Nuclear Blast

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    Melechesh – The Epigenesis (2010)

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    Continuing in the same vein as “Sphynx” and “Emissaries”, Melechesh unleashes upon us a high caliber Middle Eastern influenced Black/Death Metal assault with “The Epigenesis”. For those of us that like a little more substance in your music, Melechesh manages to fuse Middle Eastern folk elements with heart-pounding Metal elements creating an elaborated, yet accessible album that blends through genres like sugar in water.

    Expanding their sound with more traditional elements, the band greatly refines their sound when compared to their older releases. The crushing riffing, blasting drumming, and pounding bass guitar lines are as good as always, but not you can hear different patterns in the riffing, giving you a more elaborate sound that fans of the bands will greatly appreciate. The overall result is a very ritualistic experience that masterfully adorns the mystical and mythological backdrop of the album’s lyrics.

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    Death Angel – Relentless Retribution (2010)

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    The year 2010 has been a year in terms of Thrash Metal releases; we had Exodus, Forbidden and Death Angel drop some very impressive records this year. “Relentless Retribution” showcases Death Angle mixing some of their older elements with more groove-oriented hints, creating a very powerful sounding album, probably their heaviest material to date.

    Led by Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar’s guitar work, the band never runs out of catchy riffs, powerful rhythmical section, and intense solos, all the elements of a traditional Thrash Metal release. Most songs have a very traditional approach to them having the Death Angel signature in every riff and melodic passage, without losing the occasional tempo increase, perfect for headbanging all night long.

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    Therion – Sitra Ahra (2010)

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    The legendary Therion is back with yet another very solid release that will please all fans of Symphonic Metal. As you can expect, Christofer Johnsson  does a great job in creating very epic songs that feature amazing choir sections, brilliant vocal solos, and the overall Therion sound. The only downside of this album is that you get more of the same and nothing else, so if you are a huge fan of the band this will surely please you to no end.

    Featuring 11 tracks, “Sitra Ahra” takes you into a very majestic journey into the bands unique world. You will get that the riffing and guitar solos is very simple to what we are used to get from Therion since the “Vovin” album. Keeping things simple and catchy, songs like “Kings of Edom” will greatly made you remember the “Vovin” era of the band. The choir sections of this song are great, and fit the overall pace of the song.

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    Dimmu Borgir – Abrahadabra (2010)

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    Just when many people thought that Dimmu Borgir will never be as good as in their “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant “ and “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia”, we get “Abrahadabra”, another masterpiece from this Norwegian band. While the band’s musical quality had considerably decreased with “In Sorte Diaboli” and “Death Cult Armageddon”, they come back in full swing with an impressive symphonic masterpiece that puts almost everything that Mustis “wrote for the band” to shame.

    While many people will be crying and bitching about the Cradle of Filth comparisons, or that this album is too symphonic, blah, blah, blah, WE have to say that this is highly impressive stuff. The orchestration behind this release is, for lack of a better expression, ridiculously impressive. Everything sounds just right and helps build up a brilliant atmosphere that feels like a John Williams soundtrack on top of the traditional Dimmu Borgir sound. We have to recognize that Mustis did a good job before (especially in “Puritanical…”) but this is just ten steps ahead. With Gaute Storaas doing the orchestration of this album, he greatly helps in creating a truly diabolically haunting atmosphere (better than on “Death Cult Armageddon”).

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    Amorphis - Magic & Mayhem - Tales from the Early Years (2010)

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    If you’ve been following Infernal Masquerade for a while, you should know that we are one of the biggest Amorphis fans ever. When this release was announced we had big smiles in our heads since after seeing the band perform this classic songs with the ‘latest’ line-up and completely blowing us away, we wanted to have them on studio-quality recording and blast them all day long, since 7 out of the 13 songs in this album are some of our favorites of all time.

    “Magic & Mayhem - Tales from the Early Years” features 12 songs (plus one bonus track) that have been re-recorded and somewhat re-arranged to fit the band’s current dynamic sound. These songs are taken from “The Karelian Isthmus”, “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”, and “Elegy” albums.

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    Amorphis – Forging the land of a Thousand Lakes (2010)

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    Celebrating the band’s 20 year anniversary we finally get a live DVD from Amorphis, one of the best Metal bands to come out of Finland. And not only do we get one show, we get two full shows in a lush DVD/CD package (in the Deluxe edition). The shows presented on this DVD are a 2009 show from Oulu, and their Summer Breeze 09 performance, clocking over 150 minutes of pure unadulterated Amorphis.

    If you never seen Amorphis live, you will be quickly hooked on the amazing energy and chemistry they present on stage. Tomi Joutsen helped the band come back from the dead (for some fans) with their 2006 masterpiece Eclipse, after a lackluster “Far From the Sun” and their terrible previous singer Pasi Koskinen.

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    Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini (2010)

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    The masters of Progressive/Experimental Black Metal return with a super impressive release that tops anything they have done before this album. With “Axioma Ethica Odini”, Enslaved shows no signs of slowing down, compromising, or playing it safe. The band maintains the high musical standards they set with “Isa”, “Ruun”, and “Vertebrae”, and manage to push things a bit further on this long-awaited release.

    It has been years since we liked a Black Metal release as much as “Axioma Ethica Odini”, and through our listening experience of this brilliant album we can’t avoid using comparisons to Borknagar’s “Olden Domain”, Primordial’s “A Journey's End”, and Enslaved’s “Isa” among other is in terms of musicianship and innovation for their time. While there are many Psychedelic, Progressive and Experimental elements in “Axioma Ethica Odini”, the core roots of the album emanate from well made and aggressive Black Metal that is non-compromising and never feels watered down, but rather enriched by these elements.

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    Accept – Blood Of The Nations (2010)

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    The German Heavy Metal monsters are finally back with their first studio album in 14 years and with a new vocalists that while not as good as respected as Udo, he holds his own at the helm of such a legendary band. Accept has managed to combine some of their old day’s magic with a fresh sound that sounds better than anybody else in the Heavy Metal scene.

    For the first time in years we can notice that Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes managed to get their shit together and craft an epic album worthy of the Accept moniker. And by recruiting Mark Tornillo as the vocalist they managed to get a vocalist that we are sure nobody, except the hardcore Udo fanboys, will be complaining about since his performance is better than expected.

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    Kataklysm – Heaven’s Venom (2010)

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    After listening to the band’s EP “The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation” we were highly impressed by the sheer brutality that oozed from that release. Fast-forward almost two decades, several band member changes and a handful of uninspired releases (mostly everything they did in the 00 decade) and now we get “Heaven’s Venom”, a very inspired release that immediately turned our heads and made us focus 100% on listening to this solid release.

    While the band is not as ‘brutal’ as on their earlier days, they have matured enough to be able to pull of Melodic songs with brutal blastbeats and not even break a sweat. During the ten tracks presented in this release, the listener is treated to a rollercoaster ride through melody and brutality unlike another found in an ‘older’ Death Metal band this year.

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    Malevolent Creation – Invidious Dominion (2010)

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    Legendary American Death Metal band Malevolent Creation is finally back with another hard-hitting face-pounding release that will blow you away. “Invidious Dominion” is yet another powerful release in the band’s 23+ years in the business, marking the return of Jason Blachowicz to the band (for the 2nd time).

    If you are a Death Metal fans and have never heard of this band before, you are either 18 years old, or a complete poser and you need to stop reading… maybe not, but there is plenty of research you need to do in order to call yourself a Metal head. Anyways, the band feels completely rejuvenated and they totally kill on this release. Each of the 11 tracks are fast paced and as brutal as ever.

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