Two years have passed since the release of the excellent “In Sideris Penumbra” and today we finally get Nox Illunis latest release titled “Metempsychosis”. Keeping up with their brutal mixture of harsh Black Metal with a heavy dose of melodic elements, this is one release you do not want to miss. Hailing from Italy, this band impressed us with their previous record, and they have surely improved with this one.

Firing away on all cylinders, this release opens with the crushing “Sfera Prima: Del Risveglio Dal Sonno”. This very brutal track immediately starts with a massive wall of sound built by the demonic drumming and powerful riffing. The vocals are as oppressive as always and they give that extra level of brutality to the already super aggressive music. However, it is the perfectly placed melodic passages that make this song (and album) one fine piece of work.

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.

Keeping busy this 2012, the one man project Spectral Lore delivers another excellent Black Metal release with their split album with fellow Greeks Locust Leaves. Continuing with their highly refined brand of music presented in their latest full-length “Sentinel”, they deliver a crushing 15-minute track that covers half of this excellently packaged release on Order of Theta Records.

Immediately delivering their aural assault, Spectral Lore opens the split release with a crushing track titled “Duty”. For the span of fifteen minutes the band’s excellent guitar work gives us that Primordial vibe, but with a heavier Black Metal orientation. The singing is as brutal as ever, but it’s the small details the song structure that makes this track engaging. With a several tempo changes, epic atmospheric keyboards, and a pulsating bass guitar line, the band shows again their strength in crafting restless tracks that are very diverse and engaging.

Celebrating their 25 years in the Metal music scene, today we received a copy of Atrocity’s epic DVD/CD set “Die Gottlosen Jahre”. Featuring 300 minutes of video content, this two DVD package delivers one of the most in-depth and comprehensive documentaries about Metal music with a particular focus on Atrocity’s revolutionary trajectory since the early days of German Thrash/Death Metal to their latest incursion into the Ethno/Folk of “After The Storm”.

The documentary DVD lasts around 3 hours and features a plethora of interviews with the main players of the Metal scene during the times Atrocity was revolutionizing and breaking boundaries. Starting since the good old days of tape trading when Atrocity first came into the picture, it is quite interesting how they interview people that have been there for the band since the very beginning and have some of the craziest stories about them.

After not getting enough of Midnight with their debut full-length release “Satanic Royalty”, this compilation delivers 21 catchy songs that spawn all their pre full-length debut years (eight years and several EP’s and splits). Hailing from Cleveland (WTF), this band is one of the catchiest and most engaging Black/Speed/Heavy Metal bands these days, no other Black’n’Roll band comes close to them.

Covering their complete early catalogue (minus few tracks), this release shows an interesting progression in the band’s sound (and recording quality). Track like “All Hail Hell”, “I Am Violator”, “Long Live Death”, and “Endless Slut” have that nasty sound and a very sleazy vibe to them, just like one would expect from a truck driver hanging out at a high-school female volleyball game.

After blowing us away with their youtube trailers for this album, we had to reach out to the band’s label and try to get hooked up with this release to enjoy its excellence and communicate it to the masses. Red Moon Architect’s debut full-length titled “Concealed Silence” could not come at a better time when similar bands like Swallow The Sun, Black Sun Aeon, Insomnium, etc. are paving the way for more Finish Melodic Death/Doom acts to get recognized.

This one man project headed by Saku Moilanen of RoutaSielu fame, opens with the commanding “Abscond”. This very Doomy track features very powerful riffs and killer growls courtesy of session musician Frans Aalto. While the first track is short and sweet, it crates the right momentum with its melodic sections giving a very Insomnium/Swallow the Sun vibe but with its own direction and uniqueness.

Hailing from Germany, today we have a very interesting sounding Black/Death Metal band named “Silent Leges Inter Arma” and their self-title debut release. While this band has no ‘fancy’ elements on their music, their song writing abilities makes their sound be old school and brutal while still having some modern elements that makes them very unique sounding. If this sounds weird, just imagine Sepultura circa “Morbid Visions” with modern BM elements.

Starting with a very average track titled “We Are”, the band kind of has a pattern in the opening songs of this release of one average track followed by a good one, seems weird it turned out this way (or we liked the album this way). “Falcon-Headed One” delivers quite powerful growls and very interesting guitar work. Here you can perfectly notice the band’s weird and unique sound that makes them different from the rest, maybe comparable to bands like Secrets of The Moon and such in terms of their guitar work.

After Germ’s impressive debut “Wish”, released earlier in March 2012 by Eisenwald as well, we are totally blown away at how much a band’s sound can mature and such a short time and with “Loss”, this one-man project delivers 36-minutes of lush and deranged Black Metal with countless influences and a huge atmospheric component. Lead by the Aussie Tim Yatras, better known for his work in Austere, Grey Waters and Woods of Desolation, this new project brings forth an amazing musical proposal that countless bands have danced around, but never quite got it this perfect.

Moving a bit away from the psycho-sexual electronics of “Wish”, “Loss” takes things to a whole new dimension and produces some of the best atmospheric passages we have ever heard, with some brilliantly introduced electronic splashes. Opening with the heartfelt “My Only Hope”, we get very solemn vocals and excellent mixture of piano with atmospheric elements that nicely culminates very dramatically, lush, and brutal.