Album Reviews

    • 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.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    D.I.S – Critical Failure (2010)

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    All-star band D.I.S grace us today with the Trash/Crust influenced D-beat that will surely blow you away. Featuring members of Phobia, Exhumed, Mange, Impaled and Eat The Living, this band is ready to kick ass and take names. “Critical Failure” is their long-awaited debut album and they have pretty much delivered in every single aspect with this album.

    If you are expecting anything original or innovative, you have picked the wrong genre and thus the wrong band/album. D.I.S is something that most nostalgic people about the old days of Hardcore punk will treasure and completely identify with. The band’s Swedish sound is very thick and will blow you away.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Colonel Blast – For the Greater Good (2010)

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    Once we listen to an album for one or two times we usually have an idea of what to say about it, when it came to “For the Greater Good” we are still short on words to describe it, but we will try to do our best. This band combines almost every possible genre of Metal together and creates a very unique and crushing sound.

    The band quickly starts of their album showing their riffage power and drumming skills. However, the screamed vocals on this song (and others) are quite annoying since they sound like a cat is getting hit by a bus or something. Some people might dig this, but we don’t, however the growls used through the album are decent enough to make up for them, and the music is what interested us the most.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Quest of Aidance – Dark are the Skies at Hand (2008)

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    Quest of Aidance is yet another band that was started/features Christian Älvestam from Scar Symmetry, Solution .45, etc. fame. This Death/Grind band also has within it’s ranks Jonas Kjellgre (Scar Symmetry, Centinex), and Henrik Schönström (Unmoored) on drums.

    After all the name-dropping we find ourselves listening to a very brutal Death/Grind release with some weird stuff in the middle. All previous musicians are usually known for their technical abilities but in “Dark are the Skies at Hand” they show they can do uncompromising brutality with a little technical aspect on the side.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Bitter Frost – Bitter Frost (2010)

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    Out of all the self-released albums we get, we have never received such an impressive release as Bitter Frost’s self-titled debut album. With an amazing musicianship, crystal clear production, solid songwriting, and impressive guest appearances, “Bitter Frost” will surely be our favorite Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal album of the year.

    Featuring 73 minutes of impressive music, the one man band Bitter Frost takes us through many different genres of metal laid on top of a Black Metal foundation. With all the ideas and creativity behind this release, we only feel sorry for all the unsigned bands that even when combined together will never put out a release as impressive as this one.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Northland – Revenge (2010)

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    While most Folk Metal bands can easily be picked apart based on their sound, we totally screwed it up when trying to figure out where Northland comes from by only listening to their music. The band’s music is heavily inspired by Scandinavian Viking/Folk Metal and some Celtic elements, but they are from Barcelona, Spain! Something we did not expect until we actually visited the band’s MySpace page.

    Featuring a full six-member line-up, the band creates a very rich sound that will surely make them one of your favorite bands of the genre. And having only released two demos prior to “Revenge”, we are quite impressed behind the quality, both in sound and songwriting, of this release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Dyrathor - Sacred Walcraft of Hel (2010)

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    When a band is pretentious enough to claim they have their own genre they usually fail at life miserably and their music plain sucks. Well, this is not the case with Dyrathor, the band claims to play “Northern Storm Metal” a thing we find to be ridiculous, but they do play a very Pagan Metal.

    Hailing from Germany, Dyrathor has a very good style and they do not sound (a lot) like the seas of bands playing a combination of these genres. The band’s aggressive edge allows them to not sound super ‘pretty’ (i.e soft) and makes their use of Folk elements/Keyboards more effective.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Grave – Burial Ground (2010)

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    When it comes to Death Metal it’s already a widely proven fact that nobody can do it like the older bands can. With all the 16 year-old pissed off emo kids trying to create Death Metal and heavily relying on Pro-Tools and other modern ‘magic’ elements to have their band sound decent, we are left hanging to our old school albums, and waiting for the remaining greats to produce new music.

    This month we have Grave’s “Burial Ground”, and album that clearly states why bands like this will never get old. Yes, you might argue that this band is not dynamic or fresh sounding anymore, but when it comes to Death Metal, who gives a shit. We all want chugging mid-tempo songs with fast-paced drumming and consistent growls. None of that modern sounding shit.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Locusta – Locusta (2010)

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    Hailing from the USA today we have Locusta, a band that plays an interesting combination of Death/Black and Progressive Metal. While the band does have a very original sound, they have some flaws here and there that make their self-titled debut album a very good attempt but not quite there kind of record.

    The first thing we will note is that the band’s technical abilities greatly surpass their budget for this record, even if you had whatever amount the band paid to record this album changed into pennies and lugged it around on a big bag. The album’s product makes us want to cry since it sounds very bad. The drumming is extremely wobbly and sounds like when our tape player was destroying our precious cassettes back in the day. The guitars sound very weird, something we attribute to the production but it might be the ‘especial distortion’ used by the band.

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