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    De Profundis – The Emptiness Within (2012)

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    With nine tracks of super catchy melodic Metal, De Profundis brings us their third full-length offering “The Emptiness Within”. Combining excellent Melodic passages with Progressive elements and a hefty dosage of powerful riffing, this release has a vibe similar to the Melodic DM wave that came out of Finland in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Don’t get us wrong, “The Emptiness Within” does feature a good amount of aggressiveness, but it is all surrounded by excellent melodic elements.

    “Delirum” opens the riffing marathon with very well defined and melodic guitars, a sound that reminded us of earlier Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and similar acts. The growls are spot on and the overall mixture of melodic guitars, pummeling drums and guitar solos is just outstanding. The guitar work courtesy of Soikot Sengupta and Roman Subbotin is very well crafted and entertaining, particularly in the dreamy ‘instrumental’ passages.

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    The Firstborn – Lions Among Men (2012)

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    Hailing from Portugal, today we have The Firstborn and their 4th full-length release “Lions Among Men”. With a very interesting and different sound, this album is surely complex enough that it takes more than a few listens to fully sink in. Featuring a mixture of Meshuggah-like influences (on the guitars mainly) with some middle-eastern elements and some occasional Avant-garde BM styling’s, this release is indeed very well crafted, but hard to fully enjoy at first.

    Opening with the commanding “Lions Among Men”, you immediately know this is going to be an interesting release due to its unusual structure and sound. The very low guitars make the atmosphere sound very thick and perverse, something that you usually get on Sludge releases. With some of those middle-eastern mystical sounds at the beginning “Without as Within” continues the heavy atmosphere and expands on the bands crushing sound with some more riffing assaults and perfectly crafted slowdowns.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Gory Blister – Earth-Sick (2012)

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    Making their contribution to the highly exciting Technical Death Metal scene, today we have Italy’s Gory Blister and their latest full-length release “Earth-Sick”. With a name more apt for a Grindcore band, this Italian band took us by surprise with their high energy songs and blistering drumming. Deliver 10 tracks of well executed music, this band will surely make some noise in this very crowded genre.

    Opening with the deceiving “The Breeding (intro)” track, we thought we will reviewing a Melodic Power Metal album instead. However, with “Earthsick” things get down and dirty with some heavy riffing and intense growls. The band style borders between Melodic DM and Technical DM with some very impressive speed ups, but never as intense and powerful as bands like Obscura and Spawn of Possession.

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    Murw – Kanker (2011)

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    After releasing a few demos and a split album in a span of 14 years, we finally have Murw stepping up to the full-length arena with “Kanker”. In this very interesting release, the band delivers 37 minutes of a highly melancholic combination of Doom Metal with some Death/Black Metal elements. Mostly driven by powerful guitar riffs, “Kanker” is a very well-crafted release that deserves attention.

    Opening with the crushing “Kanker”, this release sets sail with the heaviest and most ‘Black Metal’ track in the whole album. The raw power behind the riffs and crushing vocals is very dominating, reminding us of older Death/Doom bands from the 90’s. At around 7 minutes long, this song nicely evolves into some Doom-ish melodic passages with weeping guitars and a nice overall atmosphere. Keeping things in ‘Doom mode’, “Als Sneeuw Voor de Zon” sounds like something that Mournful Congregation or Shape of Despair could have crafted.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Lullacry – Where Angels Fear (2012)

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    Finally after a seven year wait, Lullacry is set to release their 5th full-length release titled “Where Angels Fear”. In this latest release, the band sounds very mature and avoids the cliché Gothic Metal or Pop-Metal release and favors a heavier and darker Melodic Heavy Metal release with just a few Gothic Metal hints. Featuring 11 hard-hitting tracks, “Where Angels Fear” is by far the best release of the band since “Crucify My Heart”.

    Being huge fans of the band’s previous releases, we are just realizing that we are old since the last album we liked from the band was almost 10 years ago. Aside from this, the band has also managed to stay pretty much intact and features the same lineup since 2002 when Tanja Lainio joined the band. This has clearly allowed them to fully develop a sound of their own and be able to produce such a mature release with “Where Angels Fear”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Your Tomorrow Alone – Ordinary Lives (2012)

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    Rounding out our most recent promo package from My Kingdom Records, today we have Your Tomorrow Alone debut full-length release “Ordinary Lives”. Mixing Gothic Metal with Doom influences, this is one of those releases that is full of emotional songs that are also very catchy and approachable by the listeners. For over 50 minutes this Italian band will surely entertain you with their well written tracks and melancholic music.

    Opening with “Renaissance”, the first riffs reminded us of EvenSong’s “Path of the Angels” release since they have a similar sound to them. Combining clear vocals with growls, the band nicely creates a very solid atmosphere and keeps things standard, without needing to go to the overly abused usage of female vocals. The atmosphere keeps getting more dramatic and emotional with the powerful “Praise for nothing”. In this track, the band uses some classical elements to add more depth to their sound and this works perfectly.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Disguise – Second Coming (2012)

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    With a very interesting combination of Melodic elements and furious Black Metal, today we have Italy’s Disguise and their latest release “Second Coming”. In this eight-tracks 42-minute effort features very powerful songs that are nicely contrasted by a few keyboards and even some Black’n’roll tracks that will surely please any fan of bands like Satyricon, Dark Funeral and Anorexia Nervosa.

    With punishing riffs and a very brutal drum track, the album opens in full strength with “Fragile Certain Death”. The overall pace of this song is very typical of late Satyricon, but with an emphasis on being brutal. The atmospheric/melodic elements start being more noticeable on tracks like “I am Alone” and “The Origin of the Unknown”. In these two songs the band goes on full endurance mode with some furious speed-up sections that rival Dark Funeral’s stamina.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Drakkar – When Lightning Strikes (2012)

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    Delivering their first release in 10 years, today we have Drakkar and their latest release “When Lightning Strikes”. This Power Metal outfit from Italy apparently was one of the biggest band’s in the genre back in the 90’s and they now return with a very traditional sound… for the 90’s indeed. Powering through 15 tracks, this release is as vanilla as you can get with a very few decent songs.

    In a time when everybody and their mom plays Power Metal, Drakkar does not offer much in terms of originality and even their well-executed songs sound very cliché and dull after a while. We have the dramatic fantasy inspired keyboard intro with “Hyperspace – The Arrival”, a very predictable track that just points out what is to come: predictable and very ‘normal’ music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    So Much for Nothing – Livsgnist (2012)

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    As an early candidate of Black Metal release of the year, today we have So Much for Nothing’s debut full-length “Livsgnist”. This two-man outfit does an excellent job in taking Suicidal Black Metal into a whole new level, and will surely take years for any band to rival with Erik Unsgaard and Uruz have achieved with this album. Featuring seven tracks and around 50 minutes of gut-wrenching depressive music, this is the kind of release that will leave a deep impact on your psyche and will not easily be forgotten.

    Having people like Niklas Kvarforth and Peter Huss of Shining, Julianne Kostøl of Pantheon I, Trondr Nefas of Urgehal, and Seidemann of 1349, among many others as guest musicians, So Much for Nothing is the equivalent of Ayreon and Avantasia in the realm of Black Metal. With a excellent foundation provided by Unsgaard and Uruz, this release takes things to a completely different plane of existence and almost achieves musical perfection.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Hyde Abbey – Hall of Shame (2011)

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    Originally released as a free download on the internet “Hall of Shame” marked the debut release of Spanish Deathcore beasts Hyde Abbey. Now being properly released through Suspiria Records, this album delivers 12 tracks of punishing Deathcore/Metalcore that will surely rattle your speakers for a prolonged amount of time.

    Not being our favorite genre, we are always skeptical about Deathcore releases since they are a dime a dozen and usually they all sound exactly the same. Hyde Abbey does a great job in delivering a very brutal and powerful sound similar to bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, Oceano, etc, and while not being overly original, the band does create some very badass songs.

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