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    Burial Ritual – Exterminating The Masses (2012)

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    Delivering nine pummeling tracks of meaty Death Metal, today we have Burial Ritual and their second full-length release “Exterminating the Masses”. Taking a more Swedish approach to their Death Metal, this band has been around since 2005 and seems to be ready for a shot at the top with this solid release. Banking on cutthroat riffing and intense song structures, this American band manages to sound different than your average run of the mill Florida Death Metal bands from this country.

    Things start off pretty standard with the hard-hitting tracks: “Accosting The Mindless”, and “Radioactive Rain”, all of them good examples of powerful death Metal tracks with a raw feeling to them. Is not until the album titled track that the band delivers an excellent and funky melodic opening section that really shakes things up, this song also features odd tempo changes that seem to work very well for such a chaotic, yet awesome song.

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    Vortech – Devoid of Life (2012)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we have Vortech and their super catchy Industrial Death Metal release titled “Devoid of Life”. Similar to bands like Shade Empire, the band delivers high-octane songs that feature trippy atmospheric elements that will have the listener begging for more. Perfectly blending aggressive riffs and powerful vocals with a futuristic vibe, this band is catchy and brutal as they come.

    Opening with the solid “The Black Rite”, we have a good dosage of heavy riffs and screams nicely offset by an epic futuristic ambiance. The drumming is pretty intense, a particular strong point of the band since similar acts usually use shitty programmed drums. The synths/programming of “Neurovirus” make this track quite catchy and very well crafted, keeping the intense flow of this release to the limit.

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    Spyros Charmanis – Wound (2012)

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    Delivering a truly cinematic experience via Progressive Rock music, today we have Spyros Charmanis and his full-length release “Wound”. Clocking around 72 minutes of brilliant music, this self-released album delivers delightful compositions that any fan of traditional Progressive music will love from beginning to end. Spyros ability to craft intricate songs that are both musically and technically engaging without being overly done or falling into the ‘musical masturbation’ category that many Progressive bands unfortunately fall under.

    The album opens with the intro track “Pushing The Sky”, a song that is very reminiscent of Progressive greats Dream Theater, and similar bands. With such a playful and strong opener, Spyros greatly indicates that this will be one quality and fun release. After the opener, the album ‘splits’ into three different sections of the conceptual foundations of this release. This concept basically tells the story of a fictional character through a series of experiences, too bad the artwork in this CD is very dark and we had trouble reading it unless we had a direct light source on the booklet.

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    Oniromantic – The White Disease (2012)

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    All the way from Italy, today we have Oniromantic and their very unique (and catchy) mixture of Progressive with Gothic Metal. Reminding us a bit to bands like Ommatidia and even Eternal Tears of Sorrow, this very unique band has a deep melancholic vibe in their music that makes its very intoxicating and quite fresh. Featuring eight delightful tracks, this is one hell of a release for a surprisingly unsigned band.

    The band start heavy with “Saturn Hellucination” delivering powerful riffs and a dreamy vibe that is greatly enhance by the powerful clean vocals of Mauro Mazzara. The melodic passage in this track is pretty well crafted and nicely indicates what is to come in the later songs. In “High Resolution God” we got quite engaged by the playful progression of the song and the atmospheric keyboard usage. The female vocals on “Crimson” are quite heavenly and very well used.

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    The Furor – Sermon of Slaughter (2012)

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    Making its way from Australia, today we have The Furor’s latest EP titled “Sermon of Slaughter”. Being very truthful to its name, this pummeling release features four high-octane Death/Black Metal tracks that remind us of a cleaner and better produced version of bands like Impiety. Funny enough, the mastermind behind this one-man band is Disaster, Impiety’s drummer since 2011 or so.

    With a very furious start, “Conquest of Carnage” opens the release with gut-wrenching vocals and killer riffs. The band’s intensity is hype-fast, like the energizer bunny on crack. The drumming is quite solid and very diverse, something you usually never expect from one-man bands, luckily Disaster is an actual drummer. The brief moments that keyboards are introduced take this song to a whole new dimension since they greatly enhance it and serve as powerful contrast to the underlying brutality.

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    Seed of Sadness – Seed of Sadness (2012)

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    Arriving all the way from Greece, today we have Seed of Sadness and their excellent self-released debut EP. In this self-titled release, the band delivers five tracks of super catchy female-fronted Power/Gothic Metal. With a heavy emphasis on catchy keyboards and the commanding vocals of Stellaria, this band has a very enjoyable sound that most fans of the genre will immediately fall in love with.

    With the help of Bob Katsionis (Firewind) on keyboards, this band does a great job in creating lush atmospheres to lay their solid guitar work and epic vocals. Using strong and determined female vocals, Seed of Sadness has a really strong front-woman that delivers powerful performances in each track. Since the opener “Remnant of a Dying Smile”, the band blows things wide open with a highly symphonic and very energetic track that will instantly make you a fan of this band.

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    Killjoy Corporation – Horsefly (2012)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we have Killjoy Corporation and their latest EP titled “Horsefly”. With a cover that made us think this was a Punk release, the band has a very playful angle about it and some of the other band’s ‘serious elements. One thing for sure, they mean business when it comes to their crushing and very well crafted music. Mixing Melodic Death Metal with some Groove elements, the band sounds very fresh and engaging.

    Blasting things wide open with “Bones”, the band sets a very hectic mood from the start with very powerful drumming and excellent melodic riffing. The vocals are quite ok for the genre, but the music is what makes this song entertaining. Things settle down for a bit with a crazy opening on “Infected Prey” that features the band’s ramblings at the beginning just before exploding into catchy Death Metal riffs and some growls. There are more melodic passages in this track that have some Thrash influences, reminding us of the latest Kreator and its melodic sections.

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    Chaos E.T. Sexual – Ov (2012)

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    Arriving from France, today we have a very unique record titled “Ov” that mixes all kinds of different influences ranging from drone/doom to Industrial to Trip Hop in a very tight package that is very sexy and intoxicating. Chaos E.T. Sexual is a three-piece from France that has a very hypnotic sound that relies on distorted guitars (shoegaze-ish at some points), catchy beats, and some drone-ish elements that are all perfectly timed and combined to create engaging songs that never get boring.

    Opening with the powerful “Kolmogorov Falls”, this track establishes a very intoxicating mood thanks to its enthralling Trip-Hop elements. The band never loses sight of the heavy side of things and the guitars nicely pummel their way through most of the duration of this track. The dynamic “La Moneda” allows things to move a bit faster and with even catchier sections, this track really engages the listener and hooks him to the band’s sexy sound.

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    Peacemaker – 3 Song Sampler (2012)

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    Hailing from the UK today we have a very entertaining and highly effective Doom Metal band named “Peacemaker”. With their debut 3 song sampler/demo, the band shows they have the riffing chops to craft engaging Doom Metal tracks that do not put you too sleep. Keeping their sound very traditional and compact, this band is one of the most promising up-and-coming Doom bands we have heard this 2012.

    Opening with a riff very reminiscent of My Dying Bride, “Dead Man’s Keys” opens this short but sweet release with a bang. The band does a great job in creating catchy riffs and introduces very well timed tempo changes during this song. The vocals perfectly fit the music, and keep the band away from the traditional whiny or growling vocals, but rather good spoken sections and some harsh screams that are not too intense to overshadow the song’s musical foundations.

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    Taurus – Life (2012)

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    Running the birthday of one of our staff members, the Psychedelic Doom duo of Taurus has chosen July 5th to release their very weird and not quite cohesive debut release. “Life” presents us with two tracks that spawn 35 minutes into a downward spiral trip into total chaotic weirdness. Just picture two people getting high out of their mind and banging at some instruments trying to play Doom Metal, once you have that idea in your head, make it a bit worse and you have “Life”.

    We are huge fans of experimental music and there are quite a few bands that are pushing the boundaries of Doom Metal (one of our favorite styles of Metal), but Taurus seems to set that back like 10 years with their childish and amateurish release. We are quite frankly shocked that they managed to tour with Agalloch, maybe they have some super awesome live show, because musically we can’t really hear why.

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