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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Deadend in Venice – See Your On The Ground (2011)

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    As just another female fronted metal band, today we have the Germans from Deadend in Venice, a band that claims to play Melodic Death Metal, but sometimes falls into the Mallcore scene. We can’t really say the music is bad, since the musicians are very good and some of the songs are catchy, but just the whole concept and idea has been done to death that we can probably pick 10 cd’s at random from our promo collection and find at least 4 bands that are the same.

    Opening with “Hate Sweet Hate”, we have very traditional (but not bad) riffing and male screams (that are not to our full liking), everything is pretty standard and then the female vocals come. While the female vocals are not bad, they are pretty standard and sound almost exactly like Francine Boucher from Echoes of Eternity, in fact the music of Deadend in Venice sounds a lot like said band minus the progressive elements.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    dark_matter - _adrift_ (2010)

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    Being always weary of those ‘do it yourself’ new bands, we had some skepticism about the claims made on dark_matter’s press package info sheet. However, dark_matter greatly surprised us with great quality music and an impressive sound on this very short-but-sweet EP release. For over four tracks, the band delivers trippy and spaced-out compositions that stick in your head for days.

    With the opening track “Neptune”, we are treated to some of the best ethereal keyboards we’ve heard in quite a while. They are perfectly paired with nice riffing and drumming, something that many bands that rely too much on their keyboards to be overly atmospheric can’t seem to get right. After the short intro track, “the_persistence_of_memory” delivers more powerful guitars paired with electronic and space rock elements that will transport you to a different level of consciousness (or your money back). We love that there are absolutely no vocals ruining the beauty of the music in this release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Peste Noire - L’Ordure à l’État Pur (2011)

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    Black Metal visionaries Peste Noire have been releasing hit-or-miss albums for the past 10 years and none of them (although good) have impressed us as much as “L’Ordure à l’État Pur”. Carved out of their usual ‘let’s mix everything we can’ approach, this new album reaches new heights when it comes to amazing dissonant passages that at first seem totally random and disconnected.

    Fusing elements of Punk, Polka, electronic beats, Shoegaze and everything in between, Peste Noire delivers one hour of pure musical depravity that somehow will sneak into your subconscious and make you appreciate it for what it is. Opening with the super weird “Casse, Pèches, Fractures et Traditions”, we get some typical Black Metal vocals on top of thick and diabolical atmosphere that is generated by precise BM-like riffing and a punishing bass guitar line. Around the 5 minute mark the song just gets plain weird diverging into a polka/ska-ish passage and we totally love this sudden change.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Frozen Dawn – The Old Prophecy of Winterland (2011)

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    While there is a great resurgence of old school Thrash Metal these days, most Black Metal bands seem to be either stuck in the raw toilet-recorded sound of the past or in the faster-than hell with no real aim side of things. Luckily, Frozen Dawn delivers an excellent release featuring the sound that made Black Metal appealing in the past. Taking influences form the old-school Swedish and Norwegian scenes, more particularly bands like Dissection, Watain, Satyricon and Darth Throne, “The Old Prophecy of Winterland” features nearly 50 minutes of Black Metal you won’t want to miss.

    Focusing on powerful and catchy guitar riffing, rhythmical drums (with blast-beast of course) and ‘manly’ vocals, Frozen Dawn seems to have re-captured the sound of the past and pushes it a bit forward with great production values and catchy songs. After a one minute opening track, “Black Spells” instantly delivers a catchy riff that while used through the whole song, it never get’s old and sounds exactly like what BM should sound like.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Atanab – Black Magic (2010)

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    From Spain/Colombia’s Mighty Hordes Productions, today we have a re-issue of a 2006 release that nicely combines brutality with melody and delivers almost 40 minutes of pure fucking Black Metal. “Black Magic” is one of those releases that is very brutal and chaotic, but also excellently mixed and sounds very clean in comparison to most of the bands trying to be as brutal as Atanab.

    Wasting no time, the band starts creating a thick evil atmosphere since the intro track and with “Is Sentence of Satan” they deliver a very impressive first blow. In this track we have hellish vocals, massive drumming and powerful riffing, all delivered at a very high intensity. In a more atmospheric way, “Sons of Evil” delivers the same brutal sound but at a slower and more painful tempo. We particularly enjoy the subtle keyboards that are never overdone and just add the right amount of atmosphere to the music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Eternal Chaos – Dark Gods of the Eternal (2010)

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    Once again the people over at Mighty Hordes productions deliver a very powerful and intense Black Metal release that will quench your thirst for high-paced devastating music. However, “Dark Gods of the Eternal” is one of those releases the clearly sacrifices the quality of the music for high-paced hellish brutality with no clear aim or direction. While this might be exactly your cup of tea, we expected a little more from these excellent musicians.

    Opening with the traditional intro song, the band at least shakes things up a bit and includes some shrieks, some riffing and drumming instead of the cliché keyboard/sample approach. Immediately after, “Lord of Chaos” blows through your speakers with some very intense drumming and bestial riffing creating a purely chaotic and excellent atmosphere. In a more Gorgoroth-like fashion, “The Black Flame Spirit” delivers powerful singing and somewhat entertaining riffing that keeps things fresh and fucking intense.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Astarium – Dethroned of Impostor (2011)

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    In the very saturated genre of Atmospheric/Symphonic Black Metal is very hard to standout since most bands sound the same or just sound like shit. However, Astarium from Russia manages to create a positive impression due to the overall sound of their music: not too raw, not too brutal, not too fake (except for the drums). In “Dethroned of Impostor”, we are presented with 40 minutes of engaging music.

    Being a one man band, Astarium is limited to using a drum machine (or similar) and this is probably the weakest element of the release, since when they go ape shit, they sound as fake as Pamela Anderson’s titties look. After the creepy opener intro, “Bloodshed Must Goes On” (some grammar check wouldn’t hurt before making the song titles), delivers a nice and brutal attack of fast ‘drums’, traditional guitar riffs and a combination of pseudo growls with pseudo shrieks. The music is very familiar to Limbonic Art (early) and even some hints of Mysticum, etc.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Astarium – Invasion to Forbidden (2011)

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    As we all know most one-man bands suck, with a very few exceptions they are just outlets for untalented people to produce what they call ‘music’. Going with this notion, I was gladly surprised by the quality of Astarium’s music, a one-man band from Novosibirsk, Russia. Getting strange looking envelopes from far away places in the world is one of the thrills of working for Infernal Masquerade and this time, the envelope also delivers good music (something that is not the case at least 50% of the time).

    “Invasion to Forbidden” is the latest EP from this Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal band that while not having the best sound quality or musical equipment, it can surely create a eerie atmosphere and deliver 16 minutes of creepy as shit Black Metal.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Helevorn – Forthcoming Displeasures (2010)

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    Having recently ‘discovered’ Helevorn at WGT 2011, we set out to find all their releases once we got back to the USA. Playing a mixture of Death/Doom Metal with some Gothic elements, Helevorn is one of the last remaining bands that keep the genre alive. With “Forthcoming Displeasures”, these Spaniards have cranked out 50+ minutes of crushing music that will surely impress any fan of the genre.

    Since the opener “From Our Glorious Days”, the mood is set to dark and desolate place that only keeps getting more and more depressing over the tracks presented in this release. The mixture of bleak clean vocals with the crushing (and proper) growls makes the band a double threat and truly delivers in all emotional ranges. Opening with some atmospheric keyboards we have “Descent”. Keyboards provide a nice backdrop through this release and never get on the way of the crushing riffs, mournful vocals and mid-tempo structures that we all love from Death/Doom Metal bands.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    So Hideous, My Love… - To Clasp a Fallen Wish with Broken Fingers (2011)

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    As one of the most interesting albums we have received this summer, So Hideous, My Love’s debut EP “To Clasp a Fallen Wish with Broken Fingers” delivers one of the best Post-Black Metal releases we have ever heard from the USA. With four crushing sounds, this EP will surely get the band some attention and build momentum for their hopefully soon return with a full-length release.

    The second element that makes this band so interesting is the combination of classical music elements with Post-Black Metal. While this has been done in virtually all other genres of Metal, it sounds very well crafted and perfectly fitting for Post-Black Metal of this caliber. The instrumentation comes as the stronger element of the band’s sound and quickly allows the listener to shift their attention away from the sub par vocals.

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