Chaos Invocation is a German horde that are here to make a breakthrough in the Black Metal scene. With their debut album “In Bloodline With the Snake” the band leaps over thousands of bands when it comes to the quality of their music.

Featuring 11 tracks of total occult destruction, this German band blows all the weaklings on the scene and positions themselves with the likes of Watain, Gorgoroth and similar bands.

With Tommy Niemeyer as the only original member to remain in The Accüsed, the band is back with their characteristic Crossover sound. While “The Curse of Martha Splatterhead” is not one of their finest albums, it’s good enough to keep the fans of the band happy.

“The Curse of Martha Splatterhead” features 14 relentless tracks that showcase Tommy’s skills at creating riffs that transform across Trash, Punk and Harcore. A feat that not many guitarist can do, but Tommy has years of experience under his belt.

Transcendental Creations is quickly becoming one of my favorite labels in terms of finding different music, having released A Forest of Stars “The Corpse of Rebirth”, and now they are back with “Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar” from The Beast of the Apocalypse.

The Beast of the Apocalypse is Dutch band formed in 2009, and they make a very solid statement in their first album: Primitive and Raw Black Metal is back with a vengeance. And I don’t mean this because of all the other Black Metal bands that released epic albums this year (see our top 10 Black Metal albums of 2009 list on January), but because The Beast displays natural abilities at making cold and raw BM that only the classic bands have been able to do.

Black Cobra is a two man band that plays very rudimentary but effective Sludge/Doom Metal, something that newer bands have problems doing so, by trying to be ‘extra awesome’ and using assloads of different distortions and fancy recording gimmicks.

“Chronomega” features 9 tracks of crushing Sludge Metal, now on Southern Lord, the band shows that their basic style is effective enough to trump any other release of this genre. It’s heavy, is ‘sluggish’, is lo-fi, and it’s very effective.

Out of the countless CD’s I get on the mail or digitally every month, I have to say that only a few standout each month, and “The Advent of Neurosis” is one of the most recent ones.

The Spanish duo called The Down Spiral To Hell have a really demented style that is very amusing to listen to. Mixing Black/Death/Grind Metal among other genres, make this release a listening journey into the abyss. The brutal riffs with Grind style vocals set the tone for this crushing album that will leave your head spinning for a few hours after the album is done.

Featuring members of the company that developed the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, Megasus had even some tracks featured in those games before dropping their self-titled debut album “Megasus”.

And while the guys might be talented game developers (if they had any direct involvement in the games) they are not very talented at writing music. Hiding behind a very rudimentary sounding distortion this band has nothing else going on for them.

Hailing from New York, USA, The Resurrection Sorrow plays a mean mixture of Heavy and Stoner Metal, and while not the most original band, they do a pretty good job at getting people moving with their music.

“Hour Of The Wolf” features 10 tracks for over 45 minutes of rocking music that will grab your attention since track one. I’m not a huge fan of Stoner Metal, but the ‘heaviness’ infused by TRS make this album not have a dull moment.

Opening with an intro track by the same name of the album “Imperium”, Aquila starts showcasing their musical abilities since track one and never let go. This Canadian outfit plays Metalcore and is pretty good at it.

While Metalcore is not one of my favorite genres, I have no problems in recognizing bands that have talent and do a good job at playing the music. The vocals is the part that for me kills this genre, but Aquila does a good job at sounding more like Trash/Death Metal the majority of the time while maintaining their Metalcore roots.

To say that Coronatus is one of the most underrated bands in the Gothic Metal genre is an understatement by it self. I don’t now why this band does not have as much recognition like Delain, Tristania, Leaves’ Eyes, Theatre Of Tragedy, etc. Coronatus is clearly a superior band that half of the ones mentioned and their musical sound is still Gothic Metal, no commercial bullshit here.

Hailing from Germany Coronatus has been very productive band since they got their deal with Massacre Records producing one album a year since 2007. The band’s approach to Gothic Metal is very traditional: heavy distorted guitars, majestic keyboards and the most amazing female vocal duo.