Melodic Death Metal

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    Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void (2010)

    Dark Tranquillity in it’s almost 20 years lifespan has managed to create some of the most iconic Melodic Death Metal albums of all times. The band has also paved the way to the hundreds of clones that try to play Melodic DM with the famed Gothenburg sound but fail miserably at. With “We Are The Void” they present us their latest offering in their career and it’s a solid but somewhat empty album.

    The band has always been pushing the boundaries of the genre in every release they have produced. Since the early days they have been bending musical boundaries, and in the last decade they have been probably the only true Gothenburg Melodic DM band left.

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    Marionette – Enemies (2010)

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    We usually get quite a few bands that claim to play Melodic Death Metal, but fail miserably to deliver an engaging and entertaining album. Marionette is an example of a band that DOES deliver, and their album “Enemies” is one of the best Melodic DM albums we have received in quite a while.

    “Enemies” starts off very aggressively and all over the place, so we immediately expected the album to suck. However after the first 60 seconds, all this changes and you can hear the quality of the bands music, and it hooks you into listening to the whole album.

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    Faust – From Glory To Infinity (2009)

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    Faust is an Italian band that has been around since 1992, and this is made very clear based on the skills of most of the band members. The music is very well played, but lacks a bit on the composition department (more on that later).

    I’m a big fan of Melodic Death Metal, and it’s very rare in these days to find a good band that is not going all Metalcore on us. Alongside Ethereal Collapse, Faust is one of the best bands in the genre I’ve heard this year, since the melodic aspect is brilliant.

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    Swallow The Sun – New Moon (2009)

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    “New Moon” is one of the albums that I have been looking forward since the beginning of the year. The title name by it self was about to just make me discard it all along, since I’m a Twilight saga hater (and I have read the first 2 books). But bearing the title, Swallow The Sun, shows how much they have matured as a band, and how their style is getting shaped into a more Melodic Death Metal than Doom Metal genre.

    The Black Metal influences that some of the band’s members have (Mikko plays with Alghazanth and he and Aleksi have Empyrean Bane, a Melodic BM band), making this album the most aggressive the band has ever released. But they haven’t lost their Doomier aspect either, since they still feature their ‘older’ sound.

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    The Few Against Many – Sot (2009)

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    The Few Against Many is one of the many bands that Christian Ãlvestam lends his pipes to, he also contributes on rhythm guitar on this release. This band from Sweden plays a very different Melodic Death Metal than most bands, but different is not always good.

    “Sot” is a very short album (only 36 minutes), and it features a 8 songs that are very diverse in nature. This diversity I think is also the main problem of this album since all songs sound very disconnected like they were just thrown together to make a quick release.

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    Hypocrisy – A Taste Of Extreme Divinity (2009)

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    Hypocrisy is back for years after their last studio album “Virus” and it was worth the wait. “A Taste Of Extreme Divinity” in my opinion and also in Peter Tagtgren’s opinion (check out our interview with him HERE) is the band’s most brutal album to date.

    The band has managed to keep their own signature style when it comes to guitar riffs and vocals and with this album they managed to take the BPM’s up a notch creating a monstrous release that will make your ears bleed.

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    Scar Symmetry – Dark Matter Dimensions (2009)

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    After Christian Ãlvestam left the band, I was very excited since I always like the band’s music but his vocal range was a bit annoying obscuring the band’s great musical abilities. The band now has two new vocalists that are each in charge of only one style of vocals. Roberth Karlsson from Pan.Thy.Monium fame now handles the harsh vocals, and newcomer Lars Palmqvist is in charge of clean vocals.

    “Dark Matter Dimensions” in my opinion is a far better album than “Holographic Universe”. It features 50 minutes of brilliant Gothenburg style Melodic Death Metal, you will find yourself playing this album over and over. The band has only been getting better since their first full length “Symmetric in Design”.

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    Skyfire – Esoteric (2009)

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    Five years have passed after their acclaimed album “Spectral” was released and with a re-vamped lineup the band is back to blow everybody away with “Esoteric”. This Swedish band has managed to live up to the hype, and even surpass expectations with their new album.

    Simply put “Esoteric” is a brilliant album that features a very fresh mix of Melodic Death Metal and Progressive Metal that will put most bands that fuse these genres to shame. I’m a sucker for anything that is melodic in nature and this album is close to my dreams of the best combination of melody and aggressiveness with tons of more elements thrown in between.

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    Dethklok – The Dethalbum II (2009)

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    With the release of the “The Dethalbum” the fictional band Dethklok managed to sell 34,000 copies of this album on the first week, making the album the highest charting Death Metal album in history (in the USA). After selling over 300,000 copies of that album Dethklok has the mission of trying to surpass that feat, and I think it can be done, since “The Dethalbum II” is even better than the first one.

    While most people that watch the TV show Metalocalypse have listened to a most of the songs for brief minutes, you still need to hear the entire song to fully enjoy the brilliance behind them. Technically Brendon Small has managed to create another brilliant album that features witty and catchy tunes.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ethereal Collapse – Breaching The Citadel (2006)

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    When I first received this band’s ‘promo’ package with a burned CD-R and a hand written information sheet, I was about to discard this release instantly since I have not received something like this in several years. However I decided to play the CD on my car on the way to a party one night and I was blown away because of what I heard.

    I was almost not able to get out of the car in order to finish listening to the brilliant mix of Melodic Death Metal and Trash Metal that this band has managed to put on their first full-length album. The music was that good, since it’s a perfect balance of both genres and it’s completely unpredictable.

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