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In a day that almost everybody is doing what has worked for somebody else, playing it safe and avoiding any kind of creativity seems to be the typical approach ‘new’ bands take to making music. Luckily for us Lava Engine actually tries to craft their own unique sound and actually manage to create pretty solid compositions with intricate musical palettes that sound very well when mixed in together.

Hailing from Sweden, Lava Engine brilliantly merges Progressive Metal elements with some ‘Symphonic’ elements and creates a very uniquely sounding Experimental Metal sound that many bands will surely envy. The band’s combination of powerful riffs, keyboard arrangements, and well crafted vocal lines, carries their second EP “In Limbo” from start till finish and hopefully lands them a record deal.

Every once in a while we get albums that make us listen to them over and over in order to form an actual opinion about them. After the first spin, we knew that Poois latest release “Opera House” will be one of those albums that will take more time and effort in order to properly describe and correctly inform the listener about what they should expect with such a rich and interesting release.

Hailing from New York, this band will surely turn everybody’s head around with confused and puzzled faces for at least a few minutes. After you get over the first weird impression about this album, you discover that Poois is actually one hell of a talented band that has constructed a very diverse and unique ‘sound’ that is showcased in small doses through the album’s 13 tracks. There is not really a ‘main’ influence other than the Metal aspect of the bands music, and this is also a stretch since they feature influences of Alternative Rock, Grunge, Progressive Rock, and other genres.

Doom Metal is a an art that has been slowly dying in the last few years with more bands switching to the more ‘lucrative’ Gothic Metal scene or just starting off as a Metalcore band. Luckly today we have A Dream of Poe, as you can expect and Edgar Allan Poe inspired Doom Metal band from Portugal with members of In Peccatum.

In this 5 song and 36 minute EP the band does a great job in crafting crushing songs that will make you want to dig up your older My Dying Bride albums and get on full-on melancholic mode. Starting with the slow (it’s Doom Metal!! what do you expect!) self-album-titled song “Lady of Shalott” the band quickly sets the tone in terms of down-tuned guitar riffs and mournful vocal atmosphere.

Hailing from Italy, today we get a very interesting release that manages to blend several genres of metal into a very original sound. Arcadia does a great job in combining Hardcore, Melodic Death Metal, and some hints of Progressive Metal/Rock, allowing the band sounding like none other in the scene.

Before you can even think about it, the answer is: yes, there are some Metalcore-ish elements in “Roy Philip Nohl”. However, these little hints of Metalcore are greatly utilized to the band’s advantage; they use the breakdowns to weave new sounds and elements into their already well crafted songs. We really like how the band uses some breakdowns to create epic chorus sections that never sound faggy (i.e. “I Sold Drugs to Little Red Riding Hood”).

Today we find ourselves listening to yet another band mixing Metalcore influences with something else. While this would usually mean that we start laughing from the beginning till the end of the band’s release, we actually find ourselves quite impressed with the solid effort put by Sicarus on their debut EP “Strength of All”.

Sicarus main strength lies behind the guitar acrobatics that Mad Scotsman and Jon provide the band with. We can make some comparisons with Into Eternity, Echoes of Eternity, Mutiny Within, etc. in this department, but the band does a great job at crafting a sound that does not rely on them too much (unlike the previously mentioned bands).

Hailing from Latvia, today we get a very impressive Doom/Gothic Metal self-released album with Heaven Grey’s “Falling Mist”. We are suckers for Doom/Gothic Metal and everything in between, but when the genres are combined we get even more excited. Heaven Grey had most of the ‘activity’ in the late nineties, and because of line-up issues split-up in 2000. Recently reformed the band set up to record “Falling Mist”, their second full-length and one of the best Doom/Gothic Metal albums we have heard this year.

Combining lyrics in both English and Latvia, the band sets up a very bleak and depressive atmosphere with their music. We particularly love the language combination since it’s very nice to hear bands embracing their own language when it comes to writing songs. The music is very bare-bones and does not require anything fancy to make it excellent. Mainly driven by the weeping guitar work and depressive clean vocals, Heaven Grey’s music is right up there with As Divine Grace, Thorns of The Carrion, Castle, etc. when it comes to creating depressive music that will keep you engaged for the duration of the full-album.

Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland today we have Haar and their self-titled debut EP. The band plays a mixture of Black Metal with progressive elements that sounds a bit like Wolves In The Throne Room meets Deathspell Omega. While the band’s sound is not strikingly original, they can still craft solid tunes of darkness.

Featuring 26 minutes of music divide in 3 songs this EP release will certainly entertain all the fans of obscure sounding Black Metal. The band’s sound is greatly enhanced by recording all instruments at the same time, providing enough rawness and a live feeling to their music.

In the last few years most of the new kids playing Death Metal (or at least trying) have managed to completely miss the point and get a solid grasp on the genre. We can guarantee that most of those bands have gone and changed into playing Metalcore or dissolved. However, there are always a very limited number bands that truly get it and release bad-ass demo’s, Crematoria is one of them.

Hailing from Denmark, the band formed in 2008 and released their first demo in 2009. This 3-song release is aptly titled “Demo(lish)”, featuring very solid songs that punch you right in the face. With some Trash foundations on their riffs the band has crafted these songs very nicely, and while they might not be revolutionary, they are solid and very catchy.

Out of all the self-released albums we get, we have never received such an impressive release as Bitter Frost’s self-titled debut album. With an amazing musicianship, crystal clear production, solid songwriting, and impressive guest appearances, “Bitter Frost” will surely be our favorite Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal album of the year.

Featuring 73 minutes of impressive music, the one man band Bitter Frost takes us through many different genres of metal laid on top of a Black Metal foundation. With all the ideas and creativity behind this release, we only feel sorry for all the unsigned bands that even when combined together will never put out a release as impressive as this one.

With the current boom of female fronted bands where the girl does the harsh vocals, it’s almost impossible to find a band that is good enough when comes to mixing both clean and harsh vocals. Arsenic Addiction is probably one of the few bands that fit this description and that we can stand for more than 10 minutes.

While most people think that Kittie and bands like Otep, Walls of Jerico, etc. were the first bands to use harsh female vocals, they cannot be more wrong. We remember back in the day, getting a demo CD from an American band named: Forty Days Longing, and if you heard the album you would be easily convinced the singer was a very brutal dude, but surprise to us, it was Zdenka Prado a female vocalist (she also provides screams for Garden Of Shadows, and currently for Estuary (ex-Estuary of Calamity).