Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Waking the Cadaver – Beyond Cops. Beyond God. (2010)

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    If it wasn’t enough that all the kiddies are playing Deathcore these days, we now have BRUTAL, yes BRUTAL Deathcore. We can definitely can notice an extra ‘aggression’ level in Waking the Cadaver’s Deathcore sound making it much more brutal, but it still borders with the Death/Grind bands of a few years ago.

    The band call their style “Slamming Gore Groove” and we think this is downright hilarious, there aren’t enough Groove elements to categorize this release like this, but we can see that there is some Grooviness to their music. We can’t really find the ‘innovative’ aspect of this band anywhere since they just sound like a really pissed off version of Black Dahlia Murder without their occasional good riff.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Divinity – The Singularity (2010)

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    There are countless European bands that play great Melodic Death Metal with hints of Progressive, Thrash and even Modern Metal elements, but there aren’t many that can pull it off on this side of the pond. Canadian Divinity is one of the few that can make this claim on North America and it’s ready to kick-ass at a world wide level.

    The band originally self-released ‘The Singularity” late in 2009 and has gotten rave reviews from almost everywhere we can see, and this comes as no surprise since this release is top-notch and puts many others to shame. While we personally would categorize Divinity as a Modern Metal band, there are so many genres fuse together that it would be completely unfair to rule them out based on their ‘primary’ style.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Blaze Bayley – Promise and Terror (2010)

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    Charismatic Iron Maiden’s ex-frontman Blaze Bayley returns with his latest album “Promise and Terror”. After the second implosion in 2007 or Blaze, he formed a completely new band and modestly named it after himself (who wouldn’t!). Anyways, the new Blaze Bayley band sounds as good as ever and “Promise and Terror” is a very powerful Heavy Metal release that showcases Bayley’s vocals in almost every single angle possible.

    Featuring a very solid band behind him, Bayley is back in full form and his singing sounds as good as it did with Iron Maiden (don’t hate, he is a good singer). The feeling behind the songs is at an all-time high since some lyrics are very personal to Bayley. The overall sound of the album is also very dark and works wonders with his singing style.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Rage – Strings To A Web (2010)

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    This legendary German Heavy/Power Metal trio is back with yet another solid album. This band is currently celebrating their 25th year anniversary and what better way to do it with a super Heavy Metal release. Featuring Peter "Peavy" Wagner as the only founding member, the band has featured guitar virtuoso Victor Smolski since 1999 and recently (20070 added drummer Andre Hilgers. All of these musicians have heaps of experience in making solid music over the years.

    The main appeal of a band such as Rage is the ability to write epic choruses and you can’t get any better than them for this task. Keeping a very traditional Heavy Metal sound this band can change the course of a song from just ‘good’ to plain epic with their perfectly crafted choruses. While some of them might sound a bit too soft, there is nothing soft about the overall power this band displays in “Strings To A Web”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Suicidal Angels – Sanctify the Darkness (2010)

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    With the current Thrash revival we have been noticing that many circa 2000 bands have re-surfaced and now they are finally getting deals with higher-profile labels in their attempt to ride the Thrash metal magic pony during the last few years. Suicidal Angels is one of those bands that has been benefited by this revival, but that it also has enough substance in their music to be worth listening to and actually buying their albums.

    The band plays old-school Thrash in a commanding manner and if it weren’t for the huge noticeable accent on the vocals we would never have guess they are from Greece. The influences behind this band are countless: old Slayer, Kreator, Possessed, old Sodom, etc. As you can expect you will not find anything original here, but who cares, if it’s well played Thrash metal, we are completely down for it.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Haar – Haar (2010)

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    Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland today we have Haar and their self-titled debut EP. The band plays a mixture of Black Metal with progressive elements that sounds a bit like Wolves In The Throne Room meets Deathspell Omega. While the band’s sound is not strikingly original, they can still craft solid tunes of darkness.

    Featuring 26 minutes of music divide in 3 songs this EP release will certainly entertain all the fans of obscure sounding Black Metal. The band’s sound is greatly enhanced by recording all instruments at the same time, providing enough rawness and a live feeling to their music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sorgeldom – Inner Receivings (2010)

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    Today we have an interesting Black Metal band from Sweden with the name of Sorgeldom. We call this band’s music interesting because their sound has some of the Scandinavian Black Metal feel to it mixed with some experimental rock/shoegaze elements. The band never goes as far as sounding like a Post-Black Metal band, but they do have a cleaner/slower edge in their sound that few others have.

    Sorgeldom in not by any means a revolutionary band, but they do a pretty solid job in incorporating different elements into a strong Black Metal foundation. The band has somewhat shifted from their original sound and now they are trying to find a middle ground between the harshness of traditional Black Metal and their experimental elements.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sarah Jezebel Deva – A Sign of Sublime (2010)

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    Having performed for Therion, Cradle Of Filth, The Kovennat, among many others, Sarah Jezebel Deva is one of the most recognized and female voices of Metal. Her appearances for said bands have been mostly showcasing her classical voice and not her ‘natural’ voice. In her lackluster own band Antagoria she started using a ‘cleaner’ more normal sounding voice and on her solo album she almost goes as far as ‘going pop’, like Liv Kristine and other female vocalists have done.

    We love Gothic Metal and almost any other type of metal that features female vocals, and when we got this promo we immediately got excited. This feeling lasted for about 2 songs and then it just changed into disappointment. Some of the songs in this album are good but others just lack inspiration and aim. She has stated that she wanted to give something for everybody and she has somewhat achieved that, but for the core of her fans we think they will be disappointed.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Society's Plague - The Human, The Canvas (2010)

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    With a very ‘commercial friendly’ sound, today we get Society’s Plague. Hailing from the USA, this band plays a mean mixture of Melodic/Progressive Death Metal with Metalcore influence. Setting aside our ‘differences of opinion’ with Metalcore bands, Society’s Plague is actually one hell of a band that will blow you away since the first song on their debut full-length release “The Human, The Canvas”.

    This American band has some Swedish Melodic DM influences in their sound and we love it. When most kids these days are focusing on creating songs with breakdowns every 30 seconds, Society’s Plague focuses more on crafting dual guitar melodies like almost no other new-coming band. The bands guitarists combine both skill and great songwriting skills on this album, making the band have a very dynamic and diverse sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Warvictims - Domedagen (2010)

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    If you like D-beat/Punk you should already know who the Swedish Warvictims are. If you don’t, then definitely check this album out. We are not huge fans of the genre or this band, but we can notice how intense and raw Domedagen is.

    In a quick lowdown of “Domedagen” we have to say that the punk riffing and drumming is very persistent during the album and create the right atmosphere for a band of this genre. The production quality on this release is pretty shitty, but we assume this would add more ‘rawness’ and ‘authenticity’ to the album.

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