Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Pestilence – Resurrection Macabre (2009)

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    When Patrick Mameli decided it was time to bring back Pestilence, he enlisted the services of Tony Choy (Bass) and Peter Wildoer (Drums) in order to record “Resurrection Macabre”, the band’s return to their Death Metal days, and first album in 16 years. Many people where left off wondering what happened to Pestilence with their very good (and for some atrocious) release of “Spheres” an album that saw the band change their musical style considerably.

    “Resurrection Macabre” in a few words is: A fucking brutal and technical release. This album is something we were expecting from Pestilence back in 1993, however this release still sounds good for this time thanks to a superb production. Patrick has brought back the full aggressive Pestilence sound that we all loved from their beginnings and the technical aspect of “Spheres” combined together into a brilliant release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Withershin – The Hungering Void EP (2010)

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    Today we have a short-but-sweet EP from this Swedish quartet that plays Black Metal. Withershin was formed since 2006, in just a few years has managed to release a demo, a full-length CD and this EP that feels more like a maxi-single since it only lasts 15 minutes.

    The three tracks in this EP showcase a mature band that plays a very solid Black Metal that would rival any of the other mid-level bands in Sweden and the world. Since there are only three songs we will use the dreaded song-by-song review approach.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Triumfall – Antithesis Of All Flesh (2010)

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    Hailing from Serbia today we have Triumfall, a Black Metal band signed on Infernus (Gorgoroth) Forces Of Satan label. After listening to this release for a few times, we still have mixed feelings about this release. The production on this album is somewhat crappy in our opinion since the drumming sounds very bad sometimes, but it might be what the band was shooting for.

    The band plays a very interesting Black Metal that is very melodic in nature and has plenty of keyboard highlight here and there. This makes us remember the old days of demo tapes we received from bands from countries like Mexico, where they used keyboard highlights on plenty of Black Metal releases. While this sounds good, it also sounds very amateur because of they way they are written, maybe the keyboard player has limited skills, but they sound a bit simple.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Setherial – Ekpyrosis (2010)

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    Long standing Swedish Black Metal underdogs are back with yet another brutal release that will be unleashed upon the world on June 14th. The band has always been playing second fiddle to the likes of Marduk and Dark Funeral, and we now think it’s their time in the (bigger) spotlight.

    With crushing drumming, hyper fast riffing and brutal vocals “Ekpyrosis” is one the band’s most brutal releases to date. We did not liked the band’s ‘new’ vocalist in their last album “Death Triumphant”, but now he feels more integrated into the band and ready to scream his lungs out in this fine release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Watain – Lawless Darkness (2010)

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    The best Black Metal album of 2010 has finally arrived with “Lawless Darkness”. Yes, we know it’s early but we are calling it right now. We don’t think that any other BM album will be able to beat this masterful release. With 3 years on the works “Lawless Darkness” is here to rip you a new one.

    Hailing from Sweden, Watian is one of the few true artists remaining in the current Black Metal scene crowded by posers and pussies. Under the moniker of “Black Metal Reborn”, Lawless Darkness has very much achieved and surpassed this expectation. The album is a journey into the occult with a brutal soundtrack.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Arma Gathas – Dead To This World (2010)

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    After all the countless Trash Metal releases we have reviewed in 2010, we finally get a break with a band that incorporates other elements to this genre, and makes it sound very different and fresh. Arma Gathas hails from Switzerland and their combination of Trash, Groove and some Hardcore elements makes them sound both powerful and fresh.

    If we had to guess where this band is from without doing research, we would have guess that they came from France, since Arma Gathas sounds like a Trashier version of Hacride, Gojira, etc. The riffing in “Dead To This World” is very Trash Metal oriented but with more aggressive vocals and different rhythms thrown into the mix.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Morbid Carnage – Night Assassins (2010)

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    Hailing from Hungary we get yet another band that is jumping on the Trash Metal revival bandwagon, but at least they are pretty solid at it. This band sounds a lot like Kreator did back in the 80’s and we are digging this release just because of this fact.

    The band does a great job at capturing all the brilliant elements that Trash had back in the day, and gives them the proper modern production values to make them sound very brutal and aggressive. “Night Assassins” is not the most original album we have heard in this ‘Trash Metal revival’ era, but it sure is one of the most old-school sounding ones.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    The Breathing Process – Odyssey: (Un)Dead (2010)

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    Out of all the bands we have reviewed recently, The Breathing Process is by far the one that combines to most influences of different genres in their music. With a very impressive (but sometimes terrible) mixture of Black/Death/Gothic Metal with some Melodeath and even Metalcore-ish influences we get “Odyssey: (Un)Dead”.

    After their very impressive debut album “In Waking: Divinity”, we could not expect anything less from this young American band, but we also got a bit disappointed at some points during this album. The band fails to mix their elements together and ends up sounding extremely chaotic and redundant in some places.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    As I Lay Dying – The Powerless Rise (2010)

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    We try to stay away from as much Metalcore crap that we can, but sometimes we get some releases that are worth listening to and giving them a solid review. “The Powerless Rise” is one of those, it features an As I Lay Dying that has been refining their sound with every release and now, they are good enough for us to enjoy (somewhat).

    The band is as brutal as ever and features the traditional breakdowns that most people love to death, however, we enjoy this album because of the brilliant melodic parts that some songs have in this release. The band might have 80% of the elements that makes us despise Metalcore, but objectively and musically, they can also compose brilliant songs.

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