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    • 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”).

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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.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Stribog - U Okovima Vjecnosti (2010)

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    Directly from Croatia today we have Stribog, a very impressive Folk/Pagan Metal band. The band’s first full-length album “U Okovima Vjecnosti” showcases a perfect balance of aggressive Metal sections and ethereal Folk passages that not every band can pull off so gracefully. There is no shortage of epic songs in this album that have high replay value.

    Since the first song “Ancestral Skies Of Gold” you know you are for a special ethereal ride with the combination of Folk elements, melodic distorted guitars and angelic female vocals. The band’s songs vary between melodic Folk passages and very aggressive (but melodic) Black Metal-like sections, the intertwining of these two genres is done very well and most of the transitions in this release are done seamlessly.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Žrec – Žertva (2008)

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    Featuring 3 members of Moravská Zima, a Czech Black Metal band, today we have Žrec and their latest album “Žertva”. Žrec plays a mixture of Folk and Pagan Metal that focuses more on the Folk side of things. We particularly love bands like Žrec that play Folk Metal where you can easily identify the region they are from if you pay close attention.

    Žrec does a great job in crafting catchy and effective tunes that will resonate in your head for quite a while after listening to this solid release. We particularly enjoy that while Žrec has the traditional folk elements with the violin, flute, and pipes, they still show a broad diversity within the songs allowing them to never get old and tired, like many Folk Metal albums get after 5 minutes.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sezarbil – Dark God (2009)

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    Hailing from the Czech Republic today we have Sezarbil, a Black Metal band that while not very original it’s actually very entertaining. Sezarbil, like countless other Black Metal band has a tick and brutal sound that is very brutal and destructive in nature but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before.

    However, if you are a connoisseur of Black Metal we all know that bands in this genre sound a like, but the good ones are equally effective in creating the destructive atmosphere that we all love about this genre. Sezarbil falls in the category of the good bands since with “Dark God”, they have crafted 9 tracks of pure Black Metal hatred against humanity and religion.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Teratism – Via Negativa (2010)

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    Two years after “Pure Unadulterated Hate”, USBM band Teratism is finally back with another hard-hitting grim as fuck Black Metal release that will rattle your insides. With a full-on devil worshipping and the occult concept, Teratism is one of the top flight USBM bands this days and with “Via Negativa” the have pushed their diabolic sound to new heights.

    Summer time is the time for warm weather and sunny skies, but Teratism creates a very thick and chilling atmosphere with a relentless Black Metal attack very similar to its Nordic counterparts that will bring forth darkness and bleakness to any sunny day. “Via Negativa” has a very raw sound to it, but it never feels like it was recorded in a shed or a toilet; the production highlights the raw and destructive sound of the band while maintaining enough quality to rival any big budget BM production.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    East Of The Wall – Ressentiment (2010)

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    Like a good wine, East Of The Wall has only been getting better with time. With “Ressentiment” the band not only improves over their perplexingly brilliant “Farmer's Almanac”, but they take things to a whole new dimension. The main addition to “Ressentiment” is the use of vocals to adorn the bands highly textured musical compositions. The vocals are partly because of the merger of Biclops and them.

    East Of The Wall’s brand of music is of particular interest to music connoisseurs that can greatly appreciate all the technical powers behind this band. Every single song is masterfully crafted to perplex the listener and make him have to listen to the songs a few times before fully digesting them. Then you move on to the next song and the process begins again.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    The Body - All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (2010)

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    Today we have one of the weirdest albums we have received in the last few years with The Body’s “All the Waters….”. This band combines Drone / Sludge Metal with a bunch of random shit creating a very enthralling atmosphere unlike anything you have heard before.

    Since their opening track “A Body”, you know you will be in for quite the experience. This song features angelic voices for around 7 minutes and then it transforms into a mix of heavy sludge riffage, angelic voices and deranged screams. The album pretty much continues in the same weird fashion with the drone-like “A Curse” and then it just keeps getting weirder and weirder with “Empty Hearth”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fluwid – From Surface to Suffocation (2010)

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    If you have been an avid reader of Infernal Masquerade for a while now, you should know that we despise most of the shitty Metalcore releases that all the kids over at Hot Topic go crazy about. However, we have always been objective and giving props when props are due to Metalcore/Deathcore/Whatever-core releases that are actually good. Today we have Fluwid and their Metalcore/Melodic Death Metal second album “From Surface to Suffocation”.

    First off, it might be the promo we got but the album sound leaves a lot to be desired since it sounds very hollow and diminishes the overall quality of this release. The music is very straight forward and is highly repetitive, repeating riffs over and over until you can easily play them just by listening to this album once. The breakdowns and clean vocals made us want to puncture our ear drums, but they are very standard for releases of this kind and sound good when compared to other Metalcore bands.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Waking the Cadaver – Beyond Cops. Beyond God. (2010)

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    If it wasn’t enough that all the kiddies are playing Deathcore these days, we now have BRUTAL, yes BRUTAL Deathcore. We can definitely can notice an extra ‘aggression’ level in Waking the Cadaver’s Deathcore sound making it much more brutal, but it still borders with the Death/Grind bands of a few years ago.

    The band call their style “Slamming Gore Groove” and we think this is downright hilarious, there aren’t enough Groove elements to categorize this release like this, but we can see that there is some Grooviness to their music. We can’t really find the ‘innovative’ aspect of this band anywhere since they just sound like a really pissed off version of Black Dahlia Murder without their occasional good riff.

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