The queen of Metal Doro Pesch is back with yet another killer release that comes very close to trumping Accepts “Stalingrad” as the top Heavy Metal release of 2012. Doro is one of the most active and fan devoted musicians in Metal and the collection of heavy hitting hits delivered in “Raise Your Fist” is a true treat for anybody that has been following her since her days with Warlock.

Opening with the heavy-hitter “Raise Your Fist In The Air”, Doro sets the bar very high which such an energetic and catchy song. We can totally picture thousands of people raising their firsts and going crazy with this epic anthem on a live festival show. While ALL the songs in this release are excellent, the next highlight comes under the name of “It Still Hurts”, a power-ballad duet with none other than Lemmy from Motörhead. While we don’t get to hear his traditional raspy vocals, we still get a pretty unique and different side of his talents alongside Doro, what more can we ask for.

Returning after a 10 year absence, today we have Italy’s Holy Knights and their very exciting release “Between Daylight and Pain”. In case you thought that there aren’t enough Power Metal bands, Holy Knights returns to deliver eight tracks that are indeed very well crafted, but sound like a ‘light’ version of Rhapsody and similar bands.

Since the rich opener “Mistery”, the band immediately sends the message that they have great musicians, excellent production values, and solid composition skills. The bombastic elements of their songs remind us a lot of Rhapsody of Fire and their explosiveness when it comes to symphonic elements. The vocals of Dario Di Matteo remind us a bit of Fabio Leone, making them actually quite good in our book. The first few songs deliver quite a hectic pace and very well crafted guitar solos like on “Beyond the Mist”, but it is the melodic sections that make this song (and release) more appealing than your average Power Metal release.

Delivering a very interesting combination of Black Metal with some Gothic/Dark Metal elements, today we have Germany’s Freitod and their sophomore release “Regenjahre”. This journey through seven tracks and 52 minutes of brilliantly crafted music is a very unique one since the band keeps a perfect balance between harsh and aggressive Black Metal brush strokes and highly melancholic overtones creating a lush Post-Black Metal experience.

The album start with the title track and the band immediately sets the mood with excellent guitar work and a very catchy pace. The melodic aspect of Freitod is excellent and on tracks like this one they use it perfectly. Combining crushing harsh vocals with dreamy Gothic Metal/Rock clean vocal sections the band creates a very unique and melancholic atmosphere. The band further uses these tools to contrast the brutality of their Black Metal roots with their lush melancholic side, and tracks like “Der Traumsturm” and “Neue Wege” are clear examples of this.

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.

Greatly improving on their already impressive 2011 release “Edge of the Earth”, today we have Sylosis and their latest album “Monolith”. In this eleven track beast of an album, the band further refines their killer ‘Melodic Thrash Metal’ sound with even better crafted songs and heaps of killer guitar riffs. The band’s mastermind Josh Middleton has done a great job in crafting a very unique sound that is familiar to Metal fans, but it is also completely different from everybody else in Metal.

Setting a melancholic mood with the opener “Out From Below”, Sylosis quickly delivers the usual dosage of Thrash Metal riffs that nicely transform into brilliant melodic passages, particularly the brilliant closing to this song. There are a few hints of ‘Modern Metal’ included in tracks like “Fear The World” and “What Dwells Within” that give the band a Gojira kind of edge, not bad, but maybe alarming in the future.

Hailing from Iceland, today we have the latest entry into the newly popular (again) world of Technical Death Metal. With “Solvet Secium” as their debut release, this Icelandic band sure has a solid statement to make through crazy guitar sections, hyper-fast drumming, and thunderous growls. For all of us that are not fed up with the countless Obscura, Necrophagist, Spawn of Possession, etc. replica bands that have popped out in the last few years, Ophidian I is a highly respectable entry into the genre.

Opening with a very Obscura-esque bass guitar wizardry on “Mark of an Obsidian”, the band’s musical journey begins with a very well balanced brutality-meets-technical-magic song. The growling is hellish and the furious drumming is just brutal as fuck. “Shedyet” keeps the magic rolling with an eerily familiar melodic section that any fan of Technical DM will recognize. This is one of the few problems with have with “Solvet Saecium”, while there are very cool and highly-technical section, there are also a lot of things that feel ripped off straight from Obscura and the previously mentioned bands, taking away from the band’s merit.

After being impressed (in a good way) by their previous release “The Powerless Rise”, As I Lay Dying returns with another cookie-cutter Metalcore release that might please the crowds of Mallcore kiddies, but not the Metal veterans. Having developed excellent songs for their previous album, it is kind of a bummer when a band waters down their music for the sake of record sales and pleasing crowds. As I Lay Dying has some musical chops, but in this release they just opt for the easy way out and deliver eleven tracks full of fluff that surely have a bunch of high-school kids cheering for them.

While we have outgrown our hatred for Metalcore, we still hammer releases devoid of creativity and this is one of them. Since the opener “Cauterize” the band opts for a weird mixture of Scar Symmetry-meets-Soilwork approach that really sounds like the band is trying to be somebody else. The clean vocals are pretty ok, but the way they are used is already Scar Symmetry’s forte, and when you add breakdowns to the mix… it just makes us want to vomit.

After blowing us all away with the excellent “Axioma Ethica Odini”, Enslaved returns with another excellent release that builds up on their previous albums and further refines their sound. With their very Progressive sound, the band has managed to expand the reach of the Black Metal genre into new and uncharted territories, and “RIITIIR” is the perfect vessel to explore these waters.

Continuin the “Axioma…” vibe, “Thoughts Like Hammers” features intricate guitar work perfectly adorned by several singing styles. The chorus section of this track is magical, both musically and vocally. With such a very well-directed aggressive sound, the band perfectly fuses in their Progressive elements with the harsh vocals and pounding drums unlike any other band we’ve heard. Moving into funkier and more melodic territory, “Death in the Eyes of Dawn” nicely keeps the album flowing with excellent guitar work, a wide variety of vocals, and a very mellow tempo.