A Winter Lost - Die längste Nacht
Absenth - Love Is Dead
Alastor - Demon Attack
Botulistum / Goll - Botulistum / Goll
Diabolus Sanctus - Voice of Satan
Lightless Moor - The Poem - Crying My Grief to a Feeble Dawn
Neoplasmah - Sidereal Passage
Paediatrician - Deformed Premature
Shallow Rivers - Nihil Euphoria
We All Die (Laughing) - Thoughtscanning
Band: A WINTER LOST
Country: Canada
Title: Die längste Nacht
Label: Sun & Moon Records
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Second full-length album from A Winter Lost, the Canadian band singing in German language exclusively, and their second album on Sun & Moon Records. Once again the band's highlight are the rough, explosive vocals of lady K. Dylla, extremely aggressive and offensive; she sounds so menacing you constantly feel in danger. The instrumental part is ok when the band goes full speed, but the mid-tempo tracks are quite boring and drag down the album; they tend to become too repetitive at times and the whole gets very dull. As a conclusion, I've heard better, I've heard worse, but the vocals are top-notch, the band deserves your attention even if only for K. Dylla's screams.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
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Band: ABSENTH
Country: Russia
Title: Love Is Dead
Label: Satanarsa Records
Year: 2008 (re-release)
Style: Industrial Gothic Metal
Review:
Released by the band in 2005 and re-relased by Satanarsa Records in 2008, Love is Dead is Absenth's debut album and seems to be still available from the label in physical format and from the band's website as free download. In the meantime they have released 2 more full-length albums and seem to be more and more involved in the Electro Industrial scene. They started out in 2001 as a Doom Death outfit and by this time this debut album was released they switched to some sort of an Industial Gothic with only a few growling vocals remaining from the previous period. The album starts horribly with 2 tracks that made me wonder if I'm about to loose half an hour of my time torturing my ears with poorly syncronized instruments and awful Electro attempts, but for my luck the following tracks are a bit more technical, better performed and better composed, offering a few hints of Melodic Doom Metal on a couple of tracks and even (awful) Death Metal too on a track. Still, the riffs are too generic, the drum-machine becomes annoying after a while and the sound is no better than what we got in the '90's, the only things saving the whole being the great guitar leads and solos, and some catchy choruses here and there. Don't know how the band sounds Today, but honestly I'm not interested.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 5/10
Contact:
Band: ALASTOR
Country: Portugal
Title: Demon Attack
Label: War Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Thrash Black Metal
Review:
This one seems to be a cult band for the Portuguese underground movement as they were formed in 1988, even before Desecrator, the founding member, started one of the most (if not the most) important name in the Portuguese Black Metal scene. So yes, Alastor seems to be mainly his own project, backed up by a bunch of friends now and then. This release features beside the 11 new tracks, also a complete album, Gates of Darkness, previously released in 1996, so you get double the value for your money. The music is quite simple structured Thrash Black Metal with angry vocals, raw sound, and surprisingly enough, melodic guitar leads and solos. The compositions are too dull for my taste but thos guitar solos and the occasional supporting background growls, are giving Alastor's music more value, so if you want old-school, old-school is all you get here. If the drum sound would have been more organic I think this album would have been a blast in this revivalist scene nowadays.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
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Band: BOTULISTUM / GOLL
Country: Holland / Holland
Title: Botulistum / Goll
Label: Dying Sun Records
Year: 2013
Style: Noise Black Metal / Black Metal
Review:
Most probably one of the ugliest, most disgusting splits released in 2013! This is my first encounter with these 2 Dutch bands and I'm glad it happened.
The split opens with Botulistum and their inhuman, disgusting, sickening combination of Noise and Extreme Metal. No lyrics, no words, only screams, growls, moans, vomits, belches, supported by mainly ultra-fast drumming and dissonant guitar riffs. Awful, terrifying, mesmerizing, incredible! If Hell exists Botulistum would make its perfect soundtrack! I think that in time this could have such an impact as Beherit had.
If Botulistum sounds like Hell, Goll sounds like all souls imprisoned in Hell, it's the soundtrack of their horror, of their suffering and desperation. It's absolutely terrifying how well these 2 bands mix one with the other. As a difference between them, Goll has more comprehensive guitar riffs, more pronounced bass lines, more acute vocals, mostly screams, and a dark, atmospheric keyboard as background, so in a way it sounds more elaborate, but the final result is the same: HORROR!
Highly recommended but not for the faint of hearts!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 10/10 9.5/10
Contact:
Band: DIABOLUS SANCTUS
Country: Georgia
Title: Voice of Satan
Label: Satanarsa Records
Year: 2011
Style: Black Metal
Review:
I think this is the first Georgian band I get the chance to review, and I had no idea what to expect. This is the first Diabolus Sanctus demo, a release made of 7 tracks into more than half an hour of Satanic Black Metal. Traditional sounding, fast paced, hateful, quite complex and catchy, Diabolus Sanctus' music is a nice surprise I honestly wasn't expecting. My only bad points would be for the synthetic (but not annoying) drums and the lack of versatility of the vocalist, he has a good tone for this genre, but he doesn't experiment, doesn't try anything else. The guitar work and especially the bass lines are top-notch, congrats. In the meantime it seems the band recorded their debut album in 2013, but I have no idea if it was ever released.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
Band: LIGHTLESS MOOR
Country: Italy
Title: The Poem - Crying My Grief to a Feeble Dawn
Label: WormHoleDeath
Year: 2013
Style: Gothic Doom Metal
Review:
At first audition I wasn't that impressed by Lightless Moor's debut album, but it grew on me and now I'm at the 4th of 5th spin and I keep discovering new parts of it I like. That's great! Once you get used to the mix of two vocals (beauty and the best type), especially with the male growling vocals (he seems to struggle a lot to create those growls, it doesn't sound natural at all), you'll enjoy these 8 tracks a lot. As instrumentists they are all very good, nothing seems casual here, and the band sounds good both when they deliver soft, atmospheric, even romantic passages, and when they are aggressive, fast and furious. The female vocalist, Ilaria, has an awesome voice and she sounds like she's capable of delivering almost all types of tonalities. I wouldn't call this a perfect album, but for sure it's a well crafted, well packed and well delivered Gothic Doom Metal releases that, as I said earlier, grows on you each time you listen to it. Thumbs up.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: NEOPLASMAH
Country: Portugal
Title: Sidereal Passage
Label: Dark Music Productions
Year: 2004
Style: Technical Death Metal
Review:
Yes, you read it well, this album was released 10 years ago and the band sent it now for a review... It would only make sense if they are preparing for releasing a new album and they are trying to get the band's name out there again since they weren't active on the discography level since then. What I find interesting and honorable is the fact that the line-up remained unchanged since 2004, it's the same 4 guys and a girl on vocals. Kudos for that. This is their debut album, an 11 tracks effort totaling almost 45 minutes of catchy Technical Death Metal with high emphasis on guitars. Brutal, technical, quite melodic, and lead by a Sofia Silva whos vocals are impressively dark and heavy, Neoplasmah deliver high quality Death Metal and I really hope they are up for taking the scene by storm again, they deserve more recognition.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
Contact:
Band: PAEDIATRICIAN
Country: Hungary
Title: Deformed Premature
Label: Terranis Productions / Sevared Records
Year: 2011
Style: Death Grind
Review:
Paediatrician is one of the most important Hungarian Brutal Death Grind exports nowadays. As an example this debut album was released by the band in 2010 and re-released by Hungarian Terranis Prod. and American Sevared Records a year later. Although the cover artwork is awful (a 7 years old kid would have done a better job), the music is exactly what you'd expect: brutal, heavy, sick, twisted and ultra-fast Death Grind. The drummer is one of the fastest I've ever heard, he's a blasting machine (not literally)! The whole release is impressively brutal and organic sounding; lots of bands should take notes from Paediatrician, you don't have to use effects to create insane, destructive, ultra-fast Brutal Death Grind, but you have to be good.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: SHALLOW RIVERS
Country: Russia
Title: Nihil Euphoria
Label: BadMoodMan Music
Year: 2013
Style: Atmospheric Doom Death Metal
Review:
Formed by other Solitude Prod. / BadMoodMan Music projects's members, Shallow Rivers recently released their debut full-length, an 8 tracks effort totaling an hour of impressive Atmospheric Doom Death based on everpresent guitar leads, deep guttural vocals and quite a heavy rhythm section, not to mention the solid riffs. Simple but very effective music reminding of the days when this genre was in fashion, Nihil Euphoria, although not being a groundbreaking release, will certainly push this band's name forward. As I said, this album is quite traditional in structure, but there are some (only a few though) modern touches that make me curious of how their music will develop in the future, I hope they'll keep the traditional line and only sprinkle it with modern touches, maybe a bit more than on Nihil. Good stuff.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
Band: WE ALL DIE (LAUGHING)
Country: France / Bulgaria
Title: Thoughtscanning
Label: Kaotoxin Records
Year: 2014
Style: Avantgarde Metal
Review:
Fuckin' 10 out of 10!!! Why? Because this is the best audio journey I took in the last few months; because it's ugly and at the same time beautiful, it's raw and at the same time polished, it's melodic and at the same time brutally ravishing; because if you're not open-minded you'll hate the guts out of it; because it kept me glued to it for almost 40 minutes and I'm sure it will take a huge part of my time for the upcoming days; because even of I hate the band's name and I had serious doubts before playing it, now, even if I still don't like the name, I couldn't care less about it; because it's elegant and classy; because I'm sure this was all composed and finalized in short time, without overthinking it too much. Nothing more to add, I love this album! Kaotoxin Records should get a medal for discovering such gems! If you'll hate it, well, we're not on the same page, but if you'll like what you'll hear on the net, get the album, probably the next one won't be as good as this... :)
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 10/10
Contact: