Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Disiplin – Radikale Randgruppe (2010)

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    Usually when we get stuff from ATMF we are very excited since they have some of the most different and interesting releases, with Disiplin’s fourth full-length release we find ourselves puzzled and a bit disappointed with the end result. Mixing Black Metal with Industrial/Ambient elements the band manages to create a very disturbing sound that is very effective for a couple of songs only.

    “Radikale Randgruppe” kicks-off with a very straight forward Industrial Black Metal sound with catchy beats and crushing guitars. As dissonant as this may sound, it’s pure evil and creates a dense atmosphere, something that is continued with the second track “Me Ne Frego”. The flow is somewhat hindered by the uninspired and very repetitive “Triarii”, here is were you start to notice the band will fire blanks for the rest of the album since the drums are very dull and similar to the first songs and the overall atmosphere gets a bit stale.

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    Gravewürm - Blood of the Pentagram (2010)

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    Legendary USBM act Gravewürm have returned with their 7th full-length release titled “Blood of the Pentagram”. In this album the band continues to create their very disturbing sound by combining raw Black Metal elements with Thrash/Doom/Death Metal influences that give the band’s sound a little edge over the rest of the average sounding BM bands these days.

    However, not everything is enjoyable in “Blood of the Pentagram” since this release tends to get a bit too simplistic and repetitive in nature. The band exploits the raw and lo-fi approach to things and creates a very creepy sound, but it fails to deliver when the music tends to get boring and super repetitive.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Kenny Stewart – The Brains behind the Scam (2010)

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    With a very distracting cover, today we have Dirty Tricks lead singer Kenny Stewart’s debut solo album “The Brains behind the Scam”. Featuring 16 hard rocking tracks, Kenny Stewart takes us for a roller coaster journey with soaring guitars, and his very characteristic vocal style.

    Having self-produced the album, Kenny handles all the guitar and programming duties. And immediately you can notice that the use of ‘fake drums’ is very evident and takes some merit out of this release but can easily be compensated by the solid guitar work and singing prowess of Kenny. All tracks have a nice guitar driven structure that allows the vocals to shine and achieve the desired effect.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Manias/Sale Sangre – Blood Covered (2010)

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    As one of the most brutal albums we have received in quite a while, today we have Manias (a.k.a Sale Sangre) third full-length “Blood Covered”. Hailing from Albuquerque, the place of birth of Infernal Masquerade Webzine, this band plays conventional Death Metal / Grind with a vengeance and an eye for blood and guts, as well can see from the artwork of the CD.

    Filled with the traditional witty movie samples, “Blood Covered” features 19 tracks of pure brutality. Let it be clear that Manias it’s not all about barking at the microphone and pounding randomly at their instruments, they can actually craft pretty catchy and crushing songs that will surely be a delight for fans of both Death Metal and Grindcore.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Feu Gregeois - Mortis Regnum – 2nd Circle (2010)

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    All the way from France, today we have Feu Gregeois debut album “Mortis Regnum – 2nd Circle”. Featuring an interesting combination of lush keyboard arrangements and traditional Death/Black Metal elements, this release marks for a very unpredictable and interesting approach to the genres.

    With five instrumental pieces in this 38 minute release we are treated to a mix bag of emotions, but left very pleased with the final result. Some people might say that some of this songs are nothing but filler pieces, but they somehow manage to nicely separate the album’s ‘brutal’ tracks and keep things in perspective allowing “Mortis Regnum” to flow in a very unconventional manner.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Nocturnal Blood – Devastated Graves - The Morbid Celebration (2010)

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    When it comes to having a raw and crushing sound, only a few bands can be as effective as Nocturnal Blood. Unluckily, Nocturnal Blood also lacks depth and enough variation in their music to be 100% effective. That being said, we don’t think that “Devastated Graves - The Morbid Celebration” is a bad album since it’s crushing and relentless, but we will not say it’s amazing either, since it lacks depth and variety and feels like a 26 minute long song.

    Having only one member, Ghastly Apparition, the ‘band’ quickly takes command with a very raw sounding assault of guitar riffs, slurred growls and relentless drumming. With “Devastated Graves”, you will surely be brought to your knees due to the fact of the massive rawness and brutality behind this song. However, once tracks like “Death Calls”, “Impure Devotion” and “Ghouls Wrath” go by, you soon realized that Nocturnal Blood is a one-trick pony.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Children of Technology – It’s Time to Face the Doomsday (2010)

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    Hailing from Italy, today we get the debut-full length album of Thrash/Crust-Punk newcomers Children of Technology. With similarities to old school Voivod, Cro-Mags, The Exploited, among others, this band will surely appeal to you if you like your music to sound old school and have that Crust Punk-ish feel to it that bands have been perfecting over the years.

    The main thing that you will notice is that while Children of Technology is not a bad band, the genre does not allow for much ‘improvement’ or ‘experimentation’ making them sound a bit like everybody else. While this is not particularly bad, if you are looking for something ‘innovative’ might as well skip this album. But if you are looking for straight up old-school music, then “It’s Time to Face the Doomsday” will satisfy all your needs.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ironwood - Storm Over Sea (2010)

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    With a very confusing approach to music, today we have Ironwood, a band that seems to suffer from multiple personality disorder and plays a very wide variety of music genres in a very disconnected way. However, at some moments the band reminds us of Borknagar and such bands that mix and match genres in very crafty ways.

    Hailing from Australia, “Storm Over Sea” is Ironwood’s second full-length release and shows the band trying to find their own sound, or just playing a bunch of random things together and hoping for the best. Starting off with “When it’s all Over” a very Folk/Progressive piece, the band will surely grab your attention, but will confuse you immediately after with “Hail Sign” a very ‘random’ song in our opinion.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Calm Hatchery - Sacrilege of Humanity (2010)

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    Today we find making its way up our ridiculously long review queue Calm Hatchery’s second full-length album “Sacrilege of Humanity”. While we expected a very typical and maybe even good Death Metal album, we found more that we bargained for and we completely loved this both crushing and melodic release from these Polish metalheads.

    “Sacrilege of Humanity” starts of very ‘traditionally’ with the typical catchy riffs, chugging melodies, massive drumming and growls. It’s not until the middle of the song “We are the Universe” where you start noticing an unusual amount of ‘melody’ in this song. In “Mirror Giants” the band exploits some more melodic and technical sounds half-way through the song making this piece one of the most interesting of the release, and leaving us with an even more puzzled look on our faces that comes back again with the song “Them”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Veneficum – In Tranquil Absurd (2010)

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    It’s been a while since we get the ‘holy shit’ look after listening to a release coming from an unsigned band, and recently Veneficum’s “In Tranquil Absurd” changed that. With a monumental Symphonic Black Metal sound, this American band managed to blow us away after a couple of songs. And while Veneficum does not have the budget to create the expensive orchestrations that bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir are capable of, they do manage to create an epic orchestral atmosphere using synthesizers.

    Before you start thinking that we will talk about another clone band that is just trying to capitalize on what CoF and Dimmu have already done, you should give Veneficum a try and verify for your self that they are a quality band with an imposing sound. With the atmosphere being the main ‘attention grabber’, the band also shows great amount of skills in terms of cohesive songwriting, and ridiculously precise execution.

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