After the downright horrendous “A Sign of Sublime”, Sarah Jezebel Diva (and company) returns with a redeeming album titled “The Corruption of Mercy”. Featuring 10 tracks of pretty solid Symphonic/Gothic Metal, Sarah delivers a great vocal performance with catchy songs and a considerably better sound than in her first album.

Opening with “No Paragon of Virtue”, we have very powerful guitar work and hectic drumming paired with nice vocal arrangements and a thick keyboard atmosphere. This song at times sounds like Black Metal song and we totally dig this more aggressive approach to thing from the band. In a more symphonic fashion we have “The World Won’t Hold Your Hand”, a very melodic song that showcases Sarah’s talents very dynamically.

Can you imagine how Dimmu Borgir and Xerath sound on crack? Well Fleshgod Apocalypse is the answer to that question. As one of the most intense releases we have heard in 2011, “Agony” is by far a very though cookie to digest since there is just too much shit going on at the same time, and it’s awesome.

The first impression the listener will get from the album is that this is just another overly exaggerated orchestral approach to extreme music. “The Hypocrisy” delivers ridiculous orchestrations (although very simple ones) on top of a brutal Death Metal foundation, something that might seem rather disconnected at first. The female sounding vocals (might be a dude) seem ripped off straight from the last Dimmu Borgir album and a bit of the darker atmosphere also sound very familiar.  

As another entry into the Folk Metal scene, today we have Italy’s Furor Gallico and the re-release of their debut self-titled album through Massacre Records. While being almost the same as all other Folk Metal releases you could think of, Furor Gallico does manage to craft a few memorable songs and passages through this 58 minute release.

Immediately after the cliché intro track, “Venti Di Imbolc” delivers powerful blows of Death Metal growls nicely paired with distorted guitar. Here, the mixture of folk and Metal elements is pretty well done since it does not sound weak or watered down like in most current bands, however, it sounds a lot like Eluveitie. The Folk passages are very typical of the genre in songs like “Anciente Rites”, “Cathubodva”, and “The Gos Have Returned”, but the nice contrast with aggressive parts, clean vocals and different elements give them a bit of a boost versus your run-of-the-mill Folk Metal band.

USBM favorite tree hugger band has returned with yet another stylish release that is set to put everybody else to shame (in the USBM scene) and elevate the status of Wolves in the Throne Room (WITTR) even more. We have always been fans of bands that pushed the envelope and WITTR is exactly what they have been doing release after release since their birth back in 2003.

Always characterized by their pummeling rawness, the band nicely incorporates atmospheric elements into their sound to create amazing songs that are never truly what meets the ‘ears’ in the initial listens of their albums. While most bands focus on who can be the rawest and most punishing bands, WITTR achieves this by building onto their sound beautiful landscapes that are unrivaled by virtually any other band playing similar music.

One of the most mysterious bands coming from the Dutch scene has to be An Autumn for Crippled Childern. After their monumental 2010 debut album “Lost”, they return with an even more impressive and lush release with “Everything”. If you though that their first album was pushing the limits of creativity and delivering in almost every single aspect, wait until you get your hands on this excellent release.

Being released on ATMF records, “Everything” opens with powerful Shoegaze influenced guitars in “Forever Never Fails”. Drawing similarities to Alcest, Lantlos and similar Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze bands, the band is greatly refining their sound from their first release. The distorted desperate screams of pain that are featured in this track (and throughout the release) greatly contrast the beauty of the music, but in a very effective and devastating manner.

Two years have passed after their impressive “Goi, Rode, Goi!” album and Arkona is finally back with an even better release names “Slovo”. Featuring even more engaging Pagan/Folk Metal compositions, the Russian quintet keeps improving in astronomical proportions compared to their earlier material. “Slovo” delivers a hefty dose of both beautiful Folk and aggressive compositions that deserve to be heard.

Just as “Az’” opens this release, we start getting a natural high of epic elements thanks to the excellent instrumentation and the crystal clear production behind this release. Not wasting any time, “Arkaim” delivers powerful Black Metal-esque opening riffs and transforms into lush vocal arrangements. Masha’s clean vocals are mesmerizing and when paired with the choir, they just sound even more dominant.

As just another female fronted metal band, today we have the Germans from Deadend in Venice, a band that claims to play Melodic Death Metal, but sometimes falls into the Mallcore scene. We can’t really say the music is bad, since the musicians are very good and some of the songs are catchy, but just the whole concept and idea has been done to death that we can probably pick 10 cd’s at random from our promo collection and find at least 4 bands that are the same.

Opening with “Hate Sweet Hate”, we have very traditional (but not bad) riffing and male screams (that are not to our full liking), everything is pretty standard and then the female vocals come. While the female vocals are not bad, they are pretty standard and sound almost exactly like Francine Boucher from Echoes of Eternity, in fact the music of Deadend in Venice sounds a lot like said band minus the progressive elements.

With all the craptastic Black Metal releases coming from Norway (and around the world) these days, it is very hard to find quality albums such as The Konsortium’s self-titled debut release. In this album, the band relies on catchy Thrash-infused Black Metal riffing overlaid with different styles of vocals in order to create a very effective almost Avant-garde Black Metal sound.

Only knowing the identity of one of the band’s mysterious members, we can be assured that the riffing quality is top notch since Teloch handles the guitar duties. The opening number “Gasmask Prince” has a very hectic pace and multi-layered guitars that quickly set this band apart from the rest. The ‘Black Metal vocals’ are pretty standard for the genre, but the combination of whispers and clean sections make them very effective and diverse enough to keep the listener engaged.