March 2009

Coram Lethe - A Splendid Chaos (2009)

Coram Lethe is the Italian version of a less talented Arch Enemy. While Erica’s vocal style is quite similar to Angela Gossow, this band’s music falls short of Arch Enemy’s great guitar riffs and melodies.

This album might be liked by Arch Enemy fans, but their attempts to sound like them will get in the way of the enjoyment process of this album. Don’t get me wrong, this album has its own merits and it’s pretty good, if we could ignore the whole Arch Enemy clone issue.

Absu - Absu (2009)

It’s been a while since I’ve heard from this black metal band from Texas, and they are returning with full strength to recover their place among the best of their genre. Their style is a peculiar mix of black and trash metal that reminds me of the old school trash releases from years ago, with interesting overtones of black metal elements.

This album takes you by assault since it starts with fast-paced melodies that hold you and don’t let go.

Wolves In The Throne Room - Malevolent Grain (2009)

When I first started listening to this album in the first few seconds I said to myself: “Another shitty band trying to sound like ‘true’ black metal that recorded this in their backyard and it’s going to suck”, well let me tell you I was wrong!!! While the recording itself is low quality, it actually adds to the bands general feeling and the feeling of the songs.

The album starts like a typical low budget recording with some very ‘true’ black metal sounding distorted guitars, but when the vocals start…. they are clean female vocals, that sound really, really depressing.

Norinian - Absent Seizure (2009)

When this demo starts, the first track provides almost 3 minutes of nothing, since it is only a few noises and that’s it. I fail to see how this sets the mood for the album.

This band labels themselves as black metal, however, the second track is an industrial type of song with some beats and deep vocals. At the same time, neither of the previous things is well realized and it just gets monotone and it’s easily forgotten.

This band seriously needs to either define their style or just stop playing, since the next 3 songs are just a weird mixture of different genres and ideas meshed together in 3 different songs. While Cacotopian Masses is a more ‘straight forward’ black metal song, and the last 2 are more industrial-based, they are still in a few words: pretty bad.

The Worthless Dream - Trip Through Depression And Autumn (2009)

There is only one way of describing this ‘rehersal demo’: WTF, yes I just said What The Fuck, how do you even leak something like this on the internet. The demo consists of only 1 song that is around 16 min long, and let me guide you through my experience on it.

The first 6 minutes sound like just a shitty metal band learning how to make a doom metal song. Then I was almost in a boredom trance, when I hear some fucking screams like somebody out of an Asian horror film, it kind of caught me of guard and freaked me out, not because it’s impressive, but because it is so lame.

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