Dark Vision - Ingrowth

Deadly Mosh / Warnament - Labeled to Confront!

Deep-Pression - Atlantis

Eismond - Behind the Moon We Are Looking into the Distance

Fallen Within - The Day You Died Inside

Galvano - Two Titans

Haboryn - At the Edge of Extinction

Inferno Sci-Fi Grind'n'Roll - The Fall And Rise And Fall Of Inferno Sci-Fi Grind 'n' Roll

Internal Damage - Age of Violence

Lilith Laying Down - Nether Regions

Lotus Circle - Caves

Lymphatic Phlegm / Pankreatite Necro Hemorragica - Split

Page 2:

Muerte Por Mil Cortes - Muerte por mil cortes

MusicArt Project - The Black Side of the Moon

My Indifference To Silence - Horizon of My Heaven

Neue Deutche Stubenmusi - Erstsendung

Nocturnal Blood - True Spirit of Old...

Noisebazooka - Humped World

OCD - La horde pyreneenne

Putrid Blood - Absolute Profit

Raventale - Transcendence

Sakatat - Bir Devrin Sonu

Sarjan Hassan / Nadimac - Battlefield Mosh

Senmuth - 111 111 111 x 111 111 111

Skullcrush - Skullcrush

Skum - Prasina

Somnus Aeternus - On the Shores of Oblivion

Stahlplanet - Leviamaag

Stahlplanet - Nachwelt

Steel Bearing Hand - Steel Bearing Hand

Subhuman - Tributo di Sangue

Terrorama - Genocide

Throneum / Offence - No Salvation

Throneum / Suicidal Winds - Necroblasphemies

War Possession - Through the Ages

Will'o'Wisp - Kosmo

Band: AGONY LORDS

Country: Mexico

Title: A Tomb for the Haunted

Label: Chaos Records

Year: 2012

Style: Heavy Doom Metal

Review:

Wow, I was so hooked by this album that I literally forgot I had to write a review of it and left it in my player for a few spins while reading a fanzine. It's quite rare I get these feelings but it's always great when this happens. Agony Lords seem to be a pretty important name in the Mexican scene, but for me this is the first meeting with its music and after it I will definitely search for their 2 previous albums, too. To me their music sounds like an awesome combination of Paradise Lost and Sentenced with a healthy dose of Heavy Metal, the music builds track by track and evolves into interesting stories with catchy atmospheres. I love this album, and if you like the combination of Heavy Metal and Doom Metal, with hints of Death Metal, you should definitely not miss this album. The only little unsatisfying elements were some of the fast paced parts that could have been better, more original, but the rest is delicious!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: ASTRAL SLEEP

Country: Finland

Title: Visions

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2012

Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:

After an awful EP in 2010, "Angel", Astral Sleep are back with their second full-length, an album that although it is made of only 4 tracks, it lasts for almost an hour of heavy, sorrowful, gloomy Doom Death Metal. The improvement is obvious in all areas of their music and this album is actually very good containing everything a Doom Death Metal fan longs for in this music: heavy riffs, acoustic parts, dual growls - clean vocals and occasional shrieks, slow rhythms, melancholic atmosphere, good variety in track structures, and above all the impression they are finally taking their music seriously. you can really get into this and feel it is honest music. Above my expectations, really recommended!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: AUT MORI

Country: Russia

Title: Pervaja Sleza Oseni

Label: BadMoodMan Music

Year: 2012

Style: Gothic Doom Metal

Review:

If you're into doomy, sorrowful music you're in for a treat here; Aut Mori debuts with a 45 minutes album that can bring your spirit down at least for the rest of the day. I like the growling male vocals mix with the gentle female vocals, the guitar leads are ok too, quite melancholic and the whole atmosphere of this album is based on that; the keyboard backgrounds (and occasional violins) are emphasizing the heavy and dense dreamy soundscapes. If you're looking for a slow, romantic type of Metal you can give this album a try, I think it's yet another success for BadMoodMan, hopefully they will keep this band we'll have a followup soon.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: BEFORE THE FALL

Country: Austria

Title: Antibody

Label: Noisehead Records

Year: 2011

Style: Metalcore

Review:

Before the Fall? Summer? Metalcore, of course! Not a new happy ass band again... Those were my thoughts before spinning this new Noisehead disk. For my luck I wasn't completely right, Before The Fall is a Metalcore band indeed, but not a happy one, not at all, their music is quite dark and brutal. Most of the time fast paced, with occasional breakdowns, groovy (Pantera-like) riffs, and excellent technical abilities, I wonder how much these guys are practicing their instruments on a daily basis. Although Metalcore I quite like this band, it resembles a lot with the Power Thrash Metal movement from the '90's lead by Pantera or Machine Head, but taken to another level, a much more modern approach and much more technical than the above mentioned. I honestly haven't heard such a dark and oppressive atmosphere in a Metalcore release, this CD will hit my player again in the future.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: BUXEN / AIFUR / MORDHELL

Country: Italy / sweden / Poland

Title: Split

Label: Kampf Records

Year: 2007

Style: Black Metal

Review:

This is an old release but since Kampf sent it for a review I guess it's still available although it was released in a limited edition of 500 copies... Make your own mind about this.

Buxen - "vocals on this recording were improvised while recording" - say what??? How can one take such a band seriously? I have to admit it sounds better than a lot of other nowadays bands, but since they are not taking their band seriously why should we? As a proof this "band" never released anything since this split. Don't waste your time.

Aifur - another band that hasn't released anything since this split... Their 4 tracks (actually this is their 2004 demo "Destroying Life") are actually quite good, a very raw, dark and evil form of traditional Black Metal that would have deserved a decent followup since this split.

Mordhell - the Polish Black Metallers were the only band on this release I've heard of before getting this. Although playing the same traditional, old-school, primitive type of Black Metal, this band is much more active and serious. The tracks included on this split are actually the ones from their 2006 EP "Suicide Blood" recorded live in their rehearsal place. The sound is rough, of course, but decent enough to be comprehensive. Not as good as the Aifur part, but not bad either.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: -/10

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Band: CORPSE GARDEN

Country: Costa Rica

Title: Burnt by the Light

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Death Metal

Review:

I've only had the chance to review a few bands from this country and I don't know how many are them over there, but I'm surprised by their quality. Corpse Garden is another proud exponent of this emerging scene, a band that recently released its debut album, this one I'm talking about now. "Burnt by the Light" is a combination of Melodic, Brutal and mostly Technical Death Metal, a successfull combination I might add. Usually many Technical Death Metal bands tend to lack of feelings transmission but this band managed to add that extra melodic and brutal touch to keep it interesting above the instrumental part, above the "simple" display of excellent technical skills. A very nice surprise from a very talented band that won't stay unsigned for long, that's for sure, I wouldn't be surprised to see this album re-released by a major label soon.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: CULTFINDER

Country: UK

Title: Black Thrashing Terror

Label: Eldritch Lunar Miasma Records

Year: 2012

Style: Black Thrash Metal

Review:

Debut vinyl release for both the band and the label (limited to 333 hand-numbered copies), a good way to make yourself a respectable name in the underground. The weird thing about it is that one side is 33 rpm and the other is 45 rpm, or at least this is the first time I see such an idea in practice. With a killer artwork by Mark Riddick this could have only been a Thrash Black release and luckily it's quite a good one. Old-school to the bone, with unpolished sound, mostly fast paced but also with some hints of Doom Metal (on the last track), Cultfinder will definitely work for fans of the new wave of old-school raw Black Thrash Metal. The 3 tracks included here lack of originality but are very catchy, energetic and well executed, so for a debut release this is a success.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: CULTURA TRES

Country: Venezuela

Title: El Mal Del Bien

Label: Devouter Records

Year: 2012

Style: Sludge Doom Metal

Review:

"El mal del bien” is the latest album (2012) of Cultura Tres, a four-piece sludge/doom machine from Venezuela, but the year written on the back cover could be 1996 or 2000: Pantera meets Black Sabbath, rolling together in a avalanche of dust and dirt; to tell the truth, the formula is already called Crowbar (New Orleans) from 1989, and the lack of surprises is the weakness of this work, along together with guitar riff’s sound, that doesn’t hit the core as it’s supposed to. On the other hand, "El mal del bien” shows a tightened band that knows how to stone the listener down, with an accurate song-writing (especially for the instrumental parts) and a smart mood-construction, able to threw you into the worst horror movie with a fitting soundtrack.

A couple of Maya-tribal moments (Los Muertos De Mi Color) and the usual South-American twisted references to religion, give this guys a surplus in the comparison toward their northern colleagues.

Nothing’s really new or shocking from this lp, but this band’s honesty has already been rewarded during a South American – European – Japanese tour since their first album (La Cura, 2008), which drove them into Desertfest in 2012:  "El Mal Del Bien” gives you what you expected for, which is not that bad news nowadays.

Reviewed by Rtz

Rating: 7/10

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Band: D.E.R.

Country: Brazil

Title: Quando a Esperança Desaba

Label: EveryDayHate / Goressimo Records

Year: 2011

Style: Grindcore

Review:

This debut album from the Brazilian D.E.R. is a continuous release of brutality from start to finish, you get only a few moments to clear your head and then it starts again with that grinding attitude. The instrumentsl part is quite well built, there are a lot of different riffs, the drums are unreleting but the to me the vocal part was a disapointment, it seems the guy can only growl with a certain cadence on all tracks and if it wouldn't be for the additional screams to support the growls this would have been ruined. Anyway, thumbs up for the extreme brutality, incredible speed of execution and also for the good sound, Grindcore fans will get a good bone to chew here.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: DARK VISION

Country: Greece

Title: Ingrowth

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2012

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

This band is around since '96 but for some reason they have only managed to release 1 album so far, and that one in 2002. I guess with this new EP they are trying to find a suitable label to give them a push forward. The closest band I could think of when comparing their music would be the Spanish Noctem, although Dark Vision's compositions are not that tight and natural. So we're talking about the Black Death Metal style that's so popular nowadays. Unfortunately the Greeks seem to be more focused on displaying their technical skills rather than curdling their compositions to involve the listener more. They are good instrumentists, that's no doubt, but there are multiple points in their track when you're wondering when is the real mayhem going to start. I cannot say I disliked this CD but for the nowadays fans of this genre this won't be enough, speed and brutality is the key now and Dark Vision focuses more on groove and individual impact.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

PS: (note from the band) "you stated that apart of our latest album "Ingrowth" previous releases was our full lenght album "Full Moon Shines" on 2002, please note that after "F.M.S" we have released a single "Signs From Fallen Stars" and mcd "Bestial Remedy" on 2008. "Ingrowth" album came out only in Vinyl, and after that we sign with BLUNTFACE Records from USA."

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Band: DEADLY MOSH / WARNAMENT

Country: Serbia / Macedonia

Title: Labeled to Confront!

Label: Stay Pure 

Year: 2010

Style: Speed Thrash Metal / Thrash Metal

Review:

Serbia and Macedonia seem to be full of old-school bands and it seems that's whay they like the most over there which is quite good, they like their metal pure and primitive. Opening this split is a band that's new to me, Deadly Mosh from Serbia, playing '80's influenced Heavy Speed Thrash Metal. Traditional rhythms and riffs, nothing special except for the vocals (I haven't heard such vocals in a long time) and occasional guitar solos. Not bad and quite entertaining but they still have a long way to go to release catchier tracks. Warnament listed 4 tracks from their debut album here, and album I have reviewed a year ago and that didn't impressed me much to say the truth. Except for some catchy guitar riffs and some good drumming here and there Warnament still have a lot more work to do, especially on vocals, I can't see the band evolving much with the current vocal.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10  6.5/10

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Band: DEEP-PRESSION

Country: Various

Title: Atlantis

Label: Valse Sinistre

Year: 2011

Style: Dark Ambient

Review:

4 full-length album for this hardworking International act, in the meantime they have released a new one, their fifth. This album is made of 6 long tracks totaling almost 50 minutes, and is released in a limited edition of only 100 hand-numbered copies by Valse Sinistre. I'd label their music as calm, nature-inspired Ambient with a few Dark, quite sinister parts but overall a meditative, quite bright piece of keyboard/synths made music. Too repetitive for my taste, but capable of inducing you into a meditative mood, too bad it doesn't offer any stand-out moments. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: EISMOND

Country: Austria

Title: Behind the Moon We Are Looking into the Distance

Label: Kristallblut Records

Year: 2012

Style: Dark Ambient

Review:

My CD (or all of them?) lists 66 tracks, but this album is actually made of only 3 long songs totaling almost an hour of playing. Eismond is the project of Alexander Wieser, also the main man behind Uruk-Hai, but honestly I like much better what he's doing here: relaxing, calm Dark Ambient made by synths, drums and occasional guitars (mostly leads), painting a cosmic trip, you'll feel like floating among stars and planets. The sound is good enough except the parts where Alexander inserts some post-metal like guitar riffs when it all gets distorted and quite hard to follow. Perfect for a relaxing evening while reading a good book.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FALLEN WITHIN

Country: Greece

Title: The Day You Died Inside

Label: Noisehead Records

Year: 2012

Style: Melodic Metalcore

Review:

Lately I get more and more of these Metalcore/Deathcore releases although it's quite clearly stated on the website we prefer not to cover these genres for our lack of comprehension towards them. Anyway, I have to be fair and write some words about these releases in respect to the ones who sent them. Fallen Within plays some sort of melody fueled Technical Metalcore, quite well structured, modern sounding, with Techno/Electro type of synths all over, clean vocals with occasional growls (weak ones, could have been much better) and the typical Metalcore screams, plus the typical breakdowns. I don't know, it sounds good, entertaining and emotional, I guess chicks and the new wave of metalcore kids will love it.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: -/10

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Band: GALVANO

Country: Sweden

Title: Two Titans

Label: Devouter Records

Year: 2012

Style: Sludge Metal

Review:

Once more, never judge a book by its cover (excellent artwork, indeed): you see two Vikings from Gothenburg, Sweden, with long beards and truce sight, releasing their first Lp named "Two Titans”, what d’you expect them to be? Fucking heavy and slow? Yes, they are. Boring and predictable? Damn, no. Well, the opening tune (Abysmal) is a little bit too long, not a great choice for a beginning in my opinion, but then Bleeding Lamb kicks out and…fuck. Things start to spin, drums and guitars sound amazingly melt as Sabbaths in 2012 would and singing gets right in your face. Destroyer is even better. Then Mattias and Fredrik surprise you with the cheapest trick of the world, an acoustic track (Hyperion). And this works, too! The real weakness of this album is the sound of the guitar: pretty good, honest, but always too similar to itself and a little boring on the long run, they’d have dared a couple of more effects. But, as I said, drums and chords work really well together and there’s no lack of creativity at all (I loved Punisher). I’m not going to spoil anything more from "Two Titans”, just some advice more: make sure you have no plans for Doomsday’s night party, ‘cos Galvano will be headlining it.

Reviewed by Rtz

Rating: 8.5/10

Band: HABORYN

Country: Venezuela

Title: At the Edge of Extinction

Label: Molusco Discos

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

Second full-length from this hard working venezuelan band, "At the Edge of Extinction" could be better labelled as Melodic Thrash Metal with heavy Metal influences because of its countless and influential guitar leads flooding all their compositions. Good technical abilities, quite catchy compositions, and overall a tight release, but I would have preferred a fatter and more powerful sound and more versatile vocals. Excellent potential, these guys can deliver some good Melodic Thrash Metal, I'm curious about their upcoming album.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: INFERNO SCI-FI GRIND'N'ROLL

Country: Italy

Title: The Fall And Rise And Fall Of Inferno Sci-Fi Grind 'n' Roll

Label: Subsound Records

Year: 2012

Style: Grindcore

Review:

Weird combination of Grindcore (the new wave) with Mathcore, Noisecore and Elctro, definitely not my cup of tea, not at all, but I can appreciate the excellent sound quality, the complexity of their compositions and high level of execution. Not a boring album and not usual either so if you're into this music you might give it a try. What I do like about it is the occasional '70's like keyboard inserts and the country choir on track 12, never expected such sounds in such modern/hip music, thumbs up for their courage, these guys have balls!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: -/10

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Band: INTERNAL DAMAGE

Country: Russia

Title: Age of Violence

Label: EveryDayHate

Year: 2012

Style: Grindcore

Review:

Unlike other albums this one starts with a drums solo track, solo that somehow continues on half of the next track, so although the idea is original and welcomed, abusing it gets to boredom. When the album actually starts you're hit by a powerful discharge of old-school organic Grindcore with heavy influences from old-school Death Metal. If you ever though Grindcore has no variations and every track sounds like the others you should listen to Internal Damage's second album, this one ranges from groovy to punkish, from dark to insane, and from fast paced to slow, experimental parts. I love it, but maybe that's also because of the fat, rusty guitar tone that reminded me of the '90's Swedish Death Metal bands especially Unleashed. This is no nonsense Grindcore! Recommended!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: KINGDOM

Country: Poland

Title: Temple of Death

Label: Kampf Records

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Tape EP limited to 150 copies, "Temple of Death" is made of 3 new Kingdom compositions and a cover of Kat's "Spisz jak Kamien" track (Kat is a legend of the Polish Thrash Metal scene). Fast, obscure, rotten, deadly old-school fast paced Death Metal with decaying vocals and catchy but abi too repetitive guitar riffs, plus some razor-sharp solos here and there. The raw but fat sound of this release is exactly what it needed so if you're into old-school Death Metal, especially the Swedish type, go grab this EP while the copies last.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: KVALM

Country: France

Title: Demo 2012

Label: Atavism Records

Year: 2012

Style: Black Metal

Review:

6 tracks, about half an hour of playing for this debut demo from Kvalm, a duo that appears to be founded back in 2006, so this would mean they only have 6 tracks in 6 years... No comments. the music is very chaotic, or at least the mix is chaotic to a point it's hard to understand a single comprehensive rhythm, it seems each instrument has its own way and has nothing to do with the others, and that goes for the vocals too. Yes, it's very aggressive, bestial, raw and demonic, but it has no musical value and honestly I have no idea if anyone will enjoy this demo more than 1 audition. Too bad for the bass lines are quite interesting. Tape limited to 150 hand-numbered copies.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 3/10

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Band: LILITH LAYING DOWN

Country: Germany

Title: Nether Regions

Label: Bret Hard Records

Year: 2013

Style: Melodic Power Thrash Metal

Review:

As much I don't like this band's name (don't know why, I just hate it), as much I love their music. This album is insanely close to perfection, and I have to admit I have enjoyed it till the last note, every fucking bit of it! And I say close because even though Paul's vocal tone is awesome, he tends to push it beyong potential and doesn't succeed in sounding natural all the time, plus some riffs may seem recycled, but apart from that "Nether Regions" is an umbelievable debut. Melodic acoustic parts carefully woven with tight Power Thrash riffs, an overall unique fairytale atmosphere, excellent production, although it's only February I sure this album will rank among my faves for 2013, everything seems to fit in it according to my preferences. Highly recommended!

PS: The track "Tear in My Eye", if based on real facts, is the saddest, most deep and personal approach on a song I've heard in a long time. Chapeau...

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: LOTUS CIRCLE

Country: Greece

Title: Caves

Label: Dusktone

Year: 2012

Style: Drone Doom Metal

Review:

This new release from Dustone is labelled as Esoteric Doom Drone and it's not sure if this is a one man band or multiple persons are behind this project. I wasn't able to get into it at all, its minimalist approach on guitar work (repetitive and few riffs), lack of drums and occasional keyboard and vocal insertions only managed to bore me and honestly I cannot see any superior form of art in it, it sounds like a guy is rehearsing his guitar, nothing more. Sorry but this is not my cup of tea at all.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 4/10

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Band: LYMPHATIC PHLEGM / PANKREATITE NECRO HEMORRAGICA

Country: Brazil / Brazil

Title: Late Pathological Findings II / Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumors

Label: Rotten Foetus Productions / Sonoros Records

Year: 2012

Style: Gore Grind

Review:

I've only heard about Lymphatic Phlegm on this split, so this was a good chance to discover some more of this disgusting Goregrind made in Brazil. LP opens with 6 tracks into their usual fast, Death Metal influenced Gore Grind with unhuman growls, drum machine and quite good guitar riffs. A sick demonstration of everything that's more revolting, a sick display of brutality. PNH has a more organic approach using real drums, a rawer sound (well, the mix is actually rawer) but clear enough not to cause you a headache. A combination of slow, groovy parts with fast, blastbeats based rhythms, totally incomprehensible growls and screams, a band that's closer to the Slam genre than to old-school Grind but quite good nonetheless. 7" limited to 300 hand-numbered copies, recommended only for the most demented of you!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10  7/10

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