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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Diabolic – Excisions of Exorcisms (2010)

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    With all the kiddies invading the current Death Metal scene, it’s nice to see some of the older bands come out and show what this kind of music is all about. Hailing from the Tampa scene, this American band shows that they have earned their DM chaps by experience, and not by copying everybody else.

    “Excisions of Exorcisms” pretty much has the ‘traditional’ DM feeling to it. The riffing is very powerful, the blasting drumming is very well crafted, and the vocals are just right for this release. The band might not have the technical abilities that some of the ‘traditional’ bands do, but they compensate with blistering fast sections that will make you start moshing in no time.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fright Night – The Play of Pain (2010)

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    In our big digital pile of electronic promos today we discovered this amazing release that makes us wonder why the hell didn’t we listened to this album before. This Fright Night, there are several bands with this name, is a band that hails from Russia, and has a very unique and deeply depressive sound.

    With a lineup featuring two super hot girls, one on guitars/vocals and the other one handling the keyboard duties, this is probably one of the few bands that is truly pleasing both visually and aurally The band plays a very interesting Gothic Rock with some Darkwave elements that will haunt your dreams for weeks to come.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Proghma-C – Bar-do Travel (2010)

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    Holy shit! We have actually have a band that features a very unique and original sound. While almost 9 out of 10 bands we receive every week sound very much like somebody else, Proghma-C sounds exactly like nobody else. The band has tons of different influences ranging from more commercial Metal, to more obscure genres that you would never image they would blend well.

    Hailing from Poland, Proghma-C unleashes 9 tracks of pure musical weirdness. While some of you might be frowning since most people think weird=bad, but this is not the case with “Bar Do Travel’. The overall hypnotic feeling that the songs have is probably the only ‘generalization’ you can make about this band’s sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Virgin Snatch – Act of Grace (2008)

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    Today in our huge promo-to-review queue we find Virgin Snatch’s “Act of Grace”, the band’s fourth release since their formation on 2001. Playing a very interesting mixture of Trash Metal with Modern Metal elements, more specifically Groove elements, we find “Act of Grace” a very interesting release… musically. The album is very fresh, sounding more like melodic Metal releases in some parts, since there are plenty of well crafted passages that sound like anything, except Trash Metal.

    With a name like Virgin Snatch, we were about to immediately throw this to the queue of Grindcore/’shit we don’t really want to listen’ list, but we decided against it after doing some research on the band. You should not discard them because of this either, since this Polish band is worth a listen.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Cyco Miko & Infectious Grooves – Live in France ’95 (2010)

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    Finding it’s way to our PO Box today we have this absolutely fantastic double live release from Cyco Miko and Infectious Grooves. If you really need an introduction to who these two bands are, you should be put to sleep. Featuring the original lineup for Infectious Grooves, we have Mike Muir, Robert Trujillo (yeah, he did played with other bands before becoming rich with Metallica), Dean Pleasants, Brooks Wackerman and Dave Nassie playing tunes from both Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko.

    On this soon to be released double CD we have two separate sets, one from each band and both equally magical. Mike Muir has one of the best stage presences in the business and he shines with both ‘band’. The majority of the greatest hits from these two bands are captured in this timeless release that will surely be a great addition to any Suicidal/Infectious Groves/Cyco Miko fan collection.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Saint To Sinner – The Unveiling (2010)

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    We receive a high volume of releases from bands every month, always claiming that they sound like nobody else, and end up sounding like everybody else. This is not the case when it comes to Saint To Sinner, hailing from Rhode Island, USA the band does a great job at having a very unique sound to them. And here is where their little problem occurs.

    The band’s combination of Rock and different genres of Metal sounds a bit chaotic at times, and sometimes the female vocals are going in one direction, and the music is going somewhere else. Desiree Villegas as a very hypnotic and versatile singing style, but in some sections her vocals sound very odd, like the spoken backing section, and the awful ‘rapping’ on the song “Anti-corporate”. Some comparisons to Amy Lee of Evanescence are in order, but her voice sound less over produced and feels more natural.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Toby Knapp – The Campaign (2010)

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    After being blown away by Godless Rising latest album, we had to get more from Toby Knapp’s brilliant guitar skills. Luckily for us Shredguy Records, Toby’s label, hooked us up with his latest solo album “The Campaign”. Featuring a wide variety of styles, Toby manages to create the near perfect Shred release.

    While most of the existing guitar virtuosos focus on Heavy/Progressive Metal tunes, Toby mixes things up with Trash, Black, and Death Metal influences. There is also a very cohesive sound to his music, it does not only showcases his abilities as a guitar player, but also as a multi-instrumentalist handling the bass guitar and most of the drum duties in this recording as well, suck on that John Petrucci.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    A Forest of Stars – Opportunistic Thieves of Spring (2010)

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    After their brilliant debut release “The Corpse of Rebirth”, A Forest of Stars (AFS) is back with their demented Psychedelic Black Metal that will puzzle the masses and will be praised by the select few that like experimental genre-bending music. “Opportunistic Thieves of Spring” is a huge step up for AFS, the album is 72 minutes long and features more intricate, more dense, and overall more grandiose compositions.

    In the six songs presented on “Opportunistic Thieves of Spring” we found a very rich palette of different sounds and elements that at first, did not seemed to come along nicely. However, after a few listens we started getting immersed in the haunting (and demented) atmospheres presented in this release. Yes, the learning curve on this one is a bit steep, but once you are over the hump you will enjoy this release 100%.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Comparative Anatomy – Mammalia (2010)

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    Our category of WTF releases has gotten its most recent entry: Comparative Anatomy’s “Mammalia”. A brilliant release that is disturbed, deranged, and plain fucked up, but we love it and can’t stop listening to this album. The animal samples will freak you out at the beginning, but once you get used to them, they are like the chant of a siren in our ears.

    The masterminds behind Comparative Anatomy are two dudes named Sir Puffers Rabbinald the Third and Ron Chickenbaby, dressing up like a rabbit and a chicken you can start to imagine how bizarre this band really is. Featuring two bass guitars a whole lot of samples, a drum machine (we think), and a wide variety of screams, Comparative Anatomy has managed to create something we haven’t heard before.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Kraaker - Musikk fra Vettenes Dom (2010)

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    Whenever we get any album that says “Experimental” we are thrilled. Since we usually review tons of ‘regular’ stuff we are always interested in listening to something new and different. The music presented by Kraaker on “Musikk fra Vettenes Dom” cannot be considered an experimental band, but rather a ‘traditional’ Norwegian Black Metal band with different tuning at times and nothing else.

    However, Kraaker’s music is not bad at all. The band actually excels in creating powerful guitar driven melodies that do not sound like the million Black Metal clone bands we have on the scene these days. “Musikk fra Vettenes Dom” is actually a very solid first full-length for a band that shows substantial promise.

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