Band: ABWEHRSCHLACHT

Country: UK

Title: Demo

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010 

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Lately I get to review more and more UK based Black Metal acts, and I guess that's a sign the scene from the island is getting more active than ever (I'm talking about the underground BM scene). Well it was about the time to proove UK has more than just CoF type of metal. 

Abwehrschlacht is a two men band formed in 2007 and this one is their debut demo, a late release I might say. 4 tracks plus an outro in about 19 minutes it's enough to get to know what this band is all about: raw, mid-tempo Black Metal with a military atmosphere surrounding the whole. The sound is primitive, but if you're into this kind of underground Black Metal you're used to such a sound. The drum machine sound could have been better as it gets to sound too synthetic sometimes and that's what followers of this genre hate the most in a recording.

I have enjoyed this release, and especially the 4th track, an old school Thrashy Black'n'Roll Metal (yeah, I know it sounds weird as hell, I just came up with it) track, and the funny fanfare outro, a sign that the guys are willing to experiment in their music so I'm curiously waiting for their next release.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: ALDRLAG

Country: USA

Title: Aldrlag

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Folk Black Metal

Review:

Now this is one of the "most manufactured" and original releases I have ever received, this in terms of visual presentation. I remember now Bird From the Abyss' releases enveloped, or a Finnish Black Metal band (don't remember which one) that sent me matches to burn my local church, or an Australian band that sent me a lotion for my balls, haha, crazy mofos. Aldrlag is a serious thing (like BFtA), and the music on this demo prooves it. But to end the presentation of the look of this demo I can say it is packed in mahogany wood, burnt with runes, stained with blood and assembled by hand. The worst this is that it is limited to only 64 copies and I have the 9th already, so I guess by the time I'll be posting this release it will be down to less than 50 copies, so you'll have to hurry up if you want to order and own an original release in your collection. It really looks great.

regarding the music on "Aldrlag" we're getting 6 tracks lasting for 40 minutes, so it could also be considered a full-length, but the sound is not so good, that's why it's better Gramr (the man behind this project) chose to name it a demo. Mid-tempo Black Metal with raw, primitive sound, combined with acoustic, folkish guitar parts here and there. Gramr takes care of all the instruments except drums on some tracks which are handled by two guests, Gaupa and R. Barnett. The Black Metal parts are based on repetitive guitar riffs that after a while become monotonous and almost boring. Almost because Gramr adds accoustic parts to his music and all of a sudden it all becomes more interesting and makes you keep listening. As a debut demo it is good enough, but I hope he will record in a better studio next time (the drums sound on this one is awful) so we can get more of what he's trying to do with Aldrlag. Also some more of that keyboard that's on the first and last tracks would do just fine. 

Anyway, thumbs up for his idea to add the manual, personal touch to this release.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: ANGREPP

Country: Sweden

Title: Warfare

Label: Abyss Records

Year: 2010

Style: Thrash Black Metal

Review:

Angrepp comes from Sweden and was founded in 2006. "Warfare" is their debut album, an album that won't disapoint any fans of this combination between Thrash Metal and Black Metal. Angrepp is raw, barbaric, aggressive, catchy, groovy, sharp and their music simply grwos on you from the start till the end. The only weak point of this release is the lenght on each and every track: the shortest one (beside the intro) is almost 7 minutes long... The whole album lasts for almost 80 minutes which is not a usual practice for this genre and there's a reason for that: at some point you feel it gets too repetitive and stuffed only to get more minutes. I would have preferred a shorter album (shorter tracks), but nevertheless I have enjoyed a lot their effort. Good band, a band that has the right attitude and attributes to break into this growing Thrash Black Metal scene.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: AS LIGHT DIES

Country: Spain

Title: Ars Subtilior from Within the Cage

Label: Solitude Prod. / Bad Mood Man Music

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Gothic Doom Metal

Review:

Don't know why, but this band's name gave me the impression I'll have to review a metalcore release... but coming from Solitude Prod. this is highly unlikely and indeed I was wrong, very wrong. 

As Light Dies is a quartet from Spain formed in 1999. This is their second album, after "A Step Through the Reflection" released on Mondogo Canibale in 2007. "Ars Subtilior..." is a 9 tracks release lasting for almost an hour. The music on it is very complex and complicated to understand, just immagine a combination of '90's Czech and Polish progressive Gothic / Doom metal scenes (with acts like Demimonde, Lux Occulta, Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy, Cemetery Of Scream, Love History) taken to the extremes. ALD presents here a stunning work, it's hard to believe there's only 4 members in this band, and the instrument that stand in front of the whole is the violin that gives both an atmosphere of melancholy and a crazy, deviant feeling. The vocal part is a plus as well, going from clear, melodic vocals to growls, but also parts of female voices. An original part is the lyrics section written in: Spanish, German, English, French and Italian, differing from track to track. The guitarist is also doing a complex job that might seem too complex, too much for an unwarned listener. 

It was fun to listen to this album, it has a looooot of influences, sounds of all kinds, complex rhythms, it is catchy enough, so all in all I recommend it to those of you into listening to an album countless times before understand it completely, this is meat for your teeth. :)

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: AUTUMNAL REAPER

Country: Holland

Title: Rise of the Raging Death

Label: Apollon Records

Year: 2009

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

I should be ashamed, but I've never heard of Autumnal Reaper until now, although the band was formed in 1993 (actually it was formed in 1991 but under another name, Raging Death - now you know where this album's title comes from - , and changed their name in 1993) and its members were part of or collaborated at some point with bands like Malevolent Creation, Pleurisy, Kampfar or Heidevolk), not to name the three albums (2 studio and 1 live) released before "Rise of the...". Oh well, shit happens. 

This album is a 9 tracks release lasting for almost 45 minutes of aggressive Black Death Metal. We're getting full on extreme metal here, but I think the production doesn't do them justice, I mean the sound is good and stuff, but it simply lacks of power, the compositions are extreme but when you listen to the whole album you might fall asleep, it becomes monotonous after a few tracks and you might think you're listening to the same track over and over, although if you listen carefully you get the differences. I don't know what to say, this is a good band, they know how to handle their instruments, but this album doesn't move me at all.

Reviewed by Adrian 

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Band: BAAL

Country: Portugal

Title: Old Dead Moon

Label: Orion Prod.

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Baal is the one man band of Arcanus, a guy who's also involved in Inner Helvete, Immanis, War Master, Ishkur and Alcoholocaust. He started this project back in 1999, but released only 1 demo a year later and then had a quiet period of a decade... Until this year whan he is back with a 5 tracks EP lasting for almost 15 minutes of Black Metal. His music is not bad at all if you're used to underground releases with poor sound quality; his compositions are not monotonous at all, and they even have a bit of epic feeling here and there, but only a few of those parts because the rest is fast and furious Black Metal. An EP that brings nothing new or innovative to the scene but at least prooves that Arcanus is a prolific member of the Portuguese Black Metal scene and that his projects are not to be thrown away. This EP is limited to 50 copies so hurry up if you want to own one.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: BLACK WREATH

Country: Denmark

Title: A Pyre of Lost Dreams

Label: VME / Head Not Found

Year: 2009

Style: Funeral Doom Death Metal

Review:

Nowadays it becomes an exception to find a solid Funeral Doom Death band that's not signed with the Russians from Bad Mood Man or Solitude Productions, and here's an exception, Black Wreath from Denmark, a trio founded in 2002 that hasn't released anything before this debut album. That's pretty strange, to release your debut album 7 years after the band's foundation, and if I tell you that this album contains only 4 tracks that's even more strange. 4 tracks lasting for an hour, pretty fair for a Doom Metal album. Black Wreath is slow to mid paced Doom Metal combined with Death Metal influences especially on vocals, growls. If I mention that one of the members of this band is none other than Kim Larsen, member of Saturnus and the man behind Of the Wand & the Moon, you'll guess we're dealing here with top notch funeral sounds. 

It's an album that I can listen to whenever I want to calm down, just imagine you're sitting in a confortable chair, in the middle of your town and all around you is war, bombs exploding everywhere, people running, and you're just seeing everything in slowmotion, calm, meditative. The only thing that kinda gives a different feeling is the vocal part, the growls. Very good album, I like it a lot. 

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: BLOODDAWN

Country: UK

Title: Black Hymns From The House Of God

Label: Panzerfaust Prod.

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

There are multiple Bloddawn named bands around the world Today, but we're dealing here with the one coming out of UK. Formed in 2005 as a one-man band, Blooddawn started to have a pretty good discographic career in 2008 releasing 2 demos and a Split, then in 2009 2 full-length albums, and this year a new Split and this third full-length. As I said before this project was started by one man oinly, Paul, but soon after he recruited Donn, who's a familiar name to Pest Webzine's readers, being a part of Torch Of Darkness and the man behind Teutoburg Forest.

This album starts with a prayer, a real prayer recorded live in some church and it gives you the impression you're going to listen to a full sermon, but then the band unleashes their fury, their extremely aggressive and fast Black Metal made even more frightening by the industrial type of distorted vocals. With such a blasphemous title you can easily guess what's going on from the lyrics point of view. Also they have included a lot of effects and ambient parts that are perfect in this truly frightening atmosphere. The only thing I don't like is the razor-sharp distorted sound on all the recording, especially on guitars and vocals, but some of you, the ones who seek the extremest from the extreme, will probably enjoy this style. 

This is an album that prooves UK Black Metal has much more to offer than cheesy "Black" Metal, there's a strong Underground scene on the island, too.

Review by Adrian

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Band: CANONIS

Country: Russia

Title: Apple of Discord

Label: Bad Mood Man Music

Year: 2010

Style: Gothic Doom 

Review:

Canonis is an underground Russian Gothic Metal band formed in 1994. The fact that they remained underground all this time is not at all due to their music and actually I cannot explain to myself why although active for more than 15 years this band has never released a full-lenght only a few demos. And "Apple of Discord" is actually a Best Of... compilation not a full-lenght album. There are 7 tracks included on this release, lasting for almost half an hour. The music is soft, quite relaxing ethereal Gothic (Metal) built on keyboards and vocals structures. There are only a few guitars and drumming is computer generated but doesn't disturb, it's actually pretty good sounding. Some Folkish elements and some violins are also present along the album, and the vocalists (3 girls played in Canonis during their existence) are all very good. The sound ranges from very good to quite poor, but this inconsistence is understandable, after all this is a best of compilation. 

This CD is a great way to meet the band, too bad that it is such a mysterious band, I don't know if they plan to keep creating music or this is the headstone on their grave...

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: CARMINA

Country: France

Title: Carmina

Label: Rewolucja Records

Year: 2008

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Bif, who's the man behind Rewolucja Records, also plays Bass in Carmina, that's a fact I discovered recently. As in Roata Records' CD case I somehow misplaced Carmina's CD between the reviewed ones and so I was pretty sure it has been already reviewed, but it seems it's my fault again and I apologize to Bif for this and I'm reviewing the album now.

Carmina has almost 10 years of existence now but have only managed to release a demo and two splits before releasing this 7 tracks EP. "Carmina" is a fast and brutal Death Metal display, but the sound makes it hard to follow. The music is really catchy, intricate and complex structured, but it sounds so clogged, just like listening to a bad, old tape. The rhythms are fast to very fast, filled with grooves and breaks / changes. A good effort, but unfortunately ruined by the bad sound...

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: DE PROFUNDIS

Country: Hungary

Title: Haunted by Ill Angels Only

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Raw Melodic Black Metal

Review:

Hungarian De Profundis was founded back in 2000 by two friends, but only a year after they decided to put it on ice for personal reasons. They started working again on this project 2 years ago and here I have their first effort, a 4 tracks EP lasting for 18 minutes. The great thing about De Profundis is that these 2 guys seem to play live as well which is not so common for 1 or 2 members bands nowadays. 

The music on "Haunted..." is a combination of raw, fast and aggressive Black Metal with melodic and epic parts, with a clear Bathory influence. What I like about this EP is that even if the music is mostly fast and brutal the combination with melodic guitar leads and clear vocals seems natural and that means this is a well-crafted release. Also the addition of synths doesn't make their music soft or less aggressive, it just gives an epic feeling. Too bad there are only 4 tracks on this EP, I have enjoyed it a lot and would have liked to have more to listen. The third track is actually a melodic, nostalgic intermezzo made on synths only. I'm sure there's a good future for this band if the two members will keep creating music and will release new materials in less than 10 years intervals. :) Recommended to all underground Black Metal followers!

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: DIABOLICON

Country: Poland

Title: Diabolicon

Label: Smouldering Earth Records

Year: 2009

Style: Black Metal

Review:

From their looks I thought I was going to listen to an old-school raw Black Metal act, but I was wrong, Diabolicon is quite modern in sound and their music is Black Metal, indeed but has nothing to do with old-school or with unpolished, primitive sound & compositions. This is most probably one of the best straight-forward Black Metal bands I've heard this year and their EP is one of the most enjoyable (well, if you like this kind of music, of course) releases for this year. 4 tracks lasting for about 18 minutes of fast and furious Black Metal extremely well executed, filled with anger and pride, complex compositions, great guitars work and raw, devilish vocals, a delight for any Black Metal fan. Following the new, great Polish tradition, Diabolicon is yet another extreme metal act from those lands that puverizes everything in their way. I am sure we will hear much more good things about this band in the near future, but in the meantime I recommend you this release, go get it and you won't be disappointed!

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: DRAUMAR / WINTERBLOOD

Country: Germany / Italy

Title: Metamorphosis

Label: Roata Sound

Year: 2010

Style: Neoclassical Ambient / Dark Ambient

Review:

I thought I have reviewed this release months ago but I was browsing the webzine Today and couldn't find it, although the CD was in my "reviewed" pile of CDs... It's not often I do such mistakes, but it happens, what can I do, I'm only human. So here I'm reviewing this split after half a year since I have received it. :(

This is Roata Sound's first official release, a split between two upcoming stars of the Underground Dark Ambient scene, the German Draumar and Italian Winterblood. Draumar was previously signed with Naturmacht Prod. where they have released their debut album, "Hibernation", also reviewed somewhere in Pest webzine (this time for real, haha) but don't know what happened and the two parts ended the deal afterwards. Italian Winterblood has a richer background when it comes to releases, they have already 2 full-lenght albums out, one on Frozen Landscapes Prod. and one on Witchcraft Rec., and seem to have a more established name in the scene.

Now regarding the release, the first thing that strikes you is the fantastic cover artwork made by Kogaion Art (a simply stunning artist, check out his work!); the conceptual part of this release I guess it's Winter, and the artwork expresses that perfectly, not to mention the multimedia part: Flash presentation plus 1 Flash clip for each band - Kogaion Art work again, this will leave you mouth-open... Too bad it is limited to only 80 copies as this is a high-class release. 

From the music point of view Draumar presents 4 tracks made on piano/synth on a Neoclassical Ambient path, calm and relaxing, and Winterblooddive into a Dark atmosphere made on synths only. Both bands are a pleasure to listen and the idea of combining the tracks (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7 are Draumar compositions and tracks 2, 4, 6 are Winterblood) gives more unity to the whole.

Fantastic release, too bad that I think it is sold-out by the time I'm posting this, but anyway you should contact Roata Sound for more info, maybe you'll find a distro in your area that has it. Not to miss!

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: HELEVORN

Country: Spain

Title: Forthcoming Displeasures

Label: Solitude Prod. / Bad Bood Man Music

Year: 2010

Style: Gothic Doom Metal

Review:

Spanish Helevorn was formed back in 1999 in Palma de Mallorca and up until now they have released only 1 EP and 1 full-length, so this is their second opus, an 8 tracks effort lasting for almost 55 minutes. Helevorn a similar path of bands like Swallow The Sun, Draconian or Novembers Doom, and the mature level of their compositions suggests that we're dealing with a band that might actually make it in this Gothic Doom Metal field and reach levels as the abovementioned bands. "Forthcoming Displeasures" is based on melancholic, even nostalgic atmospheres created by a good mix of guitar riffs and leads supported by a solid rhythm section, subtile but vrey present keyboard backgrounds, violin parts here and there, and a good display of growls plus clean vocals (I would have liked a bit more of the clean vox though). An album that after 2 tracks I thought will bore the hell out of me, but it actually captured my attention gradually after the third track and became even more interesting after the second listening.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: INNER HELVETE

Country: Portugal

Title: The Final Hecatombe

Label: Orion Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Inner Helvete seems to be a cult band in Portugal's underground extreme metal scene and when I say this I think of the year they were formed as a band, 1996, and also their releases, 2 demos, 4 splits, a full-length and a DVD-R. From 2004 to 2009the band seems to have taken a rest, but now they are back and this one is their first release after 7 years, "The Final Hecatombe", an EP containing 3 tracks and lasting for 12 minutes, enough to make the presentations, enough for the listener to understand this is a furious Satanic Black Metal band that takes no prisoners. Inner Helvete's music is mostly mid-tempo with a few fast parts, having as it's main and most interesting point (at least in my opinion) Abrcdvr's vocal parts: from desperate Black Metal screams to growls and even clean vocals, all sung in Portuguese, which sound great, trust me. The sound is raw, comprehensive, and adds a bit more effects to the devilish "look" of this band. Interesting release that deserves your attention.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: LIFELESS

Country: Germany

Title: Beyond the Threshold of Death

Label: Ibex Moon Records

Year: 2010

Style: Old-School Death Metal

Review:

If it's out on Ibex Moon Records this album should be Death Metal, of course, and not just any Death Metal but old-school, traditional type, so if you're into this genre you should know this US label by now. The band, Lifeless, is a newcommer when it comes to releases, but not when we're talking about their years of experience together: the band was formed in 2004 but released its debut album only 4 years later, in 2008 and actually this is their debut album re-released by Ibex Moon in 2010 (the first time it was self-released). "Beyond the Threshold of Death" is a 9 tracks effort lasting for a bit more than half an hour. There are 8 of their own compositions and a cover of Dismember's "Casket Garden". Lifeless music is really fat sounding, a good combination between the old-school scenes of Sweden (same guitar and bass low tones) and USA: aggressive, melodic, dark and powerful. I recommend it to old-school death Metal followers only, the ones of you who are seeking for progressive things, well, just search elsewhere.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: NALVAGE

Country: Italy

Title: Worship Dehumanization

Label: Dead Center Prod.

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Debut full-lenght for Nalvage, although the band's name seems very familiar to me, don't know why. This release could also be considered an EP as it contains only 6 tracks and lasts for half an hour, so I guess it's up to whoever wants to tag this, there are no real rules about this anymore...

Nalvage comes from Italy and their music could be labeled as a mix of extremely aggressive Black and Death Metal with Grindcore touches here and there, but unfortunately with a chaotic sound that made me bored after a while of listening, well not bored but quite tired of listening to it. This music should have deserved a better sound if you ask me, it appeals to fans of the Polish Black Death scene for sure, it is complex, brutal as hell, fast, evil and catchy. Once again, too bad for this chaotic sound...

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: NUCLEAR AGGRESSOR

Country: Italy

Title: Violent Thrashing Rage

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Old-School Thrash Metal

Review:

Nuclear Aggressor was founded a few months ago and here I have their debut demo, a 5 tracks release lasting for almost 15 minutes. 4 of the tracks are their own compositions and the fifth is a cover version of Minotaur's "Necromancer", a pretty good cover I might add. Nuclear Aggressor is 100% old-school Thrash Metal, simple and effective made for headbanging only, meaning it's very good for live gigs, but I would suggest you buy this album only in case you're not looking for something special; the guitar riffs are ok, catchy and very metal, but we've heard these kind of riffs countless times before, drums are mostly fast and don't require or show much variation and the vocals are pretty good  in case you don't care about the lyrics (like me), but in case you would like to read the lyrics also well, don't, especially if you're English native speaker. :)

All in all "Violent Thrashing Rage" is a nice effort for a band that has only a couple of months since its inception, but they clearly need much more work. For '80's kind of Thrash Metal supporters.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: ON THE EDGE OF THE NETHEREALM

Country: Russia

Title: Different Realms

Label: Bad Mood Man Music

Year: 2010

Style: Depressive Doom Death Metal

Review:

OTEOTN is the one man project of Vladimir Andreev, also guitarist / vocalist in Otkroveniya Dozhdya. Here he takes care of all the instruments and has a gues, Sethaye, to do the vocal parts. I honestly like what Vladimir did on the instrumental part, but the vocal part is so monotonous that it puts me asleep faster than a track can end... it's only distorted deep growls, but the kind of growls made to sound desperate, not aggressive, so the choice of this vocalist seems uninspired for Vladimir. From his part, the instrumental part, only good things, the instruments sound curdled, the metal part is catchy enough and the compositions are complex, but there's a minus here as well, the calm parts are not so well combined with the metal ones and so they kinda kill the joy of listening to a whole track, it feels like driving and aggressively breaking from time to time... I would have liked those melodic, calm parts as intros, or beginnings/endings of tracks or intermezzos, but planted here and there during the 8 tracks is brutal, man. :) 

Vladimir has quite good skills on guitars, he might do some pretty killer stuff in the future, but in the meantime I suggest you give this album a try if you're into Melancholic, Melodic type of Doom Death; good sound, great production.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: PENSEES NOCTURNES

Country: France

Title: Grotesque

Label: Les Acteurs De L'Ombre

Year: 2010

Style: Neoclassical Black Metal

Review:

Vaerohn is back with his second album under the Pensees Nocturnes moniker, a quite waited follow-up after the well-acclaimed debut, "Vacuum", one of the best Black Metal albums I have ever heard, and an album that made me a Pensees Nocturnes fan. Now you can guess I was eagerly expecting this new album, an 8 tracks release lasting for almost an hour. Vaerohn combines Suicidal Black Metal with Neoclassical parts, and once again I'm saying that if all the instruments are handled by him we're dealing with one of the most complex figure of the Metal scene Today, a rising star! 

"Grotesque", as its name suggests is more based on creating grotesque, frightening atmospheres than it was the previous one, "Vacuum" which was more oriented on illustrating the French boheme world from a few hundreds of years back. This one is more epic, more suitable to be a movie soundtrack, so we could say Vaerhon changed a bit his style. If you're not familiar with Pensees Nocturnes yet, don't wait another minute and go get this piece of Black Metal art right away, you won't be disapointed if you're into experimental things. "Grotesque" is sad, desperate, nostalgic, aggressive, melodic, melancholic, brutal, grandiose... is grotesque. I'm glad I have the chance to listen to such releases... Highly recommended!

Ah, by the way, perfect cover artwork for "Grotesque", simply perfect.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: PESTIFER

Country: Belgium

Title: Age of Disgrace

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Technical Death Metal

Review:

It's not every day I get to review Belgian bands so I was a bit curious what Pestifer will sound like and to tell you the truth I wasn't disapointed at all. Pestifer is a highly skilled Technical Death Metal band, something between Death and Necrophagist. The band was formed in 2004 and this is their debut album so it seems natural they are extremely bounded and their music sounds incredibly curdled and mature, a fine balance between catchy rhythms and complex, intricate structures. A band where all the five guys involved are deeply involved (you can choose to follow all the instruments as a whole or taken one by one, and study then at your will). The album lasts for more than 40 minutes and contains 11 tracks that will please any Tech Death Metal followers out there. I would say we're dealing with a very promising debut here and I'm sure if they'll stick to this type of playing they'll go far. One "complaint" though: I would have liked to hear much more of those great guitar solos. Well, maybe on the next one.

Reviewed by Adrian 

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Band: PUTRID BLOOD

Country: Serbia

Title: Fire at Will

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2009

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

If you're a Pest Webzine constant reader there should be no secrets in the fact that I simply adore the Serbian extreme metal scene and their constant breed of powerful acts that really know how to handle their instruments and create fuckin' furious metal as it was meant to be done. Putrid Blood is yet another representative of this great scene, a band that was founded in 2008 with the intent of playing Thrash Metal, and Thrash Metal they play. 

These five guys looking like the leaders of a Tifosi group present us here their debut EP, a 7 tracks release lasting for almost 25 minutes of mostly fast Thrash Metal forged the old-school way on catchy guitar riffs, fast and aggressive drumming and ocasional guitar solos, all fronted by angry screaming vocals. Nothing new or original under the sun, but they proove to have what it takes to do good, solid Thrash Metal and maybe in the future to create their own identity in this genre. This one is a catchy release with fairly good sound, recommended to any headbanging party you plan to have. :) 

The last track on this EP, "The End", adds a good dose of Black Metal to their music, maybe this could be the band's new orientation?

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: TIRANO

Country: Chile

Title: Der Kelch des Todes

Label: Pagan Forces Records

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

I have little info on this Chilean band so I'll stick to presenting this release only. "Der Kelch des Todes" is a 3 tracks demo lasting for around 15 minutes of raw Black Metal. Lord Blasphemous Tyrannus, the man behind this project, seems to be determined to place his music on the old-school Black Metal path, primitive, quite simple, but furious and evil as all Black Metal should be. This demo contains two of his own compositions and a cover of Carnaza's "Death Signal". I haven't heard of Carnaza before but it seems to be a cult Thrash Metal band from the Chilean '90's metal scene. This cover brings a Thrashy feeling to Tirano's music, but the other two compositions are Black Metal, ranging from slow to mid-tempo and even fast rhythms. Recommended to old-school raw Black Metal followers.

Reviewed by Adrian

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Band: WAR PLAGUE

Country: USA

Title: Government Issued Murder

Label: Victory By Fire Records

Year: 2010

Style: Industrial Black Metal

Review:

This one is War Plague's debut demo, released back in 2003 and re-released now by Victory By Fire Records in a limited edition of 33 copies only, copies that by the time you are reading this are long gone.

War Plague is an Industrial Black Metal band from USA, formed in 2002. I could describe their music, or at least what's happening on this CD, as ultra-fast (sometimes the drums reach such a high pace that they sound like video-games...), extremely aggressive, quite technical on guitars, an avalanche of freezing cold music combined with war sounds. Despite my prejudices regarding Industrial Metal I like this release quite a lot, it's extremely aggressive and that's what anyone should expect from such a band. 

They have 2 albums out, I suggest you give this band a try.

Reviewed by Adrian

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