2011

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    Lock Up – Necropolis Transparent (2011)

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    After almost 10 years since their last album, Lock Up bounces back from the death of Jesse Pintado, and delivers 16 crushing blows of Death Metal. Featuring Anton Reisenegger on guitars and Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Shane Embury and Nick Barker have managed to put together an even stronger line-up than before, and you can clearly hear this in “Necropolis Transparent”.

    Since the relentless opener “Brethren of the Pentagram”, the punishing drumming is the first highlight to be noted. Then as you keep going through tracks like “Accelerated Mutation”, “Necropolis Transparent”, “Anvil of Flesh” and “Unseen Enemy”, the powerful riffing of Reisenegger creates very brutal and engaging tracks. Bordering in almost Black Metal riffing, some songs are something you don’t quite hear everyday. The brutality is there musically and they just need Linberg’s screams, and Embury’s pounding bass guitar line to push the songs into full-on headbanging anthems.

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    All Shall Perish – This is Where It Ends (2011)

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    As you all know, we mostly have anything Deathcore/Metalcore related so we dreaded to review the new album of All Shall Perish titled “This is Where It Ends”. Three years have passed since their last effort (“Awaken the Dreamers”) and with a new drummer and guitar player (Adam Pierce and Francesco Artusato, respectively) they return with 12 punish tracks of unimaginative (but powerful) guitar work, vocal layering, and brutal drumming.

    Opening with the brutal “Divine Illusion” we can perfectly hear what most of the whole album is about: growls, shrieks, pounding bass guitar and traditional Deathcore riffing. If you are a Deathcore fan, this is pretty much as good as it gets for you, but if you are looking for something more ‘innovative’ or at least a bit different, get a different CD. A particular thing to notice is the guitar solos, they sound different than before a bit more creative we might even say, and this is probably due to Fancesco Artusato’s sick guitar skills.

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    Astarium – Invasion to Forbidden (2011)

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    As we all know most one-man bands suck, with a very few exceptions they are just outlets for untalented people to produce what they call ‘music’. Going with this notion, I was gladly surprised by the quality of Astarium’s music, a one-man band from Novosibirsk, Russia. Getting strange looking envelopes from far away places in the world is one of the thrills of working for Infernal Masquerade and this time, the envelope also delivers good music (something that is not the case at least 50% of the time).

    “Invasion to Forbidden” is the latest EP from this Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal band that while not having the best sound quality or musical equipment, it can surely create a eerie atmosphere and deliver 16 minutes of creepy as shit Black Metal.

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    REVIEW: Lapis Lazuli – A Loss Made Forever (2011)

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    Arriving all the way from Sweden, today out of our stack of band-submitted promos, we have Lapis Lazuli and their second full-length album “A Loss Made Forever”. Our first impression was that there was no way this band was not signed. For over 30 minutes, these Swedes treat us to seven very professional songs of emotionally charged Symphonic/Gothic Metal.

    Opening with the traditional introduction “Ascension”, we get some glimpses of the powerful keyboards behind this band as soon as the song starts. With the super catchy “A Loss Made Forever” we finally get to hear the band’s enchanting female vocals, courtesy of Frida Eurenius. While there are hundreds of female vocals emerging every day, Frida’s pipes are very unique in the sense that they mix sweetness with power in a very balanced way. The song also features very nice keyboard arrangements crafting a very emotive atmosphere nicely contrasted by powerful guitars.

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    World Under Blood – Tactical (2011)

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    Formed by CKY’s front-man/guitarist Deron Miller and super drummer Tim Yeung, today we have Wonder Under Blood and their debut full-length release “Tactical”. As you can tell, this seems like an odd combination but it actually works wonders and this debut release is a fine example of different sounding Melodic Death Metal. As we mentioned, World Under Blood does not sound like your typical Swedish Melodic DM or your commercial Melo-Death bands you have in North America these days. The band has their own different sound and nicely mixes brutality with brilliant melodic sections.

    As you can tell from the opening track “A God Among the Waste”, the band is not f’ing around and delivers powerful riffing with very well crafted drumming. The clean/growl vocal approach sounds a bit odd at the beginning, but it quickly grows on you. The music reminds us of the band Godless Rising, but with a bit less brutality. The quality of the solos never decreases through this release and on tracks like “Into the Arms of Cruetly”, “Dead and Still in Pain” and “Purgatory Dormitory”, they nicely highlight sections of very well crafted songs.

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    Progenie Terrestre Pura - Promo 2011 (2011)

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    Hailing from Italy, today we have a short-but-sweet promo release that will grant this band some momentum before the release of their full-length album. Having never met, Eon[0] and Nex[1] (computer nerds maybe?) formed Progenie Terrestre Pura and have been working digitally over the last few years.

    With the two tracks presented in this promo, the band nicely mixes Black Metal with a hefty dose of trippy atmospheric and electronic elements. We wouldn’t go as afar as calling this Post-Black Metal (the guitar work does not indicate this), but they are surely creative enough to clearly stray away from the ‘traditional’ side of things.

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    Mournful Congregation – The Unspoken Hymns (2011)

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    Funeral Doom Metal is certainly an acquired taste, but once you can enjoy behemoth 10 to 20 minute songs; this is one of the most satisfying genres of Metal. The Aussies of Mournful Congregation have been delivering crushing 10+ minute songs since 1993, and have engineered some of the most epic tracks of pure depression and desolation. With only three full-length releases under their belt but with several splits and compilation, the band is truly an underground phenomenon to be reckoned with.

    Lucky for American fans, 20 Buck Spin is releasing “The Unspoken Hymns”, a compilation album featuring one ‘new’ song (a remix) and several other tracks only available in hard to find Vinyl split releases. This is a great opportunity to checkout some of the less known but equally devastating tracks of this legendary band. Opening with the “Left Unspoken” remix version, from the “Four Burials” split CD, the band quickly establishes its very slow and agonizing pace with crushing guitar riffing and monumental slowdowns.

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    Nightrage – Insidious (2011)

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    Overlooking the fact that Olof Mörck from Amaranthe infamy plays guitar in this band, Nightrage’s fifth full-length album is actually a few steps up from their previous riff-tastic offering “Wearing a Martyr's Crown”. “Insidious” features 15 songs of very well crafted Melodic Death Metal in the Gothenburg style. However, what makes this release better than their previous albums is the guest appearances by Apollo Papathanasio of Firewind, Tomas Lindberg of At The Gates/ Lock Up, Gus G of Ozzy Osbourne/ Firewind, Tom S. Englund of Evergrey, and John K of Biomechanical, each of them providing something different to each of the songs they participate in.

    After the traditional intro song, the album opens with solid riffing in the track “Delirium of the Fallen”. Here you can easily notice the similarities with the band’s earliest work, but when Apollo’s vocals kick in, the whole vibe of the song is very nicely changed and a very well crafted solo capitalizes this vocal change. On the album title track, the band goes for a typical drumming/guitar onslaught that made countless Swedish Melodic DM bands popular, but once again Tomas Lindberg’s guest appearance is what saves the day for this song.

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    Falloch – Where Distant Spirits Remain (2011)

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    As one of the most beautifully crafted releases of 2011, today we have Falloch’s debut album “Where Distant Spirits Remain”. Featuring 7 tracks of emotional atmospheric post rock/Metal with shoegaze and Black Metal, this release is set to take the scene by surprise due to its intricate design and flawless execution. If you are a fan of bands like Les Discrets, Alcest, Wolve in the Throne Room, Lantlos, etc, you will be blown away by the quality of this album.

    Formed by Andy Marshall and Scott McLean in Glasgow, Scotland, this very young and promising band has managed to capture both emotional landscapes and beautiful imagery through highly atmospheric and nostalgic music. With an emotional layer of vocal styles paired with dreamy guitars and ethereal atmospheric elements, “Where Distant Spirits Remain” is one of those albums that you will not be able to put away after one listen.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Svartsot – Maledictus Eris (2011)

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    As a clear example of finding a formula that works and sticking with it until you bore people to death, today we have Svartsot’s latest release “Maledictus Eris”. In this album the band takes a step backward from a promising career to a limbo-like place where they play the same song over and over for a whole album.

    In a completely different way than on their previous release “Mulmets Viser”, Svartsot lacks imagination and direction in “Maledictus Eris”. We might venture to say that is the relatively short time between albums (one year give or take), but the band makes a very poor effort in changing things up and creating something worth purchasing, especially with the overcrowded Folk/Viking/Pagan Metal scene these days.

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