RECENT ALBUM REVIEWS
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SKELETONWITCH – The Apothic Gloom EP
In the middle of a significant North American tour run with Amon Amarth and Sabaton back in 2015, vocalist Chance Garnette would leave Skeletonwitch. "The Apothic Gloom" is the band’s first recording with new recruit Adam Clemans, who has vast experience with Veil of Maya, Iron Thrones, and Wolvhammer among others. A four song outing,…
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TEMPERANCE – Limitless
What a difference can one year make! In my review of the debut selftitled album of this Italian outfit I posited that the band was torn between writing "hits", power metal anthems, heavy symphonic rock or more death/doom riffs. On "Limitless" Chiara Tricarico, arguably one of the finest female vocals in metal, guitarist Marco Pastorino…
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TEMPERANCE – The Earth Embraces Us All
It is the third album that establishes the band as either great or resoundingly shuts the lid of the dumpster over their heads. In my review of Temperance’s sophomore release, "Limitless", praising it, I asked whether the subsequent "The Earth Embraces Us All" would be their magnum opus. The short answer is: fuck yeah! Now…
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TORTORUM – Rotten. Dead. Forgotten
The Norwegian black metal outfit known as Tortorum impressed me greatly with their excellently executed second full-length assault entitled "Katabasis", so naturally I was looking forward to this upcoming mini-album of theirs, "Rotten. Dead. Forgotten". Stylistically speaking, the music is still firmly rooted in sinister and ominous black metal, but, as with "Katabasis", there is…
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LORD ALMIGHTY – Paths
Lord Almighty specialise in thrashing black and roll with a melodic and progressive leaning. In terms of genre, they push the envelope in a way that acts like Nachtmystium did in the later years. Paths is their debut full-length release and does a great job of demonstrating the musical and songwriting abilities of the band.…
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MONTE PITTMAN – Inverted Grasp of Balance
Best known for his work with Madonna live and on record or Prong at various points in his career, Monte Pittman also has a lot of affinity for the metal genre as this solo album "Inverted Grasp of Balance" illustrates. Featuring exemplary support from bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Richard Christy, these 12 songs run…
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CIRITH UNGOL – Paradise Lost (re-issue)
With a reunion show at the Frost and Fire festival lurking on the horizon, makes sense that the cult classics from California Cirith Ungol start reappearing in the market. "Paradise Lost" would be the group’s fourth studio record, originally hitting the streets on Restless Records in 1991 – making this a 25th anniversary celebration of…
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ODDLAND – Origin
The debut album of this Finnish progressive outfit, "Treachery of Senses" was an excellent piece of melodic heaviness evoking comparisons to Opeth, Barren Earth and Nevermore. The album was very catchy and memorable while progressively ambitious. Here we are, four year later and the band changed the logo and music, in my estimation for worse,…
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AYAHUASCA – YIN
These Canadians may call their music simply violent circus grunge but they are so much more than that. If they are grunge than they are far more talented and creative than the likes of Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots. More accurately, take Alice in Chains "Dirt", "Soundgarden "Superunknown" and Mastodon "Blood Mountain" with a…
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FIELDS OF MILDEW – Fields of Mildew
Fields of Mildew is one of the most haunting, beautiful, and sorrow-filled musical encounters that I have experienced lately. The very first track, "Fields", made the hair on my sloppy arms stand up. I kid you not! So, what exactly is Fields of Mildew and what are we dealing with, musically and lyrically speaking? Well,…
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TEMPERANCE – Temperance
This is my first of the three Temperance reviews, starting with the debut. This Italian band consists of five members, including a very genuine, rich, warm and powerful sometimes operatic female vocalist, Chiara Tricarico. Chiara provides most vocals but there are some supporting male vocals (both growls and cleans) from Marco Pastorino. While most of…
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VTTA – On the Vortex of Chasing the Abyss of Despair
After listening intensely to a whole bunch of other Russian black metal bands these past few weeks, I was eager to hear what VTTA would bring to the table. The band has released three EPs previous to this brand new one, but I must admit that "On the Vortex…" is my first actual encounter with…
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KERASPHOROUS – Kerasphorous
A while ago Hate Eternal released the album "Fury & Flames". It was an insanely brutal slab of death metal. Until now. Keraphorous are three guys from Angelcorpse (translation: they are from the US of A) who decided to evidently create THE most extreme metal ever, blurring the lines of black, death, grindcore, sludge, thrash…
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HIGH SPIRITS – Motivator
Chris Black is the mastermind behind High Spirits. Writing all the songs and performing all the instruments/vocals in a studio setting, he’s been able to recruit a talented lineup in his Chicago stomping grounds to deliver his ideas on live stages in Europe and North America. His NWOBHM-oriented melodic metal band returns for "Motivator", a…
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EPICA – The Holographic Principle
The eighth studio platter for Dutch symphonic power metal band Epica "The Holographic Principle" is another sprawling 12 track, 72-minute platter that embodies a more is more emphasis – pushing parameters in terms of choirs, keyboards, and extremity while adding in some fresh exotic nuances. As a six-piece, the ability to paint aural pictures in…
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ALTAR OF OBLIVION – Barren Grounds (EP)
Coming from the statistically happiest country in the world, Denmark, the epic doom quintet does not let on that fact as their music is angry and sad at the same time. Mik Mentor’s vocals have that same melancholy that Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) has, as if life was not worth living, howbeit perfect for the…
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3ATEMHO – Во прах
Затемно is yet another quality band hailing from the frozen plains of Russia. I might as well admit that I have a thing for Russian black metal in that many bands from that particular region of the world have a knack for conjuring up inhumanly cold, moody, and haunting music. They simply have this unique…
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PAIN – Coming Home
What Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy) presents on the new Pain album has got to be a joke. The good news is that the songs are not all cut out from the same cloth. With some fillers (A Wanna Be, Pain In The Ass (we’ll get to that one), Black Night Satellite, Natural Born Idiot), most of…
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KAYSER – IV: Beyond the Reef of Sanity
No boundaries… no limitations. That’s a very apt summation of what to expect from Swedish band Kayser on their fourth full-length studio record, "IV: Beyond the Reef of Sanity". Forming in 2004, ex-Spiritual Beggars vocalist Christian ‘Spice’ Sjöstrand along with guitarist Mattias ‘Swaney’ Svensson and drummer Bob Ruben started the group – rounded out with…
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ROTTING HEAVEN – For the Greater Glory…
The Russian black metal combo that lurks about in the underground and sports the name Rotting Heaven released this gem of an EP late last year via Death Knell Productions, and it is well worth checking out if morose (orthodox) black metal turns you on. Truth be told, it is one of the most interesting…
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SERPENT ASCENDING – Ananku
Serpent Ascending is a Finnish (Helsinki) project of a one man, Jarno Nurmi. Even if it were not, if it were a quartet or a quintet it would have been already impressive but the fact that it is a one man creation deserves special accolades. Nurmi handles all instruments while Tommi Grönqvist’s production and Patrick…
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INDESPAIR – Sign of The Raven (EP)
I ran into Indespair’s rhythm guitarist Daniel Bartosik by accident on facebook as he was presenting one of the songs from Indespair’s recent EP, "Sign of Raven", and, immediately impressed with the track, being in mutual love with melodeath, I contacted Daniel for a chat in our native Polish. As a result, he presented me…
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TIEBREAKER – Death Tunes
Tiebreaker’s debut album, the one entitled «We Come From the Mountains», was a great slab of dirty and bluesy (hard) rock with an insane load of melancholic and morose undertones to it. Naturally, I was eager to see and hear what this cool quintet from the small town of Odda would come up with next,…
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FRACTAL CYPHER – The Human Paradox
Progressive metal Canadians Fractal Cypher from Montreal, Québec, are newcomers, having released only three singles thus far all of which are featured on this full length. The album is long, 64 minutes and 54 seconds, no problem, provided that the music is interesting enough to demand 60 minute + attention span. Fractal Cypher right away…
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REAPTER – Cymatics
Slugging away in Rome, Italy since 2005, Reapter is a progressive thrash oriented metal band that also has a number of classic nuances on this second full-length "Cymatics" – the title based on a Hans Henry term used to describe the acoustic effects of sound wave phenomena. Given this is my first exposure to the…