2010

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    Neurosis – Live at Roadburn 2007 (2010)

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    In the eve of the band’s 25th anniversary and after a 3 year waiting period, we finally get a ‘new’ release from Neurosis, in the form of the live CD “Live at Roadburn 2007”. With amazing clarity and masterful production behind this release, you closer than ever to having Neurosis play in your living room in CD form at least (We are still waiting for a proper live DVD/Blu-ray featuring 5.1 or even 7.1 audio).

    For all of us ‘old-school’ Neurosis fans “Live at Roadburn” comes with a bit of disappointment since this release features songs from “Times of Grace” till the bands 2007 album “Given to the Rising” but nothing else from before. However, with the band’s previous live CD’s and the bootlegs we can get that fix.

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    Prosanctus Inferi - Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation (2010)

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    Featuring J. Kohn of Black Funeral (USA) fame, Prosanctus Inferi is one of those bands that you will either love or hate to death. Their style merges Black and Death Metal elements into a blender and creates very brutal and mostly aimless 2-3 minute musical ‘compositions’ that will either make you headbang like crazy or scratch your head wondering WTF is going on.

    “Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation” the band’s first full-length album features 13 songs and around 25 minutes of sheer brutality. If you like your music to be extremely brutal and somewhat pointless then this is the album for you. The band’s drummer Antichristus committed suicide before the release of this album.

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    Denouncement Pyre - World Cremation (2010)

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    When it comes to sounding evil and grim, the Aussie’s behind Denouncement Pyre got it down to a science. With their first full-length album in 7 years they are finally arriving to American shores via Hell’s Headbangers. The band consists of two members and they alone can create enough havoc to unleash war and hell upon planet earth.

    After several demo’s, EP’s, Split’s, we finally get a true full-length release form this band and while it’s a bit short of complete epicness, it does create a very solid atmosphere and has a powerful Black/Death Metal ring to it. As you can expect, the band is short from being original or revolutionary, but they do a great job in sticking to the basics and creating raw melodies without the need of sounding like they recorded this album in the toilet.

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    Fen – Trails out of Gloom (2010)

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    Sometimes in our review queue some albums get lost in the mix and we don’t get to them until ‘late’. Unluckily for us we didn’t heard this majestic release from Fen (from Canada not the UK one) and now we can’t stop listening to it in order to pay attention to newer releases that need to be heard.

    Before the confusion set’s in, this Canadian outfit plays Progressive Rock/Metal and it should not be mixed up with UK’s Fen (that play’s Atmospheric Black Metal/Post-rock). The first impressions we had of this CD where outstanding since the band has managed to craft 9 Progressive Rock/Metal anthems unlike many bands are able to do these days. After further listening, we can’t stop agreeing that this is surely the Progressive Rock/Metal album of the year for us as of August.

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    Drünken Bastards – Horns of the Wasted (2010)

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    It’s been a while since we have heard a band be as effective in 20 minutes as the Drünken Bastards manage to be with “Horns of the Wasted”. With a brutal mixture of Thrash Metal with Punk elements and a few Black Metal hints here and there, the band does a great job in crafting small, concise, and effective songs that will rock you sideways.

    Release in the USA on Hell’s Headbandgers, “Horns of the Wasted” is a great blast in the past, when bands where still having fun and freely rocking out tunes that mashed up several genres and they did not give a shit if people liked them or not. The overall Punk influences are very high in this release, and in songs like “Alcoholic Big Tits” the band goes all-out Punk on us. But they quickly regain their Metal-form with their cover of Barbatos “Prophecy of the Evening Star”, a song that sounds extremely Heavy Metal for this album.

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    A Dream of Poe – Lady of Shalott (2010)

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    Doom Metal is a an art that has been slowly dying in the last few years with more bands switching to the more ‘lucrative’ Gothic Metal scene or just starting off as a Metalcore band. Luckly today we have A Dream of Poe, as you can expect and Edgar Allan Poe inspired Doom Metal band from Portugal with members of In Peccatum.

    In this 5 song and 36 minute EP the band does a great job in crafting crushing songs that will make you want to dig up your older My Dying Bride albums and get on full-on melancholic mode. Starting with the slow (it’s Doom Metal!! what do you expect!) self-album-titled song “Lady of Shalott” the band quickly sets the tone in terms of down-tuned guitar riffs and mournful vocal atmosphere.

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    Chaos in Paradise – Demo (2010)

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    All the way from Portugal today we get Chaos in Paradise a very young band that is releasing their first demo. This demo features four very interesting songs that showcase the band’s talents, but it also shows the areas where they need work. Since it’s a short demo we will use the dreaded ‘song-by-song’ approach to this review.

    The band opens their demo with “Dawn” a very well structured song that features what this band is all about in less than 4 minutes. With powerful riffing, you quickly get the impression this might be a Melodic Death Metal release, but soon Sara’s angelic vocals follow and your whole impression of this album is changed. The band does a very solid job in crafting a powerful chorus section with solid riffing and a catchy vocal melody. However, the small use of male vocals could have easily been avoided and this would have kept the song more consistent.

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    The Royal Arch Blaspheme – The Royal Arch Blaspheme (2010)

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    With J. Gelso composing the music and N. Imperial on vocals, The Royal Arch Blaspheme is ready to torture our soul and ears with their Blackened Death Metal sound. With such a promising line-up, the band knows what old school Black Metal fans like: raw and unceasing attacks of brutality and dissonance.

    With such a foul sound, The Royal Arch Blaspheme delivers 10 tracks of total blasphemy and destruction. While this self-titled album is nothing close to a revelation or re-invention of the genre, it is very direct and effective in creating thick guitar-woven atmospheres that are greatly adorned by Imperial’s hellish screams.

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    Profanatica – Disgusting Blasphemies Against God (2010)

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    As one of the most ‘anticipated’ records of 2010, “Disgusting Blasphemies Against God”  is all that the band and the label promises it to be. The album is raw, barbaric, filthy, dissonant, blasphemous, etc., however, we fail to see the point in how the lyrics and song names are crafted. We have nothing against the crushing and extremely raw and harsh music, the problem we have is with the idiotic lyrics and song titles. One thing is to be ‘kvult’ and another is to sound like a retarded 5 year-old, with songs like “Angel with Cock”, “Covered in Black Shit”, and “Smashing Religious Fucking Statues” the band sounds like a bad joke written by the kids from South Park.

    We completely understand the anti-religion ideology behind the band, but when things are taken down this low, the whole point is missed and it ends up being laughable. With such idiotic ramblings we think that this takes credibility away from other bands of the genre that are actually EDUCATING themselves and being anti-religion/Satanic in a smart way.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Inquisition – Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult (2010)

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    Thanks to Hell’s Headbangers now many people can rejoice with Inquisition’s ultra Satanic masterpiece of Black Metal. “Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult” should be in every self-respecting Black Metal-head top 10 list of all times. Hailing from Colombia, this is one of the bands that took a different approach to raw low-fi Black Metal and made it sound fresh and interesting (back in 1998).

    With their characteristically mournful and almost spoken vocals, the band managed to infuse the genre with that extra level of creepiness unlike anybody else was doing at the time. In this re-mastered re-release of the album we can hear everything 10 times more clearly than before, and this re-mastering is done in such a way that you still get the low-fi production values with added clarity creating a very effective mix.

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