Album Reviews

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    Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage (2011)

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    USBM favorite tree hugger band has returned with yet another stylish release that is set to put everybody else to shame (in the USBM scene) and elevate the status of Wolves in the Throne Room (WITTR) even more. We have always been fans of bands that pushed the envelope and WITTR is exactly what they have been doing release after release since their birth back in 2003.

    Always characterized by their pummeling rawness, the band nicely incorporates atmospheric elements into their sound to create amazing songs that are never truly what meets the ‘ears’ in the initial listens of their albums. While most bands focus on who can be the rawest and most punishing bands, WITTR achieves this by building onto their sound beautiful landscapes that are unrivaled by virtually any other band playing similar music.

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    An Autumn for Crippled Children – Everything (2011)

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    One of the most mysterious bands coming from the Dutch scene has to be An Autumn for Crippled Childern. After their monumental 2010 debut album “Lost”, they return with an even more impressive and lush release with “Everything”. If you though that their first album was pushing the limits of creativity and delivering in almost every single aspect, wait until you get your hands on this excellent release.

    Being released on ATMF records, “Everything” opens with powerful Shoegaze influenced guitars in “Forever Never Fails”. Drawing similarities to Alcest, Lantlos and similar Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze bands, the band is greatly refining their sound from their first release. The distorted desperate screams of pain that are featured in this track (and throughout the release) greatly contrast the beauty of the music, but in a very effective and devastating manner.

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    Arkona – Slovo (2011)

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    Two years have passed after their impressive “Goi, Rode, Goi!” album and Arkona is finally back with an even better release names “Slovo”. Featuring even more engaging Pagan/Folk Metal compositions, the Russian quintet keeps improving in astronomical proportions compared to their earlier material. “Slovo” delivers a hefty dose of both beautiful Folk and aggressive compositions that deserve to be heard.

    Just as “Az’” opens this release, we start getting a natural high of epic elements thanks to the excellent instrumentation and the crystal clear production behind this release. Not wasting any time, “Arkaim” delivers powerful Black Metal-esque opening riffs and transforms into lush vocal arrangements. Masha’s clean vocals are mesmerizing and when paired with the choir, they just sound even more dominant.

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    Deadend in Venice – See Your On The Ground (2011)

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    As just another female fronted metal band, today we have the Germans from Deadend in Venice, a band that claims to play Melodic Death Metal, but sometimes falls into the Mallcore scene. We can’t really say the music is bad, since the musicians are very good and some of the songs are catchy, but just the whole concept and idea has been done to death that we can probably pick 10 cd’s at random from our promo collection and find at least 4 bands that are the same.

    Opening with “Hate Sweet Hate”, we have very traditional (but not bad) riffing and male screams (that are not to our full liking), everything is pretty standard and then the female vocals come. While the female vocals are not bad, they are pretty standard and sound almost exactly like Francine Boucher from Echoes of Eternity, in fact the music of Deadend in Venice sounds a lot like said band minus the progressive elements.

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    The Konsortium – The Konsortium (2011)

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    With all the craptastic Black Metal releases coming from Norway (and around the world) these days, it is very hard to find quality albums such as The Konsortium’s self-titled debut release. In this album, the band relies on catchy Thrash-infused Black Metal riffing overlaid with different styles of vocals in order to create a very effective almost Avant-garde Black Metal sound.

    Only knowing the identity of one of the band’s mysterious members, we can be assured that the riffing quality is top notch since Teloch handles the guitar duties. The opening number “Gasmask Prince” has a very hectic pace and multi-layered guitars that quickly set this band apart from the rest. The ‘Black Metal vocals’ are pretty standard for the genre, but the combination of whispers and clean sections make them very effective and diverse enough to keep the listener engaged.

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    dark_matter - _adrift_ (2010)

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    Being always weary of those ‘do it yourself’ new bands, we had some skepticism about the claims made on dark_matter’s press package info sheet. However, dark_matter greatly surprised us with great quality music and an impressive sound on this very short-but-sweet EP release. For over four tracks, the band delivers trippy and spaced-out compositions that stick in your head for days.

    With the opening track “Neptune”, we are treated to some of the best ethereal keyboards we’ve heard in quite a while. They are perfectly paired with nice riffing and drumming, something that many bands that rely too much on their keyboards to be overly atmospheric can’t seem to get right. After the short intro track, “the_persistence_of_memory” delivers more powerful guitars paired with electronic and space rock elements that will transport you to a different level of consciousness (or your money back). We love that there are absolutely no vocals ruining the beauty of the music in this release.

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    Ackros – Promo 2010 (2010)

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    Today we have here with us a very promising Progressive Death Metal band from Belgium names Ackros, and their short but sweet Promo 2010 four song demo. Boosting powerful and yet intricate guitar work, Ackros is one of the few bands that have submitted promo/demo releases and really have impressed us with the quality of their work.

    Opening with “Drop Trip”, at first the band gives you the impression that you are set to review ‘just another’ Death Metal release, but suddenly the guitar work gets interesting and hooks you immediately. While doing nothing completely revolutionary, Ackros does manage to craft pretty nifty guitar sections that keep the songs very engaging and different from each other. “Axis Antiseptia” immediately starts with the progressive influences with some brilliant guitar work paired with nicely timed drumming. The vocals are typical DM growls, and fit very well the mixture of chugging traditional DM section and the progressive elements of the music.

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    Peste Noire - L’Ordure à l’État Pur (2011)

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    Black Metal visionaries Peste Noire have been releasing hit-or-miss albums for the past 10 years and none of them (although good) have impressed us as much as “L’Ordure à l’État Pur”. Carved out of their usual ‘let’s mix everything we can’ approach, this new album reaches new heights when it comes to amazing dissonant passages that at first seem totally random and disconnected.

    Fusing elements of Punk, Polka, electronic beats, Shoegaze and everything in between, Peste Noire delivers one hour of pure musical depravity that somehow will sneak into your subconscious and make you appreciate it for what it is. Opening with the super weird “Casse, Pèches, Fractures et Traditions”, we get some typical Black Metal vocals on top of thick and diabolical atmosphere that is generated by precise BM-like riffing and a punishing bass guitar line. Around the 5 minute mark the song just gets plain weird diverging into a polka/ska-ish passage and we totally love this sudden change.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Frozen Dawn – The Old Prophecy of Winterland (2011)

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    While there is a great resurgence of old school Thrash Metal these days, most Black Metal bands seem to be either stuck in the raw toilet-recorded sound of the past or in the faster-than hell with no real aim side of things. Luckily, Frozen Dawn delivers an excellent release featuring the sound that made Black Metal appealing in the past. Taking influences form the old-school Swedish and Norwegian scenes, more particularly bands like Dissection, Watain, Satyricon and Darth Throne, “The Old Prophecy of Winterland” features nearly 50 minutes of Black Metal you won’t want to miss.

    Focusing on powerful and catchy guitar riffing, rhythmical drums (with blast-beast of course) and ‘manly’ vocals, Frozen Dawn seems to have re-captured the sound of the past and pushes it a bit forward with great production values and catchy songs. After a one minute opening track, “Black Spells” instantly delivers a catchy riff that while used through the whole song, it never get’s old and sounds exactly like what BM should sound like.

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    Atanab – Black Magic (2010)

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    From Spain/Colombia’s Mighty Hordes Productions, today we have a re-issue of a 2006 release that nicely combines brutality with melody and delivers almost 40 minutes of pure fucking Black Metal. “Black Magic” is one of those releases that is very brutal and chaotic, but also excellently mixed and sounds very clean in comparison to most of the bands trying to be as brutal as Atanab.

    Wasting no time, the band starts creating a thick evil atmosphere since the intro track and with “Is Sentence of Satan” they deliver a very impressive first blow. In this track we have hellish vocals, massive drumming and powerful riffing, all delivered at a very high intensity. In a more atmospheric way, “Sons of Evil” delivers the same brutal sound but at a slower and more painful tempo. We particularly enjoy the subtle keyboards that are never overdone and just add the right amount of atmosphere to the music.

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