Jackpot" and "Fools Gold" are the only other high tempo songs, the rest of songs are Doom oriented. Yet, as I mentioned before they are not fully Doom or Stoner, ZAED brought to the mix some Punk influence that for me damaged the other songs on the album. Honorable mention can go to "The Shadow Man" that try and keep a simple stoner vibe and is really similar to GRAND MAGUS' "Iron Will" album style songs.

In overall ZAED's "II: Kain's Mark" is an ok album but no more. The production isn't bad nor it is good, riffs are neither bad nor amazing, vocals are neither nice nor impressive. ZAED still need to do some work on their lyrics writing and riffs; however it's only their second album so I do think that we will hear from them in the near future. For a Stoner / Heavy Metal fan this album can be a nice ride for other people influenced from other genres should pass this ride and wait for other rides.