Coming highly recommended by some of our friends, we finally had time to check out Grey Water’s EP from 2010 titled “Below the Ever Setting Sun” and we were pretty impressed with what we heard. Playing highly emotional Depressive Rock, Grey Waters blow the listener away with soaring vocals and powerful guitars that deliver a very melancholic feeling all through the five songs presented in this release.

After the intro track, “Say Goodbye” immediately reminded us of a modern sounding Decorayah, since the band creates a very powerful atmosphere and the vocals are a bit similar to Decorayah’s dramatic singing. The atmospheric passage in this song that leads to some harsh vocals is perfectly crafted, allowing the song to nicely flow. Next up we have “Below the Ever Setting Sun”, another very effective and melancholic track. This track has some nice Post-Rock/Metal hints that enrich the sound nicely, adding to the overall atmosphere created by the band.

Riding on the success of their impressive 2010 release “Aquarius”, Haken returns with yet another excellent Progressive Metal release with “Visions”, this clearly shows that their debut album was not a fluke and that the band means business. For over 71 minutes of brilliantly composed music, the band makes it clear that they are ready to take a protagonist role in the crowded Progressive Metal scene.

With a very Dream Theater-like approach, Haken opens this release with the instrumental “Premonition”. In this track you can hear brilliant keyboards and the futuristic edge that made “Aquarius” such an appealing release last year. After the soothing effect of the opening track, the 13 minute “Nocturnal Conspiracy” delivers the first appearance of Ross Jennings, the band’s charismatic vocalist. His pipes are very emotional and never as whiny as other singers such as James LaBrie. This track features a few sections that remind us of Ayreon and Star One in terms of the music, but Haken still manages to pull away with their own characteristic sound.

After making us wait for 10 years since their last full-length release, Night in Gales returns in full force with 13 tracks of excellent Melodic Death Metal with a more melodic and dynamic edge tan before. With their traditional Swedish Melodic Death Metal intact, the band incorporates a few surprises here and there in order to update their sound and kick some as.

Opening with the cello instrumental “Epitaph”, the band nicely sets the mood for their aggressive ‘real’ opener “This Neon Grave”. In this track, the impeccable riffing style of Jens and Frank Basten delivers a very catchy and powerful guitar driven track. The vocals of Bjoern Gooses keep up very nicely with the music providing a multi-faceted approach, including some very effective clean vocals. Behind the melodic nature of “Days of the Mute”, the band delivers some sections that are very similar to Eternal Tears of Sorrow’s passages with clean vocals and melodic guitar sections.

As one of the most beautifully composed and yet perplexingly complex albums of 2011, today we have White Willow’s release “Terminal Twilight”. In this release, the band takes us on a journey lasting nine tracks of trippy synths, enchanting vocals, and a King Crimson-like atmosphere unlike anything we have heard before. After the excellent release by Leprous this year, we can’t help but wonder what is in the Norwegian water that drives musician’s creativity to this level of awesomeness.

Opening with “Hawks Circle”, this album starts in a very trippy and ethereal way. The vocals in this song sound like a mixture of Agnete M. Kirkevaag of Madder Mortem and Ann-Mari Edvardsen (ex The 3rd and the Mortal). The flutes nicely creep into the music making this song very dynamic and engaging. In an even more hypnotic way, “Snowswept” delivers a haunting atmosphere that will suck you right into the band’s own musical universe.

All the way from Australia today we have Thrall and their sophomore release “Vermin to the Earth”. Featuring seven tracks of hard hitting well-produced Black Metal, Thrall does a great job in following up their debut release “Away from the Haunts of Men”. The band plays very typical BM but with a crispier production and nice tempo changes that sometimes shake things up allowing them to not bore the listener to death.

The guitars are very well constructed and in all tracks they nicely shine due to the excellent production. The vocals are probably the most exciting part about this album since they bring that hellish scream that singers like Attila Csihar love to deliver, and they never get to high-pitched to the point of making your ears explode. In the first two tracks (“Vermin to the Earth” and “Oblivion”) we can nicely hear the tempo changes in the songs, making them less vanilla than your average BM release.

As you probably know, we are huge Doom Metal fans, so every time a new release comes our way we prepare ourselves to fully enjoy one of our favorite genres in Metal. “Born from Shadows” marks the return of Isole after two years since releasing “Silent Ruins”. In this release the band finally fully convinces us by mixing slow and painful sections with a few speed-ups and harsh screams, a bit like My Dying Bride did in their past.

The repetitive and tuned low riffing is a must, and on “Born from Shadows” it is perfectly developed. With the opener “The Lake”, Isole quickly delivers dominating riffs paired with the epic vocals that we are not quite so fond, but in this release the band pulls them off perfectly. The speed up and harsh vocals section in this track is very nicely timed and works wonders to keep the song going for the seven minutes it lasts.

Is there something in the water? Or are too many people having drugs and Jim Beam infused benders and then decided to play Southern Rock music? We quite can’t point a finger at it, but tons of bands have decided to play this kind of music with some Metal elements. Lonely Kamel is the next entry in this list, and while hailing from Norway, they still manage to pull it off very nicely.

Since the eloquently titled “Grim Reefer” opening track, the band delivers waves of Southern Rock/Sludge guitar riffs and very engaging vocals. The raspy vocals nicely fit the sound of the music perfectly and remind us of bands like The New Black, Black River, and Chrome Division. “Evil Man”, “Blues for the Dead”, and “Rotten Seed” all keep the same trend of punchy music and witty lyrics, allowing the album to nicely settle following a particular groove.

With its latest incarnation, Visions of Atlantis delivered earlier this year one of their best albums to date with “Delta”. In “Maria Magdalena” follows the same path of showing off the amazing vocal chemistry of Maxi Nil and Mario Plank. Featuring six songs, this new MCD will keep fans satisfied after listening to “Delta” hundreds of times.

The opening track of this release “Maria Magdalena” is a cover of 80’s synth-pop artist Sandra, and it is actually a pretty decent and listenable cover. The tempo of the song has been nicely increased and with added distorted guitars sounds like a million dollars. The duet between Mario and Maxi is very similar to the original song, but with that nice Metal edge we expect from this band. The catchy chorus section is also nicely transferred to the VoA sound.