Borgne - Entraves de l'Ame

Butcher - Welcome to the Night

Dalriada - Igeret

Dawn Of Decline - Kingdom of Madness

Declaration Holocaust - Promo 2010

Exciter - Death Machine

Falkenbach - Tiurida

Fester - Winter of Sin (reissue)

File Of Ghosts - Grey Metal

Bands: ABUSIVENESS / SALTUS

Country: Poland

Title: Nowa Era 

Label: Morbid Winter

Year: 2010

Style: Pagan Black Death Metal

Review:

That was a „question of time”, Abusiveness from Lublin and Saltus from Warsaw are the pagan metal brothers... „Nowa Era” /”The New Era”/ is just a very good, technical death metal split with heathen lyrics. Abusiveness first – four atmospheric and technical black/death with very pathetic anthems about old, pre-chiristian times in pre-Poland and tribute and glory for slavic ancestors. Suprpise is a cover of Kreator „Under the Guillotine” in own version, as blackmetal with atmospheric flow influences. Next five track is Salus, very good, technical pagan-deathmetal sounds, without NS influences, with very good growl and melodic parts... In my opinion this split is a essence of Polish real pagan metal. This is not proggressive music but very technical and, in two simply words: good job! I very often listen to „Nowa Era”, short longplay, but kick ass !!! Cover of this CD is very interesting too, It’s a stylisation to old maps and folklore arts taken from the Polish Mountains. Good idea!

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 9/10

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Band: ACKROS

Country: Belgium

Title: The Multiverse

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2008

Style: Technical Thrash Death Metal

Review:

Ackros is Belgian band founded in 1991 as Scatophagus, a name that lasted until 1995 when they decided to go ahead with the actual name. As Ackros these guys released 1 demo in 2005, this debut album in 2008 and a new promo, recently, which I'm going to review right after I give this album a few spins. 

"The Multiverse" is an 11 tracks effort lasting for 40 minutes. I had to admit the first part of this album wasn't so attractive for my tastes, but I realized it grows on you while keep listening to it, and that doesn't mean the second part changes genre or type of playing in any way, it just means it's composed in an intelligent way, it won't let you get bored and makes you interested in what's next track by track. Ackros is one of those Thrash Death Metal bands that prefer to build their compositions around the guitar work. Indeed, the guitar work is the most important in their music and it really goes well, and supported by a tight rhythm section and by a vocalist, Serge, also vocalist for the Grindcore well-known band Leng Tch'e, who's not affraid to vary it lines from hoarse, almost growled (but comprehensive) vocals, to screams and clean vox, it makes the impression after listening to their album a good one, like you're listening to a mature band who's not quite there yet, but has a very good potential. I especially like the fact they have added even some Power Crossover influences here and there and that although the album is selfreleased if looks and sounds very professional. My only bad comment would be on the drum sound that sometimes is a bit too synthetic. Interesting album, can't wait to listen to their 2010 promo.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: ACKROS

Country: Belgium

Title: Promo 2010

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Technical Death Metal

Review:

First impression after reviewing Ackros' 2008 album and playing the first track on this promo is that there's a loss in volume and the sound is a bit more stuffed, the mastering could have been better... There are 4 new tracks here in a total of 17 minutes. The music has a more aggressive approace, sounds more brutal, but there's also an increase on the technical side of the band, all the instruments are giving their best here and it really sounds good, very catchy and interesting. Melodic Technical Death Metal would be the right definition for what Ackros has become on this promo CD. I like the fact they decided to add more guitar solos and also give the bass a more important role in the whole music. the drums are more organic this time, but still I can't get over the loss in sound quality, I only hope this will improve on the next release, this music deserves excellent sound.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: ALBATROSS

Country: India

Title: Dinner is You

Label: Demonstealer Records

Year: 2010

Style: Horror Metal

Review:

You can find out more about this band and its activity so far from the Blitz Quitz interview they answered for Pest Webzine so i will pass on straight to the music on this EP. They name their style as Horror Metal, but dissecting their music a bit we're down to a Heavy Power Metal with strong theatrical influences from King Diamond. The compositions are good and the execution flawless showing us this band has pretty talented musicians, but what I like the most is that they have managed to keep the whole 24 minutes of playing interesting until the end. this is nothing to blow you away, but it is not something to get you bored either, and considering this is their debut release I can only asume we'll get some pretty rad surprises from Albatross in the near future. My personal fave elements from their music: the guitar solos and the complex vocal lines. I hope they'll add more keys to their next works just to enhance the horrorish atmosphere they try to create.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: AMBER TEARS

Country: Russia

Title: The Key to December

Label: Bad Mood Man

Year: 2010

Style: Pagan Doom Metal

Review:

New release from the so productive Russian label BadMoodMan. Amber Tears presenting us here their second full-length, an 8 tracks release lasting for a bit over 40 minutes. The band plays basically an epic Doom Metal, but there are important elements from other genres as well, like Folk Metal and Death Metal, and that give this album more variety. Melancholic, a bit depressive at times, and melodic all over, "The Key to December" is offered with a crystal clear sound, professional production and most important, a perfect instrumental execution. A really powerful album unveiling a new strong name from the Russian Doom Metal scene (Russians seem to overwhelm the World Doom Metal step by step lately). The only complaint I have about this release is that it is all Russian written and although the booklet is nice and all, contains all the lyrics, I can't do anything with it except looking at the nice pictures like a little baby, haha. At least if there were any naked chicks on it... Kidding apart, if you're into Epic Doom Metal don't miss this album, it's a very good one.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: ANTROPOFAGO

Country: France

Title: Beyond Phobia

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Readers of Pest Webzine should already be familiar with this band, they have introduced themselves in a Blitz Quitz interview last year. Now it's time for me to review their debut CD, released this month by themselves. Antropofago seems a pretty hard-working band since none of the tracks from this album are being featured on their 2010 demo. "Beyond Phobia" is composed of 12 tracks and has a total running time of almost 40 minutes. What we get here is a slam of fast and brutal Death Metal orientated towards the Technical path. Unlike other bands they seem to bet mostly on their rhythm section and here I mean they involved a lot the bass and drums, so much that those are the first elements of their music that hit your interest. Lots and lots of guitar riffs, plus the very good vocal part are a good addition to the overall dark atmosphere, but I think the guitars are a bit too low tuned, a thing to correct on next releases. All in all the band shows an impressive appetite for intricate compositions so from this point of view "beyond Phobia" is a winner presenting a solid, determined band.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: ARRANGED CHAOS

Country: Germany

Title: As Time goes by...

Label: Painkiller Records

Year: 2010

Style: Deathcore

Review:

Deathcore is not really what I would usually feature in Pest Webzine, and hopefully I won't have too many of such releases to review, not because I hate them or something, just because I don't follow that much this Metalcore / Deathcore scene so I have no idea what's the standard nowadays.

Arranged Chaos is actually a combination of Deathcore with Technical Death Metal with a fantastic guitar work. This album has a piano intro that really made me wonder if this is the correct CD I have, it's like the opening to a Gothic Metal release. But then it all becomes normal, a crushing display of intricate guitars, mid-paced to fast and extremely fast rhythms with two vocals, one growling and the other one screaming like hell, supported by clean vox here and there. Actually I kinda liked the screaming vocals which are not as disturbing and annoying as most of such bands have, and fit quite well in the whole album. The sound is good to a point where it becomes too crowded and quite messy. Still, the best part on this release are the guitars, these guys really know how to create some devastating riffs, worth listening. Too modern for my taste, but if you're into this genre give it a try, this is a good band.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: AVENGER

Country: Czech Republic

Title: Feast of Anger / Joy of Despair

Label: Grom Records / Deathgasm Records

Year: 2009

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Avenger, baby! Yeah, my all-times favourite band from the Czech Republic! I should have reviewed this album before as I have received some time ago, my fault, I kept on listening and listening to it as far as now I almost know it by heart. 

4th studio album for this respected combo, and most probably their best work to date, "Feast of Anger/Joy of Despair" is a slam of Avenger's well known vicious but still melodic Black Death Metal and so far the heaviest and darkest of their releases. Avenger got even better on songwritting, the tracks listed on this album are each and every one masterpieces of the genre, there's so much going on that it's impossible to get bored. Avenger have their own approach on Black Death Metal, their own style, they have outclassed themselved on this album, a real gem. No more words, get it!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 10/10

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Band: BABY BASHER

Country: USA

Title: Bound For Torture, Beaten Into Submission

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Death Gore Grind

Review:

It doesn't happen every day I get a professional looking CD from a Porn Gore Grind band, most of the ones in this genre I usually review are released as free download only. My luck is I have a quite good band here, yeey. Baby Basher is a real band, with complete line-up (trio), so I hope they do play live as well. Anyway, this demo is a 15 tracks effort lasting for almost half an hour, not your usual "one riff, two screams, done!" band. They do actually built their music skillfully with lots of Brutal Death Grind riffs, powerful and very present bass lines, ultra-fast but not monotonous machine drums, and all of it combined with the right amount of intros not to bore the hell out of you. Paulo from Copremesis and Brian from Saprogenic appear as guests on this release. I would always prefer this type of serious, brutal Gore Grind to any other room project just mocking this style. If you're into this type of music, go for it, you won't be disapointed by Baby Basher.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: BORGNE

Country: Switzerland

Title: Entraves de l'Ame

Label: Sepulchral Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

Borgne is a Swiss one-man band started back in 1998, so a pretty experienced name in the genre. This is the fourth full-length album released by Borgne, and the second on Sepulchral Productions. Already a known name in the underground Black Metal field, Borgne benefits on this latest release by the help of Xastur's Malefic and Vinterriket's CZ's help on keyboards. Since this is my first encounter with this band its music is, of course, all new to me, so let's start by saying that Borgne dwells in the Ambient Black Metal fields surrounded by a deep cold and horror atmosphere, and atmosphere that by itself makes this album worth your money. So yes, the keyboard part is extremely good and suggestive, and the guitar parts are not inferior as well, the only problem is when it comes to the drums sound, the bass drumming is extremely annoying and sound totally unprofessional. Not that the rest has a professional sound, but the bass drum is really annoying. The sound, since we are talking about it, is raw, unpolished and a bit too stuffed, but it doesn't take away the dark, sinister atmosphere that Borgne manages to create. The Black Metal part is good, fast and evil like it should be, not boring at all. so combined with the keys it gives a strong album for the underground scene.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: BUTCHER

Country: USA

Title: Welcome to the Night

Label: Inferno Records

Year: 2010

Style: Heavy Metal

Review:

Butcher is a US band founded in 1982 as Coven. Their actual monicker was adopted in 1991 and with this label they have released 2 full-length albums. This is my first encounter with Butcher's music and I have to admit I like it a lot. "Welcome to the Night" is a 14 tracks release lasting for almost 60 minutes. With the benefit of one of the yummiest metal covers I've seen, this album has a powerful impact from the starters. There are actually 26 tracks on the album, but almost half of them are bits and cuts from radio shows and commercials which I don't like. They say this is a story and must be taken as one, I can understand and accept that but I simply don't like the way it is "narrated". Plain and simple. the music, on the other hand, is great, containing different periods of Butcher's history, it is very complex, extremely catchy and diversified so that any and all Heavy Metal maniacs can find something to fit their taste inhere. "Welcome to the Night" is raw, varied, technical and at the same time simple and effective, headbanging-friendly, vicious, melodic and organic sounding. Old-School Metal followers should get familiarized with this name.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: DALRIADA

Country: Hungary

Title: Ígéret 

Label: AFM Records

Year: 2011

Style: Folk Metal

Review:

New Dalriada’s album kicked me very positive :) I’ve known this band a few years ago and I like Dalriada because they play real folkmetal. They are from Hungary and singing hungarian and they has a very good and very pretty singress Binder Laura (he, he ;) ). „Ígéret” („Promise”) is, in my opinion, the most folkish album of this very good hungarian band. At the begining of „Ígéret” we hear an interesting intro based on traditional Hungarian folklore. Next  track, „Hajdútánc” is the most growling and heaviest on this album but it’s a perfect combination between folk and melodic metal. Binder Laura tries growl voice and normal vocal, based on characteristic of Hungarian women folklore’s voice sounds. „Hajdútánc” is a promo-track of this album and it’s a good decision. Next tracks are more melodic than „Hajdútánc”, as likes as a mix of Korpiklaani (but with Hungarian folk pieces; one track „Leszek A Hold” was recorded  in colaborarion wih Korpiklaani’s member Jonne Järvelä) and old Nightwish. However „Ígéret” is a really great album in my opinion, this is true folkmetal (not TRV, just normal true ;) ) with authentic folklore’s elements and rhytmes. I love it !!! And I heard some  music quotations taken from the greatest hungarian rock bands from 70th: Omega and Locomotiv GT, that’s good!

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 9/10

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Band: DAWN OF DECLINE

Country: France

Title: Kingdom of Madness

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Having released their debut EP and only release so far I thought Dawn Of Decline is a new band, but actually they are not that young, they have been around since 2004. As I said "Kingdom of Madness" is their debut EP presenting us a band that walks on brutal and technical Death Metal paths. France has a really strong underground Death Metal movement and I had the chance to review some very promising names from there. Dawn Of Decline is the same case, very promising, very talented band. "Kingdom of Madness" is a 4 tracks release lasting for 18 minutes. What we get here is: dual layered vocals, both growling, very technical guitar riffs and leads, brutal as hell rhythm section and tight compositions. Nothing to complain about, recommended EP.

Reviewed by Adrian

rating: 9/10

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Band: DECLARATION HOLOCAUST

Country: Greece

Title: Promo 2010

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Declaration Holocaust is a two men band from Greece devoted to Black Metal. This Promo CD contains 2 devastating tracks with quite a raw sound, expressing absolute aggression. Greece always had a great Black Metal scene and Declaration Holocaust is no band to be ashamed with, too, if only the mastering of the whole music inhere would have been better. Their tracks are cold, aggressive and vicious as all bands like this should be, but they tend to repeat the riffs a bit too much for my taste, and that maybe with the idea to create a darker atmosphere. I would need a better recording and more tracks to fully understand and get the whole idea behind Declaration Holocaust, but in the meantime I guess you can find these 2 tracks on the net so you can make yourselves an opinion.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

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Band: EXCITER

Country: Canada

Title: Death Machine

Label: Massacre Records

Year: 2010

Style: Heavy Metal

Review:

Canada's own Heavy Metal legend EXCITER is back with a new release, "Death Machine", a 9 tracks effort that continues their already 32 (last year) years of existence, that should be impressive for anyone and these brave soldiers should deserve all our support. Their music have never been an easy listening (to be read commercial), and maybe that's because they have never followed trends and always kept their own way of making things. "Death Machine" isn't the best Heavy metal album out there, but it certainly brings back some memories of the good old '80's HM movement. Speed Metal influenced, the Heavy Metal presented here is catchy to a point where it becomes a bit dull because it brings nothing new on the table and also because the sound isn't the best around either. 

An album recommended to their die hard fans only.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: FESTER

Country: Norway

Title: Winter of Sin (reissue)

Label: Abyss Records

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

When you hear Black Death Metal you think of very extreme, brutal music, but what I have here is released first in 1992 so it's not that brutal for nowadays standards. For those years I'm sure this album was a pretty scarry release, especially for the vocal part that's great to date. So this is a release dedicated to old-school Black and Death Metal followers, especially for those who were around when this was first released by No Fashion Records because at that time this album was fairly well rated. The sound is raw, unpolished but it's a good one, though, the band manages to create a sinister, gloomy atmosphere without using keys or other additions, there are some catchy guitar solos, but the rest is pretty liniar for what's up Today, and I refer here to what Old-School Extreme Metal bands are playing not to some core shit. Anyways, if you want your metal raw and dirty, easy listening, Fester would be a good choice.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: FILE OF GHOSTS

Country: Finland

Title: Grey Metal

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Sami from Finland is back with a new File Of Ghosts release, it seems he's developing a real habit of releasing new stuff every year, and that's good, not so often but not so rare also. "Grey Metal" contains 7 tracks totalizing a good 35 minutes of playing. Being a solo project of course Sami does all the instruments and vocal parts, but except for the drum machine (quite synthetic indeed) you would know this is a one man band. The music is quite experimental, thsi guy is not afraid of exploring different musical territories but still keeping his tone on the Death Black Metal fields. The compositions are catchy, displaying a desolate atmosphere and the main focus of their listeners will gather on the guitar work I guess as that is the most complex part of File Of Ghosts. The sound is raw and quite primitive but combined with the Industrial-like vocal sound gives the impression of an apocalyptic overall atmosphere. To sum it up, after listening to all three File Of Ghosts' releases I can say Sami is improving as a composer and also as a guitar player, we'll see if he decides to continue using the same recording sound in the future as well or switch to a more professional studio. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FRIGHT NIGHT

Country: Russia

Title: The Play of Pain

Label: Jetnoise Records

Year: 2010

Style: Gothic Rock

Review:

Fright Night is a young Russian quintet made of 3 guys on vocals, drums and bass and 2 girls taking care of guitars and keys. I have here their debut album, a 10 tracks effort lasting for 1 hour of a quite depressive form of Gothic Rock with massive touches of Theatrical / Darkwave and Progressive elements all over. The music is mostly calm and meditative, but it has its energetic parts as well. The best parts in their music are for sure Alexey's deep and sombre vocals, perfect for this kind of music, and the keyboard parts which although used as backgrounds only drive the whole music after them. The music is very interesting, with many rhythm changes and the instruments although they seem to go in totally different directions they still find a common point in the end. I would give this album a maximum rating for the compositions, simply brilliant. The only problem on this band, as I see it, is the fact that Marianna plays both guitars and female vocals, and since she is the only one in the band filling the first instrument (in these cases usually there are 2 guitarists), I guess it's quite hard for her to concentrate on both. Her guitar playing is great, very melodic and inspired, but I cannot say the same for her vocal parts, I don't think her Russian accent will be welcomed open arms by Americans and Europeans. I would have liked a bit more of her guitar solos.

To sum it up, we have here a very, very interesting debut album recommended to all of you into Gothic, Darkwave, or other melodic genres like these. If they keep working on it, Fright Night will be a new star of the Russian (and not only) Gothic scene.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: GARDEN OF GRIEF / NIGHTFOREST

Country: Austria / Austria

Title: Split

Label: Der Neue Weg

Year: 2010

Style: Ambient Black Metal / Ambient Black Metal

Review:

This is a split CD between two Austrian bands released in limited edition of only 100 copies. It contains only one track of each of the two bands, but the tracks are so long that the total timing of this release is more than 1 hour. Actually the two tracks are made of more elements, but bounded togehter like it's a whole, or at least I do only have them named as "The Eternal Path of Sorrow" from Garden of Grief and "Where Rain and Thunder Reign".

Garden Of Grief's part starts very interesting with an ambiental part that flows like a story, and from what I understand this is about a village attacked by a dragon, but I may be way off track. This part lasts for about 7 minutes and it's followed by mid-paced to fast rhythmed brutal Black Metal with good guitar riffs and solos, complex drums (better than expected) and Black Metal shrieks. It has a raw, not so good sound, but the music is good as hell, I can see a good future for this project in the underground Black Metal scene. Surprinsingly good Old-School Black Metal with dark atmosphere surrounding it. Recommended! I for sure will bookmark this name.

Nightforest's part on this split starts off with aggressive Black Metal, but unfortunately is not nearly as good as GoG's part. The guitar riffs they use for the first 5 minutes are so repetitive and boring that I have to skip this part, sorry but it's very uninspired. On Nightforest's part the "track" is clearly divided in multiple parts so I guess they took some songs, sticked them together and named them as one. Unfortunately (again) what follows is in the same category of simple guitar riffs repeating over and over until they become boring and ruin all the atmosphere that could have been created if they lasted for less. They are trying, indeed some variations, but with no success... As this is their first release they cannot be blamed, but I hope they will improve for their next efforts.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10 5/10

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Band: HELL LIGHT

Country: Brazil

Title: ...and then the Light of Consciousness became Hell...

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Funeral Doom Death

Review:

I think this is the first Brazilian Doom Metal band I review, those lands are more knowned for their Thrash and Death Metal bands, not for Doom, but I'm really glad I got this one. This is Hell Light's third album since their foundation back in 2001, and I can say it is a very good one, very intense and able to create an atmosphere that makes you feel like you're crushed with a ton of grief. If you take your time and listen carefully to the music inhere you'll find it very catchy and skillfully built: crushing, low-tuned guitars, atmospheric keyboard backgrounds, occasional piano additions, some fantastic, long guitar solos, both growling, depressive vocals and clean vocals a la Quorthon that make this album quite unique especially for Bathory fans (sic!), simple slow drums, basically that's what you'll find on "...and then". Speaking for me, this is most probably my fave Funeral Doom Metal album, or at least the one that captured my interest the most. I hope on their next album they'll add more of those clean vocals variations and also more guitar solos and mid-tempo parts, I'm sure their music will remain as deep and oppressive as it is now, if not more that this.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: MORDAEHOTH

Country: Holland

Title: Eens Weer Prevaleert Het Heidens Hart

Label: Heidens Hart Records / New Era Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Pagan Metal

Review:

Mordaehoth is a one-man-band from Holland started long time ago, in 1995, a not so common thing for these types of projects, usually they are put to rest after a few years or if not, they have those so called hiatus periods until the guy behing the project decides if he wants to continue or not. Mordaehoth had such a period of 4 years, but it's not that bad since we're talking about a project that is around for 16 years already releasing multiple demos, splits and a full-length in 2003.

"Eens Weer Prevaleert Het Heidens Hart" is a 9 tracks album lasting for 50 minutes presenting us a combination of Old-School Black Metal with raw Pagan Metal. I have mixed feelings about it, on the one hand the album sounds unlike what we're used to these days, meaning is raw as hell but still manages to create and keep a good "forgotten times" atmosphere, and on the other hand it becomes too primitive at times and you can even feel the mistakes in execution, not to mention the mastering which is not the best around also. I would recommend it only to those of you into old-school Black Metal who can pass over or even enjoy this kind of mastering. The labels put a good effort in this product releasing it in luxuriant CD, vinyl and tape formats.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10

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Band: MORGUE

Country: Canada

Title: Flames and Blood

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Great surprise for me when listening to Morgue's debut album, this band is great, at least to my ears. :) 

Morgue was founded in 2007 and already released 1 demo and a DVD (!) before launching themselves into the undeground extreme metal scene with a full-length album. "Flames and Blood" is an 8 tracks effort lasting for 40 minutes of devastating but still groovy Blackened Death Metal with a hint of Thrash Metal on some tracks given by the guitar riff. Good sound, perfect, absolutely perfect (!) hoarse Black Metal vocals backed up by growls from time to time, frantic drumming, catchy guitar riffs and an overall atmosphere that feels like you're injected with a combination of adrenaline and horror. The melody is not forgotten as well, Morgue add the right amount of melody, a sinister melody indeed, but it gives the whole album more atmosphere. I like this release a lot, I'm glad I had the chance to review it, so I recommend it to all of you, too!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: MYRKVIDS DRAUMAR

Country: Ukraine

Title: My Land's Blood

Label: Vacula Prod.

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Myrkvids Draumar is a Ukrainian band founded in 2001. They have released 1 demo in 2004, and two albums, both on Vacula Prod., one in 2008 and this one, "My Land's Blood", last year. What we have here are 8 tracks lasting for a bit more than half an hour or mid-paced Melodic Black Death Metal, a very crowded territory, hard to break through. Their use of native language and epic atmosphere are a winning point, but the music is somehow static, without major highlights and hooks. The guitar leads and solos are also a very good addition, and the vocals are vicious as hell, too bad they are not more complex although on some parts there are some backing vocals as well, and also after listening to the whole album you feel like something is missing in their music. The atmosphere (not the music) remind me of Nokturnal Mortum, and not because they are from the same lands, but although I have no idea what they are singing about I'm pretty sure there's a strong Pagan influence in their ideology. A good release by a good band, but as I said earlier they have chosen a hard path, the mid-paced Black Death, not so easy to work your way up, so this will remain as a promise for the band, not a confirmation of their compositional skills. Try it yourselves.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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