With a very long and extremely good discography under his belt, Axel Rudi Pell returns this 2012 with their latest masterpiece “Circle of the Oath”. In this release, Axel and the band rip through 10 tracks of very traditional and effective Heavy/Power Metal without ridiculous amounts of flair, but with a very well defined core and a timeless sound.

Immediately after the intro, Axel’s guitar playing power is immediately present on “Ghost in the Black”. As one of the fastest tracks of this release, this song is filled with catchy guitar work, powerful keyboards and very solid vocals courtesy of Johnny Gioeli. The traditional Heavy Metal atmosphere is immediately present with the catchy choruses of “Run with the Wind” and “Before I Die”, a staple that Axel Rudi Pell has had over their whole career.

As one of the very few internationally recognized Gothic Metal bands from Spain, today we have Diabulus In Musica and their Napalm Records debut release “The Wanderer”. Greatly improving on their debut full-length “’Secrets”, the band consolidates their sound and delivers 12 tracks of brilliantly crafted Gothic/Symphonic Metal that will bring comparisons to Epica, Nightwish, etc.

Revolving around the heavenly vocals of Zuberoa Aznárez (we challenge you to say the name 5 times straight), “The Wanderer” feels a lot more mature than their previous effort in the sense that all tracks are more concise and everything shines at its own pace. After the bombastic intro, “Ex Nihilo” shines with heavy guitars, intricate drumming and very enchanting choir sections. This song indeed sounds a lot like Epica but when Zuberoa’s vocals kick in, it takes a whole new dimension. Very sweet and commanding, her voice is one of the signatures of the band and sounds like none other.

After reviewing what felt like thousands of uninspired Viking/Folk Metal releases in 2011, we now find ourselves wondering where these kinds of albums are in 2012. After the disappointing latest release of Eluveitie, it is Heidevolk’s turn on the hot seat. “Batavi” marks the band’s fourth full-length release and it shows great maturity from the band in terms of songwriting, but not too much in terms of diversity.

Using almost no ‘fancy’ Folk instruments, the band relies on powerful and catchy guitar riffs to carve their own sound. While we would have immediately discarded this album if we heard a fucking hurdy gurdy, but Heidevolk delivers a very well-targeted riffing assault that will appeal to fans of bands like Tyr, Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. For over 39 minutes, “Batavi” delivers very traditional and ‘simple’ songs that are pretty solid due to their catchiness.

Many people (including us) thought that Xandria was finished when their iconic vocalist Lisa Schaphaus-Middelhauve left the band back in 2009, but with their latest album “Neverworld’s End” the band sounds better than ever and are turning heads and convincing non-believer. Taking on a more bombastic sound, the band fully uses Manuela Kraller soprano vocals to song like a real Gothic/Symphonic Metal band should and blow listeners away with a very rich and diverse sound.

One thing that came immediately to us after the first few spins of this release is that “Neverworld’s End” actually sounds a lot like early Nightwish when Tarja was in charge of the vocals. Before all haters go and complain about this we must say that while playing similar music, Xandria feels very refreshing since most of the good Gothic/Symphonic bands are not trying to sound pop-ish and commercial friendly. This leaves the field completely open to bands that stick to was good a few years ago and still manage to sound Metal enough.

Rounding up the Lacrimosa re-releases brought to North America by End of Light records, today we have “Lichtgestalt”. As a perfect trip down in memory lane, this release is one of our favorite ones of the band and it was a pleasure to see it released in North America with a bonus CD. Featuring a bit of a mixture of older Lacrimosa with the “Echoes” album, this release is very powerful and well-crafted with fragile Orchestral elements and powerful guitars.

Tilo Wolff and Anne Nurmi do an excellent job in bringing back (after “Echoes”) the distorted guitar to its rightful place and pair it with beautiful instrumentation and highly emotional atmospheres. Since 11-minute opener the band creates a very emotional and dark atmosphere, but it also employs some aggression in terms of harsh vocals, commanding guitars, and a pummeling bass guitar line. The typical Lacrimosa-like songs “Kelch der Liebe” and “Lichtgestalt” are reminders of their “Stille” era and had us remembering those good old-days.

With such and impressive discography under their belts, Lacrimosa sets out to make some money and release a ‘compilation’ album in 2010 to summarize their career so far and show how much the band has evolved over time. With “Schattenspiel”, instead of taking the typical approach and cram in all their greatest songs, they put together 19 songs most of them have been unreleased in the past.

We are not huge fans of ‘best of’ or compilations releases that aim to make money and nothing else, but Lacrimosa tries a unique thing with their take on a compilation release. Documenting their evolution from the 90’s on the first CD, to the 2000’s on the second CD, this release is purely targeted to their core die-hard fans that will kill for anything new or rare of the band. And this release satisfies their craving with two new songs titled “Sellador” and “Ohne Dich Ist Alles Nichts”.

Today we have the special ‘special edition’ of Lacrimosa’s “Sehnsucht” album released in North America by End of Light Records. This special ‘special edition’ features the regular special edition of this release with the slightly different songs and a full extra CD with some remixes and older songs. This edition features the ‘color’ version of the artwork and the full booklet filled with pictures and the lyrics of the songs.

“Sehnsucht” has always been one of our least favorite albums of the band due to the somewhat considerable difference to their previous more conceptual releases. However, in terms of experimentation and musical maturity, this release is indeed the best the band has ever recorded so far. This release features a more ‘free-flowing’ approach and the music is very well composed, but lacks the whole ‘experience’ of a conceptual release with many different moods that progress over time.

Arriving all the way from Italy to North America through End of Light records, today we have Infinita Symphonia and their debut full-length release “A Mind’s Chronicle”. With their traditional Power/Heavy Metal approach that features some symphonic elements as the album progresses, this Italian band delivers around 55 minutes of excellent music that while not very original, it is very well crafted and perfectly executed.

Opening with the powerful “Lost in My Own Brain” the band shows their chops in creating catchy and effective songs. The layered vocal sections are top notch and the guitar work is very well crafted, there are even some ‘harsh’ screams to add to the intensity of the track. “Mighty Storm” delivers more waves of crunchy riffs and very potent vocals, but the guitar work around the 3 minute mark is what takes the spotlight in this song. There is nothing overly pretentious and exaggerated about Infinita Symphonia’s music, and this is what makes them so good.