The Resistance is a Superstar Swedish band formed by Jesper Strömblad, Marco Aro, Glenn Ljungström and Christofer Barkensjö. Together they bring to the table years of experience playing Swedish-styled Death Metal, and they managed to fuse it successfully together with some old-school Hardcore. In their debut EP “Rise From Treason” they managed to deliver four hard-hitting tracks that will have any metalhead going ape-shit for hours.

“My Fire” introduces this release with a hefty dosage of Hardcore attitude and catchy riffs. The vocals are quite aggressive and very fitting of the Swedish DM riffs presented in the track. The band’s mixture of styles is very evident as they manage to keep the intensity levels to the max with this song. “Face to Face” features a better defined sound and a knack for crushing melody that is graciously created by the experienced musicians behind the band. We particularly love the catchy chorus section and the melodic riffs in this track.

Megascavenger is the latest project of Swedish Death Metal icon Rogga Johansson. “Descent of Yuggoth” is the band’s debut full-length release that is set to crush waves of people with its very traditional Death Metal riffs and demonic growls.

Opening with some crushing riffs and crazy solos, “Nihilisticon” makes an immediate statement as the album’s first track. Deep growls and catchy sections are plentiful in this impressive track that any fan of the genre will greatly enjoy. “Descent Of Yuggoth” quickly creates a wall of distortion that is nicely appreciated as the track moves forward and delivers some meaty hooks and even some more unconventional sections. In “Smokescreen Armaggedon”, the combination of Rogga’s growls with the guest vocalist (we will say who they are later) greatly enhances this track.

Arriving from Violent Journey Records, today we have Finish outfit I Lied and their super catchy Death/Thrash Metal in “World Insane”. Originally a self-financed EP, this release is too catchy to pass and we are quite glad that the band got a label to release it to a wider audience. Delivering five tracks covering 19 minutes, this album features tons of catchy riffs and a very old-school attitude behind its music.

Opening with a Mortician-style intro, “Beaten Zone” immediately delivers powerful guitars and super catchy hooks. The vocals are very typical of the genre and they are very well balanced between growls and screams. Moving on to a more melodic approach, “Total Self Hatred” keeps the riffing onslaught alive with incisive guitars and tight drumming. There are plenty of superb headbaning moments in this track as well.

Legendary Irish Death/Doom Metal outfit returns after four years with a double CD dosage of slowly asphyxiating music with “Formless”. Delivering six blows of brilliantly crafted 14+ minute songs (and a short one), the band makes a statement that they are the kings of the genre with such an impressive release.

Opening with the heavy hitting “Theories of old bones”, the band delivers a monolithic 14 minute introduction to what is next to come in this release. The band’s signature style is immediately present in this track and through the release with very minor adjustments over their previous release. The combinations of growls and clean vocals are pretty effective since they perfectly fuse the growls of Death/Doom and the signature traditional doom clean singing.

Six years have passed since multi-instrumentalist Marius Strand released “From Below”, the debut full-length of his project solo-project The Fall of Every Season. Fast-forward to 2013 and we have him unleashing another masterpiece of extreme melancholic proportions with “Amends”. Featuring five tracks and 53 minutes of hope-crushing Atmospheric Death/Doom Metal, this is one of the best releases that we have ever heard in this genre.

Opening with the extremely painful “Sole Passenger”, this release features powerful Doom riffs surrounded by deep growls and superb clean vocals. The atmosphere in this track is amazing and is greatly enhanced by the depressive solos and top-notch vocal layering. “A Portrayal” delivers a solemn acoustic instrumental interlude that greatly enhances the mood and keeps things very mellow.

When one thinks that a band can’t get any better, we got completely surprised by how Omnium Gatherum managed to improve over their previous epic release “New World Shadows”. In “Beyond”, the band takes their highly refined Melodic Death Metal sound and brings it up another notch to near perfection in the 10 tracks presented in this majestic release.

Slowly building up with the intro track, “The New Dynamic” explodes with the band’s signature intense riffs and powerful growls. As the track progresses, the epic lead guitar work enhances the mood and the acrobatic solos immediately start. The clean vocals greatly add to the overall awesomeness of the song when paired with the precise bass guitar line. This is nicely continued by the super catchiness of “In The Rim” and its killer vocal arrangements during the songs more melodic sections.

Arriving from Norway, today we have the melancholic Norwegian rockers of Acelsia and their debut full-length “Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow”. With the band down to a two-piece outfit comprised of Malene Markussen on vocals and piano, and Odd Henning handling guitars bass and synth, they have moved away from their Gothic/Doom Metal roots and they now play very emotion-filled Rock. With 11-tracks this release is very diverse, showcasing the duo’s excellent songwriting skills.

Opening with the haunting vocals or Malene, the band moves the listener with the powerful “Roads”. This song immediately shows the band’s more Indie/Alternative rock sound with catchy guitars and soaring vocal lines. The Post-Rock touches of “Stitches” and “Up On The Roof” greatly enhance the songs and adds an extra dimension to the band’s already unique sound. “Up On The Roof” greatly reminded us of the band Shellyz Raven and their super depressive music.

Being completely opposed to Metalcore shit, we find ourselves in a dilemma while listening to Some Call This Tragedy’s debut EP “No Man Without a Ghost”. On the one hand we despise Metalcore vocals and their formulaic approach to music, however we have recently been listening to bands that somehow manage to add some value to such horrible music, and thus we actually enjoy their music. This is the problem when listening to this EP, we love some of the melodic music that the band delivers, but here come the screams and we totally lose our musica boner.

In this three song EP, “Burning Parts” delivers powerful riffing and excellent melodic passages. The clean vocals make this song very epic and create a very unique atmosphere, not traditional of typical American mallcore shit. In this track all is fine until the shitty screams come in and totally destroy the flow of the song, just like if we put a happy face sticker on a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa, preposterous.

After their critically acclaimed and totally excellent release “Elysium”, one could wonder how Stratovarius will top such a great release. Two years later, “Nemesis” arrives with a darker edge, but an equally impressive assortment of songs. In this release the band delivers 11 tracks of their signature Melodic Power Metal with a more serious tone to things. Another answer provided in this release is that the loss of long-time drummer Jörg Michael was greatly alleviated by newcomer Rolf Pilve.

As in Stratovarius tradition, the band kicks off with an epic track titled “Abandon”. In this song we can instantly appreciate the band’s killer songwriting kills and excellent placement of epic vocal sections. This upbeat tempo is kept in the highly addictive “Unbreakable”, a track that features very catchy keyboards and a superb chorus section. Interestingly enough, this track sounds a bit more ‘mainstream’ than one would expect, but it is also super catchy and very well crafted.