Metal

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Proghma-C – Bar-do Travel (2010)

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    Holy shit! We have actually have a band that features a very unique and original sound. While almost 9 out of 10 bands we receive every week sound very much like somebody else, Proghma-C sounds exactly like nobody else. The band has tons of different influences ranging from more commercial Metal, to more obscure genres that you would never image they would blend well.

    Hailing from Poland, Proghma-C unleashes 9 tracks of pure musical weirdness. While some of you might be frowning since most people think weird=bad, but this is not the case with “Bar Do Travel’. The overall hypnotic feeling that the songs have is probably the only ‘generalization’ you can make about this band’s sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Saint To Sinner – The Unveiling (2010)

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    We receive a high volume of releases from bands every month, always claiming that they sound like nobody else, and end up sounding like everybody else. This is not the case when it comes to Saint To Sinner, hailing from Rhode Island, USA the band does a great job at having a very unique sound to them. And here is where their little problem occurs.

    The band’s combination of Rock and different genres of Metal sounds a bit chaotic at times, and sometimes the female vocals are going in one direction, and the music is going somewhere else. Desiree Villegas as a very hypnotic and versatile singing style, but in some sections her vocals sound very odd, like the spoken backing section, and the awful ‘rapping’ on the song “Anti-corporate”. Some comparisons to Amy Lee of Evanescence are in order, but her voice sound less over produced and feels more natural.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Toby Knapp – The Campaign (2010)

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    After being blown away by Godless Rising latest album, we had to get more from Toby Knapp’s brilliant guitar skills. Luckily for us Shredguy Records, Toby’s label, hooked us up with his latest solo album “The Campaign”. Featuring a wide variety of styles, Toby manages to create the near perfect Shred release.

    While most of the existing guitar virtuosos focus on Heavy/Progressive Metal tunes, Toby mixes things up with Trash, Black, and Death Metal influences. There is also a very cohesive sound to his music, it does not only showcases his abilities as a guitar player, but also as a multi-instrumentalist handling the bass guitar and most of the drum duties in this recording as well, suck on that John Petrucci.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Enemy Of The Sun – Caedium (2010)

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    We are always complaining that we don’t get enough albums that feature band’s trying to push the envelope and develop something new and intriguing. Well, with Enemy Of The Sun we get a band that tries too many things at the same time, and around 85% of the time they are brilliant. “Caedium” continues along the lines of their first full-length album “Shadows”, creating a very chaotic combination of almost EVERY single genre of Metal (and closely related genres).

    “Caedium” will surely get trashed by plenty of people, and other will love it, there will be almost no middle ground when a band like Enemy Of The Sun comes along. We must say that we love many of the things, and other things are just downright awful (like the first 20 seconds of “Chasing The Dragon”). However, one thing we will grant to this band is that they have gigantic balls for releasing something like “Caedium”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Aluk Todolo – Finsternis (2010)

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    Aluk Todolo has been labeled (and use to be a Black Metal), but with “Finisternis” they open our minds into a darkly demented world that will surely be understood by a select few. The band’s latest effort explores minimalistic sounds that for the most part will leave you expecting some sort of climax that never occurs, making you hand by the edge, waiting patiently.

    Comprised of 5 songs merged into two side-a and side-b, “Finsternis” is truly an aural experience that even if it fails to fully deliver it’s full potential, should be hear by fans of the truly bizarre. On side-a we have a very monotonous drum rhythm that made me so anxious that I started biting my nails. It creates the perfect endless and dark corridor feeling that has you pondering if you will every reach the end. With it’s deranged guitar riffs creating peaks into our anticipation of something happening in this release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    October File – Our Souls To You (2010)

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    With their very interesting and modern sounding mixture of hardcore, industrial metal and even some metalcore-ish influences, October File is back with “Our Souls To You”. The band’s third full-length release and we must say a very shitty one. Featuring two mixes of the tracks in this album, to us it indicates that the band was not fully satisfied with the end result and decided to let the fans pick the one they like the best.

     “Our Souls To You” is a ‘good’ album for the first two songs, and later you discover that is the same stuff over and over (and we don’t mean because of the ‘double’ tracks featuring different mix). With “Holy Armour from the Jaws of God” the band left off in a high note, but with this new release it feels they forgot how to make good music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    The Hawkwind Triad - The Hawkwind Triad (2010)

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    Providing a solid tribute to British space rockers Hawkwind we have Havestman, US Christmas, and Minsk. Released on Neurot Recordings, The Hawkwind triad do an excellent job in capturing the classical atmosphere created by Hawkwind while adding the uniqueness of each band into the mix, and fully respecting the original songs.

    One of the things we find the most interesting is that the tracks that each band performed are mixed together through the album, and it still flows like it was only one band making the tribute. Something very unique and refreshing, since tributes usually consist of several bands playing one or a few tracks and there is most of the time a huge quality gap between bands.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Karma To Burn – Appalachian Incantation (2010)

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    The West-Virginia trio is finally back, with a super-powered full length release 8 years after “Almost Heathen “. The band got back together in 2009 and it’s been rocking the stages since then. Combining groovy melodies with stoner rock influences, “Appalachian Incantation” is a mostly acoustic release (except for 2 songs) that will rock you out of your chair.

    Keeping their tradition of naming most songs with numbers, we get a full scale riff-athon in “Appalachian Incantation”. Each track is super catchy and will make you want to dust off your old guitar and start jamming right away. The band’s music making skills are better than ever and have produced 9 brilliantly groovy tracks that power “Appalachian Incantation” straight into Stoner Rock hall of fame.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Beissert – The Pusher (2010)

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    Coming from Agonia records in late May we have Beissert’s sophomore release called “The Pusher”. Never knowing what to expect from this label we ventured into discovering what Beissert was all about, and we love it, the band combines influences from Crowbar, Pantera, Nevermore and tons of other bands in a rocking way that will leave you speechless.

    Beissert is probably one of the freshest sounding bands that we have heard in quite a while. After several listens to this album, the melodies behind the songs are stuck in our heads, something that does not happen quite often. The band has a very groovy and bombastic rocking sound that will have you headbanging from start to end.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Umbah – Trilobeth (2010)

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    Every once in a while we get a release that makes us think: What the fuck was the band thinking?. The majority of the time this is in a bad way, a clear example is “Trilobeth” from Umbah. This release feels as disconnected as a bunch of tracks pieced together by a baby playing with Pro-Tools.

    We must say that if originality is what you look for then you will be blown away by “Trilobeth” since we never heard something quite like this. But if you are actually looking for music with structured songs and a logical flow then you will hate this album.

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