Album Reviews

  • Annotations Of An Autopsy - The Reign Of Darkness (2010)

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    Today from the UK we get Annotations Of An Autopsy a handful or pissed off Brits that have taken the Death Metal scene in the UK as their own and made it their bitch. After their some what weak debut album “Before the Throne of Infection”, the band is back with their latest aural assault and is a big improvement.

    “The Reign Of Darkness” features 11 tracks of Death Metal at it’s most brutal. Filled with meaty hooks and catchy riffs, this album is ready to blow your head clear off.

  • Arsis - Starve For The Devil (2010)

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    Filling the void left by an awesomely technical band but with horrible vocals like Arch Enemy we have Arsis. Arsis for the people that don’t know them yet, play Technical Melodic Death Metal in the same vein than Arch Enemy does, but with a more suitable vocal sound that does not get annoying after a couple of songs.

    Hailing from the USA, Arsis is not new to the metal scene they have been around since 2000 and have released three full-length albums before their latest opus “Starve For The Devil”.

  • Marionette – Enemies (2010)

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    We usually get quite a few bands that claim to play Melodic Death Metal, but fail miserably to deliver an engaging and entertaining album. Marionette is an example of a band that DOES deliver, and their album “Enemies” is one of the best Melodic DM albums we have received in quite a while.

    “Enemies” starts off very aggressively and all over the place, so we immediately expected the album to suck. However after the first 60 seconds, all this changes and you can hear the quality of the bands music, and it hooks you into listening to the whole album.

  • Sybreed – The Pulse Of Awakening (2010)

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    Calling the music of Sybreed complex is a complete understatement of what the band does with “The Pulse Of Awakening”, their third full-length in their 7 years of existence. The mixture of elements in this album is as long as the list of ice cream flavors Baskin Robbins has.

    Analyzing the band by layers, we can see the main underlying Metal foundation the band has, but it’s not just a regular ‘plain and simple’ Metal foundation. The band chooses to use very complex time signatures and polyrhythmic composition in the vein of Meshuggah, Xerath, etc.

  • Age Of Evil – Get Dead (2009)

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    Hailing from the USA we get this very young and promising Heavy/Trash Metal band called Age Of Evil. Most band members can’t legally but a drink but they can rock the shit out of many bands of this genre.

    “Get Dead” is the band’s latest release that features 2 new songs (“Cruel Intentions” and “Get Dead”), as well as a few covers (“Slave To Grind” of Skid Row and “Electric Eye” from Judas Priest), and 2 live songs. You can clearly see the Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and even some Metallica influences in the band’s sound.

  • Bloodline - Hate Procession (2009)

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    Boasting members of Shining, Naglfar and Midvinter among other great bands we have the Swedish Black Metal monster called Bloodline. The band plays Raw Black Metal with some Industrial elements, reminding me of the legendary Mysticum at some points.

    With their impressive line-up the band does not fail short on delivering a very distressful aural assault that is not for the weak. Rooting them selves in raw Black Metal, and adding marvelous ambient elements, we get a perfect back drop that will make you have nightmares and feel what real Black Metal was all about.

  • Enemy Reign - Means To A Dead End (2008)

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    For the countless fans of Death Metal we have today a pretty solid band from the USA called Enemy Reign. These Colorado based outfit present us with their very brutal EP called “Means To A Dead End”.

    The band features nothing ‘original’ about their music, other than the fact that is fast paced and brutal. It follows all the traditional elements of Death Metal: The furious drumming, blazing guitar riffs and hooks, and subhuman growls.

  • Walken – Walken (2009)

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    The American band Walken caught my surprise when I first popped their CD on my sound system because of the interesting mixture of genres they use. The band’s sound is very diverse in the sense that you can find a big Trash Metal influence, as well as hints of Crossover/Punk Metal and very interesting melodic parts.

    Having released only 2 full-length albums in a career spanning over 10 years, I keep thinking how band’s like this are not signed and other very shitty bands have recording contracts. Featuring member of Prog-Metal/Rock Grayceon we can see how they influence the band’s music into a different direction than when the band started.

  • Exodus – Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Live At Wacken And Other Atrocities) (2010)

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    The legendary band Exodus finally releases a DVD that is worth watching well I’ve only got to listen to it so far, but from the audio quality and the quality of the performance I assume is pretty good.

    The DVD only features 11 songs; something that I feel is not enough considering their impressive discography. But they are more than enough to leave you wanting more and trying to catch them live, especially with master drummer Nick Barker on their most recent tours.

  • Aherusia – And The Tides Shall Reveal The Traces (2009)

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    In a very crowded Symphonic Black Metal scene, there are only a handful of bands that I could call original. Aherusia is one of them, hailing from Greece I personally never heard of them before, but they present us their debut full-length album “And The Tides Shall Reveal The Traces”.

    The band’s sound is very rich and presents us with a very interesting atmosphere created by the distorted guitars and a cretan lyra, an instrument that I’ve never heard before in my life. This instrument sounds like a violin/viola at sometimes and it gives the band that folk-ish sound that mainly Pagan/Viking/Folk Metal bands, but with a distinctive Black Metal edge.

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