2011

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    Thulcandra – Under a Frozen Sun (2011)

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    Dissection worshipers Thulcandra return with an even more impressive sophomore effort titled “Under a Frozen Sun”. In this release the band takes their amazing Dissection-influenced Death/Black Metal to new heights with seven crushing tracks and one cover song. If you thought that “Fallen Angel’s Dominion” was an excellent release, brace yourself since this new album will rip you a new one.

    Opening with “In Blood and Fire”, the band will send shivers through your spine with the acoustic opening guitars. But once the powerful riffing starts, you will be hooked on this album like if it was your drug of choice. Steffen Kummerer does a great job in capturing that peculiar guitar sound from the early Dissection material and makes it his own with Thulcandra’s band of hectic and guitar driven Black/Death Metal.

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    Untimely Demise – City of Steel (2011)

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    All the way from the Nordic lands of Canada, today we have Untimely Demise’s debut full-length release “City of Steel. While the band plays the traditional Thrash/Death Metal game, there are a few elements here and there to make this release standout from the countless dull bands we get every week.

    Having some early Children of Bodom (vocals and some guitar work) edge makes “City of Steel” a nice 32 minute release that will not go easily forgotten. In the opening “Virtue In Death” track, we have the traditional Thrash/Death Metal sound back in the day, but the guitar work is what makes this song (and album) more entertaining and different.

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    Slaughtery - Path-(t)o-Logic (2011)

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    Featuring 36 minutes of very brutal Death Metal with some technical elements, today we have Slaughtery’s first full-length release “Path-(t)o-Logic”. In this album we have tons of chugging riffs, brilliant technical sections and an overall crushing feeling that will leave your ears bleeding (in a good way) after just one spin of this release.

    Opening in a very traditional fashion with “Nine Minutes”, the band shows their strengths in crafting punishing riffs, a pounding bass guitar line and some hellish vocals. The intricate guitar sections are what immediately sets this band apart from your typical cookie-cutter bands and will surely get Salughtery noticed in the scene. “Chimerism” gives a little of the old-school Death sound but with actually brutal vocals, a feat that only a few bands have come close to doing in the past.

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    Aclla – Landscape Revolution (2011)

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    Packed with 14 powerful guitar-driven songs, today we have Aclla’s debut album “Landscape Revolution”. Merging elements from Power Metal with Heavy Metal in an aggressive fashion, we are left with pounding guitars on top of Power/Heavy Metal song structures, a very interesting approach.

    Opening with “The Totem”, we can immediately tell that this distortion is not very typical for a Power/Heavy Metal release and this marks the beginning of a very interesting musical journey. Power through tracks like “The Hidden Dawn”, “Under Twilight Skies”, “Ride” and “Living for a Dream”, there is no doubt on the quality of the musicians behind Aclla, since they manage to make very good songs through “Landscape Revolution”

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    Kaktus Project – Superstition (2011)

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    Delivering an impressive debut solo album, today we have Sylvain Rouvière and his Kaktus Project release “Supersition”. Featuring 13 songs of well crafted Heavy/Power Metal with Hard Rock influences, this release is a very nice showcase of both Sylvain’s vocal and guitar playing abilities.

    Unlike many side project releases, “Superstition” truly showcases the musician’s ability and not his countless buddy’s that make guest appearances on the album. Since the opener track “Farewell” we have soaring vocals and very well crafted guitar work, this track reminds us a bit of older Timmo Tolki-era Stratovarius. Moving on with “Superstition”, we get some hints of Edguy/Avantasia in this very entertaining song.

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    Insomnium – One for Sorrow (2011)

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    As one of the most expected releases of 2011, today we have Insomnium’s latest release: “One for Sorrow”, a truly sublime piece of work that will be nearly impossible to improve upon. Featuring a mixture of majestic melodic passages, depressive emotions, skillful instrumentation, and powerful vocals, “One for Sorrow” is definitely the finest Insomnium release to date and a near perfect release in terms of Melodic Death Metal.

    Opening with the hypnotic momentum builder “Inertia”, the band quickly delivers their signature weeping guitars followed by Niilo Sevänen’s perfect growls. With such a momentum builder, the album starts on a very high note. “Through the Shadows” delivers a more unified riffing structure of pure Insomnium’s trademark sound; this creates the very melodic and dense atmosphere that we all love about the band. Here we are treated to some clean vocals that add an even more dramatic edge to this beautiful song.

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    Bahrrecht – Nuit de Neige (2011)

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    Making its way from Ketzer records, today we have Bahrrecht and their 90’s inspired Black Metal sound in “Nuit de Neige”. In this powerful release we are presented with 10 tracks of pure fucking destruction that will cater to all fans of grim Black Metal from a few years back. Featuring Winterhalter (of Alcest, Les Discrets (live)) on guitars, this release is very intense and has fresh ideas here and there.

    Blowing up in your face with the album title track, Bahrrecht wastes no time in creating the lovely whirlwind Black Metal sound that bands like Immortal and Satyricon came to perfect in the 90’s. The riffing is very effective and the overall pace of the songs is very hectic, but not extremely overdone. “Nuit de Neige” is a release that is very guitar oriented and on tracks like “The Sign of Bahrrecht Lotharingen Black Hordes”, you can quickly notice how well the riffing works in creating a thick atmosphere without resorting to the overdone tremolo-picking that many BM bands use.

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    Lyan / Blien Vesne (split) - Esperar Eternity (2011)

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    With the current popularity of Post-Rock and its variations, we have recently received tons of album submissions of this genre but there are only handfuls that are very interesting and pleasant to listen to. “Esperar Eternity” is one of those select few albums that we can say are pretty solid and should be purchased. Featuring five tracks of Ambient Post-Rock from Lyan and four tracks from Blien Vesne (post-rock), this release has a very high atmospheric content that should be heard.

    Opening the release with the Ambient sounds of “Toi Cho Doi”, we are treated to beautiful landscapes for melancholy. This song nicely creates an atmosphere of peace that will calm even the most hyper person in the world. The magic continues with “Cotton House”, where there are some electronic-like elements and ethereal vocals added to the mix. “Childhood’s Seasons” follows the same path but with a deeper atmosphere, a very magical song (and our favorite from the Lyan side of things).

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    Beyond the Labyrinth – Chapter III – Stories (2011)

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    Hailing from Belgium, today we have a very solid Heavy Metal band with the name of “Beyond the Labyrinth”. While this band might not be familiar to a lot of people, they have been around the scene since 1996 and you can tell by the quality of music presented in the 12 tracks in “Chapter III – Stories”. Being the band’s third full-length release, “Chapter II – Stories” features tracks that range from power ballads, hard rocking anthems and even some mellow Heavy/Progressive Metal pieces.

    Opening with “The Girl with the X-Ray Eyes”, the band quickly sets the pace for this release by crafting a very catchy and emotional song. This song reminds us of soundtrack songs for 90’s movies. With a bit of a more current sound, “Where Kindred Spirits Meet” has a nice Progressive/Heavy Metal feel to it and the keyboards sound very good in this song. The first power ballad comes under the name of “Oceans Apart”, in this song the guitar work is quite nice and the vocal performance of Jo De Boeck is very emotional. The drumming sounds a bit funky, but the song it-self is very good.

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    Mystons – 3 (2011)

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    Almost one year since the release of the very solid “Alkaem”, Mystons returns with another nine hard-hitting songs that quickly show that their last album’s success was no fluke and they mean serious business. Dropping one band member, Mystons delivers a very powerful album that feels a bit more consolidated than the first one, and is full of catchy riffs and appealing vocals.

    Funneling a White Stripes vibe, the album opens with “Mammoth” and “Mourning Sky”, the second song in particular seems to have a very familiar riff that will surely be quickly identified by the listeners. In this two songs you can hear the traditional Mystons sound, but with a bit more of direction. The album’s catchiness continues and with “CrusHer”, we find a very hard-rocking song that immediately sticks in your head.

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