Album Reviews

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    Hour of Penance – Sedition (2012)

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    With a massive and destructive sound, today we have Hour of Penance and their latest release “Sedition”. Waiving the Technical Brutal Death Metal flag, Hour of Penance delivers high intensity brutal music with a nice technical edge that puts them over their closest competition. While not as technical as Obscura, Decrepit Birth, and similar band, this release compensates with intense drumming and a more brutal feel to the music.

    After the opening instrumental, the band delivers its first punch with “Enlightened Submission”, a very brutal and crushing opening song. The growls are as deep and brutal as you can get, but the massive drumming is what immediately sticks out. “Decimate the Ancestry of the Only God” and “Fall of the Servants” keep pummeling your ears with insane levels of brutality, thanks to the hellish vocals and powerful riffs that accompany the extreme drumming.

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    De Profundis – The Emptiness Within (2012)

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    With nine tracks of super catchy melodic Metal, De Profundis brings us their third full-length offering “The Emptiness Within”. Combining excellent Melodic passages with Progressive elements and a hefty dosage of powerful riffing, this release has a vibe similar to the Melodic DM wave that came out of Finland in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Don’t get us wrong, “The Emptiness Within” does feature a good amount of aggressiveness, but it is all surrounded by excellent melodic elements.

    “Delirum” opens the riffing marathon with very well defined and melodic guitars, a sound that reminded us of earlier Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and similar acts. The growls are spot on and the overall mixture of melodic guitars, pummeling drums and guitar solos is just outstanding. The guitar work courtesy of Soikot Sengupta and Roman Subbotin is very well crafted and entertaining, particularly in the dreamy ‘instrumental’ passages.

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    Hypno5e – Acid Mist Tomorrow (2012)

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    After excellent debut release “Des deux l'une est l'autre” the expectations for Hypno5e were high, but with “Acid Mist Tomorrow” they set a completely different standard. The band’s brand of experimental Metal has reached new heights with the 9 tracks presented in this very engaging release. Mixing elements from Post-Rock, Ambient, Avant-garde Metal, Instrumental Rock, and traditional Metal, Hypno5e’s sound is very complex yet engaging for even the average listener.

    Wasting no time and opening with the highly atmospheric “Acid Mist Tomorrow”, we immediately felt in a movie sound track. The carefully crafted percussions and the ethereal clean guitars make for a great listen, particularly when offset by the excellent distorted guitars. The ethereal atmosphere continues with “Six Fingers in One Hand She Holds the Dawn” parts 1 and 2, with a very chilling vibe and excellent clean vocals. The crazy vocal samples in the back near the fifth minute of the track are pretty cool and give a subtle feeling of insanity.

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    Frames – In Via (2012)

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    Delivering their highly anticipated second full-length release “In Via”, today we have Frames and their cinematic brand of instrumental Post/Art Rock. If you like nice and relaxing musical trips, this album will surely be of your interest. With a striking similarity to bands like Poland’s Lebowski and God is an Astronaut, Frames is set to captivate audiences with their excellent musical abilities and melancholic songwriting style.

    Opening with the mysterious intro “Entrance”, the band fully explodes into full ‘out of this world’ mode with “Departure”. The trippy guitars and powerful bass guitar line help make this song very ethereal and transport the listener to a different place. With “Encounter” the atmosphere sets a very nice mellow mood, and the occasional beats make things more interesting. The power of the guitars is nicely used to fully develop atmospheric passages in a very brilliant manner.

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    The Firstborn – Lions Among Men (2012)

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    Hailing from Portugal, today we have The Firstborn and their 4th full-length release “Lions Among Men”. With a very interesting and different sound, this album is surely complex enough that it takes more than a few listens to fully sink in. Featuring a mixture of Meshuggah-like influences (on the guitars mainly) with some middle-eastern elements and some occasional Avant-garde BM styling’s, this release is indeed very well crafted, but hard to fully enjoy at first.

    Opening with the commanding “Lions Among Men”, you immediately know this is going to be an interesting release due to its unusual structure and sound. The very low guitars make the atmosphere sound very thick and perverse, something that you usually get on Sludge releases. With some of those middle-eastern mystical sounds at the beginning “Without as Within” continues the heavy atmosphere and expands on the bands crushing sound with some more riffing assaults and perfectly crafted slowdowns.

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    Meshuggah – Koloss (2012)

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    After the excellent “ObZen”, Meshuggah returns with their latest epic “Koloss”. In this the release not only the band builds on previous work, but it also improves their sound in a manner that makes it more accessible to people and still equally technical and brilliant. Pummeling through 10 tracks of brilliant music, this is a release that shows how well the band has matured and how much better they are than the rest of their clones.

    Opening with the ‘slower paced’ “I am Colossus”, the band makes their signature sound present since the opening minute. The brilliantly crafted drums, crazy rhythms, and strong vocals immediately identifies the band, and delivers a very strong opening track. Things start picking up with “The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance”, “Do Not Look Down”, and “Behind the Sun”, all songs filled with polyrhythmic structures and very interesting elements that makes the unique and different from each other.

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    Impiety – Ravage & Conquer (2012)

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    Recently signed to Pulverised records, today we have Impiety and their eight full-length released titled “Ravage & Conquer”. Feeling like a bag of bricks to the face, “Ravage & Conquer” delivers some of the most brutal music Impiety has ever written. Pummeling through eight furiously paced tracks, this is one release that no fan of this band would want to miss.

    Opening like an epic soundtrack to some medieval battle, the guitars blast through things and the punishing drumming indicates that Impiety has arrived. “Revelation Decimation” is the 8 minute opener that delivers waves of brutal onslaughts of hellish vocals and crushing riffs. The band’s sound is cleaner than in previous releases and the overall feeling is very chaotic and brutal… just what the doctor ordered. Steamrolling with “Ravage & Conquer”, “Weaponized” and “The Scourge Majesty”, this release is off to a very brutal and intense start, not to mention several 8+ minute long anthems of destruction.

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    Edge of Paradise – Mask (2011)

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    Delivering one of the most diverse, chaotic, and yet very interesting albums we have received this year, today we have Edge of Paradise and their debut full-length “Mask”. In this release the band features influences from anywhere between Industrial, Heavy Metal, Gothic Metal, Shred Metal and tons of things in between. If you are not confused by now, then you can’t really be prepared to open the bag full of surprises that “Mask” is.

    Opening with some dub step/Static X intro, “Falling Down” delivers the first punch in a 9 track rollercoaster ride through almost all genres of Metal. This opening track does a great job to set the stage for a very weird and diverse release that is very catchy and strongly lead by the band’s charismatic vocalist: Margarita Monet. Her vocals are quite unique in Metal since she is all over the place and has a lot of raw power behind her. “Tall of the gun” steers you into a different direction with a more Modern/commercial Metal with very heavy guitars.

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    Gory Blister – Earth-Sick (2012)

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    Making their contribution to the highly exciting Technical Death Metal scene, today we have Italy’s Gory Blister and their latest full-length release “Earth-Sick”. With a name more apt for a Grindcore band, this Italian band took us by surprise with their high energy songs and blistering drumming. Deliver 10 tracks of well executed music, this band will surely make some noise in this very crowded genre.

    Opening with the deceiving “The Breeding (intro)” track, we thought we will reviewing a Melodic Power Metal album instead. However, with “Earthsick” things get down and dirty with some heavy riffing and intense growls. The band style borders between Melodic DM and Technical DM with some very impressive speed ups, but never as intense and powerful as bands like Obscura and Spawn of Possession.

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