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    Cairn – Raise the Cairn (2011)

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    Hailing from the USA, today we have a one-man band named Cairn and their debut album “Raise the Cairn”. With a heavy vibe of Primordial meets Forest of Shadows, this short but sweet EP will be enough to rattle your cage and make you want more. Featuring five tracks and around 23 minutes of music, this solo self-exploratory release is one of the most interesting and less vanilla sounding we have received in 2011.

    Opening with an acoustic section, “Magnapinna Rex, Pt I: Solstiseraph” enshrouds the listener in a mysterious cloud of powerful riffing and nice calm sections. Like we mentioned before, this particular song reminded us of Primordial instantly with this nice folk-ish and aggressive approach to music. The shrieks are very powerful and nicely accompany the guitar work. The bass guitar line is pretty active and melodic, somewhat contrasting with the rest and making it more evident. The song is nicely followed by the acoustic track “Far Passage”.

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    Vesperian Sorrow – Stormwinds of Ages (2012)

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    Five years have passed since the release of “Regenesis Creation”, and finally Vesperian Sorrow is back with another monumental album of aggressive Symphonic Black Metal that will put all other band’s to shame. In “Stormwinds of Ages” the band delivers around 60 minutes of excellently crafted songs and a superb production that will blow you away and incite you to play it as loud as you can (we did). Having enough time to craft the 11 tracks of this release has helped the band achieve a near perfect album that features plenty of guest appearances and the hectic sound that the band is very characteristic for.

    While every band in the USA is running to the next big trends like Deathcore, Metalcore, Cascadian Hipster Black Metal, Vesperian Sorrow continues perfecting unaffected by all the trendy crap in this country. Having toured all over the world, the band’s sound speaks for itself and with more tweaking since “Regenesis Creation” this album showcases the maturity of the band’s sound and musical abilities.

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    Mouth of the Serpent – Manifest (2011)

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    Making its way out of our very crowded promo queue, today we have Mouth of the Serpent’s latest release “Manifest”. Playing Deathcore, this band from California provides six high-octane tracks that will surely have you moshing for hours. The band delivers pretty solid riffs and interesting tempo changes, but ultimately ends up sounding a lot like The Black Dahlia Murder, etc, etc. While there is nothing wrong with that if you are a fan of the genre, this release does get a bit cyclical and ends up sounding very similar.

    After the typical atmospheric opener “Caraven”, the band delivers the powerful “Cisterna”. In this track, the band makes use of their excellent guitar skills and massive drumming to achieve a very brutal sound, the growls are excellent but the screams get a bit annoying sometimes. The brutality continues with “Entheogen”, a track that could easily pass as Technical/Progressive Death Metal if it wasn’t for the very typical Deathcore structure.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fallen Divine - The Binding Cycle (2011)

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    As 2011 winds down and big labels are saving their ‘big’ releases of the opening of 2012, it is very nice to hear fantastic self-released albums like Fallen Divine’s “The Binding Cycle”. Hailing from Norway, this band is ready to conquer the Metal world with crazy-fast guitars, demonic vocals, crafty drumming, and very intricate and skillful compositions. We are very surprised this band has not been picked up by any label yet.

    Immediately showing of their skills with “Dissension”, the band quickly delivers waves of powerful riffs, aggressive vocals and a pounding bass guitar line. The drumming keeps all things together in a very tight manner and nicely changes tempos several times during the song. The atmospheric keyboards give this already awesome track a bit more of flair and epicness. The ethereal atmospheric passage is nicely adorned by great guitar work and a pulsating bass guitar section. Pretty much this is the band’s formula for success and they greatly present it in different shapes through this release.

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    Bradley Tatum – It’s a Beautiful World (2011)

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    Arriving from the Grunge capital of the world: Seattle, WA, today we have Bradley Tatum’s “It’s a Beautiful World” release. Featuring an ensemble of 13 tracks that range from Electro Punk to Gothic Rock, this release has at least something for everybody into any of these genres. We particularly enjoyed the catchy beats and the deep Gothic-sounding vocals.

    First off, the production of this release is probably not the best, but it gives that extra originally and rawness to the material that one would get by listening to Bradley Tatum perform live at some open-mic night. With a high catchiness factor, the trippy Electro opener “Under the Storm Clouds” features nice vocal effects and solid distorted guitars. Not letting things get dull, Bradley Tatum delivers very different compositions in the following tracks “The Others”, “The Human Experiment” and “It’s a Beautiful World”.

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    Grey November – The Fall of the House of Usher (2011)

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    All the way from France, today we have Grey November and their latest full-length release “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This two person band commanded by multi-instrumentalist Cédric Seyssiecq delivers a much needed dose of Funeral Doom Metal with some Gothic Doom elements filled with melancholy and despair, just perfect for the cold winter months.

    Opening with the 12 minute epic “Pendant Toute Une Journée D'automne”, this song nicely evolves from a Funeral Doom piece into a more powerful Gothic Doom track. Featuring the angelic vocals of Marieke Delanghe, this song nicely builds up expectation for what is next to come in this release. Continuing with a mixture of Shape of Despair and Elend, “Roderick Usher” provides atmospheric keyboards accompanied by ethereal female vocals and some creepy spoken male sections. A few riffs here and there nicely bring this song down to Doom territory.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    AbsentiA – Our Bleeding Sun (2011)

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    As a late contender for ‘self-produced’ album of the year 2011, today we have AbsentiA and their monumental “Our Bleeding Sun”. With a sound that easily rivals Dimmu Borgir and other similar bands, this little ‘unknown’ band from Spain makes a huge ruckus with the nine superb tracks featured in this release. Being fans of Melodic (insert_whatever) Metal ourselves, AbsentiA does an excellent job in incorporation melody, aggression and heaps of surprises into their sound.

    After opening with the Dimmu Borgir-esque intro “All this Hell”, the band quickly delivers the first high-intensity track with “The end of the Line”. Featuring a healthy mixture of powerful riffs with perfectly timed keyboards and crushing vocals, the band has a very powerful and yet melodic sound, something that is unusual for unsigned bands. With “Inferno” giving a Dissection vibe, the band delivers another powerful track that is nicely adorned by a very effective melodic passage with a nicely crafted solo and enchanting female vocals.

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    Skaur – Skaur (2011)

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    After releasing 10 demos and two splits, Skaur finally decides to unleash upon the world their first self-titled full-length release, and it is an excellent one we might say. While almost everything in Black Metal has been played or done before, Skaur manages to sneak by with six very interesting tracks that incorporate many of the traditional aspects of the genre, but have their own particular elements that make them stand out from the rest of the BM albums we get.

    Since the opener “Fullmaanesang” the band sets a furious pace with perfectly crafted melodic elements (like the bass guitar line) and some very powerful acoustic passages. This combination allows the band’s sound to be more devastating since it keeps you at the edge of your seat waiting for what is coming next. The riffing on track like “Nordnorsk Svartmetall” is pretty standard for BM, but the drum patterns nicely break the ‘traditional’ schemes the genre has and makes the songs more dynamic. The band also whips out some eerie clean vocals that out of nowhere give extra depth to an already interesting sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Inverted – Point of Crossing (2011)

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    Arriving all the way from Italy, today we have Inverted’s debut full-length release “Point of Crossing” strictly for old school Death Metal fans. In the 10 tracks featured on this CD, fans of the genre will find plenty of meaty riffs and powerful growls. Not reinventing the wheel or anything, Inverted does a great job in crafting songs that are both engaging and very appealing for moshpit induced craziness.

    With the brutal opening track “Disgrace”, the band quickly sets the pace for a very hectic and crushing release. The riffing is very traditional and the drumming is top notch, making the vocals shine very nicely in the middle of things. The bass guitar is pretty well balanced into the mix and nicely crafted. While this is music to any DM fan ears, it is also something that has been done one million times before and Inverted does little to improve or carve their name in the genre.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Black Blade – Welcome into the Warfield (2011)

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    While the whole Greece is on total economic meltdown, it is good to see that their Metal production is still intact and there are young and promising bands like Black Blade. In this 3-song demo, the band shows that they have enough creativity to really catch our attention with less than 15 minutes of music. Featuring a healthy combination of Death Metal influences with more traditional sounds, the band achieves maximum catchiness very effectively in these songs.

    Opening with “Warfield”, the band delivers a powerful bass guitar line surrounded by melodic guitar riffs and a ‘discrete’ Death Metal snarl, like the bands in the past used to do (first Sepultura albums, etc). I this short track, the band quickly establish their ability to create simple yet catchy melody and mix elements from different genres, like the Southern/ Heavy Metal section mid-way through the song.

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