Astarot - Raw Sensation of Nostalgia and Nihilistic

Edge of Attack - Edge of Attack

Finntroll - Blodsvept

Haiduk - Spellbook

Halo Of Flys - Bloodier Shade of Red

Instinct - The Black Wound

Kroh - Kroh

Manntra - Horizont

Nigromantia - Inherited Burden

Pensees Nocturnes - Nom d'une Pipe!

Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam

Talisman Stone - Lovecraftopolis

Underwell - Plan Your Rebirth

Way To End - Various Shades of Black

Wolves' Winter - Lycanthropus Legionis

Band:  APOCALYPSE WARHEAD

Country: Finland

Title: Opening The Silos

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Excellent release from this Helsinki based band, I actually had to listen to the album like 3 times, because I couldn’t really imagine it is that good. I wouldn’t actually call it just death metal, because of the melodic parts, which give every song bonus points. This is a great first album, their 5 year work really paid off, seeing as their first demo was released in 2006. I keep reffering to Apocalypse Warhead as a band with multiple members, but the reality is that this is a one-man band, to be specific it is a Tuukka Laitinen production, former guitar player for Rytmihairio, an old finnish band, with multiple releases, mostly splits and EP’s. To get back to „Opening the Silos”, I have to say that in my opinion, the best song on this release has to be „Warhead Apocalypse”, even though it is the only instrumental song on the album. The vocals on the other songs are great, but this song just caught my attention. Enjoy!

Reviewed by Diana

Rating: 10/10

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Band: APOSTATE

Country: Ukraine

Title: Trapped in a Sleep

Label: Metallic Media

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:

This is an excellent proof of the UK based mid '90's Doom Death Metal scene reminiscence and influence over the scene, Apostate's debut and so far only album uses and displays the best elements bands like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and even Anathema used to enchants the teenages of the '90's (including myself). "Trapped in a Sleep" is the perfect album for nostalgics of that era, it's catchy, complex, interesting and involving. Even the sound is reminiscent of those times, crystal clear but still carrying that dusty atmosphere. At times it reminded me of the old Dutch band Threnody (especially the '97 self-titled album), too, although Apostate is not Progressive at all and has a much more melancholic atmosphere. Being a fan of the '90's Doom Death Metal scene it was impossible not to fully enjoy this album but I wouldn't recommend it to the fans of newer types of Metal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ASTAROT

Country: Mexico

Title: Raw Sensation of Nostalgia and Nihilistic

Label: Metallic Media

Year: 2012

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

This is the debut and so far the only album by this one man band from Mexico, a 12 tracks effort totaling almost 80 minutes. Unfortunately I found the music on it very boring although well executed; the drum machine really got on my nerves multiple times during the audition, plus the fact that it has no vocals whatsoever made it an incomplete work for my taste. So Astarot is playing an instrumental only type of slow to mid-tempo rhythmed, mostly melancholic Ambient Black Metal with nothing to stand out except maybe for a few guitar leads. To me it seems like a demo meant to find a suitable vocal, nothing more, and absolutely not an album as I understand this term. Sorry, no go.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 4/10

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Band: BEYOND MORTALITY

Country: Sweden

Title: Infected Life

Label: Grom Records

Year: 2013

Style: Melodic Death Thrash Metal

Review:

After 6 demos, this swedish band finally released a full length production, entitled „Infected Life”. It is a very fast, very brutal album, extremely catchy for the lovers of this genre. It includes a instrumental track called „The Beyond”, which is the first track that really sets the atmosphere for what it about to happen. The album contains 12 amazing tracks, which have a number of influences, from melodic death metal, to even brutal death metal, all mixed together in a very well structured composition. The artwork for this album is also very nicely done, simple, yet with a message. This really is an album to check out!

Reviewed by Diana

Rating: 9/10

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Band: CHAPEL OF DISEASE

Country: Germany

Title: Summoning Black Gods

Label: F.D.A Rekotz

Year: 2012

Style: Death Metal

Review:

First full length album from the german band, contains 8 tracks and a very non-flattering cover photo. Even though the cover photo doesn’t do the album justice, the tracks speak for themselves. It’s probably one of the best oldschool death metal albums I’ve heard in a while, reminds me of the early Pestilence albums. They use some doom parts that really show off the value of the songs. It really is a wonderful first album, especially seeing as the band is quite young (formed in 2008), and they really managed to capture that oldschool feeling that you don’t really get these days from other bands. 

Reviewed by Diana

Rating: 10/10

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Band: DEATH AGONY

Country: France

Title: Carcinogenic Memories

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Pure and Traditional Death Metal is what Death Agony delivers on this debut album, nothing more, nothing less. 9 tracks of what would have been considered semi-technical Death Metal in the '90's, a combination of American and UK forms of this genre. Good compositions, honest approach, clear sound that could have been a bit more prowerful though, plus a few catchy moments but unfortunately not enough to make it a memorable release. Anyway, this is one of the purest Death Metal bands I've heard in recent times so if you're into mid-paced to fast rhythmed old-school Death Metal give it a chance.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: EDGE OF ATTACK

Country: Canada

Title: Edge of Attack

Label: Spread the Metal

Year: 2013

Style: Power Metal

Review:

I gave this album a couple of spins and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I think this is the first time I listen to a band combining Power Metal, traditional and epic Power Metal, with Metalcore but then again I'm not a big Metalcore consumer either. Then I'm not sure if I like or dislike Roxanne's (yes, this is a female fronted band) vocals that at times are really fitting, at time are quite dull and uninspired sounding like she's bored of playing. What I'm sure about is that I have absolutely enjoyed the guitar work, spot on melodic Power Metal complete with excellent intricate and enchanting solos and World-class riffs that reminded me of the 2000's German scene. The backing female vocals are a good addition and even the Metalcore male vocals add their own share of originality to the whole, but it's quite clear the whole band orbits around the classy guitar effort. As a debut album "Edge of Attack" is perfect for getting the band's name out there, I'll certainly give this album a few more spins and maybe I'll be able to make up my mind about the main vocals, too.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FINNTROLL

Country: Finland

Title: Blodsvept

Label: Century Media

Year: 2013

Style: Humppa Folk Metal

Review:

Humppa is a kind of local finnish music playing only when drunk, specyfic mix of local disco with folk sounds. Mix hummpa and folk/blackmetal may seem like an explosive, but Finntroll successfully implement this sound for years. „Blodsvept” is a another, maintained at a high level album, with perfect proportions beetween pathos of blackmetal and humour of folk style. Fast and fury riffs, supported by typical black vocals intersect with humppa melodies, typical to finnish folklore. This is a good job, without unecessary surprised, just Finntroll, more, more harder than Korpiklaani, but the same state of mind. Great album!

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8.5/10

Band: HAIDUK

Country: Canada

Title: Spellbook

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Holy crap, already the 4th one man band release in a row I review Today; technology is really influencing the scene a lot these days. Haiduk was a nice discovery for me, this debut album is a tornado of excellent guitar riffs and leads, one of the most energetic albums I've listened to lately. Genre wise I'd say this is a combination of Black and Death Metal with prominent technical and melodic edges and even some Thrash Metal insertions here and there, based more on the instrumental execution than on atmosphere or vocals, and although it sounds synthetic to the bone I wasn't annoyed by it as I usually am in such cases. The sound is crystal clear and you can easily follow the lines of each instrument, something you should really do while listening to this album, the compositions are so complex and at the same time catchy and compact that you're eagerly waiting for the next track to kick in. Haiduk is not the usual one man band but one that has all the premises to become an important name for the Canadian scene. Good work!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: HALO OF FLYS

Country: USA

Title: Bloodier Shade of Red

Label: Metallic Media

Year: 2012

Style: Gothic Metal

Review:

US based bands have the most recognizable cover artworks in the World: big ass fonts (the bigger the better) and the most non-metal looking pictures. By looking at this band's cover/booklet I would have never (never!) guessed they were a Gothic Metal band if I wouldn't have known the band before. This is Halo of Flys' second effort, a 9 tracks release clocking a bit more than 40 minutes of Gothic Metal heavily influenced by Gothic Rock and Horror Rock that may capture the attention of Grindhouse Horror movies fanatics but not more. The structures are to simple to present real value for the scene nowadays, the vocals are soundling like recorded from the kitchen and the drums are really monotonous. Except for the surreal kind of hopeless atmosphere it creates there's not much more to exult here or at least not for me.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 5/10

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Band: INSTINCT

Country: UK

Title: The Black Wound

Label: Ancient Trail Recordings

Year: 2012

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

Only 3 tracks on this third Instinct album, but 3 long tracks totaling an hour of music. Instinct seems to be a one man band, but on this release Verst is joined by a bass player, Oristalla, I don't know if it's a permanent member or just a guest. The first thing that captured my sight was the inlay card sprinkled with (I suppose) real human blood; it's not the first time I get such a CD, but it's impressive nonetheless. Then the cover/booklet artwork is also very good b/w old-school like type of drawings as borders fitting other drawings and pictures portraying exactly what the music tries to express, solitude, desolation and decadence. Yes, we're talking about a depressive type of Black Metal with rhythms ranging from slow to mid-paced, desperate vocals, repetitive structures and lots of Drone / Ambient passages to support the atmosphere. The guitar leads are really good (especially on the second track), the drums as well and they also seem to be recorded live, not computer generated, and the vocals are too in the back to be able to understand anything, so I guess they are more used as another instrument than real vocals. If you're into depressive, dark and desolate Ambient Black Metal you should try this album yourselves, the atmospheres are really deep and heavy.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: KROH

Country: UK

Title: Kroh

Label: Devizes Records

Year: 2012

Style: Doom / Hard Rock / Experimental

Review:

Come on, Paul: I’ll do my best to end this review in a polite way, but you’re really pushing me. I mean, we got this guy (Paul Kenney) whose criminal record takes no prisoners: Mistress, Fukpig…Anaal Nathrakh: sounds tasty, "no guts no glory”, don’t it? A couple of years ago Paul met Francis Anthony, an honest vocalist who became his equerry in Kroh, a hell-raising doom wishing well where I threw my coin. Ok. One single thought came to my mind after 36:09 minutes of Kroh: come on, Paul.

Those fuzzy guitars sounds pretty good, ok, but we know you can play. Vocals are flawless, clear, but this is no amateur league, this should be Premier league, you self-indulgent Englishmen. Song writing is lazy, predictable, more like a recorded jam session than anything else: try to find something new in "Stones into flesh” or "Luciphoria”, if you can. And I’ll be honest, when it came to "These Butterflies”, I hoped it was a joke: 2002 is gone only ten years ago, we can’t even talk about vintage revivalism or something…what are you writing for guys, "Scorpion King 2 : the original soundtrack” ?

To say the truth, lyrics are well-written: they fits well, and even if occultism, Aleister Crowley and the ubiquitous Lucifer are pretty worn-out themes, they do their shit. 

We hope in something new coming from Kroh, because the kids are alright, they’re only lazy, but this won’t satisfy Jesus enough to forgive you in the End of the Days: colours of this purple album are much too deep, if you know what I mean – sounds like someone grabs himself to the hard rock safety belt, scared of being a pioneer, chained to the ground of  "radio-friendly”…and he comes from Anaal Nathrakh! I believed that side-projects were an excuse to try something new out of the box: this could have been a surprising, bold masterpiece if it only came from Nickelback.

Reviewed by Rtz

Rating: 5.5/10

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Band: MANNTRA

Country: Croatia

Title: Horizont

Label: Kontra Music & Spona

Year: 2012

Style: Folk Progressive Metal

Review:

Manntra is a new and interesting band from Croatia, untypical mix of porgressive metal (with electronic influences), folk motifs and gothic rock. 

All album is singing in croatian, based on good ballance between female vocals stylized on balkan folk kind of singing and heavy/thrash/pagan male vocals. A lot of electronic motifs is similar to german drive like old Rammstein or bands which based on these kind of playing metal. However „Horizont” is more new way of folkmetal drive than typical electro-prog metal. Good drive, good stuff, good idea to connecting traditional and modern way of metal.

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8/10

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Band: NIGROMANTIA

Country: Hungary

Title: Inherited Burden

Label: Noisehead Records

Year: 2012

Style: Melodic Death Metal

Review:

Although the band's name might remind you of the Greek Necromantia, these Hungarians have nothing to do with Black Metal but instead they play a modern and quite melodic type of Death Metal with very good sound although I'm not completely fond on the snare drum's sound and on the fact the atmosphere gets to be a bit dry at times. The compositions are very good, well-worked, semi-technical and diverse so I guess the band put a lot of effort in them. Chris' vocals are very versatile ranging from deep growls to rapacious screams complementing well the almost progressive types of instrumental structures where I can feel a heavy Gothemburg type of Death Metal influences. Not a groundbreaking album, but definitely one that will put this band's name on the Metal map, and they really deserve some attention.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: PENSEES NOCTURNES

Country: France

Title: Nom d'une Pipe!

Label: Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions

Year: 2013

Style: Avantgarde Metal

Review:

I'm following this one man band since its debut album (oh, and it's been already 4 years?), and I can clearly say with every new album I'm always surprised by Vaerohn's insanity and availability to compose such weird material. This fourth album is most definitely his weirdest opus so far, but slowly he's drifting away from Extreme Metal and falls into an Avantgarde, polyphonic and sometimes atonal type of Metal music. Vaerohn pretty much left the Depressive side of Black Metal and adventured into a theatrical, desolate and schyzophrenic circus world, road opened 2 years ago by "Ceci est de la Musique". Cabaret music combined with opera elements, French cafe music, a few drops of Metal... portrait of the most macabre circus you can imagine. This guy is slowly becoming a complete artist but unfortunately he's distancing more and more from Extreme Metal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: SUFFOCATION

Country: USA

Title: Pinnacle of Bedlam

Label: Nuclear Blast

Year: 2013

Style: Brutal Technical Death Metal

Review:

From the first sounds of this album this CD is just death metal brillant!  300% of fury, brutal but technical american death metal in american death metal! Great guitar solos, great growl, great sharp and fast guitar, drum machine gun. Pure death metal from american legendary band, this is not surprising of course, but great for my deathmetal ears. Perverse beauty in sound stability. Just Suffocation, pure Suffocation. 

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 8/10

Band: TALISMAN STONE

Country: Italy

Title: Lovecraftopolis

Label: Moonlight Records

Year: 2012

Style: Psychedelic Doom Rock

Review:

I've checked some info about the band before listening to this full-length and I was quite amazed to see them mentioned is some pretty important best of 2012 tops so of course my interest grew. Now, after giving it a couple of spins I definitely have to agree with these tops, Talisman Stone is an innovative Doom band although keeping it all as organic as possible. A combination of drums, bass, vocals (male and female), flute, tabla (wtf?) and sitar (!!!) is what makes from this album a deeply mesmerizing, out of this world experience for the listener. Wait, there's no guitar? No, there isn't although you can hardly notice that, the bass player does an impressive work in supplying for this "loss", and although this might seem incomplete, I actually feel this is the almost perfect combination of instruments for this band's music, I would only add some organ or piano parts to make it sensational. Recommended for all fans of Doom (not necessarily Metal) music.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: UNDERWELL

Country: Italy

Title: Plan Your Rebirth

Label: WormHoleDeath

Year: 2012

Style: Post Hardcore

Review:

Definitely not the type of metal we cover in Pest Webzine, Underwell seem to be a Post Hardcore band but I wouldn't know since that's not my area of expertise, so I'd only say a few words to present their debut album. Made of 10 tracks, "Plan Your Rebirth" was recorded in 2011 and released almost 2 years later after being mastered in Canada by Chris Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Beneath The Massacre, The Agonist), so I guess it was well worth the waiting for their fans. Quite energetic metal with pieces and bits from all the new types of Metal (Core that is), the tracks are sometimes emotional, sometimes thrilling, sometimes aggressive, and are not monotonous, their technical skills and inspiration are sufficient to create catcy tunes, so if you're into this type of music you might give "Plan Your Rebirth" a try. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: -/10

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Band: WAY TO END

Country: France

Title: Various Shades of Black

Label: Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions

Year: 2013

Style: Avantgarde Black Metal

Review:

Way To End, although being a full line-up band seems to be more like the project of Hazard, the only original member still active, and that because he composed all music and lyrics for this second album. Vaerohn from Pensees Nocturnes is also among the band members so I think he's only in to help a friend out as I cannot imagine him not being a part of the composition process knowing his talent and potential. "Various Shades of Black" constitutes a weird material, an avantgarde form of Depressive Black Metal based on sensational guitar structures and performance, stretched to progressive heights, a myriad of vocal layouts and tonalities, intricate drums, and above all a haunting, impressive atmosphere created in an (odd) organic environment. 50 minutes of very intriguing, well performed Avantgarde Metal that shouldn't miss your collection.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: WOLVES' WINTER

Country: Argentina

Title: Lycanthropus Legionis

Label: Infernal Hymns Records

Year: 2011

Style: Black Metal

Review:

This band comes from Argentina and was formed in 2008. So far there's no full-length released, but they are working as an underground band should do, with demos and splits. This release is made of their previous demo and some live tracks totaling almost an hour of raw Black Metal. The demo part is quite good if you're into high-pitched guitar tones, uncomprehensive Black Metal screeches and traditional structures ranging from mid-tempo to fast rhythms. The bass lines are really good and the guitar riffs are not bad either; the sound is raw and unpolished but is good enough for what they are trying to accomplish with their music. For underground Black Metal fanatics this tape will be a good treat. Regarding the second part of "Lycanthropus Legionis" I've never been a fan of underground live recordings and honestly I don't like this one either, I hate not being able to understand the guitars and being attacked by the usually too high pitched vocal tones.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10

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