Album Reviews

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    Hypomanie – Calm Down, You Weren’t Set On Fire (2012)

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    The one man musical factory of Hypomanie returns this 2012 with its most ethereal and dreamy sounding release to date: “Calm Down, You Weren’t Set On Fire”. With such a puzzling title, this release delivers six tracks of pure aural depression that delivers very well crafted Blackgaze elements merged into more traditional Post-Rock structures of bands like God is an Astronaut and such.

    With the dreamy opening provided by “19 Starts and the Sweet Smell of Cinnamon”, this release starts very well with lush guitars and an excellent atmosphere. The production behind this release sounds a bit off since the guitars sound funky and too high pitched sometimes, other than this little detail everything else sound great. The band’s change into a more Post-Rock oriented outfit is clearly evident in tracks like “Alissa Loves Perfume” and “If Only the Seas Were Merciful”. On “If Only..” the band still features some Black Metal influences in their Shoegazing guitars, keeping them a bit on par with their previous release.

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    Winterburst – The Mind Cave (2012)

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    Making its way from France, today we have Winterburst and their very impressive debut release “The Mind Cave”. With a very bombastic Symphonic Black Metal sound, the band delivers nearly 70 minutes of high-octane music that resembles the greats of the genre: Dimmu Borgir. Focusing on delivering the catchiest and most effective songs, the band delivers intense riffing and drumming with a high dosage of orchestrations and choir arrangements.

    Opening with the highly dramatic “A Mirror’s Game”, this release immediately blows you away with the production quality behind it. The choirs are amazing and the immediate riffing intensity is excellent. The vocals sound a bit like Shagrath making them very fitting for the massive sound that Winterburst has. Changing between shrieks, growls and clean sections, the band’s vocalist Vorender is as versatile as they come. The power of Kyll’s guitars is felt immediately and on tracks like “The Mind Cave”, they pound away relentlessly. We particularly enjoy this track due to its intricate orchestrations as well.

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    Shattered Destiny – Fragments (2012)

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    With a very diverse and interesting sound, today we have newcomers Shattered Destiny and their very professional debut EP “Fragments”. In the time when almost every band is trying to sound like somebody else, it is very refreshing to see bands like this carving their own musical history with a fresh and interesting proposal.

    Recorded around the world in places like California, Moscow and Sweden, this release is a very good integration of several musicians into a cohesive and dynamic sounding band. Brought together by mastermind JJ, Shattered Destiny breaks musical barriers and combines a Progressive Metal foundation with some more traditional Heavy and Thrash Metal influences.

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    Siculicidium - A rothadó virágok színüket vesztik (2012)

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    We consider ourselves to be very tolerant to most raw, low-fi, closet recorded Raw Black Metal releases, but there are just sometimes when something is so dissonant that it makes you want to puncture your eardrums; this is exactly the case with Siculicidium latest EP titled “A rothadó virágok színüket vesztik”. Luckily for us, this release only lasts around 25 minutes, but it will surely drive you nuts in that small amount of time.

    Opening with the super typical “Zuhanas” the band quickly develops a nice enshrouding atmosphere thanks to some good distortion and effective riffing. The vocals are ok, but sound a bit muffled and ‘watered down’. However, the most annoying thing in this song is the production/mixing behind the drums, either the guy doing this job was the drummer itself or somebody that was a bit deaf. The excessive swishing renders them unbearable!, but even worse is the section that starts around minute 2:30 where is just banging on the cymbals excessively. This track made us want to kick somebody in the nuts because it annoyed us that much.

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    Unleashed – Odalheim (2012)

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    Continuing on the concept brought forth on “As Yggdrasil Trembles”, Unleashed delivers their every two years release with “Odalheim”. As one of the forefathers of Viking Metal, Unleashed keeps bringing it every time they release an album and with the high-intensity of “Odalheim” they keep maintaining their aggressive-yet-melodic brand of DM that many bands wish they could play.

    Blasting through their opener “Fimbulwinter”, this release is off to a great start with fast riffing, blistering drumming and the always effective vocals of Hedlund. The riffing courtesy of the band’s longstanding guitarists Anders Schultz and Tomas Olsson nicely switches band from high-powered Viking Metal sections and some barebones DM chugs. It is very surprising to see that the band has not had any line-up changes in years and it shows in the overall quality and tightness of their music.

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    Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast (2012)

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    Returning to their old ways after the so-so “Massive Aggressive”, Municipal Waste delivers “The Fatal Feast”. As a huuuuuge improvement over their previous album, this release features 16 solid tracks that cover everything between crossover, thrash, d-beat, and punk. For a span of 40 minutes the band will dominate the listener with a combination of their timeless sound and their ‘balls to the wall’ intensity.

    Now signed to Nuclear Blast, Municipal Waste quickly jumps into action with the Punk/Thrash track “Repossession”. On one side of this release you have a hefty dosage of Thrash elements on tracks like “New Dead Masters”, “Crushing Chest Wound”, and “Death Tax”, there are also plenty of Punkier songs like “Unholy Abductor”, “You’re Cut Off” and “12 Step Program”, and completing the release you have the remaining tracks featuring the Municipal Waste Crossover sound that we all love from the band’s latest releases.

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    AK-11 – Legendary, Demonic & Invincible (2011)

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    Featuring six tracks of blistering Black Metal, today we have Australia’s AK-11 and their EP/Demo “Legendary, Demonic & Invincible”. In this release, the band delivers very powerful music that will surely please any BM fan due to the solid song writing and hellish vocals. The band’s originality level is not too high, but as a first release it shows great promise.

    Opening with the furiously paced “The Cleansing Stream”, the riffing starts off with a bang. The typical BM riffing is furious and it is nicely accompanied with hectic drumming. The vocals are pretty brutal, but sound a bit gargled thanks to the production. The song is fairly straightforward, but pretty intense for an opener. Switching to Russian language, “Vechnyi ogon’” and “Slava Rossii” deliver high-octane action with a few intricate melodic passages.

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    Moonspell – Alpha Noir (2012)

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    Coming back after an intense four years of touring since their last release back in 2008, today we have Moonspell and their most ambitious release yet: Alpha Noir / Omega White. In this double CD release, the band delivers one complete CD with the aggressive side of the band, and another with… we don’t really know since we didn’t get that part of the album, but Fernando Ribeiro says is more mellow, dark, and deep.

    Opening with the powerful yet enigmatic “Axis Mundi” the band shows no signs of slowing down and delivers a typical catchy Moonspell track. With a very ritualistic feeling, the vocals are very commanding and the guitar riffing is excellent. With no need for excessive guitar layering or studio trickery, the band delivers crystal-clear sounding rawness in a very Moonspell fashion.

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    Aus Der Transzendenz – Breed of a Dying Sun (2012)

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    Like a dense wall of fog moving towards your house, Aus Der Transzendenz “Breed of a Dying Sun” release will sweep you away and transport you to the era of well crafted ‘low-fi’ sounding Black Metal. This Austrian band actually does a great job in using the age old ‘let’s make it sound very kvlt’ recipe’ and producing 33 minutes of devastating dissonant Black Metal with a few excellent atmospheric passages.

    Opening with the sheer brutality of “A Dream of Ghosts”, the riffing and drumming is quite intense and massive. Backed by a very raw production with enough clarity to let everything trough, this song nicely sets the tone for the release. In “A Pathway to Rebirth” the band keeps up the intensity and adds some extra atmospheric passages that are downright chilling. The bass guitar line in these passages is quite enjoyable and the Doom-ish feeling to them is awesome.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Umbah – Enter the Dagobah Core (2012)

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    Umbah is one of those bands that sounds like a bunch of meth heads playing around with instruments and samples, but funny enough some of ‘their’ stuff is actually enjoyable. “Enter the Dagobah Core” marks the band’s 13th release and it surely is a very weird and chaotic one. We can’t really say it’s bad because it actually has plenty of sections that are quite entertaining and interesting to listen to, but we can’t really say is also something that mainstream music listeners will enjoy.

    “Whispers of a Dying Sun part I” delivers a pretty clear statement of what is to come: either open your mind of fuck off. This song is quite convoluted and crazy, but underneath the madness there is some weird sense of melody that intrigued us (enough to keep listening). “Bolderok Naron” and “Tample Bar” have a hint of Marilyn Manson meets Merzbow meets video game music, quite disturbing but equally intoxicating.

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