Nuclear Blast

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    Psycroptic – The Inherited Repression (2012)

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    In a time when all the Technical Death Metal bands are graded base on how many notes they can whip out in the least amount of time, it is nice to listen to a band that actual focuses on how well the songs listen and structures them around melody and not technical level. Australia’s Psycroptic presents us their fifth full-length release “The Inherited Repression” with a high level of maturity and musicianship.

    Pummeling through nine tracks, “The Inherited Repression” keeps the focus on the melodic aspect of things and the nice technical details are mostly playful elements that increase the band’s appeal. With some hints of the great Death, the band delivers waves of excellently crafted riffs and a less annoying version of Chuck Schuldiner-styled vocals. This is immediately evident with the opener “Carriers of the Plague”, a track where the guitar work is very elaborate but the song is also very catchy and effective. We particularly love the melodic passages that get repeated through the song, and the massive drumming as well.

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    Nightwish – Imaginaerum (2011)

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    It has been four years since the last Pop Metal installment of Nightwish with “Dark Passion Play”. With Anette Olzon finally incorporated into the band’s sound, Nightwish delivers a pretty decent effort with some ‘real Nightwish’ songs and some other ‘money making Nightwish’ tracks. There is a clear distinction between the songs that have more metal structures and the ones that are just to make the teenyboppers jump up and down.

    The whole super pretentious concept of having a movie made for “Imaginaerum” and crap like that just shows that the band is moving into very self-indulgent territories. However, the music behind this “Imaginaerum” stuff is not quite bad, and many will be shocked to actually read this, so please bear with us. The opener song “Storytime” immediately induces some gag reflex from us when we first heard it and its crack-induced music video. The track is very bland and capitalizes on the heavy guitars with catchy vocal melodies format, something that Amaranthe made us hate this 2011. this song also sounds very much like anything else from “Dark Passion Play”.

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    Sonata Arctica – Live in Finland (2011)

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    Rounding up the year, we are treated with a great live album of one of our favorite bands: Sonata Arctica. In “Live in Finland”, the band delivers a massive package for fans with 2 DVD’s featuring live performances in Finland (of course!!) and two bonus CD’s featuring select tracks from these performances (which is what we are reviewing).

    In the first CD, we have a total of 14 tracks that range from some of the band’s latest tracks from the album “The Days of Grays” to some of their biggest hits like “Paid in Full”. Through this album we get to listen to Tony’s excellent voice shine in the live setting and the band showing their skills when playing each intricate song. Being a live CD, the only drawback is that the crowd interaction is in Suomi, but this can add and authentic feeling for some people.

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    Graveworm – Fragments of Death (2011)

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    Continuing on the right path after their very impressive release “Diabolical Figures”, today we have Graveworm and their latest opus “Fragments of Death”. Most of the Gothic Metal pleasantries away, “Fragments of Death” delivers 11 punishing tracks of very well balanced Death/Black Metal with a high melodic content, but always aggressive enough to make your speakers explode.

    Opening with the high intensity “Insomnia”, the band shows fierce Death Metal influences with a nice Melodic edge in terms of riffing and some atmospheric keyboards. Stefan’s vocals are as good as always and his mixture between growls and shrieks is just excellent. The melodic/brutal assault continues with the ‘slower’ “Only Death in our Wake”, but quickly picks up with some excellent chorus section on “Absence of Faith”. In this track, the melody makes a huge different in making a repetitive song very catchy and powerful. Some sections in this track even feel a bit like their sound back on “As the Angels Reach the Beauty” but will less flair.

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    Lonely Kamel – Dust Devil (2011)

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    Is there something in the water? Or are too many people having drugs and Jim Beam infused benders and then decided to play Southern Rock music? We quite can’t point a finger at it, but tons of bands have decided to play this kind of music with some Metal elements. Lonely Kamel is the next entry in this list, and while hailing from Norway, they still manage to pull it off very nicely.

    Since the eloquently titled “Grim Reefer” opening track, the band delivers waves of Southern Rock/Sludge guitar riffs and very engaging vocals. The raspy vocals nicely fit the sound of the music perfectly and remind us of bands like The New Black, Black River, and Chrome Division. “Evil Man”, “Blues for the Dead”, and “Rotten Seed” all keep the same trend of punchy music and witty lyrics, allowing the album to nicely settle following a particular groove.

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    Cipher System – Communicate the Storms (2011)

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    Being huge fans of Melodic Death Metal, we are always excited when a good band finally returns with an impressive release. Cipher System’s last release was back in 2004 with “Central Tunnel 8”, and with “Communicate the Storms” they have returned with a very effective Melodic Death Metal sound that can easily position them among the best in 2011.

    Featuring ex-members of Anata and Nightrage, Cipher System delivers 10 tracks of unpretentious Melodic DM in a similar fashion to genre legends: Dark Tranquility. There are almost no fancy elements in this release, just a solid foundation of catchy riffing, atmospheric keyboards, tight drumming and very direct vocals. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, and Cipher system excels at creating a very traditional but effective sound that will appeal to any fan of the genre.

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    Threat Signal – Threat Signal (2011)

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    Two years have passed after releasing the excellent “Vigilance” and one of Canada’s finest returns with their new release “Threat Signal”. We are extremely divided when it comes to this release since the music is excellent, but some of the vocals are just WTF. So we kind of liked the album in the sense that Threat Signal has very nicely matured musically and all songs are just excellent, but when the Linkin Park style singing kicks in we just want to jump of the balcony.

    Opening very powerfully with “Uncensored”, the band delivers well crafted guitar riffs and tight drums, courtesy of two of the band’s newest members: Chris Feener and Alex Rudinger respectively. However, the band things really start showing when the clean ‘modern Metal/nu Metal’ clean vocals make their appearance. There are of course harsh screams to kind of balance things out but it is not enough to eliminate the bad taste. We can also listen to an edge of Gojira and Fear Factory in the sound of this release, and when paired with excellent solos, the music alone is truly entertaining and very good.

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    Edguy – Age of the Joker (2011)

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    After Edguy getting split-decisions (very good/very bad) in the band’s last few full-length releases, today we have “Age of the Joker”, another release that will surely polarize fans even more. It is hard to imagine that people are still expecting the older Power Metal approach to things that Edguy had in their first few albums, particularly after the last 2 releases have been heading in the same direction: 80’s styled Metal. So haters will be haters and trash this release, but if you actually give it a chance, you will find some pretty good tunes and an overall very solid release.

    The hard-rocking “Robin Hood” delivers a powerful introduction to this release. With its new psychedelic elements, this track is pretty much a continuation of where the band left off on “Tinnitus Sanctus” and incorporates the recent Avantasia sounds as well. As you can expect we have very epic chorus sections and Tobias Sammet’s amazing voice paired with very well crafted music. The buildup section around the fourth minute mark is excellent and allows the song to nicely grow.

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    Sabaton – World War Live – Battle of the Baltic Sea (2011)

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    Sabaton has to be one of Power Metal most popular and exciting bands of these days. After the crushing release of “Coat of Arms” one year ago, the band gives us an excellent double live CD from their latest tour. In the CD we got from Nuclear Blast, we have 15 tracks showcasing the live power of Sabaton and delivering almost 80 minutes of their epic War-inspired Power Metal.

    Shortly after a momentum gaining intro, “Ghost Division” sneaks up on you like a punch to the kidneys. Here you can listen to Joakim Bróden’s pipes ripping through the song just like it was recorded on the album. The epic chorus sections are here and the pounding guitars sound like a million dollars. The epicness continues with tracks like “Uprising”, “Aces in Exile”, and by the time we get to “Cliffs of Gallipoli” we are all-out head banging in our review room.

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    Doro – 25 Years In Rock (2011)

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    After some years in the pipeline, fans will finally get to have in their hands the double DVD/CD boxed set of 25 anniversary show of the queen of metal: Doro Pesch. While we are reviewing only the CD portion of this legendary show full of guest appearances, we are supper excited to get to see the DVD portion once it is released in North America.

    In terms of the CD only we are a bit disappointed by the track selection (CD only has 10 tracks and one intro), but it does cover some of Doro’s greatest hits and also is missing a lot of the newer ones. Also, only a few of the guest appearances made it into the CD (3 out of the 10 tracks), making it pale in comparison to the actual live DVD’s.

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