Band: ABOMINANT

Country: USA

Title: Where Demons Dwell

Label: Deathgasm Records

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review:

This is Abominant's 9th studio album, but I have to admit I've only listened to their first 2 out on Wild Rags, when Wild Rags was all over the place and having one of the most solid name in the Extreme Metal fields. 

"Where Demons Dwell" could be considered a controversed album as some tracks are absolutely average and nothing more, while others are really tasty and solid pieces of organic Death Metal, so I can't say I like it all. The band clearly demostrates its maturity and ability to create some very curdled tracks, but what lacks the most inhere (well, not on all the tracks) is the atmosphere, the album gives the impression these veterans are relying more on speed than on brutality or dark, horrifying atmospheres. Don't get me wrong, overall this is an above the average album, but from a band that will soon celebrate its 20 years of intense activity you would expect something more. Throughout the almost 40 minutes of this album you can hear every typical segments of old-school Death Metal, and the instrumentists are not hiding at all their technical abilities. The vocals are maybe less diverse than needed although Mike Barnes shows he can do much more on the track "Blackened Earth" for example. Anyway, if you like your Death Metal raw and fast Abominant's latest release might be a good choice.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: ABYSSPHERE

Country: Russia

Title: Shadows and Dreams

Label: Endless Desperation Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Melodic Doom Death

Review:

Formed in 2003, this band seems to be quite serious in what they do since they only have few or no line-up changes at all. That says a lot on any band. "Shadows and Dreams" contains 9 tracks and has a total playing time of 45 minutes, fair enough, not too short, not too long. The music presented here is a Melodic Doom Death Metal with quite a lot of melancholic insertions, especially coming from the keyboards and the violin used, but the real highlight of this album would be the addition of two vocalists, a growling one that also does the few Black Metal-like screams parts, and a very good clean tone one. The band is mature enough to tie up all the songs creating a dark, powerful and melodic atmosphere, perfect for this kind of music. The real strength of this band is the music as a whole, although they seem to be very good instrumentists there are no virtuoso parts at all, so their music relies on the team effort. My one and only regrest is that this is an album sung completely in Russian, I have no idea what are they singing about. Definitely an album that will hit mu player again in the future.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: A COLD DEAD BODY

Country: Italy

Title: Harvest Years

Label: Slow Burn Records

Year: 2010

Style: Progressive Sludge Metal

Review:

Definitely not my style of music, but since I have received it in physical form, I have to at least mention it, and of course, listen to it nevertheless. 

A Cold Dead Body hails from Italy, was founded in 2005, and this is their debut album, a 9 tracks effort lasting for almost 40 minutes. I started to listen to "Harvest Years" being quite suspicious, of course, but I had a big surprise with this band. The type of music they are doing is absolutely powerful and extremely immaginative, colourfull, varied, expressive, and I can go on and on with such adjectives. They are experimenting and pushing their music beyond all boundaries, there is simply no limit to what they do and it's extremely hard to categorize what they do. It's like the jazz free spirit reached the post metal scene and took it by storm. Very, very interesting album, recommended to all of you more open-minded than I am.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: AEGEON

Country: Finland

Title: Portals

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Black Metal

Review:

AEGEON is around as a band (although it's actually a one man project) since last year and "Portals" is its debut demo, a 3 tracks material lasting for 18 minutes. This is basically mid-tempo Black Metal with a melancholic edge to it, but the sound is so raw that you can barely hear the guitars. I honestly liked the vicous, horrifying vocals and the semi-acousting guitars backgrounds here and there, but what I disliked the most are the simple and annoying drum programs the guy used, it simply ruined all the atmosphere created by guitars and vocals... Sorry but in this case I cannot pass over the horrible drums.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 5/10

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Band: AMONG THE MORTALS

Country: Finland

Title: Of Ignorance and Dismissal

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Melodic Experimental Death Metal

Review:

Listening to this album was a quite interesing experience for me. It is nothing like I'm used to these days, it actually reminded me of some of the Czech Republic Progressive Extreme Metal bands from the end of the '90's - beginning of the 2000 decade, and that's because of all the experiments these Finnish guys added to this album, their debut one. the band was formed in 1997 and had a short 3 years break only, that's why it's strange how they have managed to release their debut only almost 15 years later. Anyway, this album was recorded in several sessions between 2006 and 2010, but being so experimental sounding you cannot notice differences between tracks. Maybe labelling this Death Metal is a bit too off shore because it has elements from a lot of other parts of the Metal field, from Doom to Psychedelic and from Ambient to Progressive Metal with Symphonic elements as well, it's a combination that gets a bit too hard to follow sometimes, but maybe that's what makes it so interesting. If these guys manage to improve on mixing and mastering I can see them moving up on the Extreme Metal ladder. Recommended for the ones of you in search of deep Experimental Metal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: AMORPHEAD

Country: Italy

Title: Chaos Expression

Label: Casket Music

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

I have reviewed this guys' previous (an at the same time debut) EP in 2009 but I wasn't so fond on that one, so let's see what's new with Amorphead. After a listen of this new EP (5 tracks, 26 minutes) I can say they have improved a bit but not enough, and also the have switched their style to a more Groove-infused Thrash Metal with a thrashy Hardcore-like vocal that, as on the previous record, give the band almost all aggression, and also improved on syncronization. The instrumental part is not aggressive enough and pretty predictible, the guitar leads and solos are saving it all again. Anyway, the important thing here is they improved and hopefully they'll keep it this way. I think at this moment Amorphead is more of a live band than a band that does it's job better in the studio, I can certainly imagine these tracks being played with much more energy on stage.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: AURORA BOREALIS

Country: USA

Title: Timeline (The Beginning And End Of Everything)

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Aurora Borealis is a band founded in 1994 that had a fair share of success in the beginnings of the 2000's with their "Northern Lights" (2000) and "Time, Unveiled" (2002) albums. This is their 5th studio album, an 11 tracks work lasting for 45 minutes, given away for free download by the band, but also sold as physical release. What we get here is a honest, straigth to your face Black Death Metal without too many melodies. The technical side of it it's the foundation of this album, these guys rely a lot on their abilities as instrumentists and what's shown inhere is a very mature work, curdled enough, aggressive as hell, and again, very technical, diverse and entertaining. Really good work recommended to both Black and Death Metal followers. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: BETHLEHEM

Country: Germany

Title: Stoenkfitzchen

Label: Red Stream

Year: 2010

Style: Dark Metal

Review:

I'm actually glad Niklas Kvarforth decided to quit all his side-projects and concentrate on Shining, hopefully this decision will last. Working on too many fronts (bands) will only decrease his decadent "aura" and give him a rock-star status instead. Anyway, the work on Bethlehem's latest EP was his last cooperation with the German Dark Metal legends. I'm glad for Bethlehem, too.

The 6 tracks included on this release are lasting for around 30 minutes, and the style is the regular Bethlehem mysterious Dark Metal, slow tuned to mid-tempo, the EP flows smoothly, but still brings nothing new or extraordinary to the table. It's a good gift for the fans, I don't think they will be disapointed, but I think this is not enough to leave an oridinary listener like me mouth-opened.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: BLASPHERIAN

Country: USA

Title: Infernal Warriors of Death

Label: Deathgasm Records

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

I must confess I'm a bit surprised this is only the first album released by Blaspherian. The band has aquired quite a good reputation in the Underground Extreme Metal scene especially after releasing stuff on labels such as Hells Headbangers and Blood Harvest, but this would seem a normal thing for a band that has been active since 2004. Anyway, I find "Infernal Warriors of Death" to be the perfect name for this release; it's absolutely infernal, one of those albums you either love or hate, there is no middle ground for this. The sound is as low-tuned as possible creating a dark, grotesque atmosphere, and if you add an old-school US style of guitar riffs that give the impression of flagelation throughout the whole album, with few, short solos, and a slow to mid-tempo rhythm section with occasional fast insertions, you get an image of this monster Blaspherian has created. I have enjoyed it so much I haven't even noticed how fast I spinned this CD three times. Definitely recommended if you're in search of some extremely heavy and dark Death Metal with no trace of any compromise.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band:  BORN OF OSIRIS

Country: USA

Title: The Discovery

Label: Summerian Records

Year: 2011

Style: Progressive Death Metal

Review:

15 tracks, 3 of it from other planet, one of these 3 is a local intro for the last track on this album... All is a very good prog-deathmetal symphony, this is really „discovering” of Universe. Typical american (from USA) deathmetal vs prog-electro guitar masturbations in one. These guys have something to be proud of this music – progmetal is a main part of this album, deathmetal is in background. Space atmosphere with oldshool growles, broken drum’s beat, a lot of atmospheric, electronic effects. Deicide and The Gathering in one? Something like this... They build a new vision from old, known bricks. Pieces of it I heard earler at bands from Europe and USA (e.g. Nocturnus or Pestilence or The Gathering or Scorngrain) but „The Discovery” is a kind of music discovery. 

Interesting CD, contains a lot of universe atmosphere.

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8.5/10

Band: BUCOVINA

Country: Romania

Title: Duh

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Folk Metal

Review:

EP „Duh” was released in at the end of 2010, four years after the first Bucovina’s official CD. This EP is really great, this is a perfect combination of powerful metal with authentic folklore melodies. I admit that Bucovina’s kind of Folk Metal is one of my favourite in this genre. Five excellent tracks (two instumenetals), the essence of which is track called „Straja”, taken from traditional song „Cantec despre Bucovina”. I can’t wait for full length album, I’m impressed!

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 10/10

Band: BULLET

Country: Sweden

Title: Highway Pirates

Label: Black Lodge / Sound Pollution

Year: 2011

Style: Heavy Metal

Review:

Bullet celebrates 10 years of existence through this album, their third studio effort so far, a gathering of 10 new tracks totalizing 40 minutes of pure, old-school Heavy Metal. The album is absolutely enjoyable from the start till the end, but only for die-hard Heavy Metal maniacs. I don't know if any of you interested only in the new sounds will ever enjoy this release. This is 100% pure '80's sounding pounding Heavy Metal with catchy guitar riffs, melodic guitar solos, simple but precise rhythm section, and a very good vocalist that although at first listen you might think it's about to loose pace, he doesn't, he sounds rusty, but at the same time his voice gives this album the most of that old-school true Metal feeling. If you miss the good ol' days, Bullet is the right choice!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 10/10

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Band: BURDEN OF GRIEF

Country: Germany

Title: Follow the Flames

Label: Massacre Records

Year: 2010

Style: Thrash Death Metal

Review:

5th studio album for this Germans founded in 1994, and their first one out on Massacre Records, so it seems their road is finally opened judging by their label's name in the Extreme Metal scene. This album actually comes in a Double CD edition, the first CD being made of 11 tracks of their own and the second one of 8 cover versions of tracks from bands like Pantera, The Doors, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake or AC/DC. Their set of tracks is very powerful, fat sounding and what I like the best about it, it has no dead parts, the album flows regularly without giving the listener any resting moments. Aggressive is the way they work, but still inserting melodic guitar leads here and there, without overusing them. The highlights of their music are without a doubt the chunky, catchy palette of guitar riffs. Great album, with one objection from my part: the vocals could have been more diverse, they tend to become boring after a few spins. The covers CD benefits from the guest appearance of Dan Swano (Edge Of Sanity), Sabina Classen (Holy Moses) and Andreas Geremia (Tankard). Pretty neat idea.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: CORPSET

Country: Finland

Title: Ruins

Label: Violent Jurney Records

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

On their official bio, Corpset is said to have been formed back in 1998, but under a different name (Chakra) and a different line-up and changed the band name in 2009, so basically I would say that's the real start of Corpset. This material I'm listening right now was first released as a demo by the band for the purpose of finding a label to release it, and they did. Violent Jurney signed them and released the same material as their debut album. What we have here is a modern sounding Death Metal with a lot of groove, but also filled with melody. They seem pretty good instrumentists, the tracks sound curdled and fresh enough so I don't see why they shouldn't succeed in creating a solid fan base. This debut is quite powerful and you could give it a try if you're into modern Death Metal. I liked the best their delicious guitar solos, and I think more combinations of the main angry kind of vocals with clean vocals would only do them well.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: DEATH COMES PALE

Country: Denmark

Title: Through Carrion Eyes

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Modern Death Metal

Review:

Death Comes Pale was formed in 2008 and is made of musicians that previously played in bands like Kittie or Dawn Of Demise, so regarding their skills I guess we can rely on this information and agree they know their instruments. This one is their debut EP, a 4 tracks effort presenting us a modern Death Metal spiced with lots of influences and elements from Deathcore (especially on vocals, but also on guitars) and even from the new wave of Black Death Metal. Overall this is fat sounding Death Metal with modern guitar leads, some melodies here and there, but the main atmosphere created is an aggressive, brutal one. I would have liked a bit more diversity on guitar riffs and drums as after some spins the music becomes dull, but that's ok for the first effort. The sound is very good.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: DEMONIC CREMATOR

Country: Scotland

Title: Crucified

Label: Unholy Resurrection Records

Year: 2011

Style: Raw Black Metal

Review:

I really hope that this is not the way Unholy Resurrection Records sells this release because my copy is so crapy that I was afraid it will explode in my player (it happened to me before, I'm not talking shit): the CDR has a sticker that was clearly not designed correctly and sticked with a "whatever" attitude. Anyway, it's their business how they promote their releases. Let's get to the band and its music. Demonic Cremator is a duo from Scotland formed in 2009 that seems to be quite active in the Underground scene: they have released 2 demos, an EP, a single, and an album, each of them on different labels, so I guess they stick well to the underground labels. This one is their second full-length, although I won't call it so since it lasts for less than 20 minutes. Anyway, it contains 8 tracks with rehearsal-like sound, raw, unpolished, and quite aggressive, have to admit. The duo plays a kind of old-school Thrashy Black Metal with a Punkish attitude, without any intention of being professional or classy. This is pure "fuck-off" attitude, quite admired nowadays, and although I pretty much hate this CDs presentation, I have to admit I kinda liked their music, they got what they wanted out of it and here I'm referring to the attitude I mentioned earlier. Recommended for the ones of you looking for something organic, extremely raw, and unpretentious (well, I recommend this one only in case the real product looks better than the one I got, on mine the sticker will get off after a few spins only).

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: DEVASTATOR

Country: Italy

Title: Underground'n'Roll

Label: K Records

Year: 2009

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

4th album for these Italian Thrashers founded in 2002, "Underground'n'Roll" contains 15 short and fast tracks of Punk infused Thrash Metal. Nothing pretentious here, just pure and simple, in-your-face fun and metal with a powerful fuck-off attitude, Devastator should be a great band to see live, I think their gigs end up becoming some serious ass-kicking parties. But although presenting this attitude it seems the band is very serious on what they do and take their music on a professional level. Recommended if you're in search of some organic Punk Thrash for your beer drinkin' parties.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ENVYRA

Country: Italy

Title: Post-Human Orison

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Experimental Melodic Death Metal

Review:

Envyra was formed in 2009 from the ashes of a Progressive Speem Metal band called Athem, and that can be heard on this debut EP. Here I mean the Progressive touch rather than the Speed Metal one. The 6 tracks listed here are really not what I have expected when reading their short bio. This is a very melodic based Experimental Death Metal with a few Thrash Metal touches, but Envyra doesn't use the aggressive type of Death Metal, they actually take the structures from this genre and play on them, or even better said, experiment on these structures. the guitar work is the core of their music creating all the atmospheres and displaying a quite good apettite for presenting as much technical skills as possible, all enveloped in a melodic veil. The vocals are growls (the major part), supported by clean vocals, but I think the clean vocals are pushed beyong ability here, although I cannot deny their addition to the experimental face of this band. The only element I really don't like at all are the drum programmings used, much too synthetic for my taste. But all in all here we have a band with great potential, a band that we all should keep an eye on. If you decide to give this EP a try you should know that although it's selfproduced it's very professional, you'll certainly get the value for your money.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: EXILED FROM LIGHT

Country: New Zealand

Title: There is no Beauty Left Here...

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

Year: 2010

Style: Depressive Black Metal

Review:

We have here a one man project from New Zealand that adopted the Depressive Black Metal as its artistic expression form. The guy behind this project also plays oe played in countless other projects and that usually leads me thinking how serious this one is for him. After listening to these 2 CDs (more than 100 minutes of playing) it gives me the impression he really puts some real efforts in it, but the problem is that although the music is expressive, melancholic and atmospheric (exactly what this style requires), but it's a bit too simplistic in composition bringing nothing new or spectacular to the table. For the ones of you into this genre of metal Exiled From Light could be a good option for when you need some melancholic feelings infused in your mind, but if you're looking for something new, try somewhere else. Now, the good things about this double CD are the vocals (perfect for DBM), and the overall atmosphere that benefits from a very good sound, indeed. The final of the second CD is dedicated to this guy's previous project Funereal where he played the same Depressive Black Metal, but in a more aggressive shape, keeping the same atmospheres close, maybe with some Funeral Doom also involved. Not bad at all, but not extraordinary either. As a final remark, I would have preferred to have the lyrics attached on the booklet instead of useless nature picture, maybe that way me (and the rest of those who will get this CD) would have had a better listening experience.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: FETID ZOMBIE

Country: USA

Title: Vomiting in the Baptismal Pool

Label: MetalHit.com

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Looking at the guest musicians Mark Riddick (the man behind this project) had on this release you get the goose bumps: Kam Lee (Death, Massacre), Don Crotsley (Nunslaughter), Steve Miller (Loculus) and Mike Majewski (Devourment). Pretty sick line-up, correct? This is Fetid Zombie's second full-length album, a 10 tracks effort lasting for a bit more than 30 minutes. The music on it is old-school Death Metal with an atmosphere that is perfectly described by the band's name. Mark displays quite a lot of technical skills on his guitar and I think that was his main focus (together with the putrid atmosphere) when starting to create this album. At some point during this album I felt there are too many parts missing something, but as an overall judgement I have enjoyed this a lot and I can say by the end of it the music grew on me, there are some memorable parts also. the sound is not that great, but for an old-school Death Metal band it does what it's supposed to do. Good album, but he can do better, I'm sure.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FURIA

Country: Poland

Title: Halny

Label: Pagan Records

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Furia is the other band of 4 members from Masse Mord, and since this band is around since 2003 it seems these guys are pretty confortable playing in 2 different Black Metal bands. What distinguish Furia from the other band is its prominent psychedelic touch, you could even name their style as Psychedelic Black Metal, I guess no one could disagree with it. There's only 1 track on this release, but it lasts for 20 minutes. The combination of experimental, almost jazzy semi-acoustic parts with that psychedelic ambient surrouning this track, plus the few Black Metal insertions make this release a quite enjoyable one, so if you're looking for some interesting combinations of sounds for your Black Metal collection, get this one, you won't be disapointed.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: GARDEN OF GRIEF

Country: Austria

Title: Denied Sanctuary X

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

This is already the 4th full-length album of this one-man-band from Austria. That wouldn't be anything special if the work on this project would have started a lot of years ago, but it's around only since 2008. So I guess another vey productive Black Metal project joins the scene. 

The 7 tracks from "Denied Sanctuary X" are lasting for a complete hour, so if you enjoy GoG's music you're in for a treat with this one. For the ones of you not familiar with this project I can say it plays a melodic type of Black Metal, or at least much more melodic that I've heard on its previous release, the split with Nightforest. The guitar work is again the highlight of the tracks, displaying melodic and tasty riffs creating the atmospheres here. The drums, although pretty complex, are annoying at times by their synthetic sound (of course, they are made on PC). Anyway, if you can pass over such drums, you will certainly enjoy GoG's music, the mid-tempo to fast Black Metal tracks are combined successfully with simple but very effective Ambient keys & synth tracks that remind me of the work the Italian Evol did some years ago. Recommended.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: GRIVF / SOL

Country: Denmark / Denmark

Title: Iss / The Great Plague Imperium

Label: Archaic Sound

Year: 2010

Style: Funeral Doom Metal / FDoom Death

Review:

A Split CD between two one-man-bands from Denmark playing the same or at least similar style can be a rough adventure especially if the style is such a pretentious one as Doom Metal is. Here we have 3 tracks from Grivf and 3 from Sol, with a total playing time of an hour.

Grivf follows up after its very well received 3 albums from 2006 and 2007, so there has been quite a long waiting time for its supporters, taht's for sure. Its part of the split is a great combination of Funeral Doom Metal with acoustic Folk-driven elements as guitars and whisles. The main part of Gravf's music is based on guitars, the rhythmic section being represented here only by a few floor tom drum sounds. This is, indeed, a very interesting project that brings new horizons to this Funeral Doom genre. Strongly recommended for its original way of creating a heavy, dense and dark atmosphere.

Sol was created in 2007 and has, as Grivf does, three albums under its belt. I'd say this is Funeral Doom all the way although wherever I look on the net they are listed as Doom Death. There are, indeed some hints of old-school slow Death Metal, but not enough to drive this away from Funeral Doom. Slow music, low tuned, with a nice Folk addition from semi-acoustic guitars or accordion, quite diverse guitar leads, raw sound, a grave vocal, and a majestic ending, perfect for this release. Good project.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10 9/10

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Band: HIDDEN

Country: USA

Title: Dead Land Energy

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Black Death Metal

Review:

This is a project (band) founded in 2001 by members of the Grindcore legends Exit-13 (a band I used to like a lot) and Killjoy from Necrophagia. "Dead Land Energy" is their third album to date and the first one where Killjoy is replaced with Imperial from Krieg. I've listened to it but this combination, or better said how they combine almost every extreme metal genre (from Black to Doom and from Death to Psychedelic) and also very simple playing with virtuoso displays, is just boring me to death. Unfortunately for me, this album didn't catch my attention at all, and although the guys are for sure good instrumentists, I think they try too much to be something they are not, innovators of the scene. try it yourselves, maybe you'll like it more than I do.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 5/10

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Band: IGNIS FATUU

Country: Germany

Title: Neue Ufer

Label: Trollzorn Records

Year: 2011

Style: Folk Metal

Review:

„Neue Ufer” is a set of 13 very, very melodic tracks. I can hear in this album some Skyclad’s sounds, a lot of celtic folk motifs – but a lot of Germans legends’ sounds like In Extremo, Die Toten Hosen or Nena too (from time of „99 Baloons”, he, he). „Neue Ufer” is a border beetween folkmetal and celt-folkrock, this is a centering between metal and rock and neo-medieval music and folk. All tracks in German, that’s good of course. I’ve never seen this band live, but I suppose they will be a very good live band, better for Irish Pubs and folk club. From the other side, I don’t know, that Inis Fatuu on „Neue Ufer” is still metal band, or rather just folk-rock group. However, this album is very good, better than e.g. the last Eluveitie’s album (in my opinion). If your girlfirend/boyfriend doesn’t like or doesn’t know metal music, you can get it her to listen to, heh.

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8/10

Band: KAIRI

Country: Wales

Title: My Light, My Flesh

Label: Ebdless Desperation Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Funeral Doom Metal

Review:

Kairi was founded almost a decade ago, in 2002, as a solo project but later evolved into a real band, or at least in a sudio band as I suppose they are not playing live. So far they have only released demos, and this one, "My Light, My Flesh" is their debut album, out on the Russian Doom Metal label Endless Desperation Productions (slowly but surely Russia becomes the most important country in Doom Metal; it was about time such a large and important country to take a metal genre, raise and develop it, like Norway did with Black Metal for example). Kairi treats us here with a deep atmospheric, Ambient Funeral Doom Metal based mostly on instruments rather than vocals. Actually these guys say they are using made up words and vocal sounds instead of real lyrics to express what they desire, and I have to admit I totally stand behind that, if you're able to express your feelings using no lyrics that that's even better. Unfortunately their music is not the best out there as it feels like something's missing to fully get to their point, and also that their compositions are not curdled enough, seems like they are still in search for a niche to represent them better as the tracks are quite different one from another. Anyway, this album could appeal to both Doom Metal followers and also to the Ambient fanatics out there.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: KREW

Country: Germany

Title: Demo

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Krew is a young band from Germany founded in 2008, a band that seems to be working hard to promote this debut demo CD of their and that's great, we need more of these bands to revitalize the underground.

Krew's 2010 demo is composed of 5 tracks lasting for a bit more than 18 minutes, with good sound, a demo that shows us a pretty curdled gounp with a lot of potential, but somehow after listening to their work you feel something's missing, and I guess that "someting" is the overall atmosphere. Although some parts are really good, cold and dark as they should be, on some other parts they show only a band that's very capable on their instruments, but a band that's more focused on creating their tunes as technical as they can instead of concentrating on the atmospheres they create. I don't like the drums (drum-machine I guess) sound, it's too synthetic and maybe that's the most important fact I'm basing my judgement on. But instead I like the vocals tone (quite good vocalist for Black Metal, he just needs more courage to experiment more) and the guitars work. Try it yourselves, make your own opinion.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: MALEVOLENTIA

Country: France

Title: Ex Oblivion

Label: Season Of Mist

Year: 2011

Style: Black Metal

Review:

It took them quite some time to get a proper record deal, but they have it all now. Malevolentia was formed in 2003 and released its debut album by themselves in 2005. Since then there is nothing new in the band's discography until "Ex Oblivion", an album out on the respectable Season Of Mist. And I must mention here what a professional work it is starting from the music on it and ending with the presentation (classy digipack with 12 pages booklet including the lyrics), and from the cover artwork to the whole lyrical concept behind it. Talking about the lyrics, the band seems to be decided to use the French language only, and that's fine because it fits quite well their Symphonic, epic Black Metal music. They are using mostly fast rhythms "coloured" by some fantastic evil but at the same time melodic guitar work, a vocal that comes like from a DBM band plus female vox on choirs, a few majestic keyboard touches here and there with emphasis on the creepy, mysterious atmosphere, all in all a massive work on a long-waited album. Not to miss, really an album that takes you to another world, to another dimension!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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