I must say that releases that feature vocals like this never get good reviews from me; even after analyzing the music objectively the vocals ruin the album for me. This is not the case for Raise The Red Lantern, since their music is amazing and I was even able to zone out the vocals for the entire duration of this album.

Raise The Red Lantern is an American band that plays a very peculiar supper salad of different styles ranging from Sludge to Progressive Metal to Hard Rock to Stoner Rock, and they do so with great ability. While the overall feeling of the album can get them labeled as Sludge, they are more than that since the band’s sound is very unique.

Aetherius Obscuritas presents us their second release of majestic Black Metal that will surely put the on the map. This Hungarian band show they are a force to be reckoned by displaying brutal, but yet melodic, Black Metal in 11 tracks of pure evil.

The band shows a level of musical maturity that few young bands have. Mainly because Arkhorrl, the mastermind behind this evil entity, has been dissecting most major Black Metal bands and taking the best elements of each one of them, and improving over time (and 4 previous releases) has now achieved a brilliant sound that reminds you of all time greats like Marduk, Satyricon and Immortal, but has managed to make it his own adding his own twists and turns to the music.

Faust is an Italian band that has been around since 1992, and this is made very clear based on the skills of most of the band members. The music is very well played, but lacks a bit on the composition department (more on that later).

I’m a big fan of Melodic Death Metal, and it’s very rare in these days to find a good band that is not going all Metalcore on us. Alongside Ethereal Collapse, Faust is one of the best bands in the genre I’ve heard this year, since the melodic aspect is brilliant.

Hailing from Germany, Semen Datura displays very promising qualities in a Black Metal band, they have a very (and I mean very) diverse style that ranges from old school Celtic Frost in some parts, to Satyricon, to Darkthrone, to Secrets Of The Moon, etc.

“Einsamkeit” is the band’s 3rd full length album and has made me try to dig up their latest releases so I can see how their sound has evolved (no luck so far in finding their first albums). This album features 10 tracks of pure hellish black metal that will surely please any fans of the genre.

After their band’s last effort “Eisenwinter”, back in 2003, I was very skeptical about giving this album a few spins since that album was pretty dull and a total waste of anybody’s time. However, Siegfried have managed to give me the surprise of 2009, what I was expecting to be another uninspired release, has reached a top 10 spot in my favorite albums Gothic/Epic Metal albums from 2009.

“Nibelung” features very intricate and symphonic compositions that have a very Epic feeling thanks to the wide variety of vocal styles. If I didn’t know that Sanda Schleret is on the female vocals, I would have never guessed it since her vocal range is put to the test with this release and she stands out magically.

Three years have passed since their last full length album “Griefshire” and the unexpected passing of Sabine Dünser, she was featured in that album and it took the band some time to decide if they wanted to continue or not. The band found Sandra Schleret (ex-Dreams Of Sanity) as the new vocalist and decided to continue, touring in 2007 and recording an EP on the same year.

After not hearing much from Elis in 2008, they are back in full swing at the end of 2009 with their fourth album “Catharsis” featuring 11 tracks of their traditional sounding Gothic Metal. The band retains their musical identity intact, and with Sandra’s vocals they sound as good as ever.

Following their acclaimed by some (and trashed by others) album “Angel Eyes”, Brown Jenkins releases their last opus “Death Obsession”. Like it or not, Brown Jenkins is one of those bands that you either praise or despise, I side with the later.

If you are not aware of what kind of music Brown Jenkins plays, they try to mix Doom and Black Metal with heavy Drone influence and the result is, in my opinion, a half assed approach to either of the genres.

Along time has passed since “The Secrets of the Black Arts” and the band seems to not be slowing down at all. Having waiting for four years to the release of “Angelus Exuro pro Eternus”, I must say that while I do like this album a lot and it’s one of the best of the year, I have a mixed opinion that Dark Funeral shows signs of going nowhere with their music, only following a straight line and releasing ‘more of the same’.

While I think that releasing ‘more of the same’ is not bad if you have a good sound and a good band (like Epica, My Dying Bride, etc), but in the Black Metal world you get dethroned so easily if you do not adapt to the newer times and release something more dynamic (or an improvement of your ‘more of the same’ sound).