• Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Eclipse Eternal – The Essence of Hopelessness (2012)

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Delivering nine hectic hymns of powerful Black Metal with some atmospheric elements, today we have Canada’s Eclipse Eternal and their latest full-length release “The Essence of Hopelessness”. In this very diverse release, the band rips through very well crafted tracks that feature traditional BM sections accompanied with melodic passages that nicely change the pace of things and keeps the listener fully engaged with the band’s music.

After the traditional keyboard intro, “Ragnarok” delivers waves of furious guitar riffs accompanied by hellish vocals and some tight drumming, exactly what the doctor ordered. This song gives the impression that you will be listening to a very typical BM release with not much to offer, but as the album keeps going the band jumps into some very ritualistic and melodic passages that give a flair of European Black Metal that is more typical of labels like Prophecy Productions.

  • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Eisregen – Rostrot (2011)

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Completely deranged and always surprising people (as well as pissing them off), Eisregen delivers their latest creation titled “Rostrot”. In this crazy album we have 10 very unique songs that focus a bit more on the ‘melodic’ side of Eisregen and fit more to our personal taste than their previous release. If you like the contrast the band makes between the demonic vocals and aggressive lyrics with keyboard sections and funky melodies, this is the album you have been waiting for since “Krebskolonie” came out back in 1998 (our personal favorite).

The opener “Erlösung” delivers a mood setting piano/spoken words track that is nicely offset by the hectic “Schakal: Ode an die Streubombe”. Pounding drums and heavy guitars makes this song a very typical Eisregen piece and a nice contrast from the opening and following tracks. The rhythm of “Madenreich” is pretty weird and feels like something we would find in an Indie-Rock album but it works very well with the clean vocals. The deranged approach to music that Eisregen has makes this song work wonderfully.

  • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Opera IX – Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum (2012)

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Eight years have passed since the band’s last release “Anphisbena”, and with “Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum” Opera XI intends of regaining their momentum and status in the Metal scene that they acquired with excellent releases before the year 2000. “Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum” delivers a heavy dosage of Black Metal tracks infused with Dark Metal elements but fails to fully capture the listener’s attention and quickly gets old.

After opening with a very typical atmospheric prologue, the band fully jumps into action with “1313”. In this track the atmosphere is very dense and chaotic (perfectly crafted) but the singing and the guitars feel a bit outdated. The crazy guitar leads are nice, but we’ve heard them many years ago in other Black Metal acts, the vocals are deranged and very powerful but they are also something that band’s have already done in the past (circa early 2000).

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