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    • 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.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Frostfall – Dark Torments / Beyond The Dusk (2010)

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    Courtesy of Final Eartbeat productions we all the way from Italy we get Frostfall’s first two demos released on CD. We will be reviewing both demos separately in this space since they are huge differences between them. Hailing from France, Frostfall is a Black Metal band that is very raw and brutal in nature.

    The first demo “Dark Torments” was originally released in 1999 and you can really notice that by the way it sounds. Having very bad clicking and popping noises due to the low quality of the recording we almost thought our Home Theater’s speakers got damaged. However, there are some hints of quality in this recording.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Black River – Black’n’Roll (2010)

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    Featuring members from the almighty Behemoth, Vesania and Dimmu Borgir we have today Black River and their second full-length release “Black’n’Roll”. Playing Hard Rock/Stoner Rock, this band is something we would never have expected from members of primarily Black Metal bands. However, with “Black’n’Roll’ the band will surely turn more than one heads with their super catchy Rock music.

    Black River starts rocking since the funny titled song “Barf Bag” and continues to blast one catchy song after another one. There is not a single track on this release that is not full of traditional Hard Rock that will make you want to headbang since the opening riff until the last.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Canvas Solaris - Irradiance (2010)

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    Hailing from the USA today we have Progressive Metal wizards Canvas Solaris. “Irradiance” marks the band fifth full-length album, and a very impressive one we might add. For over 40 minutes we are taken through a brilliant exercise in execution and composition skills, “Irradiance” is one of the best Progressive Metal albums we have reviewed this 2010.

    With their heavy influences from Cynic, Yes and Dream Theater, we can quickly notice why Canvas Solaris has been around for a while and are serious about making brilliant Progressive songs. The songwriting quality behind “Irradiance” is top notch and will immerse you into the band’s powerful sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Delain – Lucidity (2010)

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    Four years have passed since this album’s original (and European only) release. During this years Delain, which started as a project of Martijn Westerholt, has gained worldwide acclaim and recognition. Martijn then decided to make this a full-time touring band and has since released “April Rain”, the band’s second full-length album. Going back in time when Delain only consisted as Martijn and Charlotte Wessels as the permanent members, they recorded “Lucidity”, a majestic Gothic Metal masterpiece.

    “Lucidity” features guest appearances from some of the most celebrated musicians in the Gothic Metal scene. We have Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) on vocals and bass guitar, we also have the appearance of Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Liv Kristine (Leaves’ Eyes), and George Oosthoek on growling duties in some of the tracks. As you can expect from this impressive lineup, “Lucidity” is a pretty strong first-release for a band.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Low Twelve – Splatter Pattern (2010)

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    Today we have one of the shittiest albums we have reviewed in quite a while. Low Twelve patter is a Death Metal band hailing from Illinois that has been around for quite a while, but display an impressive lack of ideas and musical abilities in “Splatter Pattern”.

    Fro over one hour and 14 songs we have been subjected to a very painful Death Metal that sounds very bad might be the promo quality of just the recording facilities the band used, but in general the sound is very terrible. The vocals don’t help either, featuring a mixture of drowsy screams and some spoken sections; they have a metalcore-ish feeling to them that is downright terrible when combined with the Death Metal riffing of this release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Aluk Todolo – Finsternis (2010)

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    Aluk Todolo has been labeled (and use to be a Black Metal), but with “Finisternis” they open our minds into a darkly demented world that will surely be understood by a select few. The band’s latest effort explores minimalistic sounds that for the most part will leave you expecting some sort of climax that never occurs, making you hand by the edge, waiting patiently.

    Comprised of 5 songs merged into two side-a and side-b, “Finsternis” is truly an aural experience that even if it fails to fully deliver it’s full potential, should be hear by fans of the truly bizarre. On side-a we have a very monotonous drum rhythm that made me so anxious that I started biting my nails. It creates the perfect endless and dark corridor feeling that has you pondering if you will every reach the end. With it’s deranged guitar riffs creating peaks into our anticipation of something happening in this release.

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