Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Blasphemous – Bearer of the Darkest Plagues (2010)

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    Sometimes we wonder if Infernus really listens to whatever he puts out/sells on his Forces of Satan records label. Blasphemous “Bearer of the Darkest Plagues” is released by Baars Records, but Forces of Satan has it for digital download and we are not impressed.

    With a very low-fi cassette-demo sounding production, Blasphemous second full-length has minor flaws that greatly bring down the quality of this album. The band’s style of Blackened Death Metal is very retro sounding but still holds it’s own, until you hear the drumming going from slow sections into the blasting sections. It seems that the drumming is playing in a slower gear than the rest of the music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Arcane Grail – Arya Marga (2010)

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    Boasting a majestic combination of Black, Death, and Gothic Metal with Symphonic Metal elements today we have Arcane Grail, a very bombastic band from Russia. “Arya Marga” was originally released back in March of 2009, but luckily for us the folks at Hunter’s Moon records from the UK re-released it on a digital-only format.

    Immediately the first thing that stands out is the beautiful classically-trained voice of Natalie, the band’s female vocalist for those that need clarification. The band’s music is very dynamic and it’s very well varied through the 40 minutes that “Arya Marga” lasts. There is never a dull moment and there is something for everybody ranging from full-on Black Metal aggression, Death growls and overall solid riffing.

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

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    Floor is back!!, and she is back with a vengeance. Two years have passed since After Forever went caput, and ever since the announcement of ReVamp was made, people were expecting nothing less than a great release from Floor. ReVamp’s self-title debut is nothing short of what ever people expected from this all-star project.

    With Floor on the driver seat she recruited guitar wizard Waldemar Sorychta and keyboard maestro Joost van den Broek. Composing the 14 songs presented on this album with these two musicians (and Koen Herfst on drums), she has gone back to the times when WE used to like After Forever. With a more Gothic Metal oriented sound and not focusing on her experimentation with a more ‘Heavy Metal’ style of singing she used in the last few AF albums.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Arsenic Addiction – Requiem of the Fallen (2010)

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    With the current boom of female fronted bands where the girl does the harsh vocals, it’s almost impossible to find a band that is good enough when comes to mixing both clean and harsh vocals. Arsenic Addiction is probably one of the few bands that fit this description and that we can stand for more than 10 minutes.

    While most people think that Kittie and bands like Otep, Walls of Jerico, etc. were the first bands to use harsh female vocals, they cannot be more wrong. We remember back in the day, getting a demo CD from an American band named: Forty Days Longing, and if you heard the album you would be easily convinced the singer was a very brutal dude, but surprise to us, it was Zdenka Prado a female vocalist (she also provides screams for Garden Of Shadows, and currently for Estuary (ex-Estuary of Calamity).

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Posthuman – Rise from Ruins (2010)

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    Being huge fans of Melodic Death Metal bands we always love when we receive an album of this genre. Posthuman recently sent us their latest release titles “Rise from Ruins” featuring 10 songs and around 45 minutes of very interesting and creative Melodic Death Metal music.

    Featuring a very complex sound, the band is out to make a name for themselves in the very crowded Melodic Death Metal scene. Combining the traditional MDM elements with some Electronic/’futuristic keyboards’ hints and even some Progressive Metal elements, Posthuman has a very unique sound that will surely turn heads of quite a few people.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Serenity Dies – Hacksawcracy (2010)

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    Hailing from the Maldives, Serenity Dies is a Trash Metal band that takes its roots form the greats such as Slayer, Megadeath, some Metallica, and a little itty bit of Exodus. “Hacksawcracy” is the band’s latest EP release, and it’s ready to compete with the big stars right off the bench.

    Keeping the music fresh, we have the traditional Trash foundations with some more modern grooving riffs and clean vocal harmonies that might put down the purist of the genre, but we think they are very well crafted and mixed into the band’s sound. For almost 30 minutes this up and coming band makes a powerful statement with “Hacksawcracy”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Diabolic – Excisions of Exorcisms (2010)

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    With all the kiddies invading the current Death Metal scene, it’s nice to see some of the older bands come out and show what this kind of music is all about. Hailing from the Tampa scene, this American band shows that they have earned their DM chaps by experience, and not by copying everybody else.

    “Excisions of Exorcisms” pretty much has the ‘traditional’ DM feeling to it. The riffing is very powerful, the blasting drumming is very well crafted, and the vocals are just right for this release. The band might not have the technical abilities that some of the ‘traditional’ bands do, but they compensate with blistering fast sections that will make you start moshing in no time.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fright Night – The Play of Pain (2010)

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    In our big digital pile of electronic promos today we discovered this amazing release that makes us wonder why the hell didn’t we listened to this album before. This Fright Night, there are several bands with this name, is a band that hails from Russia, and has a very unique and deeply depressive sound.

    With a lineup featuring two super hot girls, one on guitars/vocals and the other one handling the keyboard duties, this is probably one of the few bands that is truly pleasing both visually and aurally The band plays a very interesting Gothic Rock with some Darkwave elements that will haunt your dreams for weeks to come.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Proghma-C – Bar-do Travel (2010)

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    Holy shit! We have actually have a band that features a very unique and original sound. While almost 9 out of 10 bands we receive every week sound very much like somebody else, Proghma-C sounds exactly like nobody else. The band has tons of different influences ranging from more commercial Metal, to more obscure genres that you would never image they would blend well.

    Hailing from Poland, Proghma-C unleashes 9 tracks of pure musical weirdness. While some of you might be frowning since most people think weird=bad, but this is not the case with “Bar Do Travel’. The overall hypnotic feeling that the songs have is probably the only ‘generalization’ you can make about this band’s sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Virgin Snatch – Act of Grace (2008)

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    Today in our huge promo-to-review queue we find Virgin Snatch’s “Act of Grace”, the band’s fourth release since their formation on 2001. Playing a very interesting mixture of Trash Metal with Modern Metal elements, more specifically Groove elements, we find “Act of Grace” a very interesting release… musically. The album is very fresh, sounding more like melodic Metal releases in some parts, since there are plenty of well crafted passages that sound like anything, except Trash Metal.

    With a name like Virgin Snatch, we were about to immediately throw this to the queue of Grindcore/’shit we don’t really want to listen’ list, but we decided against it after doing some research on the band. You should not discard them because of this either, since this Polish band is worth a listen.

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