And here we have an example of a band that has decent musical skills, occasional knack for melody, horrible songwriting with the exception of one track ("Life Denied") and absolutely atrocious vocals. One way to describe the atrocity would be to think of a man being strangled to death and given a microphone to express…
“Me, myself and I can trust each other, sad but true…trust me you die first!” preaches Deadend In Venice in “Personal Decay” and who would disagree, he or she who had been around the block for a while? That track is one of the more interesting on what is, essentially, a catchy and great melodic…
How do you define a perfect death metal album? Fine, you see the score before the review: how do you define a NEAR perfect death metal album? Well, it depends on how heavy, brutal and/or catchy and melodic you like it. As in all of metal everyone has different preferences. But it basically revolves around…
Dark Tranquillity “Void Tranquillity”, Depeche Mode “Work Mode”, Scar Symmetry “Perfect Symmetry”, Stormwarrior “Heathen Warrior”, anything in here that strikes you as odd-sounding, other than the obvious fact that the first three are made-up albums? How about the annoying and tacky naming of the album after the part of the band name? Maybe I am…
Black/Shoegaze/Progressive reminiscent of Drudkh, at least until the 2nd track. Then it becomes pure Black Metal with an average production. But at least it’s not “true” black metal production where you can’t hear shit except for the screaming. It’s a little one-dimensional, that is one motif appears to dominate the entire song. Some may found…
”We invert the crucifix to skullfuck god with it” ("The Way Of The Scales") Do you really? Never thought about it that way. I mean, even back when I was a Christian I always thought that crucifixes were nothing more than useless idols, but I guess there is a deeper meaning to Alghazanth’s lyrics than…
Very decent metal/core. Starts out like a Pantera ballad and the first song, “Bloodritual”, sounds like a mix between If Hope Dies and The Agony Scene, while “Cruel World” is more in the vein Becoming The Archetype from “Terminate Damnation”. Right away the band’s musicianship is impressive even if the vocals leave a lot to…
Okay, time to put away the asshole stick. This is great shit in the vein of All Shall Perish, which I love. But these guys are pretty original. I do hear plenty of Meshuggah and maybe some Acacia Strain, but the latter could be an aftershock from overexposure to Hate Eternal’s “Thorns Of Acacia” and…
Love Metallica, much? Yep. They sound like Metallica folks, big shocker, I know. Not with that name, though, right. This is thrash metal. Enjoyable and forgettable at the same time. Funny thing, not only is “Last Breath” main riff directly “borrowed” from “Battery”, but the style is actually more in the vein of…”Death Magnetic”, which…
I am completely at a loss of a clue why this band gets so much hatred from the metal community. There are actually four camps: those who only like the band with John Liiva and think Angela Gossow fucked AE up, the lovers of the latter AE with Angela, thinking JL stuff is not so…
Should it be Force of Fire or Fire of Force, better? I’m sorry folks, this is not really my cup of tea. I like Angel Dust, but that’s about it, I’m afraid. This is power metal, which, admittedly, is not my forte, in the vein of Manowar and Blind Guardian. Okay, it’s actually a little…
…go to Part 1 – history… …go to Part 2 – today’s playground… (on the new album) Part 1 – historyI say goodbye to you all at onceDon’t dare to face you all aloneI went from wreckage to world classWith…
Ulcerate’s last album "Everything Is Fire" did not only earn 6/6 points from me but I declared it the greatest Death Metal album of all time. It seemed to me, at the time, that there is no way in Valhalla or Scheol that "EIS" can be beat, even by Ulcerate themselves. It turns out I…
Winds of the Plague has been around for a while, but I must admit that this is my first encounter with their music. And what do we have here? Metalcore, plain and simple. The break downs, the screaming, typical riffing to the genre, complete with the clichés, such as “burn this motherfucker down” . They…
“Panterish”, occasionally “metalcorish”, solid metal album from one of the most inanely named band’s (next to The Showdown), The Burning. Despite the clichéd and unoriginal name, the music is actually quite decent if not great. This is the kind of record you want to play in your car real loud when you are really pissed…
"The theme of this record is about sadistic unforgiving torture and the demented individuals who deliver such horrific pain and suffering", Exciter off the band’s website. No fucking shit! And here I was actually hoping that "Death Machine" could refer to altruistic, humanitarian think tank! The band says on their website that they aimed for…
Nu-metallish weird heavy metal atonal and multi-instrumental, hard to classify, elements of thrash, metal core, death. Very original sounding, great songwriting, Fear Factorish rhythms (Ticket, 7), disjointed, lots happening within one song, Sepultura, Life of Agony from Soul Searching Sun, Dimebag’s guitar on Idiot Box of Anthrax Volume 8 album, Middle Eastern influence, scope reminiscent…
Very weird. Now Opeth, now Gollum, Arcturus from "La Masquerade Infernale", very varied material, no concern for genre identification, hard to classify, classical elements, like Solefald, just a little of everything. Their MS site says it’s different and boy is it! Grandiose interacts with primitive, delicate and subtle with raw and crude, commercial with extreme.…
DIFFERENT. Strong Middle Eastern influence, like more aggressive Orphaned Land meets Mastodon with all the epickness, heaviness, variety, more compositions than songs. Some great guitarwork, very apocalyptic, urgent. Overall, rather strangely unfamiliar, original, strong influence of classic rock with modern metal guitars. Scope reminiscent of Nile’s slower more epic compositions. Reminds me of Gollum (vocals).…
Let us rejoice, for lo and behold we have another Polish death metal band. It is very important to me, as a Polish born American to hear about and promote metal bands in Poland, ESPECIALLY those offensive to Catholic Church. Presently, this foul institution responsible for numerous atrocities in history, suppression of science and human…
Very good technical death/thrash in the vein of…well, that’s the thing I can’t compare these guys to anyone, maybe Sodom or Destruction. Seeing as this is also a German band, maybe I’m not that far off. The music is very well written and enjoyable. It’s actually more thrash than death, but influence of the Floridian…
A heavier Lacuna Coil before it went pop “metal”. A lot of melody and very catchy gothic metal with some death/black influences, mostly female vocals, accompanied by black metal rasps. Lots of variety within 1 song structure, always a plus. Good musicianship and songwriting. Reminds me of a more modern “Gothic” from Paradise Lost. Nothing…
Oh , shit, is that Paradise Lost I hear? No, it’s Darkseed. Ah, okay. Could have fooled me. The music is enjoyable, but I have this uncontrollable urge to check the credits: did we thank Nick Holmes and Co., ahem, for inspiration? Oh, that’s right, it’s a promo DOWNLOAD, so no booklet. Okay, it’s only…
More mature and better sounding record than "Doomsay X" but pretty much good ol’ Malevolent Creation at its deadliest. I think it’s their fastest, the most brutal creation (no pun intended) yet. If you didn’t like them before "Invidious Dominion" won’t change your mind one bit. No melodies, no hooky, sing-songy parts just a straight…
As the name suggests this is a doom metal band. It’s doom in a vein of Solitude Aeturnus, only better in my opinion. It appears to be either a Christian band or a secular one inspired by biblical mythology. The musicianship could rival My Dying Bride, and I don’t write this lightly as MDB is…
This is a monotonous, melodic, but rather bleak, almost-an-instrumental, affair. It’s one of those that do nothing for you but you don’t hate it either. And vocals, well, they are in Russian. I pass on free shit (freemetalalbums.com) on the net when sung in Russian all the time, so why should this be different? Russian…
Technical death metal, kind of Suffocation meets latter era Death. Impressive guitarwork, but some riffs we have heard many times before, I’m thinking Into Eternity. Melody is sparingly applied but effectual. Overall, nothing beyond a good melodic tech death record. Sounds very dehumanized and the sound leaves one rather disappointed. Their previous record, Diminishing Between…
Now, that’s what I’m talking about! This is Gothenburg played right. Plenty of melody, great ideas. Sure, heard it all, but when it sounds this good and creative, who cares? Songwriting and musicianship is superb and can easily rival the best Dark Tranquillity or In Flames has to offer. Reminiscent a little of The Agony…
Imagine an amalgamate of Heaven Shall Burn and All that Remains. Good, melodic metalcore, fast, melodic, enjoyable. Album of 19 tracks, half of it covers (!). Covers are fun but the original music is above average. Was going to give it 3.5 / 6 but the fantastic musicianship takes it up by half a point.…
Black/death metal with electronic overtones, somewhere between Dark Tranquillity, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Rammstein. Actually pretty good stuff if not very original. I really love the production: meaty, raw, heavy and aggressive with the atmosphere of blackest of dooms. Just listen to track no. 7, which can rival Pantera in heaviness and ferocity.…
