Hailing from Italy, today we have 5 Star Grave and their most recent full-length release “Drugstore Hell”. With a very interesting mix of Melodic Death Metal with some Glam/Sleaze, old-school Rock, and even some electronic elements, this release offers a very engaging mixture of sounds. For 11 tracks this Italian band has one of the most refreshing approaches to Melodic Death Metal we have heard in quite a while.

With a very catchy opening, “Terminal Bedroom” starts with some funky electronic bits that nicely elevate the spirits of this song. The riffing is catchy and the vocals while a bit on the ‘modern Metal’ side of things, are pretty well fitting. After the next catchy tune “Death Put A Smile on My Face”, the band reminded us of Silent Decent and their hyper-catchy brand of Melodic DM. With a more hard-rocking edge, “Love Affair with the Beast” features a nice combination of relentless riffing and funky keyboards.

Featuring Mathias Lillmåns of Finntroll fame on vocals, today we have The Iniquity Descent and their debut full-length “The Human Apheresis”. Playing a very traditional and average Black Metal, this upcoming band still has a long way to go before we can say they are a force to reckon with.

Delivering ten blows of powerful Black Metal, “The Human Apheresis” is one of those albums that immediately after the first track you start wondering if you already heard the next song, because they are all very similar and repetitive. Don’t get us wrong, the riffing is quite powerful and the drumming is superb, but the quality of the songs is constantly lacking since the band repeats the same sections over and over until you stop caring.

Delivering a wall of crusty guitars and a very decadent (but effective) mixture of Punk and D-beat with Death and Black Metal influences, today we have Sweden’s Martyrdöd and their full-length release “Paranoia”. While we usually don’t like this type of music, Martyrdöd does a great job in making it engaging, brutal, and well sounding, enough for us to be fully immersed in the 11 tracks presented in this release.

Opening with some sick riffs, “Nog Är Nog” fully delivers the unexpected: a five minute song (not 2 minutes like other bands) with excellent melodic elements as well as the traditional crusty sound and punkish edge of these kinds of releases. The band’s focus on the catchiness of the riffing is excellent perfectly contrasting the more aggressive sections. With a more Black Metal influences tracks like “Överkom Er Rädsla” and “Hör Världens Rop” feel like a punkish version of Immortal with some of Satyricon’s edge from the 90’s. These two songs are the perfect example of why Martyrdöd is beyond your typical one-dimensional crust band and can delivers in many different fronts while maintaining their identity.

The craziest band in Metal, Diablo Swing Orchestra, finally returns three years after their last album with “Pandora’s Box”, a true Pandora’s box of a release since you don’t really know what you are getting yourself into until you ‘open’ this release. Continuing with their chaotic brand of Avant-garde Metal with a splash of operatic elements, this release sets them further apart from the competition with 11 of the craziest songs we have ever listened to.

Opening with the playful “Voodoo Mon Amour”, DSO is headed for another round of typical festive music, however, the band quickly expands on their sound by adding more authentic elements with the incorporation of both Daniel Hedin and Martin Isaksson, on trombone and trumpet respectively. With these additions, the band now hits seven full-time members, rivaling only Therion and Haggard, for the title of bands with most members. Regardless of the size of the band, DSO now feels a bit more complete with a richer sound, similar to the Leningrad Cowboys and their super rich sound.

Arriving from France, today we have Memories of a Dead Man and their latest full-length release “V.I.T.R.I.O.L”. Featuring a mixture of Post-Metal with some Hardcore influences, this band fits perfectly with bands like The Ocean, Year of No Light, Rosetta and Cult of Luna. Delivering 11 soul pounding tracks, this release is as heavy as it is complex, and we completely love it.

With soaring guitars and brilliant Post-Metal sections, “Tomorrow, at Dawn…” sets the bar for this release pretty high. The pummeling guitars are nicely offset by some female vocal sections that give a very nice melodic edge to this track, without losing any of the gritty heaviness in it.

As a side project of members of Negură Bunget, Din Brad delivers very interesting and exotic Neofolk music that creates an atmosphere unlike anything we have ever listened to. With “Dor”, the band crafts 11 tracks of dark and somber music that will send chills down your spine and will make you appreciate and dig-up more about Romanian folklore and history.

Opening with the bone chilling “Amar”, the music of Din Brad is stripped down from any Metal influences and presents traditional instruments (i.e. panpipe) surrounded a by heavy atmospheric elements and a the excellent and enchanting exotic vocals of Alma. The lush and organic sound to the band is pretty awesome since it transports you to outer worldly locations in one instant. The folkish edge of the male vocals in songs like “Poarce'n Suflet Greu Păcatu” might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it gives that sense of authenticity to the music that many other Neofolk bands are lacking these days.

Hailing from Portugal today we have another entry into the Sludge/Doom Metal category with Process of Guilt and their latest opus “FÆMIN”. Featuring a few ex-members of Doomsters Before The Rain, we thought this band will move past the traditional Sludge/Doom approach, but they just manage to replicate what bands like Year of No Light, Bison B.C, etc. achieve with their heavy distorted guitars and mid-tempo spurts of anger.

“Empire” starts with some nice feedback and then it goes into the endless repetitive loop of riffing and drums that most Sludge bands opt for, but the band never seems to really get out of this funk. While we understand the genre dictates for something like this, we can’t really see any value or different between the previously mentioned bands. “Blindfold” is a bit faster paced, but it also quickly drowns in repetitiveness and dulls the listener into submission. The band wrote 5-6 riffs and they just stick to them for the duration of this release.

With the current boom of Psychedelic Occult Rock/Metal bands like Ghost, Year of the Goat and The Devil’s Blood, it is not surprising that the next excellent band we listen to in this genre has to be from Finland. Jess and the Ancient Ones are finally delivering their debut full-length self-titled release this May and it features seven tracks spanning around 53 minutes of pure musical greatness.

Jess and the Ancient Ones sound is timeless and it evokes countless greats like Merciful Fate, Black Sabbath, Yes, and the more contemporary Jex Thoth and Sabbath Assembly. Opening with the extra catchy “Prayer for Death and Fire”, this release is off to a great start thanks to the band’s playfulness and excellent abilities to craft old-school sounding music but not sounding like a re-hash of any other band.

Making its way from Germany, today we have Essenz’s latest full-length released titled “Mundus Numen”. With a very healthy mix of traditional Doom Metal with some Black Metal and Sludge hints, this release takes you down to the bowels of hell and back with a very powerful and dark sound. For six tracks, “Mundus Numen” showcases the band’s tuned low guitars and raw power when it comes to speed things up.

“Extinguish Shapes - Innermediate” opens this release with very powerful Sludgy riffs that nicely morph back and forth to painful Doom sections. The atmospheric elements make this track even more dense thanks to their unconventional nature, and the female vocals add a very nice extra touch. Before we know it, “Sea of Light – Pleroma” explodes in our face with some furious Black Metal in the vein of bands like Watain and Horna. The switch from Doom to BM is pretty rapid and very well engineered to deliver a powerful blow. This track again drones back between furious BM riffs and some deeper slower passages.

Hailing from Portugal, today we have a band that ‘waited’ for 17 years to release their second full-length release. Disaffected’s last album was back in 1995 and with “Rebirth” they deliver a very interesting and unique sounding release that is quite hard to categorize, but it’s very enjoyable to listen to. Mixing powerful guitar lines with hectic bass guitar sections, pummeling drums, crazy keyboards and harsh vocals, Disaffected has managed to catch us off-guard and produce something totally unique and different.

After a very weird and trippy intro, “C.ult O.f M.y A.shes” and “Getting Into the Labyrinth” feature a wave of powerful guitars laid on top of intricate drumming. The vocals are very aggressive and they nicely add more brutality to the overall mix of thing. The structure of these songs is quite weird and unpredictable, and while there are some melodic portions, they keyboards and the bass guitar line seem to be on a completely different plane of existence. “Dreaming III (A Nightmare)” moves into more Avant-garde areas with a very chaotic nature and a crazy feeling of a terrible nightmare, as the name states.