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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Corruption – Bourbon River Bank (2010)

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    How would you explain listening to Southern/Stoner Rock from Poland?, we are at loss for words with this very solid release from Poland’s Corruption. The band has been around for quite a while (1991) and we have never heard of them until now, and let us tell you that similarly to Black River, they come rocking, kicking-ass and taking names.

    Five years have passed since the band’s latest effort “Virgin's Milk” and they are now back with “Bourbon River Bank”, an album that we would have expected from an American band, but never (ever) from a Polish band. For over 50 minutes, Corruption takes us on a hard rocking journey through 13 powerful and catchy songs.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Rootwater – Visionism (2010)

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    Featuring the characteristic vocals of Maciej Taff (of Black River fame), we get a very solid hard-rocking album that will surely bring back your memories of when System of a Down didn’t suck. Following a similar approach than SoD, the band evolved around a charismatic singer and some folk influences, however Rootwater never overdoes the folk stuff and moves into a Melodic Metal territory with songs like “Visionism”.

    “Visionism” marks the band’s third full-length album and probably the best one to date. Recently Rootwater has stopped ‘operations’ since Maciej has to undergo therapy for illness and this sucks since “Visionism” is a very solid album that would have taken them further than their previous albums.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Mekong Delta – Wanderer on the Edge of Time (2010)

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    With a newly revamped lineup (since the last album), Mekong Delta is finally back with their Thrash infused Progressive Metal. Ralph Hubert as the only remaining original member, Mekong Delta comes out of the shadows to release a very solid album with “Wanderer on the Edge of Time”. For somebody that has been doing music since the 80’s we could only expect nothing but the best and Mekong Delta delivers on this promise.

    Recruiting Martin LeMar of Tomorrow’s Eve on vocals and Alex Landenburg of At Vance on drums, the band sounds like nothing has been really lost since their last album “Lurking Fear”. With fifteen tracks and around 50 minutes of music, “Wanderer on the Edge of Time” is arranged in a manner that allows the listener to get fully immersed on the musical experience provided on this album. All the “Zwischenspiel” or interludes (5 in total) in this album allow the transitions between tracks to be simple and elegant.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Neurosis – Enemy of the Sun (2010)  Reissue

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    With the upcoming 25th anniversary of Neurosis, the band has decided to reissue one of their most influential masterpieces: “Enemy of the Sun”. If you remember going back to 1993, or at any point when you first listening to this crushing release, you will know how epic this album was, and how it changed the way a lot of people listened/viewed “Metal” music.

    This 2010, Neurot recordings has put out another reissue of this epic masterpiece. The first reissue was back in 1999, and the current ‘2010 edition’ features a redesigned package made by Josh Graham. And it also includes two added tracks: “Takeahnse (demo version)” and “Cleanse II” (Live in Oberhausen). As one of the first experimental masterpieces of Metal, “Enemy of the Sun” is one of those releases that every Metal connoisseur must have in their collection.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Armagedon – Death Then Nothing (2010)

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    Finally making its way to North America, today we have Armagedon’s second full-length album “Death Then Nothing”. For a band that was broken up for around 12 years (from 1994 to 2006), they sure do a great job in bringing back their in-you-face Death Metal style that is constantly tried to be mimicked by young bands these days.

    With all the current DM kiddies trying to copy old bands, it’s nice and refreshing to actually hear an old band kicking ass and taking names with a refined ‘old school style’ music that will make legions of DM fans start headbanging since track 1. As you can imagine Armagedon is nothing close to be ‘innovative’, but they excel at the basics.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Thy Disease – Anshur-Za (2009)

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    With a very unconventional sound today we have Thy Disease, a Polish band that will surely turn heads when you are blasting this release through your car stereo or out in your back yard. Starting off a second place finish in Poland’s “Metal Millennium Party” back in 1999, Thy Disease has released 5 full-length albums in over 10 years and it’s finally making its way to America through Armoury Records.

    With a very rich mixture of elements in their music, Thy Disease will surely make an impact as one of the bands with one of the most interesting styles in the Metal scene these days. In “Anshur-Za”, the band combines Death/Black Metal elements with some Industrial/Electronic sounds and some interesting chorus sections (featuring clean vocals) that will surely make you scratch your head more than one.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Votum – Metafiction (2010)

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    As soon as we saw that Votum’s second full-length album was promoted for fans of Opeth, Anathema and Porcupine Tree, we immediately took out the CD from its packaging and started listening to this promising release. To our surprise, Votum actually delivers on the promise of being compared to the previously mentioned legendary bands.

    Hailing from Poland, Votum has been around since 2002 and (from what we have heard) has been evolving from Heavy Metal into the mystical genre of Progressive Metal/Rock in the last years. We immediately identify with Votum’s music since it’s well crafted and atmospheric enough to draw our attention away from whatever else we are doing while reviewing music (playing MW2 mostly).

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Lustre – A Glimpse of Glory (2010)

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    Hailing from Sweden, Lustre (one man band) brings us his second full-length release with “A Glimpse of Glory”. Mixing Ambient elements with the raw beauty of Atmospheric Black Metal, we get a very solid release that instantly became one of our top 10 releases of 2010 so far. During the 40 minutes of “A Glimpse of Glory”, Lustre reminded us of bands such as Enid, Blut aus Nord, Velvet Cacoon, etc. combined with the ethereal nature of artists like raison d'être and Robert Rich.

    Each of the three tracks found in “A Glimpse of Glory” focuses more in creating a very enthralling atmosphere than on the ‘Black Metal’ aspect of things. There are distorted guitars through most of the album (two thirds maybe), but there is only a little section (on track one) that has harsh BM screams. We didn’t even care if anybody was singing since each song crafts a mysterious atmosphere that gave us chills while listening to them at night.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Jelonek – Jelonek (2007)

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    All the way from Poland today we get Jelonek, the ‘side project’ from violinist Michal Jelonek of Hunter fame. The music of this band is another attempt at fusing classical music with metal/rock elements and create an enjoyable mixture of the two genres while not sounding overly ordinary. Comparisons to Apocalyptica, Elend, Agizia and Ulytau come immediately to our heads but Jelonek easily stands out and cannot be called a cheap clone of these bands.

    With no vocals, Jelonek’s self-titled debut album manages to immerse the listener into the beauty of classical music paired with (sometimes) powerful drumming and distorted guitar. This band is different to Apocalyptica in the sense that it approaches music more ‘classically’ then them but at sometimes they sound just like them (i.e. “Machinehat”).

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ramesses – Take the Curse (2010)

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    All the way from the UK, today we get on our review queue Ramesses latest crushing releases “Take the Curse”. While we are huge Doom Metal fans, we tend to go for the Death-Doom bands rather than the Sludge/Psychedelic Metal bands. Ramesses falls on the second category and while not our favorite band in the world, they do a great job in creating 10 solid tracks for this new release.

    The problem most people might have about Sludge/Doom Metal is the lack of ‘originality’ and diversity than most bands present. We rather look at Sludge/Doom Metal releases from a perspective of effectiveness rather than originality or diversity, and Ramesses is a very effective band in our opinion. The band creates a very bleak and sometimes trippy atmosphere that not everybody pulls off these days.

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