Album Reviews

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    Enemy of Reality – Rejected Gods (2014)

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    Featuring all the right ingredients to make a great Symphonic Metal band, today we have Enemy of Reality and their bombastic debut release “Rejected Gods”. Filled with catchy vocal melodies and excellent atmospheric passages, these newcomers from Greece deliver the WOW factor with 45 minutes of brilliant music.

    After the typical warm-up intro, the band starts things with the super catchy “My Own Master”, a track that features Mike LePond handling the bass guitar duties. In this song we are gladly impressed by the very mellow and yet powerful vocal performances, allowing Iliana Tsakiraki to instantly standout. The band’s music is much like your Serenity / Sirenia type of Symphonic Metal with Gothic elements, and they greatly interate their guest vocals into the band’s unique groove as we can hear in “Needle Bites” which incidentally features Ailyn from Sirenia.

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    Dead Summer Society – So Many Years of Longing (2015)

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    Being huge fans of Death/Doom/Gothic Metal release, we instantly jumped on Rain Without  End Records release “So Many Years of Longing”. This one-man outfit hails from Italy and it delivers some pretty solid barebones music that while it gets a bit repetitive and tiring, has some glimmers of hope.

    Building up into “Coldness Gods” via the intro “So Many Years”, all the elements of releases in this genre are pretty well executed, such as the strong riffs, highly atmospheric passages and hearty grunts. Things remind us a bit of Forest of Shadows and Rapture for the most part, with sprinkles of Draconian and such when the female vocals appear on songs like “It Devours my Faith”.

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    Fright Night – Life Eternal (2014)

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    Making it our review stack, today we have Russia’s Fright Night and their sophomore release “Life Eternal”. Featuring a keyboard-driven Gothic Rock/Metal style, the band nicely blends elements of other groups like Lacrimosa, Lacrimas Profundere, and End of Green, but keeps their sound timeless with a high atmospheric emphasis. Clocking in at 45 minute, this release consists of nine tracks that will surely please any fan of the genre.

    Opening with lush atmospheric elements and prominent keyboards, “Cherry Blossom” is one of those bleak sounding tracks that is both catchy and dark. The usage of three different vocal styles is quiet solid, and the main female/male singers do a great job in fusing their vocals in several brilliant dual sections. The album mood is quite melancholic and tracks like “Gerda” and “Numb” bring us back to some of the early days of Gothic Metal from bands like Edge of Sanity.

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    Strynn – Alienation (2015)

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    Seems like there is something in the water in France that has been coming from the Norwegian highlands in the last few years, and that something is making some of the most vicious Black Metal bands come out of France instead of the Nordic lands. Today we have a very brutal outfit called Strynn and their sophomore release “Alienation”. Released through Mortis Humanae Productions, this is yet another of their finest releases for those of us that like savage Black Metal like it was originally envisioned many years ago.

    Quickly pummeling through demoralizing tracks like “Anthropophobia”, “Sadistic”, and “Obliteration”, the band perfectly blends the rawness of Black Metal from the 90’s with a vicious clarity that we rarely hear these days. Not only looking to viciously attach through brutality, there are some atmospheric/’melodic’ elements like on “Desolation”, “Reminiscence” and “Plague” that make this release even more incisive and dynamic.

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    Almøst Human– Ø (2012)

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    Better late than never, today we have Switzerland’s Almøst Human with their super catchy EP titled “Ø”. Featuring five tracks and around 25 minutes of music, this is a great business card from a band that has a highly refined sound and a the attitude to deliver Heavy songs with a certain modern flair that makes them comparable to bands like Stork, Amaranthe (minus the female vocals), and even some of the most recent Coal Chamber stuff.

    Blasting things wide open with the blistering “Living Wreck”, which starts off a bit like a mixture of Linkin Park meets Devildriver. The vocals are quite engaging and very fitting for the musical style, allowing the track to go from heavy to brutal in seconds. The band settles in a bit after the killer opener with the melodic “Obey, Consume or Disappear”, which showcases a mellower and cleaner side of the band thanks to the solid vocals and guitar leads.

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    Pestifer – Reaching the Void (2014)

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    Greatly improving from their 2010 debut release, today we have Belgium’s Pestifer and their sophomore effort “Reaching the Void”. In a scene as competitive as Technical Death Metal, there are always bands that are clearly better than the ‘known alternatives’ and one of those is Pestifer. Cranking out nine brutal hyperactive headbanging anthems, this album will blow you away since the first song.

    Showing their insane musical skills since the opener, “Witness of the Loss”, the band demonstrates immense improvement since their previous release. Filled with hateful growls, acrobatic riffing and sick bass guitar lines, the album demolishes its way through tracks like “Exiled to the Abyss”, “Tree of Thorns” and the personal favorite “Abominations”. It is immediately evident that the dual guitar onslaughts by Antoine Paterka and Emerson Devresse will be responsible for multiple sore necks.

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    Waverly lies North – A Soul in the Void (2014)

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    Hailing from France today we have an excellent Power Metal band called Waverly Lies North, and their debut full-length release “A Soul in the Void”. Being in the intersection between bands like old Stratovarius and Rhapsody of Fire, this French outfit delivers nearly 50 minutes of explosive music that will have you cheering and psyched up from start to end.

    Opening with the epicness of “The Curse”, this release is off to a great start with lush orchestrations, solid guitar leads, and excellent vocals (courtesy of Eric Pariche). With a very well defined Power Metal foundation, tracks like “A Soul in the Void”, “Labyrinth” and “Chimaera” have a very epic mood that is greatly enhanced by excellent atmospheric elements, dramatic guitar leads, and very well rounded vocal performances that elevate the music.

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    Necrotted – Utopia 2.0 (2014)

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    While cleaning up stacks of CD’s from our review table we found this little hidden gem from 2014. Necrotted is a German outfit that produces some crushing Deathcore/Death Metal and on their sophomore release “Utopia 2.0”, they state their case for being one of the best German bands in the genre.

    Opening with the pummeling “Utopia (We are the light)”, we get a classical DM vibe at first, and it suddenly morphs into more modern sounding Deathcore brutality. This mixture of styles is quite engaging and sets them apart from the majority of bands that just abuses the traditional formulas of modern Deathcore music, more evidence of this perfect blend can be hear on the intricacies of “Rebuild and Revive”, “Assimilation”, and the punishing “Xenophobic Attitude”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sigh – Graveward (2015)

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    We love it when bands push the limits of music and Sigh is a fine example of how to continue finding odd ways to further expand your sound in the most bizarre and exciting ways. With “Graveyard” the band continues down their path of madness and delivers one of the most exciting releases of 2015. Featuring a plethora of guest appearances and a central theme around Italian zombie flicks and Fabio Frizzi’s compositions, this is one of the must have releases of 2015.

    Leading with guest Kelly Simonz’s guitar leads on “Kaedit Nos Pestis” and the dramatic atmospheric/psychedelic elements of “Graveward”, the band sets a very atmospheric and chaotic mood right from the start. Mirai Kawashima and Dr. Mikannibal have an amazing chemistry and their insane vocal incursions are just one of many things that make Sigh quite unique. The madness reaches new level with the very cinematic “The Tombfiller” and its killer symphonic arrangements, brilliant guitar solos (courtesy of Kelly S again) and crazy effects.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Secrets of the Sky – Pathway (2015)

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    Instantly showing that their debut “To Sail Black Waters” was no fluke, Bay Area’s outfit Secrets of the Sky delivers an even more mature and expertly crafted sophomore release with “Pathway”. Finding their home in Metal Blade Records, the band fully explores their musical capabilities with the 13 tracks presented in this very unique and different sounding release.

    Opening with the relaxing sound of waves on the ‘instrumental’ “I”, this swiftly transforms into the band first real onslaught titled “Three Swords”. Expertly manipulating the atmosphere of their music, this opener sets a very mellow mood that fully explodes as the band rips through some thunderous Doom riffs between peaceful interludes. Placing nice tempo-shifting interludes between the tracks, Secrets of the Sky perfectly manipulates and guides the listener’s experience.

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