Band: MANDATORY
Country: Germany
Title: Adrift Beyond
Label: Xtreem Music
Year: 2010
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Can you believe this is the debut album of Mandatory? A band that is around since 2002 and has built a very strong and important name all over the World with their DIY attitude, Mandatory released "Adrift Beyond" on Xtreem Music last year, a coronation of almost a decade into the underground, the perfect gift for all their fans. For the ones of you who don't know this band (although I hardly believe there's any), Mandatory comes from Germany and plays the ugliest form of old-school Death Metal around since the good ol' days of the beginning of the '90's, a proud follower of Morgoth's tradition. Actually just imagine a combination of Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) / Marc Grewe (Morgoth) for the vocal part with the Swedish Dismember for the instrumental part (especially on the chunky, fat sounding guitar tunes) and you get the picture, dark, sinister, horrifying Death metal at its best. Mandatory are great, don't hesitate to get this album! An easy guess for you: am I a fan? Haha.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 10/10
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Band: MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY
Country: Australia
Title: The Forest Mourners
Label: Kunsthauch Productions
Year: 2010
Style: Ambient Black Metal
Review:
One-man-band from Australia founded in 2007, Midnight Odyssey already released 2 demos and an album. The funny (or curious) thing is they released the second album, this one I'm reviewing now, the same year as the previous, meaning 2010, but on a different label, so here we go, another act that promises to be extremely productive on the discographic side. There are only 5 tracks here, but the total running time is 40 minutes, so quite long tracks. The music is some sort of Ambient Atmospheric mid-tempo Black Metal with a few Folkish touches too, acoustic parts and also some keyboard driven parts as well. It has a good deep atmosphere surrounding it, but the sound on it is weak, sometimes even anoying (on the Black Metal rhythms, and especially on vocals). Too bad, the compositions are quite catchy and could have done a lot more with the proper sound.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10
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Band: NACHTLIEDER
Country: Sweden
Title: Promo 2010
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2010
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Susanne Hansen is back with a new Nachtlieder release, this time a Promo CD, but honestly I don't understand the difference between the two previous demos and this promo, from the "package" point of view. Why labeling this one as promo and the previous as demos?
Anyway, this material contains 3 tracks, quite long ones, lasting for 18 minutes. The sound is not the best one I've heard, but it's good enough for a rehearsal-like material, you won't have problems with it as the instruments are all distinguishable and her vocals have the right amount of volume not to break your brains. What is great about this promo is it sound organic, and I really think Susanne recorded with real drums, which is a major bonus. The music is melodic, but still very brutal Black Metal, and it sounds very good, sinister, cold and aggressive. Recorded in better conditions this music would gather lots of followers, that's for sure, as she's much better than lots of other projects out there. Although Nachtlieder is based on standard, old-school fast Black Metal sounds, Susanne is not afraid to experiment with the instruments and the result is a very interesting blend of metal parts. Recommended!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
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Band: NIGROMANTIA
Country: Hungary
Title: Blind Faith
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2011
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Review:
Although founded in 2007, Nigromantia only managed to release their debut demo this year. "Blind Faith" is a 5 tracks effort lasting for 23 minutes, and what we get here is a melodic, mid-tempo Death Metal, quite enjoyable if you like your Death Metal harmless, without the brutality and horror specific to this genre. Some parts (but too few) remind me of old-school Finnish Death Metal, but overall this is based on melodic guitar leads all over the place, good but not sufficient to impress. The vocal has a very good timbre giving the band a bit more dark atmosphere, but the drum-machine on the other hand is too synthetic for my taste and I can't stand it at all. All in all this is not a boring release and I would have definitely enjoyed it more if it wasn't for that awful drum-machine, anyway, a good start.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
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Band: NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION
Country: France
Title: Reflections of a Sad Soul (re-release)
Label: Sun & Moon Records
Year: 2011
Style: Depressive Black Metal
Review:
This is the second edition of "Reflections of a Sad Soul" released by Sun & Moon Records after the first one, 1000 copies, got sold out. That says a lot about both the band's status in the Underground Metal scene and the label's ability to promote/distribute its releases. Black Metal is still going strong these days because the ones involved in it manage to always find new ways to express darkness through music and this so popular nowadays Depressive Black Metal already has its notable names as Shining, Forgotten Tomb, LifeLover or Abyssic Hate. Nocturnal Depression is also between these popular names within the genre, and that's mostly because, in my opinion, their lyrics are very personal, combining perfectly with this kind of music. The music on this release is slow, doomy, hypnotic most of the times, but it also has its fast (well, better said mid-paced) Black Metal parts, so you won't get bored. A simple music that goes straigth to the deepest corners of your mind. I think this is my fave Nocturnal Depression release and only because its organic feeling. It makes something more out of some average guitar riffs and simple drumming.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10
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Band: OBSCURA
Country: Germany
Title: Omnivium
Label: Relapse Records
Year: 2011
Style: Progressive Technical Death Metal
Review:
New Obscura’s album is really great piece of technical deathmetal music. Album „Omnivium” contains a lot progressive sounds circuits in monolith. First seven tracks is a perfect combination beetween technical death metal and little psychodelic sounds like broken rhythmes, atmospheric moments, jazz elements etc. This is not machine gun, this is a XXI century’s tank with all technical supports lead by professional crew. When the eight tracks starting, monolit is just broken, the proportions are radical changing. Death metal leaves in the distance and machine sound made by jazz/progrock metal with litte electronic influences comes to the fore – but growl says: This is still death metal. The last track is a quintesence of progressive influences in death metal music based on classical and melodic heavy metal sounds played in death metal clothes. „Omnivium” is just great music for intelligent people.
Reviewed by Vilcin
Rating: 9,5/10
Band: OMISSION
Country: Spain
Title: Merciless Jaws from Hell
Label: Xtreem Music
Year: 2010
Style: Speed Thrash Metal
Review:
I think the cover of this album will bring them lots of sales, or at least I'd buy it, hahaha. "Merciless Jaws of Hell" is the second full-length album from Omission, a band founded in 2002 that started to be active from the discographic point of view only since 2005, but since then they have released quite a lot of demos, and splits. Their music is an old-school Speed Thrash Metal with a few Black Metal influences as well. Nothing pretentious here, just pure and simple fast and aggressive metal the way it was done 2 decades ago. Fans of old-school Thrash Metal will enjoy this as it has all that's needed: raw sound, catchy guitar riff, old-school melodic guitar solos and fast rhythm section, plus a combination of thrashy Black Metal like vocals with Death Metal growls as background choirs as support. What I don't like is that they are loosing pace and syncronization at times and the mixing is not the best around either.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
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Band: PESTILENT GRAVE
Country: UK
Title: A New Aeon Under Satan
Label: Zwaertgevegt
Year: 2011
Style: Black Metal
Review:
This is Pestilent Grave's second demo following an EP from 2009. There are 6 tracks in 21 minutes here, but the sound is absolutely horrible, it's like you're listening to the instruments underwater or from your neighbors' house and the vocal is near you. The music, or at least what I'm able to distinguish, is a raw Black Metal with Doom and even Grind parts here and there. Not monotonous music with good, desperate vocals, but the sound is a major block for the listener... Maybe Vith would consider next time to record in better conditions, it's a waste of tracks this way.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 5/10
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Band: PRIMORDIAL
Country: Ireland
Title: Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand
Label: Metal Blade Records
Year: 2011
Style: Celtic/Folk/Black Metal
Review:
Primordial is one of the most known and legendary Irish metal bands but the new album, „Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand” is not particularly successful. A lot of sounds, a lot of pathetic screams, long, good-composed tracks, atmosphere but... something is missing. I listened to this a few times and I tried to find what is missing. Teoretically all are correct, but I heard too little celtic Folk Metal and too much groaning guitars like a post-grunge genre. Nevertheless, two tracks are really great („No grave deep enough” and „Death of the Gods”), however I’ve got the feeling that Primordial try to connect too much sounds on this album. This is usually a good idea, I usually like this kind of music composition, but this one is not completely succesful. I’m disappointed.
Reviewed by Vilcin
Rating: 6,5/10
Band: REQUIEM LAUS
Country: Portugal
Title: As Long As Darkness Bleeds
Label: Kenosis Records
Year: 2011
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Review:
This is the second full-length album of these Portuguese veterans called Requiem Laus. Although they were formed in 1992, the first album was released only in 2008, but it seems they got it going and now it's time for the second strike. Requiem Laus plays a nice Melodic Death Metal with some touches of their own, especially on the acoustic guitars part. The melodic acoustic elements are not just thrown inthere, they are cleverly inserted to give a break to the listener and maybe also to add a bit more of an epic feeling to the whole. The music is mainly mid-paced to fast rhythmed, and even though they are not making use of keyboards or synths for the melodic part (relaying on layers of lead guitars), while listening to this album you feel like you're whitnessing a story. Catchy, intelligent compositions, good musicians, organic sound, if you decide to go for it, try buying the album, listening to only a track or two won't paint the whole picture and in this case that is really necessary.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10
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Band: REVELATIONS OF RAIN
Country: Russia
Title: Emanation of Hatred
Label: Solitude Productions
Year: 2010
Style: Dark Doom Death Metal
Review:
If there's such a term as Old-School Doom death than that's what Revelations Of Rain is playing, a very heavy, dark and quite depressive form of Doom Death Metal with guitar leads and riffs we used to hear 10-15 years ago, filled with melody and sorrow. Not a sophisticated music here, but one that delivers what it meant without boring you a bit, and that means it is clever structured. The third Revelations Of Rain album (also third one on Solitude Prod.) contains 7 tracks, lasting for almost 50 minutes, an effort recommended to die-hard My Dying Bride fans out there. One thing I'm not too fond of, the keyboard work, quite poor of ideas, doesn't bring anything to the overall atmosphere, and all construction is left on the guitarists shoulders. Production-wise this is, as Solitude used their fans/customers, top-notch, of course.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
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Band: RIMTHURS
Country: Sweden
Title: Svartnar
Label: Archaic Sound
Year: 2010
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Another one man band, this time coming from Sweden, Rimthurs plays a kind of fast, melodic Black Metal on this debut album. "Svartnad" contains 8 tracks with a total playing time of 52 minutes, but to tell you the truth I wasn't bored at all during these tracks as Ymer, the man behind Rimthurs, and his special guests, succeeded to create quite a strong Black Metal album displaying a mature compositional ability. The guitars are at times a bit too raw, but overall their melodic but still very aggressive touch is the highlight of this album. The addition of violins is also a very catchy element in Rimthurs' music so I strongly recommend this album even if it hasn't the best sound around. Good debut release!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
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Band: SCARS ON MURMANSK
Country: France
Title: Travelling through Dark Places
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2011
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Young band from France, Scars On Murmansk were founded only last year and this one I'm listening right now is their debut EP, "Travelling through Dark Places", a 5 tracks effort lasting for 25 minutes. Scars On Murmansk base their sound on '90's European (French and German) Death Metal scenes where they exctract the semi-acoustic melodic passages from, but on top of that there's a modern sound, a combination of Swedish Death Metal (the melodic one) with the guitar breaks and twists of the Deathcore scene, without falling into that side of the metal (that's quite important, at least for me). The final result could be considered a melodic and technical Death Metal, the European way. As a first release the result is excellent, but still something's missing, the music is not fluent enough to grab your attention and keep it tight throughout the whole 25 minutes. I guess that is a question of time for such a young band, they have all the time to develop their own, catchy sound. This EP is available for free download, so you have nothing to loose by giving Scars On Murmansk a chance.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
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Band: STENY LDA
Country: Russia
Title: Steny Lda
Label: Slow Burn Records
Year: 2010
Style: Progressive Sludge
Review:
Steny Lda comes from Russia and this is their debut album, an album quite hard for me to follow as I'm not exactly the biggest progressive/avantgarde maniac out there, especially when it comes to post-metal, what the band is doing here. I have listened to this album and except for a few good parts (some on the acoustic side, some on the progressive one), it bored me to death. I just think they are trying something they are not (yet) capable of, there are too many unnecessary repetitions with less variation than such a style would require, and also the overall sound seems a bit empty. Most of the album is instrumental, but that's a good thing, I like the vocals even less. Again, I'm saying all this as an outsider of this scene, but if you're into this whole post-rock, post-metal scene you might have a different opinion, that's why I'm not saying you shouldn't check this out.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 5/10
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Band: VASTATOR
Country: Chile
Title: Machine Hell
Label: Inferno Records
Year: 2010
Style: Speed Thrash Metal
Review:
This seems to be a legendary band of the Chilean scene as they started in 1985 as Hammer and changed name to Vastator in 1986, released 4 demos, a DVD a live album and this is their 3rd studio album to date. Their name is not so well known in Europe, that's for sure, but this will change as Inferno Records signed them and released "Machine Hell", an 11 tracks effort lasting for about 55 minutes. Vastator plays a combination of old-school (or true, how you prefer) Heavy Metal with Speed Metal and some Thrash Metal as well, but unfortunately this album's sound give them a chaotic feeling, or better said the mixing is not the desired one, it seems like a (good, indeed) rehearsal recording, and that's not enough, at least here in Europe where the competition is fierceful. Good vocalist, good instrumentists, but the final result is not satisfying.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10
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Band: WARFIELD
Country: Mexico
Title: Trivmvirat
Label: Chaos Records
Year: 2010
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Mexican Warfield is a quite new name from the Mexican metal scene being formed in 2008, although they have released their debut full-length in 2009. The new release, "Trivmvirat" is a 3 tracks EP totalizing 20 minutes of fast and melodic Black Metal inspired by the Swedish scene I would say. There's nothing spectacular here, but they play a rather catchy metal with good skills, especially on drums (the drummer is a blasting machine from start till the end of this release), and that will be appreciated by the Black Metallers out there. The skills are there, but the sound is not satisfactory. I have nothing else to object about this release, a straight in your face cold Black Metal with good attitude and catchy parts.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: WITHERIA
Country: Finland
Title: Vanishing Order
Label: Violent Jurney Records
Year: 2011
Style: Thrash Metal
Review:
Never heard of this band before getting this album, but they are around since 2001 and this is already their third studio album, so I guess some of you might have heard of them already. Witheria presents us here 9 tracks in 45 minutes of fast Thrash Metal with modern sound and a strong Speed Metal influence. this is a very good album, all tracks are catchy and have the potential to stand up by themselves, and that's because they are good instrumentists and the fact they are playing together for a decade now made their compositions more mature. Sharp guitar riffs, countless guitar solos, fast and aggressive rhythm section (with powerful sounding bass lines) and a vicious vocal that's supported here and there by growls, basically that's what you get here. Killer tunes, killer album.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9.5/10
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Band: YSKELGROTH
Country: Spain
Title: Unholy Primitive Nihilism
Label: Regimental Records
Year: 2010
Style: Black Death Metal
Review:
Young band from Spain formed in 2007, Yskelgroth is a trio having Dave Rotten from Avulsed on vocal duties. After their 2008 promo "Primitive" they got signed by Regimental Records and the "Unholy Primitive Nihilism" EP is the first fruit of this collaboration. The EP is made of 9 tracks lasting less than 30 minutes. Dark, heavy Black Metal with many Death Metal touches, especially on the overall atmosphere. the guys are pretty technical, but unfortunately the sound on this release doesn't help them a lot on displaying their abilities. The music is interesting, indeed, but again, the sound makes it chaotic, so a bit hard to follow. Too bad, I would like more of those guitar leads, but in better conditions.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6.5/10
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Band: Various Artists
Country: Italy
Title: Hardsounds Compilation Vol.1
Label: Hard Sounds
Year: 2011
Style: Various
Review:
This is the debut volume of a series of online compilations released by the Italian Hard Sounds Webzine. It's always good to see such support for the metal scene, in this case for the Italian underground metal scene, bands should be seeking more for such promotion as it's a simple and effective way to spread their name all over the World. I'll take each track one by one and say a few words on 'em, hope I won't bore you too much.
As Likely As Not - opening band on this compilation, As Likely As Not is a modern sounding Melodic Death Metal with some powerful Hardcore/Metalcore influences. Good, groovy track with a quite varied and catchy composition. Usually the vocal type bothers me on such bands, but not on this one. If you're into modern stuff, give this band a try.
Carnal Gore - good band, I've reviewed their demo a while ago, they have good ideas, but still not convincing, this track is not aggressive enough, nor technical enough, but that is due to a weak sound (not bad, but weak, not suitable for this genre) on the most part of it. Semi-technical Thrash Death Metal.
Furyu - an instrumental track, quite experimental Progressive Metal, not aggressive at all, based on technical display. Not my type of metal, but I wasn't bored by it either.
Innervacuum - Mathcore. Nothing to say about it, I'm not at all into this style.
Marco Campanella - Instrumental track into happy Hard'n'Heavy. Good guitar skills, and great combination with a '70's like keyboard a la Black Sabbath, plus a futuristic Atmospheric keyboard touch at the end. Interesting and good for driving.
Midgard - Electro Goth with Black Metal type of vocals. Too synthetic for my taste.
Necroshine - Raw Black Metal with a Death Metal-like sound. Nothing groundbreaking but honest enough to be on your liking
O - Very interesting Black Metal band, slight combination with Grindcore creating intricate rhythms, with a pinch of strange, cold melody on guitars. this band has a huge potential!
Ocaenides - Progressive Extreme Metal a la Messhuggah, Textures or Dillinger Escape Plan, technical, intricate, melodic, extreme, a killer band
Yikon - Stoner Metal with a '70's like sound. Their melodic guitar leads and solos are a good idea. Enjoyable band.
Download this compilation for free from Hard Sounds and support these bands!
Reviewed by Adrian
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