Band: ABSTRACT SPIRIT

Country: Russia

Title: Horror Vacui

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Funeral Doom Metal

Review:

Third studio album of this Russian band that has already created themselves a strong name in the Doom Metal scene worldwide, so I guess it is a pretty much expected followup to their "Tragedy and Weeds" 2009 album. 7 tracks, 71 minutes of playing, not the usual day by day listening for most part of the metalheads. Actually this is recommended only if you're already familiar with this type of music as otherwise it may bore you to tears. Abstract Spirit's competitive edge is the intelligent use of guitar leads and background keyboard creating a depressive, dark atmosphere, but also A.K. iEzor's deep growling vocals. For this genre's standards "Horror Vacui" is pretty varied and complex and that makes it flow naturally without falling into monotony. A good album.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ACID WITCH

Country: USA

Title: Stoned

Label: Hells Headbangers Records

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:

Acid Witch formed in 2007 and since then have been unleashing some interesting death/doom metal in the process. Hallucinations seem to be a part of this band’s prestige and it works! Anyway, Stoned is dark and doomy mixed with the unusual style of keyboards as well, but they do the album justice. Acid Witch is a very talented band in that they know how to mix the darkness with evil, but can still keep the death metal aspect throughout the tracks. Different tracks will take you to different thought places in your head, if that’s your pleasure! I love the way Acid Witch lets the doom flow in their music, everything just sort of fits together. Acid Witch did well with "Stoned”. Certain tracks like " Satanic Faith”, Sabbath of the Undead”, and "Stoned to the Grave” give the listener a great style of chunky death metal doom. Humor also rears it’s ugly head with the track "Metal Movie Marijuana Massacre Meltdown”. 10 tracks totaling just over 40 minutes of good old fashioned doom/death in old school form, but mixed with a fresh style of playing.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ASPHYXIATE

Country: Indonesia

Title: Anatomy of Perfect Bestiality

Label: Sevared Records

Year: 2009

Style: Brutal Death Metal

Review:

Wow, this is extremely sickening. Asphyxiate blew me away right from the start of the title track. Nothing here but total grinding brutality at it’s most extreme. Ten tracks totaling 30 minutes of pure guttural madness. "Anatomy of a Perfect Bestiality” got my attention because of the way they handle the music. Asphyxiate have a technical side that keeps the metal flowing so well. The tightness of the music on each track mixed with the sheer brutality of the band. Asphyxiate will have no trouble standing out in the front lines with this release. Well played brutal death metal from Indonesia, as only they can give the underground! "Knife in Wound”, "Intestinal Stabwound”, and "340” are just a few tracks that will get your blood boiling in an instant. Asphyxiate have come a long way, and things look pretty good in the future (I hope). I am very interested to see what comes next for these guys.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 9/10

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Band: BITTER PEACE

Country: USA

Title: Glorificus Vis

Label: Elegy Records

Year: 2011

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Debut full-length for this duo that was initially formed as a one-man-project of Lance Gifford. Dakota, the actual vocal, joined him later on, and now it seems they have a new member also. But on this debut release we have a duo: Dakota on vocals and Lance on instruments. The album is composed of 9 tracks into aggressive, raw Black Metal with some Death Metal hints here and there. The sound is awful, I mean there's a constant buzz during the whole 45 minutes of playing that's either going to get you used to it or get you annoyed by it; for me it was the second. The drum machine is a bit too synthetic also, and not so complex as I would have liked to hear. But now the good things about this release: first the vocals, Dakota does a great job, both his Black Metal raspy vocals and Death Metal growls are very intense, aggressive as hell, and he also tries to keep it as interesting as possible by constantly changing his types of vocals and leave the monotony way behind. Then the overall music atmosphere is great, it's fast, evil and dark as all this music should sound like; there's nothing funny or happy inhere, and that's the point of playing Black Metal, isn't it? All in all I hate that squeaky sound and the drum machine, but the aggression these guys show on this release present them as a good hope for the scene.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10

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Band: BOMBS OF HADES / TORMENTED

Country: Sweden / Sweden

Title: Split 2011

Label: War Anthem Records

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal / Death Metal

Review:

Wow, when I played this split in my cd player I thought I was back in the early 90’s listening to the newer old school acts like Autopsy or even Carcass! The old school influence is definitely throughout the split for both bands, but Bombs of Hades really take things back to the old days with the tracks on this split. "Ice Cold Grave” and "Clean Your Head” are two tracks from Bombs of Hades and they both take major old school metal approach. Anybody who is a fan of the early death metal days will certainly enjoy Bombs of Hades. Now the other band, Tormentor has a love for old school act Kreator which is made apparent by the cover they did of the track "Tormenter” from one of Kreator’s earlier albums. Again, we have well executed old school death metal, but with Tormentor I feel a definite black metal influence in their music as well as death metal. Maybe I am wrong, but what the hell it sounds good to me! Tormentor and Bombs of Hades are both of an old school influence in their music. This split with both bands is a great way to introduce yourself to both Bombs of Hades and Tormentor.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: BURIAL CHAMBER

Country: Australia

Title: Left to Decay

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Yes, I'm glad to have the chance to review these guys' debut album, and I can say that even just after reading the small presentation sheet they've sent: "Left to Decay showcases the primordial aspects of a genre too often abused by pretenders". The genre in question is of course Death Metal, and what these three Sidney based sickos are trying to create here is an uncompromising, primal, raw and heavy Death Metal, without any tricks, any suits and ties, just sombre and brutal music, the was it was done 2 decades ago. Still, even if this debut album is based on Old-School sonorities, the sound and some particular parts of it are pretty fresh, and I'm talking here about the tight as hell, fat sound and the quite groovy rhythm section. Then again, even if the album is not innovative, the music inhere is excellent for any Old-School Death Metal followers out there. I have to mention the good, but a bit too short and few guitar solos, and the "close" sound production, it really makes you feel like you're in their rehearsal room. This is Underground Death Metal in it's purest form, you have to support it!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: CATALEPSY

Country: USA

Title: Bleed

Label: Eulogy Recordings

Year: 2011

Style: Deathcore

Review:

Deathcore is an interesting way of saying "new school metal” at least in my opinion. Who knows, I could be wrong. This the band’s third offering and I have to say it is a good effort. Production is polished, the music is chunky and fast, and the vocals are brutal of course. Add a bit of technicality and new style hardcore and we have an outfit of Catalepsy in the style of Bleed. Bleed crushes your skull throughout the album and typical death metal traits stand out. If this record wasn’t so polished then death metal would be the correct genre for Catalepsy. Anyway, nothing on this release is mind blowing, but for fans of nu-style metal this should do the trick. Tracks like "Faithless”, "Chtnonian”, and "Vexation” should give the listener a good idea of what Catalepsy can do. Another Deathcore release that fans will enjoy, but death metal fans will probably stay away from this.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 6/10

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Band: COFFINS

Country: Japan

Title: Ancient Torture

Label: Deepsend Records

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:

Coffins is a really killer band that just crushes your skull with the metal they create. Ancient Torture is a combination of different releases over the years from Coffins. Over 52 minutes of nothing but the rawest Coffins compilations and other releases. Actually, from what I understand, none of the tracks on this compilation appeared on any full-length Coffins releases. Either way Coffins does not let up with any of these tracks. Everybody who is a fan of Coffins knows pretty much what they are going to get with Ancient Torture, a bunch of killer death metal in an old school style. You can also check out their several other releases to get an idea of what you are getting into with Coffins!

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: CRIMINAL

Country: Chile

Title: Akelarre

Label: Massacre Records

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

1991 in Santiago, Chile a technical death/thrash band was formed; since that time Criminal has released 7 full length records onto the world.  The latest effort being released August 19, 2011.  Akelarre is a definite metal album, but in different ways.  Death Metal is what the band are labeled, but there is also hardcore elements in the music, even tides of black metal can be heard throughout the release.  I enjoyed Criminal’s latest offering and I have to say that with such a variety of different elements in the music, Criminal is one interesting band.  Tracks like "Resistance is Futile”, "State of Siege”, and "Vows of Silence” are killer tracks.  Resistance is Futile, among other tracks, has such an awesome thrash metal feel to it.  Criminal is new to my arsenal of bands, but I have been turned into a fan pretty damn quick!  Check out Akelarre from Criminal.  Fans of early thrash metal and death metal will enjoy this release. 

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 9/10

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Band: DEADLOCK

Country: Germany

Title: Bizarro World

Label: Lifeforce Records

Year: 2011

Style: Melodic Death Metal

Review:

Deadlock isn’t the typical death metal, brutalized and blasting madness that I am used to reviewing. Deadlock’s newest release entitled Bizarro World is a masterful melodic offering with plenty of metal to go around. All 11 tracks give off the blazing melodic technicality that a band like Deadlock can give, not to mention the wonderful female vocals throughout the album. Deadlock do a great job keeping the listener entertained with catchy riffs and slowed down parts. Bizarro World is treat for fans of wide variety like pianos and operatic female vocal styles mixed with a low tuned vocal delivery. So fans of avid death metal with a technical melodic riff then check out Deadlock’s release Bizarro World.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

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Band: DEVIATOR

Country: Ukraine

Title: Way of Warriors - Hymn to Immortals

Label: Glorious North Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Ambient Black Death Metal

Review:

Hmm, not sure this band really needed a best of release like this one since they have only 2 albums out so far and are around as a band only since 2007, but maybe a good explaination to this would be that the two albums are self-released and so I don't think they had such a good promotion and distribution, so Glorious North might help in this sense. This CD contains tracks from the debut full-length "Mighty Black Inner Flame", from the "Estrangement" demo and from the "Uruz" EP, all released between 2008 and 2010. I find the music on it as being pretty weak and way too simplistic, and I have only enjoyed the raw, aggressive vocals and the acoustic guitar parts (although simplistic as well, they remind me of the '90's underground Black Metal scene). Except for that I can't stand the drum-machine type used, the mistakes on guitar riffs and the overused repetition of unimportant parts of the tracks just to make them longer. Other than that, if you're a Deviator fan you can get this just to have a more compact idea of the band's discographic history.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

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Band: DISCREATE

Country: Philippines

Title: Contingent Development of Inanimate Modification

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Experimental Death Metal

Review:

Wow, as soon as the demo started playing I pretty much had my head chopped off by the speed of the brutality from these guys!  At times Discreate are playing so fucking fast I can’t even keep up!  Definitely not a bad thing, we are not talking about a bunch of noise here, or maybe we are, but Discreate play their brand of "Experimental Metal” extremely fast, and extremely technical too.  I thought Mortician had the game on speed as far as death metal went, but Discreate has now taken the cake on that.  The demo is brutal and fast.  There are three tracks and all three are live tracks so the listener gets a good raw feeling from this demo.  Unsigned and ready to crush a skull at a moments notice, Discreate should get the attention of the underground with this demo!  I like it, maybe you will to.  The Pleasure of Eternal Killing starts off and ends like a sledgehammer consistently beating your head to a pulp!  Track 2 is Thought forms - A song with a machine gun being used as a drummer, and sickness as well!  Last, but not least is track 3 Multiple Stabwounds…That is exactly what it feels like listening the speed with which this track is made!  All in all it is a grinding piece of work from Discreate, and hardcore followers of sickness like this will love it.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 7/10

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Band: DRAIN OF IMPURITY

Country: Turkey

Title: Human Anatomy

Label: Sevared Records

Year: 2011

Style: Brutal Death Metal

Review:

11 years ago a disgustingly sick band was formed and started releasing some sickening metal! Drain of Impurity have really crossed the boundaries of brutality, grind, and just plain sickness with Human Anatomy. Now Drain of Impurity have been in my collection a long time, but they are a band whose sound and style are an acquired taste. Throughout the record blasting beats are apparent and also the guttural madness in vocal style. Unfortunately the drums sound more like fully automatic machine gun shooting at somebody more so than a drum snare! I was disappointed with this release only because of the drumming sound, but other than that Drain of Impurity guts out the same old style of grinding and crushing sickness that has always been what they are about. 

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 6/10

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Band: ELIMINATOR

Country: USA

Title: The One They Were Waiting For

Label: Obskure Sombre Records

Year: 2011

Style: Speed Thrash Metal

Review:

Hailing from Edison, New Jersey Eliminator have unleashed a second release entitled "The One They Were Waiting For”. A very good thrash metal effort throughout the whole album. Heavy parts mixed with guitars that could cause a mosh pit in the biggest arena in the world! Eliminator did something I have never seen too much of before, or maybe I have and I just didn’t pay attention. Eliminator released a full-length album, this was self-released by the way. The album is called "And the Brokenhearted Balladeers” which is also a fully painful thrash metal offering from the band back in January, 2011. Now we have "The One They Were Waiting For” released and this effort is another skull crusher from Eliminator. 2 albums back to back unleashing some brutal guitar work and excellent production. Eliminator seems to be going the right direction and another interesting effort I noticed were two tracks on this release that are more than 15 minutes in length! The first track clocks in at exactly 18:00 minutes, the next track is 19:37 long, this track is called "Honey Sacrifice”. Either way, Eliminator keeps the metal interesting enough to not care about the length of certain tracks. "The One They Were Waiting for” kicks major ass! Check out the track "Honey Sacrifice” at approximately 7:04, after I thought I heard everything, Eliminator starts off with this killer riff and then blasts in the metal with evil vocals again! AWESOME!

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 10/10

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Band: ERADIKAL INSANE

Country: France

Title: The Dementia Process

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Deathcore

Review:

I have to admit my prejudice against Metalcore and Deathcore bands here. Being an old-school oriented metalhead it doesn't happen often I come across such bands I can stand and even less often bands I like their music, and that is of course because of the vocal type used in these metal areas, I get annoyed really fast by those screams and end up avoiding the bands. Eradikal Insane were curious enough about my opinion on their music (although they read our reviews policy) and they sent over their debut EP, so I had to give this Cd a few spins. 

The band was formed in 2004 but somehow managed to release their first official material this year, and this not because line-up problems, they just focused more on playing live than recording stuff. Anyway, the CD contains 5 tracks totaling 24 minutes. The music has a good enough production to give you an organic sound which I have enjoyed, and in what concerns the genre, I'd say it's a combination of the nowadays deathcore with modern, brutal and groovy Death Metal, another good point in my books. The vocals are a mix of guttural Death Metal (pig squeals at times) with support from Deathcore screams, and here's another good thing, the sound on the later ones is not disturbing/annoying at all, it manages the screams to blend in the music without capturing all the attention. The bad parts about their music is the somehow generic guitar riffs, and the lack of overall brutality especially on rhythm breaks, but being their debut I think it's a good job, I've enjoyed it.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: EXILE

Country: Jordan

Title: Death Thrashers Rising

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

The Thrash metal scene has made such a comeback within the last few years. Exile is obviously one of those bands, although I have to admit that until I heard this demo, I never heard of this band before! There are two demos lurking in the underground from Exile - Dead Thrashers Rising and a single entitled Absolute Evil. Exile have an almost Black Metal feel to their music, but throughout the album we have mainly thrash metal. Dead Thrashers Rising is a good thrash metal release and should make fans of the genre very happy. Everything is here - speed, blasting, technicality, and evil vocals. I have say that Exile are worth the time and effort to listen to. Not much else, anybody into the thrash genre will enjoy Exile’s releases.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FUCK THE FACTS

Country: Canada

Title: Die Miserable

Label: Relapse Records

Year: 2011

Style: Grindcore

Review:

Fuck the facts is a self-explanatory band of the underground; When somebody hears Fuck the Facts they know what they will get…A hardcore, progressively grinding album that will just crush your balls like grapes!  Check it out and see what is up.  Lots of hardcore elements involved on this release, there is also other type of influences on this records as well.  Grind Core mixed with melody!  Black Metal rears its evil head throughout the tracks on Die Miserable.  Basically Fuck the Facts take pieces of different styles from every type of sub-genre and blend it all together to create the feeling on this release.  I am a huge fan of this band and what they have here is a Fuck the Facts classic release with Die Miserable.  Early Napalm Death, DRI, and hardcore influence all over the place.  By the time this record is done I guarantee that whoever was listening to it will be pummeled and finished at the end!  I don’t care what anybody says, but Fuck the Facts have a genius writing style with how the music is blended together.  Check out tracks like "A Coward’s Existence”, "Drift”, "and "Census Bank”.  Die Miserable gives out eight tracks totaling just over 35 minutes in length so be careful when you listen to this records because you’ll have to find your dick in the dirt below you!

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 10/10

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Band: FUNERAL

Country: Norway

Title: To Mourn is a Virtue

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Metal

Review:

Funeral are veterans of the Doom Metal scene being around since 1991 and releasing 6 full-lenght albums so far. This sixth one is actually a compilation of older material recorded between 1996 and 2004, with 3 different vocals: the first one sings on tracks 1-4 and gives the band a deep, grave atmosphere, the second one on tracks 5-8 is more epic, and the third one, a lady, on track 9 brings a gothic-like feeling into the band's music, but one thing is certain, they are all good and can make the difference from other such bands, it's like listening to 3 different bands on this release. The instrumental part isn't special, there's nothing to stand out from the crowd, but that doesn't mean it's bad, just not special. The tracks being re-mastered in 2010 benefit from a crystal clear production, so I recommend this to all Gothic Funeral Doom Metal followers out there.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FUNERAL FORNICATION

Country: Canada

Title: Pandemic Transgression

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

Year: 2011

Style: Depressive Black Metal

Review:

Second album for this Canadian act since changing style from a more traditional Black Metal to a Depressive Black Metal genre, "Pandemic Transgression" is a one hour long full-length containing 11 tracks. The first thing you notice is that the intro has basically nothing to do with the rest of this CD, it would better fit a Death or Thrash Metal release rather than a DBM one, but maybe there's a hidden meaning to it after all. Vultyrous' main advantage and at the same time the main point of interest on this release is the keyboards part composition, melancholic, dreamy, dark and majestic at times, which combined with acoustic guitars and Vultyrous' versatile vocals (ranging from clean to screams to growls), succeeds in creating a deep atmosphere. The rest of the instrumental part is average except for the nice guitar leads which compensates on this matter, so all in all Funeral Fornication presents us an interesting album displaying a lot of potential, recommended to followers of Doomy, Melancholic Black Metal, but beware, the sound isn't the best around.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: GLAURUNG

Country: Slovakia

Title: Black Visions

Label: Excramentum

Year: 2011

Style: Black Metal

Review:

The young Slovakian band Glaurung was founded in 2008 and before this demo I'm listening right now they have managed to release a split with their countrymen Surt in 2010. This demo contains 4 tracks of their own and 2 covers, Mayhem's "Freezing Moon" and Root's "Piseo pro Satana". Their music is raw, primitive, and repetitive old-school Black Metal, with a good tempo, but with many annoying breaks. The vocal's type is not really my cup of tea, but if you're into Immortal-like vocals you might find it ok. The guitar solos are the ones which make you think these guys want to evolve their music from rehearsal-sounding primitive compositions to something more challenging. This demo is just the beginning, let's hope they'll come up with something better next time, they are not bad musicians and they are quite young guys, so the premises are there.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 5/10

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Band: GOL

Country: Australia

Title: Ritually Unshriven

Label: Heathen Sacrament

Year: 2011

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Nice one, it's a long time since I've received such an old-school CDR with good looking xeroxed b/w covers (not made in a hurry as usual), so I kinda guessed what I was about to listen, and I was right. Gol is an old-school Black Metal band playing their music without any special effects, or how the standard statement was back in the '90's "with no keyboards or female vocals", haha. Their music is mostly slow to mid-tempo but there are some faster parts, too, and also some Thrashy influences here and there. Quite simple, but effective compositions, Gol brings nothing new to the scene, but their ace is the doomy, dark atmosphere they manage to create, which fits perfectly with their blasphemic lyrics. I have to admit this is an underground release I enjoy and would recommend you to support. You'll get 4 tracks, 22 minutes of playing blasphemous old-school Black Metal, and the sound is not bad at all.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: GRAVEHILL

Country: USA

Title: When All Roads Lead to Hell

Label: Dark Descent Records

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Black Death Metal

Review:

From Anaheim, California Gravehill unleashes their second full-length album and it is pretty damn good. Production is good and chunky and the music is a death/black metal style that almost leans more toward Black metal in a sense. The music itself is chunky and brutal, but still has a technical edge to it. Gravehill did a great job jamming out the metal giving the underground ten tracks totaling almost 50 minutes of mayhem and metal! The obvious Black Metal influence mixed with a Death Metal style make When All Roads Lead to Hell a quality effort. Fans of their first offering will certainly keep enjoying themselves. By the way, the vocal style is refreshing in that they aren’t exactly clean, but the guttural approach is abandoned with exception of certain parts that give that brutal voice. The whole album is good, but certain tracks did stand out to me like "Devil Worshipper”, "Hell Metal Holocaust”, and "Consumed by Rats”. Fans of Death/Black Metal with a touch of occult and suicide will like this release by Gravehill.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: HARM

Country: Norway

Title: Demonic Alliance

Label: Battlegod Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

Awesome stuff here! Harm is a thrash band from Norway currently signed with Battlegod Productions. Pure evil thrash metal here folks, nothing is left out from the imagination! Demonic Alliance is good, solid effort with a polished production behind it. As we all know, Norway is home to virtually every metal genre created in the metal underground, and Harm is no exception. This release has such an evil feel to it, almost black! The whole release is awesome, nothing lets up and nothing gets boring. Harm deliver the goods as far as being a thrash metal act is concerned. Harm has a great release with Demonic Alliance and fans of evil thrash metal/death metal will eat this up fast! 9 tracks totaling over 35 minutes of killer technical evilness!

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ILLDISPOSED

Country: Denmark

Title: There Is Light (But It's Not For Me)

Label: Massacre Records

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Illdisposed has had quite the colorful metal career - Illdisposed is on their tenth full-length release and aside from four demos there is one e.p., two compilation releases, a DVD, a single, and a split! Obviously Illdisposed have been busy over the last 20 years of giving the underground some good old fashioned death metal with a thrash metal influence, at least it sounded that way on their first full-length "Four Depressive Seasons”. If one can remember Illdisposed unleashed a variety of death/thrash metal in the early days of their career. These days Illdisposed are still extreme and still technically proficient in their style of death metal. I almost hear a Deathcore type of style on this release, and the music has definitely been polished through production. This newest opus includes solos and slower parts. The vocals are angry of course and go well with what this record gives. Old School metal still runs through the veins of this band, but at a more technical level. Melodic has also been thrown into the mix of this album. The electronic element is something I wasn’t used to hearing in the previous releases, so Illdisposed have definitely been heading towards new territory here. I have to say that I am a fan of the early releases, but if you like your music with a touch of electric industrial technicality then Illdisposed is your band. Ten tracks totaling 40 minutes of Illdisposed music. Check it out! 

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 7/10

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Band: ILSA

Country: USA

Title: Tutti il colori del buio

Label: Contagion Releasing

Year: 2010

Style: Doom Crust Death Metal

Review:

Cold, primitive, darkened, black, evil, and brutal. That is how I would describe Iisa’s opus, whose name I can’t pronounce yet (which translates to All the Colours of Darkness). With this raw release Iisa will definitely get their name on the metal map. Nine tracks of hardened brutality giving the underground almost 40 minutes of metal to ingest. The whole record has black metal tendencies, especially the riffs and the vocals. The production seems so dark and primitive, it gives the band’s music that much more feeling of a cold opus. The influence of doom metal and old school death metal reminds me a lot of early Autopsy and even a small bit of Paradise Lost during the "Lost Paradise” days. Mix in Dark Throne’s raw image and music and we have IISA. I don’t know if I am right about the Black Metal influence, but it gives the music that much more of a very evil image for Iisa. Fans of early Autopsy, Paradise Lost, and black metal should enjoy IISA. "Blood Rituals”, "Blue Moon Haze”, and "Frost thrower” should certainly satisfy the ears of the sick!

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: JANE DARK

Country: Serbia

Title: Voices from the Deep

Label: Terrorblast

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

Serbia reeks of good extreme metal in recent years so I was pretty curious when receiving this CD. Jane Dark recorded this debut album during 5 years, so you can easily say this is some sort of best of compilation, although they only have a promo CD released before "Voices from the Deep". The album is made of 11 tracks lasting for 48 minutes, and the music on it is an Old-School Death Metal with both Melodic and Progressive (a few, indeed) influences. It feels like listening to a Death Metal release from the beginnings of the '90's, spiced with Thrash and Black Metal elements, I like that. Unfortunately this type of music and sound has no more value Today, but if you like your Old-School Death Metal played with honesty and that organic melody from the '90's, you have to try this album out. 

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: KASATURA / NADIMAC / EXARSIS

Country: Turkey / Serbia / Greece

Title: 3 Ways of Thrashers

Label: Coffinfeeder Distro

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal / Thrash Metal / Thrash Metal

Review:

Not too shabby for a band that started their first foray into thrash metal with a literal home recorded demo with virtually hardly any equipment! That was in 2010. Now Exarsis is slowly making their way throughout the underground with two other formidable bands - Kasatura and Nadimac. Exarsis end this compilation with two thrashing tracks entitled "Resist” and "Killing Command”. Awesome old school thrash with a technical edge mixed with a hardcore feel. Exarsis really kick ass on this compilation and I can’t wait to see what comes next. Now the start of this comp. begins with Kasatura, a thrash metal band from Turkey, and a capable band at that. Kasatura are a supposed thrash metal band, but I have to say that the brutality of their music can definitely cross them over to death metal very easily. "Helmet 451” is an extremely brutal track that crushes a skull when first played! Kasatura are a really good death/thrash metal band in a new school vein, I don’t mean NU-Metal or NU-School crap. What I mean is that the obvious old-school influence in the band’s music helps their style seem more…NEWER than old school. Hard to explain, but trust me Kasatura is well worth the listen. From Serbia we have Nadimac, they are described as a thrash metal/crossover band. Very true, but the hardcore element is quite apparent on both of their tracks. Fast and crushing, Nadimac leave nothing but dust and blood with their style! I can’t even pronounce the names of the tracks because they are in the band’s native language of Serbian (I believe so anyway). Either way it doesn’t matter, pure hardcore mixed a bit of metal (anybody remember good old D.R.I. or The Germs, and Agnostic Front from the very early years?) Well it is obvious that Nadimac hasn’t forgotten what they sound like and take to the style like a sledgehammer to a skull! A great compilation with three very good bands.

Reviewed by Lex Luther

Rating: 8/10

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Band: KRATEIN

Country: Germany

Title: Trauma

Label: Folter Records

Year: 2010

Style: Ambient Black Metal

Review:

Folter Records is a quiet and hard-working label that used us with its good and very good Black Metal releases, and that's the case of the German Kratein, too. Although the Ambient Black Metal scene is overpopulated nowadays, sometime you come across to some bands that are decent or evem more than that. Kratein displays here with their debut album a strong appetite for both the dark, atmospheric structures and for the aggressive, raw Black Metal parts as well. I like the sound a lot, even though being so organic at times it gives the impression of chaos amongst the instruments, but it certainly gives the music that rough, cruel face, and again I have to add that the German lyrics are a bless for Black Metal, they fit so damn well... The vocal tries to do his best to keep his part as varied as possible, but for example when he adds the clean vocals it all gets messy as you cannot clearly distinguish them from the instrumental part, so that's a minus, weak sound on vocals. Overall I am very pleased by what I've heard on this release and I'm sure it will visit my player again, as it gave me the impression of music made with passion and honesty. Recommended for an interesting, organic underground listening.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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