Band: ALIENANTE DAMNATION

Country: Belgium

Title: Le Chantre du Charnier

Label: Ars Funebris Records

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Well, the artwork alone (made by Mark Riddick) makes this album worth buying, but now let's see how about the music on it. This is the debut album of Aliennante Damnation, a one man band from Liege, Belgium, that according to Metal Archives was formed in 2010 and was already put on ice or even laid dead. Well, shit happens... The music is straight-forward rough, fast and brutal Black Metal, nothing more, nothing less, and except for the sheer and awesome brutality and a couple of tracks where the guitar riffs are very good (e.g. the 11th track), I wasn't impressed by much here. The sound is raw and unpolished but the mastering could have been better, especially on vocals. For a debut album (hopefully the info on Metal Archives is wrong) "Le Chantre du Charnier" might please the fans of fast and aggressive Black Metal with no compromises, but I guess many others will place this album in a "cult" category only for its bad-ass cover artwork...

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:

Band: AUROCH

Country: Canada

Title: From Forgotten Worlds

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Auroch is a Canadian band born in 2008, after a number of smaller releases (for example "Stranger Aeons Demo) they have recorded their first full-length album called "From Forgotten Worlds”. The album is formed of 8 songs and it is well produced, mixed and mastered with the right balance of sounds, so the listener can enjoy all the different shades. Auroch plays and old style death metal, I have no doubt about it, in fact, they show their influences with Morbid Angel, Death , Cannibal Corpse etc. , I have found even Suffocation in one song. I have appreciated the guitar player for his nice composition, solos and some melodic riffs that so easily come to mind. There is nothing original in this band but I am sure they are in the right path for a great evolution. I have found some parts too much monotone or obviously but it’s very complicated to find new things in this genre. By the way I think Auroch will not disappoint who like Death Metal without contamination especially if this kind of music is well played.

Reviewed by Rob Gore

Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:

Band: BALMOG

Country: Spain

Title: Testimony of the Abominable

Label: BlackSeed Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Balmog finally managed to release their debut full-length after almost 10 years of existence so I guess this album was quite welcomed by the Spanish Black Metal scene as the band has a powerful name in the underground from the demos, EPs and splits they have released so far. Their type of Black Metal is very brutal and putrid as an old corpse, it's not just fast-forward riffing, but they can also manage to create a cold, grotesque atmosphere and that's thanks to the great vocal performance. The instrumental part is very good as well, well built and executed so that you won't find any boring parts. If you're into this type of old-school, uncompromising, expressive Black Metal you shoudln't miss the debut album signed by Balmog, it's a real treat. Sick music for sick people.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

Contact:

Band: BEER BEAR

Country: Russia

Title: Beyond the Invisible Line

Label: SoundAge Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Folk Metal

Review:

First off let's start this review by praising this awesome digipack and booklet artwork, I think it has a strong connection with the band's lyrics but since I don't know Russian language I have no idea what are they singing about, it may be a concept story about a legendary bear from what I'm concerned. Musicwise I think this is the Russians' response to Finnish Humppaa Metal, I mean they are into happy, beer drinking friendly Metal with simple structures and highlights emphasized on "special" instruments as violins and accordion. They have a good potential in nowadasy Folk Metal scene, but more complexity on guitar lines structures and overal compositions is absolutely mandatory in case they want to break some boundariesOtherwise I really likes the violin and accordion parts and in regards to the vocal parts I liked the male clean vocals parts but I think the female parts need a bit more Russian Folk influences, that would really be great. As a conclusion this second album from Beer Bear is a good gift if you're into both Russian Folk Metal and Finnish Humppaa Metal, just imagine a combination of the two with a more Rock side rather than Metal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:

Band: CONTROSIGILLO

Country: Italy

Title: Controsigillo

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Progressive Thrash Metal

Review:

Although Controsigillo was formed back in 1999 this is the band's debut album. The self-titled and self-produced album contains 9 tracks in 45 minutes of Progressive Thrash Metal. I'm not sure why they chose to sing in English if the pronounciation is so Italian-like; even if the singer has English lyrics I still think he's singing in Italian, haha. Musicwise Controsigillo are tight as hell, their Progressive Thrash Metal reaches lots of elements and subgenres so that it never gets boring. The rhythms range from mid-tempo to fast, from groovy to aggressive, and from melodic to very technical, but the whole is a very mature result. Unfortunately this is not groundbreaking stuff, you'll find yourselves always asking where you're heard different parts before, but Progressive Metal fans will certainly be able to find a lot of elements to chew on. If you don't mind a voice that sound totally from another movie, the instrumental part is really worth checking, and also there are plenty of good rhythmed parts perfect for headbanging.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

Contact:

Band: DISEIM

Country: Latvia

Title: Holy Wrath

Label: Abyss Records

Year: 2012

Style: Stoner Doom Death Metal

Review:

It's not everyday I get to review a Latvian band, but this one hit the jackpot by signing with Abyss Records for their debut album so it must be something interesting. Diseim was formed in 2007 and 5 years after here they are with their debut album, an 8 tracks effort lasting for a bit more than half an hour. A combination of US style mid-tempo Death Metal with Stoner Doom elements (chuggy guitars and slow paced rhythms here and there), combination that at times gets too simplistic and empty sounding, and although the sound is pretty good, I feel the need for something else at times, the need for more brutal tunes. Diseim are getting pretty monotonous after a while and I would recommend this album only to Stoner Metallers that need a bit more aggression in their daily dose of Stoner Rock. That's it, not my cup of tea.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

Contact:

Band: DRIFT OF GENES

Country: Ukraine

Title: Excruciating Severe Laceration

Label: Eclectic Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Brutal Death Metal

Review:

You don't hear very often a Brutal Death Metal album opening with an acoustic guitar intro but strange enough it fits quite well on this full length, it's like the calm before the storm. Drift Of Genes is a new band from Ukraine formed as a one-man band but soon developed into a duo, formula that recorded this debut album. Now there are so many unprofessional and childish Brutal Death Metal bands around that it's hard to bet on one and say that it will go far, but I hope that's not the case here. The compositions sound curdled and varied enough not to bore the hell out of you and these 2 guys have the technical skills to compose memorable tunes. The instrumental part is very good although some parts sound a bit dry, and the vocals, altough this type of vocals bore me, are fitting pretty good with the whole. There's also enough groove and slam to compensate the loss of brutality in some parts of the album, so all in all if you're into Brutal Death there's a good chance you'll enjoy this band and find it quite interesting.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

Contact:

Band: EPITIMIA

Country: Russia

Title: Faces of Insanity

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

Year: 2012

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

I remember 2 years ago I have reviewed Epitimia's debut album but this is already their third full-length so the Russian trio seems pretty productive. And luckily enough in their case productive doesn't mean lack of quality, in fact this third album is much better than their debut, they have developed from a Depressive Black Metal with good potential to an almost mature Ambient Black Metal outfit with solid compositions. "Faces of Insanity"s main achievement in my opinion is the flow; the album flows so naturally you don't even notice when you reach its end, and we're talking about a more than 50 minutes in length album. After a couple of spins I can say they now have the potential to develop their music on Epic Black Metal grounds which would actually suit them well even though I don't understand their Russian written lyrics. Regarding sound, I'm not satisfied about the drums sound, but at least they are real drums; other than that it's a well recorded material, you won't have problems with it. All in all Epitimia shows real progress and this album will make your day if you're into Ambient, Melodic, Depressive, Epic or such types of Black Metal. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

Contact:

Band: FERAL / DESEKRATEWHORE

Country: Canada / Canada

Title: Equilibrium

Label: Poison Mist Propaganda

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal / Black Thrash Metal

Review:

A Canadian split between two bands that are basically the same since the two members of Feral also activate in Desekratewhore. 

Opening up this split is Feral, a not so inspired band name since there are a few other feral bands around, one of them recently signed with US based label Ibex Moon. Their 4 tracks are into obscure, raw Black Metal with a slight melancholic atmosphere given by the repetitive and quite melodic guitar leads. The recordings are primitive, rehearsal-like, with many mistakes in execution, so this would have been more suitable for a demo rather than a split CD. Feral has also some attempts of adding more brutal aspects to their music to a point where it almost gets Grindcore with blast beats not missing, but there are also some acoustic parts reminding me of the '90's trend of addings some acoustic parts to extreme metal releases to spice things up. I'd love to hear Feral recording in a proper studio and taking their time to do a professional job.

Desekratewhore has the same type of rehearsal-like sound, but the difference comes in style. The band is more old-school, more aggressive and energetic than Feral, but they add some melodic parts as well. If you get over the rough sound, the only problem in Desekratewhore might be the length of their tracks, one of them is almost 18 minutes long, way too long for a Black Thrash Metal track to keep its listeners' attention high. They have some good ideas, the guitar work is good, but repeating them too much gets boring after a while. These 4 tracks (totaling more than 35 minutes), split in multiple parts and recorded in a professional studio would have easily made up a full-length album. Both Feral and Desekratewhore display good potential in compositions and good technical skills for old-school metal, channelled right they could release some pretty powerful materials in the future.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10  7/10

Contact:

Band: FETO IN FETUS

Country: Poland

Title: Mortuary

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Death Grind Metal

Review:

This is funny! The new EP from Feto In Fetus is released in form of a business card CD so if you know how they looking like you can imagine how funny it is to get all this brutality and sickness from such a tiny CD (not that all this matters but I thought I should share it with you). 2 tracks totaling less than 4 minutes, a good way of promoting the band's name around. Feto In Fetus is a brutal Death Grind band displaying a correct execution, good technical skills, a bit of an opening for experiments but that's about all I got from this short EP. Tight compositions, brutal all the way, promising, so you might give them a chance, I hope they'll keep this style and won't slip into nowadays Deathcore fashion.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

Contact:

Band: FETUS STENCH

Country: Sweden

Title: Stillbirth

Label: Abyss Records

Year: 2012

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Debut album for this upcoming Swedish Death Metal act, Stillbirth is made of 9 tracks totalling almost 40 minutes of old-school type of Anerican Brutal Death Metal, so not the new hyper-blasting, hyper-speedy type of Brutal Death, and not the Swedish trademark type of Death Metal either. Fetus Stench alternate between mid-tempo and fast paced rhythms with a major emphasis on the fast parts. The drum work is the highlight of this band although they all do their thing pretty well and the overall impression on this debut album is a good one: tight riffs, good (but unfortunately only a few) guitar solos, great drumming, brutal spot-on vocals that although are not versatile at all are not boring either, good bass lines (although I would have liked a bit more volume on bass as it seems the guy playing it has talent). A 100% Death Metal album that will make your day and a young band with excellent potential, that's what Abyss has discovered in Sweden recently.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

Contact:

Band: FEUERSCHWANZ

Country: Germany

Title: Walhalligalli 

Label: FAME Recordings

Year: 2012

Style: Medieval Folk Metal

Review:

When I was listened to „Walhalligalli” first time, my things are: This is Helloween played as Tyr in medieval folkmetal style. That’s good of course – this album is melodic as powermetal, folkish as medieval-folk and including a lot of Music of the Middle Ages a Baroque motifs. This is still „German” music but devoid of pathos, „Walhalligalli” is rather music modeled on Corvus Corax and/or In Extremo sounds. Good drive, good male vocals, great material for gigs in clubs and openair metal and folk festivals. One of my favourite albums from 2012 in „folk” music field.

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8.5/10

Band: GEIST

Country: Israel

Title: Der Ungeist

Label: Total Rust Music

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Geist is a one man band from Israel and "Der Ungeist" is its debut album, although earlier this year there was another "Der Ungeist" release, a single prefacing this debut. After a couple of auditions I could say we're dealing here with a good project, although some tracks on this album are a bit longer than they should be and there's the risk of getting bored at times. "Der Ungeist" is made of 7 tracks totaling 35 minutes of fast, cold and catchy Black Metal suitable for both traditional Black Metallers and the newer generation of Depressive Black Metal followers. The vocals are versatile enough, the riffs are razor-sharp and the rhythm section sounds organic, so Ratimus, the man behind Geist, produced a good debut album and a good starting point to start building on. Even though there's no over-use of keybaords of additional effects, Geist was capable of creating some desolate, freezing atmospheres that I liked.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:

Band: GRISATRE

Country: France

Title: Esthaetique

Label: Dusktone

Year: 2012

Style: Depressive Black Metal

Review:

Grisatre is a one man band from France and this second full-length album is my first meeting with its music. At first I felt the sound is extremely bad, and I still think it's bad, but after a couple of spins it becomes quite normal, quite fit for what Rokkr (the man behind thsi project) is trying to express through his music. I'm only sorry that some instrumental parts are pretty hard to follow and fully understand because of this rough, unpolished sound. Grisatre's music is based on mid-tempo depressive rhythms and the whole music is trying to paint a desolate, solitary state of mind. To some extent it succeeds, and fans of Depressive Black Metal might love this opus, but speaking for myself I wasn't able to get into its music because of my frustration of not being able to hear all the elements clearly. Although the compositions might tend to get repetitive Grisatre comes up with rhythm changes or new elements just before it gets boring, so from this point of view we're dealing with a good release that reminded me of older Burzum. Still thsi sound... 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10

Contact:

Band: HAEMIC

Country: Taiwan

Title: Fields of Sanguine

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Symphonic Black Death Metal

Review:

You can feel something's special about this release right from its first seconds of playing. haemic seems to be an international project lead by Taiwanese guitarist Ray Heberer, and this is his way of displaying his technical abilities. Although it doesn't feel like a real band at all, and it doesn't sound like one, Haemic is a fantastic collage of superb technical skills. The problem is with the overall mix and result, it sounds like multiple bands mixed all together. the highlights of this album are the awesome atmospheric keyboards and synth parts, and the guitar leads and solos, and the weak parts are the monotonous vocals and the synthetic, shitty drums sound. Synthetic and symphonic Black Death Metal, that's how Haemic's style could be labelled as. The potential in this case is huge, but they need to work more on curdling their compositions before recording them. A very interesting find, try this album even only for listening to some well executed keyboard and guitar parts.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

Contact:

Band: HARPYIE

Country: Germany

Title: Blindflug

Label: Trollzorn Records/AFM

Year: 2012

Style: Medieval Folk Metal

Review:

Fresh blood of German medieval folkmetal stage! „Blindflug” is debut album including interesting mix of folkmetal, melodic thrash and heavymetal. Good drive of violin, a lot of parts was included to fast, powerfully tracks – and in effect music really kick ass !!! Some tracks are quite-symphonic, e.g. „Lunas Traum” and „Koenig Und Bettler”. Pipe and guitars in one metal way – this is really good idea, I love it !!! Just one small minus: not so good male vocal (Kiske from old Helloween and Campino from Die Toten Hosen were really better), but, as I wrote, instrumental parts are perfect !!! 

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8.5/10

Band: HASSERBEN / SEARING SKULL

Country: France / France

Title: De Vesontio Ad Argentoratum

Label: Atavism Records / D.U.K.E.

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal / Black Metal

Review:

I guess this is the first CD release of Atavism Records, so they are not dedicated 100% to tape productions, and that's good since they might release bands that would deserve more exposure, tape format is only for die-hard collectors though. The first band on this split is a full line-up act playing fast and quite epic Black Metal. The thin, primitive sound doesn't help them at all, but at least you can understand you're dealing with a band that has real potential. These guys are able to create some emotional pieces of Black Metal and still keep the brutality and aggressiveness intact. Fast Black Metal with epic mid-tempo insertions here and there, an excellent vocal and guitar work and drum lines that would have deserved a better production. Too keep an eye on, for sure. Searing Skull is a French duo founded back in 1997, and although their name is pretty unknown for me, they have managed to release a few demos, a split and a full-length album so far, so they might not be so unknown for the French underground Black Metal followers. Their Black Metal is much more aggressive, faster and more fat sounding. Some epic guitar leads are present in their music too, but the overall impression is of a Brutal old-school Black Metal band that's in to celebrate the initiators of this genre and doesn't care for experiments or innovation. Good stuff, better recording than Hasserben has, but the drum-machine tends to get really annoying at times, and you can easily loose focus. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10  7/10

Contact:

Band: KHEPHRA

Country: Italy

Title: Demo 1996

Label: Mortis Humanae Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

This demo was previously released by the band in 1996 titled "7 Note Studio", then released as an EP in 1998 by Lucretia Records International, being titled simply "Khephra", and now re-released by Mortis Humanae Prod. as "Demo 1996" on tape in limited edition of 100 copies. I guess the band has some sort of cult status in the Italian underground Black Metal scene since it was formed back in 1994, but for my shame I haven't heard of it until now. Kephra is traditional, raw Black Metal with quite good sound but also quite typical and overused rhythms and guitar riffs. It sounds good and quite convincing they are honest about it, but unfortunately there's nothing out of the ordinary, you've already heard the same riffs and rhythms over and over again, there's nothing special about this.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

Contact:

Band: JOHNSTON

Country: Germany

Title: Welcome to the Weaseldome

Label: Dead Master's Beat

Year: 2009

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Very strange name for a Death Metal band, but for Dead Master's Beat nothing can be strange or weird, I wouldn't expect less from this label. Johnston is a traditional Death Metal band from Bremen founded way back in 2000, and since releasing this debut album in 2009 they have released a new EP last year, in 2011, so this might not be as actual and accurate for the band at this moment. Anyway, this debut album is made of only 6 tracks lasting for a bit more than 30 minutes, a length more suitable for an EP... Their Death Metal is kind of '90's US style but they are also adding multiple touches such as grooves and slight progressive elements so we're not dealing with a copycat here. Johnston seems to be a pretty solid band, mature and well organized with a heavy dose of homour although keeping it brutal and menacing. Definitely not the typical traditional Death Metal band we're used to, so a band that deserves more attention. If you come across this album I suggest you don't miss it, there are so many interesting features on it you're hardly get bored.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

Contact:

Band: KILL

Country: Sweden

Title: Burning Blood

Label: BlackSeed Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

5 years after the release of their previous, third, full-length Kill are back with a new opus coposed of 8 tracks totaling almost 50 minutes. Black Metal is the name of the game here and Kill seem to be pretty much into the old-school (end of the '80's - beginings of the '90's) type of Black Metal, the dirty, unpolished but still well structured one. This raw assault of brutality is made by traditional instruments only but in spite of that there are some parts that work as a good addition to the overall somehow mystical ambient created by their music. At first sight Kill's tracks might seem pretty basic, but as the album progresses you discover quite a lot of diversity and above all a high honesty in what they are doing. Recommended for fans of "true" Black Metal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

Contact:

Band: KOSMOS

Country: France

Title: From Innocence to Perversity

Label: Mortis Humanae Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

With a name like Kosmos you'd think of an Ambient or at least an Atmospheric Metal band, but these French guys are far from that, they are playing quite traditional, extreme Black Metal. This is their debut album, and what I have here is a promo from Mortis Humanae that released it on tape in a limited edition of only 100 copies. The first part (side A) of this tape should be the 2012 full-length, and the second one (side B) should have their 2010 unreleased demo, "L'Antithese", but I only have the first part. Totaling 40 minutes, these 9 tracks are mostly fast Black Metal, raw, cold and direct, with a few weird, atonal parts suggesting the intention of this band to try something more than just traditional, typical Black Metal. Unfortunately I can't say I was impressed or catched by anything on this album, and that's most probably because I hate the vocals, I find them very annoying and not at all menacing or oppressive as they should be in such a genre. After a few tracks it all sounded too repetitive and uninteresting even if Kosmos tries multiple guitar rhythms, so I'll leave this for now. Try it if you're into weird, fast and brutal underground Black Metal, you might like it more than I did.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

Contact: