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Mortualia – Mortualia (2011)

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Shatraugh is without a doubt one of Black Metal’s most productive and decadent minds to ever hail from Finland. With his countless bands (Horna, Sargeist, etc) and different projects, it’s very hard to believe that in each one we are treated to an even more raw and primitive side of his inner psyche.  With Mortualia, Shatraugh delivers some of the most raw and crushing Black Metal assaults ever laid down on record.

Originally released back in 2007, Moribund is kind (or evil) enough to make this true gem available to all fans of desolate and disarming Black Metal. Clocking in at 77 minutes (70 minutes of the original release plus a 7 minute bonus track), this album offers the listener quite an obscure and decadent journey into the bowels of hell.

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Stream of Passion – Darker Days (2011)

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The super talented Marcela Bovio returns with another outstanding Stream of Passion release. “Darker Days” as the title mentions, has a darker and more bombastic feeling than the band’s previous effort. This release shows a much more compact and well integrated band than the previous release as all 13 tracks are beautifully composed.

Never selling out, Stream of Passion has not dared to go into the more profitable (and popular) ‘Pop Metal’ realms, and with “Darker Days” they will surely establish themselves as one of the premiere Gothic Metal bands. With the emotional opener “Lost”, you quickly know this album will surely be a great trip. This song presents nice arrangements, hefty doses of powerful guitar riffs and (of course) beautiful vocals.

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Draconian – A Rose for the Apokalypse (2011)

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After a few years of the release of “Turning Season Within”, Draconian finally makes their return with another crushing release: “A Rose for the Apokalypse”. With a considerable increase in maturity, the band crafts 10 tracks of the best Gothic Doom Metal in the scene. It is highly un-likely that any other band will rival the quality of this release in 2011.

Always characterized by the ‘beauty and the beast’-style vocal struggle between Anders Jacobsson and Lisa Johansson, the band builds up on their depressive sound and adds extra elements that make this release even more punishing and beautiful. With a powerful opening, “The Drowning Age” delivers the first blow of brilliance presented in this release. As the song progresses it nicely mellows to clean/harsh/female vocals and engaging guitar riffing.

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Katanga – Moonchild (2011)

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In the very weird shit category today we have Katanga and their album “Moonchild”. The band plays Gothic Metal with some Electronic/Industrial elements. The first thing to notice is the typical singing/spoken German vocals. The use of electronic elements is pretty cool through this release, making it very catchy.

The opening track “Marquis De Sade”, crafts a very psycho-sexual atmosphere and it serves as a great appetizer for this very diverse and interesting release. “Gottlos” delivers catchiness with powerful guitar riffs and catchy electronics surrounded by strong German singing. The ultra catchy “Moerder Der Erinnerung” draws similarities to Letzte Instanz, and with the added female vocals achieves very nice contrasts between the singing parts.

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To Cast a Shadow - In Memory of (2011)

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In the slow and painfully good category today we have To Cast a Shadow and their Doom album “In Memory of”. It has been quite a while since a band has managed to capture the emptiness and bleakness of Death/Gothic Doom Metal, but luckily To Cast a Shadow has given us 10 tracks of emotional music.

Hailing from Norway, this band delivers a very simple yet effective approach to the genre and with angelic female vocals creates a very powerful atmosphere. Traditional Doom Metal riffs open “Tormented” and all is good until you get the male vocals, to be brutally honest… they suck, but the female vocals greatly make up for this in the rest of the song.

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Euphoreon – Euphoreon (2011)

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After their very impressive demo “Before the Blackened Sky”, Euphoreon returns with their crushing self-released and self-titled debut album. All fans of (old) Children of Bodom, Moonsorrow, Turisas, and similar should be keeping an eye out for this very well produced album.

Featuring re-vamped versions of the three songs presented in the demo, this new release adds five more tracks of brilliant musicianship and excellent combination of elements that have made the previously mentioned bands very successful. The song “Before the Blackened Sky” shows the wide palette of influences the band has and it also gives a very nice intro of what is to come in this release.

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ROCKHARZ 2011: SILVERLANE Confirmed

Founded 15 years ago by an 11-year-old - can this go well? It can, show SILVERLANE! The 11-year-old from back then is also drummer of Subway To Sally today, but leads SILVERLANE into a completely different direction: The sextet stands for Power Metal with German imprint and developed early its own style beyond Gamma Ray or Avantasia. We welcome the band at the ROCKHARZ for the first time with a simple, but effective: "Get Ready To Rock!"

LINEUP 2011:

IN EXTREMO
HAMMERFALL
FREI.WILD
TARJA
HYPOCRISY
AMORPHIS
DARK TRANQUILLITY
U.D.O.
SALTATIO MORTIS
CALIBAN
LETZTE INSTANZ

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