Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Masakari – The Prophet Feeds (2010)

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    Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, today we get a very impressive full-length from Masakari, a very powerful Crust/Hardcore band that will surely storm the scene by surprise. Since Southern Lord has started to expand its band roster with ‘different’ bands, they have manage to uncover some very impressive bands in all kinds of different genres.

    Masakari, the latest addition to Southern Lord, plays a style of Crust that we can completely identify with and truly enjoy. The band starts off very aggressively with the first track and sets the tone to a very powerful release that relies more on crushing riffing, blistering drumming, and aggressive southing, this album never gets dull or draws like the majority of Crust/Hardcore releases these days.

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    Cyco Miko & Infectious Grooves – Live in France ’95 (2010)

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    Finding it’s way to our PO Box today we have this absolutely fantastic double live release from Cyco Miko and Infectious Grooves. If you really need an introduction to who these two bands are, you should be put to sleep. Featuring the original lineup for Infectious Grooves, we have Mike Muir, Robert Trujillo (yeah, he did played with other bands before becoming rich with Metallica), Dean Pleasants, Brooks Wackerman and Dave Nassie playing tunes from both Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko.

    On this soon to be released double CD we have two separate sets, one from each band and both equally magical. Mike Muir has one of the best stage presences in the business and he shines with both ‘band’. The majority of the greatest hits from these two bands are captured in this timeless release that will surely be a great addition to any Suicidal/Infectious Groves/Cyco Miko fan collection.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fatal Embrace – The Empires of Inhumanity (2010)

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    Today we have yet another old-school Trash Metal band. Fatal Embrace has been around for over 17 years and for some reason has only managed to release 4 albums in their long career. Signed now to Metal Blade records, we image that they are trying to capitalize on the current Trash Metal revival.

    The influences presented on “The Empires of Inhumanity” are too many to count, but we can tell you that the band sounds like Kreator, Slayer, Dark Angel, and Sodom. Sounds impressive on paper right?, well… the band has it’s moments but they show no originality or evolution whatsoever. On “The Empires of Inhumanity” we get 11 tracks (plus 1 cover) of well executed old-school Trash that will surely get all the fans of the genre jumping on their seats, but gets old very quickly.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Early Graves – Goner (2010)

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    While we are not huge fans of Crust releases, we find Early Graves “Goner” to contain all the right elements to be a standard release to this genre. We usually trash most bands the genre because their lack of inspiration behind a very uninspired genre (at least for us), however, Early Graves does a pretty solid job in creating 10 crusty songs that have the right amount of quality elements to them.

    The band balances Grindcore, Hardcore, Crust and some Death Metal elements in their well crafted sound that is both crushing and well paced. Some Crust bands bore us to death because of the extreme punk influences (most notably on drums), but Early Graves has managed to avoid this by varying their drumming influences and recurring to the punk-ish elements only when needed.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Lightning Swords of Death - The Extra Dimensional Wound (2010)

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    “There is a turd in the punch bowl, I repeat there is a turd in the punch bowl.” Is exactly the first thing we thought when listening to “The Extra Dimensional Wound”. After a mostly decentstack of albums we have reviewed in the last few weeks we had to get a turd of an album. Playing harsh Black Metal in the way of Bathory, Venom, etc. Lightning Swords of Death has failed to capture the feeling and inspiration behind these legendary bands.

    With a wide variety of uninspired riffs, an overly loud bass guitar line, and sub-par vocal “The Extra Dimensional Wound” will create and actual wound in your ears from listening to this release. We are not always completely negative, and we can say that the drumming in this album is probably the best thing going for it, besides the song titles and the super cool band name.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Whitechapel – A New Era of Corruption (2010)

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    With all the shit-core bands out these days we are very skeptical about reviewing anything that comes with the Metalcore and Deathcore tags. We usually trash most of these bands because of their lack of creativity and musical maturity, using a bunch of random riffs before the ‘traditional’ breakdown is not a formula for success (some might differ with this opinion).

    When we first started listening to Whitechapel’s 3rd album “A New Era of Corruption”, the first thing that came to our minds was: “Oh shit, another Black Dahlia Murder clone”. However, after the first few songs we actually discovered that Whitechapel is much more than a ‘straight forward’ Deathcore band. Their sound over the years (yes, we had check them out since their first releases) has changed from an uninspired copy-cat Deathcore, into their own brutal combination of Death Metal with some modern core-ish influences.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Aeon – Path of Fire (2010)

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    Hailing from Sweden we have today yet another Death Metal band that wants to be ‘brutal’ and technical at the same time. Aeon is not a very (or at all) original band, but what they do, they do perfectly. With a very groovy sound, the band reminds us of the likes of Jungle Rot, Six Feet Under, etc.

    Combining chugging riffs and meaty hooks, the band does a great job in creating a very brutal DM backdrop, with the addition of some brilliant solos and bestial drumming (courtesy of Nils Fjellstrom, from Dark Funeral) the band creates very solid tracks that will have people moshing in no time. While Aeon is an extremely formulaic band, they do have good song writing chops to keep you entertained for over 40 minutes.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sabaton – Coat of Arms (2010)

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    With all the Power Metal bands these days trying to sound extremely technical, overly symphonic, or like space cowboys, Sabaton does their thing in a more traditional fashion. The band’s sound is bombastic but not overdone; the band saves up their musical prowess to focus on catchy rhythms and cohesive song structures.

    The band’s main characteristics are Joakim Broden’s deep and powerful vocals that can easily compete with Morgan Freeman’s ability to narrate the shit out of anything he is given. We also have the brilliant bass guitar line crafted by Par Sundstrom, a very particular sound (at least for us) for a Power Metal release. Both of this things will undoubtedly make any band that posses them a far superior band than the norm.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Istapp – Blekinge (2010)

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    With a particular beef with the sun (read their bio) and a very interesting overall concept behind the band, we get today Istapp and their blend of Black Metal with Viking/Folk Metal elements. The band’s first full-length release “Blekinge” set to be release on June 8th on Metal Blade records is one of the most complete Black Metal albums of 2010.

    Hailing from Sweden, a place where pretty much every band seems to have the skills to craft great music, it’s hard to find young and promising talent such as Istapp. The band’s music is very straight forward and aggressive, but has mystical clean passages that create unparalleled atmospheres fully enriching the listening experience.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Saint To Sinner – The Unveiling (2010)

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    We receive a high volume of releases from bands every month, always claiming that they sound like nobody else, and end up sounding like everybody else. This is not the case when it comes to Saint To Sinner, hailing from Rhode Island, USA the band does a great job at having a very unique sound to them. And here is where their little problem occurs.

    The band’s combination of Rock and different genres of Metal sounds a bit chaotic at times, and sometimes the female vocals are going in one direction, and the music is going somewhere else. Desiree Villegas as a very hypnotic and versatile singing style, but in some sections her vocals sound very odd, like the spoken backing section, and the awful ‘rapping’ on the song “Anti-corporate”. Some comparisons to Amy Lee of Evanescence are in order, but her voice sound less over produced and feels more natural.

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