Delivering an impressive debut solo album, today we have Sylvain Rouvière and his Kaktus Project release “Supersition”. Featuring 13 songs of well crafted Heavy/Power Metal with Hard Rock influences, this release is a very nice showcase of both Sylvain’s vocal and guitar playing abilities.

Unlike many side project releases, “Superstition” truly showcases the musician’s ability and not his countless buddy’s that make guest appearances on the album. Since the opener track “Farewell” we have soaring vocals and very well crafted guitar work, this track reminds us a bit of older Timmo Tolki-era Stratovarius. Moving on with “Superstition”, we get some hints of Edguy/Avantasia in this very entertaining song.

As one of the most expected releases of 2011, today we have Insomnium’s latest release: “One for Sorrow”, a truly sublime piece of work that will be nearly impossible to improve upon. Featuring a mixture of majestic melodic passages, depressive emotions, skillful instrumentation, and powerful vocals, “One for Sorrow” is definitely the finest Insomnium release to date and a near perfect release in terms of Melodic Death Metal.

Opening with the hypnotic momentum builder “Inertia”, the band quickly delivers their signature weeping guitars followed by Niilo Sevänen’s perfect growls. With such a momentum builder, the album starts on a very high note. “Through the Shadows” delivers a more unified riffing structure of pure Insomnium’s trademark sound; this creates the very melodic and dense atmosphere that we all love about the band. Here we are treated to some clean vocals that add an even more dramatic edge to this beautiful song.

Making its way from Ketzer records, today we have Bahrrecht and their 90’s inspired Black Metal sound in “Nuit de Neige”. In this powerful release we are presented with 10 tracks of pure fucking destruction that will cater to all fans of grim Black Metal from a few years back. Featuring Winterhalter (of Alcest, Les Discrets (live)) on guitars, this release is very intense and has fresh ideas here and there.

Blowing up in your face with the album title track, Bahrrecht wastes no time in creating the lovely whirlwind Black Metal sound that bands like Immortal and Satyricon came to perfect in the 90’s. The riffing is very effective and the overall pace of the songs is very hectic, but not extremely overdone. “Nuit de Neige” is a release that is very guitar oriented and on tracks like “The Sign of Bahrrecht Lotharingen Black Hordes”, you can quickly notice how well the riffing works in creating a thick atmosphere without resorting to the overdone tremolo-picking that many BM bands use.

Lastly on our promo package from Forever Plagued Records, we have found a hidden gem that while being released back in 2006, it is still pretty solid and interesting to listen to. Darkest Grove debut full-length record “Pain and Suffering Shall Be Known” has a lot of different layers to it making it a very enjoyable listening experience. Being a one man band, all instruments are nicely executed and give this release a very professional feel to the already very well crafted music.

Clocking in at 63 minutes, “Pain and Suffering Shall Be Known” opens with a very mysterious organ-like intro track. The second track “(Within My) Drunemeton” delivers a nicely paced structure that features both hypnotic passages and powerful riffing with harsh vocals, all very well balanced. Moving into more traditional Black Metal ground, “Now in a Ruined State Will She Ever Cleanse Herself” delivers a chilling atmosphere created by distorted guitars and nice percussions. While this release is definitely less fast paced than traditional BM, the rawness of the emotions behind the music is excellent.

Featuring Armanen of Kult ov Azazel on guitars and vocals, and VJS (Kult ov Azazel, Nightbringer,etc) on bass and drums, today we have Tenebrous and their soul crushing release “Opus Magnum”. Filled with hate and destruction, the 10 tracks presented in this release feature a hectic and diabolical Black Metal sound with a USBM edge to it.

Not for the weak of mind and soul, “Opus Magnum” delivers its first aural assault with “What Death Has Fallen”. In this very hectic and destructive song, we can immediately hear the band’s pure aggression channeled through shrieks of pain, distorted guitars and bestial drumming. This is in fact the way most of the album goes with a few very interesting changes in the pace of some songs. “Wallachia Weywoden” is a clear example of some nice slow-downs with brutal sections galore.

Featuring a very ethereal and fresh sound, today we have What Mad Universe, a two man band from France that plays a particular combination of Atmospheric Rock with Sludge and Post-Rock elements. For over 50 minutes we are treated with very enchanting compositions that will transport the listener to unknown realms of consciousness.

With a hefty mix of distorted guitars, atmospheric elements, some electronic ones, and the use of a banjo (Deliverance, anybody?), “A Cosmic Chapter with Gaia” nicely stands aside from the rest of atmospheric releases due to the intricacy and effectiveness of its songs. The masterminds behind this project PEP and RK do a great job in executing all these elements to perfection in order to create very engaging and interesting tracks.

Deliver nine blows of pure rawness, today we have Incursus and their very devastating (and well crafted) debut full-length release “Eternal Funeral Trance”. Featuring VJS of Kult ov Azazel, Nightbringer, etc., Incursus has a great sound for such a ‘young’ band, but with his pedigree it is something to be fully expected. The vocalist Horidus (ex-Demoncy and ex-Legions of Astaroth) it is also a fundamental part for this release to work the way it does due to his hellish shrieks.

Opening with a very cool intro, the album fully explodes with “A Ravenous Despair”. In this track the band delivers waves of crushing riffs and blasting drums, all of these perfectly complemented by Horidus vocals. With the true Black Metal sound behind them, Incursus delivers a top notch opening track that will be greatly appreciated by all fans of the genre. In the following aural assaults “When Death Enthrones Our Darkness”, “Phantasmagoria” and “Evil Comes Forth”, the band has a similar feeling to other greats of the genre like Deathspell Omega, Katharsis, Sargeist, etc.

Released in 2009, “Killing Raping Burning / The Devil’s Advocate” marks the now defunct Lord Foul’s last release. Featuring the band’s only two demos we can hear some of their strengths and a lot of their weaknesses, which probably led to their demise. Fan of raw and low-fi Black Metal will surely get a kick out of this release, but does not feature enough elements to really grab your attention for the whole 20 minutes it lasts.

In the first ‘half’ of the album we have the six real songs of the “Killing, Raping Burning” demo. In these songs we have a few spoken/movie section intros that remind us of the good old Mortician stuff. The songs however, are very random in nature. The drums are going fast, the distorted guitars are pretty odd and repetitive and the vocals just seem to not lead anywhere. We can’t really say that we found much here other than a ‘kvlt’ sound with no substance.

With the current popularity of Post-Rock and its variations, we have recently received tons of album submissions of this genre but there are only handfuls that are very interesting and pleasant to listen to. “Esperar Eternity” is one of those select few albums that we can say are pretty solid and should be purchased. Featuring five tracks of Ambient Post-Rock from Lyan and four tracks from Blien Vesne (post-rock), this release has a very high atmospheric content that should be heard.

Opening the release with the Ambient sounds of “Toi Cho Doi”, we are treated to beautiful landscapes for melancholy. This song nicely creates an atmosphere of peace that will calm even the most hyper person in the world. The magic continues with “Cotton House”, where there are some electronic-like elements and ethereal vocals added to the mix. “Childhood’s Seasons” follows the same path but with a deeper atmosphere, a very magical song (and our favorite from the Lyan side of things).

Hailing from Belgium, today we have a very solid Heavy Metal band with the name of “Beyond the Labyrinth”. While this band might not be familiar to a lot of people, they have been around the scene since 1996 and you can tell by the quality of music presented in the 12 tracks in “Chapter III – Stories”. Being the band’s third full-length release, “Chapter II – Stories” features tracks that range from power ballads, hard rocking anthems and even some mellow Heavy/Progressive Metal pieces.

Opening with “The Girl with the X-Ray Eyes”, the band quickly sets the pace for this release by crafting a very catchy and emotional song. This song reminds us of soundtrack songs for 90’s movies. With a bit of a more current sound, “Where Kindred Spirits Meet” has a nice Progressive/Heavy Metal feel to it and the keyboards sound very good in this song. The first power ballad comes under the name of “Oceans Apart”, in this song the guitar work is quite nice and the vocal performance of Jo De Boeck is very emotional. The drumming sounds a bit funky, but the song it-self is very good.