Massacre Records

  • Winters Verge – Beyond Vengeance (2012)

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    Today we have Cyprus very own Winters Verge delivering one of the most impressive Power Metal releases of 2012 with “Beyond Vengeance”. The band nicely provides a worthy follower to their very well crafted 2010 release “Tales of Tragedy”, with more intricate and more bombastic songs that nicely explore the band’s rich sound and dramatic take on the genre.

    Since the opening piece “Cunning Lullabies”, Winters Verge delivers intelligently crafted music that is both catchy and powerful: the perfect combination in Power Metal. The keyboards are very dramatic and the overall riffing of this track is very dynamic, making it a truly delightful listening experience. With the very traditional “Paper is Blank”, the band shows that they can make old-school sounding songs with their modern and fresh edge. The vocals of George Charalambous are just outstanding and make this song even more magical.

  • Catamenia – The Rewritten Chapters (2012)

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    In the current age of remakes and rehashes of anything from TV shows, Movies, and comics, it was about time to have a re-recording of some sort. Catamenia delivers 15 re-recordings of many of their hits, and having nine full-length releases under their belt makes it a daunting task to pick the songs that are worthy of the band’s newer Blackened Heavy/Melodic Metal sound.

    With a few new band members as well, the band rips open this release with the powerful “Hollow Out – ChaosBorn” from their 2003 “Chaos Born” album. Immediately showing their strength, this song is very riff intensive and with a brutal combination of growls and shrieks, it just sounds amazing. The signature Catamenia sound is ever present, but the more clean and modern edge to their recent releases also seeps into the older songs in a very effective way. “Blackmension” from “Eternal Winter's Prophecy” follows and keeps the intensity of this release very high, the keyboards particularly shine in this great song.

  • Voices of Destiny – Power Dive (2012)

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    Almost two years have passed since Voices of Destiny’s excellent debut album titled “From the Ashes”, this 2012 they return with “Power Dive”. In their sophomore release, the band delivers nine very well crafted tracks (plus intro and outro tracks) that will surely be a complete hit with fans of the band. Continuing where they left of with “From the Ashes”, the band focuses their sound around Maike’s excellent vocals and the over the top symphonic arrangements that Lukas Palme provides.

    “Power Dive” is an excellent release that if you don’t mind it sounding very similar to their first album, it will be one of your top 10 albums of the year. However, if you are looking for some evolution in the band’s sound, you will not be finding it. There are a few changes here and there, like more complex guitar lines and a bit more elaborated orchestrations, but the formula of success is still the same as on “From the Ashes”.

  • Eisregen – Rostrot (2011)

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    Completely deranged and always surprising people (as well as pissing them off), Eisregen delivers their latest creation titled “Rostrot”. In this crazy album we have 10 very unique songs that focus a bit more on the ‘melodic’ side of Eisregen and fit more to our personal taste than their previous release. If you like the contrast the band makes between the demonic vocals and aggressive lyrics with keyboard sections and funky melodies, this is the album you have been waiting for since “Krebskolonie” came out back in 1998 (our personal favorite).

    The opener “Erlösung” delivers a mood setting piano/spoken words track that is nicely offset by the hectic “Schakal: Ode an die Streubombe”. Pounding drums and heavy guitars makes this song a very typical Eisregen piece and a nice contrast from the opening and following tracks. The rhythm of “Madenreich” is pretty weird and feels like something we would find in an Indie-Rock album but it works very well with the clean vocals. The deranged approach to music that Eisregen has makes this song work wonderfully.

  • Coronatus – Terra Incognita (2011)

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    Returning after two years of releasing one of Infernal Masquerade’s favorite albums of all time “Fabula Magna”, today we have Coronatus and their latest opus “Terra Incognita”. While many bands can play Gothic Metal, there are only a few that call pull-off the dual female vocal approach like Coronatus can do. However, we have been a bit skeptical on how the band would sound with none the singers of the previous album returning.

    With all doubts quickly silenced, Coronatus shows that regardless of the singers “Terra Incognita” is still one hell of an album regardless of the band’s singers. With Ada Flechtner returning to the line-up and Mareike Makosch being the other new singer, the band still features their characteristic dual-vocal approach that sets them apart from the heaps of Gothic Metal bands. With the addition of new keyboard player Psalm, the band provides us with 12 tracks of excellently crafted top-notch Gothic Metal.

  • Furor Gallico – Furor Gallico (2011)

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    As another entry into the Folk Metal scene, today we have Italy’s Furor Gallico and the re-release of their debut self-titled album through Massacre Records. While being almost the same as all other Folk Metal releases you could think of, Furor Gallico does manage to craft a few memorable songs and passages through this 58 minute release.

    Immediately after the cliché intro track, “Venti Di Imbolc” delivers powerful blows of Death Metal growls nicely paired with distorted guitar. Here, the mixture of folk and Metal elements is pretty well done since it does not sound weak or watered down like in most current bands, however, it sounds a lot like Eluveitie. The Folk passages are very typical of the genre in songs like “Anciente Rites”, “Cathubodva”, and “The Gos Have Returned”, but the nice contrast with aggressive parts, clean vocals and different elements give them a bit of a boost versus your run-of-the-mill Folk Metal band.

  • Katanga – Moonchild (2011)

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    In the very weird shit category today we have Katanga and their album “Moonchild”. The band plays Gothic Metal with some Electronic/Industrial elements. The first thing to notice is the typical singing/spoken German vocals. The use of electronic elements is pretty cool through this release, making it very catchy.

    The opening track “Marquis De Sade”, crafts a very psycho-sexual atmosphere and it serves as a great appetizer for this very diverse and interesting release. “Gottlos” delivers catchiness with powerful guitar riffs and catchy electronics surrounded by strong German singing. The ultra catchy “Moerder Der Erinnerung” draws similarities to Letzte Instanz, and with the added female vocals achieves very nice contrasts between the singing parts.

  • Marienbad – Werk 1: Natchfall (2011)

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    Hailing from Germany’s Massacre records, today we have Marienbad and their debut album “Werk 1: Natchfall” released both in English and Germany languages. Being the good journalists we are, we never heard of this band before and gave it a spin before reading the promo notes and we came up to the unanimous decision this band sounded like a mixture of Eisregen and The Vision Bleak with a darker edge. To our surprise this band is formed by M. Roth and Yantit (of Eisregen) and features Allen B. Konstanz (of The Vision Bleak) on drums.

    With a very dark and varied sound, Marienbad is one of the most entertaining and diverse bands we have heard in quite a while. They manage to combine dramatic vocals with shrieks, the way only M. Roth can do, with powerful guitar riffs, tight drumming and very interesting atmospheric elements. All of these ingredients create a very dark and thick atmosphere that will hypnotize you.

  • Wolfchant – Call of the Black Winds (2011)

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    In a time when Pagan/Folk Metal releases are a dime a dozen, it is very hard to go find something truly original and worth listening to. “Call of the Black Winds” is an example of an album that is half-way there, meaning that it is nothing ‘revolutionary’ but it has its moments.

    The band has been perfecting its formulaic approach to the genre and with “Call of the Black Winds” they show it. Every aspect of this release has been done by the band in the past, but this time around they get to do it a little bit better. For instance, the clean vocals are considerably better than last time and they actually fit the songs better in this release.

  • Imperia – Secret Passion (2011)

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    In the first few months we have received amazing Gothic Metal releases from bands like Sirenia, Dotma, Visions of Atlantis, etc, today is the turn to Imperia and their third full-length release “Secret Passion”. After a 4 year waiting period since “Queen of Light”, the band returns with a very average Gothic Metal release that while not bad at all, it just feels a bit heartless.

    As we all know, Helena Iren Michaelsen (ex Trail of Tears), is a very good vocalist and her angelic voice carries “Secret Passion” from start to end. The music is good and the instrumentation is nice, but it just feels very similar to countless other releases we have heard in the past. There are no songs that made us stop and want to listen to the again immediately after there are over, and we consider this a bad sign.

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