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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Invasion – Orchestrated Kill Maneuver (2010)

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    Quality can usually be considered a matter of perspective, and when it comes to Invasion’s “Orchestrated Kill Manuever” perspective immediately comes in to play. If you compared them to old-school European bands that play (and have played) the whole war-inspired Thrash/Death Metal band, then they are just one more in the bunch. However, if you consider what US bands have done for the genre, then we have to agree that Invasion is not that bad.

    With chuggy distortion and catchy riffs, Invasion comes at us with a brutal attack of straight-forward in-your-face Thrash/Death Metal that will make it hard for anybody to deny their effectiveness. That being said, they don’t have much to offer when it comes to originality or diversity.

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    Jumalhämärä – Resignaatio (2010)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we get one of the weirdest yet thought provoking releases of 2010. Jumalhämärä and their first full-length release in 14 years “Resignaatio”, come baring gifts with their highly deranged and experimental approach to Black Metal. The band combines elements of post-rock/metal, progressive metal, jazz, and Black Metal in a fashion that is not been achieved up until today. This band makes Solefald and such bands look rather straight forward and dull in their approach to music in comparison to what we find in “Resignaatio”.

    As an underground band for 14 years, Jumalhämärä is ready to take the stage and what better introductory card than “Resignaatio”. Opening the album with “Ecstasy in Blood – A Ballad”, for the first few minutes you might think that you are in for another raw mind-fucking BM release, but once you start noticing the different distortion, you will hear that there is something weird here… little do you know that after 5 minutes this song will explode into a full-on Post-Rock/Metal piece that will make your head hurt.

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    Unsun – Clinic for Dolls (2010)

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    With a world-wide release of October 11th, today we get Unsun’s second Gothic Metal/Rock album “Clinic for Dolls”. Hailing from Poland, this band features on the country’s most renowned Metal guitarist Maurycy Stefanowicz (Mauser) from Vader, Christ Agony and Dies Irae fame. Rounding up the two-person permanent lineup from the band, we have Mauser’s wife Aya. In the album liner notes we have that ex-member’s Heinrich (bass guitar) and Vaaver (drums) still contributed to this album.

    Unsun, plays a very straight forward Gothic Metal that is easily identified by the powerful guitar riffs and sweet vocals from Aya. The band’s sound is nothing revolutionary and at some points gets a bit monotone, but by the standards of the genre, “Clinic for Dolls” is a very solid album.

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    Noctis Imperium – Nihil (2010)

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    Out of the hundreds of bands we receive every month, we have three main categories for them: great, terrible, and average. Noctis Imperium is one of those that fit exactly in the average category, there is nothing really wrong with it, but there is also nothing impressive to this band. The songs are catchy and brutal, but asides from this you can fast forward in between songs and everything will sound the same.

    Hailing from Venezuela, the band does a solid job in creating energetic Death/Black Metal songs. The band’s guitar work is pretty solid and catchy, and the solos are very well placed in the songs, we venture to say that the guitars and drumming (courtesy of Nicholas Barker) are probably the strongest elements of this band, since the rest falls on the ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ category.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Domination through Impurity – Masochist (2010)

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    When it comes to Technical Death Metal, 2010 has been a great year; we got amazing releases from Pestifer and Decrepit Birth among others. “Masochist” is another album that will join these ranks since it will propel Domination through Impurity to the spotlight in this very crowded genre.

    Fronted by Joe Payne from Nile and Divine Heresy fame, we get a brilliant sophomore album that features traditional Death Metal roots with massive drumming and brilliant guitar acrobatics, showing that is more than the brutal bass player from the previously mentioned band, but a solid guitar player that can shred the shit out of an axe.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Kamelot – Poetry for the Poisoned (2010)

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    Three years after releasing “Ghost Opera”, Kamelot is finally back with a very different and ambitious album then ever before. The band steps aside of their traditional Power Metal roots and takes an exploratory journey with progressive elements. This creates a very dark and yet refined release that will most likely please most fans of the band, but will leave some in the dark.

    Our first impression of this album was not completely favorable since we expected something to sound more like older Kamelot releases. But upon exploring our 3rd, 4th, and 5th time we started to appreciate the album from its differences to older releases rather than the similarities. You will find the traditional vocal melodies of Roy, the impressive guitar work of Thomas, and all the other individual elements that make Kamelot a great band, but in different doses and with extra elements that elevate the band’s sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Place of Skulls - As a Dog Returns (2010)

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    Tennessee doomsters Place of Skulls return with another traditional Doom Metal combined with Rock release that will surely take you by surprise thanks to its groovy riffing and brilliant guitar solos. The band formed by Victor Griffin of Death Row/Pentagram fame gives us 9 very interesting tracks that will have you listening to them more than once in order to understand them completely.

    As we listened to “As a Dog Returns”, we quickly identified a single issue that caused some confusion when listening to this album. The ordering of the songs is a bit odd and it tends to cut the flow of the album, creating a very uncomfortable but yet intriguing listening experience. The differences between “The Maker” and “Breath of Life” (tracks 1 and 2) are pretty drastic, since the first song opens things up in a groovy powerful fashion and the second one is more of a slower-paced ‘doomier’ song that kind of kills the flow of this release. This issue also happens further in the album, but if you don’t mind about the flow of a release then this should not be a problem for you.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Heretic Soul – Born Into this Plague (2010)

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    In this modern age finding good Death Metal can become quite a hard thing to do, you have all the ‘classic’ bands still releasing good shit like Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Malevolent Creation, etc. But finding a new band that is worthy to be added to such an impressive Death Metal lineup is hard to so, especially because of all the shitty Deathcore influences that many bands have these days.

    Today we have from Rotting Corpse Records, the first full-length release of the Turkish band Heretic Soul. “Born Into this Plague” is a release that can surely be called extremely ‘traditional’ and nothing out of the ordinary, but who cares, if you are looking for catchy Death Metal, then look no further since Heretic Soul is the band for you.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Locrian – The Crystal World (2010)

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    Every once in a while we get a release that makes us listen to it more than normal since it’s so complex and different that we can’t really craft a solid opinion about it with only 3-4 spins. This month we have Locrian’s third full-length album “The Crystal World”, the band plays a very experimental mixture of ambient, drone, and some Black Metal and Post-Rock elements. This might sound like a handful, but it actually works very well for the flow of this release.

    “The Crystal World” is a very powerful emotional ride that spreads through 6 tracks. With the first track “Triumph of Elimination”, the band immediately sets the stage for this dark and minimalistic journey. In the traditional fashion of creating expectation, this track starts building up with samples and drones that seem to be gaining momentum but they also seem to never culminate. The ‘culmination’ section for us that need it, comes in the next track “At Night’s End”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Gangrenator – Tales from a Thousand Graves (2010)

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    Hailing from Norway and featuring Kvohst (vocalist of Code and ex-DHG), today we have Gangrenator and their interesting sounding old-school Death/Grind Metal. This band feels like a tribute band to old-school Death/Grind and B movies, and they actually manage to pull of this feeling very successfully on the 13 tracks presented in this short but sweet release.

    During “Tales from a Thousand Graves”, we get a bunch of deranged tracks that last between 1 and 3 minutes of highly chaotic, but interestingly crafted music. Amoque Von Berlevaag does a very solid job in providing countless riffs that range from Grindcore to traditional Death Metal influences.

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